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Ptolus: Monte Cook’s City by the Spire
Explore a sprawling fantasy city, presented in amazing detail and steeped in lore and atmosphere. Delve into extensive dungeons beneath its streets. And maybe, when you’re ready, ascend the Spire that looms overhead: the heart of an ancient and restless evil.
672 pages, Hardcover
First published August 10, 2006
6 people are currently reading
67 people want to read
About the author
Monte Cook
211 books123 followers
The game designer
Monte Cook started working professionally in the game industry in 1988. In the employ of Iron Crown Enterprises, he worked with the Rolemaster and Champions games as an editor, developer, and designer. In 1994, Monte came to TSR, Inc., as a game designer and wrote for the Planescape and core D&D lines. When that company was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, he moved to the Seattle area and eventually became a senior game designer. At Wizards, he wrote the 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide and served as codesigner of the new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. In 2001, he left Wizards to start his own design studio, Malhavoc Press, with his wife Sue. Although in his career he has worked on over 100 game titles, some of his other credits include Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, The Book of Eldritch Might series, the d20 Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, The Book of Vile Darkness, Monte Cook’s Arcana Evolved, Ptolus, Monte Cook's World of Darkness, and Dungeonaday.com. He was a longtime author of the Dungeoncraft column in Dungeon Magazine. In recent years, Monte has been recognized many times by game fans in the ENnies Awards, the Pen & Paper fan awards, the Nigel D. Findley Memorial Award, the Origins Awards, and more.
The author
A graduate of the 1999 Clarion West writer's workshop, Monte has published two novels, The Glass Prison and Of Aged Angels. Also, he has published the short stories "Born in Secrets" (in the magazine Amazing Stories), "The Rose Window" (in the anthology Realms of Mystery), and "A Narrowed Gaze" (in the anthology Realms of the Arcane). His stories have appeared in the Malhavoc Press anthologies Children of the Rune and The Dragons' Return, and his comic book writing can be found in the Ptolus: City by the Spire series from DBPro/Marvel. His fantasy fiction series, "Saga of the Blade," appeared in Game Trade Magazine from 2005–2006.
The geek
In his spare time, Monte runs games, plays with his dog, watches DVDs, builds vast dioramas out of LEGO building bricks, paints miniatures, and reads a lot of comics.
Monte Cook started working professionally in the game industry in 1988. In the employ of Iron Crown Enterprises, he worked with the Rolemaster and Champions games as an editor, developer, and designer. In 1994, Monte came to TSR, Inc., as a game designer and wrote for the Planescape and core D&D lines. When that company was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, he moved to the Seattle area and eventually became a senior game designer. At Wizards, he wrote the 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide and served as codesigner of the new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. In 2001, he left Wizards to start his own design studio, Malhavoc Press, with his wife Sue. Although in his career he has worked on over 100 game titles, some of his other credits include Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, The Book of Eldritch Might series, the d20 Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, The Book of Vile Darkness, Monte Cook’s Arcana Evolved, Ptolus, Monte Cook's World of Darkness, and Dungeonaday.com. He was a longtime author of the Dungeoncraft column in Dungeon Magazine. In recent years, Monte has been recognized many times by game fans in the ENnies Awards, the Pen & Paper fan awards, the Nigel D. Findley Memorial Award, the Origins Awards, and more.
The author
A graduate of the 1999 Clarion West writer's workshop, Monte has published two novels, The Glass Prison and Of Aged Angels. Also, he has published the short stories "Born in Secrets" (in the magazine Amazing Stories), "The Rose Window" (in the anthology Realms of Mystery), and "A Narrowed Gaze" (in the anthology Realms of the Arcane). His stories have appeared in the Malhavoc Press anthologies Children of the Rune and The Dragons' Return, and his comic book writing can be found in the Ptolus: City by the Spire series from DBPro/Marvel. His fantasy fiction series, "Saga of the Blade," appeared in Game Trade Magazine from 2005–2006.
The geek
In his spare time, Monte runs games, plays with his dog, watches DVDs, builds vast dioramas out of LEGO building bricks, paints miniatures, and reads a lot of comics.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 18, 2019
Absolutely brilliant...
Ptolus is a setting for D&D 3e, developed by Monte Cook of Malhavoc Press. There was a limited edition hardcover printing in 2006. At the time I considered buying it (probably should have done) but didn't.
( More details on my print, and lots of images (impressions) here, it is a kind of travel guide, after all, and words are simply not enough... https://ninelizardsblog.blogspot.com/... )
Life got in the way, and this thing was expensive... Even getting it printed today, with one of the online printing services, it still ain't cheap.
As a setting it primarily details a city, Ptolus. There's the surrounding world, but that's primarily background. Ptolus is what matters. (Hey, inhabitants say the same of Amsterdam, Paris, New York, Barcelona, so Ptolians (?) have the right to do so too.) Monte Cook used Ptolus as a kind of test bed for all 3e rules. So far so good.
What makes Ptolus interesting is that it has been written as a kind of travel guide. It even got colored tabs to help you find back specific sections of the book. Gotta' love that. (My own print doesn't have those, but they might be visible if you order an online print version from DriveThruRPG.)
My own copy is a printed PDF slightly reformatted and spread over four books, so the list of contents differs a little, though the actual contents are the same.
Book I
This contains introduction, background, a player's guide, world, races, religions and organisations.
The player's guide is a good introduction to players. The rest should be kept away from them. If you would have bought a printed / hardcover version you'd still need a PDF of the player's guide, I guess.
The only gripe I have is a minor one, but I would have liked some more information on the world. It's okay as a background, but I want more more more!
You have two options, religion wise. Either go 'monotheistic' or throw in everything and the kitchen sink. Although there is an 'official' faith (the church of Lothian) there are countless other gods and faiths. Go either way, or set up your own conflict, take your pick. Monte Cook was wise to stay away from even suggesting such a conflict, but it might be an interesting angle for DM's to explore. As a D&D player we all should realize it is a game, and the religions pictured in the game provide game mechanics and background flavor, no more, no less.
The 'Organisations' section provides a framework for adversaries and sympathizers, forces that aid or hamper the players' characters. An experienced DM should have a great time constructing larger arcs and sinister plots which the players will only discover over time... if they survive 😈
Book II
This book contains everything 'above ground' with the exception of the spire. It's the part which resembles a travel guide most. Each sections details another part of town, with sight seeings, buildings, characters, and countless plot-hooks.
Obviously, this is the book I like best 😇
Lots of information, lots of hooks. Some locations are described in detail, some other locations are left up to the DM to work out.
From a graphical / tourist perspective this is the best book. I can read it forever...
Book III
Everything underground, as well as all about the spire that towers above the city. The book continues with two sections for the DM, containing all information regarding campaigning in Ptolus.
Below the City details the 'undercity'. In one version it's called Below the City, in another Below the Streets. (I like the latter title better.) There's quite a bit of information, but I was expecting more details, or at least more maps. It is perfectly serviceable, just doesn't have the 'oomph' effect that Districts does.
In some ways the section Above the City aka The Spire (again two different titles, depending on the version of Ptolus you obtained) suffers the same issue. Quite a bit of information, but not all of it is 'hard'. Map wise close to nithing, but there's still enough to do. When you think about it, the Spire is the most defining feature of the city of Ptolus. You could build complete campaigns around flying monsters, airborne steeds, bases by third parties created high above the city, conflicts with the 'other' inhabitants of the Spire, and so forth. Still, if there's one chapter that deserves a lot more it's this one.
The old titles of the remaining chapters were somewhat confusing. the new titles Living in Ptolus and Running a Ptolus Campaign are much better describing the contents than the old ones.
I was expecting some ready-to-run / fully fledged out adventure to be included, but there isn't. Well, there is some stuff in the Running a Ptolus Campaign section, but it's not 'new DM friendly'. Not a big problem as most people interested in this kind of product would be either more than capable to come up with something themselves, or are just in it for the 'travel guide' part. And there's always Night of Dissolution in Book IV...
There are some references to other Monte Cook material, but none overly disturbing / annoying, and easy enough to work around.
Book IV
This is a combination of the adventure The Night of Dissolution and Secrets of The Delver's Guild. I've also added stuff from the Bonus Map Pack.
I haven't run the adventure Night of Dissolution yet, so cannot comment on it. It's an adventure. 'Nuff said.
More interesting is Secrets of the Delvers' Guild. At first glance it seems a bit pointless, just loose pages of individual notes, sometimes duplication stuff found elsewhere, sometimes fleshing out things just a little bit. more But when you go through them they turn out to be a treasure trove of ideas. Yes, the artwork is often duplicated, but the text is (90%) new.
I decided to add many of these to the Ptolus 'core' books, trying to insert them in some appropriate place. Most of those inserts ended up in Book II but some went elsewhere.
You might skip on the Bonus Map Pack. It mostly reproduces (variants of) other earlier material in a larger scale.
Verdict
Brilliant.
Ptolus is a setting for D&D 3e, developed by Monte Cook of Malhavoc Press. There was a limited edition hardcover printing in 2006. At the time I considered buying it (probably should have done) but didn't.
( More details on my print, and lots of images (impressions) here, it is a kind of travel guide, after all, and words are simply not enough... https://ninelizardsblog.blogspot.com/... )
Life got in the way, and this thing was expensive... Even getting it printed today, with one of the online printing services, it still ain't cheap.
As a setting it primarily details a city, Ptolus. There's the surrounding world, but that's primarily background. Ptolus is what matters. (Hey, inhabitants say the same of Amsterdam, Paris, New York, Barcelona, so Ptolians (?) have the right to do so too.) Monte Cook used Ptolus as a kind of test bed for all 3e rules. So far so good.
What makes Ptolus interesting is that it has been written as a kind of travel guide. It even got colored tabs to help you find back specific sections of the book. Gotta' love that. (My own print doesn't have those, but they might be visible if you order an online print version from DriveThruRPG.)
My own copy is a printed PDF slightly reformatted and spread over four books, so the list of contents differs a little, though the actual contents are the same.
Book I
This contains introduction, background, a player's guide, world, races, religions and organisations.
The player's guide is a good introduction to players. The rest should be kept away from them. If you would have bought a printed / hardcover version you'd still need a PDF of the player's guide, I guess.
The only gripe I have is a minor one, but I would have liked some more information on the world. It's okay as a background, but I want more more more!
You have two options, religion wise. Either go 'monotheistic' or throw in everything and the kitchen sink. Although there is an 'official' faith (the church of Lothian) there are countless other gods and faiths. Go either way, or set up your own conflict, take your pick. Monte Cook was wise to stay away from even suggesting such a conflict, but it might be an interesting angle for DM's to explore. As a D&D player we all should realize it is a game, and the religions pictured in the game provide game mechanics and background flavor, no more, no less.
The 'Organisations' section provides a framework for adversaries and sympathizers, forces that aid or hamper the players' characters. An experienced DM should have a great time constructing larger arcs and sinister plots which the players will only discover over time... if they survive 😈
Book II
This book contains everything 'above ground' with the exception of the spire. It's the part which resembles a travel guide most. Each sections details another part of town, with sight seeings, buildings, characters, and countless plot-hooks.
Obviously, this is the book I like best 😇
Lots of information, lots of hooks. Some locations are described in detail, some other locations are left up to the DM to work out.
From a graphical / tourist perspective this is the best book. I can read it forever...
Book III
Everything underground, as well as all about the spire that towers above the city. The book continues with two sections for the DM, containing all information regarding campaigning in Ptolus.
Below the City details the 'undercity'. In one version it's called Below the City, in another Below the Streets. (I like the latter title better.) There's quite a bit of information, but I was expecting more details, or at least more maps. It is perfectly serviceable, just doesn't have the 'oomph' effect that Districts does.
In some ways the section Above the City aka The Spire (again two different titles, depending on the version of Ptolus you obtained) suffers the same issue. Quite a bit of information, but not all of it is 'hard'. Map wise close to nithing, but there's still enough to do. When you think about it, the Spire is the most defining feature of the city of Ptolus. You could build complete campaigns around flying monsters, airborne steeds, bases by third parties created high above the city, conflicts with the 'other' inhabitants of the Spire, and so forth. Still, if there's one chapter that deserves a lot more it's this one.
The old titles of the remaining chapters were somewhat confusing. the new titles Living in Ptolus and Running a Ptolus Campaign are much better describing the contents than the old ones.
I was expecting some ready-to-run / fully fledged out adventure to be included, but there isn't. Well, there is some stuff in the Running a Ptolus Campaign section, but it's not 'new DM friendly'. Not a big problem as most people interested in this kind of product would be either more than capable to come up with something themselves, or are just in it for the 'travel guide' part. And there's always Night of Dissolution in Book IV...
There are some references to other Monte Cook material, but none overly disturbing / annoying, and easy enough to work around.
Book IV
This is a combination of the adventure The Night of Dissolution and Secrets of The Delver's Guild. I've also added stuff from the Bonus Map Pack.
I haven't run the adventure Night of Dissolution yet, so cannot comment on it. It's an adventure. 'Nuff said.
More interesting is Secrets of the Delvers' Guild. At first glance it seems a bit pointless, just loose pages of individual notes, sometimes duplication stuff found elsewhere, sometimes fleshing out things just a little bit. more But when you go through them they turn out to be a treasure trove of ideas. Yes, the artwork is often duplicated, but the text is (90%) new.
I decided to add many of these to the Ptolus 'core' books, trying to insert them in some appropriate place. Most of those inserts ended up in Book II but some went elsewhere.
You might skip on the Bonus Map Pack. It mostly reproduces (variants of) other earlier material in a larger scale.
Verdict
Brilliant.
Read
January 26, 2022There’s a cartoon that I often think of but can’t seem to find, where a man is surrounded by Star Wars paraphernalia and typing angrily on a website about all the problems with some Star Wars IP, and then he’s hit with enlightenment: “Maybe I don’t actually like Star Wars.”
I thought of that again while quickly leafing through this Ptolus bundle I found in an account I had forgotten about on DriveThruRPG. Because in some ways, this represents exactly what I once would have loved:
Ptolus is 808 pages all about this fantasy city, and with that many pages, you get a lot of detail, down to individual stores in the different quarters (what’s a fantasy city without quarters dedicated to different work?), as well as many notes on culture: festivals, food, laws. And of course, being a fantasy RPG city in the mold of Waterdeep or Greyhawk, it also has cults to fight and dungeons to explore.
It’s a lot of a city, and I wasn’t surprised to learn that it won the 2007 ENnie award for product of the year (and also Best Setting, Best Cartography, and Best Production Values).
But in 2022, it left me pretty bored, which brings me back to that cartoon: this may be the perfect generic fantasy RPG city — but maybe generic fantasy isn’t what I want right now?
Or maybe: I go to RPG books for a few things: does this fire my imagination as a player? As a writer? As a (god help me) game designer?
And for Ptolus, I am inspired by the depth of the city (all those stores, all that history), but I am also left not sure how I would hook into it as a player or game master. Perhaps this is the effect of reading Kevin Crawford and other OSR writers, where the question is often “how is this info going to affect the game?” Sometimes OSR falls back into the pleasant nonsense of D&D, where stuff just happens because it would be cool (“What does the dragon eat in the dungeon? Uh, maybe the orcs. OK, what do the orcs eat? Uh….”), and for me, that fails the other way: whereas Ptolus may be a city where the story is already told, the average early D&D dungeon is a story that cannot be told because it makes no sense.
But there is one takeaway I get from these books — which included the adventure Night of Dissolution, the mega-dungeon The Banewarrens, and the sourcebook on Chaositech — which is the idea of adding more little sidebars into an adventure with DM’s tips and troubleshooting.
I thought of that again while quickly leafing through this Ptolus bundle I found in an account I had forgotten about on DriveThruRPG. Because in some ways, this represents exactly what I once would have loved:
Ptolus is 808 pages all about this fantasy city, and with that many pages, you get a lot of detail, down to individual stores in the different quarters (what’s a fantasy city without quarters dedicated to different work?), as well as many notes on culture: festivals, food, laws. And of course, being a fantasy RPG city in the mold of Waterdeep or Greyhawk, it also has cults to fight and dungeons to explore.
It’s a lot of a city, and I wasn’t surprised to learn that it won the 2007 ENnie award for product of the year (and also Best Setting, Best Cartography, and Best Production Values).
But in 2022, it left me pretty bored, which brings me back to that cartoon: this may be the perfect generic fantasy RPG city — but maybe generic fantasy isn’t what I want right now?
Or maybe: I go to RPG books for a few things: does this fire my imagination as a player? As a writer? As a (god help me) game designer?
And for Ptolus, I am inspired by the depth of the city (all those stores, all that history), but I am also left not sure how I would hook into it as a player or game master. Perhaps this is the effect of reading Kevin Crawford and other OSR writers, where the question is often “how is this info going to affect the game?” Sometimes OSR falls back into the pleasant nonsense of D&D, where stuff just happens because it would be cool (“What does the dragon eat in the dungeon? Uh, maybe the orcs. OK, what do the orcs eat? Uh….”), and for me, that fails the other way: whereas Ptolus may be a city where the story is already told, the average early D&D dungeon is a story that cannot be told because it makes no sense.
But there is one takeaway I get from these books — which included the adventure Night of Dissolution, the mega-dungeon The Banewarrens, and the sourcebook on Chaositech — which is the idea of adding more little sidebars into an adventure with DM’s tips and troubleshooting.
April 27, 2020
The best campaign setting book that I've ever read. There is so much information here that will keep me occupied for years to come.
Read
November 28, 2023A wonderful inspiration for future worlds.
July 6, 2013
Ok, so my personal ritual when I buy a new sourcebook is to flip through, find my favorite new classes, spells and special items. I let my brain churn on those for about three or four hours before I flip to the next tier of material, which is made up of unique setting material like races, geography and history. This part usually takes another three to six hours before I've digested everything to the point where I can incorporate what I like and minimize what I don't. Then when I'm finished with that part, I front to back the book which takes a couple hours of musing and making mental or physical notes.
Yeah, forget about that whole M.O. for this book - or anything that resembles it. This thing is so huge, and the material is scattered throughout it in such a fashion which, while initially appearing to be maddening, is actually ingenious. You can't help but stop and read whatever it is that's on the page next to the things you were looking for!
The material is so rich, and so concisely presented that it's impossible to go through this book in a rational, coherent manner. You just have to immerse yourself in this book, which is such a rare occurrence for an experienced DM, since for awhile you actually get to let Monte Cook do for you, what you do for your players.
The little notes in the margins with page numbers for more information on whatever the little snippet was presenting are also an impressively effective way to send you through this maze of a book.
I've never successfully read this book in its entirety. Frankly, I find that to be an amazing accomplishment for the author, thus the five stars...since I keep picking the thing up and thumbing through it, knowing full well just how much trouble I'm getting myself into.
Yeah, forget about that whole M.O. for this book - or anything that resembles it. This thing is so huge, and the material is scattered throughout it in such a fashion which, while initially appearing to be maddening, is actually ingenious. You can't help but stop and read whatever it is that's on the page next to the things you were looking for!
The material is so rich, and so concisely presented that it's impossible to go through this book in a rational, coherent manner. You just have to immerse yourself in this book, which is such a rare occurrence for an experienced DM, since for awhile you actually get to let Monte Cook do for you, what you do for your players.
The little notes in the margins with page numbers for more information on whatever the little snippet was presenting are also an impressively effective way to send you through this maze of a book.
I've never successfully read this book in its entirety. Frankly, I find that to be an amazing accomplishment for the author, thus the five stars...since I keep picking the thing up and thumbing through it, knowing full well just how much trouble I'm getting myself into.
October 20, 2009
This is the best RPG campaign setting I've ever seen. It's detailed, rich, explanatory and fun. Everything you need for a city is in there and everything has a story behind it. This could fuel years of gaming.
October 28, 2010
This is like Fodor's meets Dungeons and Dragons. For campaign settings, it's the only book you need.
July 8, 2012
Love this. Amazing. Best book I own.
October 27, 2012
Epic. Perhaps the most amazing tome in it's genre.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews