Ptolus: Monte Cook's City by the Spire

Design Work Progresses—Plus Other News
almost 6 years ago – Tue, Aug 11, 2020 at 12:39:44 PM

Greetings, delver!

Work on Ptolus for 5e and the Cypher System continues on schedule. We thought you’d like a quick update on our progress. But first:

Numenera’s Ninth World Comes to 5e!

If you’re a 5e player, perhaps you’ve heard of—but never explored—our flagship game, Numenera. This science-fantasy RPG is critically acclaimed and has won numerous awards, including the Origins Award for Best RPG and the Gold ENnie for Best Setting, along with a host of other ENnies. 

Here’s some great news for 5e players: That amazingly imaginative, award winning setting, the Ninth World, is now available for Fifth Edition. Venture Beneath the Monolith to explore Numenera’s weird and wondrous world, with this 160-page hardcover tome that brings the Ninth World to our world’s most popular RPG system. It's available now at the MCG Shop!

You might also want to check out Arcana of the Ancients, which introduces weird science-fantasy elements to any 5e campaign. And watch out for Beasts of Flesh and Steel, a bestiary of creatures from the Numenera setting for use in 5e. It releases later this year.

Now, back to Ptolus. . . .

Design Work on Ptolus Marches Forward

The design team continues working through the almost 1,000 pages (including handouts and digital content) that make up Ptolus: Monte Cook’s City by the Spire. Here’s an update from Monte:

A lot of our attention has been focused on the interesting intersection of the three game systems involved (3e, 5e, and the Cypher System) and how to best serve the needs of both the 5e and Cypher systems. While 3e and 5e share a lot of the same assumptions, we have to build some of them from scratch for Cypher. And not everything 3e works the same in 5e.

For example, if an owlbear or a fireball scroll appear in the existing version of Ptolus, that doesn’t require too much conversion for use with 5e—both of those game elements exist in 5e. But what do they mean in the Cypher System? And while fireballs and owlbears are common to both editions of D&D, not every 3e game element touched on in the original Ptolus is present in 5e—and even those that are sometimes take a different form, present a different level of challenge, or otherwise fit into the game differently than in Third Edition. Prestige classes are just one example: They appear numerous times in the 3e version of Ptolus, but are not part of 5e. 

Those are the sorts of issues we're working through. That said, a lot of the NPCs and the bulk of the city material are already converted, and we're delving down below the streets right now. And above it, to Goth Gulgamel and even Jabel Shammar itself!

Art, Too!

On the art front, almost all of the new art has been ordered. There are a few bits remaining, as our Art Director Bear Weiter has particular artists in mind, and is working with them to fit those pieces into their schedules. We should have some beautiful new illustrations to show you next month.

What’s Next?

Ptolus continues to move forward on schedule. Roughly, that means:

• Design work continues through the summer.
• Some design files are already transitioning into editing, and that will continue into early fall.
• Layout begins in late fall, followed by proofing. Ptolus is a huge book with gazillions of interlocking details, and it’s extensively cross-referenced to ensure it’s very user-friendly—but all of those factors make proofing a critical and very time-consuming task. And there are two versions!
•  Ptolus: Monte Cook’s City by the Spire goes to press in February, assuming the gods of chaos (and we all know those gods are running rampant in 2020) allow!

But Wait, That’s Not All!

What about all the other titles and items funded by this campaign? We certainly haven’t forgotten about them.

Products that are essentially new books (whether in PDF, like The Banewarrens, or in print, like Ptolus: City of Adventure) will come out over the course of several months following the release of Ptolus: Monte Cook’s City by the Spire.

Other items, such as dice, vinyl maps, Character Portfolios, and the GM Screen will come out closer to the release of the main book. Some may in fact ship with the book itself; others might follow by a month or so.

We’re excited to see Ptolus coming along so nicely, and can’t wait to get all of this great stuff into your hands!

Early Rewards Are Out There, Plus a Ptolus Progress Report
almost 6 years ago – Sat, Jun 13, 2020 at 03:04:52 PM

Greetings, delver!

If your pledge includes any early rewards, such as the 3e Ptolus PDFs (which almost all backers get), and you completed BackerKit before June 8th, you should have received emails on redeeming those rewards. For the 3e PDFs, those emails would have come from the original publishers (Malhavoc Press, Fiery Dragon, SkeletonKey Games, and The Forge). For items such as the Cypher System Rulebook and Your Best Game Ever, the emails would have come from MCG. If you haven’t already, just follow the instructions in those emails to claim your rewards!

(Missed the emails? No problem. See below—but first:)

We’re Hard at Work on Ptolus!

The MCG design team is hard at work on Ptolus now. Despite a lot of disruption in, well, everything these days, at this point we remain on schedule for delivering Ptolus: Monte Cook’s City by the Spire to you in March as planned.

Design work will continue through the summer, and then we move into the layout and proofing stage. Ptolus is a massive book, and we’re making two versions of it, so this stage involves a huge volume of painstaking work. Layout and proofing will take several months.

Things are ticking along smoothly! We’ll share progress with you in the months ahead as it all comes together.

Didn’t Get Your 3e PDFs?

We have fulfilled 3e PDFs to every backer who completed their BackerKit survey as of midday on June 8th. (That includes backers who joined us with late pledges through BackerKit.)

3e PDFs are delivered via DriveThruRPG by their original publishers (not MCG). Look for these emails from Malhavoc Press, Fiery Dragon, SkeletonKey Games, and The Forge; they contain the links to your products.

If you didn’t get these emails, or have lost them, no problem. Log into DriveThruRPG (using the email address you gave us in your BackerKit survey). Go to your Account page and click on Notifications Inbox. You’ll see the emails there (with subject lines like “Free Titles from Fiery Dragon at DriveThruRPG.com”).

Late pledges: Please note that it may take up to four weeks for your PDFs to be delivered, and each publisher will deliver theirs independently, so you may not receive them all at the same time. If you do not receive yours within four weeks, contact us at [email protected] and we'll help troubleshoot the issue.

Didn’t Get Other Early Rewards?

If your pledge includes the Cypher System Rulebook in print and/or PDF, or Your Best Game Ever in print, and you didn’t get the email from us, here’s what to do: Log into the MCG Shop (using the email address you gave us in BackerKit) and navigate to your My Account page (it’s under the Store menu). Click on the Coupons tab. You should see your rewards there—simply follow the instructions on that page to claim them!

MCG will continue fulfilling BackerKit late pledges/add-ons that include the Cypher System Rulebook in print and/or PDF, and Your Best Game Ever in print on a weekly basis for as long as BackerKit is open for ordering. These MCG products were last fulfilled on June 8th.

Early Rewards Are Coming!
about 6 years ago – Fri, May 08, 2020 at 10:14:40 PM

Greetings, delver!

We hope you are safe and healthy! Today, as planned, we will charge credit cards in BackerKit. That locks in the data we need to fulfill early rewards, which will begin next week.

Here are some things you should know:

• Credit cards will be charged today. (If for any reason your card fails, no worries—you can update it and we’ll try it again next week.)
• Well over 90% of backers have already completed BackerKit, but that leaves several hundred who haven’t done it! If you’re one of them, it’s not too late. Jump in right now and fill out your survey, and if it’s before we charge cards, we’ll get your early rewards out to you next week. If you don’t make it in time, please still fill out BackerKit as soon as you can—you’ll get your early rewards, but that will happen a few weeks down the road.
• Non-backers can still get in on Ptolus! If you know someone who missed the Kickstarter, share this link with them: https://ptolus.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders We plan to keep this option open for some weeks to come.

Early Rewards

Early rewards include the existing 3e Ptolus PDFs (a reward for almost all backer levels) as well as PDF and print copies of the Cypher System Rulebook (for some backer levels) and Your Best Game Ever in print (an add-on). THIS NEXT PART IS IMPORTANT!

Existing 3e PDFs are fulfilled by their original publishers, not Monte Cook Games. Those publishers are Malhavoc Press, The Forge, SkeletonKey Games, and Fiery Dragon. The PDFs are delivered via DriveThruRPG. The process is automatic, and will happen next week. (Obviously, if you were part of the original batch back in April, you already have yours and this part isn’t relevant to you.)

Our friends at The Forge Studios encountered complications fulfilling their Ptolus 3e PDFs, but please know they are working on it. If you've not received the Ptolus 3e PDFs from them, you should receive  them soon.

The Cypher System Rulebook and Your Best Game Ever are fulfilled by Monte Cook Games via the MCG Shop. Next week you will receive an email from us telling you how to claim your rewards. Follow those instructions. That process is also how all future rewards from this campaign will be fulfilled.

Looking Forward to Ptolus 

The long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are difficult to predict, but at this moment we continue to expect to deliver the new versions of Ptolus: Monte Cook’s City by the Spire next March, as planned. We can’t wait to share new art and other updates as they become available!

Please Jump into BackerKit ASAP—and Other Important News!
about 6 years ago – Sat, Apr 11, 2020 at 06:00:41 PM

Greetings, delver!

We have a several bits of important information to share with you. The most exciting is probably this:

BackerKit Is Now Open!

BackerKit is a super-important way for us to get information critical to fulfilling your rewards—information that Kickstarter doesn’t provide us. Even if you make no changes to your pledge, it’s vitally important that you fill out BackerKit. And to receive your library of 3e Ptolus-related PDFs extra early, we need you to fill out BackerKit in the next few days. More details on that just below.

You should have received an email with your BackerKit link; if you haven’t done so already, simply click through to complete your survey!

Early Fulfillment of 3e PDFs Will Be Next Week

Back in update 23, we explained our plan to deliver the collection of 3e PDFs, including the original Ptolus, shortly after BackerKit opened. We hoped for that to be the end of this week, but we’re going to need a few extra days. Look for that fulfillment to occur in the middle of next week.

This is important: To get your 3e titles at that time, you must fill out BackerKit no later than noon EDT on Tuesday. (If you don’t get it done on time, you won’t miss those rewards, of course. You’ll simply get them when we had originally intended, in early May.) We must have the email address you use on DriveThruRPG to be able to fulfill those rewards. (If you don’t currently have an account on DriveThru, why not set one up now?)

Remember, those rewards will come directly from their original publishers—not from Monte Cook Games. Please look out for notifications from:

• Malhavoc Press
• Fiery Dragon
• Skeletonkey Games
• The Forge Studios

These are the publishers of the 3e materials, and they will provide your free copies via DriveThruRPG.

COVID-19 and Monte Cook Games

These are difficult times for everyone, and many businesses are struggling to remain functional. While nobody can predict the long-term effects of this pandemic, we here at Monte Cook Games are fortunate. We are all healthy and safe, Monte Cook Games is operational, and we believe we’re in a position of relative security for the foreseeable future. Because we all work from our homes (except for our shipping warehouses), our internal operations have been largely unaffected by the pandemic.

Unfortunately, although our internal operations have been humming along, we’re seeing delays both upstream and downstream of our product releases. This means there will be . . .

Changes to the MCG Release Schedule

Our manufacturing vendors have slowed or stopped operations, and the hobby game distribution system has all but shut down as well. For these reasons, we expect to push some of our mid-year release dates back by at least a few weeks—and quite possibly more, if, as seems likely, factories and distributors don’t reopen within the next month or so.

Will this affect the release of Ptolus? At this stage, we don’t think so—Ptolus won’t go to press for many months. But the near future is highly uncertain, so that could certainly change. We don’t foresee any internal delays, but if factories and distribution remain closed for an extended period, that could affect our ability to deliver on our promised date. We will, of course, keep you up to date as things progress.

Be sure to read our Kickstarter updates and emails, and make certain they aren’t going into your spam folder. These are our only channels for getting critical information about your rewards to you.

We’re Taking a Couple of Weeks Off

We’re going to take advantage of this unplanned slowdown to take a little time off. MCG has given our entire staff a couple of weeks of extra paid vacation in April. The entire company is taking a break starting the week of April 13th. For two weeks we won’t be responding to Kickstarter messages or comments, email, or other communications. We’re all going to focus on keeping ourselves and our families safe and healthy and generally unwinding in this very uncertain and anxious time. And then we’ll be back, at the end of the month, hitting the ground running!

There are a couple of exceptions. We will fulfill your 3e PDFs next week. And our warehouse will remain open, shipping orders from the MCG Shop (and Kickstarter rewards, for backers of past campaigns).

Speaking of the MCG Shop . . .

Stuck at Home (Perhaps with Kids)?

Here’s a little something for gamers practicing social distancing, quarantined, or under a shelter-in-place restriction:

• The entire No Thank You, Evil! RPG line, for families with kids as young as five, is 50% off.
• So is the Numenera Starter Set, for grownups and older kids.
• And for gamers getting into games online for the first time, the entire chapter on Playing Games Online, from Your Best Game Ever, is available for free. We’ve added it, in its entirety, to the downloadable free preview of that titled.

We’ll keep this sale open for as long as conditions warrant (subject, of course, to product availability).

What a Great Campaign! Plus, What Comes Next
about 6 years ago – Sat, Mar 21, 2020 at 02:05:47 AM

Thank you so much for all of your support for Ptolus: Monte Cook’s City by the Spire. We here at Monte Cook Games are no strangers to Kickstarter—this is our seventeenth campaign—but this one was really special. In fact, it’s our second biggest as measured by the volume of pledges, and the biggest measured by the number of backers. Thank you so much for your enthusiastic support, especially in these anxious times. We think you’ll be really happy with Ptolus, and with all the other items we unlocked along the way.

I’ve got some critical info for you, but first I’d like to thank the members of team MCG, who all helped make this campaign a success:

Monte, of course, created the world of Ptolus in the first place. He and Shanna, Sean, and Bruce, our fantastic creative team, have really been energized by your enthusiastic response to the Ptolus reissue, and are so excited to make the things we’ve been funding. Bear did the beautiful graphics for this campaign, and is already hard at work wrangling the new art we unlocked, some of which we’ve already seen. Tammie kept the company going while this campaign raged around her, Jen worked diligently helping gamers with questions and issues that arose from this campaign and others, and Darcy connected with you, our wonderful community, here and everywhere gamers congregate online.

And, of course, thanks to you: the many veteran Ptolus fans and those just discovering the City by the Spire, for backing this campaign. You make all of this possible, and we never lose sight of that.

Here’s what to expect as we move forward from here.

This Evening and the Next Few Days

Running Kickstarter campaigns is rewarding in many ways, and we have greatly enjoyed interacting with you through these updates, the comments, social media, and so on. But it’s also a brutally hectic challenge to administer it all. And most of the MCG staff has been keeping up with our regular duties throughout—shipping Arcana of the Ancients and The Nightside for Invisible Sun, shepherding Voices of the Datasphere through production and preparing The Threshold for press, and so on. And let’s not forget the pandemic, which hasn’t affected company operations directly, but lays its stresses on all of us.

So, as we often do after Kickstarter campaigns wind down, we’re taking a short break.

Don’t expect to hear much from us this weekend, or in the week or two ahead of us. If you have questions, feel free to send a Kickstarter message, but don’t be concerned if you don’t get a response right away. Production of Ptolus: Monte Cook's City by the Spire will take many months, and the other unlocked products will take even longer. There isn’t anything that can’t wait for a few days. But don’t worry—we will get back to you.

The Next Few Weeks

Kickstarter begins collecting pledges the moment the campaign closes. But it takes Kickstarter a full two weeks to release those funds, along with the data on our backers.

In the meantime, we will get BackerKit fully set up so we can open it when we have that data. BackerKit is a third-party platform that lets you confirm all the information we need to fulfill your pledge. If there are add-ons you’ve missed, or if you decide to increase your reward level, you can do that through BackerKit as well. You’ll be notified when we open BackerKit.

NOTE: Signing into BackerKit is vital to getting your rewards. Kickstarter does NOT provide us with the information we need to fulfill your rewards; we MUST gather it from you after the campaign. If you don’t respond to your BackerKit survey, we can’t send you any rewards!

After we open BackerKit and start getting your survey results, we’ll start fulfilling the existing 3e products. Please look out for notifications via DriveThruRPG from:

• Malhavoc Press
• Fiery Dragon
• Skeletonkey Games
• The Forge Studios

These are the publishers of the 3e materials, and they will provide your free copies via DriveThruRPG.

The Next Few Months

Once you’ve done your BackerKit survey, we won’t need anything else from you until it’s time to start fulfilling rewards. We’ll be busy crafting the products and rewards you will be receiving in the months to come.

At times during this period, you won't hear from us, maybe for a couple of months. Don’t worry if that happens—we have delivered literally hundreds of thousands of rewards on time in the past, and we'll be working diligently on yours.

But at the same time, please pay attention when you do get communications from us. Our emails and Kickstarter updates include critical information about your rewards.

When Your Rewards Ship

Every time a reward is ready for you, we’ll contact you again by email to begin the fulfillment process. Generally, we’ll direct you to the MCG Shop, where you’ll log in, “buy” the product (for free with a coupon, because you’ve already paid for it through Kickstarter), and check out. This is an important part of the process because it ensures we have accurate delivery information for every item we send out. (With thousands of backers getting rewards, it's amazing how many people will change their address over the fulfillment period.) You'll pay for shipping at that time. Make sure you're paying attention to communications from us—don't let our updates or emails go to your spam folder, or otherwise ignore them, because if you do you could miss out on some of your rewards.

This was a grand endeavor, and we are very happy you chose to be a part of it. Thank you all for your support, and for helping us bring Ptolus: Monte Cook’s City by the Spire back into the world!