Ptolus: A 5e D&D campaign in the City by the Spire: Review and Introduction

Over the next few months I’ll be running a new D&D 5e campaign set in Ptolus. Ptolus is a fantasy city setting that was originally released in 2006 for D&D 3e. Monte Cook Games has recently released a 5e and Cypher conversion - I will be focusing on the 5e version in these posts since I haven’t got around to looking at the Cypher system yet. 

Ptolus is an incredibly detailed fantasy city, described in a 672-page behemoth of a sourcebook. The setting is great for D&D since it brings together city and dungeon adventures. The city of Ptolus is a tinderbox of many different factions and organisations. Local government, noble houses, religions, guilds, businesses, law enforcement, crime syndicates, secret societies, and evil cults all strive for supremacy. At the same time, the recently rediscovered Dungeon beneath Ptolus is being plundered by Delvers, adventurers who come to Ptolus seeking gold and fame. Towering over Ptolus is The Spire, a three thousand foot column of rock on which sit two black fortresses of ancient evil. There is a lot going on in Ptolus, but its history means this apparent randomness makes some sort of sense. It also means that there are some big secrets hidden under the city. 

Copyright Monte Cook Games

In addition to the sourcebook, there’s a 34-page Player’s guide to give your players the background information they need to get started making characters. Ptolus was also supported by three large D&D 3e adventure modules designed for mid to high level characters (The Banewarrens, Night of Dissolution, and the Queen of Lies), so there is a lot of additional material to draw upon. I understand Monte Cook Games plan to convert two of the modules to D&D 5e sometime in 2021/22.

What’s the Ptolus D&D 5e Conversion like?

The new D&D 5e sourcebook is a straightforward conversion of the material from the D&D 3e version. The layout of the Ptolus 5e sourcebook is very good. Sidebars and cross references are used extensively throughout. I have only the pdf version, so I’m really pleased that the cross references and index have links, which really help with navigating through the sourcebook. There is some fantastic new art, particularly the cityscapes which capture the look and feel of Ptolus. 

Monster and NPC stats have been updated to D&D 5e, along with new subclasses, magic items and spells. The Ptolus 5e sourcebook also introduces a few new races and subraces to D&D 5e. Not everything is perfect though. There are minor errors in the conversion (for example, the firearms rules don’t quite make sense) and old references to D&D 3e remain. In places, some of the text and descriptions are overwritten. It is also worth bearing in mind this is primarily a sourcebook for a setting and not a campaign in its own right (although there are some fully-fleshed out scenarios to get started). This means the DM will need to adapt the sourcebook material and potentially supplement it to create a campaign.

One final point is that although Ptolus is often mentioned in the same breath as other famous city settings, it’s actually rather difficult to find diaries or experiences from people who have run Ptolus campaigns. One great place to find information is the website ptol.us which also has an active Ptolus Discord server.

Pros

  • An exceptionally detailed sourcebook for a unique high-fantasy city.
  • Very good layout - fantastic cross referencing, index and sidebars.
  • A lot of supporting material!

Cons

  • Minor errors in the 5e conversion.
  • Descriptions can become overly verbose in places.
  • Not cheap.

Introducing my players to Ptolus

I’m currently running a Ptolus campaign using the D&D 5e ruleset. I’m introducing the campaign as a city sandbox for heroic fantasy. This primarily means presenting the PCs with numerous scenario hooks and letting the party decide what to follow.

One narrative device I’m using is that the campaign starts in spring just after a very stormy winter, which has led to flooding in the city. This means some areas of the Dungeon are currently inaccessible, but also that new areas have opened up due collapsed sewers. In addition, Ratmen (a great low level adversary) have moved up from the lower levels of the dungeons and are causing problems in the Ptolus sewers.

My players are already three sessions into the campaign. So far they have sampled the delights of Delver’s Square, joined the Delver’s Guild, cleared out a Ratmen’s Nest in the sewers, and prevented thugs from the Pale Dogs gang attacking a local citizen. Hopefully in the next few weeks we’ll be able to weave some of the PC’s backstories into the game. I’ll post every few sessions on how the campaign is progressing and highlight aspects of Ptolus that make it such a great fantasy setting. 

I’ll also post some random thoughts on running a “heroic fantasy city sandbox”, an area that D&D struggles with. There are great tools and game structures for running dungeons and wilderness areas (for example, dungeoncrawls and hexcrawls) but not so many for urban adventures.

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