Design Diaries: Monte Cook

Design Diary: Conspiracy Research When researching for a book like The Skeptic's Guide to Conspiracies, you learn some strange rules, and perhaps a few truths. Amid all the crazy clutter.... Design Diary: Part VII: Running a Ptolus Campaign From Design Day One, I knew that there would be a Part VII of the Ptolus book. Well, I didn't know it would be "Part VII," but I knew there would be a part of the book that dealt with new rules material. Remember, practically everything I've written for Malhavoc Press (and a lot I've done for Fiery Dragon, Atlas Games, and others) has come out of the Ptolus Campaign. It's always been a testing ground for new 3rd Edition rules material -- in fact, it was one of the first such testing grounds... Design Diary: Part VI: Living in Ptolus In some ways, Part VI of Ptolus is the most important part of the book for me, despite the fact that it's smaller than all the others. Why? Because it's the material that I always want to get out of an RPG setting book, but very rarely do. This part talks about what it's really like to be in Ptolus... Design Diary: Part V: Above the City "Above the City." It sounds like a whole part of the book that details birds and hot air balloons. In Ptolus, however, "above the city" refers to the most enigmatic part of the setting: the Spire. Specifically, it means Goth Gulgamel and Jabel Shammar, the two fortresses built upon the Spire. To a much lesser degree, it also refers to the Seven Jewels of Parnaith, otherworldly half-worlds whose doors float ethereally in orbit around the Spire. Design Diary: Part IV: Below the City In many ways, the genesis of the Ptolus Campaign came from a conversation I had with Bruce Cordell once. I wondered aloud what it would be like if there were really a massive dungeon full of monsters, traps, and treasure. Obviously, being a D&D fan, I like the idea that there would indeed be a certain class of people -- adventurers -- who would take it upon themselves to explore the dungeon, brave its dangers, and bring back its treasures, but what would impact would such a class of people have on a society? Design Diary: Part III: City Guide The third part of the Ptolus book covers the actual district-by-district description of the city itself. This part of the book is the largest section, and arguably the most important. In its twelve chapters, each district of the city is described in incredible detail, with an additional overview chapter at the beginning. Design Diary: Part II: Ptolus Background The second of Ptolus' seven parts contains an array of varied content. It includes material on the world, the races, the gods and cosmology, the history, and the organizations. This is, in a way, the part of the book that provides the context for the rest. It's everything but the city of Ptolus. Design Diary: Part I: A Player's Guide to Ptolus The Ptolus book has seven parts, covering everything from the world to the districts of the city, the areas above and below the city, and advice on running and playing in the Ptolus Campaign. In my next set of Design Diaries, I'm going to discuss each part and give you a little background on its contents and my design goals for it. Design Diary: The Evolution of a Book Obviously, Ptolus is a huge book. It was written over the course of two years, with serious breaks (breaks called Beyond Countless Doorways, Arcana Evolved, Iron Heroes, and so forth). Over that time, the book changed considerably in its conception. Originally, in fact, it was simply going to be a big adventure that would take you from level 1 to level 20.... Design Diary: Setting Choices A lot of people ask me, "So I've read about the big Ptolus book, but what's Ptolus like as a setting?" That's a harder question to answer than you might think, simply because there's so much information, it's difficult to know where to begin. Design Diary: DM Friendly If you've read much on this site, you know that I'm a frequent DM and that I like material made specifically for DMs. It's not easy being the one to run the game, and it's good when a product comes along that makes a DM's life a bit easier. Design Diary: Why Ptolus? Leaving aside all the physical components of the package -- the handouts, the page design, the preorder offers, and whatnot -- what is Ptolus? Once you've got it in your hands next year, what are you really going to have? Evolved Levels So, it's Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved, right? What's the "evolved" part -- just a cool name? Just to convey the idea that this is the next step in the game's evolution? Well, yes. But there's more to it than that. . . . The Ritual Warrior and Combat Rites Everything in Arcana Unearthed began to come together around the time I realized that a lot of the concepts I was working on dealt with some of the deep, "inner" aspects of people: things like honor, oaths, and a connection to the land. 25th Level? One new thing about Arcana Evolved is that all the classes go to 25th level rather than 20th level. A lot of people had been asking about "epic" level Arcana Unearthed, and the core "epic" rules didn't fit my conception of high-level Arcana Unearthed very well. Dracha: The New Arcana Evolved Race The first thing to understand about the difference between Arcana Unearthed and Arcana Evolved is that Arcana Evolved is all about the dragons. The Violet: Designing an Alien Realm Monte on designing bizarre settings. The Movements of the Planes Monte discusses the Countless Worlds cosmology and its moving planes. Designing a Cosmology An introduction to the Countless Worlds cosmology. Keyed Spell Items in Book of Hallowed Might II Mike and I did some work recently on Book of Hallowed Might II: Portents and Visions. A Monstrous Challenge Legacy of the Dragons is both a support product for Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed and also a book of cool monsters for regular d20 games. Bestiaries I Have Known My first professional game design ever was a book of monsters. Creatures and Treasures II came out in 1989 from Iron Crown Enterprises for Rolemaster. Legacy of the Dragons: Context Legacy of the Dragons is the product I'm working on now. It's a bestiary to go along with Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed. Chaositech Playtesting Chaositech is one of those products that came directly out of my campaign. Campaign Paradigms An important thing for all DMs to keep in mind is that once a campaign is up and running, the basic flavor -- the underpinnings of the whole campaign structure -- usually should not change. Developing a New Subsystem Probably one of the biggest challenges that faces a designer when working on a book like Chaositech is the delicate way that you have to institute a whole new subsystem. On the Horizon: Chaositech Chaositech is a really fun project for me to be working on. Magic Items in The Diamond Throne Magic items in Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed and in The Diamond Throne sometimes require a little bit of thought on the DM's part. A Look at the Land This week I've prepared an excerpt from The Diamond Throne. Designing a World I have mixed feelings about campaign settings. Weapons and Armor I absolutely love the introduction of exotic weapons into D&D. Greenbond Notes Last week's preview of the greenbond class gives a nice glimpse of a lot of Arcana Unearthed issues. Spell Templates This week I thought I'd discuss an idea that I'm really very happy with. Playtesting Playtesting is extremely important to me. When we developed 3rd Edition, we did more playtesting than perhaps any other RPG product, ever. More Diamond Throne Last week I started talking about The Diamond Throne. I thought I'd go on about that for a bit more, to give you a feel for the setting behind Arcana Unearthed. The Diamond Throne So it's about time I start talking about the Diamond Throne. Death's Door I like the D&D death's door rules. Hero Points Ever put up wallpaper? Truenames As promised, I'll throw out a few words about truenames. Go, Go, Go! Short entry this time. I hate spells with 1 minute/level durations. Ceremony I think I've already mentioned that one of the goals I set for myself with Arcana Unearthed was to make things a little less generic. Things That Rules Take Away There are aspects of fantasy roleplaying that rules, inadvertently, can actually take away. Still Talking Classes So what's left? In previous Design Diary installments, I've discussed the main spellcasters and the tough guys of the game. More Classes Last time, I went over some of the non-spell-using combat classes. This time, I want to tell you about some of the other classes. Build a Better Fighter The title this week is facetious. It really should be "build a different fighter." The Magic Balancing Act In Arcana Unearthed I'm introducing a new method of magic item pricing. More Magic This week, I thought I'd talk more about the new magic system in Arcana Unearthed. Magic As a designer, magic in Arcana Unearthed posed a huge challenge. Design Decisions, Part Two Here's a bit more discussion of some of the general issues I faced as I began designing Arcana Unearthed. Design Decisions, Part One Before jumping into another big area of Arcana Unearthed's design, I thought I'd discuss some of the general issues I faced as a designer starting the book. Arcana Unearthed Races I started with the races. While I knew that the game needed humans as a basis, I wanted all the other races to be new. Visit Mike's Design Diaries!