Ghostwalk. Is it any good?

[dead]

I didn't buy this one. I took a quick squiz and it seemed to just be D&D all over again except as a ghost . . . which kinda trivialises death a bit, I thought. When a PC dies, it should be something strange shouldn't it? Not picking up where you left off to bash some more monsters and steal their loot.

Do I have it all wrong? I don't mean to offend anyone who's using it and loves it. I mean, I only glanced at it briefly in the shop.

Convince me that I should buy Ghostwalk because it's on special at my FLGS. (I don't think it's selling well.)

 

[Gizzard]

Not picking up where you left off to bash some more monsters and steal their loot.

I bought it (for $10 when Gamekeeper went out of business) and have been a bit frustrated with it for exactly the reason you mention.

Also, it seems that the city of Manifest is really necessary to the functioning of Ghostwalk; it's a bit messy to extract the ghost ideas and try to fit them into an existing campaign, which is what I was interested in doing.

But I'd also like to hear from someone who has used it sucessfully.

 

[dead]

Thanks.

Don't look to much into the "bashing monsters and stealing their loot". I'm have a lark here. What I'm trying to say is that it takes up where your living PCs left off . . . doing whatever they were doing. Which might be high intrigue and roleplaying . . . or monster slaying and hoarding riches. I don't know?

But my point is: It seems to just be normal-type D&D except with the novelty (dare I say gimick?) of being a ghost.

 

[eed_de]

well, I`ve DM`ed Manifest twice and it was great fun. I think needs some changes in style and atmosphere. It`s a great concept but the book itself does not nearly rise up to its potential, maybe because they wanted it to be "mainstream", which is a shame. And here is what I did:

I use Manifest as a kind of plane on a different world. Those who`ve been there
anytime while still beeing alive, can go there by choice when they die (if they decide to make a stop at manifest).

I enhanced the surreal and bizarre feel of the city and gave it a slight victorian taste. Also I added a lot of strange buerocracy and other halloweenesque weirdness. Macabre in some ways and weirdly funny in others. (take a look at Dan Breretons "Nocturnals", for example)
And it works. Make it foggy, rainy and strange in Detail, let the characters meet old enemies and allies who died a long time ago. Let them become possessed, so that they can play an evil group for a short time, in Manifest anything goes.

My players love it, although they usually like the realistic approach.

 

[dead]

My players love it, although they usually like the realistic approach.

Sounds fun.

Actually, did you know that Ravenloft back in 2E, *I think*, released their very own "playing a ghost" rules. I think it was the final release in the Grim Harvest series. A boxed set, I think. This would have had a very dark feel too, I'm sure.

 

[eed_de]

Sounds fun.

Actually, did you know that Ravenloft back in 2E, *I think*, released their very own "playing a ghost" rules. I think it was the final release in the Grim Harvest series. A boxed set, I think. This would have had a very dark feel too, I'm sure.

nope, didn`t know that, thanks. I really like Ravenloft, but I`ve never bought it. So many settings, soooo little time

 

[seankreynolds]

Thanks.
But my point is: It seems to just be normal-type D&D except with the novelty (dare I say gimick?) of being a ghost.

Which was the point, actually. The core concept for the Ghostwalk proposal was, "If your character dies, you can continue playing immediately as the ghost of your PC." If the worst thing that can happen is your character dying (you have to stop playing temporarily while the party arranges to have you raised or the DM arranges for your new PC to come in), Ghostwalk's intent was to make that not happen.

well, I`ve DM`ed Manifest twice and it was great fun. I think needs some changes in style and atmosphere. It`s a great concept but the book itself does not nearly rise up to its potential, maybe because they wanted it to be "mainstream", which is a shame.

I know that my work suffered a bit while I was working on this book, which is really sad. See, there were rumors of upcoming layoffs at WotC (which turned out to be true) and I was a bit depressed and it affected my work.

There's also the matter of the 32 pages of material that had to be written and added in on short notice due to a mix-up between R&D and the business folks, that was great....

 

[seankreynolds]

Edit: I'm just glad it wasn't a triple-post. :/

 

[dead]

Which was the point, actually. The core concept for the Ghostwalk proposal was, "If your character dies, you can continue playing immediately as the ghost of your PC." If the worst thing that can happen is your character dying (you have to stop playing temporarily while the party arranges to have you raised or the DM arranges for your new PC to come in), Ghostwalk's intent was to make that not happen.

Thanks, Sean.

I guess this does offer an interesting alternative to just being raised.

 

[Gizzard]

The core concept for the Ghostwalk proposal was, "If your character dies, you can continue playing immediately as the ghost of your PC."

Well, this was one of my problems trying to shoehorn it into my existing campaign. (Note: I wanted to use it as a "second chance" for characters in a high level campaign; if you die then you can return as a ghost, assuming you can't be Raised. If you die as a ghost, oh well. This to explain where I am coming from.)

Anyway, in Ghostwalk when a dead PC comes back at first he is ethereal. If he doesn't like being ethereal, he should be able to transition to incorporeal within a couple of minutes. Being incorporeal (or ethereal) for long periods of time will cause huge headaches for the DM, especially as I expected my scouting classes (monk & rogue) to be more likely to decide to "stay dead" as opposed to fighters and mages.

In the long run though, I am not sure that being incorporeal is that much fun for a PC. So once the fun wears off, they will try to transition to fully manifested. Which is a lot like being alive again. I kinda got stuck here and decided I couldn't really tweak these rules into something I wanted for my campaign, so I put the idea on the back burner.

This is what I was getting at when I said that the city of Manifest is almost required to play Ghostwalk -- I am pretty sure the ghost rules (even including the classes and feats) are not enough by themselves to make players stay ghosts for long. If you like the idea of Manifest and base your campaign around it, that's a different matter, and I bet that's the way to go to get the most use out of the book.

I am still curious about people's experiences though; especially anyone who was in a campaign where some fraction of the players decided to be incorporeal.

-edit- ... or if anyone has ideas about how to run ghosts as a "second chance" for dead PCs, I am interested in that especially.