Ghostwalk. Is it any good?

[DoctorEvil]

I have not used Ghostwalk in my campaign yet, but do have plans to.

The biggest benefit I saw was if every member of the party should happen to die, I have something to do with them other than start a new campaign now. But my plans have since evolved.

My party has made some pretty seriously powerful enemies. From a meta-game stand point they don't think the DM will let the powerful enemies come at them with both barrels and kill them, so they continue annoying the enemies. So, the enemies are sending their best at them and mostly likely the characters will end up dead. Due to some unique magic items the party has (but has not properly identified), their bodies will end up going through a dimensional "portal" (think the old bag of holding in a portable hole trick) and ending up in Manifest as Ghosts. Then the adventures will revolve around getting their bodies back from a secret sinister group that is holding them with nefarious purposes in mind (with nefarious purpose to be determined).

All in all, GW is on my short list of the many d20 products I own that have to get worked into my campaign somehow.

 

[Wombat]

While I haven't used Ghostwalk directly yet in a campaign, I have used it as a concept in a campaign, an Eldorado-like locale that the players could have gone looking for (many legends sprinkled about concerning The City Where The Dead Walk).

I think it would be amusing for a party to travel there that has had multiple deaths, only to be faced not only by the ghosts of the members of their own party, but also of all the sentients they have slain. Could prove to be an interesting meeting...

 

[eed_de]

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.

hey sean,

yepp, that`s bad. I can imagine that it somehow reduces the courage and motivation to go on the way you planned it in the first place. And that`s not very good for creativity. But hey, it`s still a good book, it`actually a classic, one of the WOTC books I really really like. (besides some realms books)

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....

yeah, I hear it was finished for over a year, so it was "cold" (for you, the authors) the moment it was published. Monte was pretty unexcited and I remember you being pretty much the same, because it wasn`t what you wanted for the book.

so what did you have to write on short notice ? the setting infos on the surrounding countries ?
They are not really bad. but they don`t really fit into the concept, either. Ghostwalk should have been an independent product offering lots of freedom to the authors

But hey, it lives on and maybe will endure while many many splatbooks and such will be long forgotten. I know that my players will fondly remember our Ghostwalk sessions.

cheers

Ingo

 

[seankreynolds]

yeah, I hear it was finished for over a year, so it was "cold" (for you, the authors) the moment it was published. Monte was pretty unexcited and I remember you being pretty much the same, because it wasn`t what you wanted for the book.

Actually, that's an entirely separate issue.
See, the book was originally supposed to be 7 module units (224 pages), with Monte writing 3, me writing 3, and then Monte going back and doing another 1 at the end to tie it all together (I think that's it). But when we did our outline, we forgot the 1 MU at the end and turned in an outline for a 6 MU book. And apparently the business guys said, "Only six MUs, eh? Okay," and changed it to a 6 MU book. Then Monte announced he was leaving WotC, the amount of work got shuffled around (I would do 4 MUs, he would do 2 as a freelancer). We finished the book.

Four months later, we find out that the business guys _hadnt'_ changed it to 6 MUs like they told us they were going to do, and they didn't remember saying they would in the first place. As the book had already been solicited to distributors and retailers as a 7 MU book we couldn't change it to 6 MUs at this point, so they took me off of Races of Faerun (I was going to do 2 MUs, I only ended up with 1) to write the last MU for Ghostwalk. Argh!

Book is edited. WotC decides to not publish the book. Monte and at least one other publisher offers to buy it from WotC so they can publish it. WotC, after a long wait, decides to hold onto it. They announce the 3.5 revision. They release Ghostwalk just before the release of 3.5, as it's less valuable as a product to them if it's a 3.0 book released after 3.5. I do a web enhancement updating it to 3.5.

So the book had a very troubled story (like many books, you'd be surprised to hear some of the horror stories out there). It could have been a better book, and that's partly my fault and partly due to the mix-ups with the business guys. Ah, well, it's history now.

so what did you have to write on short notice ? the setting infos on the surrounding countries ?

Actually, no, we always intended to include a sample campaign setting, just in case you didn't have a current campaign into which you could insert it. The last-minute material was 16 pages of adventure sites (Kinship of Vermin, Lair of the Crippled One, Lair of the Eyeless Lady, and Morbid Maze), as we realized there wasn't enough drop-in material for adventuring in the Undercity, and 16 pages on Beyond the Veil (which Monte and I had thought of putting in the book initially, but decided to leave it a mystery for individual DMs to customize, and then Rich and I decided to put it in for the 16 pages so the DMs would at least have something, but that section was done at the last minute and not my best work ... really, the afterlife should have been left alone or given more than 16 pages, it's too big to summarize in a small space like that, especially after the book was finished).

 

[eed_de]

So the book had a very troubled story (like many books, you'd be surprised to hear some of the horror stories out there). It could have been a better book, and that's partly my fault and partly due to the mix-ups with the business guys. Ah, well, it's history now.

well, thanx for explaining. Basically a shame, maybe a Malhavoc "Ghostwalk" will appear one day, I`d love to see that. But it`s probably not very lucrative....

... really, the afterlife should have been left alone or given more than 16 pages, it's too big to summarize in a small space like that, especially after the book was finished).

I agree, but I also found it a good way of introducing ideas to the game. Also I appreciate your honesty, here !

Because Ghostwalk tried to a lot in one book, it wasn`t that comprehensive and I never thought it should be. Also, I found the Afterlife and such basically interesting and thought provoking and the content of the book more like an example of what can be done in Manifest, not an exhaustive summary. That`s basically how I approach nearly every d20 book. I am not too much into "standard D&D" (whatever that may be) and I always adjust the stuff to my taste. So Ghostwalk does a lot to me and my players now (our next session will be a ghostwalk session, again). Also it was the first step towards something like Planescape for a long time and Manifest is something like Sigil in our Campaign, a crossroad to different places. I know that it wasn`t intended that way, but it doesn`t take a lot of tweaking

So the question above "Ghostwalk - is it any good" can be answered with a definite "YESSS", but it could be even better. But if you`re willing to work a bit it`s great."

 

[Knight Otu]

The "true afterlife" idea always felt tacked on (and out of place) for me, and was rather confusing me during my first quick read-throughs. I've seen your explanation that it really was tacked on before, but it is good to see it again.

For what it's worth, I like Ghostwalk (apart from the True Afterlife), but I haven't played it yet.

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

I really like Ghostwalk. I haven't used the coming back as a ghost rules, but am trying to think of a way of working these into my current campaign if anyone dies. Maybe there is a Manifest-like area somewhere in the Underdark -- I dunno. Anyway, I did use a lot of the monsters in my epic planar game when the PCs went to Thanatos (Orcus' realm in the Abyss).

Cheers


Richard

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Have not used it yet, but there's piles of good ideas in it. The items are actually all really flavorful and setting-specific, but import well in many cases, so I give that a thumbs up. Also, the core "ghost" levels and powers and concepts I think would export easily and well to another game. I've never had to use them yet, but it's a rather brilliant central concept.