Ghostwalk -- Opinions?

digitaldark

First Post
I was just wondering if any of you have picked up the Ghostwalk book...and am really interested in what people think about it. I'm strongly considering picking this one up this week and maybe starting a campaign using it. Alsom any opinions on possibly using the ghost rules in d20 Modern?
 

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digitaldark said:
I was just wondering if any of you have picked up the Ghostwalk book...and am really interested in what people think about it. I'm strongly considering picking this one up this week and maybe starting a campaign using it. Alsom any opinions on possibly using the ghost rules in d20 Modern?
I bought it. I give it a resounding "ehh."

It's unique, imaginative, and overall a boring read. I'll start with my biggest gripe about Ghostwalk, by far: the clumsy mechanic of a character with levels in a ghost class suddenly returning from the dead. They actually recommend that you keep track of a character's ghost levels' worth of hit points, skill point assignments, BAB bonuses, saving throw bonuses and feats so that if you have a "life epiphany" (the setting's term for a ghost returning to flesh and blood) you can redistribute them to your new, living class.

What a pain in the arse! That's exactly why, among my friends, we've house-ruled that instead of level loss from things like energy drain attacks you go in the hole XP-wise instead. Keeping track of where you place every single point at each level is an exercise in tedium. No thank you.

Two more things stuck out glaringly. First, I am still unclear on whether you are supposed to apply the ghost template to your character upon dying, or if you leave the stats unchanged. They spend a lot of time explaining about different types of ghosts and ghostly powers, but they never come out and explicitly state that you should apply the ghost template or not. I can infer from the descriptive text in the sidebar on page 8 that you do not apply the template, but that's just a guess based on later writings. I would have appreciated a clear, outline-format step by step walkthrough on how to convert a PC to a ghost, and the book lacks that, and that disappoints me.

Second, and more importantly to me as a DM, is the fact that there is an absurd lack of time spent on one of the points mentioned on the back jacket, a point that ultimately swayed me to buy the book: how to integrate Ghostwalk into an existing campaign. There is a tiny paragraph in the main body of text at the end of chapter 3, as well as a large sidebar explaining how to drop Ghostwalk into Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk. For the third time, then, I am disappointed, because I expected a page or two at least of helpful ways to insert Ghostwalk into an existing homebrew. As is, I'm going to have to get pretty creative in my own setting if I want to use the city of Manifest and its environs, and that annoys me because this was the promised feature of the book that I was most anticipating.

Thumbs down for Ghostwalk.
 

Boring read? That's too bad. What exactly makes it boring? I mean, you've nailed some problems with the actual content, but is it overly technical, poorly written, or something else? Just curious. It's not something that I'd be inserting into one of my campaigns any time soon, but it was on my list for somewhere far down the road.

Best,
tKL
 

Kajamba Lion said:
Boring read? That's too bad. What exactly makes it boring? I mean, you've nailed some problems with the actual content, but is it overly technical, poorly written, or something else? Just curious. It's not something that I'd be inserting into one of my campaigns any time soon, but it was on my list for somewhere far down the road.

Best,
tKL
I expected a campaign centered around the afterlife to be a more, well, spiritual read. It reads like a textbook and in some places lacks Monte's usual clarity. It smacks more of Magic of Faerun, which Reynolds worked on but not Cook. My complaint may seem contradictory, and perhaps it is - on the one hand calling for clearer crunchy bits, and on the other moaning about a lack of fluff. I guess what I would have more enjoyed was crunch that read crystal clear, and fluff that read like a good ghost story. I got neither.
 

Fair enough. I'm not sure that you're desires are necessarily contradictory, though. A really good product should have both of those things, IMO.

Best,
tKL
 

While I don't own the book, I do plan to buy after I looked though it this past week. Right now, the book is on hold at my FLGS, so don't take too much care of my comments.
I've read a lot about this book, such as reviews and interviews with the authors (see below). They all seem to be very good, which contradicts the opinions I know personally who bought the book. They thought it was okay.
There is a hard-to-explain explanation of what to do when your character dies. I was introduced with this problem when I let a player this past weekend become a Ghostwalk ghost through a curse in a magical item. Should a character automatically gain a level when he/she dies? Or does the pre-Eidolon level character wander around the Material Plane without anything to do since they can't fully-manifest? IMO, I'd let the character fully-manifest and give him all of the benefits of being a ghost (incorporeality, ability to fully-manifest) without getting a level of Eidolon (which means no ghost feats and no additional BAB, HD, skill points, etc.).
The campaign information is great, but you wouldn't use most of it if you're going to integrate it with another campaign setting. That doesn't mean this material is useless; it provides a base for generating ideas for your own game. And you can just add Manifest into your setting. You don't have to use all of the nations and factions if you don't want to. But all of it certainly does get you thinking. Where do your characters go when they die?

Here's some useful links that can help influence your decision:
Ghostwalk Designers Interview
Ghostwalk Excerpt
Ghostwalk Web Enhancement
Ghostwalk Art Gallery
GamingReport.com: Ghostwalk Closer Look - Interior Images
Ghostwalk - SeanKReynolds.com
 

Bought it and like the book immensely, it will take some tweaking to integrate into my campaign, but not impossible. The only thing that makes me nervous are the yuan-ti. These guys have their scales in an awful lot of books. The year of the snake approaches?


hellbender
 


I like the book, the flavor text parts and the idea itself is very evocative and I think can be used in some shape or form somewhat easily. I have not finished reading the book.

That said I agree somewhat with Force User, the initial pages of the books jump right into ghost characters, and their are refrences to rules to be found later in the book, a little confusing at times, but the more you read the more confusion gives way to clarity,(at least for myself). The Ghost feats are intresting, a lot of cool additional feats, and quite a bit of feat and spell reprints from magic of faerun,(Ghostwalk as a product seems more a SKR than Cook product).

Ghostwalk is one of those products that makes me wish WOTC would reverse their hardcover only policy. $34.95 for a self titled campaign option,(though the hard cover illustration is beautiful in my opinion, my favorite yet of 3e), is going to discourage buyers, and frankly some of the feat and spell inclusion seem calculated to bolster page count. I like it better that Races of Faerun,(which frankly was repackaged crap in my opinion, do I need more races or a reprint of the Savage Species centaur, or another reprint of elvish history from Forgotten Realms), but it would be better servered at a lower price.

The idea is original, and I certainly dont mind the expenditure, if you want to emulate the "solid" ghosts of Norse myth, or have some intresting rules for areas near the land of the dead,(ala Homer), you should like this book.
 

hellbender said:
The only thing that makes me nervous are the yuan-ti. These guys have their scales in an awful lot of books. The year of the snake approaches?

I think it's just that SKR likes them.
 

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