Ghostwalk -- Opinions?

[diaglo]

bought it. read it. put it on the shelf.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

bought it. read it. put it on the shelf.

Is this positive or negative? It can mean a few things:

"Loved it! It now has a place of honor on my gaming shelf."
"Hated it! It will now only collect dust on my gaming shelf."
"Meh. Nothing really sticks out, good or bad. It'll take up space on my gaming shelf. Maybe I'll use it someday, maybe not."

 

[diaglo]

i buy all the stuff. i'm addicted.

but it ain't option 1 or 2.

my statement for option 1 or 2 is:

Original D&D (1974) is the only true game. All the other editions are just poor imitations of the real thing.

 

[Xeriar]

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.

I thought it made it painfully clear over and over and over an over and over and over and OVER AND OVER AND OVER again that ghosts in Ghostwalk are not the ghosts from the Monster Manual, have nothing to do with them, are not undead, and to insinuate a connection is an insult...

 

[TiQuinn]

For the most part, I didn't care for Ghostwalk either. Part of its core concept is that the mystery surrounding ghosts is well....not that mysterious. It takes ghosts and makes them mundane, IMO. Death is not something to fear for raising the dead is fairly inexpensive. The book states that if not for the Calling, there would likely be a huge influx of people seeking to become ghosts since it would make their existance much easier (not needing food, water, etc.) It's just not a direction that I'm interested in taking my campaign.

I think if you are looking for something that makes character death less of an issue in games (i.e. players aren't taken out of the action while awaiting a Raise Dead), I suppose it's an interesting set of options. However, if you want to emphasize danger in your campaign, and encourage your players to avoid getting their characters killed, this is probably not the supplement for you.

 

[Mike Sullivan]

Re: Re: Ghostwalk -- Opinions?

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.

As a side note, for anyone who wants to play Ghostwalk, but has a problem with this, I suggest the following:

When your character "dies" and becomes a ghost, before you do anything to your character sheet, make a xerox of it. Then put the xerox away.

Then go ahead and start advancing as an eidolon or whatever, and if and when you get returned to bodilyness, you can just pull out the xerox, and then apply however many levels of a non-eidolon class onto that character. Should be much easier than reverse-constructing your saves, BAB, etc, and, most of all, your hit points.

 

[hellbender]

That's what I said as well.

http://pub123.ezboard.com/fnecromancergamesfrm25.showMessage?topicID=282.topic

It does make one a bit nervous. I might run Incursion, then have the yuan-ti try to invade next. The way things are looking, I might not have much choice. I love the idea of the githyanki invasion, I am not so sure about all these yuan-ti popping up everywhere.


h.

 

[Nightfall]

Orcus factor...

I like Ghostwalk just for the Orcus factor.

 

[Vivictus]

I thought it made it painfully clear over and over and over an over and over and over and OVER AND OVER AND OVER again that ghosts in Ghostwalk are not the ghosts from the Monster Manual, have nothing to do with them, are not undead, and to insinuate a connection is an insult...

There's a specific ghost template in the book that you are supposed to use. According to SKR, in a ghostwalk campaign, a PC using this should not have his ECL raised at all as a result of using it. In other campaigns though, I'd probably give it a level adjustment of like +7. Seems to be about right with all the other incorporeal creatures with level adjustments like in the FF.

 

[seankreynolds]

{and frankly some of the feat and spell inclusion seem calculated to bolster page count.}

Actually, I included spells & feats that I felt were suitable for the theme of the book and were regionally appropriate for the included countries. That was some of the first stuff I did, so meeting my word count wasn't a worry at the time.

{{The year of the snake approaches?}}
{I think it's just that SKR likes them.}

Monte, too.