Is Ghostwalk any good?

[SneakyB]

Oh, you mean you wanted the short answer? Then, no, I don't recommend Ghostwalk unless you really like ghosts and/or are looking for an offbeat "ghostly" setting.

I didn't originally want to get into a lengthy debate about tangential issues, but was drawn into it by questions raised by other posters, which made this a far more fascinating discussion for me than this thread should have been. For my contribution in dragging this thread way, way off topic, I must apologize. Let your normally scheduled Ghostwalk discussion resume, though I fear this thread's had it, and a new one should be started, which I will hopefully manage to keep out of, as I really have nothing more to say on the subject other than "I didn't like it; it was too weird for me." Which is all I should have said in the first place, but... you know how it is, you mean to just say one thing, and suddenly you've blabbed on forever, and not even on topic. My bad, gang.

Didn't mean to bust your ****s there, Chef. Just seemed as if the whole thread was rapidly heading into the realm of an ongoing argument about the ethics (which I do question) of the suits at WotC.

Hopefully, no offense taken as there was none meant,

Dan

 

[teitan]

Got that right, there's no way this thing will ever outsell big products like the Hero Builder's Guidebook or Enemies & Allies.

Glad to see someone is unafraid to speak things the way they really are Iron_Chef.

Oooh, oooh Diablo II!!!! The Dungeons & Dragons Movie campaign setting stuff!!!!!

Jason

 

[Nightfall]

*decides to start up the Orcus chant* Just for a change of pace.

 

[seankreynolds]

Looking at the online gallery I notice a medusa(?) called Saag Paneer.

Known in most curry houses by her other name "spinach and cheese".

I chose that deliberately, and not just as a joke. I LOVE saag paneer, it's delicious, but it does horrible things to my digestion, so it's dangerous. So the medusa Saag Paneer is easy to love, but she's very dangerous, too.

As for why ghosts in Ghostwalk aren't undead, well, it would really suck if you were playing a ghost PC and your cleric buddy turned or destroyed you, or if you were the cleric and you accidentally turned or killed your buddy the ghost....

As for why WotC would publish such a book, a huge consumer study they did a few years ago found that most groups restart their campaign every 6 months or so. Ghostwalk is a Campaign Option book, easily picked up and played for a few months when you tire of your current campaign (but we also included enough to run long-term if you wanted to, or to insert it into an ongoing campaign).

AS to which came first, ghost-as-PCs or city-of-ghosts, it's the former. The one-sentence-summary we gave to the heads of R&D was "what if dying didn't mean you had to stop playing your character?"

If you don't like the established cosmology in the book, ignore it. Monte and I decided against including it, but because of a weird shenanigan lateu in the process we needed to fill an unexpected extra 32 pages (16 were used for some of the adventure sites). If it were up to me we wouldn't have included it after all, but my boss decided that rather than me getting overstressed and two weeks late on getting the extra-extra material finished, we'd go with the after-the-Veil stuff.

As for layoffs, Monte left WotC on his own, he wasn't laid off. As for me, I was already planning on moving to California and so it worked out for everyone (they needed to lay off another person, I needed an excuse to not have a job ).

 

[Nightfall]

Orcus and Sean rule! Monte does too but since Sean did the monsters, I say he rules more. In any case, I say let's be positive, enjoy what the book is about and move on.

 

[Caliban]

As for why WotC would publish such a book, a huge consumer study they did a few years ago found that most groups restart their campaign every 6 months or so. Ghostwalk is a Campaign Option book, easily picked up and played for a few months when you tire of your current campaign (but we also included enough to run long-term if you wanted to, or to insert it into an ongoing campaign).

Trusting their own market research over Iron_Chef's uninformed opinions?

Inconceivable!

 

[Iron_Chef]

Trusting their own market research over Iron_Chef's uninformed opinions?

Inconceivable!

I know. I'm shocked. I always knew those suits weren't right in the head, and this sad turn of events just proves it.

 

[teitan]

I finally got Ghostwalk in the mail and just want to say I think it is a great book and easily portable but it is not for everyone, it is off in some indeterminate way. It could be the weird presentation of data, it lacks a good structure but when it is all taken in, it is probably the most original setting from WOTC or TSR since Planescape. On that same note, in the same way that Planescape is hard to digest, Ghostwalk has that weird, niche quality.

Comparing it, or any DnD product to a WoD game is folly. COmparing the White Wolf to DnD is like comparing sales of Freedom Force to Ultima Online. While it is true that both are computer games, they appeal to 2 very different audiences. While there is some crossover, it is not a wholly compatible market. Comparing MMORPG to RTS is just poor business think.

Another reason it is bad to compare DnD supplement to a WoD game is that the WoD games are whole products that do not require another rulebook to play. If you buy Wraith, you do not need Vampire to play Wraith, everything you need is in that Wraith book. Ghostwalk is a supplement to the DnD core rules and requires all three to be useful. Now the WoD stuff can be used to supplement each other... but they are not wholly compatible like the DnD supplements.

Back to topic... if you are looking for something different I would HIGHLY suggest Ghostwalk if you like a lot of quirk. I would thumbs down it if you want something different but not completely different..

What is great is that it can be used with any campaign setting, seriously. They even give a sidebar on putting the setting in GH and FR, it is not wholly a cosmology based idea. The cosmology is nice, but it could be that special place, like a eerie part of the world, where things just don't work the same, like the Bermuda Ttriangle.

Jason

 

[rounser]

I like one particular feature about Ghostwalk which I perceive to be the case (although I haven't seen the book), in that it limits the scope of the focus of the campaign to a single city. This allows for quality over quantity, and all that entails. With PCs levelling so quickly under 3E rules, there's less of a campaign fuse to burn in exploring the world, and therefore the setting itself needn't be much more than a city...

 

[Xeriar]

Trusting their own market research over Iron_Chef's uninformed opinions?

Inconceivable!

For whatever it's worth, my friend who owns the FLGS here says Ghostwalk is literally flying off the shelves.

And RPGs aren't even one of his core businesses.