Customer Reviews

Ghostwalk (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying Campaign)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Okay, you have that 20th level character you been playing for over 5 years, and although it would seem impossible, you flub a saving throw and something completely unexpected happens... your character gets killed! Now I never seen it happen in all my years of gaming, but I heard stories of gamers actually starting to cry because their greatest character gets knocked off. But cry no more... your character can now live on as a ghost and be more of a badass than he ever was. Ghostwalk is a new "campaign option" rulebook, that runs as a stand alone campaign setting, or a new realm that is easily integrated into an existing campaign. Ghostwalk takes your players and their characters past the Veil of Souls into the city of the dead where they continue on as champions of the afterlife. The book features over 70 new feats, a bunch of new monster templates, bizarre magic items, and tons of new spells like "Charm Undead" and is a must of any campaign.

Like a lot of newer D&D stuff, Ghostwalk's application in games is up to the player. As a standalone game it is fair, though its ties into the D&D cosmology poses more questions than it answers.

It is best used as a meta-setting the same way that Planescape or Spelljammer are used. Making a few assumptions helps this game truly shine and answer some of the great unanswered questions of the D&D Cosmology:

Assumption 1-
Each prime has a "ghostwalk" leading to a distinct True Afterlife maintained by the gods of their world.

Assumption 2-
Souls that "willingly discorporate" in the True Afterlife are lead into the Well of Souls and out into the Planes.

Assumption 3-
Demihumans everywhere go through the Etherial voyage mentioned in the book, however in most primes the etherial boundary is too thick for ghosts to manifest through sheer will--so they either remain stranded or embrace the seductive power of the Negative Energy Plane into themselves, becoming corrupted into undead forever, even in the True Afterlife.

This resolves a lot of questions. What's the difference between the dead and undead and why do the undead have a connection to the Negative Energy Plane?

With infinite Prime planes, why isn't the flood of souls to the Outer planes neverending?

How do dead folks get to the planes?

If Ghostwalk is it's own cosmology, why does it mention the planes and intrinsically D&D characters like Orcus?

But yeah, Ghostwalk is a lot of fun. The entries on the various cultures are awesome, the listing on the city of Manifest is great. It contains the origins of the Yuan-Ti, which by itself is reason enough to get the book. The authors really put did put some quality effort into this--the writing is very polished and the artwork is very impressive on the whole. The absence of a name for the game world is very strange, as I would like at least a suggestion of what to call the world where this all happens, but otherwise an excellent setting.

It's happened to nearly every D&D player at some point; they run into something nasty, and it kills them. It used to be that the standard procedure was to either roll up a new character or hoof it to the nearest source of resurrection magic.

But now, a third possibility exists: having the ghost of the slain character return to finish the fight.

Ghostwalk offers players and DMs alike rules for continuing the fight after death, and a new setting where it all takes place. Included are new magic items (along with suggestions for using named items), spells, and monsters. There are also numerous new feats, many of which are meant for ghosts and allow them to focus their abilities along one of six different "haunting" paths.

There are even a few adventures and adventure ideas that incorporate the new material, right in the book.

I liked:
1) Originality. This setting is definitely interesting in terms of concept.

2) The setting itself. It offers some interesting new lands and cultures to incorporate into your world.

I didn't like:
1) The lack of an included map showing the lands featured in the book. While there is such a map included in the web enhancement that updates the Ghostwalk material for the 3.5 rules, not having it handy in the book itself is a problem.

2) The lack of a "ghost" class that allows psionic characters to advance after death. While the eidoloncer could be modified for this, there isn't even a suggested means of making the alterations needed.

3) The vagueness of how Ghostwalk's afterlife fits into the existing cosmology. While there are clues throughout the book that suggest the state of affairs presented in Ghostwalk are the result of an accident, even these aren't expanded upon in any meaningful way.

Overall, I would recommend this book as being worth at least a once-over to the curious.

The product has a new campaign setting for use to spice things up a bit if necessary. If you're looking for a plethora of new feats and classes for PC use, you'll probably be a bit dissapointed. That being said, still some good material to pull out for your campaign

Who hasn't felt the sting of pain when a favorite character dies? What to do? Do you make a new character or spend the agonizing hours trying to rebuild the character that just died after suffering the level loss? No more, I say! Just pick up your corpse and keep adventuring. Ghostwalk allows characters to do just that, and in addition provides a well fleshed out setting and ethos for the adventure. I heartily endorse it.

For most of my gaming experience (1E, 2E, 3E and soon 3.5E), if my
character encountered a ghost, then my character had a good chance
of becoming "toast". This book introduces the concept of a ghost
that is not an insanely evil undead, but rather merely an incorporeal being, who is not ready to venture into the Afterlife.
It is too soon to tell if this book will become part of our ongoing
campaign but it provides interesting options.