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Ghostwalk: Campaign Option
The city of Manifest rests atop ruins from ancient times and far above the entrance to the land of the dead. Here, the world of the living is shared equally with the deceased, who linger in physical form before finally passing through the Veil. Whether currently living or dead, residents and visitors are assured of an eternity of action and intrigue.
Ghostwalk contains everything needed to run a stand-alone campaign in and around the city of Manifest, or to integrate it into an existing world, including rules for playing ghost characters and advancing in the new eidolon and eidoloncer classes, several new prestige classes, over 70 new feats and 65 new spells, three complete adventures, four highly detailed encounter sites, and fourteen new monsters and templates.
To use this accessory, a Dungeon Master also needs the "Player's Handbook," the "Dungeon Master's ""Guide," and the "Monster Manual." A player needs only the "Player's Handbook."
Ghostwalk contains everything needed to run a stand-alone campaign in and around the city of Manifest, or to integrate it into an existing world, including rules for playing ghost characters and advancing in the new eidolon and eidoloncer classes, several new prestige classes, over 70 new feats and 65 new spells, three complete adventures, four highly detailed encounter sites, and fourteen new monsters and templates.
To use this accessory, a Dungeon Master also needs the "Player's Handbook," the "Dungeon Master's ""Guide," and the "Monster Manual." A player needs only the "Player's Handbook."
224 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2003
45 people want to read
About the author
Monte Cook
211 books125 followers
The game designer
Monte Cook started working professionally in the game industry in 1988. In the employ of Iron Crown Enterprises, he worked with the Rolemaster and Champions games as an editor, developer, and designer. In 1994, Monte came to TSR, Inc., as a game designer and wrote for the Planescape and core D&D lines. When that company was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, he moved to the Seattle area and eventually became a senior game designer. At Wizards, he wrote the 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide and served as codesigner of the new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. In 2001, he left Wizards to start his own design studio, Malhavoc Press, with his wife Sue. Although in his career he has worked on over 100 game titles, some of his other credits include Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, The Book of Eldritch Might series, the d20 Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, The Book of Vile Darkness, Monte Cook’s Arcana Evolved, Ptolus, Monte Cook's World of Darkness, and Dungeonaday.com. He was a longtime author of the Dungeoncraft column in Dungeon Magazine. In recent years, Monte has been recognized many times by game fans in the ENnies Awards, the Pen & Paper fan awards, the Nigel D. Findley Memorial Award, the Origins Awards, and more.
The author
A graduate of the 1999 Clarion West writer's workshop, Monte has published two novels, The Glass Prison and Of Aged Angels. Also, he has published the short stories "Born in Secrets" (in the magazine Amazing Stories), "The Rose Window" (in the anthology Realms of Mystery), and "A Narrowed Gaze" (in the anthology Realms of the Arcane). His stories have appeared in the Malhavoc Press anthologies Children of the Rune and The Dragons' Return, and his comic book writing can be found in the Ptolus: City by the Spire series from DBPro/Marvel. His fantasy fiction series, "Saga of the Blade," appeared in Game Trade Magazine from 2005–2006.
The geek
In his spare time, Monte runs games, plays with his dog, watches DVDs, builds vast dioramas out of LEGO building bricks, paints miniatures, and reads a lot of comics.
Monte Cook started working professionally in the game industry in 1988. In the employ of Iron Crown Enterprises, he worked with the Rolemaster and Champions games as an editor, developer, and designer. In 1994, Monte came to TSR, Inc., as a game designer and wrote for the Planescape and core D&D lines. When that company was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, he moved to the Seattle area and eventually became a senior game designer. At Wizards, he wrote the 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide and served as codesigner of the new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. In 2001, he left Wizards to start his own design studio, Malhavoc Press, with his wife Sue. Although in his career he has worked on over 100 game titles, some of his other credits include Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, The Book of Eldritch Might series, the d20 Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, The Book of Vile Darkness, Monte Cook’s Arcana Evolved, Ptolus, Monte Cook's World of Darkness, and Dungeonaday.com. He was a longtime author of the Dungeoncraft column in Dungeon Magazine. In recent years, Monte has been recognized many times by game fans in the ENnies Awards, the Pen & Paper fan awards, the Nigel D. Findley Memorial Award, the Origins Awards, and more.
The author
A graduate of the 1999 Clarion West writer's workshop, Monte has published two novels, The Glass Prison and Of Aged Angels. Also, he has published the short stories "Born in Secrets" (in the magazine Amazing Stories), "The Rose Window" (in the anthology Realms of Mystery), and "A Narrowed Gaze" (in the anthology Realms of the Arcane). His stories have appeared in the Malhavoc Press anthologies Children of the Rune and The Dragons' Return, and his comic book writing can be found in the Ptolus: City by the Spire series from DBPro/Marvel. His fantasy fiction series, "Saga of the Blade," appeared in Game Trade Magazine from 2005–2006.
The geek
In his spare time, Monte runs games, plays with his dog, watches DVDs, builds vast dioramas out of LEGO building bricks, paints miniatures, and reads a lot of comics.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 25, 2008
I really, really want to use this book. Unfortunately, the group I play with don't share my vision of how fun it would be to kill the party and play on as ghosts.
March 29, 2025
I read this mostly from an interest in the general premise, to borrow ideas for other RPGs, not to run it as-is as a D&D setting.
There are a couple dozen pages of interesting lore about the city of Manifest, interesting NPCs, adventure hooks, and plenty to be inspired about a place at the precipice of the afterlife. The politics of ghosts among the living, all good stuff.
The biggest problem is that, of course, as a D&D book, the unique premise has to be squeezed into the D&D fantasy mold, and that means a lot of stuff that doesn't make sense anywhere else. And at the same time, the premise is so "different" from a regular D&D setting, that I'd imagine it very difficult to get your average D&D players to be interested in commiting to it.
Outside of the city of Manifest, the rest of the described world feels very generic and random, the kind of things a half-decent D&D DM regularly homebrews. It's not given enough depth and has lots of self-contradictions, and heavily relies on D&D tropes (and/or obvious opposites of said tropes).
There are a couple dozen pages of interesting lore about the city of Manifest, interesting NPCs, adventure hooks, and plenty to be inspired about a place at the precipice of the afterlife. The politics of ghosts among the living, all good stuff.
The biggest problem is that, of course, as a D&D book, the unique premise has to be squeezed into the D&D fantasy mold, and that means a lot of stuff that doesn't make sense anywhere else. And at the same time, the premise is so "different" from a regular D&D setting, that I'd imagine it very difficult to get your average D&D players to be interested in commiting to it.
Outside of the city of Manifest, the rest of the described world feels very generic and random, the kind of things a half-decent D&D DM regularly homebrews. It's not given enough depth and has lots of self-contradictions, and heavily relies on D&D tropes (and/or obvious opposites of said tropes).
August 10, 2019
You can always count on Monte to bring something totally cool and original to the table. He's not afraid think outside the box. I've wanted this book for a long time and finally found a great deal and picked it up. It's got a setting, a bunch of new rules, spells, feats, prestige classes, monsters and even 7 adventures starting at 1st level going up to 12th.
That said, it's definitely not something you just drop into your campaign and I would probably never use it. Still very cool though. I guess the only thing I don't like about it is that it's all centered on one city (which is I think what he did with Ptolus too, the reason I never looked into that).
That said, it's definitely not something you just drop into your campaign and I would probably never use it. Still very cool though. I guess the only thing I don't like about it is that it's all centered on one city (which is I think what he did with Ptolus too, the reason I never looked into that).
April 7, 2008
While I'll give them credit for an interesting idea Ghostwalk, while intended as an expansion useable in any campaign, really only worked if you focused your game specifically around it. In addition to it's game stealing ramifications there was a lot of very silly ideas for a supliment ostensibly intended for 'horror' style games. As a single example, it is mentioned that farmers near the underworld will sometimes intentionally kill their families so that they can still be with them but not have to feed them.
February 4, 2013
Great for 3e rules. The errata is long and detailed, but generally all the translations to 3.5e are simple enough. This book contains mostly flavor text so anyone who plays primarily PCs should borrow it before they decide to buy it. All in all I really enjoyed this third read-through of it and am very pleased to have received it last Christmasn.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews