Oathbound/Ghostwalk questions

[Andorn]

So, let's say my character goes to the Forge, puts together the focus that allows me to return. I get killed, go to Manifest, possess a live body, then cast Plane Shift to take me and my possessed body back to the Forge.

So, what happens? Do I now get to be a functional ghost on the Forge? Reading a lot of the Forge material, that might be a first.

So, according to Ghostbound history, 1000 years ago people found this cave that leads to the gates to the afterlife. Do these lead to the Fugue plane? Apparently, some dwarves found the gates first, nothing in the book says anything about how long they have been there. So, somewhere waaaaay back the PM's crystal sphere got created. Do all crystal spheres have an interface to the afterlife, or was it created by someone (a deity or group of deities, I presume)?

If it was created, then how can someone create such an interface on the Forge? Or is there one already, like out in space, from the original worlds that were destroyed? Do they have Manifest Wards? Can a Manifest Ward be created anywhere, or only where the entrance to the afterlife place intersects with the PM?

Just an observation, but it seems to me that TSR/WotC started out with the leaves on the tree (game rules/campaign settings), then reverse engineered to the deities and planes, but never got around to building a cohesive creation system that explains the actual existence of the multiverse in the first place. It's kind of like designing a house from the rooftop down, then finding out no foundation could possibly support all the parts.

[Andorn]

So, it's kind of too bad there are no crossover PrCs in Ghostwalk, where you gain nifty abilities as a ghost, that remain useful if you get rez'd.

[Gildedragon]

My guess: Different Settings have Different Cosmologies

If you read the Plane Questions threads you notice there is some... big discrepancies between Great Wheel settings (Krynn, Greyhawk, Athas, Forgotten Realms, Spelljammer) and non Wheel Settings (Ghostwalk, Eberron). You can port the latter to the former, but it needs the epic spell DM fiat. As to Oathbound itself, it is a third party material, so I dont think you'll find any support for or against its inclusion in the Great Wheel outside of its own setting.

My feel: Ghostwalk is part of the great wheel, but the world of manifest doesn't exist in the PMP but probably in the outlands or in the astral (with all dead souls moved past the PMP drawn there); The Veil of Souls... is a mystery, though probably is what turns Ghosts into Petitioners

[ganondorf50]

so if we are talking D&D multiverse here. We need to separate, assuming ghost walk CAN apply to core settings. You could finesse it into something my idea would be to put the cave to Manafest into the Underdark if your using Feyrun. That being said if you do that you can open it up to the other worlds in the core settings, ie Greyhawk, Feyrun, and the others. I personally would tailor it to the setting if it doesn't fit it wont fit.

[Khedrac]

Do these lead to the Fugue plane?

The Fugue Plane is Torilspace only (Forgotten Realms) so we can rule that out instantly as the Ghostwalk setting in not on Toril.

[atemu1234]

Ghostwalk is notoriously unpopular for lacking supporting material; any halfway decent DM is making up half of the stuff on the go with Ghostwalk.

It works better if you choose to incorporate the book into an existing setting, but even that takes finagling.

[CowardlyPaladin]

Ghostwalk is notoriously unpopular for lacking supporting material; any halfway decent DM is making up half of the stuff on the go with Ghostwalk.

It works better if you choose to incorporate the book into an existing setting, but even that takes finagling.

Which is a shame because it is such a fantastic book, more details to flesh it out could have made it as established as Ebberon

[weckar]

Pretty sure Monte Cook himself once said that he planned for it to be about as extensive as Ptolus, but he got into some real annoying problems with the printers and publishers. A real case of 'what could have been'.

On that note, the city of manifest works surprisingly well in a Ptolus-based setting. The entire notion that no one really knows what's beyond the veil plays neatly into the whole planar segregation theme.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Ghostwalk is notoriously unpopular for lacking supporting material; any halfway decent DM is making up half of the stuff on the go with Ghostwalk.

It works better if you choose to incorporate the book into an existing setting, but even that takes finagling.

I threw out the Ghost Walk cosmology and imported the rest of the book's content to my standard, great-wheel+ cosmology setting. Just about all of it works perfectly well in other settings.