Ghostwalk

Disclaimer: I did not participate or run an Ghostwalk campaign, so this is purely opinion from just reading the campaign setting.

So in regular D&D, when a character dies, the player would either roll up a new character or the party members pool their resources for a resurrection spell. Ghostwalk basically takes on the premise where this doesn't need to happen - the dead character can keep on playing as a ghost.

A ghost here is defined as “not undead” - just a special kind of existence at a very specific location in the world. That location has a city on it, named Manifest, a place where the living and the dead co-exist. The dead character appears in or near Manifest, and hopefully, their friends or kind strangers will send their body along to be reunited with the ghost. This is all given an overview at the start of the sourcebook.

Chapter 1 begins by defining the rules surrounding ghosts. A character can switch between a living and ghostly existence at will, as long as they have the money/resources to transition. A character can choose to level up as a ghost (two classes available), earning special ghost-themed abilities. Why not stay as a ghost? Because the longer you stay as a ghost and the more you level up as a ghost, there's this chance that your character really gets tired of life and wants to finally move on.

There are also 4 prestige classes, none of which are particularly interesting to me, personally. And, as you can expect, new skills, feats, equipment, and spells to go along with the new ghost existence, some of which are rather thoughtful and interesting.

Chapter 2 is the bulkiest chapter - it details the city of Manifest and its immediate surroundings. New deities specific to this world are introduced in this chapter. I didn't find them particularly interesting - the pantheon feels a bit unbalanced. The rest of the stuff are fun to read - how each of the core races view life and death, relations between the living and the dead, and the history of the world and Manifest itself. It then digs down further by detailing how the city is laid out, the present-day politics and organisations within in, and specific locales in the city.

Chapter 3 touches on how to actually run a Ghostwalk campaign, specifically, with the existence of ghosts and all. It includes things like how to mix in dungeon crawls and non-combative adventures all within the city of Manifest, providing suitable organisations, foes, and plot arcs that can be played. One particular bit that (I feel) took up too much space is that it actually provides the answer to what's “beyond the veil”. It's marketed as the “final adventure” for adventurers to discover just what lies beyond. It's kind of interesting to read, but I'm not sure how fun it'll be to play, given some of the rules surrounding it.

After all that world-building and lore, chapter 4 throws in some more by expanding the campaign setting and detailing the six surrounding countries/nations (Manifest is in a neutral area). It's definitely a good start to fleshing out the world, with a good mix of different people types.

Chapter 5 is a short chapter of new monsters and some templates unique to Ghostwalk, and chapter 6 is a chapter that containing several nicely-detailed adventures and plot hooks.

Overall, if the idea of being able to continue adventuring even after a party member has died is an interesting premise for you, then this campaign setting could be worth exploring. For characters learning that it's easy to “come back” will certainly change perspectives and outlooks about dying.