ADVENTURE ON THE HIGH SEAS
Explore the waves above and the fathoms below in these watery adventures for the world’s greatest roleplaying game.
Nestled on the coast of the Azure Sea is Saltmarsh, a sleepy fishing village that sits on the precipice of destruction. Smugglers guide their ships to hidden coves, willing to slit the throat of anyone fool enough to cross their path. Cruel sahuagin gather beneath the waves, plotting to sweep away coastal cities. Drowned sailors stir to unnatural life, animated by dark magic and sent forth in search of revenge. The cult of a forbidden god extends its reach outward from a decaying port, hungry for fresh victims and willing recruits. While Saltmarsh slumbers, the evils that seek to plunder it grow stronger. Heroes must arise to keep the sea lanes safe for all.
Ghosts of Saltmarsh combines some of the most popular classic adventures from the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons including the classic ‘U’ series, plus some of the best nautical adventures from the history of Dungeon Magazine:
The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh
Danger at Dunwater
The Final Enemy
Salvage Operation
Isle of the Abbey
Tammeraut’s Fate
The Styes
All adventures have been faithfully adapted to the fifth edition rules of Dungeons & Dragons. Furthermore, this book includes details on the port town of Saltmarsh, as well as plenty of adventure hooks for each chapter. Play through the whole story in a seafaring campaign leading characters from level 1 through level 12, or Dungeon Masters can easily pull out sections to place in ongoing campaigns in any setting. The appendices also cover mechanics for ship-to-ship combat, new magic items, monsters, and more!
“The Saltmarsh series consistently ranks as one of the most popular classic D&D adventures,” said Mike Mearls, franchise creative director of D&D. “With its ties to ocean-based adventuring, it was an obvious step to augment it with additional sea-based adventures and a robust set of rules for managing a nautical campaign.”
Hoist your sails, pull up anchor, and set a course for adventure!
WHERE CAN I BUY IT?
Unravel sinister secrets of the sea with Ghosts of Saltmarsh releasing in game stores, digitally and everywhere on May 21, 2019. An alternate art cover with a distinctive design and soft-touch finish is available exclusively in game stores on May 21. Pre-order now at your local game store, book stores such as Barnes & Noble, or online at retailers like Amazon.
It looks like they are giving this book full GH treatment, including a 22-page chapter detailing Saltmarsh and its environs.
I will have to check it out but other than a mention of Keoland on that one page it doesn't look very GH treatment (Im not sure if that is a good thing or bad).
I will have to check it out but other than a mention of Keoland on that one page it doesn't look very GH treatment (Im not sure if that is a good thing or bad).
Judging by the screenshots on the Twitter link, there are references to Keoland, the Scarlet Brotherhood, St. Cuthbert, the Sea Princes, King Scotti, and a few others. It also looks like they've tied the other modules together into an overall campaign arc (The Isle of the Abbey, for instance, is used as a segue to The Final Enemy). There are three factions involved, the SB and ??? So it appears they are fleshing out the Saltmarsh region pretty well, which is the most official GH love we've seen in a long time. Personally, I'd rather see this than an entire world setting reboot. I love the established GH from previous editions and still have tons to use from it. More focused details on smaller regions are certainly welcome and refreshing tho. YMMV.
I will have to check it out but other than a mention of Keoland on that one page it doesn't look very GH treatment (Im not sure if that is a good thing or bad).
Judging by the screenshots on the Twitter link, there are references to Keoland, the Scarlet Brotherhood, St. Cuthbert, the Sea Princes, King Scotti, and a few others. It also looks like they've tied the other modules together into an overall campaign arc (The Isle of the Abbey, for instance, is used as a segue to The Final Enemy). There are three factions involved, the SB and ??? So it appears they are fleshing out the Saltmarsh region pretty well, which is the most official GH love we've seen in a long time. Personally, I'd rather see this than an entire world setting reboot. I love the established GH from previous editions and still have tons to use from it. More focused details on smaller regions are certainly welcome and refreshing tho. YMMV.
I havent seen much quality in the Greyhawk products over the years. I have bad experiences and low expectations from anything coming from WotC related to Greyhawk and I haven' seen anything in the snippets so far to be overly enthusiastic about. Personally I want quality material regardless of anything. Quality will have me appropriately excited.
I havent seen much quality in the Greyhawk products over the years. I have bad experiences and low expectations from anything coming from WotC related to Greyhawk and I haven' seen anything in the snippets so far to be overly enthusiastic about. Personally I want quality material regardless of anything. Quality will have me appropriately excited.
Fair enough. I found 3e/3.5 GH pretty lacking aside from a handful of material. Even before that, almost anything post-Sargent 2e was,IMO, very weak. Which brings up an interesting point: does GH even need a reboot/revision? It seems like each iteration tends to divide the GH community more than it gathers it. But this is probably fodder for another thread.
At any rate, I'll remain cautiously optimistic. I'm happy to see the town of Saltmarsh get reworked (I never liked the 3.5 version in the DMG2) and glad they're concentrating on a small vicinity rather than trying to go large scale. The proof, as they say, will be in the black pudding.
I havent seen much quality in the Greyhawk products over the years. I have bad experiences and low expectations from anything coming from WotC related to Greyhawk and I haven' seen anything in the snippets so far to be overly enthusiastic about. Personally I want quality material regardless of anything. Quality will have me appropriately excited.
Fair enough. I found 3e/3.5 GH pretty lacking aside from a handful of material. Even before that, almost anything post-Sargent 2e was,IMO, very weak. Which brings up an interesting point: does GH even need a reboot/revision? It seems like each iteration tends to divide the GH community more than it gathers it. But this is probably fodder for another thread.
At any rate, I'll remain cautiously optimistic. I'm happy to see the town of Saltmarsh get reworked (I never liked the 3.5 version in the DMG2) and glad they're concentrating on a small vicinity rather than trying to go large scale. The proof, as they say, will be in the black pudding.
I am more optimistic about tthis book now than I was. I love the early material, I thought Sargent's work was high quality but wasn't the direction of my campaign though it was handy to steal ideas from. I liked the LGG and loved the map and work on the City of Greyhawk in the LGJ but Ive been either disappointed with or angry over the way Greyhawk has been treated since post-Gygax TSR.
I will try to grumble less and be hopeful since the book is due in about 11 days.
Any idea of when this adventure takes place? Whenever I need to cross the WORLDOF GREYHAWK® with the FORGOTTEN REALMS®, I typically use an "X+784 CY = Y DR" formula (taken from "Legacies of the Suel Imperium," DRAGON Magazine #241 November 1997, p.47).
And considering the huge leap in time between 3e FR and 4e/5e FR…
(I ask 'cause I'm the primary note-keeper of my group and the DM rarely bothers with such minutia. =Ţ It would be interesting to adventure through a somewhat "future" Oerth… and if I recall the lore correctly, the gradual diminishment of magic would fit in well with 5e.)
Any idea of when this adventure takes place? Whenever I need to cross the WORLDOF GREYHAWK® with the FORGOTTEN REALMS®, I typically use an "X+784 CY = Y DR" formula (taken from "Legacies of the Suel Imperium," DRAGON Magazine #241 November 1997, p.47).
And considering the huge leap in time between 3e FR and 4e/5e FR…
(I ask 'cause I'm the primary note-keeper of my group and the DM rarely bothers with such minutia. =Ţ It would be interesting to adventure through a somewhat "future" Oerth… and if I recall the lore correctly, the gradual diminishment of magic would fit in well with 5e.)
I haven't found a specific date but on pg 28 they link the new material to the old modules which were 576cy.
I suppose I'm not surprised? I recall hearing ages ago that they wanted to reboot the WORLDOF GREYHAWK® back to 576 CY, and as an ardent fan of 3e… I'm honestly not against that.
Hell, when contemplating converting my plane-hopping 3e sorceress, Quintessa, to 5e, I had thought of her visiting Toril just as the Spellplague hits and ending up frozen by a variant temporal stasis. Eventually she's freed only to find that not only has a 100+ years passed, but the temporal connection between Oerth and Toril has altered so that she'd return to the Oerth of "the past" — possibly an Oerth where she was never born.
It is mentioned that, as treaties have been made with Keoland's northern adversaries, the king is now beginning to pay more attention to the long ignored and somewhat lawless southern coast. As such, agents of the crown are now present in Saltmarsh. This causes some friction between those locals wanting to be left alone and those happy to have agents of the crown present. The adventures are not set in any particular year that I noticed (I could have missed it), so they can be set whenever you want, including 576 CY. Additional factions are present in the material, those mostly being the usual suspects wanting influence in the Azure Sea. One faction seems a bit out of place geographically, and operates openly - brazenly even (which makes no sense as to them being able to ultimately accomplish their overall purpose for being in the area). _________________ - Moderator/Admin (in some areas)/Member -
Last edited by Cebrion on Wed May 29, 2019 11:32 pm; edited 2 times in total
… Additional factions are present in the material, those mostly being the usual suspects wanting influence in the Azure Sea. One faction seems a bit out of place geographically, and operates openly - brazenly even (which makes no sense as to them being able to ultimately accomplish their overall purpose for being in the area).
A certain...shipping concern...from the north. Operating openly (the "demonic" captain of the ship is beyond overt to be sure), I have to believe that they would find it more than extremely difficult to deliver their goods to where they ultimately need to arrive, there surely being counter-agents along the way looking to eradicate them (and they with a giant bullseye painted on them).
There are some good ideas in the book, but also some bad ones. _________________ - Moderator/Admin (in some areas)/Member -
It is mentioned that, as treaties have been made with Keoland's northern adversaries, the king is now beginning to pay more attention to the long ignored and somewhat lawless southern coast. As such, agents of the crown are now present in the Saltmarsh. This causes some friction between those locals wanting to be left alone and those happy to have agents of the crown present. The adventures are not set in any particular year that I noticed (I could have missed it), so they can be set whenever you want, including 576 CY. Additional factions are present in the material, those mostly being the usual suspects wanting influence in the Azure Sea. One faction seems a bit out of place geographically, and operates openly - brazenly even (which makes no sense as to them being able to ultimately accomplish their overall purpose for being in the area).
It is very setting neutral, but the U series adventures are meant to be run co-currently with the new material so, to me, that generally ties it with 576cy or moving the U series forward to some unspecified date. Since the new material also references the Haunted House from U1 along with the smuggler theme from U1 it seems like it is geared for the 576cy setting, if any.
A certain...shipping concern...from the north. Operating openly (the "demonic" captain of the ship is beyond overt to be sure), I have to believe that they would find it more than extremely difficult to deliver their goods to where they ultimately need to arrive, there surely being counter-agents along the way looking to eradicate them (and they with a giant bullseye painted on them).
There are some good ideas in the book, but also some bad ones.
I also found the presence of this faction a stretch. While I quite like the book so far, particularly the chapter pertaining to Saltmarsh and the surrounding region, the inclusion of this faction stood out like a sore thumb and comes across as a weak excuse to include a tiefling NPC in the town (which also stands out like a sore thumb).
As I mentioned tho, the rest of the town details are spot-on and a big improvement over the 3.5 Saltmarsh from DMG2. Lots of flavor and adventure seeds. I also noticed that, with a few minor alterations, Saltmarsh town could easily substitute for Darkshelf - should anyone want to run Danger At Darkshelf Quarry.
I haven't found a specific date but on pg 28 they link the new material to the old modules which were 576cy.
I would also place it around this time. It strikes me like the writers weren't sure themselves, if you are to compare this Saltmarsh to the big city 3.5 version (which places Saltmarsh years forward in the timeline). By contrast, the original town from U1 is described as a quiet, humble fishing town, while the GoS version suggests that it is a boom town on the verge of economic growth. So its as if they settled somewhere between the two.
So far I'm impressed by this book. It is indeed laced with Greyhawk lore, having enough to satisfy prior published sources and at the same time not too much to distract from the adventures.
So far I'm impressed by this book. It is indeed laced with Greyhawk lore, having enough to satisfy prior published sources and at the same time not too much to distract from the adventures.
I'm a big fan of GoS but that may not be a good thing. For a 5e player I think they should have statted all the reprinted adventurers in 5e and retro fit the new material into the old adventures. GoS is much more do it yourself (which I like) than I expected.
The Greyhawk Lore seems to be a veneer with name dropping and not a great amount of depth, (which again I like because it lets me add what depth of Greyhawk Lore I like). This will aid those wanting to alter GoS to a different setting because the roots in the Greyhawk setting seem shallow and easily de-Greyhawkified. I do think that is more work than is wanted in current adventure design but I hope it sells and I hope they do more Greyhawk material like GoS.
...a lot of people are disappointed that it's set in Greyhawk, not Forgotten Realms, so it must be Greyhawky enough.
I'm considering buying it for the material, although it looks like most of it is the U series, plus The Styes from Dungeon Magazine 100-something or other (which was supposed to be set in Prymp, IIRC, although Saltmarsh would work too, I guess). It sounds like it has some original material, although Cebrion makes some of that sound problematic.
My local group has been playing through Ghosts of Saltmarsh sporadically since late June, so I spent a good chunk of the summer writing out a "Player's Guide to Saltmarsh" that copied near verbatim (minus spoilers, hopefully) the background information from Ghosts of Saltmarsh as well as the human, demihuman, and humanoid section, general history, Keoland history, power groups, and deities from The LIVING GREYHAWK™ Gazetteer — updated to 5e to the best of my ability and assuming a starting year of 576 CY. I recently included some updated spells from DRAGON Magazine's "Greyhawk Grimoires."
…granted, my fellow players have barely touched it because their characters aren't from Saltmarsh or Keoland (or "anywhere," because none of them are at all familiar with GREYHAWK), which has lead to some arguments about whether or not we can trust the "Faithful Quartermasters of Iuz" — my NG Oeridian cleric of Wenta arguing that we shouldn't for a number of reasons (not least of which being Iuz's skull-paved road leading to his capital).
(Upside, having a dirndl-wearing, Wenta-worshiping character who's fluent in Keolandish has gotten me to try and learn a little bit of German. Also she got to befriend Bimz the Pseudodragon and the two have made an inseparable pair, bolstered by Unearthed Arcana's "Sidekicks" supplement.)
Last edited by Amesang on Sat May 15, 2021 9:30 am; edited 2 times in total
Really enjoying your player's guide, but looking at the races, I note that there's no mention of forest gnomes in that section. Are forest gnomes unknown in Greyhawk?
Really enjoying your player's guide, but looking at the races, I note that there's no mention of forest gnomes in that section. Are forest gnomes unknown in Greyhawk?
I havent noted any. I will have to do a list of gnomes
I'm considering buying it for the material, although it looks like most of it is the U series, plus The Styes from Dungeon Magazine 100-something or other (which was supposed to be set in Prymp, IIRC, although Saltmarsh would work too, I guess).
For folks familiar with the original The Styes or its republication in Ghosts of Saltmarsh, what do you think about placing it in either Monmurg, Port Toli, or even Gradsul?
Amesang wrote:
My local group has been playing through Ghosts of Saltmarsh sporadically since late June, so I spent a good chunk of the summer writing out a "Player's Guide to Saltmarsh" . . .
Thanks for sharing your useful compilation!
mindseye wrote:
Really enjoying your player's guide, but looking at the races, I note that there's no mention of forest gnomes in that section. Are forest gnomes unknown in Greyhawk?
IIRC, The Complete Book of Gnomes & Halflings (1993) introduced forest gnomes, but GH canon never included them.
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