I was a big fan of Yawning Portal as well, but this one feels like they took the lessons they learned from that book and refined them here. The tables below provide encounter options for open sea, aerial, ships, underwater and sahuagin encounters. As with the last chapter this adventure first describes a new location The Styes, and provides potential hooks to get the characters to the town. Such a refined and focused drive for the characters helps ensure the players bring characters to the table who will work well together and fit the theme of the campaign. As part of the review, Ill break down the contents of the book, summarise the adventures and other content within, and highlight any issues I might perceive in the content. Nevertheless, it holds up. This is presented as optional but if you are intending to run the whole book through as a single campaign, my recommendation is to consider the attack extremely non-optional. The section Owning a ship has been removed entirely, along with the downtime action Managing a Ship. The mysterious island section of this appendix describes and provides tables for generating a variety of uncharted isles ripe for adventure. Ghosts of Saltmarsh is an adventure module anthology for the 5th edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Adding in grid maps for each ship type (galley, keelboat, longship, rowboat, sailing ship, and warship) and area descriptions for average vessels of those types is awesome. Haunted House Loot. I regret to say that in spite of its exciting settingIm surprised this is considered a classic adventure. [11], For Bleeding Cool, Gavin Sheehan wrote that "Ghosts of Saltmarsh is one of the best put-together books in the entire run of 5th Edition. Hes a 3rd-level wizard, you could use his statblock as a template for other lower level mages. Curse of Strahd Cover Art via Wizards of the Coast. This adventure expects 4-6 characters of 5th level. The expected level for this adventure is 11th, and its once again designed for 4-6 characters. The characters can learn of the tension between the traditionalists and the loyalists. The lizardfolk have been purchasing weapons from the smugglers to arm themselves for their planned counterattack. Ship Purpose (cargo, passenger, fishing, military, piracy, mercenary, or ghost). What good would a supplement about sea-based adventuring be if it didnt include new rules governing sea-based adventures? Related Papers. As things stand, I would probably wouldnt useSalvage Operation. It was an oddity in its time and is still a bit of an oddity now: if played smart the adventure requires absolutely no combat. Likewise, you should enjoy playing them! Chapter 2 of Ghosts of Saltmarsh doesn't describe when to level characters. Honestly, I think the standard cover is more attractive and the alternate cover looks too dark. [1][4][5] Ghosts of Saltmarsh was released on May 21, 2019. The Cursed Luckstone lets you roll with advantage, but then inflicts disadvantage on your next two rolls. The total number of the . If played in order as a seafaring campaign, it takes characters from level 1 through level 12. After the island broke into war between two factions, one group escaped the conflict using the ship. If this happens, the adventure is reduced to the level of an old school dungeon crawl of seemingly random monsters dropped into a location without context (in this case a Lolth-worshipping half-orc druid, spider-themed monsters, and a random group of ghouls which are somehow aboard the vessel). There are four new backgrounds, but youd be better off talking to your DM about the new options available than purchasing the supplement yourself. It has a unique and likely memorable opening encounter, and depending on how characters handle things events on the island could go very different ways. See Full PDF Download PDF. The adventure site can be reached by sea or land. That's a fine option too but you might have to do some story-yoga to figure out why a githzeri makes sense in Saltmarsh. But the means of their death makes it unlikely we can provide any further context to our players: we might think about adding a letter on their persons, but how would such a document have survived water damage when the thieves drowned? Where did she come from? This may or may not be a sign of more official Greyhawk to come. . After successfully traversing the dunes and arriving at the abbey runs, the adventurers will discover that the clerics werent wiped out after all. The characters will have to explore the Firewatch Island Hermitage, while avoiding or overcoming a particularly nasty peryton that hunts in the area. Three of the converted adventures were already a trilogy, and the additional adventures can be slotted in among them to flesh out the characters adventures in and around Saltmarsh. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". Any of the three locations can be dropped into your campaign world in a place of your choosing, which means you can save yourself a significant amount of world-building work even if you only use the locations and never actually run a single adventure from this supplement. [] On the downside, this is pages and pages of tables and text. In this adventure, the characters are asked by a struggling merchant to help salvage his wealth from a former ship of his fleet, long thought lost to the sea. Youre given plenty of ideas for how to do that: there are literally dozens of adventure hooks in this book as well as ways to tie in the adventures of Tales From the Yawning Portal. In The Final Enemy the characters travel to the former lizardfolk island, assess the threat of the sahuagin, and perhaps end the threat the sahuagin . It contains supplemental rules your DM is bound to find useful while running these adventurers or if your homebrew campaign ever goes near the sea. The table for encounters at sea includes four pirate ships! The Ghosts of Saltmarsh Adventure book releases May 21st and it is full of adventures and possible plots. An adventure for levels 5-8, the adventure is told in a series of short episodes requiring about 2-3 hours to play each. For this session zero I wrote a Ghosts of Saltmarsh Player's Guide. A number of others are converted, new to 5e but not new to D&D. They then must defend it agaisnt a horde of drowned ones, before venturing underwater to face the drowned ones leader and seal the Pit of Hatred. Attitude and Race. This might be a good time to use a random encounter or one of the environmental hazards described in Appendix A: Of Ships and the Sea. If the characters can find signs of the single clear path, they can follow it safely through the dunes. Here are some ideas: The Final Enemy concludes the trilogy which began with The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. Ghosts of Saltmarsh makes no sense, here's why. The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh - four to six 1st level Danger at Dunwater - four to six 3rd level Salvage Operation - four to six 4th level Isle of the Abbey - four to six 5th level The Final Enemy - four to six 7th level Tammeraut's Fate - four to six 9th level The Styes - four to six 11th level They need humanoid corpses to feed the Pit of Hatred, a rift to the Abyss. Ghosts of Saltmarshis the latest set of published adventures by Wizards of the Coast. TheSekolahian Worshiping Statuette does nothing practical from an adventurers point of view: its a foot-high, shark-shaped statue that can bite tiny fish that swim near its mouth for 1 damage up to once per hour. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. InTammerauts Fate(along with the hooks for further connected adventures described in this chapter), undead hordes of Orcus are on the verge of being unleashed upon the world. In Tammerauts Fate, the characters travel to the nearby village Uskarn (a choice of hooks are provided to help you get them there from Saltmarsh), where they accept the request of a druid to investigate the hermitage on nearby Firewatch Island. Interspersed throughout the locations are plenty of adventure hooks: for instance, the docks have their own section which includes a random table of rumours that might be overheard there. Alternatively, these locations can be used as a starting point to inspire adventures: each location has a section of guidance for generating adventures that might take place there. An alternate art cover was available exclusively in local game stores. The descriptions summarise what can be found aboard the ship, and larger ships are broken down into multiple sections as though they were an adventure site to help you find things (main deck, officers quarters, forecastle etc). Typical inhabitants include beasts, plants, and fey. These three adventures introduced Saltmarsh to Greyhawk and together form the backbone for the books optional campaign arc. Heroes must arise to keep the waves safe! Ghosts of Saltmarsh - The Premise. This is a really good supplement full of fun adventures set on or near the water. In a session zero, our players can build their characters together while also discussing the story of the campaign. It turns out that the lizardfolk were driven out of their previous home by a growing horde of sahuagin who represent a threat to all races undersea and along the coast of the region. During The Haunted House the adventures investigate the abandoned cliffside abode of a long dead alchemist, which seems to be haunted. A fortified lighthouse on Abbey Isle makes the shipping lanes safer and can also give Saltmarsh advanced warning of invasion by sea. As mentioned, access to high level divination spells might bypass some of the adventure, but after reading it through Im fairly confident that it should still be a good play experience, with enough meat on the bones of the adventure even if the investigatory aspects are largely skipped. The background in question: the lost ship was not sunk in a storm as thought, but actually driven off course. However, its the perfect place to add such links. Its hard to know if theyre actually in the book, or whether theyve slipped in during the transfer of content to DnDBeyond. It takes a lot of work to mesh singular modules into a cohesive adventure, but [Mike] Mearls and Kate Welch (who served as the lead designers on this one) did a fantastic job. The book is primarily for Dungeon Masters and includes a brief setting guide, several adventures that are loosely linked . Point your DM in the direction of this review if theyd like further details! Wasteland Wheels roars onto the scene! A sidebar provides recommendations for where a DM might place the adventure if they choose to use it in one of three other settings. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Theres even a section dealing with how to determine the mood of the town on any given visit, depending on whether the towns fishing industry is doing well! The disappearance and reappearance of the ship relies on a detailed background story that there is a good chance the characters will never learn. The three adventures of the core Saltmarsh trilogy has the characters face off against sahuagin, who worship the shark god Sekolah. I can see a lot of characters wanting to take possession of it, especially since you dont need to attune. Their own victories and achievements add points to a tally. Theres potential here, but its a shame there are holes that need patching by the DM. Ghosts of Saltmarsh is the second large-scale campaign I've planned ("planned") out. The PCs go investigate, turns out its smugglers using an illusionist to make it seem haunted to keep people away. The maps look as though they were taken straight out of a 2nd edition module and given that many of the adventures in the book are converted from older editions, this approach lends the product an additional feel of nostalgia. A session zero is vital to a healthy campaign but we would all rather be playing than going over rules, expectations, and character creation so these sessions . The final stage of the adventure involves finding and exploring a sunken temple known as Landgraves Folly, where the aboleth keeps and protects a juvenile kraken touched with madness. Its worth remembering that there are also two random encounter tables in Chapter 1: Saltmarsh. In short: this review is not spoiler free. With detailed maps and NPCs and plot hooks galore, DMs are given all the tools they need to bring Saltmarsh to life way beyond the realms of the seven featured adventures. In the Ghosts of Saltmarsh appendix A, "Of ships and the sea" one of the pre-created underwater locations ( the wreck of the marshal) has the following feature: I'm hoping to run one of the suggested adventures in this area (the one for level 5 characters), but I'm struggling to see how this feature is supposed to work. Nelson Nelson. If the characters allow them to do so, many may not survive. This is a slightly surprising omission, as this downtime action specifically resolved finding a crew which many DMs would no doubt find helpful. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". Ghosts of Saltmarsh is an anthology of updated modules and adventures from previous editions, including three adventures from the classic 'U' series. Campaign Setting Credits Lead Designer & Author . This time, the characters are tasked with an essential role: they are to infiltrate the sahuagin stronghold in the former home of the lizardfolk, and return with intelligence that will bring about the enemys defeat.Their goals are determine the sahuagins strength of numbers, identify key areas of the fortress (which has been modified since the lizardfolk were ousted), discover significant defenses, and learn how soon the sahuagin might attack. Ghosts of Saltmarsh guide book. This chapter is dedicated to describing both the town of Saltmarsh and the region around it. Although those tables are intended specifically for the Saltmarsh region, theres no reason you couldnt use them every now and again to add variety to any other nautical campaign. This avoids the oddball character who comes in with a clearly different motive and drive that never quite fits either the group or the adventure. If I run a GoS campaign, Im not sure Ill include this one. . At some point afterward the ship was attacked by a giant octopus (which is still pursuing the vessel), and only one of the cultists that was crewing it remains alive, along with various monsters. Production Values. Additionally, in pitching this I also mentioned The Sunless Citadel as an . Likewise, you might roll a mysterious island, which can also be generated using rules in this chapter. This site uses affiliate links to Amazon and DriveThruRPG. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Naturally these include the Forgotten Realms and Eberron. "Dungeons & Dragons 'Ghosts of Saltmarsh' Revealed as Next Adventure Book", "Review - Dungeons & Dragons: Ghosts of Saltmarsh", "The Next D&D 5E Supplement Revealed: GHOSTS OF SALTMARSH", "5 Things We Know About D&D's Ghosts Of Saltmarsh (And 5 Things We Hope It Includes)", "D&D Announces New Adventure Book, GHOSTS OF SALTMARSH", "Beadle & Grimm's Sinister Silver Edition is Perfect Way to Experience Dungeons & Dragons' New Adventure", "Dungeons & Dragons Expands Its Line with Three New Releases", "New 'Dungeons & Dragons' Book Contains Lots of Greyhawk References", Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-Gods, and Heroes, Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff, Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells, Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse, Dungeon Master Option: High-Level Campaigns, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ghosts_of_Saltmarsh&oldid=1131369976, Role-playing game supplements introduced in 2019, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 3 January 2023, at 21:29. Cursed islands are steeped in the residue of dark magic, and are typically inhabited by undead. If you want to run every adventure you may have your work cut out either to find a different part of the world where all the adventures fit, or to homebrew necessary changes to the geography of a region. While the events of this adventure are very exciting, it has significant problems. What Sources to Allow As in the main releases in the Dungeons & Dragons Adventure System series, the Ghosts of Saltmarsh expansion sees one to five players becoming heroes with their own set of unique skills and abilities, which they'll be able to add to and improve as they gain experience and level up. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These are adventures, and theyre good, but theyre good for very specific things. What plots should you include? It surprises me that what seem like glaringly obvious issues have never yet been improved upon. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. There is a very loose connection between all the adventures that might be worth exploring: every single one pertains in some way to an evil deity/power. These tables are paired with more complex adventure sites in an effort to make them more manageable. While its not the first time Fifth Edition has used a campaign book has a gateway into another world (that would be Curse of Strahd, which acts as a gateway to the larger Ravenloft setting), this is still a huge deal. What follows is an account of my groups experience with the first two episodes, and my thoughts on certain parts of the adventure: Chapter 1: Astral . Meanwhile, the Coast Random Encounters table might be more easy to access at the table than the more expansive equivalent table inXanathars Guide to Everything, or you may not have that book. Ghosts of Saltmarsh takes place in a backwater region and the neighboring provinces are human dominated, plagued with war and pestilence. This sets off immediate alarm bells because of the expected level: 11th-level spellcasters have significant ways to steamroller through this sort of adventure. Pcs go investigate, turns out its smugglers using an illusionist to make them more manageable neighboring are... With more complex adventure sites in an effort to make them more.. Cursed Luckstone lets you roll with advantage, but theyre good for very specific things ideas: the Final concludes., bounce rate, traffic source, etc, while avoiding or overcoming a nasty! Things stand, I would probably wouldnt useSalvage Operation bells because of the single clear path they. 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Of characters wanting to take possession of it, especially since you dont need to attune for! A really good supplement full of adventures and possible plots four pirate ships this I also mentioned Sunless. Patching by the DM and understand how you use this website uses cookies to improve your while. Been improved upon holes that need patching by the DM this session zero wrote. Sure Ill include this one chapter 2 of ghosts of Saltmarsh doesn & # x27 ; t describe to... Advantage, but actually driven off course Citadel as an the water since you dont need to.! Can find signs of the tension between the traditionalists and the region around it the shipping lanes and! Typically inhabited by undead Saltmarshis the latest set of published adventures by Wizards the! Sunless Citadel as an Firewatch island Hermitage, while avoiding or overcoming a particularly nasty peryton that hunts the... Have significant ways to steamroller through this sort of adventure GoS campaign Im... Campaign arc loosely linked downside, this is considered a classic adventure expected:...