[8][9], In Publishers Weekly's "Best-selling Books Week Ending 5/25/19", Ghosts of Saltmarsh was #6 in "Hardcover Nonfiction". Saltmarsh itself is not large enough to contain the Styes (and we see that it isnt included on the Saltmarsh map), meaning that this is another adventure that requires the characters to travel elsewhere. There are no encounters preceding arrival, so Id recommend either skipping past the journey or spicing it up the journey. The total number of the . It begins with suggestions for how the DM can tie the standalone adventures in the book together into a cohesive campaign. As with other official titles, two covers exist: the limited edition cover (available for pre-orders and limited quantities in local game stores) and . This is easily the beating heart of an exploration game, and it doesnt look like it would get repetitive in a hurry".[13]. Flip through the pages of the new Ghosts of Saltmarsh book and you'll find adventure around every corner. Ghosts of Saltmarsh makes no sense, here's why. The final adventure of the book describes events on a decaying port which can be established as a self-contained town or as a district of any large coastal town in your campaign world. Theyre fun, and mostly useful. These NPCs are all fairly interesting, and the random tables of events for each faction are a useful addition for making return visits to the hub town exciting. Amphisbaena if you ever want a more deadly version of this CR 1/2 monster (which is CR 1/2), my own CR 5 take on the amphisbaena can be found in. 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. 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. The End of a Trilogy. Youll either love or hate the maps in GoS. Session zeros give us a chance to spend time with our players and watch the world come together. Each episode ends on a dramatic cliffhanger for the next episode to follow. We progressed, and now currently are at level 7. In a session zero, our players can build their characters together while also discussing the story of the campaign. No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming. 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. Thanks for your support! These tables are paired with more complex adventure sites in an effort to make them more manageable. Ghosts of Saltmarsh - The Premise. Fortunately, an awareness of this seems to have factored in at the design stage: indeed, the adventure references divination and commune specifically as options for characters who have lost the trail. First part is a haunted house exploration, second part is a raid on a smuggler ship which calls for players to get creative in their approach. The book is primarily for Dungeon Masters and includes a brief setting guide, several adventures that are loosely linked . Our group completed Ghosts of Saltmarsh, and I guess it's therapeutic for me to reflect on this, so I decided to make this post: a summary of how we ran the campaign. what plots should yo. The Compendium Content bundle does not grant access to all the content's options in the rest of the toolset, such as the searchable listings, character builder, or digital sheet. Hostile islands are inhabited by intelligent creatures that actively want to harm visitors to their shores. This is an adventuring environment not catered for by the tables in Xanathars Guide to Everything, though look there for coastal and underwater encounters! Tendrils of Saltmarsh is a trilogy of adventures design to help fill in the level gaps left in the Ghosts of Saltmarsh book. Mr. Dory a named NPC, hes an unusual variant of skum (which also appear in this appendix). Unsurprisingly, the actual rules arent significantly changed fromthe version of the rules we saw in Unearthed Arcana. This is because the guidance for placing the adventures relies on suitable geography that exists in the world. The appendix contains the following creatures: As you can see theres quite a lot here thats new to Fifth Edition at least! Ghosts of Saltmarsh takes place in a backwater region and the neighboring provinces are human dominated, plagued with war and pestilence. If they are challenged, one of the guards tries to escape to 3 for help. Players can fill in the blank regional map as they discover new locations throughout their adventure. All food in a 5'-radius sphere is purified and This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Especially so because youre going to have to work with the results at least a little, as some combinations wont make sense and youll have to reroll or pick another result. 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. The third setting Wizards have chosen to provide conversion notes for came as a complete surprise to me: Mystara, another classic setting from the second edition era. The rules here now include ship upgrades, which grant your ship special benefits/powers. The last thing you want is for the sahuagin to be a distant threat right up until the adventurers face them. This adventure is the first appearance within the book of an adventure site roster, which are brief summaries of what creatures are in which rooms and what might cause them to leave their current location. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Here they may defeat it, make a deal with it, or perhaps succumb to its psychic enslavement. 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 . Oceanus (Sea Elf) those who own Storm Kings Thunder already have stats for a sea elf warrior, but Oceanus is slightly stronger so you could use this statblock for leaders of sea elf patrols. The first, Avernus, fell apart. The mysterious island section of this appendix describes and provides tables for generating a variety of uncharted isles ripe for adventure. 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. For DMs intending to run the whole sequence of adventures as a full campaign, there may be some extra work to be done here to tie things together more cohesively and bring about a satisfactorily epic conclusion. With our Waterdeep Dragon Heist campaign complete, my two groups both began their adventures in Ghosts of Saltmarsh. What plots should you include? However, this isnt always the case (for example, in Danger at Dunwater creatures might move between room 10 and room 29). Nelson Nelson. There are also several tables for generating jobs that various NPCs might want help with. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. But if the adventurers favourably impress the lizardfolk and the visiting diplomats of other races, then they may be able to forge ties between the alliance and the town of Saltmarsh. This was the perfect time to start fresh, take a deep breath, get together with our friends, and learn about the world and the characters who will sit in its center. Ghosts of Saltmarsh for 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons* Last modified: 9/4/2019 8:47:00 AM . This provides the backdrop we need for the following parts of the adventure, which kicks off with a murder mystery. The cult of a forbidden god extends its reach outward from a decaying port, hungry for fresh victims and willing recruits. The adventure is for 4-6 level 4 characters. OR could wait to next Tuesday when the new season drops. Lean heavily and expand upon the additional adventure hook or hooks you choose to use for motivating your players. Their colourful crews are described immediately after the table. Download Free PDF View PDF . Session 13: Chapter 6 from the book (conclusion/assault). 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. Kysh (Triton) though Kysh is a named NPC this statblock is useful because Kysh is typical triton warrior, and to date we only have a triton player race and not any monster stats). I can currently get that information from the roster but only by an unnecessarily convoluted process: First I need to check the map to see which other room numbers are nearby, then I have to check each individual entry for those rooms on the roster in order to be confident I know which creatures might move from their room to the current location, and what triggers that movement (noise, a messenger from this room, etc.). A vocal subset of fans have been asking for the return of Greyhawk for a while now. . After coming upon the lizardfolk tribes caves, the adventurers can learn that the lizardfolk mean no harm at all to Saltmarshprovided the adventurers use their words and not their weapons. The next time you're getting ready to start a new campaign, start it off with a session zero and watch the world come together. This review is intended for DMs, who are the products intended audience (there is only a very little amount of player content). The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. The modules are modified to use the 5th edition rules, so that the adventures can be played in the order they are presented in the book, or dropped into a home campaign. Point your DM in the direction of this review if theyd like further details! Ship Purpose (cargo, passenger, fishing, military, piracy, mercenary, or ghost). Additionally, in pitching this I also mentioned The Sunless Citadel as an . We're getting to the point where there are quite a few books containing a wide assortment of races. I regret to say that in spite of its exciting settingIm surprised this is considered a classic adventure. They can pick up some rumors at the docks. The section also provides ways for characters of old and new backgrounds alike to be tied to Saltmarsh these are tools intended for characters who are local to the region. On balance, I think probably not, though that certainly depends on how well the product does and how much demand for more there seems to be. This means that the included adventure roster should be a helpful tool for determining whether the characters alert any nearby sahuagin as they move about the fortress. All sample ships come with a map (with the exception of the rowboat, which obviously doesnt need one). Kunzelman highlighted that "the history of 'sea adventures' seems a little more mechanically complicated than your average adventure, and it seems like a DM would need to really encourage players in specific ways if they wanted to run these as anything other than dungeon delves with strange enemies not often seen on shore. This appendix includes statblocks for a number of creatures. A two-parter, the first half of The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh is set not in a boat, as one would have expected, but in a haunted house. Mr. Dorys connection a cult of Tharizdun and a being called The Whisperer, believed to be Tharizduns messenger, who gives the cult orders. If still present, these guards reinforce the officer in 4 when they hear sounds of battle. Yet like Tyranny of Dragons, Princes of the Apocalypse, et al., Ghosts of Saltmarsh can also be a single cohesive campaign. A Pressure Capsule is a consumable that allows you to ignore effects of swimming at depths greater than 100 feet (if youre not aware, these effects are described in the Underwater section of Unusual Environments in the Dungeon Masters Guide. They do really well, managing to map out a lot of the levels and freeing Borgas and Kysh. The region of Saltmarsh is a classic D&D setting. . Likewise, you might roll a mysterious island, which can also be generated using rules in this chapter. See Full PDF Download PDF. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. A sidebar provides recommendations for where a DM might place the adventure if they choose to use it in one of three other settings. Free shipping for many products! This is the first campaign book Ive read through properly, but I understand these rosters also appeared in previous campaign books. Most differences are ultimately cosmetic: some rules have been slightly reworded, and the appearance of some sections within the rules has even been reordered. The Ghosts of Saltmarsh consists of 7 adventures that take players from level 1 - 11 The first adventure - The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh - is 4-6 players of level 1 The second - Danger at Dunwater - is 4-6 players of level 3 The third - Salvage Operation - is 4-6 players of level 4 The fourth - Isle of the Abbey - is 4-6 players of level 5 We can describe the locations of Saltmarsh, letting players jump in when they hear of a place about which they want to know more. 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. Haunted House Loot. Session Zeros are a great time to relax with our friends before the adventure begins. Hes concerned that the monks that live there havent been heard from in some time. If they do alert the stronghold as a whole, this adventure has the potential to go very wrong for the characters very fast. After successfully traversing the dunes and arriving at the abbey runs, the adventurers will discover that the clerics werent wiped out after all. If you are intending to play in any adventures from this book, or you think you might watch a video stream or listen to a podcasts of other people playing, dont read this review in full. Ghosts of Saltmarsh is an adventure module anthology for the 5th edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game . They find an aboleth at the temple (which is of course the Whisperer) recuperating after being attacked by its kin. 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. The adventure delivers a clever and well-executed twist, this first half serving as a fine introduction to new players or as a place for existing groups to start afresh at level one. (D&D 5e) XP to Level 3 645K subscribers Subscribe 429K views 2 years ago took a trip to the high seas for this one GRIM HOLLOW, THE PLAYERS. Causing the kraken to flee avoids that horror, but taking the long view it may be a worse result: hidden in the ocean depths the kraken can grow to adulthood unopposed. The state of her clothing shows her as a potential prisoner. There's a haunted house outside Saltmarsh. The first conflict of the adventure is a pretty creative encounter, or series of encounters as the case may be. Like Tales from the Yawning Portal, it collects and updates a set of unrelated classic adventures and a DM can cherry pick from among them. The region around Saltmarsh is described, and is fully laden with adventure hooks which you can use to expand your GoS campaign beyond the adventures already fleshed out in subsequent chapters. I even tried working on another feature with the same level for activation, does't work with that as well. I recommend leveling characters to 2nd level when they have cleared the first and second floors of the mansion and 3rd level by the time they have cleared out the smugglers in the caves below the mansion. In the events of the previous adventure, it was discovered that the smugglers were supplying weapons to a tribe of lizardfolk living in a colony near Saltmarsh. Upon encountering the clerics, the adventure might branch from its original path: although it is very difficult to do so, the characters may be able to avoid fighting the clerics and might decide to help them to the mainland so they can get help to rebuild the abbey (if they agree to this and arent deceiving the clerics in order to deport them, they obviously cannot complete their original contract). Just arrived The Wasteland Wanderer Character Record! Included is a list of shipwrecks that characters might try to find for their lost treasures, and tables for random encounters. [2], Christian Hoffer, for Comicbook, wrote that "the book contains a surprising amount of references and nods to its Greyhawk roots. And sure, there are people who will look at this and think 'I dont feel like going out to sea' for their campaign, and thats okay because some of these can be adapted easily to fit what you need if you feel like taking your DMs tools to them". 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. It's a Sith legend. The Final Enemy is the last adventure of the trilogy focused on the sahuagin threat which began in The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh and continued on in Danger at Dunwater. Of fans have been asking for the next episode to follow chance spend. Here they may defeat it, or series of encounters as the case be! Tables for generating jobs that various NPCs might want help with the blank regional map they! Gdpr cookie consent to record the user consent for the next episode to follow settings... 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