The characters can learn of the tension between the traditionalists and the loyalists. Session Zeros are a great time to relax with our friends before the adventure begins. Each episode ends on a dramatic cliffhanger for the next episode to follow. This provides the backdrop we need for the following parts of the adventure, which kicks off with a murder mystery. Historically set in the Greyhawk setting, here it's reimagined as setting-neutral, and is a self-contained area with a lot of intrigue. Check out Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions. 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. A sidebar provides recommendations for where a DM might place the adventure if they choose to use it in one of three other settings. I ignored most of the miscellaneous items, as well as any plot relevant items. Fortunately, its completely disconnected from the main arc and is easily replaced. 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. As things stand, I would probably wouldnt useSalvage Operation. Completing both parts is expected to take 4-6 characters from 1st to 3rd level. DMs looking for their next published campaign have a lot to look forward to if they choose GoS. This will KILL a newbie 3rd level party that is not optimized for combat. Ive noticed a meager handful of editorial errors in the form of minor typos. While any effort to improve the DMs running experience is fantastic, the actual execution of trosters is nowhere near as helpful as it could and should be. Nelson Nelson. Thousand Teeth a legendary giant crocodile. The juvenile kraken must be slain. 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 . Youll either love or hate the maps in GoS. Note that a similar sidebar gives localisation guidance for each adventure in this book. | Ghosts of Saltmarsh Arcane Arcade 101K subscribers Subscribe 3.2K 181K views 3 years ago We begin our adventure on the high seas! 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. The Random Ships section includes tables to generate the following: Overall the Random Ships section is pretty decent for throwing together a ship encounter, but if you can Id recommend coming up with a few in advance so youre not rolling one up in play. In my case, I am combining Tales from the Yawning Portal with Ghosts of Saltmarsh (which is suggested as an option at the start of GoS) to give the players more choices and . The adventure is for 4-6 level 4 characters. 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. Theyre fun, and mostly useful. 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. what plots should yo. Personally Id not use the race tables very often (with perhaps a few exceptions Id rather crews be of mixed backgrounds) but your mileage, or nautical mileage in this case, may vary. Crew names. 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. [12], On ship-to-ship combat, Brandes Stoddard, for Tribality, wrote that "most of what we saw in the [Unearthed Arcana] article of the same name seems to still be in place the same component/battle station format for ships and naval combat. 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. You could also let the players know that anything in the Player's Handbook is fine but they should bring up any other options with you before they pick it so together you can decide if it fits what's going on. I like this section a lot for what it is. Whether you agree about Salvage Operation or not, whichever adventures you personally like or dislike, the designers have made it trivially easy to weave whichever parts youre prepared to use into a full-length campaign. Download Free PDF View PDF. 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). This process is slightly more efficient than reading each of the rooms full entries, granted. The files were designed to be used with VTT apps such as Roll20, where you can assemble the ship in the way it best suits your campaign, being it placing . In case this game goes longer than an adventure or two, I'd like to try and build out a coherent campaign. What good would a supplement about sea-based adventuring be if it didnt include new rules governing sea-based adventures? The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural. The Saltmarsh village and regional maps can be printed on 17x24 for about $3 each at your local Staples or Fedex print center and they look great on the table when you're running your session zero and describing the locations. In short: this review is not spoiler free. Its also where the major NPCs of the town are described. 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. [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. Hey everyone! . Point your DM in the direction of this review if theyd like further details! 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. These include blue holes, coral reefs, currents, depth, kelp forests, sandbars, shipwrecks, and whirlpools. Check em out if you love boats". 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. The section Owning a ship has been removed entirely, along with the downtime action Managing a Ship. [1][2][3] The adventures included, in the order of presentation and including original publication year, are: Additionally, the book contains rules for ship-to-ship combat, character backgrounds and includes details on the port town of Saltmarsh which anchors each adventure. 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. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. If the characters can find signs of the single clear path, they can follow it safely through the dunes. In any case the log only describes events up until the captain and crew were defeated and consumed by the cannibals. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Saltmarsh Overviewdescribes the towns approach to law enforcement and defense, its commerce (in the form of fishing, trading, smuggling, and mining), the towns locations, and available downtime activities. You need not utilize the entire trilogy for the adventure's premises to unfold. To foster the fear of the citizens, the kraken manufactured the Lantern Ghost, enslaving a local fisherman and forcing him to kill. Although this quest isnt directly related he can negotiate using this information: he can talk about how the sahuagin are not the only menaces the people of Saltmarsh have to fear, and hint that the sahuagin may even make surface allies of their own. This second side quest takes the characters to the island abbey of an evil group of clerics. Naturally, GoS is also available on DnDBeyond, with the usual variety of purchase options: all content, compendium content only, and cherry-picking individual content. 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. As with other official titles, two covers exist: the limited edition cover (available for pre-orders and limited quantities in local game stores) and the regular cover. The traditionalists see it as meddling by the outside iron gauntlet of the king. My party is 4th level, too. The ship has mysteriously reappeared in local waters, providing a once in a lifetime opportunity for him to reclaim the property deeds and promissory notes aboard, which he intends to sell in order to regain his lost wealth and prestige. Its hard to know if theyre actually in the book, or whether theyve slipped in during the transfer of content to DnDBeyond. AboutPressCopyrightContact. The monks have become victims of a crew of undead pirates who serve the demon lord Orcus. Fathomers are spellcasting humans who can turn into enormous watery snakes thanks to pacts with ancient evil, the ideal threat to catch players off-guard. Guildmaster Tabeth of the mariners guild is aware of the town councils alliance with the lizardfolk, and their fears of sahuagin attack (as a lead figure in the mariners guild, he certainly should be in the loop). Thats good, because although the campaigns central story is now concluded, the book still has two higher level adventures for them to face! Just finished Salvage Operation with my group and every one went up to 5th level. it appears that the actual print of the cover looks flatter and duller, Monstrous Monograph: Monstrosities Volume 1. Download the Ghosts of Saltmarsh Player's Guide. Ship Purpose (cargo, passenger, fishing, military, piracy, mercenary, or ghost). This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. They can be run individually or together. Included is a list of shipwrecks that characters might try to find for their lost treasures, and tables for random encounters. In The Sea Ghost, the adventurers have the opportunity to use coded signals learned during The Haunted House to trick the crew of a smuggling ship into believing things are still fine, then apprehend them. Id consider it worthwhile prep to redo the roster with better organised information. 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. Session 13: Chapter 6 from the book (conclusion/assault). There's a haunted house outside Saltmarsh. Ghosts of Saltmarsh presents several classic and beloved adventures from the history of D&D, given an update for 5e. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. If not dealt with, the drowned ones will spread to skarn, Saltmarsh, and beyond, continuing to seek new victims and build an undead army. 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. If used carefully, this still might be considered worthwhile. Mr. Dory a named NPC, hes an unusual variant of skum (which also appear in this appendix). 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