Ghosts of Saltmarsh
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 foolhardy 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 waves safe!
Ghosts of Saltmarsh combines some of the most popular classic adventures from the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons including the classic ‘U’ series and some of the best nautical adventures from 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 hooks to kick-off each adventure. Play through each story in a seafaring campaign leading characters from level 1 through level 12, or 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!
Written By
Richard Pett
,
Greg A. Vaughan
,
Mike Mearls
,
Randy Maxwell
,
Dave J. Browne
,
Don Turnbull
Published By
Wizards of the Coast
Publication Year
2019
Setting
Greyhawk
Found In
Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Boss Monsters and Villains
- Juvenile Kraken Magical Beast Monstrosity Gargantuan
Common Monsters
- Lizardfolk Humanoid
- Pirate Humanoid
- Sahuagin Humanoid
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swanmay has played this adventure and would recommend it.
In my opinion, the single best official 5e adventure book. Saltmarsh is a book I come back to again and again for content. It is highly episodic, which makes it EXTREMELY useful for pilfering. However, it is extremely critical for you to know that this book is NOT a pirate adventure. It is a coastal adventure series. There are no official segments for actual sea combat in the entire book -- you will have to make your own.
In addition to the included adventures (of which I have used every one of them at least once), you get a surprisingly large amount of supplemental material. Saltmarsh is detailed out in 30 pages with some very good, very classic Greyhawk style political conflict built in, including a keyed town map and a local area with some other implied adventure locations (like the Tower of Zenopus). You also get 23 pages of idea tables, rolling tables, suggested extra places, and hazards for a shipborne party, as well as some micro-adventures that you can contextualize at will. This section in particular is something WOTC should honestly standardize in their books.
While the boat section is extremely useful for maps, I would generally ignore the actual mechanics of the boats, they are simply slow and not engaging. Have your opening shots fire and then go to boarding, if at all possible. WOTC has now tried 3 times to make vehicle combat work in 5e, and I think all three attempts have failed -- I would resort to a ship board game to simulate boat combat, if I felt ship combat was critical.
BrendanS has played this adventure and would recommend it.
Overall, a solid product from WotC. Saltmarsh and the surrounding region as presented is ok. It could be a bit more detailed and evocative but suitable. It gives room for you to create. The adventures range from very good (Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, The Styes) to unremarkable. I haven't really engaged with the ship stat blocks and the supplemental material but I have heard it has been critiqued.