The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh - your experiences?

Fourth thread of a series on the old classic Dungeons & Dragons adventure modules. It is interesting to see how everyone's experiences compared and differed.

The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh




Did you Play or DM this adventure (or both, as some did)? What were your experiences? Did you complete it? What were the highlights for your group?

Did you also play the second and third modules of the series: Danger at Dunwater, and The Final Enemy? How did that go for you?

Quasqueton

I've played and run this one, and its been great every time. I've never ran or played in either of the follow ups.

I ran this game numerous times. Only ran the second part once, and don't think I ever ran the third.

I had fun running it, and I think my players had fun playing.

Recently I played a Neverwinter Nights adaption of the first two, and they were very good translations.

Duncan

Hmm - I DM'ed the U1-U3 series a few months ago, using the Forgotten Realms as the campaign world. My group seemed to enjoy it, especially when, after clearing out the pirates, they argued over whether they should take the mansion over as a base of operations, knock it down and plant fields, or turn it into an orphanage... I set it in Daggerford (get The North boxed set from WoTC - it's free) and had Oryv the Cloth Merchant be a contact for the pirates. The Lizard Marsh is just to the west of Daggerford along the coast, so it tied in quite nicely for all 3 modules. The one thing I would caution you on is the potential for U3 to turn into a slog-fest. If you and your players don't want to explore every single area of U3, make sure you use an overwhelming number of Sahuagin so that they get the hint that it is best to sneak around and only explore the areas that are necessary.

After I ran this series, one of the other guys took a turn DMing - he used the Pirate Ship (which the party captured) and Oryv the Cloth Merchant as a plot hook to get the group up to Waterdeep (where drydocks exist that could repair the ship) in preparation for a journey into the ocean (down near the Nelanther Isles) where he ran a quite successful follow-up using X1 Isle of Dread. He also tied in the paladin's orphanage idea into the Lathanderites in Waterdeep and the idea that the main reason for going to the Isle of Dread was to stop Banites from getting the thing.

Quasqueton said:

Fourth thread of a series on the old classic Dungeons & Dragons adventure modules. It is interesting to see how everyone's experiences compared and differed.

The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh

Did you Play or DM this adventure (or both, as some did)? What were your experiences? Did you complete it? What were the highlights for your group?

Did you also play the second and third modules of the series: Danger at Dunwater, and The Final Enemy? How did that go for you?

Quasqueton

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The first one's a classic haunted house that's not really haunted. The last two kinda blew.

jh

I've DM'd this series two times (i may even try it 3.5)....... It's a great series, but both times the party could not defeat the Sahugin in part three and had to rely on the outsiders to resolve the problem.......and poor Oceanus (the sea elf NPC) died horribly both times (the sharks in U3)...... We did have some fun expanding on the whole Rapture weed angle and even contemplated a D&D Scarface campaign.....

It's a great beginner DM series..... The first focuses on setting a mood (with the mystery of Saltmarsh), the second module introduces negotiation, can the party get the help and support from the Locatah without having an all out war at Dunwater.....and the final a classic killer dungeon crawl complete with Underwater levels.....and sharks.....

What more could you ask for in a series..... three great modules..... even Desert of Desolation had the the sometimes clumsy 2nd part (Oasis of the White palms)

Great module! I ran it once and we had a blast.

I played this module almost 20 years ago and it was a lot of fun. I do feel the module is a bit too heavy-handed in trying to take away treasure from the party (tolls?charges? from the city council, IIRC), but a good GM can modify that. I remember it as a module that rewarded smart players, which is always a good thing.

Saltmarsh

Yeah, I have run this several times in the past and have been contemplating a rerun on 3.5 too.

I have used U1 a lot (either as a whole or in parts) and have found it to be a good module. Especially the scenes for fights: in a house where the floor falls out from under PCs, water cave, deck of a ship etc.

When I next run this I think that I will make the 'assassin' an actual ally or at least real captive, so that those who know a little about the module (and many of my players do) will be in for a surprise - especially if they are very suspicious...

BTW is there a converted 3.5 ver of the modules? I am sure I have seen them somewhere...

I only got to U2 & U3 once. In U2 it was all over rather quickly with the PCs successfully negotiating a truce. All those well detailed rooms and cool dungeon description = wasted as they simply sought audience with the leader first up. (So I had to later use the rooms/map for a dirty tribe of hobgoblins )

U3 was very challenging and I back what has been said. If approached as a slog-fest then the PCs are in trouble. My particular group were in trouble too, when they returned to the surface to find the surrounding swamp levelled by a cyclone....no sight of the ship awaiting them either. From memory they high-tailed it out of the swamp (as they had taken a few sahuagin out and were sure to make the others angry once discovered) and never returned without finishing the module.

Overall, they are some of my favourite campaign modules from 1E. (Not one shot dungeon/tournament-like modules, but ones you CAN run as part of a campaign).

Cool thread.

How about some ideas re changing some of the parts to make them more interesting, or 're-playable' for those players that have had some experience with the series in years gone by?

Its a good adventure that I have run numerous times.

Sir Whiskers said:

I played this module almost 20 years ago and it was a lot of fun. I do feel the module is a bit too heavy-handed in trying to take away treasure from the party (tolls?charges? from the city council, IIRC), but a good GM can modify that. I remember it as a module that rewarded smart players, which is always a good thing.

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Actually I was going to say the module is way to rich. Most likely the PCs will end up with a ship, its cargo, a bunch of platinum pieces, and the gratitude of a town. Plus they could end up with a Psuedo Dragon.