The New D&D Book Is Called "Ghosts of Saltmarsh" [UPDATED!]

It seems those who suggested that the upcoming 'nautical themed' book was based on the old Saltmarsh trilogy were correct. Ghosts of Saltmarsh is the new book, with a release date of May 21st, 2019. UPDATED WITH NEW INFORMATION ON ALT COVER & RELEASE DATES!

Explore the waves above and the fathoms below in these watery adventures for the world’s greatest roleplaying game.

“D&D acolytes are everywhere...Tech workers from Silicon Valley to Brooklyn have long-running campaigns, and the showrunners and the novelist behind ‘Game of Thrones’ have all been Dungeon Masters.”—Neima Jahromi, The New Yorker

Ghosts of Saltmarsh brings classic adventures into fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. This adventure book combines some of the most popular classic adventures from the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons including the classic “U” series, plus some of the best nautical adventures from the history of Dungeon Magazine: Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, Danger at Dunwater, Salvage Operation, Isle of the Abbey, The Final Enemy, Tammeraut’s Fate, The Styes.

• Ghosts of Salt Marsh includes a variety of seafaring adventures, enough to take characters from level 1 to level 12.

• This supplement introduces the port town of Saltmarsh, the perfect starting point for a nautical campaign.

• Each adventure can be played individually, inserted into your ongoing game or combined into a single epic nautical campaign.

• Dungeon Masters will find rules for ships and sea travel, deck plans for various vessels, an appendix with rules for new and classic monsters, and much more.

• Dungeons & Dragons is the world’s greatest roleplaying game. Created in 1974, D&D transformed gaming culture by blending traditional fantasy with miniatures and wargaming.

It's already on Amazon.

[video=youtube;GajoKmh9-68]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GajoKmh9-68[/video]

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Updates!

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WotC has just announced the book. Full press release below, but a couple of key points:

• There's an alternate cover (below)
• Preferred stores and regular stores get it on the same date, instead of WPN stores getting it early

Sail the Seas in Dungeons & Dragons with Ghosts of Saltmarsh Adventure Releasing Everywhere May 21

Renton, WA – February 25, 2019 – Dungeons & Dragons is excited to announce a new adventure book called Ghosts of Saltmarsh, which takes classic sea-faring adventures and updates and expands upon them for use with D&D fifth edition. The book details the port town of Saltmarsh and the surrounding lands players can explore using their own ship and the vehicle mechanics included in the 256-page book. Unravel sinister secrets of the sea with Ghosts of Saltmarsh releasing in game stores, digitally and everywhere on May 21, 2019. An alternate art cover with a distinctive design and soft-touch finish is available exclusively in game stores on May 21.

“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.”

The book includes details on the port town of Saltmarsh, as well as plenty of adventure hooks for each chapter. Fans can play through the whole story in a seafaring campaign leading characters from level 1 through level 12, while Dungeon Masters can easily pull out sections to place in ongoing campaigns in any setting. The appendices cover mechanics for ship-to-ship combat, new magic items, monsters and more!

Ghosts of Saltmarsh will be available both in game stores and everywhere else on the same date – May 21st. Fans are encouraged to pick up the adventure in the way that’s most convenient for them, but there is an alternate art soft-touch cover that will only be available in game stores. The alternate cover image was created by N. C. Winters and features a snarling sahuagin.

For more information on Ghosts of Saltmarsh and all things D&D, please go to dungeonsanddragons.com and check out the breadth of live D&D programming and interviews available on twitch.tv/dnd. You can also listen to interviews involving Ghosts of Saltmarsh as well as D&D mechanics and lore on Dragon Talk, the official D&D podcast.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh combines some of the most popular classic adventures from the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons including the classic ‘U’ series, plus some of the best nautical adventures from the history of DungeonMagazine:

• 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 adventure hooks for each chapter. Play through the whole story in a seafaring campaign leading characters from level 1 through level 12, or Dungeon Masters can easily 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!
[h=3]WHERE CAN I BUY IT?[/h]Unravel sinister secrets of the sea with Ghosts of Saltmarsh releasing in game stores, digitally and everywhere on May 21, 2019. An alternate art cover with a distinctive design and soft-touch finish is available exclusively in game stores on May 21.

Price:[FONT=&amp] $49.95 [/FONT]
Release Date: [FONT=&amp]21 May, 2019 [/FONT]
Format:[FONT=&amp] Hardcover

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[MockingBird]

Cool, still need to pick up Yawning Portal to add the que. Right now we are in Tomb of Annihilation, then Curse of Strahd. I would like to do Out of the Abyss but Dragon Heist looks cool just not sure my players would like it. Definitely check this out cause we havent done any nautical stuff. Oh and interested in Storm King but all the reviews suggest a ton of DM prep.

 

[Parmandur]

Oh? How did it fit into Dragonlance?

The inn proper, which was weak and bizarre as a framing device, only had the Green Dragon In in Greyhawk as an alternative location. When you get to the actual Adventures, none of which involve the Yawning Portal in anyway, that changes.

On page 9, for "The Sunless Citadel": "On Krynn, the citadel was once part of Xak Tsaroth, and it harbored worshippers of Takhisis. When that city was destroyed during the cataclysm, it fell into a right that opened in the earth. In this setting, consider replacing the kobolds in the adventure with gully dwarves."

On page 33, for "The Forge of Fury": "On Krynn, Khundrukar can be placed anywhere in the Kharolis Mountains. An independent stronghold that has no direct tunnels connecting to Thorbardin, it was overrun by attackers during the Age of Might. During the Age of Despair, it was seized by Highlord Verminaard's forces. Consider replacing the orcs in the adventure with hobgoblins and the duergsr with Theiwar dwarves."

On page 61, for "The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan": "The hidden shrine might not be part of an ancient city on Krynn, but instead an isolated temple for a weird dead cult devoted to the good Chenosh. The site could date back to the Age of Dreams, and might be on an isle or an isolated region near the Blood Sea of Istar."

On page 95, for "White Plume Mountain": "Found near Neraka in the Khalkist Mountains, the mountain might be a place of interest not only to adventurers, but also to the armies of Takhisis."

On page 109, for "Dead in That": "On Krynn, the Doomvault is likely to be the work of renegade wizards, perhaps of more than one color, with magic as their only alliance and moral compass. The dungeon might exist underneath a ruined Tower of High Sorcery, or it could be a haunt of Fistandantilus before his failed attempt at godhood. If it is part of the ruins, it could even be the Tower of Istar, which Nuitari took at the end of the Chaos War. Or it might be the same tower, after Mina raised it and the black-robed wizards took it for their own."

On page 165, for "Against the Giants": "On Krynn, the alliance if giants could center on the Kharolis Mountains, bringing Abanasinia, Qualinesti, Thorbardin, Kharolis and Tarsis into the conflict. The ultimate villain in the Dragonlance setting would have to be dark exiles of an even more unexpected sort than those described in this adventure."

And finally, on page 212, for "Tomb of Horrors": "The tomb on Krynn might be in the foothills near the Eastwall Mountains, in the Cursed Lands of Newsea, or in the Shadowglades of Krynn, where a renegade wizards who served Takhisis was said to dwell."

Similar bits for each adventure detail Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms and Eberron possibilities. I reckon they will repeat something like that here.

 

[Staffan]

*yawn*
Stripmine greyhawk i see. Rehash.

The only part of U1-3 that sets them in Greyhawk is in the half-or-so page about the town of Saltmarsh, which ends with: "On the WORLD OF GREYHAWK™ map, Saltmarsh is placed in the southernmost part of Keoland, at the western edge of hex U4/123." Were it not for that sentence, and a mention of Nystul and Tenser, there would be nothing about these modules that ties them to Greyhawk. They would work equally well in Forgotten Realms or Eberron. I'm not sure how well they'd work in Dragonlance since I'm not familiar with that setting.

You'd have to work a bit to make them fit in Dark Sun, though.

 

[darjr]

I hope there is a special cover edition!

 

[vpuigdoller]

This is what I wanted so very pleased by it. Kind of bummed that it will relase on May 21. Was hoping early April late March.

 

[Hussar]

Well, now with two books of shorter adventures, hopefully that will keep the "We want shorter adventures" crowd happy.

 

[Carmen Sbordone]

The only part of U1-3 that sets them in Greyhawk is in the half-or-so page about the town of Saltmarsh, which ends with: "On the WORLD OF GREYHAWK™ map, Saltmarsh is placed in the southernmost part of Keoland, at the western edge of hex U4/123." Were it not for that sentence, and a mention of Nystul and Tenser, there would be nothing about these modules that ties them to Greyhawk. They would work equally well in Forgotten Realms or Eberron. I'm not sure how well they'd work in Dragonlance since I'm not familiar with that setting.

You'd have to work a bit to make them fit in Dark Sun, though.

Its still a greyhawk set. Its STILL the strong pattern of taking stuff from greyhawk to FR.

IT is VERY MUCH a greyhawk module

 

[Morrus]

Its still a greyhawk set. Its STILL the strong pattern of taking stuff from greyhawk to FR.

IT is VERY MUCH a greyhawk module

Why does that matter? At your game table it’s whatever you want it to be, a sentence or two of expository text notwithstanding.

 

[Parmandur]

Its still a greyhawk set. Its STILL the strong pattern of taking stuff from greyhawk to FR.

IT is VERY MUCH a greyhawk module

The Greyhawk material, the sentence fragment of it, is certainly going to be included, based on previous books. There might be a similar level of detail to make it fit for the other major settings.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I think I'll like this. I also like Yawning Portal because it is way easier to use than a mega-adventure. This one has the added benefit of new nautical rules, so we'll see how much value-added that ends up being.

I would be unhappy if they moved the adventure out of their previous setting, but I think that is extremely unlikely, because they didn't do that with Yawning Portal. I'm fine with giving options of which setting you want to place it in, and that's a good marketing strategy, as long as they don't effectively say "The adventure is no longer set in the original world, and is now located in..." Fortunately they haven't done that so far, and are unlikely to.