D&D 1E U1 Secret of Saltmarsh: Thoughts?

[Sacrosanct]

That article is clearly about running the 5e version, but still has some good ideas. I'll be running the 1e version, thus for example the PCs won't likely be levelling up several times during the adventure as that article seems to recommend.

Yeah, that's true, but I found some of the info helpful that is setting agnostic, like how to tie in some of the plots between adventures, and to flesh out some of the NPCs.

 

[Stormdale]

Agree with inheritance angle. A fun adventure and some tough encounters in there but great free form adventure. My last game dumped U2 and had smuglers from Sea Princes arming the lizard-creatures and planning to destabilise the region- and tied in with one of councillors too. This was my link to Tomb of the Lizardking.

Planning the assault on the Seaghost is always fun session where 0layer creativity can come to the

One option dump the Ned angle and increase illusionist shennanigins in various rooms to scare off intruders instead.

IIRC "Ghosts" lacks the signal code handout from the original which is a good clue for part two so I'd find a copy of that.

Stormdale

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It's actually quite non-linear depending on how the party tackle the smugglers - stealth, negotiation/deception, big fight. The party might even decide they want to throw in with the smugglers. The whole ship bit is optional, and can be tackled in several different ways. Last time I ran it the party tried a bluff, which failed, resulting in a big fight on the main deck, and the captain eventually surrendering. The party failed to find the hidden lizard folk and prisoner.

 

[uzirath]

U1 is possibly my favorite adventure of all time. I've run it in every edition of D&D and two editions of GURPS. The basic plot is linear in the sense that you've got House, Cave, Ship, but other than that I've found that it never plays the same way twice. Some groups go in the back door and head straight down to the basement. Some of them spend a full session exploring the house. Sometimes Ned enters the picture. Other times he doesn't. One group decided to explore the environs around the house more, including the cliffs, and discovered the sea cave before they even set foot inside the house.

My most recent group captured Sanbalet in their first encounter with him in the basement and then attempted to use him to gain access to the caves without setting off the alarm. He, naturally, tricked them into heading into the slime, and managed to escape in the ensuing chaos. This led to a very satisfying confrontation in the sea cave as the smugglers tried to escape.

I've scaled it up and down for different levels of play. Last year I ran it with the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game (GURPS) where the PCs start closer to what might be fifth level in D&D. It still worked great. I just beefed things up a bit and improvised.

I've been surprised at how satisfying players find it to resolve the mystery, even one as simple and predictable as this one. Watching Scooby-Doo might be boring for many adults, but experiencing an episode seems to awaken one's inner child (in the best possible way).

 

[el-remmen]

One thing that I saw as a potential issue upon reading - and I was correct upon running - is that the adventure makes no allowances for the party not attacking the lizardfolk on the smuggler's ship on sight. Even though the adventure states that the lizardfolk will mistake the party for smugglers and not attack them, there is no consideration for what happens if the party succeeds at parlaying with them. This is not a big deal if you don't intend to follow up with Danger at Dunwater. However, if the party does come to an understanding with these lizardfolk, Danger at Dunwater's central conflict is eliminated. So just be prepared for this eventuality.

Also, Danger at Dunwater is bad.

1. The last time I ran it (last spring) the party did not attack the lizardfolk. They were so busy fighting the ship crew to talk to them and the lizardfolk decided the fight was not their concern (not having received instructions from their queen and leaning into the isolationit vibe of lizardfolk) so they fled. Leaving the mystery in tact.

2. I would've agreed with you that U2 is bad based on the first two times I ran it in the 80s (first time, it took 10 minutes and was boring b/c I wasn't an experienced DM) and in 90s (the party decided to simply just kill all the lizardfolk), but this time? It was one of the best adventures and the party loved it!

 

[el-remmen]

Oh and I agree with others that say U1 is among the best modules of all-time.

I recommend a short adventure before it allowing the PCs to get to 2nd level and awarding XP btwn the house and ship parts to allow them to go to 3rd b/c the ship fight is hard (though in the most recent case it didn't help that the party barbarian had a cursed berserking great axe - so he moved on from killing pirates to nearly killing the party druid!)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

U2 is more like a Star Trek plot than a typical D&D adventure. It's good (and innovative at the time), but it requires a different approach. And if it's over quickly, you can move onto the next thing, or you can elaborate on the political machinations of the various factions involved.

Adding a Malenti (Sahuagin infiltrator from Exploring Eberron) can really spice it up.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Yeah, U2, the players went the diplomatic route (which is the best way to approach it, really), so it ended up being really short (a single 4 hour session). The old school player in me felt like something was majorly off to have all those rooms statted and mapped up and never used in the actual game

 

[el-remmen]

For U2 I invented a lizardfolk custom about visitors and potential allies. I figured they tend to be isolationist, but used the queen's background as impetus for her having a more cosmopolitan outlook and being a reformer, causing a greater religious riff with the fundamentalist semuanya followers. As such, I decided that once lizardfolk parley and decide to consider an alliance, the PCs were allowed free reign of their lair for their behavior to be watched and see if they were good representatives of the town and worth explaining the real threat (sauhaugin) and joining forces with (basically, be good guests). Basically, the adventure was meeting different groups of lizardfolk in the lair, making friends, avoiding faux pax, and trying not to get into a fight with the fundamentalists or the other guests (they did get into a fight with the koalinth dignitaries, but the locathah vouched that the aquatic hobgoblins started it).

The way I spiced it up further, was by having the high priest and his loyalists ambush the party when they went to deal with 1000 Teeth (since they saw him as sacred) - though no one told 1000 Teeth that the lizardfolk were on his side, so he ate some of them too. If the fundamentalists had succeeded in killing the party this would have been a sign that Semuanya had withdrawn their favor from the queen, and she could be deposed and eaten.

Instead, the killing of 1000 Teeth and the priest, "proved" that the Queen's way forward for the tribe was right.

 

[smetzger]

Ned is the one plot weakness, I've run it a number of times and no-one falls for his nonsense.

The green slime could be very deadly or trivial (if the party has a Paladin).

One thing to be careful of is that the PCs could end up with a lot of treasure...
Lots of coin, smuggled items and a ship.

U2 is generally not as good as U1. So, maybe think of some of the ramifications and possibilities if your not going to run U2....
Someone comes looking for this stuff, maybe it was supposed to be delivered, or the smugglers didn't really 'own' that ship and someone wants it back.