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!

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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]


Updates!
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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Parmandur

Book-Friend
So, in the video, Kate confirms that the Seafaring UA rules are going to he in this book, and the vehicle rules in general will be in "various products this year."

There is apparently a large amount of material for randomly generating encounters, NPCs and such for seafaring scenarios, beyond the Saltmarsh based adventures. Also, all 7 adventures will be based around Saltmarsh as the centerpiece, so some adaptation will have occurred: she acknowledges the Greyhawk background, but says that they have made Saltmarsh and environs a generic mini-settingnfornplug and play purposes.
 

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vpuigdoller

Adventurer
So, in the video, Kate confirms that the Seafaring UA rules are going to he in this book, and the vehicle rules in general will be in "various products this year."

There is apparently a large amount of material for randomly generating encounters, NPCs and such for seafaring scenarios, beyond the Saltmarsh based adventures. Also, all 7 adventures will be based around Saltmarsh as the centerpiece, so some adaptation will have occurred: she acknowledges the Greyhawk background, but says that they have made Saltmarsh and environs a generic mini-settingnfornplug and play purposes.

Yah I catched the part about vehicle rules as well. I wonder if airships or spelljammers are not far outside the realm of possibilities.
 



Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
PR just dropped in my inbox. Alternate cover! No advance release for WPN stores! (all updated above in the OP).

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Umbran

Mod Squad
Staff member
Supporter
funny i gave links to the facts about the adventure being in greyhawk and here you say it is not.

Um, no.

He's saying that he put the module on another world. It isn't like doing that is hard.

If you want facts - the fact that the only thing really forcing U1 to be in Greyhawk are place names, IIRC. The adventure does not lean on Greyhawk-specific tropes or metaplot. It was set in Greyhawk not because it *needs* to be there for the adventure to function, but because that's the only place they were setting adventures in 1981, when U1 was published.

The facts, really, are that the original adventure is super-duper-easy to set wherever you want. If your setting has oceans and the monster races that appear, you can probably use U1 in it.

Before you complain about the new version of it, it wold be really great if you could confirm that this aspect of it has changed. If you cannot just as easily plop it back into Greyhawk, then you might have a legitimate beef. But until you know that for certain, it seems premature to raise a stink over it.
 


NiClerigo

Adventurer
The Facebook announcement just published says “Dungeon Masters can easily place Saltmarsh on any coast of any world you can imagine, including the Sword Coast, Eberron or even Greyhawk where these adventures were originally set.” My guess is that the default location is Greyhawk -they even mentioned the Azure Coast. Happily for me, conversion guidelines for my favorite setting -Eberron- are likely to be provided
 
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qstor

Adventurer
Also, all 7 adventures will be based around Saltmarsh as the centerpiece, so some adaptation will have occurred: she acknowledges the Greyhawk background, but says that they have made Saltmarsh and environs a generic mini-setting for plug and play purposes.

I like a lot of the other posters are carving for a Greyhawk setting book but the quote above reiterates the fact that largely (apart from Eberron, the Realms, Dark Sun and Ravnica) WotC wants all D&D books to be used in any setting so NO setting books. This has been the tone since 4e.
 

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