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!

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!

saltmarsh.jpg

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!
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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[FONT=&amp]
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saltmarsh_alt.jpg


saltmarsh_keyart.jpg
 
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Morrus

Morrus is the owner of EN World and EN Publishing, creator of the ENnies, creator of the What's OLD is NEW (WOIN), Simply6, and Awfully Cheerful Engine game systems, publisher of Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, and co-host of the weekly Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk podcast. He has been a game publisher and RPG community administrator for over 20 years, and has been reporting on TTRPG and D&D news for over two decades. He is also on the socials.
R_J_K75

R_J_K75

Legend
vecna00 said:
It's bad that I was up until 4 am drafting some notes for a 5E Spelljammer conversion, and I figured I may need to wait for this book for more ship stats that I can try to reverse engineer. The Scavenger in DotMM is a good start, but I need a few more examples.
Click to expand...

What exactly are you trying to convert?
 

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vecna00

vecna00

Speculation Specialist Wizard
Zardnaar said:
Would you be oppsed to overhauled 2E rules for Spelljammer or using parts of another d20 game like Star Wars Saga Edition ship combat?
Click to expand...

When I initially ran a Spelljammer 5E game, i just did the ship combat as more of a narrative, until boarding happened. I was thinking I could keep the ship combat as is, but after a lot of thought it would be better if it were more modernized. Use hit points instead of hull points, make use of damage threshold, etc. I think it could work well with 5E's combat system.

R_J_K75 said:
What exactly are you trying to convert?
Click to expand...

Mostly the ships, the combat, some races. The lore can be used as is.
 

R_J_K75

R_J_K75

Legend
vecna00 said:
When I initially ran a Spelljammer 5E game, i just did the ship combat as more of a narrative, until boarding happened. I was thinking I could keep the ship combat as is, but after a lot of thought it would be better if it were more modernized. Use hit points instead of hull points, make use of damage threshold, etc. I think it could work well with 5E's combat system.

I agree with running combat more of a narrative until boarding becuase chances are the crew are going to be the ones manuevering the Spelljammer and manning the artillery onboard. They wont come into play until melee. Besides before boarding either the ships are gonna fire and close or try and evade/flee each other, which can be hand waived with a few simple dice rolls.
Click to expand...
 

vecna00

vecna00

Speculation Specialist Wizard
R_J_K75 said:
I agree with running combat more of a narrative until boarding becuase chances are the crew are going to be the ones manuevering the Spelljammer and manning the artillery onboard. They wont come into play until melee. Besides before boarding either the ships are gonna fire and close or try and evade/flee each other, which can be hand waived with a few simple dice rolls.
Click to expand...

Those were my exact thoughts when I first ran it, and it worked for my group. The PC captain would give orders and the NPCs would do the things. I just want to make sure that the rest of the party isn't just sitting there and twiddling their thumbs during this.
 

R_J_K75

R_J_K75

Legend
vecna00 said:
Those were my exact thoughts when I first ran it, and it worked for my group. The PC captain would give orders and the NPCs would do the things. I just want to make sure that the rest of the party isn't just sitting there and twiddling their thumbs during this.
Click to expand...

In the rounds leading to boarding they could possibly set traps for boarders, rogues can hide for sneak attack, stage ammo, basically doing things that may provide advantage to them and the crew on the first round of attack. The round before boarding throw the tinker gnome overboard so hes caught in the gravity well circling the spelljammer and pops up over the battle for a surprise sneak attack to throw a powder keg blowing up the enemy ship. Depending on the arrangement with the Capt and the PCs they may have to take orders from him anyway.
 

vecna00

vecna00

Speculation Specialist Wizard
R_J_K75 said:
In the rounds leading to boarding they could possibly set traps for boarders, rogues can hide for sneak attack, stage ammo, basically doing things that may provide advantage to them and the crew on the first round of attack. The round before boarding throw the tinker gnome overboard so hes caught in the gravity well circling the spelljammer and pops up over the battle for a surprise sneak attack to throw a powder keg blowing up the enemy ship. Depending on the arrangement with the Capt and the PCs they may have to take orders from him anyway.
Click to expand...

That could also be done, but I also want to give them the option of doing more. Which is what I'm working on.
 

N

Nymblwyly

First Post
Played the original Saltmarsh series way back in 1st Ed. Always struck me as a good story line which cannot be said for a lot of 1st Ed stuff. Glad to see it resurrected and hopefully improved!! Artwork will have been for sure!!
 

Queer Venger

Queer Venger

Dungeon Master is my Dad
Another Greyhawk adventures book!!! So happy they are supporting Greyhawk!

But more importantly a book on nautical rules; I'll be using this one a lot and will be blending it with my Spelljammer and Planescape campaigns.

Plus, I just bought a big ship that'll get some good use :)
 



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