A Look Inside Ghosts of Saltmarsh: Contents, Saltmarsh Map, & More

NewbieDM over on Twitter has a copy of Ghosts of Saltmarsh and has shared some initial glimpses inside! The book releases on May 21st.

"First, the setting...The village of Saltmarsh is unequivocally set in Greyhawk. It says so in the book. This is not set in the Forgotten Realms, nor in some ambiguous generic world. This is Greyhawk.

So remember how in UK1, Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, the village itself was largely left for DMs to populate and create? Not now. Saltmarsh is a living breathing place with 3 factions vying for power: Traditionalists, Loyalists (to the Kingdom of Keoland), Scarlet Brotherhood.

Saltmarsh is fully fleshed out, as is the nearby region, and the political happenings are presented as a way to ground the PCs as they embark on a Saltmarsh based campaign."

I thought this book was comparable to Tales of the Yawning Portal... and it is, but it takes its usefulness a step further. It actually helps you craft a campaign with the included adventures, using Saltmarsh’s factions as the drivers.

There's a LOT more images and commentary over at the Twitter link. Also don't miss my summary of all the adventures found within, which I posted a couple of days ago, or our extensive podcast coverage of all those adventures.

 

[Bitbrain]

I absolutely love that picture of the lizardfolk talking with each other.

Can't wait for the book's release!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I absolutely love that picture of the lizardfolk talking with each other.

Caption competition!

 

[Ash Mantle]

The sections on creating your own mini-adventures and the pages of island encounters are great.

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And while Dyson Logos' maps are still spartan, you can tell he's been listening to feedback (or working with more of a direction from Wizards), the addition of details and textures to his maps is pretty rad.

 

[Rhineglade]

OK. I MIGHT just be chomping at the bit a little now. Getting excited. What I've seen looks cool.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm actually really impressed with the organization shown here: that's an action packed book.

 

[Parmandur]

It's interesting the order they've done the adventures -- the original Saltmarsh trilogy opens it, as expected, but Salvage Operation and Isle of the Abbey are inserted before The Final Enemy. Finishes on The Styes, as you'd expect. I wonder how much meta plot if any will be threaded through all this?

Based on the Spoilers & Swag chatter, this will be very, very sandboxy.

 

[Barantor]

Will this open up Greyhawk for DMSGUILD?

We were told originally that this was setting agnostic, but then I'm seeing mention of Keoland, Vecna... St Cuthbert!

I do hope this opens it up, though I'm not holding my breath too hard. This is the most intrinsically linked adventure to Greyhawk so far, even the TftYP adventures weren't this tied into Greyhawk.

 

[lkj]

Will this open up Greyhawk for DMSGUILD?

Coincidentally, I recently came across the answer to this on Chris Lindsay's twitter account.

https://twitter.com/Onnatryx/status/1123765708549238785

So, Saltmarsh yes. Greyhawk no. Which is very interesting. I wonder what they've got going on there.

AD

 

[Parmandur]

Coincidentally, I recently came across the answer to this on Chris Lindsay's twitter account.

https://twitter.com/Onnatryx/status/1123765708549238785

So, Saltmarsh yes. Greyhawk no. Which is very interesting. I wonder what they've got going on there.

AD

Testing the waters?

 

[Demetrios1453]

So all the posts, pages, and full threads moaning about how Saltmarsh was being appropriated and that there would be no connection to Greyhawk were, as expected, a whole bunch of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

What's the official page count, by the way? I've looked at both the WotC website anf Amazon, and was unable to find it. I'm curious just how big the monsters section at the end will be...