A Look Inside Ghosts of Saltmarsh

[CapnZapp]

No, I wasn't. But only because I hadn't gotten around to it. I hate sandboxes.

[emoji1]

It's just crazy talk, right?

If you want to compare oranges to apples, sure.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I think he might be talking about Dragon Heist. Or Storm King's Thunder. In either module, you only use a tiny slice of the book in the actual play of the adventure.

Huh, I ended up using probably about 80% of SKT. Honestly, all that was missed were some areas of the Sword Coast that my group didn't end up exploring (although they did range rather widely as they decided to take out all 5 rebel giant lords) and some of the storm giant area (again, as they didn't explore it as much as the other 5).

 

[Gradine]

They recommend placing Saltmarsh in Q'barra and involving House Phiarlan with the smugglers.

Which is fairly obvious, when you think about it. At least, that's what I had been planning on all along.

 

[Joshua Randall]

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.

Belated reply, and hopefully I'm not just repeating what someone else already said, but...

The Final Enemy was infamously a meat grinder back in the day, for reasons that should be obvious to anyone who remembers it or has read the synopsis. (Hint1: out. Hint2: numbered.)

In addition, it was possible for the PCs to come out of Danger at Dunwater with less XP than expected if they are less murderhobo-y than normal.

Combine that two and you could have an underleveled, underequipped (i.e. hasn't found as much magic lootz) party going into a really tough The Final Enemy.

So, it makes perfect sense to me to re-order the adventures to let the PCs level / gear up a bit before they tackle Final Enemy.

 

[jrowland]

I am interested in the factions bit. In the pre-planning stages we have a Triton Paladin of Conquest, a Lizardfolk Drunken Monk, a Water Genasi Druid, a Bronze Dragonborn Tempest Cleric, an Aasimar Divine Soul Sorcerer, and a tbd archer build.

Clearly will be opposed to Scarlet Brotherhood, but would the Traditionalists or Loyalists be cool with that menagerie of PCs?

 

[Hussar]

I am interested in the factions bit. In the pre-planning stages we have a Triton Paladin of Conquest, a Lizardfolk Drunken Monk, a Water Genasi Druid, a Bronze Dragonborn Tempest Cleric, an Aasimar Divine Soul Sorcerer, and a tbd archer build.

Clearly will be opposed to Scarlet Brotherhood, but would the Traditionalists or Loyalists be cool with that menagerie of PCs?

Heh. I can just imagine the sound of a thousand greyhawk purist screaming in impotent fury at this group.

Warms my heart it does.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

It's not a case of "keeping" the references. At least with the U series the only Greyhawk reference a brief mention of Keoland. They have added in lots of references that where not in the original.

Interesting. That's kind of cool then, to see something fleshed out with a setting other than the Forgotten Realms (I'm not counting Curse of Strahd, since it wasn't fleshed out to Ravenloft, its identity is Ravenloft). Well, this will be a market test for them then. If it's popular we're more likely to get more expansion into other settings.

 

[MNblockhead]

I just hope it's not another one of those APs where any given campaign only uses 50% of the book.

Which WotC APs does that describe? My issue with many of the APs is the expectation that you play though all the content. Perhaps this is why I love Curse of Strahd. Currently, I'm running Rappan Athuk. It is a given that much if not most of the content will never be used in this campaign.

I also see myself running groups through CoS and RA again, something I can't say about most adventure material.

 

[Hussar]

Which WotC APs does that describe? My issue with many of the APs is the expectation that you play though all the content. Perhaps this is why I love Curse of Strahd. Currently, I'm running Rappan Athuk. It is a given that much if not most of the content will never be used in this campaign.

I also see myself running groups through CoS and RA again, something I can't say about most adventure material.

I answered this upthread a bit, but, again, Storm King's Thunder, if played by the book where you only deal with one of the giant groups, results in much of the adventure being left behind. Dragon Heist is specifically built that you will only use about 1/3 of the book in any given campaign - you'd have to do a massive rewrite (see The Alexandrian for how) to use the whole book. And, as you say, Curse of Strahd isn't meant to be completely played through.

 

[MNblockhead]

I answered this upthread a bit, but, again, Storm King's Thunder, if played by the book where you only deal with one of the giant groups, results in much of the adventure being left behind. Dragon Heist is specifically built that you will only use about 1/3 of the book in any given campaign - you'd have to do a massive rewrite (see The Alexandrian for how) to use the whole book. And, as you say, Curse of Strahd isn't meant to be completely played through.

Okay. To me this is a feature, not bug. But I can understand that others will have different expectations.