Dragon Talk Interview with Kate Welch re Ghosts of Saltmarsh

[Markh3rd]

Honestly I'm just excited to be playing the stories I didn't get to play. Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Eberron, or Modern Earth. I'm easy.

 

[guachi]

You can buy U1-3 cheap as a pdf. U1 is easily the best of the three. In any event, you can get them each for $3.

The Dungeon adventures are okay, so you really aren't missing much.

There wasn't anything stopping you from playing them already.

 

[Markh3rd]

You can buy U1-3 cheap as a pdf. U1 is easily the best of the three. In any event, you can get them each for $3.

The Dungeon adventures are okay, so you really aren't missing much.

There wasn't anything stopping you from playing them already.

Everything you said is true. It's just that the local stores play what is currently out. It's easier to get a game that way. But when the current thing is a remake of an older thing, the opportunity to play it skyrockets.

 

[Henry]

Now I sincerely hope he gets what we wants and I will snap that sh*t up in multiple formats as soon as it drops but I can't blame WotC one little bit for focusing on the other 99 people.

Much as I loved the Greyhawk setting back in the 80s and 90s, I have to agree with this. It's indeed quite hard for a company to try to resurrect and rebuild a fanbase for a product that (in Greyhawk's case) had at least one or more divisive splits (Greyhawk pre-Gary leaving, Greyhawk post-Gary leaving, and and the "From the Ashes" Greyhawk, not to mention the wild Vecna subplots back in the late 1990s that some people said "that's not Greyhawk!" -- oh, and lest we forget, fans of the Castle Gaxmoor stuff that Gary contributed to that some people want WotC to inexplicably co-opt because it was Gary's take on some of his original campaign notes, or something like that...)

It's not an impossible task, but that mirror has been broken into so many slivers it's best to just melt it down and make a new but similar copy, rather than try to break out the epoxy. Just take the basic stuff from the original 1983(?) box and give it a fresh coat of paint and modernize for the new audience, and let the old fans take or leave it, because they will never please enough fans old or new if they try to please them all, IMO.

That said, I am looking forward to Ghosts of Saltmarsh -- maybe I can make a Greyhawk campaign out of it and entice some of the old brood to walk Greyhawk again... Then again, if I were doing that, I would more likely run an arc of 5e-modernized T1 Hommelet from say 2 to 5, followed by White Plume Mountain from 6 to 9, then launch full-speed into against the Giants from 10th to 18th level...

Hmmmm....

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Given that Saltmarsh has a whole Jamaica Innsmouth vibe going on, I might be tempted to relocate it to Ravenloft!

 

[Pauln6]

I think keeping the adventures broadly setting neutral is a good idea. The only thing I would add would be a short paragraph on the local politics of the suggested region e.g. name of location, details on local geographical features, folk and factions, rumours and other adventure hooks using local flavour.

I don't need the Red Wizards of Thay hard baked into an adventure since they don't exist in my campaign. A paragraph about the Red Wizards' goals, rivals, ethos and location might help or I might like the same information on the Zashassar of Ekbir, or an Eberron equivalent. I found the suggested locations in the Yawning Portal adventures to be of minimal use unless you already own the settings. They gave no background information about the suggested locations to help put them into context and make them seem intriguing.

 

[gyor]

Honestly dealing with Greyhawk is simply, give the job to Luke Gygax, do it as a PDF, low cost and low risk, and if it proves popular, do a Hardcover later. Like they did for Waycarer's Guide to Eberron written by Keith Baker. They have the basic recipe for this, just use it. Anything else is just hypothetical complications.

 

[KentDT]

Honestly dealing with Greyhawk is simply, give the job to Luke Gygax, do it as a PDF, low cost and low risk, and if it proves popular, do a Hardcover later. Like they did for Waycarer's Guide to Eberron written by Keith Baker. They have the basic recipe for this, just use it. Anything else is just hypothetical complications.

Agree completely with this with the the explicit inclusion of opening it up to DM's Guild (like was done with Eberron).
I know Luke doesn't have the rights to the old notes which were slowly being published by the Troll Lords (Gail Gygax is sitting on those rights) but he has the rights to his memories and WOTC has the rights to the Greyhawk name and all published material-more than enough to put together a great PDF (and perhaps hardcover) and open it up to other authors. Hopefully this was a part of the conversation at GaryCon between Mike Mearls and Luke.

 

[Azzy]

Honestly dealing with Greyhawk is simply, give the job to Luke Gygax, do it as a PDF, low cost and low risk, and if it proves popular, do a Hardcover later. Like they did for Waycarer's Guide to Eberron written by Keith Baker. They have the basic recipe for this, just use it. Anything else is just hypothetical complications.

I agree fully. I think this would be the best way to bring Greyhawk to 5e.