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!

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!

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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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[Dire Bare]

I've said this before in other threads, but, it bears repeating. There is nothing in it for WotC to release Greyhawk in to the wilds on DMsGuild. It's just not going to happen. There's no upside for WotC in this scenario. While I understand wanting it to be different, and, as a Greyhawk fan myself, I truly do understand, I also realize that the reality of the situation is that it's just not going to happen while WotC can leverage all that nostalgia for classic modules into new products.

I would disagree that WotC would gain nothing from releasing Greyhawk to the DM's Guild. Granted, I don't think we're talking huge piles of money here, but there are advantages for little work on their part. 1) it would make a small but vocal segment of the fan community happy, 2) it would likely increase the number of titles available on the site, of which WotC gets a cut in sales, 3) it's a good PR move. A good reason for them to wait is if they plan on releasing some actually Greyhawk content of their own, and are holding back on the DM's Guild to coincide with a book release. Another reason to wait is to space out DM's Guild updates to periodically draw interest back to the site. But I think they'll release Greyhawk on the site at some point, just not in the immediate future.

 

[Bolongo]

So, it turns out that the 3.x DMG II has a fully drawn out Saltmarsh, while the original modules left the town for the DM to draw out. I wonder if this will make use of that material as the frame setting?

Well, not verbatim at least. The version in the DMG II is set several years after the conclusion of the modules, and is stated to be much larger than it was "back in the day".

 

[Connorsrpg]

Thinking about it - this seems like the best way to do an "environmental" book. I loved reading the 3e Environmental books, but, at the end of the day, it was a lot of work to then turn around and take all the goodies in that book and apply it to whatever adventure I was running. Having a series of modules all based around using the nautical rules means I can get a LOT more use out of a book like this.

And, the fact that they are opening up Dungeon Magazine means that good grief, they have sooooo many modules to pull from. Creating more "themed" books would be an absolute snap. It's probably harder to figure out what not to include than anything else.

Sweet.

Agreed

And I prefer the several similar adventures, rather than a full adventure path. Presents more like possibilities with the chances of doing other adventures, rather than one big path to follow

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Aren’t Isle of the Abbey and U1 - Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh both for levels 1-3, though? I wonder how they’re going to work that out. TftYP didn’t have any level range overlap.

I seem to remember that SSoS wasn't very deadly though - you could slip in the Abby between U1 and U2. Or you could do it "open world" and leave it up to the players which rumours they chase up first.

 

[Ash Mantle]

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.

View attachment 105027​

That artwork is freaking nice!
Makes me wonder though, that if a kraken is featured so prominently on the cover, might we finally see a pact of the kraken warlock in some form in the book? We've still got some time before release for UA testing.
I'm still disappointed that Boats and wasn't used as the official title though


Good to see smaller-length campaigns that your group can just drop in and play, I'm all for the months-long campaigns but sometimes you just want some inspiration for a campaign of a shorter timeframe or you just don't have the time to invest in such a long campaign.


Actually makes me want to run a campaign where your players play characters in a drunken sea-dog's story. The framing device is that this drunk is telling your group this far-fetched, way too good to be true story and your group is actually playing how it transpires. So there's definitely an element of an unreliable narrator.

 

[Ash Mantle]

It ALWAYS matters. The more they steal from geeyhawk to shove into FR, the less likely they will either release items specifically for Greyhawk, or open the setting up so folks can release for items for it.

THATS why it matters.

Oh, is that you again, DQDesign? Here to grace us again with your presence?

 

[Li Shenron]

I know it's kinda irrelevant for the thread but I got to say it... for my tastes 5e has the best covers of any edition ever

 

[Kramodlog]

Reprints of old adventures? Again? Such little effort is put into these things nowadays. No worries, streaming inflate sales. You can print anything and I'll sale anyway. Sigh.

 

[sim-h]

On a related note Beadle and Grimm's (who did the Platinum Edition of Dragon Heist for $500) seem to be teasing an announcement coming tomorrow - 'Silver edition' of the new book seems likely from their emails...

 

[Ash Mantle]

If they have the page count to spare, this book would also be the perfect book to rerelease the swashbuckler.