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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[Augreth]

Azure Sea

From the D&D product web page for Ghosts of Saltmarsh:
”[FONT=&amp]Nestled on the coast of the Azure Sea is Saltmarsh, a sleepy fishing village that sits on the precipice of destruction.”

Can someone please tell me where the heck that Azure Sea is supposed to be in the Realms?

[/FONT]http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/ghosts-saltmarsh

 

[Parmandur]

I like a lot of the other posters are carving for a Greyhawk setting book but the quote above reiterates the fact that largely (apart from Eberron, the Realms, Dark Sun and Ravnica) WotC wants all D&D books to be used in any setting so NO setting books. This has been the tone since 4e.

They have released the SCAG and Ravnica as setting books, have an Eberron setting playtedt going, and Mearls said within the last month that he is looking for an angle to get Greyhawk published in 5E. No need to be hasty.

 

[qstor]

Mearls said within the last month that he is looking for an angle to get Greyhawk published in 5E. No need to be hasty.

I missed that. Thanks Where did he say it?

 

[Parmandur]

I missed that. Thanks Where did he say it?

In an interview for Dragon Talk, he went into the history of Greyhawk, and discussed his desirrnto do more with it in the future: in hindsight, he was probably doing the interview partly as a promo for this book. More in the following video:

https://youtu.be/_o-_4xEJ2PE

 

[Mistwell]

I am a huge Greyhawk fan, but I honestly don't care what setting this is supposed to be set in. There is nothing really setting specific about these adventures. It's not like you're fighting Iuz. It's mostly just a friggen isolated town and swamp which could be any backwater location in any setting. There are iconic things about Greyhawk but I never considered the U-series to be one of those things. It's a great series, but it never really had a particularly unique "Greyhawkian" flavor or feel to it.

 

[pukunui]

Man, I thought the previous alternate covers were ugly, but this one really takes the cake! *shivers*

I really like the regular cover though.

 

[generic]

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.

Sure, but (IMNSHO), WotC is never, ever going to release a Greyhawk book. The setting simply isn't "different" enough to draw the attention of new or casual players.

Note: I would LOVE to be proven wrong on this one.

 

[S'mon]

The adventure does not lean on Greyhawk-specific tropes or metaplot. It was set in Greyhawk not because it *needs* to be there for the adventure to function, but because that's the only place they were setting adventures in 1981, when U1 was published.

It was actually a pretty poor fit for its given location in Greyhawk - a 14th century southern English fishing village in an area with climate closer to Biloxi, Mississippi. I blame the British authors and their thinking everywhere is like England.

 

[oreofox]

So, to start with, we must admit that the strategy seems to be working like gangbusters for the game.

That being said, the 50% you find "rather useless" might be one of the main draw for someone else, and a third might find it all relevant. Another might have no use for any of it.

What WotC says they have found is that by doing their releases this way, they sell more books. Not just, "we need to pad this to make up numbers," but just selling more overall books than they used to, with less overhead. If people stop buying them, things will change. But as it is, this works better.

I am not saying what they are doing is terrible business, and no one finds them 100% useful. That would be an extremely dumb statement. I am saying a good 50% or more of each book outside of the core 3 are absolutely useless, TO ME. WotC obviously seems to think it works, and apparently it is. And this is why I am thankful for Amazon's cheaper prices because I would never pay $50+ for a book that has so much useless parts. But hey, it seems to be working just fine for WotC, and I don't see them straying from this format in any future book. There's no reason, sales wise.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

If WotC believes it's got the rights to republish Dungeon adventures (although maybe they reached out to all of these creators individually and renegotiated), that's pretty exciting. I'd love to see Dragon and, the real holy grail, Imagine magazine content republished.

Imagine, from TSR UK, was definitely second-best to Dragon from the era, but it had its own adventures, its own city setting and a distinctly British fantasy vibe that I love and would love to see brought back into the fold.