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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[R_J_K75]

Having been reading Twitter, I've discovered a pretty big problem with this book: the absence of pirates. People want pirates. When this was announced I saw a number of people excited by the idea of a sailing campaign and possible piratical PCs. But this isn't that. The first three sessions underwater adjacent or inland. Others take place in and around islands. There may only be a couple encounters that take place on a ship.I expect a lot of new players will be really disappointed by this adventurer, going into it thinking one thing and then discovering it's something else entirely...

Gotta be honest Im not to excited for this. Rehashing old adventures/ideas just with new mechanics just seems uninspired. Its seems besides the three core 5E books everything else has been a rehash to some extent.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Having been reading Twitter, I've discovered a pretty big problem with this book: the absence of pirates. People want pirates. When this was announced I saw a number of people excited by the idea of a sailing campaign and possible piratical PCs. But this isn't that. The first three sessions underwater adjacent or inland. Others take place in and around islands. There may only be a couple encounters that take place on a ship.I expect a lot of new players will be really disappointed by this adventurer, going into it thinking one thing and then discovering it's something else entirely...

There's already a lot of pirate-oriented content out there and if Freeport or Razor Coast ever get ported to 5E, there will be even more of it.

That said, this seems like a no-brainer for the DMs Guild: Pirate content for Ghosts of Saltmarsh, including a Random Pirate table to roll on.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Gotta be honest Im not to excited for this. Rehashing old adventures/ideas just with new mechanics just seems uninspired. Its seems besides the three core 5E books everything else has been a rehash to some extent.

Most of their campaign books haven't been, unless you want to say that setting anything in the Underdark, or having evil elementals or dragons is automatically a rehash. And once you take those off the table, I'd argue you're cutting away a pretty big chunk of D&D's appeal for the general audience.

In other cases, it's gamers who are demanding a return to the classics, as seen on this thread. WotC didn't pull Strahd out of a hat for no reason.

That said, if D&D tropes are boring to you now, this is a really rich time in RPG history. There's a lot of other games to try until the thrill returns with D&D.

 

[oreofox]

Gotta be honest Im not to excited for this. Rehashing old adventures/ideas just with new mechanics just seems uninspired. Its seems besides the three core 5E books everything else has been a rehash to some extent.

The core 3 are basically rehashes of the core 3 from previous editions, with a few new things added in, and dressed in a different coat of paint. There's nothing wrong with rehashing something from an older time to introduce that to a newer generation. Many people playing D&D now don't know a time where D&D didn't have feats, a Con of 14 didn't give anyone bonus hit points, a dwarf could only reach level 8 in the fighter class (don't quote me on the exact number), etc.

I actually kinda enjoyed Yawning Portal, as they were self-contained adventures that you could possibly run in order, or plop them into an existing game. It will be nice if this one is similar.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I don’t know. I’m just reading the same PR you’re reading.

Yep, they make it pretty clear on the product page for it:

"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."

 

[R_J_K75]

Most of their campaign books haven't been, unless you want to say that setting anything in the Underdark, or having evil elementals or dragons is automatically a rehash. And once you take those off the table, I'd argue you're cutting away a pretty big chunk of D&D's appeal for the general audience.

In other cases, it's gamers who are demanding a return to the classics, as seen on this thread. WotC didn't pull Strahd out of a hat for no reason.

That said, if D&D tropes are boring to you now, this is a really rich time in RPG history. There's a lot of other games to try until the thrill returns with D&D.

Im personally not a fan of the mega adventures or a groups of connected adventures, but I do use pieces oof them sometimes. An entry on Salmarsh sounds interesting but I wonder how much will be reprinted from the 3.5E DMG 2? The seafaring rules might be useful but again its been done in 2Es Of Ships and Sea and 3.5s Stormwrack. As the premise of 5E was that in every situation the rules dont need to be quantified so is this part really necessary? I'll admit the monster manual and deck plans will be useful. I just wonder how many people actually wanted to see an update of the U-series and a few others? Why not just write a new adventure set in a setting neutral locale and put the rules/MM appendix at the end?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

An entry on Salmarsh sounds interesting but I wonder how much will be reprinted from the 3.5E DMG 2? The seafaring rules might be useful but again its been done in 2Es Of Ships and Sea and 3.5s Stormwrack.

Released in 2006, 1997 and 2005.

If you have those products and don't find this useful, rock on. Not every product is about or for you. (I have no interest in 99 percent of the big campaign books WotC has put out, although the summoning Tiamat storyline, amusingly, is the exact same one as a long running campaign I had just finished off when it was announced.)

But today's new gamers shouldn't be required to hunt down a 22 year old source book so that they can run 35+ year old adventures.

As the premise of 5E was that in every situation the rules dont need to be quantified so is this part really necessary?

As mentioned in Kate Welch's video interview, vehicle rules are already in the DMG. This clarifies and expands them, with lots of sample sea vessels. It's optional content for people who want it. Based on reaction online, it seems like a lot of people think it sounds good.

I'll admit the monster manual and deck plans will be useful. I just wonder how many people actually wanted to see an update of the U-series and a few others? Why not just write a new adventure set in a setting neutral locale and put the rules/MM appendix at the end?

Because those adventures are 35+ years old, most people never subscribed to Dungeon, much less kept all the adventures handy, and to many of today's gamers, these are new adventures. (I've never run any of the Dungeon adventures, for instance.)

The people who have a D&D collection dating back to at least 1E are the minority and are not representative of the gaming population as a whole. WotC is producing new content for you, but not every product will be.

 

[Parmandur]

Having been reading Twitter, I've discovered a pretty big problem with this book: the absence of pirates. People want pirates. When this was announced I saw a number of people excited by the idea of a sailing campaign and possible piratical PCs. But this isn't that. The first three sessions underwater adjacent or inland. Others take place in and around islands. There may only be a couple encounters that take place on a ship.I expect a lot of new players will be really disappointed by this adventurer, going into it thinking one thing and then discovering it's something else entirely...

That's probably what WotC folks meant about the early speculation being off-target. However, Welch has said there will be about a dozen deck plans, and robust random tables: pirated being part of that seems likely. And a Seord Coast high seas AP might be around the corner, which would be primarily piracy oriented on all likelihood, so we'll see where this goes.

 

[R_J_K75]

That's probably what WotC folks meant about the early speculation being off-target. However, Welch has said there will be about a dozen deck plans, and robust random tables: pirated being part of that seems likely. And a Seord Coast high seas AP might be around the corner, which would be primarily piracy oriented on all likelihood, so we'll see where this goes.

Possibly an AP focussed on the pirates of the Nelanther Isles, I believe they were detailed in Lands of Intrigue. Also I seem to remember reading there being lots of piracy on the Sea of Fallen Stars. Cormyr gives letters for certain ship captains to attack and apprehend known pirate vessels on site.

 

[BookBarbarian]

Best Ralph Wiggum voice. "Oh boy Saltmarch. That's we're I'm a viking!".