The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh - your experiences?

[Sir Whiskers]

Actually I was going to say the module is way to rich. Most likely the PCs will end up with a ship, its cargo, a bunch of platinum pieces, and the gratitude of a town. Plus they could end up with a Psuedo Dragon.

In which case, I suggest the GM cut back on the treasure awarded, rather than give it to the party just to take it away later - players really hate that sort of thing.

BTW, I forgot about getting to keep the ship. I think the townfolk insisted on keeping it when I played through the module.

 

[DragonLancer]

I had the opportunity to play in the module several years ago, and I loved it, and when my (then) DM sold it on Ebay last year I was lucky enough to win it.

I played a halfling rogue named Maxwell Underhill, although he did not last the whole scenario. He died when the party was engaged in another combat, and Maxwell backed into a corridor and straight into a gelatinous cube. Poor Maxwell.

Top notch module.

 

[Aaron2]

I only got to U2 & U3 once. In U2 it was all over rather quickly with the PCs successfully negotiating a truce. All those well detailed rooms and cool dungeon description = wasted as they simply sought audience with the leader first up. (So I had to later use the rooms/map for a dirty tribe of hobgoblins )

This happened when I played as well. Really, who is going to waste all that time and effort assaulting the lair? The flavor text made it pretty clear you didn't have to. Talking first avoids 80% of the adventure.


Aaron

 

[Umbran]

Long time ago, when my older brother decided it was time to introduce me to D&D, he bought a 1e DMG, PHB, and The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh for me for Christmas. This was the first module, the first D&D thing I ever played. Had a blast, and the module is near and dear to my heart.

Even better, years later I ran it for a bunch of folks who hadn't played before, and discovered that it held up without my nostalgia. Darned good adventure, this one is.

 

[Khayman]

We've only played the first instalment, but something like three or four times. The first time was something like 15 years ago. The two most recent times were last year, and within a month of one another.

Our DM in a Weird War Two campaign used the Saltmarsh maps for a smuggler's hideout on the coast of Normandy. A couple of weeks later, another DM used the same maps in another campaign --- in this case, our evil band of pirates moseyed through and ran afoul of a good-aligned party of adventurers. (Poor buggers never had a chance, arrrrr!)

On the downside, during the pirate adventure I kept expecting Nazis to walk around the corner...

 

[milotha]

I've played in this one and the two sequels. Our group had a blast, but we did get our buts handed to us in the second one, though the GM had augmented the module.

 

[Thotas]

Played this ages ago, me DMing for a bunch of first-time players. So long ago I only really remember two details; one is the green slime falling on one PC, while the party had a half orc that carried a lot of beer with her wherever she went. So she passed around the bottles, they shook 'em up and got in a circle spraying beer foam on the victim hoping it would kill the green slime. It didn't, of course, but I did like the imagery and the creative attempt at problem solving. They also for some reason cast a sleep spell on the suit of plate armor that they found. This one put me in a quandry, since yes, there were rot grubs in the armor, but can rot grubs sleep, really? (In 3.x, of course, I'd say they're vermin and not affected, just like common sense was telling me then.) I decided that this was good instincts and more creative thinking though, and I wanted to reward that trend in a set of newbies, so I went with the RAW and decided it would work. Never played any sequels, though.

 

[DiamondB]

This thread has inspired me to use this series in my upcoming campaign. I actually have never had the opportunity to run or play in this series of adventures, though I've owned all three modules for some time. I'm now really looking forward to getting some use out of them. Hmmm... Maybe I'll go dig through all my 1st edition stuff and see what other inspiration I can find.

For those curious, I did some checking and there has been a conversion done, available here on EN World.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Ran it two years ago (the entire series) for my kids and some other children.

It was a great introduction to the game, because it requires investigation, combat, negotiation, and stealth to complete all three modules. A nice variety.

Their party was a bit over powered, but for children that was fine--it made up for some poor tactical decisions. I think we had 6 PCs and 2 NPCs going through the mods, in a 3.0 conversion.

 

[MerricB]

I love the series, but the levels they are for are dreadfully wrong.

U1 and U2 work pretty much "as is", but in U3 a normal party will be destroyed. Either you have a kind DM running clueless opponents, or the party needs a knock spell - and probably a few fireballs.

Unfortunately, U1 took my group 2 sessions and U2 only 1. I was using 3E, and even with its fast advancement rates, the party was only at 2nd level.

Not good.

Cheers!