My Time in Saltmarsh
From DnD.Wizards.com
I purchased “Ghosts of Saltmarsh” due to a break in our longstanding Rime of The Frostmaiden campaign. I wanted to give our hard working Dungeon Master a break so he could stay fresh.. Turns out burnout is real and can happen with your hobbies too. Not that he ever complains. I think you have to be a little fucking crazy to be a DM and to love it as much as ours does.
“Ghosts of Saltmarsh” is a collection adventures that can be molded together for a long campaign, or used to spice up your current campaign. The book suggests what level the party should be for each adventure, although I scaled up the monsters for a higher challenge rating. My party has determined that level one sucks - so we typically start off a bit higher. Ghosts of Saltmarsh also provides special boating rules, ship rules, and tables for random sea encounters. There are suggested upgrades for your ships as well. Try adding dragon scales to increase the ships AC on for size, That’s assuming your party was able to down a fucking dragon. Later in the article, I will outline how I decided to offer these upgrades up to the party.
The module does a good job of breathing life into Saltmarsh. There are suggested tips for tying the adventures together, and I really liked a few of them. Specifically the political motivations for the townsfolk, the hidden motivations of certain NPCs, as well as the looming Lizardfolk threat.
Since the Five Sided Die decided to take a “paternity” break for a few months (Congrats Havel!) I threw together a limited campaign in this world. To kick things off, I sent out a little primer beforehand with some legendary pirate lore…
Knowing I only had 4-5 sessions to play around with, I wanted my players to feel powerful and to gain rewards pretty quickly. We started at level 10, and I scared up the adventures to match their power level. I opened the campaign with the newly formed pirate crew arriving too late to a treasure hunt, setting up a chase sequence. I leaned on the special boating rules for this session, and the group had a blast. They took on roles within the pirate crew and we ended up with two captains, a master at arms, a chef and a ship handyman.
The party ended the first session by fending off some undead, catching up to a rival pirate crew, and defeating a strange octopus man - now infamously known as the Hentai Man. It was as gross as it sounds… I was quite surprised when the pirates saved the rival crew, stole the treasure, took over their ship, and used some crafty magic to enlist them into eternal servitude. I love this fucking game. Anything can happen.
Given this outcome, I came up with a few mechanics that I think will level up your time in Saltmarsh… especially if you are going with a pirate theme.
1. Contracts: In our instance, Saltmarsh has a dying pirate population that is rather old-school and no longer respected. Given that history, there are still those who practice the old ways. I added a mercenary type tavern that gives out contracts for completion - the Empty Net. The Empty Net pays out a rewards and essentially serves as a pipeline for adventures. I was also considering using a “renown” tracker based on the contract results. As the party completes contracts and their renown were to grow, their rewards would increase and the markets in town might be inclined to give them discounts. Contracts really helped me control the narrative, especially since this was a limited adventure for my party. If I were to run a full campaign set in the world, I would absolutely continue the use of contracts.
2. “The Four Pearls” (A Rival Party): A rival party already respected by the township and its leaders. Simply put, they are better than you - and they know it! The Four Pearls really evolved into something unforeseen and fucking great. I really thought my party would kill them. I served them up on a fucking platter, but as every Dungeon Master knows… nothing you plan ever happens. I think Murphy has a law about that? As a good pirate would, our captain enlisted the Pearls as pirates in their crew, boarded and claimed their ship - The James Pearl Jones, and swore to end their lives if they don’t swear over a certain percentage of their profits from here on. This has been fun to navigate. The Four Pearls helped our limited campaign evolve into unforeseen ways and I am here for it. One of which is below:
3. Crew Missions: I borrowed this mechanic from various games I’ve played over the years, but I think it fits well within the Saltmarsh campaign. Even if your play through doesn’t have a rival group - you likely have a ship with crew members that aren’t necessarily named. Someone has to clean the plank, guard the treasure, and scrub down the main deck, right? I came up with a few Crew Missions that my players could select from. They would be sending crew members out on a mission while the party adventured on their own. I started with five missions, to select from all of which had a probability of passing. The first and easiest mission netted 20,000 gold, had a 95% chance of success… taking two days to complete. I had the Captain roll a D100 to see if the crew succeeded on their mission. He rolled a fucking 6/100, but hey… they passed. The other available missions paid more, but had a higher chance of failure. The most challenging mission was a dragon hunt which had a 30% chance of success, but a 10% chance of a fatal failure. I was thinking that as the crew grew stronger, and armed themselves with better weapons, ships, etc… the probabilities of success would increase.
Overall - I am enjoying “Ghosts of Saltmarsh”. If you are on the fence, I would suggest pulling the trigger and giving this a shot. If your players are looking from something a bit spooky, nautical or for a break from the norm… this module is perfect. Not to mention, we got to role play as fucking pirates for a few months.
Arrrr.
-DJDiabeets