Ghosts of Saltmarsh

Dungeons & Dragons, 5th Edition

by Wizards of the Coast

Explore the waves above and the fathoms below in these watery adventures for the world’s greatest roleplaying game.

Nestled on the coast of the Azure Sea is Saltmarsh, a sleepy fishing village that sits on the precipice of destruction. Smugglers guide their ships to hidden coves, willing to slit the throat of anyone fool enough to cross their path. Cruel sahuagin gather beneath the waves, plotting to sweep away coastal cities. Drowned sailors stir to unnatural life, animated by dark magic and sent forth in search of revenge. The cult of a forbidden god extends its reach outward from a decaying port, hungry for fresh victims and willing recruits. While Saltmarsh slumbers, the evils that seek to plunder it grow stronger. Heroes must arise to keep the sea lanes safe for all.

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 Dungeon Magazine:

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!

Genres: Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games, Fantasy, Gaming, Reference, Games, Fiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published May 21, 2019

About the author

Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC /ˈwɒtˌsiː/ or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games. Originally a basement-run role-playing game publisher, the company popularized the collectible card game genre with Magic: The Gathering in the mid-1990s, acquired the popular Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game by purchasing the failing company TSR, and experienced tremendous success by publishing the licensed Pokémon Trading Card Game. The company's corporate headquarters are located in Renton, Washington in the United States.[1]

Wizards of the Coast publishes role-playing games, board games, and collectible card games. They have received numerous awards, including several Origins Awards. The company has been a subsidiary of Hasbro since 1999. All Wizards of the Coast stores were closed in 2004.

Reviews

[James Bowman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ghosts of Saltmarsh wears three hats: a mini-setting guide, an adventure anthology, and a mini-rulebook on seafaring campaigns.

Chapter 1 is all about the town of Saltmarsh and what can be found nearby. (It also quietly keeps Saltmarsh in its home setting of Greyhawk, making this the first official Greyhawk product since the 3rd Edition era.) This whole region makes for a great starter setting for D&D adventures, with a well-fleshed out home base and lots of fun adventure hooks (and not just for the adventures later in the book). They also throw in some new and variant character backgrounds (such as Shipwright and Smuggler).

Chapters 2 through 8 represent the bulk of the book, reprinting and updating a number of sea-related adventures from earlier editions. These are a little more inter-connected than those in the earlier Tales from the Yawning Portal, but it really consists of one central arc (Chapters 2, 3, and 6), and four side stories (Chapters 4, 5, 7, and 8). It feels a little odd (not quite a campaign, not quite an anthology), but I think the flexibility is for the best. (Chapter 1 does suggest a way to tie them all together if you wish.)

Getting into specifics:
- The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (1E): Actually two smaller adventures back-to-back, one with a haunted house and one featuring a ship. Both are decent, and aren't meant to be played strictly for combat (especially the first half).
- Danger at Dunwater (1E): The sequel to Sinister Secret, this veers even further from the typical dungeon-crawl formula, sending players to investigate a lizardfolk threat - and while they clearly prepared for a combat slog (the lizardfolk lair is quite extensive) it's clearly not the smart play. (The lair would also be very useful for anyone who wants a lizardfolk community in their campaign.)
- Salvage Operation (3.5): From Dungeon Magazine, this has almost nothing to do with Saltmarsh, basically a dungeon crawl at sea. Neat enough, but a bit short and not as clever as some of the others in here.
- Isle of the Abbey (Basic D&D): From Dungeon Magazine, and loosely tied to Saltmarsh here, this is a mixed bag. The initial encounter at the beach is very cool and clever, and almost makes it all worthwhile. But the dungeon-crawl elements at the abbey itself seem tacked on, and could fit anywhere; kind of disappointing.
- The Final Enemy (1E): The conclusion of the original Saltmarsh trilogy, which sends you to an undersea lair. Much like Danger at Dunwater, a combat slog would be a very bad approach; they provide options for this if you insist, though. (Also like Dunwater, the lair would work very well outside the adventure.)
- Tammeraut's Fate (3.5): From Dungeon Magazine, this may be my favorite in the book. Basically a survival horror scenario if run right, with some interesting hooks for future adventures.
- The Styes (3.5): From Dungeon Magazine, largely an investigation adventure in the vein of Call of Cthulhu. Pretty solid, if basically unconnected to Saltmarsh. Might be best for players who like grittier settings, though.

Appendix A, "Of Ships and the Sea", helps conclude the book. First they focus on ships, with rules for running sailing ships through combat and travel, including several sample ships and ship-specific magic items. Then they shift to sea environments, including rules for encounters at sea, an island generator, and number of sample underwater locations (each with adventure hooks). At times the rules honestly get more detailed than I think is necessary, especially when it comes to stuff like crew quality and sea hazards, but if you're running a dedicated seafaring campaign the resources will surely come in handy (and you can always gloss over them when you don't need them). The remaining Appendices in the book cover magic items and monsters from the adventures.

Overall, Ghosts of Saltmarsh is a worthy addition to any D&D campaign that plans on seafaring adventures. A home base in Saltmarsh, a solid assortment of adventures, and tons of useful resources to cover the rest. If you don't plan on a full-time sea campaign it's less essential, but there's still a lot here in the adventures and the Saltmarsh region to work with. One of the better adventure sourcebooks for 5E thus far. (A-)

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you read my review of Tales From the Yawning Portal, then you know of my fondness for adventure compilations. Translating an adventure from one edition of the game to another is not an easy feat, so I'm eternally grateful when someone else does the hard work. A big problem with Yawning Portal is that it only existed to compile a clump of adventures between two covers. Rather than picking modules with a unifying theme from within, the Wizards team instead adapted modules with a unifying theme from without: some of the most (in)famous adventures in the game's history, all of which are long out-of-print in their physical incarnations. Excellent for grognards like me, or for curiosity seekers wondering what all the fuss with Tomb of Horrors was about, but not so hot for new Dungeon Masters looking for a campaign suited for new players.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh, by contrast, corrects much of what Wizards didn't get right with the previous translation anthology. So let's dig deeper and see what Saltmarsh holds for your party of scurvy landlubbers, shall we? Also, here there be minor spoilers. Anyone complaining will be keelhauled, then used as bait to troll for sharks.

Hoist Up the Sails!
Ghosts of Saltmarsh, as previously mentioned, compiles seven separate adventures into one campaign all themed around nautical exploration, meant to take a group of 1st level PCs all the way to level 15 or thereabouts. Anyone who gets sea-sick or hates the smell of brine will be downright miserable. Here's a quick run-down of the stories you'll find within:

- "The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh", written by Don Turnbull and David J. Brown, was originally published by TSR's UK division back in 1981 as U1: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. Much like Gary Gygax's B2: The Keep on the Borderlands, the adventure is centered on a remote frontier settlement which gives the PCs both a base of operations and plenty of opportunities to get into trouble. While the oceans are no place for low-level characters, this story has them investigating a haunted house on the edge of town. Once they've learned what's really going on, and are a bit better prepared to face it, they will move on to...

- "Danger At Dunwater". Part two of the "Saltmarsh" campaign written by Brown and Turnbull, this module was published as U2: Danger At Dunwater in 1982, and follows up on the events of the previous adventure. Now that the PCs have some experience under their belts, it's time to find out who was behind all the smuggling and kidnapping they rooted out in Sinister Secret. This leads them to a lair of lizardfolk, who are considerably better armed than expected, giving players the chance to engage in diplomacy instead of insisting on solving all their problems with broadswords and Eldritch Blasts. Assuming the party isn't composed entirely of murder-hobos, and they survive the trip through the marshlands, they may encounter a burly half-orc with an interesting job proposition, which leads into...

- "Salvage Operation", a 2005 adventure for 3rd Edition written by Mike Mearls and published in issue 123 of Dungeon magazine. The PCs are hired by a noble to investigate a derelict vessel in search of a considerable sum of money which their benefactor is all too willing to share with them should they recover it. Unfortunately, as anyone who has ever played Space Hulk knows, derelict ships rarely get that way by accident, and out in the middle of the ocean, there's no one to hear you scream. Whether they actually retrieve the promised fortune or not, the waterlogged party can make their way back to dry land and rest up until danger once again comes calling in...

- "Isle of the Abbey", a 1992 adventure for 2nd Edition written by Randy Maxwell and published in issue 34 of Dungeon. A local mariners guild is interested in building a lighthouse to aid passage for ships through treacherous waters, and they've found the perfect island upon which to erect it. Fortunately, the island is uninhabited: after being sacked by pirates, who burned the abbey and everything else on the remote outcropping, the pirates were themselves attacked and scattered by soldiers from the guild. All the PCs have to do is make sure the island is cleared of any remaining threats so the guild can build their lighthouse. Easy peasy lemon-squeezy, right? Suuuuuure, buddy, whatever you say.... In any case, once they've given the place the once-over, they'll be ready for a return trip to Saltmarsh to spend their coin and encounter...

- "The Final Enemy", the conclusion to the original Saltmarsh trilogy by Turnbull and Brown, published in 1983 as U3: The Final Enemy. Now that they've dealt with the smugglers and figured out what's up with the lizardfolk, the denizens of Saltmarsh want the party to lead an intelligence-gathering mission into the heart of enemy territory. If the PCs can keep a lid on their noisiest and most violent tendencies and report back their findings, they'll win the honor of being first in line when the true assault begins. After the dust settles and Saltmarsh has been saved(?), a journey to greener pastures awaits in...

- "Tammeraut's Fate", written by Greg Vaughn for 3rd Edition, and published in Dungeon #106 in 2004. Piracy is one of those high-risk occupations, so when the vessel Tammeraut sank with all hands aboard lost, nobody shed a tear. Five years went by peacefully, until the sudden attack on nearby Firewatch Island. The PCs are commissioned to investigate why the hermitage was over-run and determine if there's any further danger posed to the surrounding area, only to ultimately find themselves in the middle of a final stand where they are besieged on all sides. Should they manage to repel the attackers, they'll be only too happy to leave Firewatch and head for safer waters, which they absolutely will not find in...

- "The Styes", written by Richard Pett for 3rd Edition, and published in Dungeon #121 in 2005. This four-part adventure serves as the campaign's capstone, bringing the PCs to a down-trodden harbor city which has fallen on hard times and is now mostly crumbling ruins filled with inhabitants too poor to leave, or too thoroughly evil to overlook the opportunities presented by the slums. Initially looking to catch a ghostly murderer, the characters come to realize there's more to The Styes than meets the eyes. For as unsafe as the streets of the former city are, the dangers there pale in comparison to those lurking in the murky waters just off-shore.

With seven different adventures all themed around watery encounters, Ghosts of Saltmarsh does a far better job at building itself as a campaign world than Tales From the Yawning Portal did. The original Saltmarsh trilogy was lauded in its day for being such a different take on the "kick-in-the-door" dungeon crawl so common at the time, and the Wizards design team went to great lengths to build the town up as a base of operations suitable for low- to mid-level characters in this book. The writers assert that DMs could use both products to inter-weave a massive campaign of both sea- and land-based adventures, and given Yawning Portal offers up no such towns or cities for the PCs to call home, using Saltmarsh as the campaign's beachhead is a fine idea.

All of the adventures in Ghosts of Saltmarsh were originally set in Greyhawk, but the book includes ideas for each adventure's placement in Eberron, the Forgotten Realms, or Mystara, as well as generic information about the surrounding areas so you can tailor them into your own campaign. You'll also need to modify some of the text to reflect different pantheons as necessary, since nobody outside of Greyhawk would know or care about, for example, deities like Iuz or Tharizdun.

Otherwise, about all you'll need to get started in Saltmarsh is photocopies of the maps, and your core rulebooks. Everything else you need, including sea vessel statistics, new adventure hooks and one-shot maps + ideas, sea travel, ship-to-ship combat, water hazards, magical items, and new monsters and NPCs is contained in the seventy pages which comprise the book's three appendices. Even if you aren't planning to run the Saltmarsh storyline, the rules for travel by boat and various ship templates open up a world of possibilities to broaden your players' horizons.

I really can't say enough good things about Ghosts of Saltmarsh. The adventure choices are all solid, I didn't notice any glaring errors generated by the update to 5E the way I did with Yawning Portal, and there are as many opportunities for role-playing and problem solving as there are to lob spells and swing blades. Even if you don't use it as a full-fledged water-themed campaign, many of the adventures make for nice side-treks if you need to bolster a party's levels before they take on a more difficult task, or if you need a solid one-shot for a night when the group can't all meet up. Saltmarsh itself makes for a great base of operations for low- and mid-level PCs looking to make names for themselves before setting out for larger cities like Waterdeep.

About the only thing I don't care for with this book is the same complaint I have with many other 5E hardcovers: the designers' choice to banish the statistics for monsters, NPCs, and magical items to an appendix in the back of the book, instead of right within the text where they're needed. Furthermore, they're arranged in alphabetical order instead of broken down by chapter, which makes it even more annoying to locate the information you as the DM need to know for running a particular adventure. Why 5E went with this decision I'll never know, but it flies in the face of common sense and continues to irritate me.

Aside from that minor grievance though? Ghosts of Saltmarsh is an awesome total package which should serve to make your players think twice before going anywhere near a the sea. Four-and-a-half waterlogged halflings out of five!

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm using the book to run my first ever campaign for my book club (first time players)! I've found it easy to use and I love the various settings. I want my characters to explore beyond the pre written adventures but I was nervous about creating adventurous scenarios for them off the cuff. This book has so many helpful tables, story hooks, ideas for weaving a larger story.. it makes it easy! Plus the environments themselves are so intriguing and inspiring! Really enjoying this book and the campaign.

[Shadowdenizen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent campaign book from WotC.
They've really been knocking it out of the park with these! (SOrry it took so long to sit and actually write a review for this!!)

This is a very sandboxy supplement, with much useful supplemental information to help a nautical-based campaign.

The first 3 adventures included are updates of the classic "U" Trilogy modules from 1E. (Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh/ Danger at Dunwater/ The Final Enemy".) They form a continuing adventure set in and around the city of Saltmarsh. (Orginaly in Oerth, Saltmarsh has since been trasferred to the Sword Coast of Faerun for 5E consistency.)

The remaining adventures are also nautical/sea-based, but require a bit more work to integrate fully into a Saltmarsh-themed campaign. (For the campaign I'm running, I'm using "Sinister Secret" to lead into the more narratiely driven "Call from the Deep" campagin, as I have a soft-spot for all things Far-Realm related.)

This module is not the MOST welcoming to new DM's, but it's far friendlier than some of the other campaigns in the 5E line.

[Jasmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

The updated central adventures were fun (already ran a modified version of one and I'm definitely going to offer the others as options to my players), but I think my favourite parts were actually the new-to-this-edition parts— the character creation options at the front and the maps and possible adventures at the back.

The character options in particular have just got such a sense of buoyant joy and relishing the possibilities that mechanics can give you, story-wise— and the map adventure threads go in such wildly different tonal ways— I'm just delighted and applauding over here. If this is Kate Welch's handiwork, 5e is in good hands. (If it isn't, whatever you have in the coffee at WotC, keep buying from that supplier.)

[Jon Allanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like this adventure. I have fond memories of the original, and this update is really well done. The additional adventures also updated and included round out the town and it's environs and make for excellent campaign fodder. And, the discussions of and rules for adventures at sea are wonderful for adventures set beyond the confines of this book.

[b · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not sure what makes this offering feel like such a useful addition to the toolbox, or makes some of the adventures so much more endearing than lots of the other offers (I’m thinking of the generally underwhelming ‘tales from the yawning portal’), but I really enjoyed this. I think this is one of the better official WotC offerings for D&D out there.

[JZ Upp · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this sourcebook and found it very easy to integrate into my homebrew world and campaign. I personally think some of the adventures are a little lackluster but what are sourcebooks if not mostly guidelines for you to follow? I do think some of the politics and geographic history are a bit too specific to seamlessly mesh into some worlds and is very much built into the canonical world of D&D but that doesn’t make it a bad sourcebook. Would definitely recommend to anyone hoping to add some sea faring adventures to their campaigns.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great maps and scenarios. Water is one of the harder environments to run a game in though but they do a good job with this.

[Iain]

I must now have been the only one to appreciate Tales from the Yawning Portal, because the next Dungeons & Dragons release, Ghosts of Saltmarsh (available May 21, 2019) takes a similar approach. Ghosts of Saltmarsh isn’t just TFTYP 2, however. If Tales from the Yawning Portal was a greatest hits collection, Ghosts of Saltmarsh is a concept album – seven adventures that all (loosely) share a certain theme. (Note: As Ghosts of Saltmarsh is primarily an adventure/DM book, a significant chunk of this review will contain mild spoilers for the adventures. The early part of this review will be spoiler-free, but those who don’t want to ruin the surprise should not venture below the space image a few paragraphs down.)

In the case of Ghosts of Saltmarsh, that theme is the sea. The seven adventures updated for Ghosts of Saltmarsh include the original Saltmarsh trilogy and four adventures pulled from the pages of Dungeon magazine. The original trilogy (The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, Danger at Dunwater, and The Final Enemy) was published by TSR UK from 1981-83 (designed and developed by Dave J. Browne and Don Turnbull). Although it’s the sort of think we’ve generally come to expect in modern times, the Saltmarsh trilogy was distinctive at the time in assembling adventures with thematic presentation and something of a story, instead of an independent location for the party to search and loot. The other four adventures are Salvage Operation (Mike Mearls), Isle of the Abbey (Randy Maxwell), Tammeratu’s Fate (Greg A. Vaughn), and The Styes (Richard Pett).

Across the seven adventures, players will encounter pirates, smugglers, smuggler-pirates, haunted houses, lizardfolk, aquatic elves, aquatic hobgoblins, merfolk, skeletons, underwater zombies, giant underwater monsters, ships in various states of disrepair on the surface of the ocean, and ships in various states of disrepair on the ocean floor. And players going into Ghosts of Saltmarsh are definitely going to need to become familiar with the rules for underwater combat and movement.

In addition to the adventures, players will find new background and some variations on existing backgrounds to fit them in with the town of Saltmarsh (or any other random coastal town). The new backgrounds are fisher, marine, shipwright (which has a really useful ability if you’re going to engage in naval combat), and smuggler. In addition, the back matter includes about 15 pages of expanded information on using ships, including stats for several basic models (longship, keelboat, galley, sailing vessel, war vessel). This includes ship layouts, crew actions, weaponry, movement, and upgrades. It’s a fairly light presentation, as one might expect from the space devoted, but I think that’s appropriate, since D&D is not generally a naval combat simulator, even if the player characters end up with their own ship. This section includes discussion of both combat and travel (although I’m not including DM material on environment in that 15 pages).

Speaking of DM material, I’m going to put a spacer image here, and the review with resume below with. As a last word for players, I’ll note that I have a thumbs up for most of the adventures, but found myself unenthused about one of them. The Saltmarsh trilogy works best as a trilogy, but the other adventures can be plug-and-played at appropriate levels. A specific interest in sea-themed adventures will give players an extra kick out of these adventures (this is probably more pertinent to pirate- and ship-related adventures), although it isn’t required.

For the DM’s Eyes Only

Now that all of those prying players have safely clicked away to greener pastures, here are some more detailed thoughts on the adventures, and how they might be strung together.

As noted above, the adventures in Ghosts of Saltmarsh can be, but don’t need to be strung together. Of course, the original Saltmarsh trilogy have a connected story, and while I think those can be played separately, they are better run sequentially. They cannot, however, just be run consecutively, because the levels don’t work out that way. With that said, they probably work best being run relatively close in time to each other, as the plots directly flow. So there’s a balancing act of putting enough content in between to gain the appropriate levels without stretching things out to much.

For Ghosts of Saltmarsh, that would be accomplished with Salvage Operation and Isle of the Abbey, which span most of the level gap between Danger at Dunwater and The Final Enemy (there is no gap between The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh and Danger at Dunwater). Both of those adventures are pretty self-contained and can readily be run out of the town of Saltmarsh. The final two adventures (Tammeraut’s Fate and The Styes) don’t fit as well, but that’s less of an issue because they are higher-level than the end of the Saltmarsh trilogy.

To help serve as ‘glue’ for the campaign is the town of Saltmarsh itself, which has several factions – Loyalists (who support the crown’s moves to introduce mining and more legitimate trade to Saltmarsh), Traditionalists (who want things to stay as they ever were, mostly fishing and smuggling), and a secret evil faction (who want to wreck the place, but have the obviously good guy member of the city council as their unwitting pawn). There isn’t a ton there, but that’s probably good because the adventures as written have nothing to do with the politics of the town. Instead, the GM needs to make sure to read in the Saltmarsh town section about how to tweak the adventures to tie back into those elements. This could easily leave a situation where the primary political effect of the characters is to discover the bad guy faction, alert the good guy council member, and then generally be heroes.

The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh – An adventure in two parts (characters will start at level 1, go up after part 1, and then go up again after part 2), the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh begins with exploration of a supposedly haunted house that turns out to be a smugglers’ base (although there are some undead in the basement), and then moves on to a raid on the smugglers’ ship. Getting to attack a pirate ship will probably go a long way towards floating some players’ boats (if you’ll pardon the pun). Among the passengers and cargo on the ship are some lizardfolk and weapons, which leads to the next adventure.

Danger at Dunwater – The city council is understandably concerned about a lizardfolk outpost purchasing lots of weapons, and send the player characters to investigate (the players start at 3rd level and will gain 1 level). In order to succeed at this adventure, the characters must realize that the lizardfolk are not a threat, but rather a potential ally. This may involve beating stubborn players over the head at some point during the adventure, because the whole point is that they need to change their mindset – the DM doesn’t have the luxury of a quest-giver at the start of the mission ordering them not to engage. While the adventure kind of assumes that the players will inflict some casualties on the lizardfolk before figuring out what’s going on, they really need to catch on fairly quickly. This has the ancillary downside that, if the players are on the ball, relatively little of the adventure will actually be used. And, while there is a point-tracking system to determine when the players have convinced the lizardfolk to ally with Saltmarsh, and that system involves talking, there’s very little guidance on how to do that convincing other than making charisma checks.

Salvage Operation – Designed for a party of 4th level characters, Salvage Operation takes place entirely at sea (well, the actual adventure part of it does, anyway). For reasons not particularly pertinent, the characters need to board a derelict ship, make their way down to the cargo hold to grab the Quest Item and trigger a monster attack, then make their way back up to the main deck and off the ship before it sinks or the elder octopus gets them. The way down is pretty standard fare, just with the ‘dungeon’ being the inside of a ship. But the way back up, with a constant environmental threat, movement restrictions from the treasure, and the danger of sinking, really gives this adventure a distinctive feel.

Isle of the Abbey – The second adventure to fill the levels between parts 2 and 3 of the Saltmarsh trilogy, Isle of the Abbey is designed for fifth-level characters. The abbey in question was of the evil deity variety, and was recently attacked by their own pirate allies. With the pirates defeated and the abbey weakened, it’s the players turn to finish off the losers. This adventure kicks off with an effort to traipse across a sandy beach that just happens to contain many, many buried skeletons – which will be of wildly variable difficulty, because the d20 roll to make it off the beach may mean no combat or massive hordes of skeletons to deal with. The public part of the abbey, similarly, may or may not require much fighting, depending on whether the players are able to figure out the right things to say. The part that remains constant, however, is the secret passages under the abbey, which contains a stack of traps, undead, and animated statutes.

The Final Enemy – The capstone of the Saltmarsh trilogy, The Final Enemy is for a 7th-level party (so there’s a gap to fill from the prior adventure). It is probably also the most difficult adventure to GM out of those in this book. The reason for the alliance in Danger at Dunwater is that the lizardfolk only moved near Saltmarsh because their old home was taken over by sahuagin, and they were buying weapons to take it back. The lizardfolk were assembling an alliance, and ultimately Saltmarsh wanted to join (and did join, if the characters managed to avoid murdering all of the lizardfolk). Before the final battle, the characters are sent in to the sahuagin fortress (which is now mostly underwater) to scout enemy numbers and locations. This is tough for the GM, because it’s going to be difficult for the GM and the players to realize when it’s time for the players to bug out. There’s no way the players will just be able to defeat all of the sahuagin (if they could, what would the point of the alliance be?), and there are some individual rooms that are flagged as probably being lethal. But these probably won’t be immediately apparent to the players without some DM signposting. There’s supposed to be a lot of sneaking, but entire parties of characters are notoriously bad at sneaking. And, even if the DM is skilled at assessing party capabilities, it’s unclear what exactly will count as a success in the mission – how much information about what is enough to let the allies succeed? Topping off this exploration is a final confrontation (which was not included in the original adventure; that just ended with the characters getting out of the base). That part is fairly straightforward to run, but only once it’s read very, very closely, because it isn’t entirely clear what is where (and a glaring typo doesn’t help). I like that the concluding battle has a nice point-scoring system, so it’s easy to know exactly how much the party accomplished and how much it mattered to the assault.

Tammeraut’s Fate – This adventure, for a party of 9th level characters, features another abbey on an island. This one, however, is occupied by the good guys. These residents, alas, suffered a similar fate to those on the Isle of the Abbey – most of them are already dead at the hands of pirates. Although, to spice things up, this time it’s zombie pirates. And they’re doing that whole ‘undead walking across the floor of the ocean’ thing to get to the island. The initial phase of this adventure is fairly light exploration and combat. But eventually the characters will discover the remaining inhabitants in hiding, and realize that the zombie horde will be back that night. This introduces some nice efforts at shoring up the abbey’s defenses from the oncoming attack – there’s quite a bit the players might be able to do (although it will also help greatly if they didn’t expend too many resources in phase 1). Once the attack has been repelled, heroic characters will be compelled to venture to the ocean floor and deal with the magical effect that is turning the drowned sailors into drowned zombies.

The Styes – An adventure for 11th-level characters, The Styes primarily consists of straightforward investigation punctuated by a handful of high-stakes encounters. There’s a very Lovecraftian vibe here, as the threat is an aboleth who has converted to worshipping a mad deity, controls an evil cult from behind the scenes, and is infusing a sea monster with evil power. There are even half-human/half-fish types around. The signs will readily point to the council member who is the putative head of the cult (note: this is an entirely different council from the one in Saltmarsh, and the setting of The Styes doesn’t really play all that nicely with the rest of the book). Finding him sets up this nice visual with a derelict ship being held up by a crane, with the interior kept in jungle-like heat and humidity, and the first fight, which will likely be an ambush spell attack. Once that surprise attack is done, things should quickly turn in the party’s favor, and they will be off to find the aboleth in the local cult hideout. Again, there will be little challenge until combat with the aboleth itself, which has full use of its lair actions. Finally, there will be a final battle, because the characters will need to go deal with the infused sea monsters – with a twist that there will be even more aboleths there, because the first one was a heretic (the characters have the possibility of actually recruiting the help of these newcomers, which will make this scene much easier than fighting them and the monster).

In addition to the naval material discussed in the player section of this review, DM’s will also find more environmental rules for use in sea locations, and three underwater locations. These locations aren’t tied to any particular adventure, but instead spend a bit over four pages each presenting a map, location basics, and then possible adventure hooks. The three locations are a reef, a shipwreck, and an underwater ruin, so there’s a nice spread of options.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, I’d suggest running the first five as a campaign, and I think I personally would mostly stick with a minimalist approach to incorporating the town politics, but then weave those politics into something more substantive to fill the one-level gap between Isle of the Abbey and The Final Enemy – get the town unified before the big confrontation (or maybe I would get lazy and just go look for a pre-made 6th-level adventure elsewhere). I would look to run Tammeraut’s Fate as something independent for any random campaign (or later on in a campaign a couple levels after the completion of the Saltmarsh trilogy). Both Salvage Operation and Isle of the Abbey can be done alone as well, although Salvage Operation is more on the nose if you’re aiming for a sea-themed adventure (Isle of the Abbey is set on an island that was previously attacked by pirates, but the challenges faced by the players aren’t really sea-related).

I have a harder time recommending The Styes, because the mood of the adventure feels so out of place to me for the level of the characters involved. I get that fighting aboleths requires a certain power level, but to me part of the Lovecraftian mood is characters who are first learning of the crazy world out there and have a relatively limited ability to do anything about it. 11th level D&D characters are relative powerhouses, able to blow up buildings, slice their way through enemy hordes, and throw lightning at their problems – they’ve been there, done that.

In all, then, Ghosts of Saltmarsh presents a few really good adventures (Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, Salvage Operation, Tammeraut’s Fate), a couple that are OK or will require some GM hand-holding (Danger at Dunwater, Isle of the Abbey, The Final Enemy), and one that I’m not too enthused about (The Styes). I think that’s a pretty good ratio. Ghosts of Saltmarsh doesn’t have the same level of star power that Tales of the Yawning Portal did, but it still provides a lot of fodder for the GM to use.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I read a book like this one, my goal is to see some worthwhile scenarios that one can play and some insight as to the world that D&D is set in, and this book certainly does that.  For a variety of reasons, I have been big on playing lizardman characters recently and it's a trend I think I am going to continue doing, not least because lizardmen are pretty awesome characters whose love of food and social distance from other races tends to match my own frequent moments of social awkwardness.  At any rate, this book is one that has some compelling and interesting aspects and that allows players to enjoy a scenario that involves a small town, a community of obscure lizardmen, and efforts at preventing massive evil, suitable for a variety of levels no less.  The attention to place and scope makes this a good book and the scenario is one that I could definitely see myself enjoying as either a player or a GM.  Altogether that makes this book an easy one to appreciate as well as to recommend for others to enjoy as well.  And the scenario is familiar enough that even one of my coworkers had heard of it before.

This book is a bit more than 200 pages and is divided into 8 chapters and other supplementary material.  The book begins with a brief introduction.  After that the author discusses Saltmarsh, a small town with politics and factions, downtime activities, an interesting region to explore, as well as adventures and backgrounds for players (1).  After that the author discusses an initial mission that discusses the sinister secret of Saltmarsh as well as some adventure hooks (2) and then a continuing danger at Dunwater, which provides advice on how to play lizardfolk (3), something I deeply enjoy.  This leads to a discussion of a salvage operation (4) that provides some challenging gameplay and then a discussion of an isle of the abbey (5) that involves some dark doings that are worth exploring for mid-level characters.  After that the author provides a compelling scenario where an advanced party fights a final enemy (6), after which the author discusses the fate of Tammeraut (7), an even more advanced scenario that has some ways to extend the scenario, and then moves on to another adventure involving dark forces in the area (8).  Finally, the book ends with an appendix that discusses ships and the sea as well as some notes on magic items that can be given as prizes and some monsters and npcs for the various adventures.

Is this scenario worthwhile to read about?  Well, if you want to add some intrigue to your playing and your characters are okay at learning how to build complex alliances with a small coastal town as well as with a lizardmen community, this scenario is definitely one that can be appreciated easily.  Not only does it provide some compelling action but it can also be a good ticket to allow characters the chance to build up reputation and even gather some property and hooks to future adventures.  The book does a good job at connecting this particular series of quests with various possible worlds, allowing it to be more than just a one-off mission but also something that can be used to connect the larger gameplay of characters and get them to engage in undersea adventures with the possibility of new friends (and enemies) as well as the acquiring of ships, which could be of interest to some.  Whether one is more interested in the trade angles or the darkness of the seas or the complex diplomacy involved, there are a lot of ways that this scenario can be a fun and useful one and that is to be celebrated.

[Joshua Honoridez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay so this is my comprehensive review, of this book as a new buyer, long time DM and reader.

It amazes me how DMs can pull this stuff together into an actual comprehensible material for games. Me being one of them. This Book, intended as a 7 adventure integrated series and or stand alone adventure is certainly intriguing in both concept and writing. However, this book, books and modules released in this disorganized blunder certainly does not amaze me when i hear other Would Be DMs turn tail running.

Reading through it the first time, i can best describe it as Entering an unknown mall and finding a Display Directory with what appears to be relevant information.

It provides me a Sectioned map, numbers and legend.

HOWEVER. When you get down to the stores listed, none of the stores are placed in a sectioned directory. And they do not have corresponding numbers that correlate with the map.

This is what they do with this Book. It proceeds to start to go into detail of your theme setting and backdrop. And a few pages in you ask yourself. Where is Saltmarsh? It gives a map of Salt Marsh. Then in a small box it can be in X Y Z in eberron, greyhawk or faerun. Can you not just simply reprint a labeled map? Instead if penning in, "Its here Lul".

Then it throws you into the adventure hooks, which btw reference a bunch of stuff you havent read yet. Like we learned this in college you animals. INCLUDE REFERENCE NOTES AND PAGES. Who was this NPC you read 26 pages ago? What entails this creature 90 pages ahead of where you read?

How hard is it to cross reference on the
Page. *GST 54* *PHB 92* *MM 72*. Organizational nightmare. Forcing the buyer to memorize, recreate, footnote, rewrite, reoorganize the material they Bought. This goes with ALL their adventures.

Shouldnt it be written in a cascading order of events so DMs can read a book and run the module? Instead of playing interactive novel that doesnt tell you the pages youre supposed to turn to next. THAT doesnt reference a map made made in greyhawk X amount of years ago but youre to lazy to reprint.

And the "New" creatures is Abysmal. Ya got this entire, vast ecosystem, teeming with wonder and life. And theres what, barely 10 new stat monsters? The MM hardly containing a reasonable repetoire of underwater creatures.

Theres my rant. Please organize. Doubt they will. Should you buy this? I mean if you want to sit around for 2-3 weeks reorganizing someone elses material sure.

[Brian Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was... Interesting. I've not done much with 5E and I have to say the layout and design of the adventure book is nice. The appendix of new monsters and otherwise review to the 5E MM makes for a very clean and easy reading layout. The advice to the DM on how to handle developments and frame sequences are also well put together and makes it clear how much 5E has succeeded in its framing as being the new-player-friendly version of the game.

That said, I think the book needed work on how to tie the individual adventures together. The the town of Saltmarsh and the three classic modules work fine; the conspiracy stuff in the new Saltmarsh section also hangs together very well. And then the three adventures taken from old Dungeon magazine entries are all left with just edition tweaks. It's deeply frustrating. I understand the desire to let the original creators work shine on its own, but one extra page on each adventure on edits inside the adventure proper to link it more tightly to Saltmarsh (rather than 1 paragraph on each at the beginning of the book) would have gone a long way to giving this a cohesive feel.

Cohesion is really the missing word here. They adventures are generally thematically linked, but the non-Saltmarsh additions suffer from not being cohesive with the Saltmarsh stuff, and then suffer internally with the classic problems Dungeon magazine adventures - monsters that have weakly justified ties to the module, unnecessary levels of plot complication - that don't link back to Saltmarsh at all. Yes, you can fix it, but with more work than I'd like to do for a slickly produced hardcover that I would now have to festoon with notes.

[Dylan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ghosts of Saltmarsh by Wizards of the Coast is an immersive non-setting-specific campaign that allows DMs to take their players to the coastal cities of a fantasy world and engage in naval-related combat and travel. While this does sound intriguing on the surface, there are a few issues with what this book attempts to sell itself as. While the campaign information and world-building certainly lends itself to being a great setting for either an entire campaign or a piece of a bigger world, the mechanics are incredibly clunky. There is next to no exploration of naval mechanics, combat, or travel, instead just making it a throwaway as part of the coastal setting. For someone who was looking to make naval travel and island hopping an exciting part of their own homebrew world, the promise of these mechanics being tested and used in an official WoTC let me down when it ended up being such a minuscule part of this book's new additions.

TL;DR: Intriguing setting and campaign prompt, but falls very short of the promise of boat mechanics, and water travel for more island-based adventures.

[Peter Loftus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Saltmarsh is a decent town to use as a starting point for a campaign (although the map seems to be the wrong way around for most settings). Unfortunately, the individual chapters are quite weak and quickly get samey. Many of them are old fashioned and have not been updated, even down to the shoddy maps and any mistakes that were present in the originals (re. maps - Mike Schley has set the standard and it is difficult to go back from that to the blue and white mess on the 80's). The biggest problems are that 2 major chapters describe huge dungeons, when in reality the players just need to get in and do a quick one session job. Also the repetitive nature and lack of development of the situation in Saltmarsh. We got to about Ch5 and then walked away.

[John Stinebaugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent resource for nautical adventures in 5e, with a collection of adventures that allow you to use them. While three of the adventures and a few of the random encounters weave together, this is not a campaign like some other supplements and you will have to make adjustments to connect all of the adventures.

[Andy Horton · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first ever D&D game in the early 80s, and the first I later DMed, was U1: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. So I couldn't help myself - had to buy this, which expands the setting, reworks the U series and other modules for 5e, and gives lots of rules for seafaring adventures.

[Julian Meynell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read five of the 5th edition adventure books and this is easily my favorite. The book is a nautical themed one. It contains seven previously published adventures as well as a detailed town (really a large village) and several nautically themed appendices. The adventures are mostly independent of one another although three do form a story arc, these can be separated from one another.

The only criticism that one can make of it is that it isn't really like most 5th edition adventure books in having a strong single story. That's a criticism that is not really fair to it because the whole thing can be held together in a variety of ways one of which is briefly described in the book. I think you could play the entire thing as a very satisfactory single campaign.

Nonetheless, the primary focus of the book is to provide a tool kit of options for the DM and an alternative to 5th edition style railroads. In that, it admirably succeeds. The book can be combined with Tales from the Yawning Portal to provide a mix and match campaign. The adventures in the book are consistently good (something I can't say for Yawning Portal) and I would run any of them. They also provide a lovely variety of adventures which require different approaches and provide different feels. The Styes is a particular favorite providing something more Lovecraftian than anything I thought was possible in conventional D&D.

The other material is good to excellent. The initial chapter details the town of Salt Marsh which is a large, prosperous fishing village. It would be useful to anyone who does not know how to make a Dungeons and Dragons settlement. I do and now need something more eccentric to hold my interest , but this would be very useful for the new or lazy DM. The appendices flesh out the nautical rules of 5th edition which are really too sketchy for a nautical themed campaign. The most useful is a variety of ships including deck plans, handling rules and combat rules, including ship to ship combat. There is also information on maritime hazards and several aquatic locations. There are also a very large amount of new monsters all of which are used in connection with the books material but would be useful elsewhere.

My problems with the book are quibbles really. There are a few aquatic monsters that 5th edition could use, such as whales, sea serpents and jellyfish swarms that would have been logical to use here. I found a single page of new magic items underwhelming but none of these criticisms are serious.

I bought this book, to help me develop ideas for a Viking themed campaign. I hoped that it would help me with the maritime aspects of that. What I found was all I needed plus four adventures that could be reskinned for that campaign. It's a testament to the quality of the book that I could come with such specific needs and that the book is sufficiently flexible that it could accommodate them.

It's a worthwhile effort that provides resources for virtually any DM style and I wish that all the adventure books were like this one instead of the usual 5th edition approach.

[Jeremy Blum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ghosts of Saltmarsh contains eight adventures united by their seaside themes. Three of them are updated versions of the classic U1-U3 Saltmarsh modules, which were among the first British D&D products produced from 1981 to ‘83. These tales revolve around the players befriending local villagers and helping a lizardfolk tribe fight off invading sauhaugin, and they’re good, mostly as an example of early D&D material that required players to treat so-called “monstrous races” with diplomacy rather than violence. The other adventures are from old issues of Dungeon magazine, and run the gamut from a decent lighthouse dungeon crawl (Isle of the Abbey, from Dungeon #34) to a nifty survival horror-style ship romp (Salvage Operation, from Dungeon #123). Additionally, Ghosts of Saltmarsh contains rules for ship battles, which are good enough considering that D&D isn’t a naval combat simulator, and the book also devotes its first chapter to describing a great new version of the town of Saltmarsh to serve as a central hub.

I think Ghosts of Saltmarsh’s anthology format is my preferred style of D&D hardcover book at this point. Just give me a main town that I can detail and populate with my own NPCs, a bunch of adventures taking place around the vicinity that I can hack as necessary for my players, and I’m good. This format is also reflective of D&D’s early roots, where campaigns weren’t 250-page books with save-the-world plots, but short modules focused on building clout in a certain region and establishing a base.

At any rate, I ran Ghosts of Saltmarsh for about a year and a half for my girlfriend and her best friend, and we had a grand time. I far preferred this to other more convoluted D&D hardcovers that I've recently run or played through (see my reviews for Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and Tomb of Annihilation) and I plan to pretty much depend on anthology books for 5e from here on out. Get this if you like pirates, the sea, early D&D history or storylines that don't flop over themselves with unnecessary twists.

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

I DM'd the higher level adventures of this anthology for my friends from level 7 to 10. The world building is absolutely fantastic, and I loved the town of Saltmarsh and the many adventures you can go onto from there. There's a lot of material DMs can draw inspiration from and use to come up with their own adventures.

There are 3 underwater locations at the end of the book, which I all turned into Tier 2 adventures. They were great fun and took 1 session (about 4-5 hours) to play through.

The 3 "main" adventures we played through were a mixed bag. "Tammeraut's Fate" was great, "Isle of the Abbey" was good, and "The Styes" was a so-so. All three adventures took several sessions to play through (usually 4-5 sessions), which I found too long, especially if you don't play every week. "The Styes" was particularly tedious.

It's possible to make a campaign out of this module, but it requires some creativity. There is no grand finale, which I had to grab from another resource: I re-purposed "Leilon Besieged" from the extended Essentials Kit.

We have yet to play through the 4 lower-level adventures in this book, so my star rating might change depending on how it goes.

[Jonah Hawthorne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent compilation of D&D adventures. Each one is a subversion of your standard l monster hunt or dungeon crawl. There are twists, murder mysteries, aquatic monster set pieces, stealth missions, and negotiations. I really appreciated that every adventure gives the players multiple ways to approach them, as well as giving in depth information about how the enemies behave tactically in combat. The ocean exploration rules are excellent too. I know some people have an issue with the whip combat rules, personally I've always just run ship combat as normal combat but with things on the boat for players to interact with, so I don't think you really have to worry about that if the rules aren't for you.

Honestly I just appreciated having stat blocks for the ships, speaking of there are some really cool monster stat blocks in the appendix such as pirate npcs, barnacle coated undead, and scary aquatic monstrosities.

[Andreas Sekeris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't read the book from end to end. I did use it to run an adventure with my 9 year old son. I loved the characters, and environments and the maps were cool. It was my first time DMing and I think I overdid it on rolling dice for everything as he wanted to stop after a few weeks as he said he couldn't bear to hear the sound of dice anymore. That's on me, not the book. He really enjoyed the variety in the haunted house, and going into the lizard lair. I needed to make it less about trying not to start a war, and more about a dungeon-crawl. It would've been simple to vary if I thought ahead.

The book has beautiful illustrations, loved reading the adventures in it. The sea-faring rules and ship variations sounded cool too. Great for low level adventures.

[Ay Oh Be · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of all the D&D books that I have read so far I find the stories in this one the darkest. I suspect that that revelation is directly related to the campaign setting that Saltmarsh is in but it's not a setting I am familiar with. Though considering this book centered on some truly grotesque undead it may not be one that I rush too.

However, the quests and water based settings in this expansion book were really interesting. It offers a little bit of everything to DMs and characters: some battles, some puzzles, some intrigue. It sent so many ideas swirling through my brain that I ended up with a few new note filled pages on my idea book.

[Mark Reece · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that the adventures and world building background in this compilation were generally interesting and could form either a campaign, or a series of shorter adventures that could be slotted into other stories. However, they were were limited by the generic nature of some of protagonists, and also that many of the areas in the maps with either empty or contained little of interest, meaning that a DM would have to do considerable work to keep the game engaging.

On the other hand, 'The Styes' was a much more interesting murder mystery story, which I look forward to playing at some point, containing a number of puzzles and monsters that would likely produce good sessions.

[Pádraic · Rating 5 out of 5]

A setting guide, seafaring rules, and a bunch of (reprinted) adventures all in one. Ghosts of Saltmarsh opens with an introduction to the setting, with its factions and locations and NPCs, coupla maps, ways to modify the PHB backgrounds to the location, and other such things. Your fairly standard setting guide stuff, and contains the usual gems such as: "Unlike the other factions in Saltmarsh, there is no good side to the Scarlet Brotherhood. As unrepentant megalomaniacs, they are villains through and through." It's wonderful that the people who run the largest TTRPG in the world have no bloody clue how morality works. The appendices function as similar setting boosters, giving you details on how to run ships, terrible things that can happen at sea, and so on. The 'underwater locations' section even has bonus location maps and adventure hooks, which is lovely. Onwards to the adventures:

The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh: A basic adventure with a nice touch or two, a very thematically appropriate introduction to the setting, what with its haunted house and smugglers, backstabbing, dastardly schemes, lizardfolk, and the potential to scupper a ship or set it on fire. As with a setting like Icewind Dale for Rime of the Frostmaiden, I think you oughta establish the characters' relationship to the town in your prep time, then get them moving on the first quest as soon as possible, maybe even having them on the way up to the haunted house as you start.

Danger at Dunwater: Now this is more up my alley. A diplomatic mission to visit some lizardfolk, to find out whether they do indeed pose a serious threat to Saltmarsh. The adventure provides the location, the various people in it and their motives, some possible reactions to possible actions, and that's it. It is then entirely up to the players as to how things progress. This is the ideal structure for an adventure, I think, in that it's less than an adventure per se and more just a dynamic situation in which to move around and make decisions.

Salvage Operation: A short investigation of a seemingly abandoned ship, which becomes a bit of a dungeon crawl, and then a frantic escape. It's brief enough that you easily fit it into a session, and it'd be no problem to swap out any NPCs for Saltwater locals the players are already familiar with. With the simple mechanics provided for how to run the climax, this is a standout little piece of adventure writing. On further thought, I reckon this might be a good opener: it's short, highly thematic, exciting, and I'm sure there's some way to tie it into the overarching plot.

Isle of the Abbey: Another short one, involving retaking an island from priests and maybe pirates. It opens with a great sort of puzzle-battle, then a great social encounter, then sours it a bit by delving into a dungeon that's far too densely filled with traps and combats. Fortunately, it's eminently skippable, and indeed your players might not discover it at all. If only all dungeons were such. Once again, easily transmutable into something that's relevant to the wider campaign goals, whatever those are.

The Final Enemy: Functions as a sort of conclusion to the first two adventures, with an infiltration of a sunken fortress to gather information, rewarding sneaky characters and cautious decisions. It's not messing around with this either: as written, the fortress contains genuinely hundreds of enemies. Participating in the final assault on the fortress (not present in the original adventure) is also possible, though that would feel rather repetitive, I think, given the length of time you'd have already spent in there. This isn't really my jam, but if you made it clear that an open assault would be suicide, there are certainly opportunities for great tension and small scuffles with high stakes.

Tammeraut's Fate: Weirdly similar in initial set-up to Isle of the Abbey, but this time with hermits and undead drowned pirates. After the initial explorations, it quickly becomes a survive-the-night sort of adventure, shoring up defences against the cursed undead, and then a final descent into a pit under the sea to destroy the source of the corruption. The siege prep and the siege itself being the strongest part, I'm torn between wanting to extend the focus on that, but knowing that the sense of urgency is essential to its success. The trappings aren't much here, but the core is very solid.

The Styes: A wonderful Lovecraftian-but-fortunately-not-actual-Lovecraft adventure. It's got slimy cults, tentacled beings from beyond the deep, and a delightfully seedy location. A fantastic capstone to the book, that is for some reason not set in Saltmarsh. This is the main plot for a campaign in this setting, I think. Combine the cult of Tharizdun with the Scarlet Brotherhood, merge the Styes and Saltmarsh, and chop this adventure up piecemeal so that the players can return to its investigations between the other adventures, descending into the pit as the finale.

But these modifications are minor, mere matters of aesthetics. This is a very impressive collection really, cohesive in thematics but varied in style and tone. I'd happily play this as-is, or run it with very few changes, which, compared to the other modules I've read thus far, is very high praise indeed.

[Rob Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book doesn't get as much praise as a lot of the others, but I really liked it. I am considering a swashbuckling campaign and it's really fun to see some classic adventures updated for 5e. Also fun for it to be based around one location. Some of these adventures have really stuck in my mind. Very excited to run some of these if I can get the opportunity to.

[Drew Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seafaring and adventure ahoy! The actual sea-based parts of the adventure require homebrew on the part of the DM but even so this is an excellent book for setting, enemies, and adventures. There are plenty of guides for linking the adventures into a campaign but each one can be run independently as well.

[Tana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know how to rate this! As a campaign, it doesn't really want to hang together -- but the first chapter is top notch and there are some great appendices. Lots for me to work with, although I am also having to build an immense amount from the ground up in order to make the pieces fit. It's been fun to poke around though!

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good mix of adventures. As an anthology, of course they have different places in anyone’s given campaign/game night. There are a couple I plan to use right away in one of my campaigns, potentially giving my players a choice between these and one or two from Yawning Portal.

[Michael Poley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid RPG adventuring, somehow I managed have run every campaign in this one for a team of adventurers.

As a new DM, this was a great learning experience and a fun way to explore thematically similar but very different campaigns across the entire history of D&D.