The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh Begins

WARNING: Spoilers ahead!

The original 1e Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh begins a little differently from most published adventures. Primarily, this difference lies in the delivery of the adventure hook. The Dungeon Master is advised to not present the hook right from the start. Rather, allow time for the adventurers to explore the town, spend their money and slowly unearth the clues that the house might be an object of interest worth pursuing. 

Honestly, I'm a bit befuddled by this, but I ran with it--sort of. Read on to see how it has gone so far.

The other thing the module suggests is for the DM to flesh out the town of Saltmarsh. The suggestion is to use real world 14th century coastal fishing villages with populations around 2,000 as an analogue. Don't you love 1e?! I do. So after a little research I chose Ipswich, UK as a model. Though it is thought Ipswich numbered around 4,000 souls in the 1500's I shrunk it a bit and began my work. I'll scan and post my maps and notes in a later episode, but suffice it to say that I got carried away. Naming all the adult inhabitants, complete with family stats, professions and places of residence I ended up with lots of material. And as it was in note form, not very usable. But I felt more or less prepared when the game started.

I had planned on having the group meet onboard a merchant ship returning from Greyhawk, carrying a few passengers to offset the return costs. The party consisted in a Rhenee Druid and Thief, a human quasi-cleric of Zodal and a Hill Dwarven Wizard from the Iron Hills. Their traveling companions were Lady Felicia, Sea Princess of the Holds, returning from the eastern realms, Master Willy and Lady Tilly Waters, retired potters from Saltmarsh itself, returning from visiting relatives in Greyhawk, and Samuel Alcock a cartographer from Greyhawk, hired by a sea captain in Saltmarsh. 

The idea was to give the players access to Saltmarsh lore and history via the Waters' before they landed which worked fairly well. As they landed they headed to the Whale Bone, a small, but packed and rowdy fishing tavern. They had some fun there and learned a little more about Saltmarsh. I threw in the poacher, however, and that may have been a little premature. Through him and some taunting sailors they learned a bit about the ghosts of Saltmarsh. That was enough of a hint that, though they lost the poacher in the crowd, they started sniffing around for leads about ghosts.

The way I played it, was that most of the citizens didn't know much, but when pressed might mention something odd they've been hearing recently about the old house on the coast road. They poked around a bit more and uncovered that it was long ago inhabited by an alchemist and has been left abandoned since. They also were pointed towards Olaf Fingaurd the poacher and Ulna Gillam the town beachcomber who lives in a shack on the beach just below the house. These tow it is said have been telling tales recently about the house and might be able to tell the party more. Ulna has heard some strange sounds and seen some strange lights, but if pressed she talks more about the sea ghosts. Strange ghost ships she has seen once or twice at night on the waters out to sea. Ulna is more than a little touched in the head however, and drinks copiously. She also talks about voices in the sand, fish that grant wishes, seaweed that grant magical powers, and a giant sea dragon turtle that actually runs Saltmarsh. Olaf, however, is much more certain. He stayed in the house and was run out by horrible sounds, nightmarish lights and ghosts that chased him into the streets and down the road. Problem is noone believes him. Noone except Ulna that is, and that hasn't won him any friends in town. 

The last part of that paragraph hasn't played out yet. The party has gotten directions to Ulna's shack and is headed that way, which is where we pick up next session. 

5e Greyhawk Campaign

As I may have mentioned previously, I've been on a gaming hiatus. My job has been more demanding than usual this past year, so I've taken a break for about six months. Although to be honest, there have been fitful, start-and-stop efforts since our last adventure back in December. However, summer approaches and new skies dawn ... 

So, as you likely know, my current game is a 5e game, and my current players 5e players. I've been thinking, though, during this period of gaming quietude about ways to work in some of my preferences. After lots of searching I've found that Greyhawk Grognard has some excellent 5e Greyhawk resources. And several other sites, such as Greyhawk Online have useful information and ideas as well. And given that old school modules port fairly well into 5e, I've decided to run my summer 5e campaign in Greyhawk. 

The player options I'll take from Greyhawk Grognard, which are quite excellent, by the way. And I love this little post at Greyhawk Online to set some of the tone for players new to the Flanaess. I am not entirely sure, but since Ghost of Saltmarsh was recently released by Wizards, I'll head back to my roots and run the original U series as an opening salvo. 

U1 Sinister Secrets of Saltmarsh (Characters will likely be level 2-3 by the end)

U2 Danger at Dunwater (level 4 by the end)

U3 The Final Enemy (finish at level 5-6)

These three adventures cluster fairly tightly around the coasts of The Viscounty of Salinmoor in southern Keoland, which is where the campaign will start. What I'd like to do from there is have the party travel west and north by sea to Greyhawk. From there, they'll sail across the NyrDyv to Radigast City or possibly Alhaster. Likely the hook to get them there will be the poem from Keraptis to the owner of Whelm. Whelm's owner will be in Salinmoor when he receives the poem, and as the characters bring the U series to a conclusion. After hearing of the characters' success, the owner will commission the players to retrieve the artifact from White Plume Mountain. After they return it however, to the owner who now awaits them in his home of Radigast, he will reveal to the party that  his research has uncovered that the hammer actually belongs to the lost Dankil MightyHammer Clan of Dwarves. He then further commissions the party to take the hammer across the central Flanaess to a Dwarven sage in Schwartzenbruin, Perrenland. As motivation for the players, he reveals that this sage has secret information about the location of hidden caverns containing untold wealth in the Southern Yatils. Which will lead them to ... yes, you guessed it, the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. 

S2 White Plume Mountain (finish at level 7-8)

S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (finish at level 8-9)

From there the characters will hear of pleas that are going out from His High Radiance, Owen I, Grand Duke of Geoff at Gorna of strange creatures invading the western reaches of his lands. Thus the characters will be drawn into S3 Expedition to Barrier Peaks. At the end of which they will be around level 10-12.

S3 Expedition to Barrier Peaks

But, with an unexpected twist toward the end of S3, the characters will be shunted away to Dungeonland and the Land Beyond the Magic Mirror! Here they will make it to levels 12 or so and be unceremoniously dumped from the realms of Greyspace back to the southeastern realms of the Flanaess in Sundii. Specifically in the dangerous swampwater border town of Calgen. In fact, they land smack dab in the center of the summoning circle of the infamous Otiluke. Otiluke was in the process of summoning "a being or beings from GreySpace that are capable of "penetrating the Lair of the Lost Lich". Whatever Otiluke was imagining might come through his somewhat unwise conjurational gateway, he was not expecting a party of adventurers. But being as here they are, and despite their doubtless protests he puts a special geas upon them to fulfill the adventure of what Otiluke calls the Lair of the Lost Lich (which is secretly S1, Tomb of Horrors). Thus, south they go into The Vast Swamp to follow Otiluke's somewhat dubious directions towards their their greatest challenge yet, or their doom.

EX1 Dungeonland

EX2 Beyond the Magic Mirror

S1 Tomb of Horrors

After this, who knows? If we even make it this far. This is sort of a bucket list thing for me, to run the entire gamut of the "Special" series modules back to back. Not to mention to run both EX1 & 2, an opportunity which rarely comes up. Granted, it's in 5e, but truthfully my players are have little experience outside of 5e, and certainly haven't any familiarity with the modules above. We did run Tomb of Annihilation, but that adventure is enough unlike the original Tomb of Horrors that I'm not worried there. The biggest challenge is that old school adventures were notoriously large for the level ranges for which they are designed. So, though I detest it, I will likely use something like milestone advancement. And, about half way through the proposed campaign arc, given the fact that a number of magic items will have been gained, I'll have to beef up some the encounters. At least if past experience is any guide. 

Of course you know what they say about the best laid plans ... I'm a little worried about White Plume Mountain, as I'm not sure what my players will do when and if they get their hands on the three artifacts. That could be problematic. Things could go off the rails. But if so, that's fine--I'll improvise.

Oh and in case your wondering, no, my players do not read my blog. I'm not even sure they know I have one :-)

Too Much D&D

The Flies and the Honey Pot

"Flies were attracted to a honey jar. They ate greedily. But, their feet and wings got covered with the honey so they could not get free. They died."

The Moral: Too much of a good thing can be bad.

Aesop

I was looking at my bookshelf the other day. I have limited book shelf space -- well, actually I have over 175 feet of shelving space, I just have too many books. Which in and of itself is probably a sufficient application of Aesop's above quoted fable. But I earnestly believe there is no such thing as too many books. But, back to making my point, my gaming shelf holds all my 1e materials, my Hackmaster 4th and 5th edition collections, a few other games I refer to often and my 5th edition stuff. 

As I perused them from a distance, it hit me that my 5th edition collection outnumbered any single other edition present. Now, having said that I do have 3rd and 4th edition D&D books in storage that probably outnumber 5e, but with this awareness came the thought the Gary and others expressed in 0e, "why have us do all the imagining for you?" 

I hate DMing in Forgotten Realms. There is so much damn stuff in that world I feel stifled. It feels like there is no room for a DM to breathe, no bare spot for me to set down my own creation--at least not if I want to include canon in my game as well. Now, I know this is an illusion. FR really does have space, and plenty of GMs fill it with their own stuff, and still allow most things from canon to exist in their campaigns as well. But the feeling for me is like I'm stuck in honey and can't breathe. 

To be fair, AD&D began to feel this way sometime before Unearthed Arcana came out. The addition of Oriental Adventures came with so much extra stuff and rules that were ported in one way or another into the game that it was already creating arguments. Dragon Magazine, though I loved it, didn't help. So much optional lore, NPC classes, race variations, etc. etc. was coming out a DM couldn't keep up. And no matter how cool we all thought UA was when it came out as we began to play with it it was clear no only had the game began to suffer from bloat, it also had jacked the power level up by at least half. Each subsequent release, the survival guides, Manual of Planes, and the Adventures tomes were almost ignored with a sense of growing supplement numbness. 

Now, I know that they were releasing these to try and save the brand. TSR had become a money machine, and a poorly run one at that. Frankly I think if -- no, I'm not gonna go there again. My point is that too much of a good thing had become a bad thing. The 2e re-boot didn't help. Well, it helped financially to propel the company through the first half of the 90's, but they multiplied the supplement load by over 200% and I now think it would have almost been impossible for one person to have everything 2e related. Although current day collectors are proving me wrong. 

But D&D, by then in Wizard's control, didn't learn. 3rd edition was known for the flood of supplements and the OGL, which just made the playing field enormously overwhelming. Back in the day it was considered a badge of honor for DMs to have actually read the DMG. Knowing the rules was a large part of game mastery. And by gamer mastery I do not mean game mastering, I mean mastery of the game. See Gygax's two works in this vein as well as the original rules themselves for proof of this ethos. Simply put a Dungeon Master was supposed to have read and know the rules. By the time 1e was dying, having been dealt it's death blow by the ousting of Gary, the company was simply about churning out as much as possible to make more money. 

I realize this is a controversial and almost unavoidable part of the hobby. Gamers thirst for material--I get it. I do too. But anymore, I'm just not impressed. I know Gary himself fell pray to this as he tried to right the company's mismanaged finances with the production of both OA and UA. They had learned along time ago that modules where big buck and gamers were dying for them. And the fact is if a company is pulling in more money they can't support the fans. Fans want product and companies oblige them.

The problem is what happens every single time! We flood the market with product, and in the end (five or six years after release) it usually isn't of the highest quality. Less and less sales happen and eventually a new edition gets talked about to revitalize the company's finances. All of a sudden that game we thought was so great seven years ago we now see as irreparably flawed and in need of a major overhaul. We all need $5000 of new books, while the others go into storage. I mean has anyone noticed that most of the 5e books released are re-releases. Of course you notice. Sure, they gave them a new coat of paint, and a theatrical screenplay makeover but what they're churning out now isn't even new. And I know all about the nostalgia market and WOTC's attempt to appeal to the grognards who had fled the modern gaming scene with 4e, but even still aren't we repeating mistakes of the past? 

So, you ask, what's my solution. I think we need to get back to our roots. And those roots are in 0e. Yep, not even my preferred edition. I suppose you could say basic D&D just as well, but the idea of a very light, flexible and open game. And what about support? I think the answer is zine based--high quality print AND digital. A robust OGL is a must, and instead of just the open marketplace like DMs Guild (which is not a bad idea, though they need to get away from the template based garbage they force people into now), we need a sense of connection to other DMs worlds as was intended in the early days of D&D. Somewhat like Planescape, only with gates to different worlds leading to the millions of DM created worlds instead of company produced planes of existence--although that could be included too. DMs and players would be responsible for their worlds and what exists on that world starting from a very limited base: something like fighter, thief, cleric magic user, and human, dwarf, elf and halfling. 

There is no need for the company to control the product so tightly any more. Or offer ten thousand options themselves. Back in the day this was an issue for a time due to tournament play. But we have left that far behind. I thought 5e was supposed to replicate this feel, with a very basic, flexible template upon which people could write their own stories. But instead we end up with the same thing was always have had--a company based product bloat that has made the game and playing overwhelming to the point of pointlessness. DMs aren't master of their game any longer. 

And, yes, we all know you didn't have to read the DMG back in the day to DM, nor do you now. You need to know a few critical rules and run with it. This is what such a system should be. A light, flexible system that as it is played fleshes out a world and gives rise to unique and an infinite variety of options for all concerned. Cause too much of a good thing is a bad thing. And right now, there is way too much 5e on my shelves. I'm sure the business managers at Hasbro are happy--but I'm not.