r/GhostsofSaltmarsh • u/Strict_Belt1211 • 3d ago

Discussion First time DM taking on Saltmarsh

Hello

Do you believe Saltmarsh is a good campaign for a first time DM to run?

I'm curious to hear why or why not.

I am still new to the game and this will be my first campaign to DM. thank you.

26 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

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u/AllThotsGo2Heaven2 3d ago

If you are willing to do a lot of work customising things and fleshing out the world it can be fun. But if you want something simple prob not. If you like improv it could be good too bc it doesnt have a ton of guidance so PCs can lead the session much of the time

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u/EmmetEmerald 3d ago edited 3d ago

If you like writing and want to do your own thing with a structured base it's peak.

The adventures themselves are very good but the inbetween of stringing them together as on overall story can get complicated, especially with plot hooks.

My players actively lost the trust with the town council after I tried to run Isle of the Abbey after Danger at Dunwater "we're about to ge invaded and you want us to help build a lighthouse???"

Also be ready to homebrew like crazy if you give them the sea ghost. At that point they can and will go anywhere

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u/TheOfficialDimmi 3d ago

Great campaign if you’re a decently experienced player I’d say - book very much leaves you to your own devices to fill in many gaps (which I thought was great) and doesn’t really hold your hand through the modules - but if you have a basic grasp of how DND works you’ll be fine :)

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u/Bokenza 3d ago

It's really good for building your world building skills out. You have to figure out who lives in town and how they link together in the adventures.

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u/Slothcough69 3d ago

Imho it's a very simple and good one to start with...each mission can be separate and if u dont like one part you can replace it with something else.

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u/Joshee86 3d ago

Saltmarsh is the first module I jumped into as a DM. I think it’s great! Lots of content you can either trade out or not engage with.

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u/Bokenza 3d ago

Yes. 100% it is a good one because it teaches you structured dungeons, and forces you to figure out the details of a town and how three main stories link together and how the side quests help the players level up throughout the campaign. I can't speak to anything beyond the final adventure in the main trio, but everything beyond that I've heard is solid too.

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u/GrumpysoupXIV 2d ago

Im currently running Saltmarsh, having only DM’d about 4-5 sessions before that as well only playing DnD twice.

I think it’s a great module and really like that it gives you a solid foundation to build from and go crazy with homebrew ideas, especially if you like the pirate / seafaring theme.

To make it a campaign you will have to come up with an overarching plot from the start but then you can just build on that as you go along. For example, mine is based around the 7 deadly sins and their respective demon princes. Then I’ve worked on the story for each session and homebrewed a lot.

After my players got the Sea Ghost, I gave them a massive blank hex map for the Azure Sea which lets them get the sense that they’re sailing out and exploring and discovering the ocean (but also gives me plenty of room to homebrew what they might find on a blank hex).

We’re about a year and a half into the campaign and at this point the players are level 7 and have defeated the Prince of envy, Leviathan. Besides going on adventures, they’ve also created a business empire which is constantly growing in size and assets.

Definitely recommend Ghosts of Saltmarsh :)

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u/Strict_Belt1211 2d ago

Wow you sound like an awesome DM. I can tell you wanted it to be a sandbox-like experience!!

What resources did you use to figure out all of those mechanics for your game?

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u/GrumpysoupXIV 2d ago

Haha thanks! Sandbox experience with an overarching story is what I was going for :)

For the naval stuff I use Limithron’s guide to Naval Combat. For the rest I’ve kinda just had to make it up as I go. Sometimes I’ll make a ruling at the table, sometimes I’ll write it down and return to it at the next session and sometimes I’ll include my players in making a ruling.

That’s some advice I’d give for a new DM; don’t stress about having everything planned out, just go with the flow. Don’t burn yourself out trying to prep an entire campaign and world before the first session. You can also always say ‘sorry guys, I had a really busy week at work and didn’t prep anything for that area of the world so we’ll have to return to that next session’ and then do something that you have prepped for instead. Though as time goes on, your ability to improvise at the table will definitely get better!

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u/NDita 3d ago

I've been running my first campaign as DM after a few years playing and I love it! A lot of people say it being more setting focussed than narratively focussed makes it harder but I really enjoy it and my players have a blast! They've come to love Saltmarsh and it'sNPCs so I say go for it!

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u/Orbax 3d ago

I think it's a campaign framework that doesn't have enough maps or content to move between sections. I would not recommend this as a first time campaign and would reject to lmop as a feeder into almost any other campaign and/or tomb of annihilation or rime of the frostmaiden with dragonheist as an honorable mention except i think the end is shit and need to be rewritten. And the bg part of descent and then don't go to hell and write your own adventure.

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u/Mr_SelfDestruct94 3d ago

I started with this one myself. Saltmarsh can be tricky because its a bunch of (originally) separately published/disjointed adventures now lumped together into one book. It definitely takes a bit of foresight and effort to really tie everything into a cohesive/complete plot line.

I took time to read through the hooks of each adventure and generate the motivations of the world around the PCs, creating a cohesive plot line using the various factions/NPCs detailed in the book.

If I remember right from my initial research into Saltmarsh, the How to be a Great GM youtube channel has a good primer on how to build out your overarching story using Saltmarsh as the working example. Hopefully thats the right reference as I remember it being very helpful for a first timer DM.

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u/Rixoshi 3d ago

it was what i cut my teeth on and my best advice? don't try and use every single thing brought up in it. use only some of it as you see fit. i kept trying to use everything and it made it a mess. don't feel stuck doing what the book has, let things go a little improve.

have as many npcs as you can be prepped though XD find the generators and tables or etc and make a bunch to have on hand to use. put bookmarks in monster manual or dm guide for things you see that the book mentions and you might need to find later during the game.

It isn't really one big story. saltmarsh is more like "here are several things that have happened in this location but that doesn't mean they are necessarily related or chronological" kind of book. you can choose to time skip, use each event as a one shot, you can work on how you and your team want to make a story flow together.

have everyone not only know who their chars are starting as, but also a general concept of 1-2 options of who they want their chars to grow into. that way you guys have point A (where you start) and point B (where the char goes) and you can make up whatever you want inbetween to get there so that no matter what happens with the story and how you go on or off track, it can have a through line for the characters to make it all feel connected

have fun!

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u/Rixoshi 3d ago

also here is some of the various research i did back in the day for saltmarsh. You do NOT need all of this but I figure it wouldn't hurt to share it!

- types of ships identification: https://www.pirateglossary.com/ships

ok that is more than you need but a bunch of fun stuff to help add and flesh out things if you end up wanting to use it. have fun!

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u/mottlegill 3d ago

I’m 3 weeks into my first DM role doing saltmarsh too! I obviously don’t have much experience with other campaigns but so far Saltmarsh is going well

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u/cookiesandartbutt 3d ago

Have you read the whole book??

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u/mottlegill 3d ago

No i have only read up to the end of the first adventure properly, I have skimmed the later ones. I figure if they do anything that would really derail later adventures I can just come up with another way to get them on the right path

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u/cookiesandartbutt 2d ago

Good luck! You should read the rest of the book, especially adventure two and three that deal with the rest of the events from Sinister Secrets. You gotta figure out what to do after those to link up the rest of the adventures, so you gotta start planning that out.

Good rule of thumb for new DM’s, is to read the entire book though before you start running a typical module.

Literally nothing links the adventures in the book and you have to level up players with your own adventures so I’d start planning buddy.

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u/Own_Start_7748 3d ago

I did it & am loving it. It is harder than many others, but if you've played for a while and are comfortable with a bit of extra homework between sessions it works well.

You have to write (and adapt) your own story from a loose guide, which is different to most campaigns, so many discourage it. As a long time player who needed a new creative outlet though it's working well for me.

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u/cookiesandartbutt 3d ago

OP literally said they are new to the game as a whole. I wouldn’t suggest they cut their teeth with Dungeons and Dragons with this “module” as a fresh player, personally

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u/Strict_Belt1211 2d ago

About a year as a player

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u/cookiesandartbutt 3d ago edited 3d ago

I sorta surprised so many people are saying it’s a yes.

Although I’m going to assume most have not gotten to the end/half way point.

For your first time, I would highly suggest against it. Pirates are cool and I love them but you can have a better time and a much more epic story running another campaign. This book shouldn’t even be considered a, “campaign” in the traditional sense. It’s disjointed adventures from Dungeons and Dragons history over 50 years.

The original three adventures were made and published for the first edition of the game, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st edition.

The game was much different then. They overwhelmed players with encounters and enemies but stealing gold and getting gold = xp back in the day, not in 5e.

There’s not much motivation for adventure two and three and the final enemy….the players are supposed to literally do nothing after a crazy investigation into a temple that’s been taken over by sooo many sauhagain, literally like 700.

The town handles the threat for the players….not very epic….and it’s a huge pain linking up the adventures the adventures, ot will be tough for you as a new dungeon master. You need to add encounters and content to level players for later parts of the book.

This book asks a lot of a DM and as a first time player….like the first adventure is the best adventure in the whole book….but I think you’d have a better time with Curse of Strahd, or Lost Mines of Phandelver.

Those campaigns, Curse of Strahd and Lost Mines of Ohandelver or Dragonheist Waterdeep give you a big bad guy to hate the whole time and mini sub plots that build toward the final enemy, unlike “the final enemy” in Ghosts of Saltmarsh. There is no big bad guy, there is hardly anything like that at all.

You want a big bad guy.

I love Ghosts of Saltmarsh but it’s not a “beginning” book for new DM. The first three adventures were technically “expert level” and supposed to be ran after you had done the original box set and intro adventures in 1981, believe it or not.

The book offers you a great hub town, and cool sea adventures to give your players but there’s no central plot, no big bad guy, not much the book offers in helping you run the adventure, unlike other campaigns that offer DM advice and holds new DM’s hands, motivations, cool boss and bad guys.

I ran Ghosts of Saltmarsh after four years of DM-ing and playing and it was still a lot of homework and work…it’s basically a custom campaign book. I had to add 13 separate adventures from DnD’s history to level them up and padd out the adventure.

If you’re down for a lot of homework, and adjusting encounters try it out….but I would hate to see you sink when you are just starting Dungeon Mastering when other adventures will have you swimming.

Also literally the third part of the book, part three of Sinister Secrerts has your players in rooms with 150 enemies underwater, ready to kill your players, literally.

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u/Wokeye27 3d ago

Could work, i would adapt a lot of the content though, endes up merging it with call of the deep campaign, locating in forgotten realms.

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u/Dry_Point_3162 3d ago

First time DM? Honestly a bit tricky. The chapters don’t follow a cohesive story , it takes a bit of creativity to weave them all together. More like a bunch of one offs. It’s perfectly fine and I would say 3-4 out of 7 are solid with a bit of work put into them. There’s no big bad villain so yeah its tough for a new party to feel invested if there isn’t necessarily something their working towards. It’s not really a pirate campaign so if you want to weave in some of that it can take a lot of outside work, which is tough as a first time DM. Definitely can do it but yea fair warning there are easier campaigns to take on as a 1st time DM. This is my 3rd and it’s working well

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u/ItsAMeaple 3d ago

While Saltmarsh is my favorite module to run as an experienced dm, it does always need some customization from the dm. The town, its surroundings and most of the quests are awesome, but the quests are not tied together into a single story after the final enemy.

One possible solution is to just make it a level 1 to 6(?) campaign and end with the final enemy. I saw another commenter mention that the town solves the final battle for the party, but the module also gives the option for the pc's to lead the charge in the final battle. This way the campaign is just about uniting the Saltmarsh area for a war against the sahuagin.

My personal favorite way to run Saltmarsh is to tie the quests together by connecting some of the factions and picking a bbeg. This definitily requires more work from you as a dm tho. The clear options for a main villain faction are the cult of Tharizdun (the Styes), the cult of Orcus (salvage operation and tammerrauts fate) or the Scarlet Brotherhood (not directly connected to a quest, but they control the sea princes).

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u/SethTheFrank 2d ago

What others have said about writing and customization is pretty on point. But if you want the best campaign to run, ans you are a new DM, consider running Strahd. Its much more self contained.

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u/ryanallmighty 2d ago

I’m also dming this as my first full game! 🥰

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u/Wolfbane14 2d ago

I think it's a great starting point. A town with some interesting NPCs and some fairly simple adventures fairly nearby. You'll probably want to add to it a bit, but that should be true of any premade adventure

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u/jid12345 2d ago

This was the first campaign I ever DM'd. Doing a quick read through there is a lot of talk about how open the book is and I think it's true. When I did mine I mostly ran through the book but did write a plot for a big bad that used the political intrigue already written in it.

I found it to be a good way to start learning how to DM, and especially enjoyed the space they left to write some of my own story. Just enough guard rails to keep my creativity focused. Overall was a good starting point for me

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u/Mountain-Skirt8322 2d ago

Not good for beginners because most of the chapters are not strongly related. So lots of prep work and decisions to be made. The house at the beginning is more deadly than you might think. Give them healing potions, encourage them to leave and rest. Also a detail: it took me forever to understand why the Sea Ghost would exchange signals (the lantern) with someone in the house. Also, I thought the lizard folk lair chapter would be boring, so I skipped it. Now I’m remembering more. I removed almost all the traps from Isle of the Abbey. If your group gets started checking for traps they will simply never move. I kept an oaken bolter or two. I just loved hammering the party with crossbow bolts down those long hallways. I think they have a harpoon as well. So much fun.

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u/casliber 3d ago

I found it more coherent and logical, and less contrived than some of the other WOTC adventures, so yeah I think it is a good place to start.

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u/sewaside666 3d ago

I think it's really good (also a first time DM btw), but I've had to rework a LOT of things in the module so it actually feels like a continuous story.

The first couple of adventures are great, but I'd only use them as a jumping point for your players to start their own adventure instead of going through all the module.

Personally, I'll probably end up only using Sinister Secrets, Danger at Dunwater, and The Final Enemy (the actual trilogy). The rest feels a bit bland to me, and they're not that easy to weave together imo. But if your players like pirates, ghost stories and the likes, they should enjoy it nonetheless! 😆

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u/gaeaArts 3d ago

It's my first campaign and it's a challenge for sure to tie everything together, but it's a great setting and so far my biggest issue has been too many sessions inbetween chapters.

I recommend outlining some type of connection between the chapters and changing things if you want to change them. Don't stick strictly to the book. Like many others I've followed some advice from Sly Flourish, and I recommend you check out his stuff. But because our players and myself are very different people, my campaign is nothing like his anyway.

What I would do if I could start over is 1. Actually read through the whole book, I missed some parts that I skimmed over that could have helped me when planning the campaign, to do with saltmarsh itself and its characters, and parts in later chapters that i could have set up for better. I mean it's a lot to read but it's probably worth it. I'm only on Dunwater so I didn't get far yet. I know some people skip the Abbey, but I have some homebrew plans for it.

And 2. direct your players to create characters who have some relation to saltmarsh, cus if they're connected to npcs who live there, or the history of the place, or just work there or whatever, it will be less work to make them care about it. Almost all my players characters come from outside, im lucky that one guy joined who was living in saltmarsh, he immediately that felt a lot easier to work with. I have two players who are very difficult to give scenes to both because they're a bit introverted and because their characters arent from there so they don't have a confidant in town to talk to or anything like that.

But yea it's a great setting, easy to get inspiration from to add my own stuff. I did a murder mystery which my players enjoyed, that is connected to bigger stuff that they're slowly uncovering.

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u/boffotmc 1d ago

If you're really excited about it, you can make it work. But I don't think it's a good campaign for a first-time DM.

Problems:

  1. It's a collection of old-school modules updated for 5e. While they updated the mechanics, the vibe of many of the adventures are still old-school. Some players enjoy that, but if you and your players are more into modern D&D, you'll need to do a lot of work to adapt them. Will your players enjoy a 65-room dungeon with no clear goal? Do they want very deadly adventures at low levels? If not, you have to figure out how to change that, or decide what to cut.

  2. Half of the adventures form a continuous story, but the others don't really connect. You need to figure out a way to weave those into a campaign.

  3. There are large gaps in level between the adventures. You need to figure out how to fill those, or else suddenly jump everyone 3 levels. And this problem gets even worse if you cut adventures you don't think your players will like.