Considering I have my first DM session for the Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign happening on Thursday at The Hall of Heroes (Which still has a vacancy or two.)
I figured I’d hold off on my normal routine until I got my head around it all.
So I went into research mode.
I checked the DMs Guild and they had some great resources that have helped me a lot already.
What’s the DMs Guild I hear you ask?
It’s a website created by Wizards of the Coast as a way for every day people like you and me to create and sell homebrew content for D&D without WotC getting mad and suing you!
You can charge as little or as much as you like and Wizards takes 50% of the money you make from selling it.
Which my limited research says is actually a pretty decent deal considering how many resources you get to assist you.
I actually plan on creating a few things for it myself in the future.
Anyway, back to the things on their that helped:
The first product was a DMs Guild Adepts product called Saltmarsh Encounters.
While it hasn’t helped me yet, it will come in handy to fill things out later on, after the first adventure is done with.
The document contains 60 encounters: 20 Town encounters, 20 Coastal encounters, and 20 Ocean encounters.
So I can foresee myself using these in many different campaigns down the line, including Zendikar.
The second product has been a big help and it’s only going to continue to help as we play more.
That product is Ghosts of Saltmarsh Complete DM’s Bundle by Valeur RPG.
It’s a bunch of DM notes and maps (mostly for digital tabletops, so they’re not super useful for me) which helps to take a bunch of the work every DM has to do to condense an adventure into something more manageable at the table.
It’s a collection of products put into a bundle to make it easier and cheaper to get.
So far they have 4 of the 7 adventures done, and because I’ve purchased it, whenever those adventures are added I can “rebuy” the bundle to get the other things at the same discount.
So I started reading the first adventures “The Sinister Secrets of Saltmarsh” guide.
It gives you tips on how to incorporate Saltmarsh into the Forgotten Realms easier.
Something I was definitely considering doing!
In the end, even though it was easier with this, it made more sense just to keep it set in Greyhawk, as the logistics of moving it to the Sword Coast was making it more work than it needed to be.
They also point out some of the information lacking in the source book and help to fill in the blanks with ideas.
They also pointed out something I hoped they would.
Should the characters actually do this at level 1?
The first campaign I even ran was book 1 of Tyranny of Dragons: “Hoard of the Dragon Queen.”
In the first adventure the heroes run into a town under siege from a group of bandits that have a blue dragon flying over head, helping them out.
The characters fight through the night, saving people, all over town, while fighting lots of kobolds and bandits, and eventually fight the Blue Dragon… at level 1.
It took like 4 or 5 sessions to get through it because the one thing the adventure never tells you is that logistically the adventurers shouldn’t be able to do everything listed.
They should have to make sacrifices and things should happen while they’re away.
So instead of like 7 or 8 things happening, they should only get like 3 or 4 of them done at max!
Because of that, this group of level 1 adventures does so many things that are so deadly, that you’re basically guaranteed to kill at least 1 party member, if not have a Total Party Kill.
Which is bad…
As a side note: WotC is actually rereleasing Tyranny of Dragons as a complete book to celebrate 5 years of 5e, with a completely new first adventure.
Back in Saltmarsh the guide suggests that maybe level the characters to level 2, or start at level 2, instead of levelling them up mid way through like it’s suggested.
So that’s what I’m going to do, as it means I don’t have to cut anything from the adventure!
Which leads me to needing a way to level everyone up.
As one of the hardest parts of a lot of these campaigns is the start, how are you getting the players into the adventure.
The way it’s written doesn’t really give a lot of reason for players to be in Saltmarsh already.
So instead I’m planning on them being hired guards for a wagon heading to Saltmarsh and during the trip they’ll be ambushed by bandits, but an extra bandit was hiding away, watching the fight, and the next day they’ll run into more bandits and their leader.
By the time they reach Saltmarsh they’ll level up to level 2.
Which means the entirety of the rest of the adventure will be at level 2, and end with them getting to level 3.
Which means I may not even have to prepare a lot of Saltmarsh for this session.
I’m hoping the fact we only have 2 to 2.5 hours per session means these two combats should take up most of the session.
But I’ll still need to finish reading up on Saltmarsh and the beginning of the adventure just in case, because of course that won’t happen.
I’ve already gotten all of the models ready for every creature in the first part of the adventure.
So the plan for tomorrow is to finish preparing everything else.
Maybe draw a map or two, and just ensure I’m ready for Thursday.
I just need to be able to concentrate long enough to get everything done…
Here’s hoping I roll a nat. 20 on my Wisdom saving throw tomorrow!