D&D 1E U1 Secret of Saltmarsh: Thoughts?

[Lanefan]

Oh and I agree with others that say U1 is among the best modules of all-time.

I recommend a short adventure before it allowing the PCs to get to 2nd level and awarding XP btwn the house and ship parts to allow them to go to 3rd b/c the ship fight is hard (though in the most recent case it didn't help that the party barbarian had a cursed berserking great axe - so he moved on from killing pirates to nearly killing the party druid!)

In theory, in my game PCs get xp every in-game morning after a good night's rest. In practice, if nobody's close to bumping I'll let them accrue and occasionally give 'em out as a batch, but if someone's close I'll give them out every in-game day.

That said, though they might have a few 2nd-level types going in I'd be rather shocked (and impressed!) if anyone got to 3rd before the ship scenes (there's just not enough xp in the house, I don't think) - truth be told I'd be somewhat surprised if anyone got to 3rd before getting the "dungeon bonus" xp for U1 on completion.

 

[Lanefan]

Ned is the one plot weakness, I've run it a number of times and no-one falls for his nonsense.

The adventure I'm running now, by sheer chance, sets this up fairly well as in that one they can rescue a few prisoners who turn out to be useful and helpful. As such, Ned might work out rather well...

The green slime could be very deadly or trivial (if the party has a Paladin).

Deadly anyway, to whichever character it hits. But it'll likely only get one, as the rest would - I hope - wisely withdraw and leave it be.

One thing to be careful of is that the PCs could end up with a lot of treasure...
Lots of coin, smuggled items and a ship.

No big deal. Old-school adventures almost always give out lots of loot. Other than the coin, it'll be interesting to see how much they bother with the smuggled goods; and my initial bet it they'll either ignore the ship or just keep it as a party possession for future use.

U2 is generally not as good as U1. So, maybe think of some of the ramifications and possibilities if your not going to run U2....

As the specific intent of what I'm doing is to run some of these classic modules, if time allows I'll try to get U2 in there somewhere. I am, however, paying close attention to all these red flags you lot are flying; and I'll be ready to make adjustments if needed.

 

[el-remmen]

That said, though they might have a few 2nd-level types going in I'd be rather shocked (and impressed!) if anyone got to 3rd before the ship scenes

Yes. I forgot that my group had a couple of side quests and encounters in town that also gave them XP - including a fight with a baby otyugh.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Last time I ran this the party sold the goods, ship and crew to a rival smuggling operation. They got around 2000 gp in total. They weren't in a position to do much with it though. It's a good one to run if you want to give the players a ship, which is probably why it kicks off GoS.

 

[Lanefan]

Last time I ran this the party sold the goods, ship and crew to a rival smuggling operation. They got around 2000 gp in total.

Going by the (1e version of the) module, you ripped them off big time! The ship's supposed to be worth 5000 and the goods about three times that.

They weren't in a position to do much with it though. It's a good one to run if you want to give the players a ship, which is probably why it kicks off GoS.

As I've no idea where or even if this party might continue on to after U1/U2, I don't yet and might never know whether the party want or will need a ship for future endeavours. A bridge to be either crossed or blown up when come to.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Going by the (1e version of the) module, you ripped them off big time! The ship's supposed to be worth 5000 and the goods about three times that.

Well yes, no one said the (rival) smugglers where honest.

But there was no one else around who could pay more - especially given that the party where wanted fugitives.

It's all very well having something that is supposedly of great value, if there is no one who wants it or has that sort of money available you either need to keep it or take whatever you can get.

As I've no idea where or even if this party might continue on to after U1/U2, I don't yet and might never know whether the party want or will need a ship for future endeavours. A bridge to be either crossed or blown up when come to.

U2 would have been available, but the players went in a different direction.

If you don't want the players to have the ship, swap the brandy in the caves for oil or smokepowder. Chances are the players won't be able to resist blowing the ship up.

 

[Bupp]

Like you, I had never run it until a few years ago. Awesome adventure.
I wrote about it on my blog, did it in three "sessions". The house, back at town, then the ship.

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2&3 are meh. A bit of a letdown after a strong start. My party did go diplomatic, but had to kill Thousand Teeth to prove themselves.

 

[Stormdale]

Like you, I had never run it until a few years ago. Awesome adventure.
I wrote about it on my blog, did it in three "sessions". The house, back at town, then the ship.

Search Results for “sinister” – Jon Bupp

jonbupp.wordpress.com

2&3 are meh. A bit of a letdown after a strong start. My party did go diplomatic, but had to kill Thousand Teeth to prove themselves.

I've enjoyed U3 in he past but it has always ended with a TPK, never run U2 but U1 is a good springboard to lots of other adventures and the 5e verdsion can make the start of a great sandbox campaign. My 5e game has included Light of Lost Souls (Dungeon #12?) Forge of Fury, Isle of the Abbey, Evil Tide (2e) and for a while was looking to link to a1-4 (which used to be a common progression) but the party headed inland instead. However, I am still planning to run U3 with them at some point.

In the past I've used it in conjuction with Secret of Bone Hill using Restenford as a replacement for Saltmarsh.

Stormdale

 

[uzirath]

Another fun thing you can do with this adventure is to use the house to plant seeds for future adventure possibilities. The PCs don't need to find anything, but if they search a desk or look through old books, you can have a table of seeds with hints about factions, secrets, conflicts, treasures, etc.

 

[Democratus]

Another fun thing you can do with this adventure is to use the house to plant seeds for future adventure possibilities. The PCs don't need to find anything, but if they search a desk or look through old books, you can have a table of seeds with hints about factions, secrets, conflicts, treasures, etc.

A great place to put things like this is in the room with the alchemist. I love describing that room, it's so evocative.

What exactly went on there? Why is the alchemist here? What's all this stuff?