Thursday saw Ghosts of Saltmarsh hit the shelves of your FLGS in the UK (thanks to a small delay of a couple of days with the distributor) and elsewhere round the globe.

I have seen the odd comment online that copies of the book have been damaged somewhere down the line. Not sure if this damage is from the printing process, packing or transportation. But whatever the cause of the damage, my copy was damage free. So I was happy to avoid that issue.

As an incentive to buy your copy of the book from your FLGS and not from an online retailer WotC have produced an exclusive alternate cover art version of the book, that is only available from an FLGS.

Before I look any further at this fine tome, let me state for the record this is not a review. It’s a first impressions look at the book. A written unboxing almost. I’ve also not played the adventures in the book.

Disclaimer over let’s get on with it.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh is the latest campaign source book from WotC. A tome that consists of 256 pages, made up of background info, updated classic adventures and appendices and expanded mechanics.

The actual D&D realm that they place Saltmarsh and it’s related adventures is Greyhawk. Although with the aid of something I mention below you can use them with any setting.

Here is how the chapters breakdown.

• Introduction
• Saltmarsh – background information on the town itself.
• The Sinister Secret Of Saltmarsh – 1st Level characters U1 (1981)
• Danger at Dunwater – 3rd Level characters U2 (1982)
• Salvage Operation – 4th Level characters Dungeon 123 (2005)
• Isle of the Abbey – 5th Level characters Dungeon 34 (1992)
• The Final Enemy – 7th Level characters U3 (1983)
• Tammeraut’s Fate – 9th Level characters Dungeon 106 (2004)
• The Styes – 11th Level characters Dungeon 121 (2005)
• Appendix A: Of Ships and the Sea
• Appendix B: Magic Items
• Appendix C: Monsters and NPCs

The great thing about these updated adventures is that there is a small breakout box with that at best can be described a paragraph about the original adventure. There are also larger breakout boxes that give ideas for how to integrate the adventure into Eberron, Forgotten Realms and Mystara.

I also like that in the introduction they credit the giants whose shoulders they stood on to create this book.

If you use this as a campaign it will take your characters from level 1 through to 12.

I love the Saltmarsh chapter, it covers the town, major NPCs, politics/factions, the local area. Gives you adventure hooks, and linking the adventures included with those from the Tales from the Yawning Portal campaign book. You get new background information to use with player characters or NPCs.

The Appendix A is “everything” you need to use boats/ships with your campaign. From stat blocks, deck plans etc for a handful of common ships. To some upgrades that can be purchased for the ships. There are expanded rules for ships in combat, travel at sea. Lots of tables for various types of aquatic hazards, encounters, generating random ships, creating mysterious islands. Plus some example underwater locations to use in campaigns.

I think the titles of the remaining appendices describe what they are adequately.

For me this book looks fantastic, and has already sparked off ideas for my campaign that hasn’t started yet. Plus once the party gets to suitable levels of experience some side adventures that I can plug straight into the campaign.

I’ll close this post off with an image of a third party product by Gale Force 9 (who by the way are rather poor at putting information on their website, I couldn’t find anything about this on there for starters!) that comes out in June I believe. If I’m lucky I’ll be able to pick a copy up at UKGE.

There is also a world map coming out at the same time I believe.

I’m not sure when the Stranger Things D&D Starter Set is due to hit the shelves of your FLGS in the UK. Imminently comes to mind. I’m pretty sure I saw May as a target date. But then again I may be getting that confused with the release date of the Ghosts of Saltmarsh source book.

If you are impatient (like me) and don’t mind paying the extra postage you can pick up a copy from Amazon.com. But before you do, have a look at the photos below, skim the words and then decide if that is something you should do if so inclined.

This isn’t a review. Let’s get that clear from the start. It’s more like an unboxing and thoughts/impressions about what I’m seeing. I got this yesterday! So there is not a chance in hell that I’ve played the adventure.

So in this rather spiffy box, that depicts one of the Stranger Things kids engaged with a demogorgan, you get the following:

• 6 dice (the usual one of each)
• 2 demogorgon minis, one has had paint applied to it)
• 5 Stranger Things character sheets (Level 3 characters)
• Rulebook
• Stranger Things Adventure

The demogorgon minis are nice. Made from a softer plastic than the normal hard plastic we are used to with minis these days. So there is a little give, or bendiness in them.

I don’t know why they didn’t just give us both models “painted”, and a wash applied to them both. What little paint there has been done on the “painted” model nearly goes unnoticed. I wouldn’t be making a big deal of what they did.

But I do like that they added these in.

The included rulebook is 43 pages compared to the 32 in the starter set. The main difference in page count being accounted for by an additional 2 appendixes. One for magic items and one for monster stats.

Where as in the starter set we only got spells for clerics and wizards, in this rulebook we bet spells for bards, clerics, paladins, rangers and wizards. Also at a brief glance I noticed that wizards don’t get the Dancing Lights cantrip in these rules. There may be other slight differences also. I do have a life (despite popular opinion).

It’s nice that the monster stats are in the rulebook and not in the adventure. It makes it a bit easier for the DM in my opinion not flicking around rule books. The adventure book can be open at the relevant place and have the monster stats to hand at the same time.

Each chapter has a photo from the series at the start. Which I like. It helps keep that theme of the show going which otherwise isn’t really needed. But it breaks up the pages and the text.

Ok let’s look at the adventure itself. WotC have gone to great lengths to make the included adventure “Hunt for the Thessalhydra” look like it was made straight from the notes of the 12/13 year old (or whatever age they are) in the show that created the adventure that they are playing. Right down to the included sketches and maps looking like they were hand drawn, and using a font that looks like handwriting.

I think they were really successful in doing that.

Back in the early nineties during the Twin Peaks crazy they released a book that was the Secret Diary of Laura Palmer. It was a paperback version of the diary found in the show. The immersion in that whole Twin Peaks universe, and trying to solve the mystery of who killed Laura Palmer went through the roof for me. There I was reading the actual diary in the show, looking for clues. It was almost a surreal experience at times when watching the show.

I’m wondering will fans of Stranger Things get a similar experience when they watch the show after having played the included adventure in this set? After all I believe this adventure is meant to be the same one played in the opening episode, and have the same character sheets.

I like the style of the adventure, it’s layout and how information is presented.

I do have one complaint about the maps. I know thematically what I’m asking for wouldn’t be needed. Because the youngster that created the adventure would know this. However considering that the audience for this set isn’t just experienced D&D players. But also fans of the show that may never have rolled a d20 before in their life, and may just be curious about this fun looking game they have seen played in their favourite tv show.

Couldn’t they have included a little legend (even if it’s in the rule book) that decodes the swiggles on the maps? How is a new player who is meant to be describing rooms and tunnels etc from the brief descriptions in the adventure and off the map itself know what the door symbol is? They might guess the stairs. But still let’s make life a bit easier for them.

Play wise I’d guess this adventure could take 2 or 3 sessions (assuming 2 or 3 hours a session) to complete. Depending on the group and the progress they make. I wouldn’t use this for a taster session one shot. Unless you want to leave the players hanging.

But it does look a fun adventure.

Another nit pick, and this really is. Having seen that WotC have made the move to including 2 d20’s in the Essential Kit, and I think that may also hold true for future products. It would have been a nice touch to have included a second here also.

Overall I love the presentation and theme. WotC have done a really great job. My criticism are very minor. I think any fan of the show will love this. But it must be remembered you are playing D&D from the show. If you want to actually play in a Stranger Things like world, and be the kids in the show fighting demons you will need another system like Tales from the Loop, or Kids on Bikes RPG – Strange Adventures in Small Towns. Or homebrew it using a generic system like Genesys or WOIN. The homebrew option requires a lot more effort. I’d be surprised if some-one hasn’t done a lot of the work in those systems already.

And yes I have plans for the demogorgon.

For people out there of a certain age (like myself) they will have fond memories of playing D&D in the 80’s and 90’s where their first adventures were the ones that came in the Basic and the Expert sets.

It’s possible to buy PDF’s of those adventures from DriveThruRPG. However to play with the current 5e rules, there would need to be a little bit of work done to allow you to play them.

That’s where Goodman Games comes in. They did some backroom deals, secret handshakes, a nod and a wink with WotC that has allowed them to not only reprint the original adventures from those two starter sets but update them as well.

Both books have a handful of pages that contain interviews and short essays with those involved in creating the original adventures.

These two editions are not small books, and are quite thick volumes, and heavy to boot also. My 92 year old Nan you takes all my deliveries struggled carrying them. I’m borderline happy with the paper stock used for the books. I think considering that these are not just reprints with updates to 5e, but also act as a loving tribute. I think a better quality paper could have been used.

I like the interviews at the start of each book. They are interesting, however not as incite full as I’d like.

Having both the original adventure (A couple of different versions/printings) and the updated to 5e version is nice. And a really nice touch is that for the 5e version there is additional content provided.

For me there is one draw back with these if you are actually planning to run the 5e version of these adventures. And I suppose also the classic version. There are player handouts included in the books. So to use these you need to photocopy them from the book, and do damage to the spine. I would have liked to see any player handouts, even the maps made available as a pdf on the publishers site. They have some pre-generated character sheets you can use. But not the thing that DM’s would find the most useful, and least damaging.

So what does this say to me about how the publisher sees these books being used. Are they expecting people to play these adventures or just look at them and leave them on the shelf as eye candy? The lack of the pdf almost makes me think the later.

But as walks down memory lane go for the long time adventurers then this is a great product (especially if in the mists of time your copy of the adventures got lost). With Goodman Games having done the heavy lifting for you it’s also a good excuse to relive those classic adventures both for old and new players using the 5e rules (unless you want to old school that is). For the new player it’s an opportunity to experience old school classic adventures and why you would need a 10 foot pole.