I going to run my party through those three chapters. I'm wondering if anybody has run GOS before and what experience they had with their players. Or any additions or subtractions from the written campaign.
I've run all three (and the rest of GoS) as part of a campaign. I played them pretty much as written. However, Salvage Operation and the Isle of the Abbey are essentially filler adventures to bridge the gap from the first part of the book to the Final Enemy adventure where the characters need to be a higher level.
Salvage Operation:
Salvage Operation is a fun stand alone mission. Unrelated to the others in GoS except it is on the water. There are some good encounters on the boat. The item that they are looking for is at the bottom of the ship. It is a good feeling for the players if they can escape with it but you should make the attack by the Kraken that is sinking the ship feel very tense. The Kraken isn't attacking the characters so any brushes with tentacles or the tentacles slamming through the hull in front of the PCs as they try to dodge is just to add tension. Make it clear that the kraken is after the ship so that the PCs don't hesitate about jumping in the water to get to back to their own ship. I think the group I was with and the one I ran used a small boat to go over to the Empire and board it.
Isle of the Abbey:
If you read this over, the clerics of the abbey and their minions are hiding in the basement of the Abbey. However, they are also fishing off the cliffs and harvesting the abbey gardens for food. So their presence is noticeable to the party with either survival or perception checks. The mariners guild doesn't know that the clerics are there. All they want is to set up a lighthouse. The party has been sent to make sure the island is safe. The way the module is written, the party is expected to climb down into the basement where the encounter takes place. Which doesn't make any sense to me since the clerics have cleared debris and otherwise done stuff that could be noticed. They also go to the cliffs to fish and to get water and they harvest the garden. The clerics are worried the pirates may come back. It didn't make sense to me that the clerics would not have a guard/watcher in the abbey ruins. This moves the initial encounter with the clerics to the ruins of the abbey. In addition, the guard may notice the party coming and alert the rest of the abbey survivors.
When I ran it, the party was there to make the island safe to build a lighthouse. The clerics at the abbey, since they need a way off the island, were quite happy to play along. They even volunteered to man the lighthouse so that the mariners guild would not have to send anyone out. The party ended up negotiating and never ended up exploring the basement and hidden areas beneath the abbey. They just went back to town to collect the 2000gp reward.
Exploring the hidden areas really requires the party to defeat the clerics. One of the NPCs is spoiling for a fight but the head cleric will tell him to lay off and he will obey. So depending on whether you want them to fight the clerics or not depends on whether you set it up properly. If the survivors of the abbey actually talk, then a lot of parties will negotiate and the clerics have no reason to fight the characters. They just want the characters and anyone else gone and building a lighthouse with the mariners guild support provides them an excellent cover and possibly protection from future pirate raids.
On the other hand, you could have the mariners guild tell the party that the abbey was occupied by evil clerics who were in a conflict with pirates and that the party should clear the island of any survivors of either faction. This would ensure a conflict if that is what you are looking for but it helps to plant the seeds at the beginning rather than trying to create a conflict by the time the party gets to the abbey.
Final Enemy:
The Final Enemy is the culmination of the Sahuagin plot line from the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh and Danger at Dunwater so you may need to provide extra background for it unless you summarize some of the events from the first two parts during the intervening adventures.
The Final Enemy is split into two parts, scouting and then leading an assault. However, depending on the party they may think that they can ransack the place during the scouting mission and succeed. The DM can choose to let them but there really are a lot of Sahuagin in the fortress and that idea really should end in a TPK or the characters being forced to flee since the Sahuagin forces are significant IF the characters attract their attention. Once an alarm is raised, the characters really need to be fleeing - but you could always have the Sahuagin take them prisoners so they can obtain information if they don't get the hint and flee.
Ideally, the scouting expedition proceeds as a stealth mission with limited combat and hiding/disposal of bodies when needed. Note also that the scouting approach often relies on finding the entrance to the dungeon at the bottom of the submerged fortress which allows for a stealthy access into the dungeon/prison. Sneaking through the front entrance to scout is much more challenging. (When I played it and ran it both parties had access to Water Breathing and so chose to scout first for other entrances before trying to go in the obvious main entrance on the surface. In both cases, the groups found the underwater entrance and decided to go in that way).
Everything but the top floor of the fortress is underwater - which means if the party wants to scout the fortress properly they will need some form of Water Breathing. In addition, unless they have a swim speed, there are significant restrictions on what weapons can be used so it is important to go over the underwater combat rules.
The second party of Final Enemy is the party capturing and holding the main entrance while going a bit deeper into the top level of the fortress, defeating as much of the opposing force as possible before the reinforcements from the allies show up to push the fight into the lower levels and clear the fortress. How successful the battle is depends on the party achieving certain combat goals for which points are awarded. The higher the party tally, the more complete the victory.
So, final enemy essentially splits into a first half exploration/stealth/scouting mission possibly with a bit of combat while the second half is one enormous fight with the party using some provided magic to get into the entrance area, prevent the port cullis from being closed, and eliminate as much of the opposing force as they can until reinforcements arrive.
I'm part way through running GoS. We got up to the very end of Salvage Operation and then went on hiatus. The plan was for them to do Salvage Operation and then move on to Final Enemy. I was going to save Isle of the Abbey to be used in a different space in my overarching story.
I found Salvage Operation very cool, but the ending portion was very difficult to run because of all the different things happening at once. The only other thing of note was the the encounters were harder than I was expecting based on the CR of the monsters. The tight areas and poison caused my players a lot of problems. You may not run into this problem depending on your player's set up and tactics.
Overall for GoS my players had been having a great time with the setting. They really enjoyed exploring Saltmarsh as a town and there was plenty of detail for me to work with, but just enough not spelled out for me to make my own mark.
it included some letters for the players to add context, and summaries stuff for the DM
If you’re players are anything like mine, they’re paranoid of small spaces and will go through the ship carefully. Take advantage of spider climb on the spiders and phasing to ambush the party for some fun
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I going to run my party through those three chapters. I'm wondering if anybody has run GOS before and what experience they had with their players. Or any additions or subtractions from the written campaign.
I've run all three (and the rest of GoS) as part of a campaign. I played them pretty much as written. However, Salvage Operation and the Isle of the Abbey are essentially filler adventures to bridge the gap from the first part of the book to the Final Enemy adventure where the characters need to be a higher level.
Salvage Operation:
Salvage Operation is a fun stand alone mission. Unrelated to the others in GoS except it is on the water. There are some good encounters on the boat. The item that they are looking for is at the bottom of the ship. It is a good feeling for the players if they can escape with it but you should make the attack by the Kraken that is sinking the ship feel very tense. The Kraken isn't attacking the characters so any brushes with tentacles or the tentacles slamming through the hull in front of the PCs as they try to dodge is just to add tension. Make it clear that the kraken is after the ship so that the PCs don't hesitate about jumping in the water to get to back to their own ship. I think the group I was with and the one I ran used a small boat to go over to the Empire and board it.
Isle of the Abbey:
If you read this over, the clerics of the abbey and their minions are hiding in the basement of the Abbey. However, they are also fishing off the cliffs and harvesting the abbey gardens for food. So their presence is noticeable to the party with either survival or perception checks. The mariners guild doesn't know that the clerics are there. All they want is to set up a lighthouse. The party has been sent to make sure the island is safe. The way the module is written, the party is expected to climb down into the basement where the encounter takes place. Which doesn't make any sense to me since the clerics have cleared debris and otherwise done stuff that could be noticed. They also go to the cliffs to fish and to get water and they harvest the garden. The clerics are worried the pirates may come back. It didn't make sense to me that the clerics would not have a guard/watcher in the abbey ruins. This moves the initial encounter with the clerics to the ruins of the abbey. In addition, the guard may notice the party coming and alert the rest of the abbey survivors.
When I ran it, the party was there to make the island safe to build a lighthouse. The clerics at the abbey, since they need a way off the island, were quite happy to play along. They even volunteered to man the lighthouse so that the mariners guild would not have to send anyone out. The party ended up negotiating and never ended up exploring the basement and hidden areas beneath the abbey. They just went back to town to collect the 2000gp reward.
Exploring the hidden areas really requires the party to defeat the clerics. One of the NPCs is spoiling for a fight but the head cleric will tell him to lay off and he will obey. So depending on whether you want them to fight the clerics or not depends on whether you set it up properly. If the survivors of the abbey actually talk, then a lot of parties will negotiate and the clerics have no reason to fight the characters. They just want the characters and anyone else gone and building a lighthouse with the mariners guild support provides them an excellent cover and possibly protection from future pirate raids.
On the other hand, you could have the mariners guild tell the party that the abbey was occupied by evil clerics who were in a conflict with pirates and that the party should clear the island of any survivors of either faction. This would ensure a conflict if that is what you are looking for but it helps to plant the seeds at the beginning rather than trying to create a conflict by the time the party gets to the abbey.
Final Enemy:
The Final Enemy is the culmination of the Sahuagin plot line from the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh and Danger at Dunwater so you may need to provide extra background for it unless you summarize some of the events from the first two parts during the intervening adventures.
The Final Enemy is split into two parts, scouting and then leading an assault. However, depending on the party they may think that they can ransack the place during the scouting mission and succeed. The DM can choose to let them but there really are a lot of Sahuagin in the fortress and that idea really should end in a TPK or the characters being forced to flee since the Sahuagin forces are significant IF the characters attract their attention. Once an alarm is raised, the characters really need to be fleeing - but you could always have the Sahuagin take them prisoners so they can obtain information if they don't get the hint and flee.
Ideally, the scouting expedition proceeds as a stealth mission with limited combat and hiding/disposal of bodies when needed. Note also that the scouting approach often relies on finding the entrance to the dungeon at the bottom of the submerged fortress which allows for a stealthy access into the dungeon/prison. Sneaking through the front entrance to scout is much more challenging. (When I played it and ran it both parties had access to Water Breathing and so chose to scout first for other entrances before trying to go in the obvious main entrance on the surface. In both cases, the groups found the underwater entrance and decided to go in that way).
Everything but the top floor of the fortress is underwater - which means if the party wants to scout the fortress properly they will need some form of Water Breathing. In addition, unless they have a swim speed, there are significant restrictions on what weapons can be used so it is important to go over the underwater combat rules.
The second party of Final Enemy is the party capturing and holding the main entrance while going a bit deeper into the top level of the fortress, defeating as much of the opposing force as possible before the reinforcements from the allies show up to push the fight into the lower levels and clear the fortress. How successful the battle is depends on the party achieving certain combat goals for which points are awarded. The higher the party tally, the more complete the victory.
So, final enemy essentially splits into a first half exploration/stealth/scouting mission possibly with a bit of combat while the second half is one enormous fight with the party using some provided magic to get into the entrance area, prevent the port cullis from being closed, and eliminate as much of the opposing force as they can until reinforcements arrive.
I'm part way through running GoS. We got up to the very end of Salvage Operation and then went on hiatus. The plan was for them to do Salvage Operation and then move on to Final Enemy. I was going to save Isle of the Abbey to be used in a different space in my overarching story.
I found Salvage Operation very cool, but the ending portion was very difficult to run because of all the different things happening at once. The only other thing of note was the the encounters were harder than I was expecting based on the CR of the monsters. The tight areas and poison caused my players a lot of problems. You may not run into this problem depending on your player's set up and tactics.
Overall for GoS my players had been having a great time with the setting. They really enjoyed exploring Saltmarsh as a town and there was plenty of detail for me to work with, but just enough not spelled out for me to make my own mark.
I’ve only run salvage operation as a one shot. Lots of fun to be had, I used a DM guild resource to help.
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/281086/Salvage-Operation--a-Ghosts-of-Saltmarsh-DMs-Resources
it included some letters for the players to add context, and summaries stuff for the DM
If you’re players are anything like mine, they’re paranoid of small spaces and will go through the ship carefully. Take advantage of spider climb on the spiders and phasing to ambush the party for some fun