The latest Dungeons & Dragons book contains a surprising amount of references to one of the game’s oldest campaign settings. Ghosts of Saltmarsh, the new D&D book that comes out later this month, contains seven classic nautical-themed adventures updated for Fifth Edition play. As the title suggests, most of the action is set in or around the town of Saltmarsh, a harbor town on the cusp of explosive growth. Saltmarsh originally appeared in a series of three connected adventures (collectively known as the Saltmarsh trilogy) and was part of the expansive Greyhawk campaign setting created by D&D co-creator Gary Gygax.
While D&D stated that Ghosts of Saltmarsh would be “setting agnostic,” the book contains a surprising amount of references and nods to its Greyhawk roots. Saltmarsh has three competing factions that strive for influence around town, and two of them have direct ties to outside Greyhawk forces. One group is loyal to the king of Keoland and uses imperial authority to exert its influence, while another is connected to the sinister Scarlet Brotherhood, a classic group of Greyhawk antagonists. The Sea Princes, another Greyhawk faction, also play a role in the book. Even the classic villain Iuz, a demigod that controls an empire in Greyhawk, has a presence in Saltmarsh.
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While Ghosts of Saltmarsh contains plenty of nods to its Greyhawk roots, the book is still “setting agnostic” as DMs and players don’t need to know anything about Greyhawk before they sit down to play the adventure. The factions provide connective tissue between the adventures in Ghosts of Saltmarsh, but players can easily approach the chapters of the books as standalone adventures or pull Saltmarsh out of Greyhawk entirely without any significant issue. While the nods to Greyhawk are more than just Easter eggs, they’re still disconnected from Greyhawk continuity to the point that they won’t create any barriers for players or DMs that can’t tell a Greyhawk from a blackbird.
As a fan of D&D history, I was pleasantly surprised by how much of Greyhawk found its way into Ghosts of Saltmarsh without the book becoming a Greyhawk adventure. It’s a fantastic example of how Dungeons & Dragons builds upon its past while not getting lost in it, simultaneously looking back on its history while forging ahead into the future.
Ghosts of Saltmarsh comes out on May 21st. Pre-orders are live now.
Are you excited to return to Greyhawk? Let us know in the comment section, or find me on Twitter at @CHofferCBus to talk all things D&D!
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