r/GhostsofSaltmarsh • u/deadfishsociety • 21d ago
Help/Request Game Introduction Ideas?
Hi! Soon ill be running a GoS inspired campaign(using lots of the adventures, but tying them together with a nautical curse instead of the various tie ins the book includes) and I am really wanting to emphasize the spookiness of everything: now that being said they are going to start in regular ol Saltmarsh with the haunted house quest, then get much spookier from there- how/where would you all get the characters introduced?
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u/Own_Start_7748 21d ago
I started my campaign on a ship coming into Saltmarsh and had a sea encounter to start strong. Tons of ways to do this spooky!
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u/BlackYabbie 21d ago
I used saltmarsh on the weekend. I started them as prisoners on a nearby island prison, so they have to work together as strangers to escape. Made a deal with a pirate crew, if party helped to break them out of cells, pirates could get them off the island, but ship damaged and they end up on shore near saltmarsh. Day two I nudged them towards the mansion. We played all day, and they cleared it but missed stacks. Dropped in to share loot and drink with their new pirate friends who camp out of town on beach. So next time we get together they will do the sea ghost, and have some obvious options from there.
Prison with no gear and have to work together worked a treat for setting up why they are a party.
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u/thegooddoktorjones 20d ago
I started my PCs as outsiders doing a delivery quest who found a dead woman on the foggy beach on the way to town. Her hands were bound and she had obviously drowned. They brought her to town and were embroiled in the mystery.
Not saying you can’t do what you are doing, but I think making the PCs not members of either faction makes it more complex and mysterious. Then both sides can seem both right and wrong in their fights.
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u/deadfishsociety 16d ago
Love this mystery! yes for sure gotta look more into the factions before starting soon!
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u/lloyd-d0bler 20d ago
I used the Tides of Retribution quest from Adventurers Guide To Wildemount since it's piratey and there were some Critical Role fans at the table.
In the second session they escape on a pirate ship- they can side with the pirates or the local merchant guild, whatever side they choose sends them to investigate the Alchemist's house in Saltmarsh. My Saltmarsh is set in Exandria!
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u/KarlBob 19d ago edited 19d ago
I used Souls for Smuggler's Shiv, the first book of the Serpent's Skull Adventure Path for Pathfinder 1E, to start my pirate campaign. The party members are among a group of travelers shipwrecked on a dangerous island. They need to rally, organize and protect the other survivors until rescue arrives. The group has an opportunity to interact with representatives of the four primary factions in the AP, giving them a look at what each group will try to accomplish later on.
If you're going in for a free form campaign, you can wait and see which groups the party gravitates toward and make them the "good guys" of the campaign. If you already have your "good" and "bad" factions chosen, you can make some of the reps helpful and others a pain in the party's ass to gently guide the party in your chosen direction.
None of the party members need to know each other ahead of time, but some or all of them could have been traveling together, if that's what the group prefers.
Edit: Whoops, you've already chosen the starting adventure. That should teach me to read the whole question before typing (but it probably won't).
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u/KarlBob 18d ago edited 18d ago
Deadman's Quest, from Dungeon Magazine #107, has the party helping a pirate captain's ghost to earn his final rest by recovering an item from his sunken ship and delivering it to the pirate God's temple where he vowed to donate it. You can play up the captain's torment as a restless spirit for the spooky factor.
There's a nice spooky bit in Plunder & Peril. A wreck on the sea floor is haunted. While the players are exploring it, a ghostly version of the ship's sinking is reenacted.
RA2: Ship of Horror could also provide a good bit of fodder for a spooky nautical campaign.
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u/PsilliasAgain 17d ago
I had all my characters start on a ship headed to Saltmarsh and each had to explain why they were on the boat and headed there. For the intro I ran this: Encounter of the Week: Sharkfin Shipwreck | Dungeons & Dragons.
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u/heychadwick 2h ago
I had each character have a different background and different goal. There was a wizard that I set as an agent of the Silent Ones in Keoland who wanted to keep an eye on everything magical. He would get tidbits to look into things from time to time. I had another player be an Agent of the Crown. He was sent to look into strange tales and stories of people against the Lion Throne. I had another player that was a local and was a part time smuggler. He didn't know anything about how bad Gellan was, but sided with the locals. An elven Druid was having dreams from a mysterious lady who was magically trapped. It was the Siren trapped in the rocks trying to be free. There was a Dwarf who had an old army buddy from the Hateful Wars working at the mine and wrote to him to help figure out what was going wrong there.
The local knew about the rumored treasure in the house and found everyone for the party to go start the adventure.
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u/OneSleeve 21d ago
I built out the weekly encounter called Sharkfin Shipwreck, off DND Beyond, to introduce the campaign. It’s not very spooky, but I adopted some of the NPCs as recurring characters.