Ghosts of Saltmarsh: Thoughts on adapting for an Asian-themed campaign?

[saintstardust]

I've been interested, separately, in a nautical-themed campaign and a campaign drawing inspiration from the older Oriental Adventures books. I've been tinkering with the idea of combining the two, and Ghosts of Saltmarsh appears to be a good framework to adapt. My goals in designing this campaign are:


Unique nautical-themed adventures, since my players have been accustomed to land-based wilderness, urban, and dungeon adventures before
Unique Asian-themed encounters and stories, since my players have been accustomed to the "traditional" Forgotten Realms setting, but making sure the material is accessible to those not necessarily familiar with terminology.
Be respectful to Asian representation. In particular I'm looking to the Asians Read... (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rtQLjmEkSk) podcast to identify historical areas of poor representation in the Oriental Adventures books.

For those of you that have run or played Ghosts of Saltmarsh, I'd love to get your thoughts on this adaptation and what additional resources or systems to consider. For example, I'm not particularly interested in the Honor variant rule as I don't understand, at face value, what it would add to my players' experience but would welcome any thoughts on how it could enhance any of my goals above.

I'd also like to know which characters/factions/settings may be easy to adapt 1-to-1, and which may be more difficult to adapt.

Thank you!

[Sparky McDibben]

Hmm...

Well, I'd say just take Saltmarsh and Appendix A: Of Ships And Sea; leave the actual adventures. They...aren't that good.

As regards Saltmarsh itself, boil it down to the central tension of the town, which is Tradition vs Change. The Traditionalists just want to smuggle, fish, and be left alone. The Loyalists want to support the kingdom, which means dwarven miners, shutting down smuggling, and peeling off the Sea Princes. That central structure is probably something you can port over into any culture. The rest of it is hooks into various other content, which I would just reskin for your world. For example, there's a tiefling that serves Iuz, who can act to acquire magic items and buy recovered items off players. They're there to provide magic items and inform the PCs about the wider world. You might reskin this as someone who's set up in town selling magic items in exchange for fish, kelp (maybe pearls for diviners?), etc. But they can act as a hook for a potential Tier 3 adventure to stop the Blood Sorcerers of the Wastelands, if the players are interested.

As for the rest of it, it provides a decent (though not amazing) structure for a seacrawl. If you're looking for content to drop in, I suggest the Unbreakable anthology.

[Unoriginal]

I disagree with Sparky McDibben, the adventures are neat for the most part (although you can agree all of them have a "...but why'" moment at some point, but still).

The question I have, OP, is: what do you mean by "Asian-themed"? Asia is a whole, huge continent with a *lots* of different culture and peoples.

[saintstardust]

I disagree with Sparky McDibben, the adventures are neat for the most part (although you can agree all of them have a "...but why'" moment at some point, but still).

The question I have, OP, is: what do you mean by "Asian-themed"? Asia is a whole, huge continent with a *lots* of different culture and peoples.

Thanks for this question. The way that Oriental Adventures presents the resource is one that explores myths and legends of (specifically) China, Korea, Japan, and Mongolia in the same way that the traditional settings draw from more western sources. My intent in thinking about an Asian-themed campaign is to be authentic to those myths and legends (and expand to include more cultures since a lot of the OA materials focus on Japanese mythology), to represent their underlying cultures respectfully, to lean on the fantastic, and to celebrate where those areas intersect. For me, I wouldn't think twice about goblins, mummies, and hydras being featured in the same campaign. In the same vein, I think the party would encounter hopping vampires, sickle weasels, and seafaring races.

[Sparky McDibben]

For me, I wouldn't think twice about goblins, mummies, and hydras being featured in the same campaign. In the same vein, I think the party would encounter hopping vampires, sickle weasels, and seafaring races.

Neat idea! How are you planning to implement that? Island-hopping? Or maybe archipelago hopping? With each one being inspired by a different culture? For that, maybe check out the Thousand Thousand Island zines.

[saintstardust]

Neat idea! How are you planning to implement that? Island-hopping? Or maybe archipelago hopping? With each one being inspired by a different culture? For that, maybe check out the Thousand Thousand Island zines.

Thanks! I haven't finish GoS yet, but I think Saltmarsh (or whatever the adaptation is) would probably be a mesh of cultures. Dwarves might be a colonializing European foreigner type. I'm interested in what each culture has in terms of sailor/pirate legends that might be a good representation of how these various cultures in Saltmarsh act out in the sea, and islands might be separate cultures but (more likely) a point of interest with a melding of cultural elements.

I'm not sure about lizardfolk/sahuagin yet. I'll have to check out this TTI zine!

[Unoriginal]

Well in any case, the town of Saltmarsh and the different adventures can be transposed in a setting like what you want without any problem. Could be made as the set for a cool Wuxia story, even.

I would suggest not using the Dwarves as foreign colonizers, though. In the module they're here to help the local realm's government, even if not all the town is happy about it.

If you want the "foreign merchants coming from far away and with their own motives" angle, well, the ship Quartermaster of Iuz would be a pretty good candidate for that.

[Sparky McDibben]

Thanks! I haven't finish GoS yet, but I think Saltmarsh (or whatever the adaptation is) would probably be a mesh of cultures. Dwarves might be a colonializing European foreigner type. I'm interested in what each culture has in terms of sailor/pirate legends that might be a good representation of how these various cultures in Saltmarsh act out in the sea, and islands might be separate cultures but (more likely) a point of interest with a melding of cultural elements.

Please let me know if you find any good sources for gameable materials for this. I'm always on the lookout for good content!


I would suggest not using the Dwarves as foreign colonizers, though. In the module they're here to help the local realm's government, even if not all the town is happy about it.

If you want the "foreign merchants coming from far away and with their own motives" angle, well, the ship Quartermaster of Iuz would be a pretty good candidate for that.

Agreed! If you are looking to skip the colonial issues, I'd just have the dwarves be earth elementals, spirit-people, or even troops from a subordinate kingdom.

[No brains]

This is sort of a meme idea and maybe not one that would actually pan out, but the Suikoden games are based off a Chinese story that I think translates to 'Outlaws of the Marsh'. Maybe you could look to the original to see how bandits in marshes operate?

[5eNeedsDarksun]

I love the idea. Reality is the adventures that culminate in the Sahuagin bit are connected, but the rest of the the 'module' is a bit of a mish mash collection of pirate type adventures that were never re-written to flow together for this book anyway. It's better to do a bit of re-fluffing anyway on all the other adventures so that the baddies are connected, and yours is as good an idea as any.

[Sparky McDibben]

I love the idea. Reality is the adventures that culminate in the Sahuagin bit are connected, but the rest of the the 'module' is a bit of a mish mash collection of pirate type adventures that were never re-written to flow together for this book anyway. It's better to do a bit of re-fluffing anyway on all the other adventures so that the baddies are connected, and yours is as good an idea as any.

Oh snap, I forgot about this until you jogged my memory, but I think SlyFlourish did something like this.

See here: https://slyflourish.com/ghosts_of_saltmarsh_session_zero.html

[saintstardust]

Well in any case, the town of Saltmarsh and the different adventures can be transposed in a setting like what you want without any problem. Could be made as the set for a cool Wuxia story, even.

I would suggest not using the Dwarves as foreign colonizers, though. In the module they're here to help the local realm's government, even if not all the town is happy about it.

If you want the "foreign merchants coming from far away and with their own motives" angle, well, the ship Quartermaster of Iuz would be a pretty good candidate for that.

Thanks for the tip on the Quartermaster of Iuz, do you have thoughts about "the local realm's government"? I don't yet have a sense for how that's portrayed in the broader world (I guess for Greyhawk).

[KorvinStarmast]

I would suggest not using the Dwarves as foreign colonizers, though. In the module they're here to help the local realm's government, even if not all the town is happy about it.

If you want the "foreign merchants coming from far away and with their own motives" angle, well, the ship Quartermaster of Iuz would be a pretty good candidate for that. Uh, you been reading my DM notes? There's also Ingo the Drover.