I love when you grab a premade adventure thinking "Great, this is going to save me so much time," but by the time you run it you've rewritten 80% of it anyway.
I can see that point-of-view. I usually just use premade adventures as "idea fodder" and approach them with that attitude, so spending a lot of time changing them is just part of the process for me. I also feel like I have to do *more* prep than usual for a premade adventure because it requires a lot of reading and remembering all the different parts that someone else wrote, versus an adventure I create myself. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Oh wow! I’m in the middle of running this now! The smugglers are slavers in my version to tie in with the first module we ran A0 which had slavers in it. We’ll eventually be making our way through the rest of the A series after we get done with the U series. Then on to GD and maybe Q if I feel I’m up for it. I’m STOKED to watch this video!
Thank you SO MUCH! I really appreciate it, and I'm glad the timing is working out! I've long had a desire to want to run my daughter and her friends through the Giants series eventually, but I'm not sure if we'll get there. It's getting more and more difficult to find weekends when all four players are available as they are getting older and have a lot more high school activities, especially because the three of them all go to different schools so their schedules are completely different. Thanks again!
I love spiders. When I find them in my home I treat them like guests. There was once one that lived in my bathroom window for about a month. Every time I took a shower, he disappeared but I knew he knew he was allowed to be there. Once there was one in my sink that could not get out. I turned off the faucet when I noticed him and coaxed him onto my finger and let him out the window. I once found one seemingly dead in a pan full of dishwater and fished him out and put him on the window sill kind of sliding him around till the water smeared off him onto the sill and he looked dead. But I left him there under the air of the fan for a time and about an hour later he was slowly moving around. Eventually, he disappeared when my back was turned. I thought to myself once, what if spiders could fly? That would drive people crazy but it would be so cool. I might make one fly for my next game.
Thanks for the video! That's good Dadding, not contributing to your daughter's stress. I think everyone should understand that. I love the idea of limitations on mutated creatures which then become monsters. That makes them more special. Love the ramshackle building used for the Guild Hall. I love that updated Saltmarsh in the 3.XE DMG II and often point to it when suggesting how folks put together a city writeup for their homebrew settings. I love the pro-active note writing by the Shadow Hunters. I've said it before when you've mentioned "Composure" and I still think it is a great alternative that adds agency and avoids a sensitive issue that might be problematic in certain circumstances due to real life concerns. As far as the module, I haven't run it (I tend to run my own stuff) but played briefly in it a long time ago. I like the adjustments and additions you have made. The Beat were fun. Not sure about that whiskey but I don't drink much liquor, sticking mainly with beer.
Thank you so much for this great comment! I really appreciate you taking the time to comment on each aspect of the video. It means a lot. And I appreciate your compliments regarding how I've been handling certain things in my campaign. Now I need to get some beer recommendations from you! I do drink beer and in the past I was sampling and trying a lot of different beers (almost 2,800 unique beers so far, starting having kept track in 2013) but as I've gotten older, I find that beer just makes me feel "full" and I've found myself gravitating more toward spirits.
@@daddyrolleda1 I'm a simple man when it comes to beer and I stick with something if I like it, so Guinness Stout for years, Sprecher's Black Bavarian for quite some time, but I've settle in my dotage to just enjoying New Glarus Spotted Cow.
The history (real history) of our beloved hobby is very important. Please continue. And... Ahhh the 80s. How I miss thee. Music, fashion, gaming, big hair. #Radical
My favourite ever D&D adventure, I played it as a kid and my bro was DM. So nostalgic. Super spooky with a twist. As a six year old kid I just loved it. Great video sir. Thank you very much. 👍👍👍
My channel is still so tiny that I'm not sure algorithmic manipulation does anything one way or the other. Right now my current series is doing very poorly, but the video released right before it is still, after several weeks, doing ok (by the standards of my channel). Occasionally a video might get a big (for my channel) view count, and sometimes it will be an old video that must be benefitting from something trending somewhere else, or maybe something in the news. Or maybe even just the time of year - once I had a really good ghost story from a year prior that suddenly took off right before Halloween, and is still one of my most views vids to this day. And sometimes I suspect, but have never been able to prove, it's a school thing - students get assigned a particular book which I've done a recording of and they rely on my recording rather than reading it. Which is fine. But I can't imagine how Poe's "Landor's Cottage" can be one of my top viewed vids out of over 1200 uploads. It's such an obscure story by Poe, and frankly not very good, I struggle to explain its top 10 standing. But if it were an assigned reading for some teacher somewhere, that seems a plausible explanation to me. RUclips is very strange and impenetrable.
@@comradestannis No. And anyways it changes constantly. As soon as someone figures something out and starts exploiting it, they change it out from under them. They very specifically and intentionally do not want anybody to understand it.
I enjoy your longer videos. The episodic ones I find are hard to keep track of if there’s too many separate videos. I think people may miss uploads/wait till they’re all out to give the story a full listen in one sitting
@@afrog8574 Thanks!, glad you are enjoying it! :) I do find that the full uploads of books do a lot better than the individual chapters, that's for sure, so clearly many people are indeed waiting for the full release. For me it's a question of release schedule. One thing that is well known about the algorithm is that people with infrequent uploads get buried. Waiting to release a many-chaptered book in one upload might leave me with weeks between uploads. My current endeavor is 46 chapters long(!), so it'd be more like two months from one upload to the next in the present case. I suppose I could do super short filler content, which I did do at one point with Lord Dunsany's "The Gods of Pegana" - I could knock most of those chapters out in literally 15 or 20 minutes from start to finish, giving me plenty of time to work on other far longer things the same day (one of Machen's works, "A Fragment of Life", IIRC - only four chapters, but each one roughly an hour long! Needed 3 or 4 days just to record one chapter, then a full day or two to edit, that one took forever....), but I don't have a ready supply of channel-appropriate content that is so short like that. I should ask my audience, then, eh? The other thing that is really nice about doing individual chapters for longer books is the ability to provide abundant annotations in the video descriptions, most of which have to be dropped in the full upload. I learn a lot myself in reading these stories, new vocabulary and slang, new bits of mythology, new bits of geography or history, it's a learning experience as much as an entertainment experience. So stuff that is new to me, I put in annotations. Sometimes something may not be new to me, but I know it's sufficiently obscure that it deserves a note anyways. It may not cover all the things that are new to all the listeners, but hopefully it does help most people at least some. So while it may be more difficult to follow along with a story at a one-chapter-a-day rate, it does both give me a frequent posting schedule that helps with the algorithm at least a little bit, and it lets me do all the detailed annotations. Perhaps a bit frustrating or annoying to the listeners who prefer to wait for the full thing, but it does have its value doing it this way.
Always a good day when you upload a video Martin. Haven't run this one myself yet, but I would definitely vote for you to continue going through all the old TSR modules and their histories as a continuing series for your channel.
I really appreciate you saying that. Thank you very much! I will add that to the list of potential future topics. Thanks for the suggestion, and for watching and commenting. Cheers!
Thank you SO MUCH! I'm so sorry for the delay! I truly appreciate your support and am in the middle of editing the next video as we speak! Hopefully it will publish tomorrow. I'm really glad you enjoyed the Saltmarsh video, and thanks again for supporting the channel. Cheers!
This is one of my favorites as is N1. I haven't actually run it but set it up for my RQG game - the players decide not to go that direction, but it's still there waiting for them. We did run N1 on the edge of Upland Marsh (Glorantha, Dragon Pass). These are great ideas! Thanks!!
Thank you so much for your generous support of the channel! I really appreciate it (and also your words of support in your comment on that other person's comment).
@@daddyrolleda1 The trouble with channel growth is that you will get more of these kinds of comments. Try to filter it out. Remember there are people that love what you do.
Thank you for watching and commenting! I think I have a decent collection of stuff, but I know there are folks who have much bigger collections than me. I've shown quite a bit of my stuff. A good place to start would be to check out these two videos (but these were made more than a year ago and the collection has grown since then): - History of D&D Editions: ruclips.net/video/RgoyqfPoMnw/видео.htmlsi=mELn6dSD020Twcjt - History of Advanced D&D Hardback Books: ruclips.net/video/M3ygZCjLqAk/видео.htmlsi=G0cAEjdkZ1EXg47z I have quite a few boxed sets as well, many of which I haven't yet shown. Your best bet is to check out my D&D History Playlist: ruclips.net/p/PLX6jue56rzl0uAZIFwywJXIMXWVULmTqh&si=K4T8VckrUpyfNOCS Cheers!
12:25 > 'Dunnsmouth' 🤣 Talk about wearing ones' influences on their sleeve. I would love to adventure there, I can already tell that I need to pack some extra tartar sauce
Games Workshop produced quite a bit of UK-centric content for Call of Cthulhu. The main pack was Green and Pleasant Land, and there were several article in White Dwarf. The most notable was Watchers of Walberswick; a scenario set in a coastal village. Walberswick is a real place adjacent to the lost village of Dunwich, which is what inspired the scenario.
Oh wow! That sounds like really fun stuff. I wasn't too much into Call of Cthulhu back in the day, having only begun to play starting around 2006 or so. But this is fascinating! Thank you so much for sharing. And, thank you for watching and commenting. I appreciate it!
Your efforts on ambience, tempo and sensory descriptions is very impressive. Well done! Same admiration for Professor DM, too. Try Redbreast 12 Irish Whiskey
This comment really made my day. I've been a bit anxious while preparing a huge presentation for my client tomorrow (I own and run a boutique ad agency) and seeing a comment like this really helped me to just take a breath and center myself. I really appreciate it. And I 100% agree on Redbreast 12 Irish Whiskey! I think it's safe to say that it was the first Irish Whiskey that really made me take notice of the category and pay more attention. I occasionally will auction off a Whiskey Tasting for my daughter's school, where folks bid and the winner gets me to come to their house with 5-6 different bottles of whiskey (their choice, but I like to mix it up with rye, Bourbon, Scotch, Irish, Japanese, etc.). One year I brought Redbreast 12 and it was a huge hit. Cheers!
@@daddyrolleda1 Happy to help, DRA1! It’s RUclips channels like your’s that have helped improve my DMing: plot/ story craft, ambience/mood, adventure hooks, etc. Thank you! I’ve been playing for 40 years and with the same group of friends for almost as long (early high school). And they’ve noticed and appreciated the difference. Best of luck with your presentation! Here are my go-to’s: Bourbon- Belle Meade Cask Strength Reserve Irish- RB12 Rye- Angel’s Envy Scotch- not applicable Japanese- I’m open to suggestions Slaínte!
Appreciate the update on your kickstarter project Martin. FYI - you might want to post that update on the kickstarter site for people like me who are waiting for the POD links. Thanks.
Thanks for this! I just posted an update earlier this morning. The process has been frustrating, but I guess that means I'll be able to do it better and quicker next time. My designer and I are taking copious notes as we come across issues with uploading our files, etc.
Ok second comment: the boat map from Saltmarsh is classic. I never played it, but I have a copy I picked up from a hobby shop 30+ years ago, because it looked cool. Tbh never really played many rewritten adventure back in the day, mostly because things like “make the town”, I think. I like the CoC invoking you did, or at least CoC lite :)
Yes, "CoC Lite" is great way to put it! I remember when I was searching for a Saltmarsh map to use (I had forgotten there was one in the DMG II but was reminded during my search), I found someone on Etsy who had made physical models of the Sea Ghost based on the maps/diagrams! It was pretty neat.
This video came at a perfect time for me! I just recenrly started a new campaign set in Saltmarsh and I was personally a bit letdown after reading how all of the mystery and creepiness of the setting was just a front for the smuggler/pirate stuff. Your ideas for turning it into a more lovecraftian place are right up my alley and I specially liked the mention of that "Worm that walks" creature!
Thank you for being a voice of inclusiveness and accessibility in the OSR space. Too many OSR DMs think if you're not a dick to your players you're playing the game wrong, and it can drive good players away from expanding their RPG horizons.
I really appreciate you say that, and I do try very hard to invoke the qualities you mention. If you have watched some of my other videos in this series about my daughter's game, you'll hear me bring up times when the players were having problems and I talk about how I adjusted my style to help them. I'm not perfect but I do try to listen and to learn. Thanks so much for watching, commenting, and for your support of the channel!
@@daddyrolleda1 granted I haven't been playing quite as long as you, nobody liked playing with the DMs who were petty tyrants back in the '90s and in my experience the best DMs were always flexible about making the game work for the players. I have been following your content that talks about your daughter's game and it feels very refreshingly without pretense. Just a straight forward widely-applicable case study on how you're running the game.
That means so much - thank you so much for taking a few minutes to let me know. Comments like this are a huge boost of confidence and positivity, and I truly appreciate it. Cheers to you!
It is so good! I really like this one, which was probably evident in the way I rambled on about it! Thank you very much for watching and commenting. Cheers!
There are a number of old D&D Modules that I keep meaning to convert to Runequest/Mythras because they lend themselves to a more Cthulhu-esque feel, (Call of Cthulhu uses essentially the same BRP system as those games, so transposing Mythos Monsters to a fantasy setting is way easier. And "Monsters" of any sort are pretty bloody scary in Mythras and Runequest to begin with...) I'd never considered using the U's but they probably make the most sense of all of them. I mean... Dunnsmouth = Dunwich + Innsmouth... And it's pretty much an entire campaign featuring "Deep Ones". It does have a very "Shadow Over Innsmouth" feel to it. Don was a great contributor to the hobby, and those contributions go widely unreported, so thank you very much for this!
Extra comment: You're listening to the English Beat, but Saltmarsh always makes me think "Everyday is Like Sunday" from the Smiths. (You already featured them before. I know.) But that line: Here in the seaside town That they forgot to close down. Then replace "Come, Armaggedon." with "Rise! Cthulhu Fthagn!" 😂 Anyhow, Cheers! 🥃
I’ve run all 3 of these modules, more than once. My reflections are that U1 is a masterpiece, U2 isn’t as good - it usually ends up as a simple massive bloodbath as soon as the characters are discovered (a bit like G1). U3 on the other hand is quite good and encourages more thoughtful play.
I have somewhat similar recollections, although I don't actually remember playing any of U3 and I'm wondering if it's just my bad memory from something more than 40 years ago, or if we actually never played it. Thanks for watching and commenting!
I feel the modules from UK such as this Saltmarsh or B10 Night of Dark Terror for D&D BECMI have a different vibe from the rest made in USA.... and I tend to like them more, as I'm from old Europe too :)
My 16-year old, occasionally-plays-D&D-daughter is named Constance.Good name. That is so cool! I am a big fan of the Eberron setting, and this adventure I think would work well in that setting. I bet could find some things in that campaign setting that would work well for your group (like the Sovereign Host gods, gothic horror, pulp/noir feel, etc.).
It's bittersweet for your daughter to probably move on to other activities as she gets older. She'll appreciate the game memories more and more over time. But let's get real and address what you really need to start on immediately: secretly recruiting a group of 50+, bearded grognards to take their places. And then when she pulls the "oh, Dad's going to be sad we're not playing any more", you smirk and open the door to the basement and the grognards march out triumphantly.
Ha! I do have my long-running game I began back in May 2001 that's still on-going, and I play in a couple of Savage Worlds games, and have run a one-shot for some friends (see my video about running Ravenloft) and that group is poised to take over as my "new" consistent group once my daughter and her friends decide they are done with this!
@@daddyrolleda1 My 12yo boy is cursed for life. Growing up in a big RPG library of sorts made him much like me in terms of tastes and hobbies. I DM to 2 different groups of his friends, 2 separate campaigns. He plays with my old timers too, cause they are like family to him. I hope we will be doing this for a long time. If he get another interests, it will be ok too, because the memories will always be there to confort us.
This is the first module I ever ran, with Human League playing in the other room. I suspected the 'problem' player in the group already read it so changed the order of occupied rooms and switched one creepy first level spell effect for a different one. I could see the frustration on the player's face. That was the most satisfying part.
It was one of my favorite adventures as a kid but oddly I only acquired it a couple of years ago (which is why you see the cover is very worn, as my books don't normally look like that). Thanks for watching and commenting!
The POD seems like a pretty good deal for this adventure at this point. I got this one second-hand from a friend who owns a business specialized in out-of-print TTRPGs, and they gave me a discount, which helped!
Thank you very much for understanding. I'm always quite baffled by folks who did hear something like this (whether it's about my daughter or someone else who has issues like this) and their response it, "Then they shouldn't play D&D." I've seen people with that attitude on social media, and I struggled to understand what made them that way.
I really like your changes... But then again, I am a sucker for Lovecraftian type atmospheres and stories. Not being in the OSR scene besides wanting to learn the history of D&D... Probably won't get to run U1 as intended. But, man, very inspiring. I would personally probably go a lot harder into the Deep One thing since I wouldn't be trying to actually run the module. But of note, your Deep One image is actually the image used for the Deep One Hybrid from Pathfinder 1e-coincidentally, my favorite TTRPG. So I would really lean into that there are Deep Ones and a cult interbreeding with them. And something cool is that in Bestiary 2 there are Marsh Giants that live in salt marshes, which are "rumored" to be comingling with something from the ocean... Which is cool because Deep Ones weren't in a Bestiary until number 4 or 5, so it basically foreshadowed their inclusion. But I might use those as either intended *or* they could be "more pure" hybrids, allowing them to keep growing like the true Deep Ones.
I've heard good things about that one. How did you like running it? And how did it compare to the original (if you have familiarity with the original, that is)?
@@daddyrolleda1 it’s good. I’ve never played the original. I changed some of it, so all 3 modules would be one adventure. I made the cult the big baddies. Also the 5e version uses some adventures from dragon magazine .
I took a couple of groups through this module in the 80s. Both groups were less experienced and I had to preface the adventure by reminding them that D&D was as much about investigation and social interaction as it was combat. With one group I had to expand the conspiracy as they didn't discover enough to unlock the Sea Ghost part of the adventure while adventuring in the haunted house. Can I assume you have played U1 more than U2 and 3. U1 has that awesome used to death look to it while the others look almost pristine.
Thank you for watching and commenting! I have the module (I show it briefly when talking about Dave J. Browne, one of the co-authors of U1, and who also wrote UK1) and I recall playing through it, at least briefly, as a kid, but I haven't run it myself yet. Hopefully I can rectify that soon. Thanks for the suggestion!
Oh, fantastic! Well, maybe not... I guess these tips won't be helpful for you! But I hope you enjoy the video anyway. How did your group like the adventure?
Ooh, Isle of Dread! Another module of which I have very fond memories! I recall playing this one during Spanish class, using my Half-Elf Ranger (I know that's AD&D and X1 is B/X, but we just mixed-and-matched back then without worrying about things too much).
Thank you very much for that! I appreciate it. If you stay through the Bonus Content at the end, you'll see me talk about one of those bands/albums. Cheers!
I have worked U1 into the beginning adventures for my nautical campaign. I start with an adventure from Dungeon Magazine called "Box of Flumph" which is designed as a low-level starter adventure. The adventure involves a criminal element swindling local miners along the coast out of their mines by poluting them with frightened and angry flumphs. This then leads to Saltmarsh and the adventure there which gets the player's a ship.
I sadly slept on Dungeon back in the day (at rhe time, I was a player and not a DM, so I read Dragon), but this adventure sounds like a lot of fun! Thanks for watching and commenting!
As a kid, I can't remember playing U2 and U3, although I've owned them forever, but we definitely plaued U1. Thanks for watching and commenting and for your support of the channel!
My daughter had a life-threatening physical accident that put her into a coma when she was a child. I'm mystified why you would feel the need to make such a rude and ridiculous comment, but I am sorry for whatever happened to you that compelled you to do so. I hope you are able to find peace soon.
@@FatalDevotee1 that's not dungeons & dragons. and that's not parenting. and that's not lovecraftian. you would never touch crowley with a ten foot poll. lovecraft just a cheezy plagerist of crowley, like L ron hubbard. and like anything after 2e. really not trying to be a dick, just hurts my own life that people of the world became so totally hypnotized by robots. no way to remedy or repair.
you never get to the point, takes you 2 hours to provide 10 minutes of real information. but everyone seems to do that. it's gross though really can't stand it, am i the only person who sees how petty and offensive this is? also, why do you think goofing around with your hands on camera isn't repulsive? please stop. is this some kind of sign language for deaf people? it's annoying, unbearable
Thank you very much for watching and commenting. It really helps the algorithm to recommend my video. I appreciate you for watching the video. Wishing you all my best.
@@daddyrolleda1for what it's worth, I enjoy the long form content. I love the discussion format and the details really help me in my campaign writing. Your channel is one of only 4 or 5 that I've continued to regularly follow. Don't let the hate and jealousy bother you. I hope the kids continue to play. I know the teens can be tricky but they can sometimes surprise you
@adampender2482 I really appreciate this comment so much. Thank you for taking the time to watch and then to comment. I truly appreciate it. And I do hope that my teen group decides to stick with it. It's my sincere hope that they do, but I'm just preparing myself mentally in case it doesn't happen. Cheers!
Please do not wish well upon this creature. Imagine if it grows and reproduce ? What kind of putrid thrash would be unleashed if this awful beign is allowed to thrive ? Let's just wish it would expire soon and rid the world of it's foul stench.
I love when you grab a premade adventure thinking "Great, this is going to save me so much time," but by the time you run it you've rewritten 80% of it anyway.
That's how it should be, tbh
I can see that point-of-view. I usually just use premade adventures as "idea fodder" and approach them with that attitude, so spending a lot of time changing them is just part of the process for me. I also feel like I have to do *more* prep than usual for a premade adventure because it requires a lot of reading and remembering all the different parts that someone else wrote, versus an adventure I create myself.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
I always viewed premade as a framework that I can blend my own ideas on top of.
One of the best of the old TSR modules!
Yes, I agree!
Wow. We liked the same bands, played the same games, liked the same modules. I guess that is not so surprising, but it's pretty cool too.
We are clearly persons of great taste and sophistication!
Oh wow! I’m in the middle of running this now! The smugglers are slavers in my version to tie in with the first module we ran A0 which had slavers in it. We’ll eventually be making our way through the rest of the A series after we get done with the U series. Then on to GD and maybe Q if I feel I’m up for it. I’m STOKED to watch this video!
Thank you SO MUCH! I really appreciate it, and I'm glad the timing is working out!
I've long had a desire to want to run my daughter and her friends through the Giants series eventually, but I'm not sure if we'll get there. It's getting more and more difficult to find weekends when all four players are available as they are getting older and have a lot more high school activities, especially because the three of them all go to different schools so their schedules are completely different.
Thanks again!
I love spiders. When I find them in my home I treat them like guests. There was once one that lived in my bathroom window for about a month. Every time I took a shower, he disappeared but I knew he knew he was allowed to be there. Once there was one in my sink that could not get out. I turned off the faucet when I noticed him and coaxed him onto my finger and let him out the window.
I once found one seemingly dead in a pan full of dishwater and fished him out and put him on the window sill kind of sliding him around till the water smeared off him onto the sill and he looked dead. But I left him there under the air of the fan for a time and about an hour later he was slowly moving around. Eventually, he disappeared when my back was turned.
I thought to myself once, what if spiders could fly? That would drive people crazy but it would be so cool. I might make one fly for my next game.
I ❤ the Lovecraft vibe.
A huge thank you for your generous support of the channel! You're the best!
Thanks for the video! That's good Dadding, not contributing to your daughter's stress. I think everyone should understand that. I love the idea of limitations on mutated creatures which then become monsters. That makes them more special. Love the ramshackle building used for the Guild Hall. I love that updated Saltmarsh in the 3.XE DMG II and often point to it when suggesting how folks put together a city writeup for their homebrew settings. I love the pro-active note writing by the Shadow Hunters. I've said it before when you've mentioned "Composure" and I still think it is a great alternative that adds agency and avoids a sensitive issue that might be problematic in certain circumstances due to real life concerns. As far as the module, I haven't run it (I tend to run my own stuff) but played briefly in it a long time ago. I like the adjustments and additions you have made. The Beat were fun. Not sure about that whiskey but I don't drink much liquor, sticking mainly with beer.
Thank you so much for this great comment! I really appreciate you taking the time to comment on each aspect of the video. It means a lot. And I appreciate your compliments regarding how I've been handling certain things in my campaign.
Now I need to get some beer recommendations from you! I do drink beer and in the past I was sampling and trying a lot of different beers (almost 2,800 unique beers so far, starting having kept track in 2013) but as I've gotten older, I find that beer just makes me feel "full" and I've found myself gravitating more toward spirits.
@@daddyrolleda1 I'm a simple man when it comes to beer and I stick with something if I like it, so Guinness Stout for years, Sprecher's Black Bavarian for quite some time, but I've settle in my dotage to just enjoying New Glarus Spotted Cow.
The history (real history) of our beloved hobby is very important. Please continue.
And... Ahhh the 80s. How I miss thee. Music, fashion, gaming, big hair. #Radical
My favourite ever D&D adventure, I played it as a kid and my bro was DM. So nostalgic. Super spooky with a twist. As a six year old kid I just loved it. Great video sir. Thank you very much. 👍👍👍
I'm an Anglophile as well, and so much great music came across the pond in that time period. It was one of the highlights of my youth.
My channel is still so tiny that I'm not sure algorithmic manipulation does anything one way or the other. Right now my current series is doing very poorly, but the video released right before it is still, after several weeks, doing ok (by the standards of my channel). Occasionally a video might get a big (for my channel) view count, and sometimes it will be an old video that must be benefitting from something trending somewhere else, or maybe something in the news. Or maybe even just the time of year - once I had a really good ghost story from a year prior that suddenly took off right before Halloween, and is still one of my most views vids to this day. And sometimes I suspect, but have never been able to prove, it's a school thing - students get assigned a particular book which I've done a recording of and they rely on my recording rather than reading it. Which is fine. But I can't imagine how Poe's "Landor's Cottage" can be one of my top viewed vids out of over 1200 uploads. It's such an obscure story by Poe, and frankly not very good, I struggle to explain its top 10 standing. But if it were an assigned reading for some teacher somewhere, that seems a plausible explanation to me. RUclips is very strange and impenetrable.
Does anyone know the algorithms and how they work on RUclips?
@@comradestannis No. And anyways it changes constantly. As soon as someone figures something out and starts exploiting it, they change it out from under them. They very specifically and intentionally do not want anybody to understand it.
@@sststr That's... honestly a bad thing. Damn.
I enjoy your longer videos. The episodic ones I find are hard to keep track of if there’s too many separate videos. I think people may miss uploads/wait till they’re all out to give the story a full listen in one sitting
@@afrog8574 Thanks!, glad you are enjoying it! :)
I do find that the full uploads of books do a lot better than the individual chapters, that's for sure, so clearly many people are indeed waiting for the full release.
For me it's a question of release schedule. One thing that is well known about the algorithm is that people with infrequent uploads get buried. Waiting to release a many-chaptered book in one upload might leave me with weeks between uploads. My current endeavor is 46 chapters long(!), so it'd be more like two months from one upload to the next in the present case. I suppose I could do super short filler content, which I did do at one point with Lord Dunsany's "The Gods of Pegana" - I could knock most of those chapters out in literally 15 or 20 minutes from start to finish, giving me plenty of time to work on other far longer things the same day (one of Machen's works, "A Fragment of Life", IIRC - only four chapters, but each one roughly an hour long! Needed 3 or 4 days just to record one chapter, then a full day or two to edit, that one took forever....), but I don't have a ready supply of channel-appropriate content that is so short like that. I should ask my audience, then, eh?
The other thing that is really nice about doing individual chapters for longer books is the ability to provide abundant annotations in the video descriptions, most of which have to be dropped in the full upload. I learn a lot myself in reading these stories, new vocabulary and slang, new bits of mythology, new bits of geography or history, it's a learning experience as much as an entertainment experience. So stuff that is new to me, I put in annotations. Sometimes something may not be new to me, but I know it's sufficiently obscure that it deserves a note anyways. It may not cover all the things that are new to all the listeners, but hopefully it does help most people at least some.
So while it may be more difficult to follow along with a story at a one-chapter-a-day rate, it does both give me a frequent posting schedule that helps with the algorithm at least a little bit, and it lets me do all the detailed annotations. Perhaps a bit frustrating or annoying to the listeners who prefer to wait for the full thing, but it does have its value doing it this way.
Always a good day when you upload a video Martin. Haven't run this one myself yet, but I would definitely vote for you to continue going through all the old TSR modules and their histories as a continuing series for your channel.
I really appreciate you saying that. Thank you very much! I will add that to the list of potential future topics. Thanks for the suggestion, and for watching and commenting. Cheers!
Yeah, same here. It's part of my weekly routine. The longer the video the better.
Thanks!
Thank you SO MUCH! I'm so sorry for the delay! I truly appreciate your support and am in the middle of editing the next video as we speak! Hopefully it will publish tomorrow. I'm really glad you enjoyed the Saltmarsh video, and thanks again for supporting the channel. Cheers!
This is one of my favorites as is N1. I haven't actually run it but set it up for my RQG game - the players decide not to go that direction, but it's still there waiting for them. We did run N1 on the edge of Upland Marsh (Glorantha, Dragon Pass). These are great ideas! Thanks!!
I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you very much for watching and commenting, and I hope some of the ideas are helpful for you in your games. Cheers!
@@daddyrolleda1 Definitely. I also really like the C'Thulhu taste. I may have to grab that LotFP scenario as well!
Saltmarsh is a fantastic analog for Innsmouth.
Old school dungeons are a blast.
Thank you so much for your generous support of the channel! I really appreciate it (and also your words of support in your comment on that other person's comment).
@@daddyrolleda1 The trouble with channel growth is that you will get more of these kinds of comments. Try to filter it out. Remember there are people that love what you do.
I love the little signs thing you do. It is one of the best DM tips ever. You are among the best. I guess in my opinion.
That came out wrong.
Or did it?
As I'm watching this I just had the thought that you must have quite the impressive DnD library
Thank you for watching and commenting!
I think I have a decent collection of stuff, but I know there are folks who have much bigger collections than me. I've shown quite a bit of my stuff. A good place to start would be to check out these two videos (but these were made more than a year ago and the collection has grown since then):
- History of D&D Editions: ruclips.net/video/RgoyqfPoMnw/видео.htmlsi=mELn6dSD020Twcjt
- History of Advanced D&D Hardback Books: ruclips.net/video/M3ygZCjLqAk/видео.htmlsi=G0cAEjdkZ1EXg47z
I have quite a few boxed sets as well, many of which I haven't yet shown. Your best bet is to check out my D&D History Playlist: ruclips.net/p/PLX6jue56rzl0uAZIFwywJXIMXWVULmTqh&si=K4T8VckrUpyfNOCS
Cheers!
12:25 > 'Dunnsmouth' 🤣
Talk about wearing ones' influences on their sleeve. I would love to adventure there, I can already tell that I need to pack some extra tartar sauce
It's a really fun and clever adventure that incorporates a "dice drop" mechanic to design the town and to figure out which NPCs are where.
@@daddyrolleda1 I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the recommendation
Games Workshop produced quite a bit of UK-centric content for Call of Cthulhu. The main pack was Green and Pleasant Land, and there were several article in White Dwarf. The most notable was Watchers of Walberswick; a scenario set in a coastal village. Walberswick is a real place adjacent to the lost village of Dunwich, which is what inspired the scenario.
Oh wow! That sounds like really fun stuff. I wasn't too much into Call of Cthulhu back in the day, having only begun to play starting around 2006 or so. But this is fascinating! Thank you so much for sharing. And, thank you for watching and commenting. I appreciate it!
Your efforts on ambience, tempo and sensory descriptions is very impressive. Well done!
Same admiration for Professor DM, too.
Try Redbreast 12 Irish Whiskey
This comment really made my day. I've been a bit anxious while preparing a huge presentation for my client tomorrow (I own and run a boutique ad agency) and seeing a comment like this really helped me to just take a breath and center myself. I really appreciate it.
And I 100% agree on Redbreast 12 Irish Whiskey! I think it's safe to say that it was the first Irish Whiskey that really made me take notice of the category and pay more attention. I occasionally will auction off a Whiskey Tasting for my daughter's school, where folks bid and the winner gets me to come to their house with 5-6 different bottles of whiskey (their choice, but I like to mix it up with rye, Bourbon, Scotch, Irish, Japanese, etc.). One year I brought Redbreast 12 and it was a huge hit.
Cheers!
@@daddyrolleda1 Happy to help, DRA1! It’s RUclips channels like your’s that have helped improve my DMing: plot/ story craft, ambience/mood, adventure hooks, etc. Thank you!
I’ve been playing for 40 years and with the same group of friends for almost as long (early high school). And they’ve noticed and appreciated the difference.
Best of luck with your presentation!
Here are my go-to’s:
Bourbon- Belle Meade Cask Strength Reserve
Irish- RB12
Rye- Angel’s Envy
Scotch- not applicable
Japanese- I’m open to suggestions
Slaínte!
I remember running this as a DM in -81. Fond memories 😊
Appreciate the update on your kickstarter project Martin. FYI - you might want to post that update on the kickstarter site for people like me who are waiting for the POD links. Thanks.
Thanks for this! I just posted an update earlier this morning. The process has been frustrating, but I guess that means I'll be able to do it better and quicker next time. My designer and I are taking copious notes as we come across issues with uploading our files, etc.
No problem Martin, glad you are getting it worked out. Now you'll have your pilot project out of the way for future kickstarters.
Ok second comment: the boat map from Saltmarsh is classic. I never played it, but I have a copy I picked up from a hobby shop 30+ years ago, because it looked cool. Tbh never really played many rewritten adventure back in the day, mostly because things like “make the town”, I think.
I like the CoC invoking you did, or at least CoC lite :)
Yes, "CoC Lite" is great way to put it!
I remember when I was searching for a Saltmarsh map to use (I had forgotten there was one in the DMG II but was reminded during my search), I found someone on Etsy who had made physical models of the Sea Ghost based on the maps/diagrams! It was pretty neat.
great vids, aesome medule, love the english series of adventures, as im from the uk
Thank you so much! I quite liked them, too, even though I'm over here in "the colonies." 😀
Great Module!
I agree!
This video came at a perfect time for me! I just recenrly started a new campaign set in Saltmarsh and I was personally a bit letdown after reading how all of the mystery and creepiness of the setting was just a front for the smuggler/pirate stuff.
Your ideas for turning it into a more lovecraftian place are right up my alley and I specially liked the mention of that "Worm that walks" creature!
It's good to see the Cult of Dagon within the known world of Martin.
Black Goat of Qohor, amirite?
And never mind the Drowned God, who is obviously Cthulhu
The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh was one of my favourite modules back in the early 80s!
It's one of mine, as well! Thanks for watching and commenting!
Great video! Thanks!!
I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching and commenting!
I am using DMG 2 for my Saltmarsh too! :D
Oh, excellent! It's quite a good resource!
Thank you for being a voice of inclusiveness and accessibility in the OSR space. Too many OSR DMs think if you're not a dick to your players you're playing the game wrong, and it can drive good players away from expanding their RPG horizons.
I really appreciate you say that, and I do try very hard to invoke the qualities you mention. If you have watched some of my other videos in this series about my daughter's game, you'll hear me bring up times when the players were having problems and I talk about how I adjusted my style to help them. I'm not perfect but I do try to listen and to learn.
Thanks so much for watching, commenting, and for your support of the channel!
@@daddyrolleda1 granted I haven't been playing quite as long as you, nobody liked playing with the DMs who were petty tyrants back in the '90s and in my experience the best DMs were always flexible about making the game work for the players. I have been following your content that talks about your daughter's game and it feels very refreshingly without pretense. Just a straight forward widely-applicable case study on how you're running the game.
That means so much - thank you so much for taking a few minutes to let me know. Comments like this are a huge boost of confidence and positivity, and I truly appreciate it. Cheers to you!
My favorite dungeon. Great job
It is so good! I really like this one, which was probably evident in the way I rambled on about it!
Thank you very much for watching and commenting. Cheers!
Thanks for the vinyl recommendations, last time, btw!
Not sure if you remember me or not.
I do remember! Did you check any of those out? I seem to recall providing a pretty big list!
@@daddyrolleda1 I looked through it again recently and ordered some. They should be coming in the mail.
There are a number of old D&D Modules that I keep meaning to convert to Runequest/Mythras because they lend themselves to a more Cthulhu-esque feel, (Call of Cthulhu uses essentially the same BRP system as those games, so transposing Mythos Monsters to a fantasy setting is way easier. And "Monsters" of any sort are pretty bloody scary in Mythras and Runequest to begin with...)
I'd never considered using the U's but they probably make the most sense of all of them. I mean... Dunnsmouth = Dunwich + Innsmouth... And it's pretty much an entire campaign featuring "Deep Ones". It does have a very "Shadow Over Innsmouth" feel to it.
Don was a great contributor to the hobby, and those contributions go widely unreported, so thank you very much for this!
Extra comment: You're listening to the English Beat, but Saltmarsh always makes me think "Everyday is Like Sunday" from the Smiths. (You already featured them before. I know.) But that line:
Here in the seaside town
That they forgot to close down.
Then replace "Come, Armaggedon." with "Rise! Cthulhu Fthagn!" 😂
Anyhow, Cheers! 🥃
I’ve run all 3 of these modules, more than once. My reflections are that U1 is a masterpiece, U2 isn’t as good - it usually ends up as a simple massive bloodbath as soon as the characters are discovered (a bit like G1). U3 on the other hand is quite good and encourages more thoughtful play.
I have somewhat similar recollections, although I don't actually remember playing any of U3 and I'm wondering if it's just my bad memory from something more than 40 years ago, or if we actually never played it.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
I'm also running a lvl 1-3 campaign based on pretty much the same modules. 👍
I feel the modules from UK such as this Saltmarsh or B10 Night of Dark Terror for D&D BECMI have a different vibe from the rest made in USA.... and I tend to like them more, as I'm from old Europe too :)
I'm from here in the States, of course, but I do agree with your perception about them having a different vibe. It's one of the reasons I like them!
My 16-year old, occasionally-plays-D&D-daughter is named Constance.Good name. That is so cool!
I am a big fan of the Eberron setting, and this adventure I think would work well in that setting. I bet could find some things in that campaign setting that would work well for your group (like the Sovereign Host gods, gothic horror, pulp/noir feel, etc.).
It's bittersweet for your daughter to probably move on to other activities as she gets older. She'll appreciate the game memories more and more over time. But let's get real and address what you really need to start on immediately: secretly recruiting a group of 50+, bearded grognards to take their places. And then when she pulls the "oh, Dad's going to be sad we're not playing any more", you smirk and open the door to the basement and the grognards march out triumphantly.
Love this. Almost getting to this point with my ten year old girl. I'll start recruiting grognards.
Love this! Almost getting to this point with my ten year old girl. Time to start recruiting grognards.
Ha! I do have my long-running game I began back in May 2001 that's still on-going, and I play in a couple of Savage Worlds games, and have run a one-shot for some friends (see my video about running Ravenloft) and that group is poised to take over as my "new" consistent group once my daughter and her friends decide they are done with this!
@@daddyrolleda1 My 12yo boy is cursed for life. Growing up in a big RPG library of sorts made him much like me in terms of tastes and hobbies. I DM to 2 different groups of his friends, 2 separate campaigns. He plays with my old timers too, cause they are like family to him. I hope we will be doing this for a long time. If he get another interests, it will be ok too, because the memories will always be there to confort us.
This is the first module I ever ran, with Human League playing in the other room. I suspected the 'problem' player in the group already read it so changed the order of occupied rooms and switched one creepy first level spell effect for a different one. I could see the frustration on the player's face. That was the most satisfying part.
Very clever! Well done!
And, I dig your reference to "Human League." While they aren't my favorite, I can respect it!
cool! I remember having this one and running it, although I don't remember how it went, and I've lost it now. Although I still have Dunwater
It was one of my favorite adventures as a kid but oddly I only acquired it a couple of years ago (which is why you see the cover is very worn, as my books don't normally look like that).
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Bought the POD of this not loo long ago. I think it was 82' when I first played it.
The POD seems like a pretty good deal for this adventure at this point. I got this one second-hand from a friend who owns a business specialized in out-of-print TTRPGs, and they gave me a discount, which helped!
Started to watch this during lunch today - will finish later and comment more I bet, but love that Anchor Steam bookmark :$
My main campaign also totally uses a reskin of Saltmarsh from 3.5 DMG II as the main city
I've found it very helpful, no matter what system someone is running!
Thanks for watching and commenting, and for your support of the channel. Cheers!
I can understand not wanting to bring up traumatic stuff or trauma-inducing stuff.
As someone with PTSD, I understand.
Thank you very much for understanding. I'm always quite baffled by folks who did hear something like this (whether it's about my daughter or someone else who has issues like this) and their response it, "Then they shouldn't play D&D." I've seen people with that attitude on social media, and I struggled to understand what made them that way.
@@daddyrolleda1 Same...
I really like your changes... But then again, I am a sucker for Lovecraftian type atmospheres and stories.
Not being in the OSR scene besides wanting to learn the history of D&D... Probably won't get to run U1 as intended. But, man, very inspiring.
I would personally probably go a lot harder into the Deep One thing since I wouldn't be trying to actually run the module.
But of note, your Deep One image is actually the image used for the Deep One Hybrid from Pathfinder 1e-coincidentally, my favorite TTRPG. So I would really lean into that there are Deep Ones and a cult interbreeding with them. And something cool is that in Bestiary 2 there are Marsh Giants that live in salt marshes, which are "rumored" to be comingling with something from the ocean... Which is cool because Deep Ones weren't in a Bestiary until number 4 or 5, so it basically foreshadowed their inclusion. But I might use those as either intended *or* they could be "more pure" hybrids, allowing them to keep growing like the true Deep Ones.
I ran the 5e updated version.
I've heard good things about that one. How did you like running it? And how did it compare to the original (if you have familiarity with the original, that is)?
@@daddyrolleda1 it’s good. I’ve never played the original. I changed some of it, so all 3 modules would be one adventure. I made the cult the big baddies. Also the 5e version uses some adventures from dragon magazine .
Very cool! Thanks for sharing!
I love your content!!! What template do you use to to make your notes in your gm book? I really dig the clean look of it!!!
I took a couple of groups through this module in the 80s. Both groups were less experienced and I had to preface the adventure by reminding them that D&D was as much about investigation and social interaction as it was combat. With one group I had to expand the conspiracy as they didn't discover enough to unlock the Sea Ghost part of the adventure while adventuring in the haunted house.
Can I assume you have played U1 more than U2 and 3. U1 has that awesome used to death look to it while the others look almost pristine.
I’m curious of what you think of module UK1? Have you ever run it? Unique adventure for sure and kind thought it would fit in with the way you DM
Thank you for watching and commenting!
I have the module (I show it briefly when talking about Dave J. Browne, one of the co-authors of U1, and who also wrote UK1) and I recall playing through it, at least briefly, as a kid, but I haven't run it myself yet. Hopefully I can rectify that soon. Thanks for the suggestion!
I just finished U1 with my group.
Oh, fantastic! Well, maybe not... I guess these tips won't be helpful for you! But I hope you enjoy the video anyway. How did your group like the adventure?
They loved it. I used the 5e Saltmarsh for the town but we are playing C&C. Most likely moving to U2 and U3 and hopefully to Isle of Dread after that.
Ooh, Isle of Dread! Another module of which I have very fond memories! I recall playing this one during Spanish class, using my Half-Elf Ranger (I know that's AD&D and X1 is B/X, but we just mixed-and-matched back then without worrying about things too much).
Please accept one (1) algorithmic engagement token 🏆
Shame on me for not reading or running this module yet.
It's all good! Perhaps you can do so soon!
Upvote for your taste in music. :)
Thank you very much for that! I appreciate it. If you stay through the Bonus Content at the end, you'll see me talk about one of those bands/albums.
Cheers!
So owlbear comes from magical alchemy experiment, but it still needs a mate to reproduce? :)
In this case... yup! I wanted it to have eggs but also wanted it to be unique. Is it scientifically accurate? Totally not!
Any alchemy once performed can be performed again! Perhaps the real threat would be the technology of owlbears escaping out into the world.
OG Saltmarsh U1 ! Let's go! 🌊 Splash! 🌊
I really hope you enjoy it!
I have worked U1 into the beginning adventures for my nautical campaign. I start with an adventure from Dungeon Magazine called "Box of Flumph" which is designed as a low-level starter adventure. The adventure involves a criminal element swindling local miners along the coast out of their mines by poluting them with frightened and angry flumphs. This then leads to Saltmarsh and the adventure there which gets the player's a ship.
I sadly slept on Dungeon back in the day (at rhe time, I was a player and not a DM, so I read Dragon), but this adventure sounds like a lot of fun!
Thanks for watching and commenting!
I played the duces out of the series
As a kid, I can't remember playing U2 and U3, although I've owned them forever, but we definitely plaued U1. Thanks for watching and commenting and for your support of the channel!
IMO, Games Workshop would've been a better purchase than that needlepoint company. Just saying.
Oh my goodness, the needlepoint company! What a weird thing that was! Of course, it was pure nepotism on the part of the Blume family. But, still!
1
You need to add 11 seconds to this video
Watch the alc. The alc. is NOT your friend.
your daughter is in therapy because of you, totally all your fault
My daughter had a life-threatening physical accident that put her into a coma when she was a child. I'm mystified why you would feel the need to make such a rude and ridiculous comment, but I am sorry for whatever happened to you that compelled you to do so. I hope you are able to find peace soon.
Ignore this kind of bitter small minded person. They do this to make their petty lives seem better.
@@FatalDevotee1 that's not dungeons & dragons. and that's not parenting. and that's not lovecraftian. you would never touch crowley with a ten foot poll. lovecraft just a cheezy plagerist of crowley, like L ron hubbard. and like anything after 2e. really not trying to be a dick, just hurts my own life that people of the world became so totally hypnotized by robots. no way to remedy or repair.
@@XuxaNuit-eq5on Okay bru.
you never get to the point, takes you 2 hours to provide 10 minutes of real information. but everyone seems to do that. it's gross though really can't stand it, am i the only person who sees how petty and offensive this is? also, why do you think goofing around with your hands on camera isn't repulsive? please stop. is this some kind of sign language for deaf people? it's annoying, unbearable
Thank you very much for watching and commenting. It really helps the algorithm to recommend my video. I appreciate you for watching the video. Wishing you all my best.
@@daddyrolleda1for what it's worth, I enjoy the long form content. I love the discussion format and the details really help me in my campaign writing. Your channel is one of only 4 or 5 that I've continued to regularly follow. Don't let the hate and jealousy bother you. I hope the kids continue to play. I know the teens can be tricky but they can sometimes surprise you
@adampender2482 I really appreciate this comment so much. Thank you for taking the time to watch and then to comment. I truly appreciate it. And I do hope that my teen group decides to stick with it. It's my sincere hope that they do, but I'm just preparing myself mentally in case it doesn't happen. Cheers!
Please do not wish well upon this creature. Imagine if it grows and reproduce ? What kind of putrid thrash would be unleashed if this awful beign is allowed to thrive ? Let's just wish it would expire soon and rid the world of it's foul stench.