When I ran 5E, other than the adventure in the Starter Set, I always used O/TSR modules-most of the 5E "Adventure path" rehash material is pretty piss-poor. ToA is OK, but they even screwed up Saltmarsh.
Greetings!
Hi there, Jeff! I'm interested in your perspective on the 5E "Adventure Path" rehash. How are these materials piss-poor in your view? What aspects have disappointed you so thoroughly?
Secondly, what do you think WOTC did so poorly with Saltmarsh? What should they have done to improve and make a better Saltmarsh?
Semper Fidelis,
SHARK
Put simply, most of the 5E APs,are previous ideas (already done to death through the editions) with a twist and planted into the Forgotten Realms. Dragonlance. Giants series. Ravenloft. Temple of Elemental Evil. Vault of the Drow, etc. Same old villains and tropes, up the Epic-ness.
As for Saltmarsh i particular- essentially they have decided to ignore a bunch of GH canon and moreso than cannon, just verisimilitude based on the "laws of the setting" I discussed this at length elsewhere, so I'll just C&P something from the discussion I had over at ODD74, when someone said the book was focused on Saltmarsh itself, and not necc GH proper.
This is absolutely true, but the book is very much about a town in the world of GH, and talks quite a bit things that are uniquely Greyhawk
Keoland (where Saltmarsh is located) and it's King.
The Scarlet Brotherhood.
The Sea Princes
The Greyhawk Wars
Greyahwk Deities like Obad-Hai
Many major geographical areas (hool marshes for example)
As an example of bad- we have this gem
We have a Tiefling running around town. Wait, what?
Hard stop.
A Tiefling running around Saltmarsh?
In a setting that fought a horrific major war against an Evil demigod and his legions of demons.
Demons which another major NPC of the setting had banished through the use of a major artifact. This drastically reduced the power of the evil demi god's hold in a large chunk of the setting Which allowed the good nations of the setting to re-take and re-settle areas. Millions of innocents died in just this part of entire world conflict and these nations pledged eternal war on the evil demigod.
Keoland (where Saltmarsh is located), a good nation was allied against that Demigod through it's pact with other nations. And fought it's own battles in the war.
This Tiefling is in Saltmarsh, selling (cursed) magic items and in turn buying FISH for the Demigod.
FISH To send back to the Demigod's nation.
Even if we totally ignore the fact that the evil demigod's nation is 1000s of miles away and not easily and directly reached by land or waterway.... we'll also have to ignore that the evil demi god's capital lies upon the 2nd largest body of freshwater on the continent..
Oh, we will also have to ignore that the evil demigod's northern border is a vast ocean...
So ignoring all those irrelevant facts...
How would a Tiefling, especially one who is depicted as very demonic, manage to get all that fish back and forth navigating the waterways through 1000s of miles through the good nations that fought against her master without getting her flipping head chopped off by any number of people who have pledged to destroy that demigod and all involved?
Crap design work.
It's the same type of idiocy that placed a Tiefling in Hommlett hanging around in the open and up to no good in the 4E conversion. WTF.
Yes it's just a stupid game about make believe elves and faeries. But at least have some respect for verisimilitude of the creator's own god bless-ed setting. It's as bad as Disney Star Wars. I can't tell if WOTC is stupid, lazy, ignorant or all three combined when it comes to campaign settings.
Hope that helps explain my feelings.