When I ran this, I made the assault off-screen a clever diversion and the players were tasked with a stealthy kill mission. This allowed me to reduce the encounter size as the main forces for both sides were elsewhere.

Have Oceanus provide the group with magical pearls of water breathing, use the allied lizardmen to create a distraction pulling away some of the enemy forces. Emphasize the need for the group to get in and get out with as much intel as possible.

I think an image of Lizardmen reinserting the eye gems into their idol (a la the 1e PHB cover) with a room full of slain adventurers scattered about would be interesting. Has anybody done that?

Im running all this in the Dark Sun setting, so I changed the saughin to Thri-kreen and their base is more of a Cappadocia-like hive where there are lots of caves and such, It will make it much easier to run not having to deal with the air problem, although a couple of the PCs are a desert variant of lizardfolk, called Ssurran, so they can hold their breath if diving in the sands or silt if needed. I am dreading the final assault though and your suggestion to have some of the players control the npcs like henchmen is a great Idea.

Thanks for covering this classic, Cap. I'm glad that this early material is getting re-introduced to the latest generation of D&D players. I always wanted to run the U series as a campaign, but never found the opportunity.

Always good stuff Cap'n. These original modules were literally magic carpets that transported my friends and I over the hills and far away.

I used to own this series also. This module will make the players think outside the box or have a shapeshifter Druid. Great review Captain! I like the Game On Tee shirt! 😊

Yea ran this one a while ago. Players had the helmet a ring of free action and a bunch of water breathing potions. I used a timer to manage the potions. We also used dry erase boards to communicate key things. On the great escape I was sending 10 to 20 sea devils in at a time as they signaled and waited for the Sea Goast to return. I had them on the ropes, they only made it out because of a lot of Claric healing, a really nasty tank and an elven archer. You are correct there was a lot of work to be done on the DM's end. It was a huge handful...but a good time had by all. Much later the claric settled down in Saltmarsh with a small abby and became a pillar of society. Our Saltmarsh now has a church to Saint Cuthbert.

This is kind of weird. I played through this thing back when it was relatively new but never read it, and it appears our GM back in the day pretty much did his own thing with it. While my memory on exact details is foggy at this point, I know we had a pair of apparatuses of Kwalish (ie big metal crayfish, carried two people apiece) as well as the water breathing helm and quite a few scrolls, so "scouting" (more like armed recon, we weren't very stealthy at all) underwater wasn't really much of an issue. We weren't really scouting anyway, the plan (which I think might have been ours, or maybe the GM nudged us into it) was to bring a bunch of fresh blood in water skins and casks, find the fishman leaders and "chum the water" to drive them and their sharks into a feeding frenzy, then swim for our lives. Worked a little too well, we lost about half the party before we even got back to the dry level, but our aquatic ally NPCs managed to cover the disorganized pursuit well enough for the rest of us to escape. He did a final battle ashore the next day or so after we'd gotten back to Saltmarsh, with the still-angry but poorly lead fishmen coming for revenge at night. We'd set up a trap and the "militia" they routed so easily were mostly illusions, and when they moved in to start looting and trashing the place they got ambushed by the real troops and the party survivors and some mercs we'd hired, while our surviving aquatic pals cut off their escape and held off whatever reserves they'd had in the sea. It was pretty bloody all around but in the end the baddies were mostly dead and most of the town was still standing. I think we actually did more damage to the town with burning hands spells than the fishmen did. So, not at all what the module wanted to have happen, but having heard the "real" version after all this time I think I prefer my experience with it. We did have six out of eight PCs die (self included - the last surviving chieftain-mutant finished me off) but it was still an exciting story arc, and we'd gotten off pretty light in the earlier adventures (which seem to have run closer to the way they were written - I was wondering why the side quest to get parts to finish the second Apparatus of Kwalish didn't get mentioned).

Your reviews are a fantastic and appreciated trip down memory lane. I look forward to them every week.

Wow, that music gets properly funky towards the end there!

I ran this module twice when I was much younger and have used the map several times as an evil villian"s lair. Also, I knew a couple arm's of that era who ran it as well. It was fun but it took awhile to get through each time.

Nicely done. This is a weighty module, and you really gotta do some prep to make sure it plays just-so. But if done right, this could be the most exciting adventure a party could have, especially ones that are combat happy.

I loved this series. Very memorable. My DM modified it into a solo adventure, which made the scouting mission much more doable.

I was 13 and still a rookie DM but we were having fun. I remember getting excited by the cover of this one only to see it's complexity when I opened it. I was disappointed and never ran it. Wish I would have kept it...

When I played this module back in the day, our party used a Potion of Sweet Water to flush the sahuagin out of the dungeon. And we pronounced it Sah-hooa-ghin. I was 10 or 11 at the time (early 80s).

Cap, I never DMd this one but did play it as a PC. We went in with Oceanus and the amen at Arms only but we were all 4-6th level with a Druid who was 7th and could shape change. There was no way we survived without a Ring of Free Action (I had it on my Ranger) and a Cloak of the Manta Ray (Elven F/MU). We lost all of the Men at Arms and barely escaped the 2nd level after a failed attempt to reconnoiter it. It’s been 35yrs so I have no recollection of finishing the module, but it certainly puts PCs in an extraordinarily dangerous environment against an intelligent, well organized enemy. Appreciate another blast from the past.

I really like your "splitting up" suggestion! If it were my table, I would use a "call allies" mechanic that would allow the players to have an encounter turn in their favor by having an ally come to their aid. Giving the pcs control over when and how they come to their aid would be really memorable, and if the pcs forget, the DMs can just inject moments later on to reward a frugal party. I can already imagine the pseudodragon "acquiring" a key to get through a tricky lock, the marines subduing the guards to allow the players easy pass, or a deadly fight turning with a lizard folk ambush!

I love these review series you do and I would like to send you money, but the teespring shop link isn't working! Thank you for the fun and detailed analysis.

I've been looking forward to this for a week plus, since the U2 review. Thank you.

I loved U1. Such a great module, and while U2 was a very unique idea, I wasn't sure if it would play out well, but when I saw U3 I was very excited and it sure was fun to read it, but playing it? I didn't think so. If I had the time to really work on it, maybe, but trying to have the party go through all that and kill everything seemed insane, so after U1 I moved onto other adventures, but I'd love to run this now. If only I had the time and resources and a group of players.

Just a heads up, any DM running any of these modules in 5e should pay full attention to the spell control water and how the cap of underwater breathing works. The spell can be abused, I did so. The cap is amazing on spell users.

The real disappointment of this series is how it ends. We understood it was a scouting mission and didn't try to assault this place with so few men. I was let down that the module simply ends after you report back to the town. It needed to give some idea how to put the party into an assault with the combined forces opposed to to the Saughin. This grouping lacks closure the way it ends. That is my only complaint to a great series.

Steve Marsh (the fella that created sahuagin) says the name is "Sog-When".

Great vid Cap. Question: besides the era, how would you define "old school" as a genre? For instance, if someone were writing a module or adventure path nowadays what is required to recreate that "old school" feel?

This is my all-time favorite series of modules. I bought them new around when they came out and still have my original copies (with copious writing in them). They work best for experienced player who are interested in role-playing and ideas over hack-n-slash and are starting a new campaign. I used it, and the (frankly ludicrous) amount of treasure from the three, to start a campaign where the party became traders/explorers in the Amedio Jungle to the south. That way I was able to slot in a bunch of jungle oriented modules and other stuff. It also discouraged walking tank fighters because of both the sea travel and the heat and humidity of the climate.

With mass combat scenarios, I've debated whether it might be useful to run them using an entirely different ruleset. Namely, wargaming rules, ala Warhammer. For the sake of simplicity, I'd probably go with One Page Rules's "Age of Fantasy" rules. It's a very lite system, that can be learned in a couple minutes. Pick out appropriate armies, set down the terrain, and play it out according to the base rules (or whatever battle plan you care to invent). You can even set the PCs' minis down, running them as equivalent hero units. Really, the big issue would be in finding enough minis for both sides of the conflict. And painting them.

quick question on the old modules. i am looking to collect them again is the new reprint paperback editions worth the price ?

Yeah ! So happy you did the whole U series ! I hope goodman games eventually get to reprint this after elemental evil. Quick question. Can you review maximum mayhem #7 Dread Swamp of the Banshee ? I know you already have it and it looks like the best of the series.

Great video, as always.

Finishing up this module next week as a matter of fact, so good timing for this :) They're already onto the main assault (after doing their recon). the players choose the following races: locanthah, tortle, water genasi, triton, elf, and human. so most of the party is more than well suited for an underwater adventure, which helped them out a lot.

This idea of using men-at-arms or hiring mercs can be applied to any old school campaign to get first level PCs out of the muck without resorting to rules that coddle the characters and, I think, break the game. ...especially if you want to stay true to OSR.

I ignore big parties of npcs. Just play the pcs, with as many enemies each so that the ratio of the two parties stays the same. I may roll for the npcs and see if the ratio changes round by round, but not a to hit roll, just a generalized roll to quickly decide if someone dies or not.

Excellent thank you ❤️.

I love the smell of a TPK in he morning!

Man, your videos bring back memories! Back in the late 70 up till early 90s I played all these modules, Against the Giants and the rest with the Drow, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, Sinister Secrets, Tomb of Horrors, several of the UKs and many more. Oh, and we wrote many of our own including the entire world. It was more fun not to be in the Greyhawk world. Somewhere in the cellar I have a couple of boxes with loads of 1 and 2 ed. Am now binging. Have subbed. Keep it up and thanks again! 🙏🏻

I love your videos!

I pronounce it Suh Who Again. There are so many different ways people pronounce Sahuagin.

The store link doesn't work for me. :/

One of the first dungeons and dragons trilogies?

Please get Jeff Easley. I'd kill to see more of his art.

We got killed off in U2 because as everyone knows Lizard Men are Evil!!! What ?!?? Not True? A little embarrassing. During U2 we had so many players the DM had a couple players play some of the Lizard Men NPC's . I think to encourage role play. It wasn't a big enough hint for us and the guy playing the Lizard man Lieutenant was a little confrontational as well. Love this set of modules and the convention bending plots. I am sorry we never made it to U3.