Remathilis
Legend
So sometime in the future, I intended to run an adventure path based around Storm King's Thunder. Specifically, I'd do Lost Mine of Phandevlver, Cloud Giant's Bargain, and then segue into Storm King's Thunder and perhaps end with a little Yawning Portal or AL adventures to get to 15th level.
I opened the game to any of the main books out so far: PHB, SCAG, VGtM, and EEPG. UA playtest upon request with some heavy cavaets. We didn't have a session 0 per se, but we did discuss character ideas for the game.
And that's when the wheels fell off.
One player immediately went for Goblin Ranger. That lead other players to start looking through Volo's guide, and wanting to play stuff from there. In the end, the tentative choices everyone had were the following:
A Goblin Ranger, a Kenku Cleric, a Tabaxi Bard, a Bugbear Rogue, a Kobold Monk, a Dragonborn (unsure of class, but wants to try out Mystic), and one player not there who hasn't picked yet (but tends toward fighters).
I got a Horde party.
This has thrown me in a bind as to my original AP idea. Specifically, most of the races picked are distrusted if not outright hated by civilized folk in the North. A party of heavily armed humanoids like this should reasonably distrust if not outright violence in all but the most enlightened portions of the Sword Coast. It'd be hard to get such a group into towns like Phandalin, Nightstone, or Triboar (or even parts of Neverwinter). I can run a good portion of SKT without needing a lot of refitting (since giants don't care if they are smashing elves or goblins) but almost all the early stuff for SKT involves small settlements that would more-than-likely slam the door on such a group.
That leaves me with a few options.
* Run everything as is: essentially, treat the entire party as "humans in funny suits" and utterly ignore the fact they are monstrous races. NPCs talk to them like they are elves and humans, town guards don't harass them, merchants charge them normal rates, etc. Its the easiest (since I do nothing to deviate from the text in the books) but the most unbelievable.
* Run everything with heavy editing: Basically, this involves large amounts or reworking the initial hooks for all modules. The PCs wouldn't be hired to drive a cart into Phandalin, but would need some alternate reason to go to the Phandelver region or to Triboar. The group would need NPC sponsors to vouch for them to quest-givers or simply lose out on many of the side-quests. They would have to go in disguise to buy supplies, or be horridly overcharged. There would be few warm beds and cozy inns, and a lot more camping just outside towns. Eventually, the groups heroics might earn them some reputation, but they would have a long-slog of dealing with crap until they get that reputation.
* Run something else: SKT, post Eye of the All-Father, is mostly exploration/dealing with the giant holds could still work. What would need ditching is all the level 1-5 stuff; including either A Great Upheaval or Lost Mine of Phandelver. Instead, I'd have to run something else that would fit better. Perhaps the first few dungeons of Yawning Portal (Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury) which are generic dungeon crawls, would work until the group goes to the Eye of the All Father. Perhaps there is AL or DMsGuild Modules that would work better for retro-fitting to a monster party.
* Invert everything: Basically, SKT is about a group of heroes that ultimately prove to the king of the giants that the little folk are not bad. What if those little folk aren't fighting for humans, dwarves, and elves, but goblins, orcs, and kobolds? What if rather than Bryn Shadar, Goldenfield or Triboar, the giants attack a humanoid outpost in the Spine of the World? What if, the giants make an alliance with these (good aligned) monster races, but uphold their bargain with their evil kin, ensuring a giant/humanoid alliance that could change the face of the Sword Coast? This version is interesting, but ultimately requires the most work as HUGE swaths of the module require large-scale re-writes to effectively replace the traditional "goodly" races with "monstrous" counterparts.
I'm honestly kinda stumped at this point. What was essentially going to be a simple run through some 5e adventures has morphed into a complex re-writing of the whole thing to accommodate this off-kilter group. I'm very much at a loss as to what to do with the campaign.
Advice appreciated.
I opened the game to any of the main books out so far: PHB, SCAG, VGtM, and EEPG. UA playtest upon request with some heavy cavaets. We didn't have a session 0 per se, but we did discuss character ideas for the game.
And that's when the wheels fell off.
One player immediately went for Goblin Ranger. That lead other players to start looking through Volo's guide, and wanting to play stuff from there. In the end, the tentative choices everyone had were the following:
A Goblin Ranger, a Kenku Cleric, a Tabaxi Bard, a Bugbear Rogue, a Kobold Monk, a Dragonborn (unsure of class, but wants to try out Mystic), and one player not there who hasn't picked yet (but tends toward fighters).
I got a Horde party.
This has thrown me in a bind as to my original AP idea. Specifically, most of the races picked are distrusted if not outright hated by civilized folk in the North. A party of heavily armed humanoids like this should reasonably distrust if not outright violence in all but the most enlightened portions of the Sword Coast. It'd be hard to get such a group into towns like Phandalin, Nightstone, or Triboar (or even parts of Neverwinter). I can run a good portion of SKT without needing a lot of refitting (since giants don't care if they are smashing elves or goblins) but almost all the early stuff for SKT involves small settlements that would more-than-likely slam the door on such a group.
That leaves me with a few options.
* Run everything as is: essentially, treat the entire party as "humans in funny suits" and utterly ignore the fact they are monstrous races. NPCs talk to them like they are elves and humans, town guards don't harass them, merchants charge them normal rates, etc. Its the easiest (since I do nothing to deviate from the text in the books) but the most unbelievable.
* Run everything with heavy editing: Basically, this involves large amounts or reworking the initial hooks for all modules. The PCs wouldn't be hired to drive a cart into Phandalin, but would need some alternate reason to go to the Phandelver region or to Triboar. The group would need NPC sponsors to vouch for them to quest-givers or simply lose out on many of the side-quests. They would have to go in disguise to buy supplies, or be horridly overcharged. There would be few warm beds and cozy inns, and a lot more camping just outside towns. Eventually, the groups heroics might earn them some reputation, but they would have a long-slog of dealing with crap until they get that reputation.
* Run something else: SKT, post Eye of the All-Father, is mostly exploration/dealing with the giant holds could still work. What would need ditching is all the level 1-5 stuff; including either A Great Upheaval or Lost Mine of Phandelver. Instead, I'd have to run something else that would fit better. Perhaps the first few dungeons of Yawning Portal (Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury) which are generic dungeon crawls, would work until the group goes to the Eye of the All Father. Perhaps there is AL or DMsGuild Modules that would work better for retro-fitting to a monster party.
* Invert everything: Basically, SKT is about a group of heroes that ultimately prove to the king of the giants that the little folk are not bad. What if those little folk aren't fighting for humans, dwarves, and elves, but goblins, orcs, and kobolds? What if rather than Bryn Shadar, Goldenfield or Triboar, the giants attack a humanoid outpost in the Spine of the World? What if, the giants make an alliance with these (good aligned) monster races, but uphold their bargain with their evil kin, ensuring a giant/humanoid alliance that could change the face of the Sword Coast? This version is interesting, but ultimately requires the most work as HUGE swaths of the module require large-scale re-writes to effectively replace the traditional "goodly" races with "monstrous" counterparts.
I'm honestly kinda stumped at this point. What was essentially going to be a simple run through some 5e adventures has morphed into a complex re-writing of the whole thing to accommodate this off-kilter group. I'm very much at a loss as to what to do with the campaign.
Advice appreciated.
