D&D 5E Advice for New-ish 5E DM, Storm King’s Thunder

As I said, I’m new-ish to 5E. I’ve played and DM’d DnD 1E-3.5E and PF1 for decades.
I’ve been a player in a 5E campaign for levels 1-10. I’ve DM’d a couple of 5E singleton adventures.
Now I’m going to start a new campaign with a small group (3+ players) and will be playing on Roll20. (Actually because we a scattered across the country rather than because of Covid-19).

We have pretty much decided on the Storm King’s Thunder as our campaign. Usually I prefer homemade stuff, but I don’t yet feel confident enough in my mastery of 5E for that. Next one, I will probably make myself.

Almost every review I’ve seen of Storm King’s Thunder has been positive however, some of the details have confused me a bit.
1) Some of the comments have said the published material has everything you need for the full level progression. Others have acted like the DM needs to supplement with some additional adventures mixed in amongst the prepared ones. Which is correct? I don’t mind making or finding additional adventures, but my time isn’t unlimited.
2) We will probably only have 3 players most of the time. They are going with the ‘theme’ of magical sword wielders. Paladin, eldritch knight, and shadow blade wielder. They are pretty good at building quite effective PC’s. However, any changes I am likely to need to make due to the small numbers and/or lack of a primary caster?
3) Is there anything the publication did poorly or errors that I need to correct or at least be careful of?
4) The players in this group do have a tendency to ‘go off the rails’ in any campaign/adventure. I personally like that in a group, but are there any points where I have to be careful about that story wise?
5) I will be purchasing the Roll20 package for the prebuilt maps, monsters, tokens, etc…
a. What I can’t tell is does that include an electronic copy of the actual publication or do I need to purchase that separately?
b. Any errors in the package that anyone has noticed or anything else I need to purchase to make use of it?
c. I am assuming I need to upgrade from the freebie to the 'paid for' Roll20 account. Correct? I think there are a couple of levels, does it matter which one? Does everyone else need to have the purchased account or just me?
d. Does it really have everything I need, or will I still have to prepare some stuff?
6) Anything else you can think of that I need to watch out for or be careful of?

I actually despise this module. The overarching plot is so convoluted it impedes buy-in, and the module does not, in my opinion take the steps needed to "show the plot" via encounter design. There is a lot of Exposition.

The early scenes of the module require an NPC Frost Giant to tag along.
Having a 3 party group, might make having a Giant Baby Sitter more palatable, but I hate the design ethos behind this.

Outside of the Fire Giant lair, I was not very inspired by the other Giant Encampments.
Giants hit very hard, especially at the character levels the module covers. I would have backup characters ready.

The idea of weaving SKT and Tyranny of Dragons together, is an idea I like quite a-bit.
Then the Dragon Villain in SKT can be a coup attempt ordered by Tiamat.

ElterAgo said:

5) I will be purchasing the Roll20 package for the prebuilt maps, monsters, tokens, etc…
a. What I can’t tell is does that include an electronic copy of the actual publication or do I need to purchase that separately?
b. Any errors in the package that anyone has noticed or anything else I need to purchase to make use of it?
c. I am assuming I need to upgrade from the freebie to the 'paid for' Roll20 account. Correct? I think there are a couple of levels, does it matter which one? Does everyone else need to have the purchased account or just me?
d. Does it really have everything I need, or will I still have to prepare some stuff?
6) Anything else you can think of that I need to watch out for or be careful of?

Click to expand...

I have run SKT in person but I have 300+ hours logged into Roll20, so I will be answering those questions first.

a. You do not get a PDF copy of the adventure in Roll20, but the full text of it will be available for you to read while logged into Roll20 as separate GM handouts. If that format is not to your liking (it's not how I prefer to read an adventure outside of the game), then you might want to find a different option.
b. I have not used SKT in Roll20, but I have used Lost Mines of Phandelver, Curse of Strahd, Waterdeep Dragon Heist, Dungeon of the Mad Mage, and Tales of the Yawning Portal. I have not had problems with the format of any of those products.
c. As long as you have a paid account, everyone else can be free. I think you can still run with a free account, but I paid for mine.
d. You will not have access to anything not in the module or in the free compendium (SRD). So if you want your characters to access other character creation options, you'll need the PHB or other resources (such as Xanathar's Guide). Monsters not in the adventure, you'll need to have the Monster Manual, etc.

About the module itself, I didn't care for it if I'm being honest. The opening was weak - and I can elaborate on how to improve that if you'd like. You didn't really use all the content - like you focus on one clan of giants and ignore the dungeons of the others. The sandbox part was very open with very little guidance, so expect your "off the rails" group to go anywhere and everywhere. The plot was convoluted and even confused me as the DM, so I threw out the whole thing and put my own plot on it.
I'm sure there are ways to improve it, but it's one of the lower-ranking official adventures for my playstyle.

I'm currently near the end of DM'ing one SKT campaign and I'm about to start another, so I have some thoughts I can share.

1. The book (and Roll20 module) does technically contain everything you need to get players from level 1-11, but there are some major caveats. The level 1-5 adventure is very short, it is intended to rush your players to level 5 so the real adventure can start. I recommend using another adventure for the early levels (either the starter set (LMOP) or the essentials kit (DOIP) works really well).
2. Chapters 3/4 are basically a big map with about a hundred locations to visit. Most locations have a 1-2 paragraph description which often include plot hooks for sidequests and occasionally a suggested encounter. You can technically rush through this part too since the sidequests don't really impact the plot, but the intention is that the DM fleshes out the sidequests with homebrew content.
3. One of my groups has three players and I gave them a sidekick to round out the numbers. If your players are tactically smart it may not be necessary. The cities of the Sword Coast certainly have wizards for hire if your party needs something specific.
4. The main weakness of the module is that the bad guy is poorly foreshadowed. There is an excellent product on the DM's Guild called "Storm King's Thunder - Complete DM's Bundle" which helps out a lot here, as well as providing a few encounters for chapters 3/4.
5. As for the Roll20 module, I didn't notice any errors. There are definitely things you probably want that aren't in there (because they aren't in the book), like battle maps for random encounters and a spoiler-free "World Map". I think you need to buy the monster manual for monster stats. I can recommend the Forgotten Realms wiki if you need background information for any of the locations your party visits.

I've not run any other official modules but I have found it pretty easy to follow. Most of the plot hooks and "suggested encounters" in chapter 3 can be dropped in to basically anywhere. If you beef up the enemies in chapter 1 you can drop it in as sidequest in chapter 3 as well, so you don't even waste that content.

Some people have written guides and "fixes" to the campaign. For example

EnWorld has a thread "Enhancing Storm King's Thunder" which should help. It collects previous DMs' experiences with the adventure.