D&D General About to run Storm King's Thunder; Any tips ?
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Reynard
aka Ian Eller
I mean, don't?
Joking aside, I feel like with SKT you need to really read it and ingest and decide what you want it to look like. TO me, the sandbox in the early levels does not really work, and the overall quest levels later are a bit of a mess. There is a lot you can use as tools, but you kind of need to decide whether what you really want is to run Against the Giants, which changes things up a bit. If not, you should focus on NPCs and factions and be ready to bounce when the PCs make decisions you did not expect.
Long story short: SKT makes a better collection of useful vignette's around which you can build a campaign, than a pre written campaign. As opposed to, say, Icewind Dale, which is a much better pre defined adventure that feels like a CRPG structurally, but is harder to make your own.
Joking aside, I feel like with SKT you need to really read it and ingest and decide what you want it to look like. TO me, the sandbox in the early levels does not really work, and the overall quest levels later are a bit of a mess. There is a lot you can use as tools, but you kind of need to decide whether what you really want is to run Against the Giants, which changes things up a bit. If not, you should focus on NPCs and factions and be ready to bounce when the PCs make decisions you did not expect.
Long story short: SKT makes a better collection of useful vignette's around which you can build a campaign, than a pre written campaign. As opposed to, say, Icewind Dale, which is a much better pre defined adventure that feels like a CRPG structurally, but is harder to make your own.
pukunui
Legend
I have played through SKT and run it once. I love it. One of my favorites.
For my run-through, I made the PCs all be Lords' Alliance agents based out of Waterdeep. I ran "Trouble in Red Larch" from Princes of the Apocalypse and then followed that with a slightly beefed up version of Scourge of the Sword Coast to set the scene and give me time to set up some foreshadowing. (For instance, during Scourge, the PCs found some magic beans. I arranged it so when one of the beans was planted, it did the giant bean stalk thing. That led to the cloud giant's Mickey Mouse tower from the opening SKT scenario. He was able to give them some foreshadowing about the SKT events as he flew them to the dwarf temple-fortress.)
Some of my players are big Skyrim fans, so they loved the open world "exploring the Savage Frontier" aspect of that part of the adventure. I ran the Goldenfields encounter, and they went and defeated the hill giants at Grudd Haug. They also passed through Triboar on their way elsewhere, so I ran the fire giant encounter there. One of the PCs was a ranger, and they knew about the Mielikki shrine in the nearby woods. She went and spent the night there, and I gave her a prophetic dream showing the storm giant queen dead on a beach and the other giant lords scheming.)
I'd be happy to share my notes.
Here are our session recaps: SWORD COAST ADVENTURES
For my run-through, I made the PCs all be Lords' Alliance agents based out of Waterdeep. I ran "Trouble in Red Larch" from Princes of the Apocalypse and then followed that with a slightly beefed up version of Scourge of the Sword Coast to set the scene and give me time to set up some foreshadowing. (For instance, during Scourge, the PCs found some magic beans. I arranged it so when one of the beans was planted, it did the giant bean stalk thing. That led to the cloud giant's Mickey Mouse tower from the opening SKT scenario. He was able to give them some foreshadowing about the SKT events as he flew them to the dwarf temple-fortress.)
Some of my players are big Skyrim fans, so they loved the open world "exploring the Savage Frontier" aspect of that part of the adventure. I ran the Goldenfields encounter, and they went and defeated the hill giants at Grudd Haug. They also passed through Triboar on their way elsewhere, so I ran the fire giant encounter there. One of the PCs was a ranger, and they knew about the Mielikki shrine in the nearby woods. She went and spent the night there, and I gave her a prophetic dream showing the storm giant queen dead on a beach and the other giant lords scheming.)
I'd be happy to share my notes.
Here are our session recaps: SWORD COAST ADVENTURES
mixmastashizz
Explorer
I found the weakest part to be the section between the inciting giant attack and finding the friendly frost giant NPC.
Its been years, but I remember running it and feeling like "Okay so they just wander around until they run into this guy who lore dumps what going on and points them in the right direction? Sure"
I found the premise and the main villain very interesting, I just wish the adventure flowed more organically from one set piece to the other. Its like they had the ideas for cool scenes (blue dragon in the giants tomb, the big sand ampitheater) but didnt have the time to flesh out the in between.
I ran it in parallel with aspects of Princes of the Apocalypse to flesh things out which helped.
What also hurt the adventure for me is that it tried to be a setting gazateer and an adventure path simultaneously and didnt quite hit the mark on either
Its been years, but I remember running it and feeling like "Okay so they just wander around until they run into this guy who lore dumps what going on and points them in the right direction? Sure"
I found the premise and the main villain very interesting, I just wish the adventure flowed more organically from one set piece to the other. Its like they had the ideas for cool scenes (blue dragon in the giants tomb, the big sand ampitheater) but didnt have the time to flesh out the in between.
I ran it in parallel with aspects of Princes of the Apocalypse to flesh things out which helped.
What also hurt the adventure for me is that it tried to be a setting gazateer and an adventure path simultaneously and didnt quite hit the mark on either
greymist
Lurker Extraordinaire
AnotherGuy
Hero
Like Tyranny of Dragons this AP can be a real gem with some work ofc.
I integrated the two (along with other APs) as it made sense to do so and I'm angling towards a future Doomed Forgotten Realms storyline less any changes done by the PCs.
Yes.
Read through the Enhancing Storm Kings Thunder thread on Enworld.
The Alexandrian has some useful content if you do not want to use the entire Remix but it does establish some beautiful relationships between the various giant leaders.
Introduce Felgolos the adult bronze dragon in Lyn Armaal (Chapter 9) early on for the PCs to build a repoire.
Use the gargoyle thread to inject some life into the gargoyles in the last chapter.
Check out Slyfourish's articles on Storm Kings Thunder and Iymrith (use the Iymrith signature spells)
Check out Greenwood's article on Iymrith for some ideas
You may want to use the Mythic Iymrith in Wyrms of the Realms: Mythic Encounters
There is a Guide on DMsGuild but it is not necessary given all these other sources. There are plenty of interesting ideas and sources on the net.
I had the PCs encounter multiple giant dens/lairs in order to obtain a conch as I did not want to leave a large part of the book unplayed - Chief Guh cracked her conch when she fell through the floor after the PCs unleashed ridiculous amounts of damage on her, the mad-struck stone giant Thane smashed hers against the stalactite once she found out what the PCs were after (I tricked the PCs into revealing it), the cloud giant Countess Sansuri proved too strong and they managed to escape with Felgolos after they were imprisoned - they finally gained their conch from Duke Zalto.
I integrated the Adventure League storyline where Hartkiller is resurrected which made things rather messy as the giant kin were divided in loyalty between Anam's run son and the Storm King Hekaton - the two evil daughters fled Maelstrom, the elder Mirran, a Quintessant, sided with Iymrith against her father (along with her lover Orlekto) while Nym, made her way to the court of Hartkiller seeking to acquire the protection of the new rising giant ruler of the land.
I brought in a lot of giant politics as Hekaton had lost a lot of support and he was torn between rescuing his youngest and doing what was right for giantkind. He believed the Ordning was broken due to his failures. Did he really want a civil war between giants? Would he face Hartkiller on the battlefield knowing Hartkiller held the legendary soul-stealing weapon from Jarl Ryndölg? He already warned the PCs that this was a giant matter and so they should not get involved (i.e. they should not attack Hartkiller) as that would likely bring about an all-out war between giants vs smallfolk.
I also brought in the powerful Baron Rajiram as a third power-player complicating matters.
Do use the Seer from the Adventure League as an expert on Giants.
Other interesting giant inclusions - Bad Fruul (AL), Blagothkus and Skyreach Castle (ToD), The Iron Baron - Baron Ugarak (AL), Count Stratovan (AL), Keepers of Gravenhollow (OotA)
One last thing, I had the cloud giant Zephyros commune via multiple chessboards as he tried to decipher key players in the giant struggle and discover hidden meanings and solve riddles through the chessboard positionings, and the players go to assist him. He frequented them more than once on their travels.
There is a lot of amazing content/lore to draw from.
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Storm King's Thunder can be a great adventure, with some work.
I ran a 1-20 level campaign that mashed up Lost Mine of Phandelver, Tyranny of Dragons, and Storm King's Thunder. Sort of. I changed just about everything. But those campaigns were my primary inspiration.
If I had another group of committed players, SKT would be the first campaign I would run. I just love the scope and scale of giants on the warpath.
I'll echo what others have said, in no particular order...
SKT benefits from an introductory adventure. Lost Mines of Phandelver works. So does Keep on the Borderlands in the new Starter Set. Heck, almost every 5E adventure has something you could repurpose. Pick anything that strikes your fancy and then sprinkle in some elements that foreshadow giants on the warpath.
Give the players a reason to care. Make them saviors and heroes of a town they care about, then have giants come along and smash it to pieces. Grudd Haug and the hill giants are great candidate for this--perhaps the players need to save a few cherished NPCs from Chief Guh's cookpots.
You can put the giant lairs anywhere. Move them around as needed to suit your campaign.
Play up the chaos and disruption caused by the giant raids. It should feel like a war!
There needs to be an evil mastermind that has set this all in motion. In the published adventure, it's Imryth. In my campaign, it was the Zhentarim. Try to foreshadow that villain and show how they benefit from the chaos. Give them agents, minions, thralls, and heralds who are in the giant lairs. Savvy players will capture and interrogate them and thereby learn more.
Get rid of the conches. Find an alternate reason to have the players visit every lair. In my campaign, the players were hired by different factions within the Lords Alliance to make decapitation strikes on the giant lairs, while their traditional armies fought off giant raids all across the North.
After that, the players had to find the Eye of the All Father -- the temple of Annam -- which would take them to the hidden lair of Hekaton. In my campaign, it was a flying castle. There, they discovered Hekaton held captive by the Zhentarim and an allied blue dragon. Mayhem followed. Did the flying castle crash to the earth? Oh, yes, it did.
On DMs Guild you can find a few issues of Dungeon magazine circa issue 200 that reimagine the Against the Giants campaign. They have amazing maps, which are also available on Mike Schley's website. You might want to pick those up as great alternatives and/or expansions to the SKT giant lairs.
Have fun!
I ran a 1-20 level campaign that mashed up Lost Mine of Phandelver, Tyranny of Dragons, and Storm King's Thunder. Sort of. I changed just about everything. But those campaigns were my primary inspiration.
If I had another group of committed players, SKT would be the first campaign I would run. I just love the scope and scale of giants on the warpath.
I'll echo what others have said, in no particular order...
SKT benefits from an introductory adventure. Lost Mines of Phandelver works. So does Keep on the Borderlands in the new Starter Set. Heck, almost every 5E adventure has something you could repurpose. Pick anything that strikes your fancy and then sprinkle in some elements that foreshadow giants on the warpath.
Give the players a reason to care. Make them saviors and heroes of a town they care about, then have giants come along and smash it to pieces. Grudd Haug and the hill giants are great candidate for this--perhaps the players need to save a few cherished NPCs from Chief Guh's cookpots.
You can put the giant lairs anywhere. Move them around as needed to suit your campaign.
Play up the chaos and disruption caused by the giant raids. It should feel like a war!
There needs to be an evil mastermind that has set this all in motion. In the published adventure, it's Imryth. In my campaign, it was the Zhentarim. Try to foreshadow that villain and show how they benefit from the chaos. Give them agents, minions, thralls, and heralds who are in the giant lairs. Savvy players will capture and interrogate them and thereby learn more.
Get rid of the conches. Find an alternate reason to have the players visit every lair. In my campaign, the players were hired by different factions within the Lords Alliance to make decapitation strikes on the giant lairs, while their traditional armies fought off giant raids all across the North.
After that, the players had to find the Eye of the All Father -- the temple of Annam -- which would take them to the hidden lair of Hekaton. In my campaign, it was a flying castle. There, they discovered Hekaton held captive by the Zhentarim and an allied blue dragon. Mayhem followed. Did the flying castle crash to the earth? Oh, yes, it did.
On DMs Guild you can find a few issues of Dungeon magazine circa issue 200 that reimagine the Against the Giants campaign. They have amazing maps, which are also available on Mike Schley's website. You might want to pick those up as great alternatives and/or expansions to the SKT giant lairs.
Have fun!
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It really fell apart for us. Here's my advice.
You really need to change the meeting of the giant in the floating tower. It's set up to look like he had destroyed the village - and my group absolutely didn't trust him. He is the only one who knows the story, so my group NEVER understood what was going on. I had to completely re-write the whole thing.
You really need to change the meeting of the giant in the floating tower. It's set up to look like he had destroyed the village - and my group absolutely didn't trust him. He is the only one who knows the story, so my group NEVER understood what was going on. I had to completely re-write the whole thing.
AnotherGuy
Hero
That is quite unusual given that for starters
- Zephyros has a tower not a castle like Lyn Armaal and the residents witnessed this;
- That his arrival and disposition would not be threatening but instead curious and helpful; and
- That his appearance (clothing and body) would not match the 4 cloud giants who descended and stole the megalith; and
- It would not make sense for giants that had destroyed the town, murdered its citizens and left to now return for niceties.
Ok. But there are similarities which make some players question.
Like here's a cloud giant. But he's different than the other cloud giants because he has different clothes. So we should trust him?
Like here's a floating tower, but it's not a castle. So we should trust him?
Like here's a cloud giant, and we should just be cool with that and not try to run away because we're 3rd level.
You could pick anything else - likely literally anything in the wide assortment of creatures in D&D canon - and you choose something so near to the villain of the adventure to make the entire campaign hinge upon it. It's a foolish idea.
Do you know what would've been better? An awakened owlbear. A treant. A lizardfolk reincarnated as a rust monster.
