Do you usually use the source material as it is published or tailor fit to your campaign world and stories?
A bit of YES to both of those.
If I need to change something, I change it. If what's written will work as is, great (no need to reinvent the wheel). Some times both occur on the same page.
For example; I just got done running two sections of SKT - the Fire Giant chapter & the chapter where the PCs visit the Storm Giant palace of Maelstrom.
* After spending some time away in the valley of the Druids (previous adventure), the PCs returned to reports of giant attacks occurring throughout the land. In the immediate area Fire Giants had been sited, the beastmen (Yakfolk) who dwell in the local forest & on the mountain slopes had been stepping up raids on surrounding towns, & one of the peaks, a long dormant volcano, had become active again.
* Tracking the giants & yakfolk raiders through the forest led the party to the Fire Giant chapter.
I ran the Yakfolk village pretty much as written except there were no Elf prisoners (Elves are exceedingly rare in my game). The PCs raid the Yakfolk, rescue a bunch of prisoners, & escourt them back to main city. The Yakfolk pursue. PCs find out more info (including that many of the giants are away atm for some reason*) & that the giants have stolen an Iron Flask containing an Elder Fire Elemental & have used it to re-ignite the volcano - wich in turn is allowing them to reforge a huge, shattered construct. Pieces of wich the giants are dragging into the lair.) & come up with a good plan to elude the YF. They send the freed slaves on back to town with a message. Then they doubled back to infiltrate the Fire Giant lair while the opprotunity presents.
(*The party was not actually high enough lv to take on Fire Giants. They can however deal with the giants minions - orcs, goblins, ogres, and several "young" fire giants. Thus most of the adults were out fetching more collossus pieces.)
The above is a blend of official & tailored.
* PCs infiltrate the giants lair. They have several goal. 1) free more slaves 2) find the Iron Flask 3) Use the Iron Flask to re-trap the Elder Fire Elemental, causing the volcano to go dormant again & thus thwarting the giants evil plan 4) Escape. 5) Figure out what to do with the Iron Flask....
Other than simply removing most of the actual giants, placing plot items (the flask & the teleportation conch) in a locked bedroom, & slightly changing the objective, I ran the mines/forge as written.
* Well the PCs partially succeeded. They freed more slave & found the item(s). Unfortunately they also drew the attention of one of the few remaining giants.
So they used the teleportation conch too early & took themselves, the flask, some loot, & the fire giant to Maelstrom. Interupting the Storm Giants performance & without having shut down the volcano....
Only real change is cosmetic description of the conch & altering exactly how it works.
* Maelstrom: This was purely RP with some diplomacy + persuasion to convince a room full of hostile giant lords not to stomp on them. They succeeded & were shown to the "guest rooms". Oh, and the disguised dragon strips them of the plot items and assures them that she'll see to it that the Fire Giants evil plans for the region are properly thwarted.
(if you remember, giants & dragons are ancient enemies & that FG construct is meant to battle dragons. She can't have any of that going on)
The book calls for a brawl between PCs & giants, but they can't handle 1 Fire Giant, so....
Other than no fight & virtually no exploration, pretty much as written. X giants hostile/x neutral/princess friendly. PCs have no info or reason to suspect a disguised Blue Dragon....
*Completely off script: Later they visited by the disguised blue dragon & cut a deal with her (thinking she's a storm giant noble). She explains what's going on as far as the Ordining to the PCs & says she'll set them free if they'll do something for her. There's a Frost Giant longship en route to Chult. She'd like the PCs to slow it down. Even if just for a day. (divinations have shown her any delay will cause the FG plan to fail - this is based on how a previous ToA campaign in turned out regarding the Ring of Winter - 1/2 the current group played that, the other 1/2 have heard the tale, so even though the ring is not mentioned they know what's going on). PCs agree.
She has the eccentric Cloud Giant Zepheros drop them off where they can intercept/catch up to the Frost Giants.
~ details ~, they succeed & are now in Waterdeep for a weeks R&R - just in time for some Dragon Heist.
