D&D 5E Enhancing "Storm King's Thunder"

[Koren n'Rhys]

[MENTION=6795723]JValeur[/MENTION] - I hope these are selling well for you. I haven't started running SKT quite yet, so haven't needed to do more than skim these, but so far each one seems to offer some neat ideas and useful tools. I guess I'm off to buy this one next.

Question: I've noticed that on the product pages, these all have a nice color cover image, yet they are not part of the PDF? To be honest, I've seen that on other's products too, not just these. it's... odd.

 

[pukunui]

I'm not sure of the timeline for the Vovinode construct that the fire giants are hunting, and the Forge of Spells in LMoP....

Chris Perkins recently said on Twitter that none of the rogue giant lords' plans are actually achievable. They're all pipe dreams, as it were.

 

[Daern]

The Mythic Battles boardgame pimped above has as its premise that the order of the gods and titans has crumbled. Titans escaped Tartarus, attacked Olympus and now everything is up for grabs and now you can have skirmish battles with any combination of Greek gods, heroes and monsters.
It's made me think of STK a bit, especially as storm giants are depicted in classical get ups in d&d. What ideas could we get from this? Perhaps Hekaton is a god himself brought to earth.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

And another dose of shameless self-promotion. I've uploaded DM's Resources for Bryn Shander. It's created to enhance the town of Bryn Shander when you run it during the Storm King's Thunder adventure, as well as significantly reduce the preparation time needed to run Bryn Shander in an entertaining way. The download includes:

• Introductions - a guide to introducing Bryn Shander through minor tasks and sidequests.
• Attack on Goldenfields - a step-by-step guide to running the attack on Bryn Shander, so that you can create a cool experience for your players.
• Playable NPCs - an evaluation of each playable NPC.
• NPC Quests - an evaluation of each NPC quest, as well as advice on which to use, or not to use.
• Maps - a 50 x 50 handdrawn map depicting Bryn Shander's walls and the terrain beyond, and a 30 x 40 map of the Bryn Shander's gates. Both maps come in separate JPEGs in gridded and ungridded versions.
• Creature Cards - Printable index cards for each of the creatures your players are likely to interact with during the attack on Bryn Shander.

Check it out if you want to and leave a comment or a review!

An attack on Goldenfields doesn't really have much of an impact on those in Bryn Shander

 

[Motorskills]

Due to the size of my player group that is heading to Triboar, I want to bring in a couple of the NPCs/ missions from Goldenfields and/or Bryn Shander.

Recommendations?

 

[JValeur]

@JValeur - I hope these are selling well for you. I haven't started running SKT quite yet, so haven't needed to do more than skim these, but so far each one seems to offer some neat ideas and useful tools. I guess I'm off to buy this one next.

Question: I've noticed that on the product pages, these all have a nice color cover image, yet they are not part of the PDF? To be honest, I've seen that on other's products too, not just these. it's... odd.

Thank you for purchasing! They don't sell enough to warrant the time spent making them, but making a little money doing something that's reasonably enjoyable is always a good trade, I think!

As for the cover page, its actually on purpose. I used to include front pages, but read several places that people disliked having the front page in the actual document, since it's just a waste of page on a digital project. I suppose some people like to just print out the entire document, and it becomes a hassle with a big colored front page? It means nothing to me whether it's there or not, so I just try to please as many people as possible

An attack on Goldenfields doesn't really have much of an impact on those in Bryn Shander

That's what I get for copy-pasting something I copy-pasted!

Due to the size of my player group that is heading to Triboar, I want to bring in a couple of the NPCs/ missions from Goldenfields and/or Bryn Shander.

Recommendations?

That shouldn't be too hard. The easiest NPCs to move to Triboar are probably:

- Sir Baric Nylef - he's an Order of the Gauntlet knight hunting for the Weevil in Bryn Shander, but Triboar is just as close to the Weevil, so it's not at all unreasonable he is looking in Triboar instead.
- Shalvus - he's a Zhentarim spy in Goldenfields, that could just as easily by a spy in Triboar. His quest will take the players down south, but to be honest its easily skippable.
- Oren - he's a halfling bard in Goldenfields who's quite useless in combat, but easy to move to Urgala's inn in Triboar. His quest is also skippable.

Aaaand yet another shameless plug for my DM's resources for Triboar - you might find them helpful

 

[Motorskills]

That shouldn't be too hard. The easiest NPCs to move to Triboar are probably:

- Sir Baric Nylef - he's an Order of the Gauntlet knight hunting for the Weevil in Bryn Shander, but Triboar is just as close to the Weevil, so it's not at all unreasonable he is looking in Triboar instead.
- Shalvus - he's a Zhentarim spy in Goldenfields, that could just as easily by a spy in Triboar. His quest will take the players down south, but to be honest its easily skippable.
- Oren - he's a halfling bard in Goldenfields who's quite useless in combat, but easy to move to Urgala's inn in Triboar. His quest is also skippable.

Excellent, thanks!

Aaaand yet another shameless plug for my DM's resources for Triboar - you might find them helpful

Too late.

I can't recommend the product highly enough though.

 

[Koren n'Rhys]

Thank you for purchasing! They don't sell enough to warrant the time spent making them, but making a little money doing something that's reasonably enjoyable is always a good trade, I think!

As for the cover page, its actually on purpose. I used to include front pages, but read several places that people disliked having the front page in the actual document, since it's just a waste of page on a digital project. I suppose some people like to just print out the entire document, and it becomes a hassle with a big colored front page? It means nothing to me whether it's there or not, so I just try to please as many people as possible

Thanks for following up. At least I know it's not just me. I fail to see how anyone could complain about extra pages in a pdf given you can print only what you want VERY easily, but I guess people will complain about anything.

 

[Motorskills]

In one of the reviews of SKT, an EN poster wrote the following:

For example: For defending the town of Triboar, the characters are "rewarded" with a quest to deliver horse harnesses to a nearby frontier town. According to the "Developments" section: "When the characters arrive at Noanar's Hold, they are told that they can find Amrath Mulnobar in the keep overlooking the village. Amrath takes the harnesses off their hands without so much as a thank you. Thus ends the quest."

Thrilling.

We're also told in a further four paragraphs that if the characters are "inclined to spend the night in the White Hart Inn" (and why would they be?) they'll encounter some brothers who do some suspicious things, and if the characters investigate, they'll uncover some provincial intrigue. Also thrilling. And inconsequential. Unfortunately, the book is filled with "quests" and vignettes like this that have nothing to do with the larger story.

In the end, Storm King's Thunder is a mess. As a sandbox, it might work. But even then, the DM has a lot of work cut out for him if he wants to make it halfway compelling.

Read more: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?488471-Storm-King-s-Thunder#ixzz4RcrkJTbV



So he's not exactly wrong, but I think he misses the point that the idea is for the OOC group to have fun running around the northern wilds. I'm down for that.

JValeur's little booklet grades each of the missions, and I think his assessment is basically correct. So I'm planning to take a couple of the weaker [Triboar] missions and mold them as necessary to beef their importance / reward* up a little. I want the PCs to want to do the missions, and then be thankful that they successfully completed them.

*e.g. information, tools, diplomatic ties.

 

[Demetrios1453]

In one of the reviews of SKT, an EN poster wrote the following:



Read more: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?488471-Storm-King-s-Thunder#ixzz4RcrkJTbV



So he's not exactly wrong, but I think he misses the point that the idea is for the OOC group to have fun running around the northern wilds. I'm down for that.

JValeur's little booklet grades each of the missions, and I think his assessment is basically correct. So I'm planning to take a couple of the weaker [Triboar] missions and mold them as necessary to beef their importance / reward* up a little. I want the PCs to want to do the missions, and then be thankful that they successfully completed them.

*e.g. information, tools, diplomatic ties.

It does miss the point - it's a bit of a joke mission compared to the others (and virtually all the other Triboar missions have worthwhile rewards that the party should want to do them). And anyway, as DM I really played up the creepiness of the whole situation (ghostly figures in hunting parties obscured by unnatural fog in the night) that my players had loads of fun role-playing their stay in the local inn, where the innkeeper cheerfully moved the most creeped-out into the rooms with special wheeled-with-brakes wardrobes that could easily be dragged to blockade doors for their peace of mind...