D&D General How do you use giants in your game?
- Thread starter Shades of Eternity
- Start date
David Howery
Hero
back in 2E days, I used the verbeeg giants a couple of times as 'born to normal human parents, but had some genetic quirks that made them giants" (inspired by the description of them as 'human giants'. I had them as leaders of tribes. In a one shot game I ran using the Vikings campaign book, I had the PCs chasing a renegade clear over to the new world, and encountering a Native American tribe with a verbeeg as war leader...
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
They exist in my world, but in 18 years, I think they've shown up once. I feel if you have them anywhere local to where small folk live, they're going to have to naturally dominate the area around them, with at least an implicit threat.
So I mostly have them existing waaaaaay off the western edge of the map, in lands of their own. Some may wander east for various reasons, but there aren't big societies of them locally.
So I mostly have them existing waaaaaay off the western edge of the map, in lands of their own. Some may wander east for various reasons, but there aren't big societies of them locally.
Shades of Eternity
Hero
I got one thanks to the latest Mario and Luigi game.
It was once a mighty continent, but the giants broke apart the continent, leaving behind a chain of islands.
Our heroes need to convince the giants to put the continent back together one piece at a time, like one giant lego set.
It was once a mighty continent, but the giants broke apart the continent, leaving behind a chain of islands.
Our heroes need to convince the giants to put the continent back together one piece at a time, like one giant lego set.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
That feels very mythic and definitely like something specific to giants. (You wouldn't have the same story if you swapped in kobolds.) I like it!
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When it comes to lore and background for creation of giants discussed in the video? Honestly, I don't really care. There doesn't need to be established creation lore detailed to the point of exactly how everything was created and there isn't much value to including it for me. After all, there are many creation theories floating out there today from the big bang theory to before there was soil, or sky, or any green thing, there was only the gaping abyss of Ginnungagap between the elemental worlds of fire and ice. But the Norse creation story like most creation stories doesn't say where the planes of elemental fire and ice came from either. Much like we don't know what, if anything, existed before the big bang. If there was anything. It's just turtles all the way down because we just don't know and never will.
Since I use a lot of Norse mythology as a basis for my campaign, giants can be major foes. Most giants are in Jotunheim, a separate realm. Hill giants are the most common giants that have settled in the prime material, but there are giants of all types here and there. For the most part, giants are encountered as invading raiders or armies, sometimes potential but dangerous allies. Relatively few in number, they're the tanks of invading armies or the battering ram that only a select few (typically PCs) can confront and survive.
In their homelands they tend to use smaller races as slaves or in the case of storm giants for example, largely ignored. Giants accept that humans can be dangerous, but generally consider wee folk politics beneath them. The exception to the general rule is the relationship between some Stone giants and dwarves. Since they both have a deep connection to stone and mountains, they have a general understanding and loose connection. A few cloud giants also act as traders of high end goods and enjoy the fine craftwork that the little folk can provide.
So I pretty much ignore official lore on giants and do what makes sense for my campaign world.
Since I use a lot of Norse mythology as a basis for my campaign, giants can be major foes. Most giants are in Jotunheim, a separate realm. Hill giants are the most common giants that have settled in the prime material, but there are giants of all types here and there. For the most part, giants are encountered as invading raiders or armies, sometimes potential but dangerous allies. Relatively few in number, they're the tanks of invading armies or the battering ram that only a select few (typically PCs) can confront and survive.
In their homelands they tend to use smaller races as slaves or in the case of storm giants for example, largely ignored. Giants accept that humans can be dangerous, but generally consider wee folk politics beneath them. The exception to the general rule is the relationship between some Stone giants and dwarves. Since they both have a deep connection to stone and mountains, they have a general understanding and loose connection. A few cloud giants also act as traders of high end goods and enjoy the fine craftwork that the little folk can provide.
So I pretty much ignore official lore on giants and do what makes sense for my campaign world.
Crimson Longinus
Legend
Giants have been prominent in my game recently, which is somewhat surprising as they're mostly extinct. The characters came across a random giant, and killed it in a battle. The giant was carrying a mysterious stone cube with ancient carvings on it. This sparked the interest of the group's warlock, who then wanted to learn more about the giants and their bygone civilisation. The characters explored some giant ruins, encountered some undead giants, and finally managed to activate the stone cube, which was a memory stone. It allowed them to make sort of a vision quest to the ancient past, to the last days of the giant empire.
The giants of Artra are an ancient and primordial people. Aeons ago, when all the world was very young, they built the first civilisation. There are no different subspecies, they're all just giants. Colossal hairless creatures with thick pale skin on which there are patterns that seem like they were carved on stone. They are psionic and in their height, they mastered many kinds of magic, conquering death by finding a method to reincarnate with their memories intact. This and their psionic ability to share information allowed them to amass an incredible amount of knowledge. They used this to build a mighty empire, and bend spirits and dragons to their will. However, the inability to forget started to drive them mad. Some turned against their kin, longing for the oblivion of death that was denied to them. Some tried to maintain their sanity by crafting memory stones, artefacts that allowed them to expand their minds and better cope with the overwhelming amount of knowledge they had amassed. And some thought that the solution was to gather even more knowledge and power, and to this end they sought to take control of the last spirits that had eluded their colossal grasp: the gods. This did not end well for them, as the vengeful deities hurled a massive meteor at the heart of the giant empire. What happened after those last days is still shrouded in mystery. Some giants still remain, and the ruins of their ancient empire are still scattered across Artra, hiding their ancient relics and forgotten secrets. But the giants never recovered. The few who remain seem to wander the lands, their minds blank, some still carrying their ancient memory stones, the purpose of which they seem to have forgotten.
During the vision quest the characters managed to meet some of the ancient giants, in various states of madness. They also learned of a vault inside of a mountain, which some of the more sane giants had constructed to escape the wrath of the gods. Next they're heading there to see whether anything of it still remains.
The giants of Artra are an ancient and primordial people. Aeons ago, when all the world was very young, they built the first civilisation. There are no different subspecies, they're all just giants. Colossal hairless creatures with thick pale skin on which there are patterns that seem like they were carved on stone. They are psionic and in their height, they mastered many kinds of magic, conquering death by finding a method to reincarnate with their memories intact. This and their psionic ability to share information allowed them to amass an incredible amount of knowledge. They used this to build a mighty empire, and bend spirits and dragons to their will. However, the inability to forget started to drive them mad. Some turned against their kin, longing for the oblivion of death that was denied to them. Some tried to maintain their sanity by crafting memory stones, artefacts that allowed them to expand their minds and better cope with the overwhelming amount of knowledge they had amassed. And some thought that the solution was to gather even more knowledge and power, and to this end they sought to take control of the last spirits that had eluded their colossal grasp: the gods. This did not end well for them, as the vengeful deities hurled a massive meteor at the heart of the giant empire. What happened after those last days is still shrouded in mystery. Some giants still remain, and the ruins of their ancient empire are still scattered across Artra, hiding their ancient relics and forgotten secrets. But the giants never recovered. The few who remain seem to wander the lands, their minds blank, some still carrying their ancient memory stones, the purpose of which they seem to have forgotten.
During the vision quest the characters managed to meet some of the ancient giants, in various states of madness. They also learned of a vault inside of a mountain, which some of the more sane giants had constructed to escape the wrath of the gods. Next they're heading there to see whether anything of it still remains.
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Ruin Explorer
Legend
I very rarely use giants aside from Hill and Stone giants. Hill, because they're still small enough to be plausible to fight with the weapons PCs use, and don't particularly seem heavily-derived from some historical culture, and are an okay to just drop in to a campaign without particularly changing the tone of it. Stone because they're weird, kind of mystical, and really their own thing - their portrayal in more recent editions has been pretty good honestly, and they make for a great kind of "confounding factor" or odd element in a scenario.
I don't have much time for "IM A GIANT VIKINGDWARF WHO IS ON FIRE IM SO METAL" or the rest. They start getting bigger (so less plausible feeling - I think it's very different with humanoids to non-humanoids, note - players I've played with definitely notice the issue of say "hitting their ankles" more with humanoids than dragons or the like), and also just a lot more boring in terms of their vibes and also somehow become like, overspecific? If that makes sense. Like there could be a Viking myth-centric/inspired setting where Fire and Frost Giants make a ton of sense, or even were vital, but I feel like they're a terrible fit for every game of D&D I've ever run, and feel really uncomfortable to say, situate in the Forgotten Realm (even though they specifically have places they live!). I could massively rebrand them/reculture/restyle them, but like, it's a lot of effort and why? I don't have any particular affection for giants or elemental-themed beings!
(Cloud are kind of okay because they're so weird too, but they're too big and peculiar for me to want to really use them as antagonists - I've used a couple as essentially quest-givers or NPCs players weren't intended to fight - and indeed they didn't.)
"Keep Giants Weird" I guess is what I'm saying for myself (apologies to Portland and/or Austin).
(As an aside, I totally get that some other people like the other giants, and again, in the right campaign I could see it - though I'd still prefer them a bit smaller - but I'm glad D&D has somewhat sidelined giants as a whole for most of the time I've played it, which thus makes them feel very optional.)
I don't have much time for "IM A GIANT VIKINGDWARF WHO IS ON FIRE IM SO METAL" or the rest. They start getting bigger (so less plausible feeling - I think it's very different with humanoids to non-humanoids, note - players I've played with definitely notice the issue of say "hitting their ankles" more with humanoids than dragons or the like), and also just a lot more boring in terms of their vibes and also somehow become like, overspecific? If that makes sense. Like there could be a Viking myth-centric/inspired setting where Fire and Frost Giants make a ton of sense, or even were vital, but I feel like they're a terrible fit for every game of D&D I've ever run, and feel really uncomfortable to say, situate in the Forgotten Realm (even though they specifically have places they live!). I could massively rebrand them/reculture/restyle them, but like, it's a lot of effort and why? I don't have any particular affection for giants or elemental-themed beings!
(Cloud are kind of okay because they're so weird too, but they're too big and peculiar for me to want to really use them as antagonists - I've used a couple as essentially quest-givers or NPCs players weren't intended to fight - and indeed they didn't.)
"Keep Giants Weird" I guess is what I'm saying for myself (apologies to Portland and/or Austin).
(As an aside, I totally get that some other people like the other giants, and again, in the right campaign I could see it - though I'd still prefer them a bit smaller - but I'm glad D&D has somewhat sidelined giants as a whole for most of the time I've played it, which thus makes them feel very optional.)
TwoSix
Magic 8-ball says "Not Encouraging"
Agreed. Personally, I feel like any particular type of giant works better as a one-off individual than as an entire society of huge beings. I'd rather place "The Storm Giant" than a group of storm giants, and up their challenge rating accordingly.
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Celebrim
Legend
Giants are generally end game foes in my game, similar to how they appear in the original G1-3 series.
Giants in my homebrew world are the offspring of dalliances between the gods and genies, with each giant race representing offspring of different elemental genies. They differ from typical D&D giants in that their alignment tends to follow from their parentage, and so you are more likely to find a variety of giant personalities. Also, as in Greek myths, killing giants can earn you the enmity of their immortal parents. For the levels I play at (usually under 12th), giants (and dragons) are more like background threats than commonly foes. They are often in the background signifying, "Yes, you can just be squashed." With giants you are more likely to encounter them as a social encounter than a combat one, though combat does happen.
Hill Giants and Ogres are the product of breeding between giants and mortals. Hill giants are commonly members of human society and ogres commonly members of goblin society.
Trolls are a type of fairy in my game, so that's a whole other conversation.
Giants in my homebrew world are the offspring of dalliances between the gods and genies, with each giant race representing offspring of different elemental genies. They differ from typical D&D giants in that their alignment tends to follow from their parentage, and so you are more likely to find a variety of giant personalities. Also, as in Greek myths, killing giants can earn you the enmity of their immortal parents. For the levels I play at (usually under 12th), giants (and dragons) are more like background threats than commonly foes. They are often in the background signifying, "Yes, you can just be squashed." With giants you are more likely to encounter them as a social encounter than a combat one, though combat does happen.
Hill Giants and Ogres are the product of breeding between giants and mortals. Hill giants are commonly members of human society and ogres commonly members of goblin society.
Trolls are a type of fairy in my game, so that's a whole other conversation.
