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Storm King's Thunder
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<blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 6911769" data-attributes="member: 37579"><p><strong>3 out of 5 rating for Storm King's Thunder</strong></p><p></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma'">I was worried at the thought of an <em>Against the Giants: Take Four</em>, as we’ve seen this adventure before and there was not much substance. <em>Storm King’s Thunder</em> really goes all out in giving the adventure a different story, just using the original for inspiration rather than simply updating the stat blocks. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma'">The dungeons are excellent, and you can use this product to update the classics or embrace the wholly new experience. Each of the dungeons is radically different, and there’s a lot of unique flavour. A heck of a lot of work went into making cool giant clanholds, complete with some amazing maps. The book is also incredibly useful to Realms fans as a guide to the Northlands. And there are a number of fairly detailed settlements, completely with NPCs. For DMs planning on stripping this adventure for inspiration, it’s a fabulous product.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma'">If the product has a flaw it’s too much story. There’s lots going on beyond the Breaking of the Ordning: the missing Storm King, traitorous daughters, a dragon, a kraken, plus the Rod of Seven Parts story seen in both <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PayUbNeSHbU" target="_blank"><em>Force Grey: Giant Hunters</em></a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_fGKY44DaI" target="_blank"><em>Acquisitions Incorporated the Series</em></a>. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma'">The adventure was hyped as being inspired by Shakespeare – which I won’t dispute – but the play in question is actually <em>Much Ado About Nothing</em>. The ordning breaks and just kinda sorta gets fixed off camera. The evil daughters don’t do anything and may or may not receive their comeuppance. The kraken is very likely unseen. And the main plot of the adventure – the kidnapping of the king – could easily be missed if players too distracted by the very real threat of evil giants that need to be put down. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma'">While there are all serious problems with the plot of the adventure, you can still run it just fine pretty much as-is. You just need to seed and foreshadow the Storm King. Play around in the royal court a little more. Perhaps have the sisters doing some scheming or trying to betray the adventurers in the final moments. A good DM can easily work around these problems.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma'">Honestly, there’s probably room for a great Dungeon Master’s Guild product that replaces the final two or three chapters of this adventure with something related to the ordning. Perhaps heading to the “Hold of the Storm Giants” to find an altar to the High Father, where you can plead with the giant god to change their mind, followed by a quest to prove their worthiness. But the fact you could just entirely swap out the climax to this adventure and your players would never know is incredibly problematic.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Tahoma'">Read my full review <a href="http://www.5mwd.com/archives/3715" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jester David, post: 6911769, member: 37579"] [b]3 out of 5 rating for Storm King's Thunder[/b] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Tahoma]I was worried at the thought of an [I]Against the Giants: Take Four[/I], as we’ve seen this adventure before and there was not much substance. [I]Storm King’s Thunder[/I] really goes all out in giving the adventure a different story, just using the original for inspiration rather than simply updating the stat blocks. [/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Tahoma]The dungeons are excellent, and you can use this product to update the classics or embrace the wholly new experience. Each of the dungeons is radically different, and there’s a lot of unique flavour. A heck of a lot of work went into making cool giant clanholds, complete with some amazing maps. The book is also incredibly useful to Realms fans as a guide to the Northlands. And there are a number of fairly detailed settlements, completely with NPCs. For DMs planning on stripping this adventure for inspiration, it’s a fabulous product. [/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Tahoma]If the product has a flaw it’s too much story. There’s lots going on beyond the Breaking of the Ordning: the missing Storm King, traitorous daughters, a dragon, a kraken, plus the Rod of Seven Parts story seen in both [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PayUbNeSHbU"][I]Force Grey: Giant Hunters[/I][/URL] and [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_fGKY44DaI"][I]Acquisitions Incorporated the Series[/I][/URL]. [/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Tahoma]The adventure was hyped as being inspired by Shakespeare – which I won’t dispute – but the play in question is actually [I]Much Ado About Nothing[/I]. The ordning breaks and just kinda sorta gets fixed off camera. The evil daughters don’t do anything and may or may not receive their comeuppance. The kraken is very likely unseen. And the main plot of the adventure – the kidnapping of the king – could easily be missed if players too distracted by the very real threat of evil giants that need to be put down. [/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Tahoma]While there are all serious problems with the plot of the adventure, you can still run it just fine pretty much as-is. You just need to seed and foreshadow the Storm King. Play around in the royal court a little more. Perhaps have the sisters doing some scheming or trying to betray the adventurers in the final moments. A good DM can easily work around these problems. [/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Tahoma]Honestly, there’s probably room for a great Dungeon Master’s Guild product that replaces the final two or three chapters of this adventure with something related to the ordning. Perhaps heading to the “Hold of the Storm Giants” to find an altar to the High Father, where you can plead with the giant god to change their mind, followed by a quest to prove their worthiness. But the fact you could just entirely swap out the climax to this adventure and your players would never know is incredibly problematic. Read my full review [URL="http://www.5mwd.com/archives/3715"]here[/URL].[/FONT][/COLOR] [/QUOTE]
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