Storm King's Thunder Advice (spoilers)

[Mattzewild]

Hi all,

Im starting a new 5e campaign and was looking to run SKT (with some tweaks) and hoped for some advice.

Chapters 5-9 (i think), requires the party to basically choose what kind of giant they want to molest etc. I think they're all really cool and feel like its a bit of a waste to ignore whichever 4 they dont pick so i was hoping to write in a reason for the party to fight 2/3 instead.

Aaaaand thats where my block happens. So any suggestions on how to write this in whilst still making sense within the story would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[Hopeless]

Still waiting on my copy, just a thought but do any of your players have access to the Monster Manual so they might try to go for the weakest giants if they can identify which is which?

Have you thought about giving them a specific nemesis and goad them to go after that particular giant so you only need to add that nemesis to the adventure to explain why they headed towards those giants?

[Mattzewild]

Thanks for the reply.

None of the players have a MM (not that they wont find out anyway lol), ill probably put the choice to them and require an answer that session to prevent too much ooc research.

I like the idea of introducing a nemesis, means there is one less giant i have to explain haha.

[Temperjoke]

I haven't read the book yet, but what about another giant seizing the opportunity being opened up by the party's attack? They could even assist the party, only to turn on them.

[Mattzewild]

Thanks, I really like that too.

The various giants chapters are like 50 pages. I feel like they should also see tge light of play haha

[Seruvius]

I don't yet personally have the book, so my input is going to have to be vague at best =)

One option is to just got with 1 giant path as the book states and then recycle the other giant parts later. Just because you didn't use it in this adventure/campaign doesn't mean you cannot recycle it in a future one.

A second option would be allow the pc's to go for say 2 of the giant layers, scaling up whichever one they visited second to account for their higher level. The final arc (i am assuming there is something after they beat down one of the 5 giant types and it doesn't just end there) can then include members of the 3 giant races the PC's didn't go for. The PC's decided to go for hill and stone because they are the lowest cr giants individually? cool, now they get to deal with a phalanx of frost giants, armoured by fire giants and with a cloud giant for magic support. As i do not yet own the book, my input may be useless re established plot =P

a 3rd option that comes to mind is some sort of in-game timer. say the party has x days till something horrible happens and by taking out the giant leaders they can avoid the worst of the catastrophe. That might require reworking some of the background. As an example: it was in fact Asmodeus who tricked the High God into breaking the Ordning, wanting to break the power of the giant god by killing his minions/weakening belief/destroying holy power networks etc. so he can steal the spark of divinity or some magical mcguffin etc. The players then need to uncover ye plot, stop ye giants and re-estalbish the power networks of the giant gods before old archie gets to be a god again. or maybe that is detrating too much from the giants themselves at that point. maybe introduce an evil loki-esque giant god instead. Just a thought =)

[Hopeless]

I'm in the same boat except its looking like another week before I receive a copy of this, but all the talk I've been reading made me wonder.
What if the means the King remains in control is that he's wedded to a Giant of all of the various Giants races so those three daughters are actually a Fire Giantess, a Cloud Giantess, etc none of them are Storm Giant.
So the deal with the end of the Giant-Dragon War was that both sides agreed to a majority of their species being polymorphed into the various smallfolk races as ultimately whoever finally won the war would end up dying from the resulting famine and the destruction of Faerun.
The current situation was brought about because the Queen before she was married to the King was previously married to one of the smallfolk and ended that marriage to allow herself to marry the King to protect her former husband and their son.
She recently learned she has a granddaughter and was tricked into an ambush because she wanted to meet her grand daughter.
Note that Granddaughter if she agreed to be restored to Giant would become a Storm Giant and unless the King returns and announces who is his heir, his death would make her the most likely successor to the throne by virtue of her being a Storm Giant.
With the various Giants seeking a way to gain the hand in marriage of one of the King's three daughters they're also recruiting as many of the descendants of those polymorphed Giants to reinforce their army so what's scarier to you the renewing Giant-Dragon War or the restoration of countless Giant descendants in every settlement effectively devastating any potential means for the smallfolk to prevent that war from being restarted?

[Robvox]

I am an experienced DM, (been playing since 1980) and am running STK currently. I find the "sandbox" idea quite refreshing, as I am not at all afraid of stepping outside of the "boxed text".
That being said, I had the same feeling as you, there are so many great encounters in STK that using only 1 of the 4 (the 5th one is required) seemed wasteful. By inserting some hooks at the very beginning of the campaign I effectively I all but guaranteed the PCs would want to investigate/attack the various giant holds.
Our Ranger was enslaved in the past by the Hill Giants and wants some serious revenge. He was taken out of Gudd Haug by his owner when Chief Guh drove the other females out, and subsequently making his escape.
I tied our warlock (who worships the Great Old One) to the adventure by suggesting Slarkrethel (the Kraken who holds the Storm Giant King) is the hated enemy of The Great Old One, as they both have similar backgrounds.
It is easy to get the PCs to explore the other Giant Holds as there are numerous hooks and clues throughout the north leading them to interact with the other Giants.
I never like forcing PCs to do anything, as I really like the ""sandbox" feel of D&D, but I am not above giving them limited choices (rock and a hard place) and gently guiding them towards the areas I would like them to explore.
STK is LOADED with small side adventures that eventually tie together into a cohesive whole. This is one of the very best adventures I have seen printed.
I hope you read this and I hope I gave you some ideas about hooking your characters into the scenario.
Good Luck!