On top of that, there are a ton of purely optional side quests that can enhance the main story line, should the players be interested. This gives them more agency than ever before.
Other adventures try to act like sandboxes Out of the Abyss and Curse of Strahd for example , but they ultimately fail because if certain locations are skipped or encountered out of order, the story becomes less effective or even ruined at certain points. Yes you could go out of order, but it just makes the game awkward. Take Out of the Abyss for example: Take Curse of Strahd as a second example: The game is clearly laid out so that the characters travel along a path that moves from east to west across the map and blocks them from moving south using mountains.
Its not a sandbox. These adventures try to tell the players that they can go wherever they want, while simultaneously making it clear to the DM that they should be steered towards specific locations. That or the terrain just funnels them into a linear path.
Storm giant
Once the players realize this, they might just get lost exploring all of these incredible places and side quests. Hoard of the Dragon Queen, for example, feels like you are riding through its setting with blinders on, unable to explore and experience too much beyond what exists solely to support the main plot.
The difference between now and then is staggering. There is so much sheer content in this book that a single playthrough would barely scratch the surface. You could run a whole campaign based on chapter three alone. It presents a ton of great ideas which can naturally lead the players from one area to the other without feeling disjointed or restrictive.
This is what makes it all more believable this time around. That said, here they are:. Sadly, as is the case with most sandboxes, much of the content in the book will never be explored or used in any single play through. You could even argue that this literally means you get less playtime for your money. You could also argue that, yes players who love free form exploring and side quests can eventually get around to seeing most of its content anyways, but it feels much less likely in an adventure like this.
This will probably be a shorter play through for most groups. The book does have a fair amount of typos in it , which is a bit surprising, seeing as how incredibly well organized it is content-wise. I was just expecting a bit more, I guess. In reality, its just a fun little gimmick that shows up only once. As they explore the wreckage, they encounter looting goblins, destroyed buildings, surviving guards, and Zhentarim operatives.
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Just when things seem to be getting in order, a fleeing party of murderous orcs tries to take refuge within the village walls, prompting a possible showdown between the players, the Zhentarim, the pursuing elves, and the fleeing orcs. Later the players track down and rescue other surviving villagers in a nearby cave where they are held prisoner by goblins and ogres. The chapter concludes with the players following up on one of three quests they receive from the villagers.
Storm King’s Thunder Review
A friendly cloud giant named Zephyros offers to transport them in his flying castle to their destination. All in all its quite an exciting first chapter. There are so many different characters and groups represented, all with different agendas. The players have tons of opportunities to engage in combat as well as roleplaying. Its complicated, but in a fun and well presented way.
Here the players are led to one of three different settlements: Once they arrive and get situated, the location comes under attack by giants and the players must defend the settlement with the help of a handful of NPCs. After the battle is concluded, the surviving NPCs give the players quests which help drive the story forward. Many of the NPCs here are quite interesting and the scenario does a good job of making the players actually care about them.
This is due, in large part, to the fact that the players must control two characters at once during the attack. Some may find this daunting, but I think most groups will quickly adapt. The three towns frankly struck me as being a bit mundane. Especially since many of these elements are extremely similar between them or if they are different, they are mundane enough as to not be of to much interest. Playing these scenarios will of course be quite different, since there will be plenty of combat, excitement, and interesting NPCs.
However, compared to some of the inspired scenarios presented later in the book, these settlements come off as a bit redundant and mundane. Its not bad, its just that the whole rest of the book is better. From the mundane to the absolutely sublime, we step out of Chapter 2 and enter Chapter 3. This is by far the best chapter in the book. Its main contribution is a massive list of over locations spread across the northern region of the Sword Coast, complete with maps, random encounters, NPCs, and treasure. There are dozens and dozens of gems to be found here.
Even the least interesting locations always have something noteworthy in them and the most interesting locations are good enough to inspire entire campaigns centered just around the NPCs and suggested encounters presented. Much of the reason why this chapter is so successful is because each entry is quick and to the point unlike chapter 2 , giving you just enough information to get you started and let the DM pick up the creative reigns.
I honestly think that the importance of this chapter is actually bigger than the adventure it is written for. In a daring escape the players are offered aid from a mysterious band of dragon cultists in an airship. This chapter has a lot going on in it. Besides providing a great and inspiring set piece for the campaign, it also delves deep into the lore of giants and their mythical idols. Rune magic is touched on here and it has some cool traps and roleplaying opportunities with the oracle, Harshnag, and the dragon cultists. It is a strong chapter overall, but it has a few issues:.
That means that since only ONE out of the next FIVE chapters will be of use in your campaign, about 50 pages worth of content in the book is entirely wasted.
Storm Giant - Monsters - D&D Beyond
It is true that in theory they can confront the other giant lords at some other point if they wish. It seems unlikely that players will want to keep fighting giant lords once they get the opportunity to continue towards Maelstrom, which is a much more urgent and exciting place to take the story. If they had restructured the adventure to somehow require the players to confront multiple giant lords, I think they could have stretched the campaign out to level 14 or The chapter commits the cardinal sin of possibly giving the players a quest that cannot be completed without the use of another adventure book.
Another thing that sticks out here is that the map seems to have been colored incorrectly. No darkness or frost in sight. No other map in the adventure had this problem for me. The first of the five giant lords that hold the key to Maelstrom is Ghum, a brutish and loathsome hill giant holed up on a pig farm. The scenario seems to lend itself well to a stealthy approach with tactical, isolated battles. Overall this chapter is a good one, but the setting might be a bit underwhelming when compared to the other superior choices out there. Canyon of the Stone Giants.
Here the players infiltrate a lair of stone giants called Deadstone Cleft. Now this is more like it! The imagery here is strong and the stone giants themselves are much more interesting and mysterious than their hill giant brethren. Some stone giants are neutral, preferring to live a life of artful mediation and stillness rather than crushing puny small folk. This presents some awesome roleplaying opportunities for a creative DM to play with.
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The barbarians also add another level of complexity and danger to the encounter. Travelling near the frigid waters of the Sea of Moving Ice, the players infiltrate the frost giant fortress of Svardborg. Just getting to the fortress is a challenge in itself and one that presents many options: Once there, the players have to contend with a wide variety of creatures and characters including winter wolves, manticores, dragons, harpies, a treacherous mage, and the frost giants themselves.
All of this is made more complicated by the fact that the area is surrounded by frigid water and any craft they use to approach is at risk of being spotted. This is my favorite of the five chapters in this series because it is clearly and concisely laid out, but also gives a very large set of toys and options to play with. Its aquatic elements as well as its potential for some ship boarding action add to the fun. The showdown between the players and Jarl Storvald can go many ways and will reward players for being intelligent and resourceful.
As the players descend deeper into the forge they have the opportunity to free slaves that keep the complex running and enlist their help. Eventually they face off against Duke Zalto and his hell hounds, thwarting his plans to reignite his mighty forge and reassemble the Vonindod, an enormous collosus with which he seeks to wage war against all of dragonkind. A party of drow make a special appearance here as well, throwing a curve ball into an already deadly situation.
This is the largest and most complex of the five chapters in this series. It is also quite dark and mature, in comparison to the others. In the hands of a skilled DM, this can be perhaps the most intricate and tactical scenario in the whole book, but it takes a sizable amount of prep time. Castle of the Cloud Giants.
The Countess is vain but sociable, lending this chapter quite well to social roleplaying. Players might fly aboard and ask for a peaceful audience with her, then at the opportune moment strike at her vulnerabilities. The characters also have the opportunity to seize the castle for themselves if they defeat all of its inhabitants.
This is my second favorite chapter in this series. Its easier to run than the fire giant scenario, it has more interesting NPCs than the hill and stone giant scenarios, and it plays with the giants vs dragons theme again, which can be exploited by the players to give them an advantage. Its sort of like a castle from Alice in Wonderland.
The origins of Giants are unknown, as is the exact time they first appeared in Middle-earth; however, it seems that they entered the history of the peoples of Middle-earth in the Third Age. In The Hobbit , Stone-giants are described as hurling rocks at one another as in a game, during a violent thunderstorm. Their physical form was not described, nor was much else about them. Gandalf used to tell stories to Bilbo when he was young at parties about dragons, goblins, giants, and rescue of princesses, and the luck of widow's sons.
During the riddle game Bilbo thought of all the giants and Ogres he had heard of in tales. At one point Bilbo saw a rock in a stream, and wondered if it had been cast miles into the plain by some giant among giants. Gandalf later remarked that he would like to find 'a more or less decent giant' to block several of the orc caves. Giants of the type mentioned in the Red Book of Westmarch are not so much as mentioned in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
It is believed that as Tolkien expanded the Middle-earth cosmology, he simply dropped giants from it. In addition some of Tolkien's other material there was Wade who may be or have been based on a sea-giant of legend and Noroth , said to be a giant. During the development of The Hobbit , an early draft described more traditional human-like giants;.
However, this was edited to Gandalf telling stories of ' There may be a loose connection between the giants described in Farmer Giles of Ham and references to generic fairy tale giants mentioned in Hobbit tales. Tolkien are inspired by giants from various mythology, such as fire-giants, frost-giants, hill-giants, sea-giants, and storm-giants.