May 10, 2020 by [ "James R. Miller" ]
Categories: rpgs Tags: 5e storm-kings-thunder dnd remix stk-remix

Storm King's Thunder Remix 002: Internet Research

I like to do a little reconnaisance on other DMs’ experiences running a published module before I start tweaking that published module to bits. There is often sage advice in forum posts. I also like to do a small portion of this reconnaisance before I do an in-depth read of the module, so I am paying attention to potential flaws they have fixed or things that went particularly well.

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Did you see what I did there? What? Not funny? Bah.

I started with a simple web search for “fix storm kings thunder”. And the first link that returns is a reddit post full of great ideas. I strongly suggest giving it a full read, but I’m putting my big-picture takeaways from that post here. Note, I may or may not incorporate this material. I’m more using this as a semi-organized brainstorming session.

It’s hard to get the story’s drama involving Hekaton and his family to the PCs
- Try to give information on Serissa to the PCs early and often
  - Zephyros as a source
  - Princess Leia style recording
  - Harshnag as a source
  - Messages from Serissa to the giant lords in their strongholds
Combat issues
- Giants are hard to balance
  - low action economy
  - hit very hard and can kill PCs at lower levels
  - weak to flying PCs
- Giants boring if just move attacking
  - incorporate the variant rules in the STK rule book (i.e slams and throwing objects)
  - when reading source material, look for ways that giants can use their size and strength to interact with environment in fun or scary ways
  - Give the giant bosses buffs like legendary resistances, legendary actions, AOE melee attacks, etc..
Exploration in Chapter 3
- lots of people say this is a mess and needs work
Idea for PCs to meet Zephyros is to have his castle crash into the ground so that the PCs investigate.
Side quests in Chapter 2 don’t really mean anything in the grander story.
Quote from the Reddit post: “The book recommends that you let your players roam around until you get bored and throw Harshnag at them. I say you do the reverse of this. If we make finding Harshnag the goal of chapter 3, your players will be more focused.”
Another quote: “You should have fun with the players talking to the All-Father. I wrote out all the questions and answers (making sure to have multiple questions answer that a blue dragon infiltrated the storm giant court) and gave it to my party’s cleric, having the spirit speak through him. The player would then be the one giving answers. Of course if a question wasn’t accounted for, I would answer. It worked pretty well and encouraged some fun roleplaying.”
- I really like this. Thank you u/protectedneck.
If you want to run more giant strongholds, simply have the conchs be broken i.e. hill-giant queen accidentally sat on it. Make them hit more than stronghold to get a conch.
Figure out a way to involve Klauth’s cult early on, so that the PCs suspect a source beyond just Imyrith.
Consider coming up with a different reason for the Ordning to break.
Give Slark a reason to capture Hekaton instead of killing him (using his blood to make potions of giant strength?)
- Also, could be Imyrith thinks Hekaton is actually dead, but Slark kept him alive as a bargaining chip if the deal goes wrong.
Need to work in the “legend of Harshnag” somewhere so that the PCs understand he’s a big deal

What’s next?

I plan to read the rest of the adventure with some of those ideas in my mind, give it some time, and be ready to take more notes or write portions of the adventure as inspiration strikes me.