Dungeons & Dragons Storm King's Thunder

I've been running a campaign for some friends for a while, one of them is a Goliath! I've had this book in my sights for what seems like nearly a decade, and while I already have it on dndbeyond, I decided to get a physical copy to help me with session prepping. I don't want to cast doubt on how long dndbeyond will last, but digital goods sometimes concern me and so I've bought several modules that I already own physically to have myself.At some point in the distant future, D&D will have to evolve into the 6th edition. One thing I've learned from my parents and those who've played the earlier versions of the game is that you can reflavor and re-use old adventure content with new systems. That provides a value for me as a DM (Dungeon Master) to be able to have modules like Storm King's Thunder (SKT) on my shelf.---More about the actual module itself. It's possible to run the adventure from Level 1, since chapter 1 is kind of made for bringing characters into the story and so the back of the book will say "Intended for characters level 1 - 10" or so. If you read the book, it suggests at some points that the characters will actually be level 11 by the end of it.As well, there is a part of the campaign where you choose between the different kinds of giants to go face off, and if you're familiar with Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, you can actually use all of the sections instead. Nothing in a module is "sacred," alter it to your parties needs! It may be worth considering asking the party if they're interested in the long haul, but considering the complaints of D&D being unbalanced or less fun after level 13, this is likely where a lot of players will have the most fun. Go for it!This campaign takes place in North West Faerun, which is where Waterdeep is located. That means Icewind Dale, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, and several other adventures take place in the same general area. You can easily connect lower level adventures from this region into Storm King's Thunder by sewing seeds with rumors like... "Farms in the region have been attacked by Hill Giants!" "Did you hear? Apparently an important storm giant was slain on an island." By the time your characters hit level 5, you can start in Chapter 2 of the book (definitely read everything before Chapter 2) and get going.The map quality is good, the descriptions of the NPCs and their backgrounds is phenomenal, and the setting is very exciting.As for the book itself, I received one slightly warped with a tiny bit of a bow curve in it, but it's not really a big deal and can be fixed by leaving weight on it for a while. Otherwise, the print quality, texture, and contents are excellent. Nothing printed upside down, no major deformations or cuts, properly bound, no missing pages, and everything is in order.The product gets 5 stars from me, it's everything I expected and in perfect condition.

There is so much here; almost too much. An excellent adventure.But I have some suggestions:- It would have been better if WOTC provided accompanying digital maps (both for players and DMs) to be displayed on monitors while playing. I had to search all over to find the right ones (without the numbers on the buildings) to use for my players.- As a new 5e player, it would have been good to have some examples of how to integrate all of the five political factions (along with Slarkrethel, the Kraken) into the game. Trying to integrate the factions along with the expected encounters can be overwhelming to newer DMs. Maybe a list of 5 ways to integrate into play.- Some of the fetch quests were contrived and not compelling. One involves delivering a cat from the initial encounter, to another city for the next possible encounter. Many people have said the same. I managed to find some more compelling workarounds for the players to go from one place to another without being railroaded.- The game is actually an excellent premade adventure with a TON of content. It's the best (and worst) of both worlds sandbox/railroading. The fetch quests are a bit railroady but the sandbox is HUGE (all of Faerûn) so there are a lot of homebrew things a DM can add.- I HIGHLY suggest researching all the political factions first (think about how they can be integrated into the game, I plugged them into the players' backstories, which made it much easier and believable) as well as researching some of the history of the major cities and all of Faerûn. It took me 2 months to prepare for the game, but I was also learning the 5e system as well. I also suggest finding maps online of each location; I suggest buying maps from Mike Schley (mikeschley. com/projects). They are well worth it.

I'm completely enthralled by the story of this book. It's well thought out. Although I haven't run this campaign for my players yet I can see where it would be intriguing and captivating for a player to uncover.The thing that I'm most impressed so far is this: the campaign is the most sandbox-y and open world campaign that I will have ever run. I can see where this would be complicated and frustrating as a beginning DM to undertake, but the designers of the book lay things out in a controlled fashion with lots of charts, suggested encounters, and explanations. This makes the campaign much more manageable. Each location marked on the master map of the Northern Sword Coast has an excellent summary of what can be found in the location and examples of what a DM can throw at the players to make a fun and rewarding encounter there. There are also plenty of easy plot hooks available for the DM to get the players back on track (which may be entirely necessary with an open-world game).As with all D&D 5e books that I've purchased I'm incredibly satisfied by the artwork throughout the book. Does it add to the story itself? No it doesn't. But the amount that it adds to the process of reading through the book is definitely to be considered. It also gives a DM that isn't sometimes the best at describing the world some great visuals to show to the players to help them understand the setting.As far as the physical build of this book, unlike several of my other Wizards of the Coast books I've ordered this one arrived in great shape with no damage to the pages or spine.