Storm King's Thunder

Giants rampage after the Storm King vanishes from the Realms.

Storm King's Thunder is an adventure module for the 5th edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It centers on the disappearance of Storm King Hekaton and the resulting giant invasions across the Forgotten Realms.

Quick Facts

Type: Adventure module
System: Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition
Released: September 6, 2016
Page count: 256
Lead designer: Chris Perkins
Format: Hardcover, digital

Facts from the source article.

Plot summary

The giant races of Faerûn are running wild because their ruler, Storm King Hekaton, has vanished without a trace. Frost Giants are raiding the Sword Coast, Cloud Giant cities have drifted over Baldur’s Gate, and Fire Giants are attacking the deserts. The smaller folk must unite or be crushed—literally and figuratively—under giant heels. This adventure module guides player characters from level 1 to level 11. Its chapters cover a great upheaval, rumblings, the savage frontier, a chosen path, and lairs for hill, stone, frost, fire, cloud, and storm giants, plus sections on tentacles and desert doom. Appendices include linked adventures, magic items, creatures, and special NPCs.

Publication history

Storm King's Thunder was released on September 6, 2016, as a 256-page hardcover book. It was also released digitally through D&D Beyond, Fantasy Grounds, and Roll20, becoming the second official 5th edition adventure module on Roll20. The basic story asks what happens when that Ordning is shattered: giants must go out into the world to earn the respect and favor of their gods to create a new Ordning, causing chaos for the small folk.

Related products

WizKids released 45 miniatures corresponding with the adventure in September 2016. The 10th expansion of the Neverwinter video game aligned the free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game with the Storm King's Thunder storyline, adding a new campaign, a new dungeon, and three new zones. In 2017, IDW Publishing released a five-issue mini-series comic called Frost Giant's Fury, written by Jim Zub with art by Netho Diaz, centering on a group of heroes from Baldur's Gate.

Reception

In Publishers Weekly's Best-selling Books Week Ending September 19, 2016, Storm King's Thunder ranked #21 in Hardcover Nonfiction and sold 3,857 units. It was included in The A.V. Club's 2016 Gift Guide. Alex Springer, writing for SLUG Magazine, noted that the campaign begins in a recently sieged village being picked apart by goblins, allowing players to experience the world from a civilian's perspective. Springer praised how the module balanced structure with improvisational freedom, citing a chance encounter where players manipulate a lovesick hill giant into betraying her husband-stealing queen. Springer, a novice Dungeon Master, found the art fantastic and the maps meticulous, set against a story of corruption, betrayal, and power.