Hello all! I am planning to run Storm King's Thunder for a few friends and i hoped to get some advice:
What, if any, of the background information in the SKT adventure book(or other sources for that matter) could be assumed to be general knowledge for the PC's?
I want to give them a primer of sorts to inform them of the current state of the world and any info that their characters would know i want them to have in preparation for the adventure. I wanted to start them all at level 5, with the assumption they have been adventurers for some time now already, and just want to know what can(and absolutely CANNOT) be common knowledge lest i accidentally reveal spoilers.
Thanks for any who contribute their time to consider my post!
I have not run SKT but I have the campaign in front of me so you can take what I say with a grain of salt.
Really it comes down to how much information you want to share and how much you want your players to discover on their own giving them a sense of awe and wonder being so far in these northern lands. Chapter 3 has all that and more about the lands and it's people. besides the Introduction chapter.
A possible suggestion is to take a look at each character's background and you can slot in certain elements of knowledge within the beginning of the adventure to each player if something fits.
One goal would not have everyone know the same thing and to differentiate the knowledge so that they can RP the information as the game goes on for some of those starting moments.
Maybe you can breakdown each of the Factions Of The North in small bites of information so they know who is a friend and who to be wary of.
Now, this gets a little deeper but the information could be on certain towns and it's people they may visit though this takes you beyond the Introduction chapter and having you get into more of the meat to the adventure (IE, Chapter 3)
You could also give some basic knowledge of what creatures are frequently found in certain areas?
Geographic areas that do not give away any plot points that they will learn about in-game?
Also, remember as a situation arises in-game History / Nature / Arcana / Religion / Intelligence checks to see if a character knows some information that maybe you want to share but you just do not want to overload them with a knowledge dump at the start.
These are just some thoughts I hope it helps even if it a minuscule to think about how to approach SKT.
Hello all! I am planning to run Storm King's Thunder for a few friends and i hoped to get some advice:
What, if any, of the background information in the SKT adventure book(or other sources for that matter) could be assumed to be general knowledge for the PC's?
I want to give them a primer of sorts to inform them of the current state of the world and any info that their characters would know i want them to have in preparation for the adventure. I wanted to start them all at level 5, with the assumption they have been adventurers for some time now already, and just want to know what can(and absolutely CANNOT) be common knowledge lest i accidentally reveal spoilers.
Thanks for any who contribute their time to consider my post!
I have not run SKT but I have the campaign in front of me so you can take what I say with a grain of salt.
Really it comes down to how much information you want to share and how much you want your players to discover on their own giving them a sense of awe and wonder being so far in these northern lands. Chapter 3 has all that and more about the lands and it's people. besides the Introduction chapter.
A possible suggestion is to take a look at each character's background and you can slot in certain elements of knowledge within the beginning of the adventure to each player if something fits.
One goal would not have everyone know the same thing and to differentiate the knowledge so that they can RP the information as the game goes on for some of those starting moments.
Maybe you can breakdown each of the Factions Of The North in small bites of information so they know who is a friend and who to be wary of.
Now, this gets a little deeper but the information could be on certain towns and it's people they may visit though this takes you beyond the Introduction chapter and having you get into more of the meat to the adventure (IE, Chapter 3)
You could also give some basic knowledge of what creatures are frequently found in certain areas?
Geographic areas that do not give away any plot points that they will learn about in-game?
Also, remember as a situation arises in-game History / Nature / Arcana / Religion / Intelligence checks to see if a character knows some information that maybe you want to share but you just do not want to overload them with a knowledge dump at the start.
These are just some thoughts I hope it helps even if it a minuscule to think about how to approach SKT.
thanks so much i will consider much of this!