Bring giant adventure to your table! All the tokens and maps from Storm King's Thunder have been integrated into Maps!

This adventure sets your party against mythical giants as the ordning—the giant's hierarchical societal structure—threatens to unravel. Your party will have to contend with giant adversaries, battles, and exploration through Faerûn's vast Savage Frontier as they uncover the truth behind the looming chaos.

Read on for more tips on how to make this gargantuan sandbox adventure a breeze to run at your table and how D&D Beyond Maps can help!

Venture into the Savage Frontier

After a couple of introductory chapters, Storm King's Thunder lets players explore the Savage Frontier on their own. This sprawling wilderness extends for hundreds of miles from the Sword Coast to the desert of Anauroch, as far north as Icewind Dale, and south to the High Moor.

Though it's dotted with bastions of civilization, like Neverwinter and Waterdeep, much of this area is unpatrolled and dangerous. As the party roams the wilderness, they'll encounter clans of nomads, predatory monsters, and pieces of long-lost civilizations hidden across the rugged landscape.

This portion of Storm King's Thunder isn't a hex crawl but is instead a wilderness expedition that uses the travel-montage or hour-by-hour approaches to exploration found in Chapter 5 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. As the party ventures from location to location, following threads of a colossal conspiracy, they will encounter various people and places that have been affected by the giant's conflict.

The northern expanse known as the Savage Frontier

How to Handle a Giant Sandbox

Storm King's Thunder is unique because, once the party reaches the 3rd chapter, they are sent into an open-world exploration sequence that can lead to an entirely distinct series of events each time the adventure is run. To run this chapter, the DM will need to keep the narrative pace up and plan effectively to help players make the most of the agency they're given.

Being given a list of locations, their descriptions, and some random encounters and being told to "Make this into an adventure" can be daunting for DMs, so here are some tips to help you plan your party's journey into the Savage Frontier. 

1. Give the Party a Reason to Adventure: It's crucial to give the party a compelling reason to venture into the dangerous wilderness. You can do this by tying the adventure to your party's backgrounds or their affiliations. For instance, if one of the player characters is a member of the Harpers, the secretive organization might task them with investigating the disturbances caused by the giants' conflicts in exchange for a promotion among their ranks.
2. Keep Track of What Engages Players: You'll also want to keep a close eye on what storylines and NPCs the party tends to gravitate toward during the first two chapters. This can provide direction as to where the party's interests lie when it comes time to choose the quest giver and where they send the party. 
3. Pick a Point and Prepare the Path: As the party departs from their starting point toward their quest's eventual destination, take a look at the map of the Savage Frontier and note the locations along the party's path. Each location will have a description and some information about what events the party will encounter there.
4. Serve Up Short Sidequests: As the party follows their quest's path, they will encounter various events and settlements grappling with the troubles stirred up by the giants in the surrounding areas. These sidequests will help showcase the effects of the giants' conflicts to the party. As the party explores the Savage Frontier, they will gradually uncover more information about the giants' conflict, piecing together clues that hint at their ultimate goal.
5. Practice Pacing: When running wilderness exploration, it's essential to strike a balance between tension and progression. Wilderness survival and random encounters should add depth to the experience, but they shouldn't overshadow the main narrative. If you feel that players are becoming disinterested in their journey, it's OK to skip to the next destination without them running into trouble.
6. Keep Random Events Random: The Savage Frontier should feel dangerous and unpredictable, keeping the players constantly on their toes as they navigate the treacherous landscape. While combat encounters are a staple random event, and the book provides a list of applicable monster encounters, mixing in weather events, environmental hazards, and other non-combat challenges will mean the party won't know what to expect when they leave the relative safety of a settlement.

How Maps Can Help

In an adventure full of wilderness exploration, a VTT can be helpful in tracking your party's progress across the map. With a suite of helpful tools, like the Draw, Point, and Ruler features, you'll be able to note where your party has been, where they're going, and how long it will take to get there.

Maps will also help save time when it comes for a random encounter. Depending on what kind of danger the party runs into, you can search up a map, populate it with tokens from your digital library, and have the battle ready to begin before you can say, "Roll initiative!"

About Storm King's Thunder

Artist: Tyler Jacobson

Storm King's Thunder is an epic adventure for characters from 1st to 11th level that features a blend of dungeon delving and open-world exploration. Set against the backdrop of the Savage Frontier, a looming threat casts a shadow over the land. Giants, once bound by the ordning, now seek to rise to be the leaders of giantkind, leaving chaos in their wake. 

In the face of this tumultuous conflict, brave adventurers are called upon to embark on a perilous journey to protect the people of Faerûn. From the snow-capped peaks of the Spine of the World to the rugged terrain of the Dessarin Valley, the party must navigate the untamed wilderness, venture into giant strongholds, forge alliances with diverse factions, and ultimately confront the source of the havoc to restore balance to the giants.

Head Out on Giant Adventure with D&D Beyond Maps

With the Savage Frontier at your fingertips, there's only one thing left to do: Gather your party and strike out on adventure! To make sure you don't lose your way in the wilderness, DMs with a Master-tier subscription can plot their party's progress with Maps.

This VTT has everything you need to make prepping the colossal sandbox in Storm King's Thunder easier. This way, you can focus on the fun and explore the dangerous wildness with your party!

Mike Bernier (@arcane_eye) is the founder of Arcane Eye, a site focused on providing useful tips and tricks to all those involved in the world of D&D. Outside of writing for Arcane Eye, Mike spends most of his time playing games, hiking with his partner, and tending the veritable jungle of houseplants that have invaded his house.