Storm King’s Thunder on the way from D&D

Giants are threatening civilization. Who will stop them?

Well, you’re going to need giants to fight giants.

That’s the premise behind Storm King’s Thunder, the new adventure book coming from Dungeons & Dragons on Sept. 6.

The 256-page adventure will take characters from 1st level through 11th (and beyond). They’ll fight all sorts of giants and harness the runes of power, the ancient magic the giants created to destroy their enemies, the dragons.

Sounds like a good time to me. I have enjoyed D&D’s trips back to nostalgic realms such as Ravenloft, but I also enjoyed the more original storylines. This is definitely in the latter camp, and banding together to find a whole bunch of giants sounds like a blast. (Though, to be honest, the whole thing may pull a bit from classic adventure Against the Giants.)

According to the full description, which you can read below, it also sounds like runemaster will be an included class option. Awesome.

The release will be accompanied by a similar expansion in the Neverwinter MMO, a set of Storm King’s Thunder minis from WizKids, the Assault of the Giants board game and Force Grey: Giant Hunters, a series of playthrough videos featuring Chris Hardwick, Jonah Ray, Brian Posehn and a bunch of other actors and comedians.

And following the Storm King’s Thunder adventure on Nov. 15 will be the Volo’s Guide to Monsters sourcebook. The book is, well, interesting. It will include rules for dozens of new monsters (including froghemoth, neogi and vargouille) as well as race options including goblins, orcs and firbolgs. It’s also something of a history of monsters in the D&D world by characters Volothamp and Elminster.

This 224-page book sounds like a much-needed supplement to add some monsters and race options to 5th edition, but I’m not sure the fluff about monsters is going to appeal to that many people. Why not just release Monster Manual 2? Maybe that’s exactly what this is, but they’re presenting it in a weird and fun way. If so, I guess that’s pretty cool.

Read the full plot description for Storm King’s Thunder below:

Hill giants are stealing all the grain and livestock they can while stone giants have been scouring settlements that have been around forever. Fire giants are press-ganging the smallfolk into the desert, while frost giant longships have been pillaging along the Sword Coast. Even the elusive cloud giants have been witnessed, their wondrous floating cities appearing above Waterdeep and Baldur’s Gate. Where is the storm giant King Hekaton, who is tasked with keeping order among the giants?

The humans, dwarves, elves, and other small folk of the Sword Coast will be crushed underfoot from the onslaught of these giant foes. The only chance at survival is for the small folk to work together to investigate this invasion and harness the power of rune magic, the giants’ weapon against their ancient enemy the dragons. The only way the people of Faerun can restore order is to use the giants’ own power against them.