Sample file Sample file Sample file OPEN GAMING LICENSE DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, Wizards of the Coast, Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, Eberron, the dragon ampersand, Ravnica and all other Wizards of the Coast product names, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast in the USA and other countries. This work contains material that is copyright Wizards of the Coast and/or other authors. Such material is used with permission under the Community Content Agreement for Dungeon Masters Guild. All other original material in this work is copyright 2020 by Roger Pugh and published under the Community Content Agreement for Dungeon Masters Guild. CREDITS Cover, interior, and back cover art, DMs Guild Creator Resources. Used with Permission. Page 5 art by Mårten Eskil Winge, Wikimedia Commons via Google Cultural Institute, Public Domain. Page footer image of trees by Marcocarli via Pixabay at https://pixabay.com/photos/ winter-snow-snow-covered-wintry-2949606/. Used with Permission. Page footer image of mountains by Simon Steinberger via Pixabay at https://pixabay.com/photos/ rough-horn-alpine-2146181/. Used with Permission. Celtic knot image by AnnaliseArt via Pixabay at https://pixabay.com/illustrations/celtic-symbols-celtic-icons- celtic-4409225/. Used with Permission. Most of this work was inspired by the terrific 2nd edition supplement called Giantcraft. Other elements of this work were inspired by various sources of Forgotten Realms lore, Hoard of the Dragon Queen, and . In addition, I read for inspiration, referenced, or used parts of the following resources from DMs Guild but the rest is ALL MINE! ---- Arglynn Gordon, Steven. The Giant Runesmith. https://www.dmsguild.com/product/191607/The-Giant-Runesmith. Hart, Mark A. The Magic of Runes. https://www.dmsguild.com/product/207408/The-Magic-of-Runes. Hawley, Erik. Giants. https://www.dmsguild.com/product/184739/Giants. Moreno, Igor. Giant Runic Alphabet. https://www.dmsguild.com/product/203534/Giant-Runic-Alphabet--The-Language-of-Ostoria. Mullan, Dan. Rune Scribe – UA - Rune Expansion. https://www.dmsguild.com/product/226255/Rune-Scribe-UA--Rune-Expansion. Pressnell, Levi. Gleaning the Glyphs: The Runescribe Class. https://www.dmsguild.com/product/192725/Gleaning-the-Glyphs-The-Runescribe-Class-5e. Shannahan, Mark. What’s in a Giant’s Bag. https://www.dmsguild.com/product/211541/Whats-in-a-Giants-Bag. Spivey, Hannah Hayes. Additional Master Runes. https://www.dmsguild.com/product/259889/Additional-Master-Runes. Spivey, Hannah Hayes. Secrets of Rune Magic. https://www.dmsguild.com/product/260712/Secrets-of-Rune-Magic. The Loot Boss. Runemastery. https://www.dmsguild.com/product/231935/Runemastery. Walz, Rob. Player’s Guide to Runic Magic. https://www.dmsguild.com/product/301067/Players-Guide-to-Runic-Magic. Walz, Rob. Runes and Giants. https://www.dmsguild.com/product/196024/Runes--Giants. Winninger, Ray. Giantcraft. https://www.dmsguild.com/product/16851/FOR7-Giantcraft-2e. Wizards of the Coast. Unearthed Arcana: Prestige Classes and Rune Magic. https://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/UA_Rune_Magic_Prestige_Class.pdf. Sample file 5 About three years ago, I had finished up a five-year campaign, taking characters from 1st level through 20th, in which they were ultimately successful against a time and space bending chronomancer (named…..Arglynn). We laughed, we cried, we ate a lot of chicken wings, chili, and pizza. We did a few one shots afterwards, and a couple of epilogue sessions (you know, revisiting the heroes after several years, to get together for one last great adventure type of thing). After this, I took a much needed break, to rest, recharge, and to begin to think about the next setting. I developed several ideas in the same game world, and eventually this group and a couple of others had wonderful adventures together. I took some time off to play in their game worlds, which was fun and inspiring. Afterwards, there would be times in which we would talk about the challenge of those penultimate games in that first great campaign we had together. I wanted to recapture this feeling, but in a completely different setting. We would often discuss “what if” scenarios, and one that came up a few times progressed like the old school 2nd edition Reverse Dungeon module by John Rateliff and Bruce Cordell. The players would play as the monsters! Cool. But, instead of playing goblins, the image that came to my mind was a band of frost giants being frustrated at every turn by pesky humans! The idea of playing such powerful monsters appealed to them, but of course, I was thinking, “and yet, giants aren’t the heroes in D&D….the little people who shoot them full of arrows who are!” Like I normally do, I outlined a shell for the campaign, with major encounters and plot points, layers of intrigue and multiple quests which could follow a variety of paths, and once I had the narrative ideas in place, I could begin to run the campaign, letting players dictate the pace, incidents, and encounters, and develop what I needed on the fly. We completed character generation, and I introduced the players to the options in front of them. They took right to the idea of playing such powerful PCs, and relished the thought of playing creatures with a distinctly different worldview than humans or other humanoids. I knew they would be tough to face and hard to kill, and that was going to be a fun challenge for me. However, not long after we began, I thought I must have miscalculated the game mechanics I designed for levels and abilities of the frost giant band. In their first major encounter, they killed an adult white dragon. In all my years of playing and running games, I have never, I repeat, never, had a party successfully kill a fully-grown dragon. I play dragons as cunning, efficient, and when necessary, vicious, creatures, which under most circumstances, are the apex predator in the encounter. After they killed it, and began skinning it, harvesting meat, bones, teeth, claws, organs, scales, etc., I wondered if I had it all wrong. If giants were played with the same amount of investment as players normally give to their standard characters, with levels, skills, and abilities that build and compound over time, perhaps the giants were simply too powerful to fit as PCs in the game world. While they reveled in their victory, I ran through the possibilities of the next encounters. What was I going to do? Throw three dragons at them next time? Then I realized, as long as players stayed true to the conceit of the giant, it will all work out. Giants truly believe that they are superior forms of life, given their size, abilities, past glory, and close proximity (generationally) to their Creator. In their ordning of the world, they are on top. This was the key, I realized: hubris. When players have overpowered PCs, it becomes hard for them to imagine that any creature can beat them. The players knew the basic idea was to play giants and deal with the scourge of the humans in the valley. Even though they themselves played standard PCs at the highest tier of play and knew their capabilities, when they played as giants, the giants’ size, abilities and powers helped the players “think” like giants, and this led directly back to the original spark of the game: that a group of low level humans could work together and be more than a match for these powerful and dangerous PCs! Now, I don’t want to give away the details, because at some point, I will probably write that whole adventure into a module, but let’s just say that bees can drive away a bear---and if stung enough…. Your job, as DM, is to encourage the players to relish the role of a giant, and to think the way a giant might think as they roll up their character. You must not simply play giant characters as re-skinned barbarians, for example. Read the excellent 2nd edition AD&D supplement, Giantcraft, and Rob Walz’s Sampleexcellent Runes and Giants, for details and guidance to role play a giant. Be prepared file for PCs to be able to beat almost any major beast you throw against them. 6 As they dominate their domain, bide your time and see their strengths and weaknesses. As the saying goes, “the bigger they are, the harder they fall!” In the end, your players will have a blast, and you all will gain an appreciation of just how powerful giants should be played as adversaries, and just how inventive the “monsters” in the valley can be when they must work together to survive. Don’t get me wrong---the plot of one adventure arc was to face a group of intelligent, cunning, and powerful humans in the valley and survive, not “set the players up to fail because they got cocky and were overwhelmed.” In fact, when the players faced this challenge, they carried the day, but in the course of winning, three party members died. It was some of most intense and exciting role-playing combat I have ever run. This was the first time any frost giants in their tribe had ever died at the hands of humans. In thousands of years, since the great battles of the old days, they had lost giants. They found out that giants do not respond well to resurrection magic, because Annam is a jealous god, and usually lays claim on the spirits of giants who leave this mortal coil. The fact that they lost even one giant was devastating to them. It hardened and changed them, and led to many greater adventures.