u/visina_hipotenuze

Running Storm King's Thunder is a prep-heavy lift because of how open the structure is. After the party leaves Nightstone there's no guaranteed path, and most of the chapter 3 locations get visited in whatever order the players choose. Having the right supplements upfront makes a real difference.

Here's what I found useful and when:

Before session 1: The Alexandrian's SKT remix (free blog series) restructures the giant lord order to create better narrative progression. Worth reading even if you don't use all of it. The official Volo's Guide provides stat blocks that come up repeatedly in SKT encounters.

Mid-campaign: "Storm King's Thunder: Enhanced" on DMsGuild adds expanded content for the more sparse chapters. "Travel in Faerun" supplements help if your party is engaging with the travel sections rather than fast-traveling.

Maps: Mike Schley's official maps are the clearest for player-facing use. Several community DMs have posted expanded versions of Maelstrom.

I put together a full reference page with links to the supplements, notes on which ones are worth the price, and some general SKT prep tools.

Curse of Strahd has one of the richest third-party supplement ecosystems of any WotC module. The problem is that there are dozens of options and it's not obvious which ones are actually useful, or when in the campaign they matter.

Here's how I'd organize the prep question by phase:

Before session 1: Get the Tarokka deck (physical or a reliable virtual substitute). Decide on your Strahd portrayal before you ever pick up a supplement — the rest of the prep follows from that. Dragna's Curse of Strahd Reloaded is the remaster DMs use most often; read at least the session 0 guidelines from it early.

Early campaign (levels 1–5): Village of Barovia and Death House replacements are widely available on DMsGuild and are generally an improvement over the module's original version. Expanded Vallaki content fills in the political complexity the book hints at but doesn't fully develop.

Mid-campaign: The supplement situation gets more contested here. Several "expanded Strahd" supplements add encounter content but may not match your portrayal. Worth reading reviews before buying.

Endgame: Castle Ravenloft expanded maps exist in several versions. The official map is usable; the third-party versions have clearer spatial logic.

I've been DMing 5e for a while and got tired of re-doing the same prep research every time I started a new campaign. So I built a single reference page that aggregates the most useful supplements, maps, encounter tables, and DM tools for each major WotC campaign.

The page covers Storm King's Thunder, Curse of Strahd, Tomb of Annihilation, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Descent into Avernus, and Lost Mine of Phandelver / Phandelver and Below. Each section lists what I found genuinely useful for prep, with notes on what the supplement actually adds versus what you can skip.

dndcampaignresources.com

Happy to answer questions about any specific campaign or add resources people are using that I missed.

I've been DMing 5e for a while and got tired of re-doing the same prep research every time I started a new campaign. So I built a single reference page that aggregates the most useful supplements, maps, encounter tables, and DM tools for each major WotC campaign.

The page covers Storm King's Thunder, Curse of Strahd, Tomb of Annihilation, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Descent into Avernus, and Lost Mine of Phandelver / Phandelver and Below. Each section lists what I found genuinely useful for prep, with notes on what the supplement actually adds versus what you can skip.

Free to use. The page includes affiliate links to DMsGuild — I earn a small commission if you buy through them, but nothing is paywalled or gated.

[dndcampaignresources.com](https://www.dndcampaignresources.com)

Happy to answer questions about any specific campaign or add resources people are using that I missed.