How can a GM subtly guide characters into making campaign-specific character choices?

Question

Note: the example I'm giving is D&D focussed, but the question is system-agnostic.

We're in the early days of a new D&D group. If it keeps running, I'm planning to transition the players into Storm King's Thunder once they reach 5th level. Storm King's Thunder is an adventure that features a lot of giants.

I allowed the party to defer some character creation choices so we could get playing faster, and one of them has an unused language slot. The party also has a Ranger and the revised version of the class can, at higher levels, choose an epic foe against whom they get combat bonuses.

It would be very sensible if that unused language could turn out to be giantish and that the ranger could take giants as their epic foe. It would also be nice if I didn't have to lay out to the players that there are giants in store later - they're all new, and they won't guess.

Are there any good story-driven ways that a GM can help "guide" players toward making character creation choices that fit the planned campaign?

Answer 1

Don’t be subtle

My preferred approach: “This is me, the DM. I see you have an empty language and favoured enemy slot. Word to the wise: giants.”

The advantage of this is that it has about a 55% of avoiding the awkwardness that comes when your friend turned up ready for gridiron to a soccer match because of a misunderstanding about “football”.

But only about 55% because communication is hard. For example, people can misunderstand apparently clear sentences like “There are no WMD in Iraq.” It’s also why questions like “Are we having sex tonite?” are way more important in maintaining relationships than silly ideas about “romance”.

However, if you insist on risk taking, giants should be everywhere. The national hero should be a famous giant slayer, every tavern should be called the “Giant’s Head” or “The Hungry Giant” or “Storm Giant’s Thunder”, the most common saying should be “Fee, fi, foe, fum”, the blood sausages should all be made from the blood of an Englishman, and there should be warning signs everywhere:

... but for giants.

Answer 2

For a language, make it matter now

I'll also advocate the "just tell them" approach, if only because it is very, very hard to make sure that clues and hints are as clear to the players as they are to you, the DM. And it's not like the giants are a huge secret in Storm King's Thunder. But I totally get not wanting to be so blatant, so I have one other option for threading the needle:

Give your players some reason to take Giantish right now. It's easier than trying to get them to keep the language slot open (and easier to explain in-game), and doesn't require you to nudge them towards something they won't understand until the future.

I would do this with a side quest or mystery, but I'm sure that there are other options. A mysterious note, written in a language none of the PCs know, has a good chance of prompting them to figure out its language and what it says. A side quest that involves lots of Giantish communication (in speech or in writing) can be a great motivator, especially if you hint that there is a desirable reward for the quest's completion.

In a pinch, you can help players tweak backgrounds in such a way that they make Giantish an obvious choice, but that might be too close to just telling them for your taste.

Extra languages are easy to forget about, and they often don't lead to obvious rewards anyways. If any of your PCs have extra language slots, for any reason, it might not take much to persuade them to take Giantish.

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For Favored Enemy, maybe don't worry about it so much right now

Rangers get multiple enemy types for Favored Enemy, and if you're not transitioning to Storm King's Thunder until level 5 anyways, your ranger can just take giants as a Favored Enemy at level 6.

This can be a tidy solution if giants are rare in your current campaign-- taking them for Favored Enemy is kind of a wasteful choice until they start showing up. This also automatically grants Giantish as a language, so that can also solve the language problem pretty early in SKT. This, of course, is pretty specific to D&D 5e, and so isn't great general advice.

Answer 3

"The Letter" was once done to my fellow player. We received/found a letter from that PC's mentor. It was printed on a paper, with Symbol font and also written quite cryptically, but you can give just straight text of course. It told us what was to come, but left us do our own decisions on how to approach it. It also was a concrete item (online it can be an image or document).

In your ranger's case I would have the letter explain some great wrong done to their ancestor's by giants, a blood debt that must be paid. Or it could be some feud between giants, and your family being in debt to one side, a debt your ranger has a duty to make up. Or something else like that. The letter could also detail a location of a heirloom weapon or other item, and whatever else you want. You can resolve this story either as part of the upcoming adventure, or as a prelude to it.

The letter could purportedly be written in giant, which the Ranger understands, discovering that the language they were taught as a kid was actually that. This would force the language (convenient for the upcoming adventure story, but you may want to ask if the player is ok with DM deciding this), and then they would be free to decide the favored enemy: accept the heritage, or reject it and refuse to make any giants into an enemy.

Answer 4

Just to add to what others have said: give your players a reason to want to fight giants.

A great example is the Hammer of Thunderbolts. It's a +1 hammer unless you're also wearing the Gauntlets of Ogre Power and a Belt of Giant Strength. You can add an NPC that recognises the hammer and says that the best place to look for that belt is areas with giants. Best of all, a +1 weapon isn't overpowered for lower level characters and it could make them want to go giant hunting to upgrade it.

It's probably a form of meta-gaming, but the ranger's player might see their empty slots and realise they can gain an advantage.