Publication History
Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, and Hall of the Fire Giant King were written by Gary Gygax. In 1978, Steading of the Hill Giant Chief became the first adventure module published by TSR. Gygax wrote them to take a break between writing the original Monster Manual (1977) and Player's Handbook (1978). The covers for Steading and Hall featured drawings by David C. Sutherland III. David A. Trampier drew the Glacial Rift cover. Against the Giants's cover features a painting by Bill Willingham. Interior art was provided by David A. Trampier, Jeff Dee, David S. LaForce and Erol Otus.
The "Giant" modules were set in the Greyhawk campaign setting, and formed the lead-in to an overall campaign that then continued on an odyssey into the Underdark. These adventures included the "Drow" series of modules, Descent into the Depths of the Earth, Shrine of the Kuo-Toa, and Vault of the Drow. The campaign finally culminated with module Queen of the Demonweb Pits. Steading and Glacial Rift were eight pages long, while Hall was 16 pages in length, and each featured an outer folder. The omnibus collection combination module Against the Giants was 32 pages long, and featured two outer folders. Against the Giants was revised and reprinted in the 128-page supermodule Queen of the Spiders in 1986 in combination with the three "Drow" series modules, and Queen of the Demonweb Pits. Hall of the Fire Giant King marked the first time that Dungeons & Dragons players encountered the drow; game statistics for the drow first appear in the module, although drow are mentioned in the 1977 edition of the Monster Manual. At the time these modules were released, each Dungeons & Dragons module was marked with an alphanumeric code indicating the series to which it belonged. The earlier modules have module codes G1, G2, and G3 respectively, and the combined module's code is G1–3. The "G" in the module code represents the first letter in the word "giant". Released in 1999 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of TSR, Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff provided a set of adventuring materials that expanded on the original three modules. The full text of G1, G2, and G3, were included, along with details of eighteen new adventure sites in Geoff, linked together as an integrated campaign. The new material in the 96-page book was written by Sean K. Reynolds. 1999 also featured a reprinting of the three modules made available in the Dungeons & Dragons Silver Anniversary Collector's Edition boxed set, with slight modifications to make it distinguishable from the original (for collecting purposes).
The concepts and characters from Against the Giants have made appearances in other media. It was made into a novel of the same name by Ru Emerson for the Greyhawk Classics series. In May 2006, Wizards of the Coast's website released new versions of the maps for the Hill Giant Stronghold. In July 2006, they released new maps for the Fire Giant Hall. In 2004, Wizards of the Coast released a miniature figure of the eponymous King Snurre from Hall of the Fire Giant King, and in 2007, they released a large Frost Giant Jarl miniature inspired by Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl. In 2009, Wizards released the super-adventure Revenge of the Giants, an homage to Against the Giants, for the game's fourth edition.
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