i’m just going to go to the source. 😀 i love The Dodkong from the Grand History book. What is his goal? I want to make him the big bad guy in a campaign, what drives him, what would be a neat way to use him? How do you all envision using him in a game? 1) I've always intended the Dodkong to be a guy who wants (very slowly and patiently, working "under the radar" for as long as possible to avoid interference from the likes of Larloch and the Srinshee and the Seven) to shatter the dominance of humans, and then elves and orcs…

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 27, 2018

2) …after that so as to prevent their rising to fill the power vacuum, so he can "restore" giants to mastery over Faerûn. And at the same time, he would "reorder" the status quo among giants by humbling cloud giants and storm giants, to let the stone and fire giants have…

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 27, 2018

3) …their chances to reign. And he would do this in part by manipulating dragons and dracoliches into personal fights with cloud and storm giants, to weaken and eliminate as many dragons as possible ere giants rose to ascendancy.
Not small goals, and not easily or swiftly…

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 27, 2018

4) …achieved. But he's all about playing the Long Game. Like Larloch, remaking Toril the way he wants it to be. Fomenting wars amongst humans, widespread slaughter among the drow and all goblinkin, and tolerating only hin, gnomes, and dwarves as acceptable giant servitor races.

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 27, 2018

However, I defer to Tom Costa in this, a superb sage of Realmslore who's contributed much over the years yet remained largely unsung. If he has something different in mind, run with it…
(And BTW, what I've outlined here doesn't clash with Storm King's Thunder. Run both at once)

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 27, 2018

I have no idea. I was shitfaced when Tom Costa wrote that. ;}

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 27, 2018

Hot dang, that’s awesome. Thanks, always wanted to use the dodkong in my own campaign ever since I first saw him in the Grand History of the Realms. This might make it happen, finally. The Dodkong has no interest in fighting adventurers; the "running under the radar" style means he's almost always going to work through intermediaries (like manipulated bands of NPC adventurers, orc tribes, drow, cloud and storm giants). YEARS of mayhem at the gaming table.

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 27, 2018

1) That’s exactly what appeals to me, nothing is what it seems in my campaign. The players my think that they are fighting small time criminals, giblinoids etc, but behind those groups, there is almost always something more sinister going on. Be it the Zhents, Red Wizards… 2) or the Eldreth Veluuthra. Sometimes they don't discover that right away. So I shelve the idea or return to it at a later date. I like to surprise… and sometimes confuse my players a bit.

— Anders Juhl Aagaard (@JuhlAagaard) December 27, 2018

Heh. The "home" Realms campaign is like that, too. And has been, for forty years. (Which is one of the reasons it's so hard to impart its feel in one-shot games at conventions.) Intrigues and subplots, intrigues and subplots. Great training for the real world, too.

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) December 27, 2018