By John Grigsby, Staff Reviewer

Available at FRP Games

Forgotten Realms: Sons Of Gruumsh
Retail $9.95 Sale $7.96

Initiative Round
Sons of Gruumsh is a Forgotten Realms adventure from Wizards of the Coast. This is a 32-page softcover in trade paperback format by Christopher Perkins. The wraparound cover art by Todd Lockwood depicts a band of adventurers invading an orc lair, while Mike Dubisch provides the interior art. Sons of Gruumsh retails for $9.95.

In the city of Melvaunt, on the northwestern shore of the Moonsea, Oreal, an heir of House Nanther, has gone missing. His father, Woarsten Nanther, has put out the call for adventurers to find his son. The stated reward is one thousand pieces of platinum.

From the intrigue-laden streets of the city, Oreal's trail eventually leads the heroes into the Great Gray Wastes of Thar. There they will face natural hazards as well as savage denizens of this realm. Eventually, the quest will carry them to the orcish citadel of Xûl-Jarak, where the scions are being held. Their only hopes lies in the hands of the heroes sent to find them.

Sons of Gruumsh is an adventure for 4th-level characters that will probably consume two, possibly three evenings of play. It is set in the Forgotten Realms, but should be fairly easy to convert to whatever setting the DM desires (assuming orcs exist therein). The adventure is intended to tie in with the D&D Miniatures line, and appropriate miniatures are suggested for every encounter (by name, number, and set).

I was mostly pleased with the adventure itself, though I do feel that the plot is very straightforward and linear, with little room for deviation. The adventure itself is entertaining, however, and it does contain a few surprises. This adventure is largely a hack-and-slash romp (though a forward approach may not be the best way of handling things; some of these orcs are tough!). There are few puzzles to solve, but there are a couple of opportunities for role-playing.

Monsters are presented in the old stat-block format, not the new one, with major personalities and those appearing more than one in the appendix, and just the hit points and a page reference for those that make only a cameo. There is some excellent descriptive text, and sidebars such as pre-generated orc battle cries and orcish names add a nice touch.

Critical Hit
For me, the highlight of this adventure is the information for miniatures use. I use minis in my games, as do many groups, and while I know it will grate on the nerves of those who do not, I like minis and having the suggestions in there really doesn't take up that much space. Of course, there is the issue that I've got track down those I need, now (hello, Ebay).

Critical Fumble
I like the idea that appropriate miniatures are suggested in the text, but I'd like to have seen them take the extra step and provide miniature-scaled maps, as well. This would have increased the cost a bit, but in the end, for those of us who use minis, I think it would have been well-worth it.

There are a couple of typos—an omitted page number for a table reference and a greataxe that does 1d13 points of damage where the only two I found—but overall, the editing was pretty good.

Coup de Grace
This is an adventure, and as such, really doesn't work out well when compared to several of our scoring parameters (which were designed for supplements), so I'm just going with a letter grade. As this is a Wizards of the Coast product, there is no Open Game Content. In the end, I give it a B. It's a solid adventure, but nothing spectacular, and should offer a few sessions of gaming enjoyment. It is largely the linear plot that drags it down, but there are a few surprises in store for the heroes.

Final Grade: B