Forge of Fury is my favorite published adventure, for sheer playability through two generations of gamers.
The first time I encountered it, the Forge of Fury formed the foundation of our dwarven Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition campaign. We all played dwarves intent on reclaiming the forge for our clan, eventually re-establishing a hidden dwarven kingdom in the Drachensgrab Mountains of the Pomarj. The World of Greyhawk campaign ran for a year or two, ending with the liberation of the forge.
Flash forward a decade or so, and Wizards of the Coast re-released it for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition as part of its Tales from the Yawning Portal compilation. At the time, I was running D&D for my son and his friends during our annual summer vacations. I’d done a few quick adventures, but wanted something meatier … and something I didn’t have to prep.
Forge is Fury worked out well on all fronts. It’s a standard, combat-heavy dungeon crawl, which perfectly fit the bill for the 13-15 year olds I was running it for. It took us a few summers, but we got through it and the boys loved it.
We’ve since moved on to the Storm King’s Thunder campaign book, which has far more role-playing opportunities but a good amount of combat as well. It’s a solid fit for the 16-17 year old kids playing it, and will likely keep us going into their college years.
But back to Forge of Fury, it’s a solid dungeon crawl that doesn’t over stay its welcome. Each level poses its own challenges, and the final boss battle feels like a final boss battle. It’s easy to add on to (as we did with our dwarves campaign, as our dungeon master added more side quests and backstory) but also runs well out of the box.
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Cover art for the Forge of Fury. Credit: Wizards of the Coast.