The Grimm Forge Universe
Before the Guild. Before the Miasma.
Before the Guild held dominion over the Miasma. Before the first Grimms made their bargain with the Forge. Before the Breaking — there was a fortress that should not have existed, and a group of strangers who were never meant to leave it.
The Grimm Forge is the origin story. Everything in the game — the disciplines, the miasma, the forge fires that rebirth the dead — begins here.
The book tells you where it all came from. The game lets you live inside what they built.
The Forge
The ancient institution at the heart of the world. It creates miasma-infused gear, channels caster powers, and is the source of all Miasma Crystals. To attune to it is a double-edged bargain.
The Miasma
A corrupting fog that seeps from the deep places of the world. It warps creatures, poisons the land, and grows stronger with every passing age. The Grimms are the only ones who can survive it.
The Grimms
Dragon-blooded adventurers who died in the miasma and were reborn in the forge fires. Unable to live mortal lives, gifted with abilities no normal person can harness. Their true names are lost to time.
The Novel
The Grimm Forge
By R.J. Stenson
Peter Grimm is going nowhere fast — worn down by routine and the quiet sense that his life has already been decided for him — when he's offered a way out: a medieval-themed, televised survival competition, complete with rules, guardrails, and a prize big enough to restart his future.
What he finds is a world that bites back, where monsters are real, death is permanent, and survival means choices Peter and his team can't undo. As the Red Dragon Moon rises and the Grimm Forge begins to wake, the real question becomes whether anyone was ever meant to leave.
Prologue Excerpt
"The stranger ran through a fortress that should not have existed, his image flickering across the screen, chased by something no man should ever see.
The corridors twisted and turned, forming a maze of rough-hewn walls that narrowed with each step. Each bend pulled him deeper into shadow. There was no end. Only darkness, false turns, and the quiet certainty that this place would be his grave.
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"He surged forward, every muscle screaming, and the light sharpened into a door. A simple thing. Wood reinforced with iron. The kind of door that belonged in a fortress that obeyed rules. He could make it. He had to."
— The Grimm Forge, Prologue
The Game
A roguelike deckbuilder set in the world of The Grimm Forge. Build your Grimm. Plunge the miasma. Extract — or die trying.
Deckbuilding
Choose your discipline. Unlock cards. Build a deck that survives the deep.
Permadeath
Die in the miasma and lose everything you carried. Only the secure pouch survives.
Lore-Rich World
Every enemy, relic, and event is rooted in the mythology of The Grimm Forge.
Combat
Strike hard. Defend harder. Master of weapons and armor.
Flame
Burn everything. Fire damage and devastating AoE.
Stone
Unbreakable defense. Shields, thorns, and endurance.
Storm
Speed and chain lightning. Draw cards, gain energy.
The Creator
R.J. Stenson
R.J. Stenson is an emergency communications specialist with the Maine Department of Public Safety who writes between calls. The Grimm Forge is his debut novel — 119,000 words built one shift at a time.
The game is a solo project built alongside it. Both are part of the same world. Neither is finished.