Grimm Encounters II follows the theme of it's predecessor given the DM another dozen encounters blending fairy tale and horror mythology. One of the improvements over the first collection is that the page count has increased to 42 pages giving each encounter a slightly longer word count which in general seems to have allowed for a bit more background and NPC motivation to be detailed than the previous instalment. This second collection also includes a few more unique creatures which I enjoy as it keeps experienced players who also DM from inadvertently meta-gaming their way through challenging encounters. The final thing I'll call out before getting into specifics will be taken either as a positive or a negative depending on your personal tastes, as the first volume used many of the more popular Grimm stories as inspiration this time around I wasn't familiar with most of the starting points for these encounters. Personally as much as like the familiar feeling of "D&Ding" existing stories the unfamiliar adds that sense of newness and wonder to the game for me.
Once again I find myself drawn to more than one encounter from this anthology but today I'll limit my praise to two encounters.
Beyond the Realms Of Madness by Ken Carcas (inspired by How Some Children Played At Slaughtering) is a Tier 2 encounter that feels like a hybrid of a Grimm and Lovecraft story. As I've mentioned many times in the past I enjoy a horror story with a twist and the twist here (especially in the context of D&D) works really well. The party is tasked with helping a grieving father who is haunted by the ghosts of his slain family. In the context of D&D most players will no doubt assuming they are in fact dealing with a haunting and go about planning strategies to lay to rest the souls of the fallen family. When the twist is worked out and the players discover they are dealing with something just as supernatural but not quite what they expected they will need to be able to think quickly on the fly to come up with a new solution in real time. I really enjoyed this encounter and supplanting one horror with a different horror will guarantee that even if this isn't the one-shot I end up running I have a specific player in mind who would love to play through this as a one-on-one encounter.
Two Dozen Devils by JVC Parry (inspired by The Twelve Huntsmen) is another Tier 2 encounter and a great balance of combat and/vs role-play. In practise one of the things that makes hauntings or curses work really well in D&D as opposed to actual 'mysteries' is that a haunting or curse can frequently be concluded or resolved even if they players aren't successful in working out all the details. In this encounter a nobleman is the victim of a curse that the party has been drawn into breaking. Depending on play-style and decisions made by the group this encounter can play out in a variety of different ways and depending on how things are resolved success or failure is definitely on a spectrum rather than a black and white win versus lose binary end.
One thing I feel the need to call out is that while this is a horror anthology and the author did put a content warning in the preface of the collection there may be some encounters in here that may go 'too far' for some audiences. Personally I really liked The Trial Of Little Franecker Finn but I know for a fact that one of the players at my regular table would have to get up and physically leave if I ran that encounter. This is really just a good reminder, and applies to many adventures, that when running horror content check in and make sure your players are comfortable with the themes and content of your game.
I highly recommend Grimm Encounters II and am definitely looking forward to a Grimm Encounters III.
Grimm Encounters II is currently available from DMsGuild for $4.95 at https://www.dmsguild.com/product/256980/Grimm-Encounters-II?term=grimm&affiliate_id=329977
-Jay
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