Does anyone here own this? If so, have you read it, played it, etc?
The publisher preview looks impressive, featuring a classic cross-section schematic of the various dungeon levels (fifteen of them!) and sub-levels (fourteen of those!). I'm sorely tempted to get it, but the pdf version of this one runs to $60, so I'm hesitating.
If I did get it, I'd want to drop it into the sandbox setting I've been working on while my own megadungeon game appears to be winding down. This setting uses the old Moldvay/Cook D&D rules.
Is this product the glorious old-school style dungeon it appears to be? Is it easily convertible to my preferred version of D&D?
Quote from: KenHRDoes anyone here own this? If so, have you read it, played it, etc?
Read it, yes. Not only is the dungeon content inspiring and cool, but the design of the product as a whole is outstanding. The authors wrote a massive dungeon and nearby city, and then actually sat down and thought of everything a DM would need to run the game. So you have summaries, plot hooks, suggested missions, seeds for nearby wilderness adventures, all sorts of connections between city-folk and the dungeon, a list of keys and their doors, a list of all NPCs and leaders in the dungeon, suggestions for breaking the dungeon levels into their own standalone adventures, pre-generated PCs, ect. etc. It's really the most well thought out and helpful presentation of a dungeon I've ever seen - which is truly impressive when you consider the size of the product.
Quote from: KenHRIs this product the glorious old-school style dungeon it appears to be? Is it easily convertible to my preferred version of D&D?
Yes. And yes. The stat blocks are tidy and brief. And there isn't much of the late 3E mashup weirdness.
Thanks for the info, Haffrung.
Another question: there's quite a lot of background detail. How easy is it to plunk Whiterock and the accompanying city into your own campaign world?
Quote from: KenHRAnother question: there's quite a lot of background detail. How easy is it to plunk Whiterock and the accompanying city into your own campaign world?
Quite easy, I would think. The dungeon inhabitants have their own setups and agendas, independent of anything going on outside the dungeon. The background is mostly just a 'these guys came and built this part, then these other guys destroyed it and built this part, etc.' Nothing is really tied into any great meta-plot or setting cosmology.
The city is pretty generic, without being totally bland. It would fit equally well into Greyhawk or the Wilderlands, for example. And it's in a fairly isolated location, so there's almost no reference to other cities or kingdoms. The land around the city and dungeon is roughly sketched out in the gazetter with enough info to inspire side adventures, but nothing that would overwhelm or fundamentally change your setting. Basically, you could plunk Castle Whiterock in any sparsely populated hilly region with a vaguely european medieval society.
Awesome, thanks again!
Looks like Shrubbie's economic stimulus band-aid will go toward a little bit more than bills very soon....
Paging Jackalope:
I suspect you've been running this for a while. Any chance you could give us a mini-review of Castle Whiterock here? Sorry if I missed your comments elsewhere (and of course, the invitation to review applies to anyone else here as well.)
Couple of notes: I like the maps and other previews I've seen from Goodman Games... I won't run this with 3/4e, but probably Moldvay/Cook as a self-contained campaign (or possibly C&C, but less likely.)
Quote from: FASERIP;254623Paging Jackalope:
I suspect you've been running this for a while. Any chance you could give us a mini-review of Castle Whiterock here? Sorry if I missed your comments elsewhere (and of course, the invitation to review applies to anyone else here as well.)
Castle Whiterock is the best of the mega-dungeons I've run yet, and I've run quite a few of them.
My group is on level 5 right now, battling through Troglodytes. They've already come across several sub-quests and completed them -- reuniting a lost brother and sister, saving a trapped nixie, contacting the imprisoned invisible stalker -- and are currently trying to find a back door into the lowest levels of the dungeon, so they can eventually rescue the lost sister of a fallen comrade. The sub-quests have been particularly fun, and my players were quite excited last session when they accidentally discovered the secret entrance to the Gnomish Clockwork Academy (the only area I'm rewriting, to take advantage of my many Warjacks from my warmachine collection).
The upper levels of the dungeon do get a bit repetitive -- humanoids after humanoids after humanoids all starting to blur together -- and I'll be happy when they've cleared level 5 and we finish the "Red Book" and things start getting weird.
As for putting Whiterock into a campaign setting: It's freaking EASY.
I use a variant Mystara (sometimes I call it "Mythara") as my campaign world, and was easily able to drop it in without any real issues. If you're familiar with Mystara, I placed in on the eastern tip of the mountain range that seperates Darokin and Karameikos from Ethengar and Ylaurum, where Rockhome lies. Just north of the forests of Alfheim, and south of Thar. I made the Cylonnise Monks a group of religious outcasts from Glantri, and the Iron Manacle a slaving ring with ties to Thar, and they fit right in.
I made a comic of our first several sessions which you can also check out here (http://s306.photobucket.com/albums/nn244/gailbraithe/?action=view¤t=Cover.png).
Quote from: Jackalope;254763Castle Whiterock is the best of the mega-dungeons I've run yet, and I've run quite a few of them.
Thanks for the summary. The sale price is really tempting on this one, and I'll probably order it next week.
Where is the sale at you found FASERIP?
http://www.goodman-games.com/store.html
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.php?cPath=190