Goodman Games

I'm considering Castle Whiterock, but I wanted to know how stand-alone it is? Is it the kind of adventure that the PCs can enter at 1st level and leave at 15th level (making occasional trips back out for supplies)? Or does it need supplementing with other adventures?

Basically, if I got just Castle Whiterock, could I take my players to 15th level without using a single other adventure?

Yes. It is designed to take you from 1 to 15 all on its lonesome. No supporting material necessary. There IS this wonderful DCC line that it ties in to, but you can run it as-is and (hopefully) have some fun all by itself.

Truth is, if your party is thorough and completes all the side-quests and conquers every level, they'll probably be beyond 15th level before the end. It's that big.

Chris and I (in designing the dungeon) tried to throw some change-of-pace encounters and levels around, so it's not just one giant slog through endless corridors. You will (again, hopefully) be entertained on your path to the Fiery Gauntlet to confront Benthosruthsa. It's a story, it's a dungeon, it's the greatest dungeon-story ever told!

Our design was to make it both cohesive and modular...your characters could be playing CW without ever actually going there...the book contains tips on how to break up the module into "bite-size" chunks to seed into other story arcs...or you can assault the megadungeon itself.

I'm hardly impartial, but it's a pretty smoking deal at its original price, and at 50% off it's an absurdly good deal.

If you get it, let us know what you think!

And if you like it, vote for it in the ENnies!

And just to emphasize a couple of Adrian's points -- it is really, truly stand-alone:

* It includes six pregenerated characters on loose-leaf character sheets.
* It includes a poster map of the town of Cillamar, to be used as a home base.
* It includes a default tavern location (with detailed description and NPCs).
* It includes a 56-page gazetteer of the surrounding region.
* All in addition to the dungeon itself, which is a consecutive adventure from 1st to 15th level.

So, yeah, it's stand-alone!

And, finally, as a comsumer (rather than publisher)....yeah, it's WAY* stand alone.



* (this is it's technical and scientific term)

Ogrepuppy wrote:
* (this is it's technical and scientific term)

And that my friend is why this board is WAY cool!

JediOre wrote:

Ogrepuppy wrote: * (this is it's technical and scientific term)

And that my friend is why this board is WAY cool!

Struth. Without OP we'd be lost.

Just adding that this is an awesome deal to take advantage of. Get it before it's gone. IMHO, Castle Whiterock is the best boxed set published for 3.5. A great self-contained campaign.

Thanks for the kind words, Sunder. Be sure to say so in the ENnines!

http://www.ennieawards.com/voting.html

//H

Sunderstone wrote:Just adding that this is an awesome deal to take advantage of. Get it before it's gone. IMHO, Castle Whiterock is the best boxed set published for 3.5. A great self-contained campaign.

I agree its good, but I think City of Brass is the best boxed set published for 3.5. Whiterock is second.

Unless you mean biggest=best, then Whiterock wins hands down!

Heretic. Infidel!




...Maybe I drank too much coffee.

Sorry to repeat if it was already said somewhere in this thread, but I just got this and it's fairly explicit with suggestions on how to use the individual pieces as separate dungeons.

So, it's designed with the idea that you take levels 5 and 5A and use them in your world as one dungeon, and 6 and 7 somewhere else, etc.

I don't think that's what I'D do, mind you, but you could.

Note also that the base town is well-detailed, and the kingdom around it is too, so you can use it to flesh out a campaign world where appropriate.

goodmangames wrote:And just to emphasize a couple of Adrian's points -- it is really, truly stand-alone:

* It includes six pregenerated characters on loose-leaf character sheets.
* It includes a poster map of the town of Cillamar, to be used as a home base.
* It includes a default tavern location (with detailed description and NPCs).
* It includes a 56-page gazetteer of the surrounding region.
* All in addition to the dungeon itself, which is a consecutive adventure from 1st to 15th level.

So, yeah, it's stand-alone!

Man I hope something like this comes out for 4th Edition.

Treebore wrote:

Sunderstone wrote:Just adding that this is an awesome deal to take advantage of. Get it before it's gone. IMHO, Castle Whiterock is the best boxed set published for 3.5. A great self-contained campaign.

I agree its good, but I think City of Brass is the best boxed set published for 3.5. Whiterock is second.

Unless you mean biggest=best, then Whiterock wins hands down!

I disagree. I think CW is way more user friendly and ready to go right out of the box. Its definately the most well-organized boxed set. Everything is laid out with charts/booklets telling DMs where everything is at a glance. I was very impressed to say the least.

Ive only perused the City of Brass boxed set and Im a huge Necro fan, but Id rather get into a CW game over CoB any day of the week. Just my opinion on the matter.

Im going to really miss Goodman stuff in the future though, I jumped on a tad late but I wont be supporting 4E in any way.

Sunderstone,

Goodman Games, from all I've seen, will be producing gaming supplements that are not edition specific. Mr. Goodman has also hinted at sometime relating to Castles & Crusades in 2009. Perhaps they will still be able to release a special 1st edition module occasionally as well.

If you do stay with 3.X D&D, there are many on these boards who will be happy and able to assist you with questions concerning any of the older, out-of-print DCCs.

JediOre wrote:Sunderstone,

Goodman Games, from all I've seen, will be producing gaming supplements that are not edition specific. Mr. Goodman has also hinted at sometime relating to Castles & Crusades in 2009. Perhaps they will still be able to release a special 1st edition module occasionally as well.

If you do stay with 3.X D&D, there are many on these boards who will be happy and able to assist you with questions concerning any of the older, out-of-print DCCs.

Its appreciated.

My game of choice is indeed 3.5, and Pathfinder seems to go the direction Im used to. I really liked the DCC series and I bought #3,5,6,7,8,11,12,12.5,13,16,30, 31,44, 50, along with CW and the 51.5 prelude/sequel thingie. Ive just ordered 5 more on the clearance sale going on now.
I will definately pick up any future Goodman modules that are 3.5. Im not sure about non-edition specific though, it would depend on how much work Id have to do to convert it.
Im not being spiteful to Goodman Games, im in the same boat with Necromancer Games too. I love products from both companies, Im just not a 4E fan and Id rather not support it.

I do wish GG the best of luck, and I hope that maybe the next edition of D&D will return to more traditional roots. When that happens, ill be back.

Quick CW related question:

I've noticed some pages falling out of my CW books. The problem (at least with my set) gets worse as you open and read through the books. Has anyone else noticed this problem. Any suggestions to help sort it out?

Thanks!

Sunderstone wrote:

Treebore wrote:

Sunderstone wrote:Just adding that this is an awesome deal to take advantage of. Get it before it's gone. IMHO, Castle Whiterock is the best boxed set published for 3.5. A great self-contained campaign.

I agree its good, but I think City of Brass is the best boxed set published for 3.5. Whiterock is second.

Unless you mean biggest=best, then Whiterock wins hands down!

I disagree. I think CW is way more user friendly and ready to go right out of the box. Its definately the most well-organized boxed set. Everything is laid out with charts/booklets telling DMs where everything is at a glance. I was very impressed to say the least.

Ive only perused the City of Brass boxed set and Im a huge Necro fan, but Id rather get into a CW game over CoB any day of the week. Just my opinion on the matter.

Im going to really miss Goodman stuff in the future though, I jumped on a tad late but I wont be supporting 4E in any way.

I agree its incredibly well organized and "ready to go" out of the box. I hope it would be considering its a super sized adventure module.

City of Brass is a setting, of the incredible "home" of the Efreeti. Its well done, better then any of the other treatments given by Kenzer, etc... So its a "Grand SLam" win in my book. Plus, like Whiterock, its packed, just in a smaller box.

So while Whiterock is a very well done "site" setting/module, I just like City of Brass better because its so darn cool, well done, and will give me much more mileage then Whiterock will.

So I sure don't fault you for liking Whiterock so much, its just my preferences go in a different direction, so City of Brass wins with me.

Irregardless, I like them both so much I hope to own 3 copies of each one day, for each of my kids to inherit.

In my mind, one is a setting with some adventure, the other an adventure with some setting. So I get by loving them both.

//H

Harley Stroh wrote:In my mind, one is a setting with some adventure, the other an adventure with some setting. So I get by loving them both.

//H

Don't get me wrong, I love them both. I'll love Whiterock even more now that I am turning it into the home of Unklar and his minions. Oh, and changing the outward cosmetics to have it look like a tree.

Treebore wrote: Oh, and changing the outward cosmetics to have it look like a tree.

Why a tree Treebore?

I got my order for this on Tuesday. The box is very large. It also weighs quite a bit. Color me impressed. Look forward to reading it.

Why a tree Treebore?

Because he played Faxanadu for the old NES back in the day?

C'mon! Who's with me? Evil golden dwarves and mutation meteorites! Anyone?

(sigh)

Jengenritz wrote:

Why a tree Treebore?

Because he played Faxanadu for the old NES back in the day?

C'mon! Who's with me? Evil golden dwarves and mutation meteorites! Anyone?

(sigh)

Nope, because in the lore of the setting (Erde, now respelled to Aihrde) Unklars Aufstrag is described as being a humongous twisted tree. I think that was brought out in one of the Crusader magazine stories.

So the outside of the Castle will be an ancient tree, force grown by the magic of Unklar (I am even thinking of having it be essentially a treant as well), then everything inside will be as done up by the module. I'll just have to remember to describe tree roots breaking through the walls here and there.

Harley Stroh wrote:Thanks for the kind words, Sunder. Be sure to say so in the ENnines!

http://www.ennieawards.com/voting.html

//H

I think we can finally vote on the 28th of July. The site has been buggered up for ever now. I plan on voting for CWR and can't imagine it not winning. Nothing else out there is this good or stand alone. Everything except the dice is in the box .

welland_warrior wrote:Quick CW related question:

I've noticed some pages falling out of my CW books. The problem (at least with my set) gets worse as you open and read through the books. Has anyone else noticed this problem. Any suggestions to help sort it out?

Thanks!

Send me an email at info@goodman-games.com and we'll see what we can do.

Jengenritz wrote:

Why a tree Treebore?

Because he played Faxanadu for the old NES back in the day?

C'mon! Who's with me? Evil golden dwarves and mutation meteorites! Anyone?

(sigh)

I remember a part in Faxnadu near the beginning where you kill a couple enemies, these guys: collect the gold coins, then walk out of the screen and come back in to do it over and over again.