[Let's Read] Dungeon Crawl Classics pt 2--Index and Castle Whiterock

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demiurge1138

Validated User
Validated User
Since you asked for it, I'm starting off by indexing all of my previous DCC reviews.

DCC #0: Heroes are Made, Not Born
DCC #1: The Rat King's Idyll
DCC #2: The Lost Vault of Tsathar Rho
DCC #3: The Mysterious Tower
DCC #3.5: The Haunted Lighthouse
DCC #4: Bloody Jack's Gold
DCC #5: Aerie of the Crow God
DCC #5.5: Seed of Evil
DCC #6: Temple of the Dragon Cult
DCC #7: The Secret of Smuggler's Cove
DCC #8: Mysteries of the Drow
DCC #9: Dungeon Geomorphs
DCC #10: The Sunless Garden

DCC #11: The Dragonfiend Pact
DCC #12: The Blackguard's Revenge
DCC #12.5: The Iron Crypt of the Heretics
DCC #13: Crypt of the Devil Lich
DCC #14: Dungeon Interludes
DCC #15: Lost Tomb of the Sphinx Queen
DCC #16: Curse of the Emerald Cobra
DCC #17: Legacy of the Savage Kings
DCC #17.5: War of the Witch Queen
DCC #18: Citadel of the Demon Prince
DCC #19: The Volcano Caves
DCC #20: Shadows in Freeport

DCC #21: Assault on Stormbringer Castle
DCC #22: The Stormbringer Juggernaut
DCC #23: The Sunken Ziggurat
DCC #24: Legend of the Ripper
DCC #25: The Dread Crypt of Srihoz
DCC #26: The Scaly God
DCC #27: Revenge of the Rat King
DCC #28: Into the Wilds

DCC #29: The Adventure Begins, pt 1--"Tower of the Black Pearl" and "Old Feodal's Basement"
DCC #29, pt 2--"Lair of the White Salamander" and "The Golden Auroch"
DCC #29, pt 3--"The Forgotten Sentinel" and "The Well of the Worm"
DCC #29, pt 4--"The Plague-Wight's Revenge" and "The Stench of Death"
DCC #29, pt 5--"The Fate of the Vigilant" and "When Kobolds Fly"
DCC #29, pt 6--"Chilled to the Bone" and "The Isle of Fury"
DCC #29, pt 7--"The Beast of Barren Hill" and "A Question of Morels"
DCC #29, pt 8--"The Black Larder" and "Mage Maze"
DCC #29, pt 9--"By Invitation Only" and "Hive of Villainy"
DCC #29, pt 10--"The Crystal Shrine", "The Dripping Temple" and Final Thoughts

DCC #30: Vault of the Dragon Kings
DCC #30.5: Trek From the Vault
DCC #31: The Transmuter's Last Touch
DCC #32: The Golden Palace of Zahadran
DCC #33: Belly of the Great Beast
DCC #34: Cage of Delirium

DCC #35: Gazetteer of the Known Realms, pt 1--The Gazetteer and the GM's Guide to the Known Realms
DCC #35 pt 2--Halls of the Minotaur and The Thief-Lord's Vault, and Final Thoughts

DCC #36: Talons of the Horned King
DCC #37: The Slithering Overlord
DCC #38: Escape from the Forest of Lanterns
DCC #39: The Ruins of Castle Churo
DCC #40: The Devil in the Mists

DCC #41: The Lost Arrows of Aristemis
DCC #42: The Secret of the Stonearm
DCC #43: The Curse of the Barrens
DCC #44: The Dreaming Caverns of the Duergar
DCC #45: Malice of the Medusa

DCC #46: The Book of Treasure Maps, pt 1--"The Temple's Tribute" and "Secrets of the Blue Moon"
DCC #46, pt 2--"Cadwul's Corkscrew" and "Fane of the First Spell"
DCC #46, pt 3--"The Aqueous Vault", "The Bloodfire Spire" and Final Thoughts

DCC #47: Tears of the Genie

DCC #48: The Adventure Continues, pt 1--"Madness at the Mutilated Oak", "Ghost of the Mastodon Clan" and "Heroes' End"
DCC #48, pt 2--"Tide of Evil", "Mistfall" and "Yellow Jade Heart"
DCC #48, pt 3--"The Nightmare Closet", "Dale of the Dead" and "Like Clockwork"
DCC #48, pt 4--"The Crawling Tower", "Fortune's Folly", and "The Snare of the Shadow Sylphs"
DCC #48, pt 5--"Scourge of the Wasp Lord", "The Ruby of Rak'shaz", "The Vale of the Indus" and Final Thoughts

DCC #49: Palace in the Wastes
DCC #50: Vault of the Iron Overlord
DCC #51.5: The Sinister Secret of Castle Whiterock
DCC #52: Chronicle of the Fiend

I've started reading Castle Whiterock and will start posting reviews on it soon, I promise.
 
M

MonkeyWrench

Whatchu readin' fur?
Validated User
Good luck. I just got finished running it for my group not to long ago. I'm interested to hear about other people's opinions on Whiterock.
 
S

simontmn

Active member
15 Year Compatriot!
Awesomely useful, thanks! This will save me much time decidin which DCC to run for my players.
 
Sleeper

Sleeper

Red-eyed dust bunny
20 Year Hero!
That's a lotta links.... You might want to bump the previous thread one last time with a link here.
 
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demiurge1138

Validated User
Validated User
DCC #51: Castle Whiterock, pt 1

And here we go. For those of you who don’t know, Castle Whiterock is a monster of a product. It’s the rare modern boxed set, and the PDF takes up 783 pages.

And, last December, it was available for just $5.

Castle Whiterock is clearly an attempt at doing an old-school mega-dungeon (Whiterock, Greyhawk--get it?), the kind that Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz used to run for each other back in the days when the spells in the PHB were named after actual player characters and random tables controlled all aspects of an adventurer’s life.

In order to properly tackle this beast, I’m going to need to split it up into digestible chunks. Fortunately, the book’s already subdivided on an impressive scale, so there are natural stopping points for me to work with.

Castle Whiterock begins with a much-needed overview. The “Read This First” section tells us the contents of the boxed set, and we’re given an Index and Glossary of People, Places and Things, all neatly given a small writeup and their page number.

The boxed set is laid out into four books, and in the Red Book we get a proper introduction. Here, we get a summary of the entire adventure path, as well as summaries for each composite adventure, a suite of plot hooks to get the PCs started, a map of how each layer relates to each other layer, summaries of the various factions to be found in Castle Whiterock and their goals, major NPCs of hostile, friendly and ambivalent demeanors, a timeline, rationales for various design decisions, overviews of side-quests that may overlap multiple separate dungeons, tips for using Castle Whiterock for short games, not complete campaigns, and various rumors the PCs may know before they delve into the infamous dungeon.

Whew.

What I liked: Well, it’s certainly exhaustive. I like that we’re provided with an overall summary, as well as summaries of each component dungeon, so readers know what they’re in for. And with a module series as dense as this, I also appreciate the overviews of the factions and NPCs. It gives me great hope that there will be more to Castle Whiterock than hacking and slashing—there are plenty of RP opportunities to be had, it seems, even with the villains. There’s a sense of humor to it as well that I like, such as the rewards for a few side-quests including things like “that dirty feeling you get for working with the drow”.

Oh, and the Rumors table? Brilliant. I always love things like that. The rumors are a good blend of true, false, and true enough to pay attention to.

What I disliked: I wouldn’t have put the index/glossary next to “Read This First”. I made the mistake of trying to read it, and I was overwhelmed with hundreds of names for things and people I knew nothing about. As an index, it’d be better served in the back of the book.

What do I think so far? Well, I’m excited. The plot overview is pretty tantalizing, with its promise of conjuring prisons, duergar gladiator rings, vengeful dragon ghosts and plenty of warring humanoid factions. I can’t wait to dig in… but I’m going to take a wee bit of a detour first.
 
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