Overview

"As the flame of my second life sputters and dims, I find myself thinking more and more on those heroes who, though we first met as enemies, granted me another opportunity to sip from life's cup. Great were their deeds and deep their wisdom, yet the tale of their adventures in Castle Whiterock has not been told: the helpless lives they saved and the wicked lives they ended, the diabolic ingenuity of their adversaries, the desperate moments when hope was faint, and their final victory over the terrible dragon Benthosruthsa."

The Basics

Rules System: Level Up Advanced 5th Edition
Theme: Dungeoncrawl
Starting Level: 1st

Flavor: Castle Whiterock will have a very old-school mega-dungeon feel, 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.

Plot Hook: A few days march from the town of Cillamar, in the Kingdom of Morrain, lies a many-centuries-old ruined castle, named Whiterock. Rumors speak of it being held in the past by monks, orcs, gnomes and even dragons. But the ruin has sat quietly undisturbed for generations, and Cillamar has grown into a thriving mining and trade town since. But is all truly as quiet as it seems within the ruins of the ancient castle?

Adventure Summary: In the course of adventuring in the 15 levels and 14 sublevels of Castle Whiterock, the heroes will uncover secrets from the castle's history as they seek out fortune and glory. In order to best the dungeon, the party will have to explore many strange locations, such as orcish mines, underwater ruins, a forested demiplane, a “tower” carved from a giant stalactite, a duergar fortress, and the volcanic heart of the mountain. Along the way, they will have the opportunity to partake in several sub-quests that could net them extra wealth and XP.

Perhaps they will find powerful allies and lost artifacts to help them against Benthosruthsa, the great red dragon dwelling at the bottom of the dungeon. It’s also likely they will make powerful enemies. Many of the adversaries of Castle Whiterock don’t stand around waiting for the heroes to come to them – they go looking for the heroes!

Are you brave enough?

GM Info: Hi there! It's Billy Watford. I’ve been GMing (DMing, Storytelling, what have you) for these last 35+ years, and gaming a touch longer. I’ve run what feels like hundreds of adventures via Paizo, WotC, TSR, and many others over the years and have currently many games running here on Myth-Weavers.

My GMing style focuses more on what makes a good story, and less on things like exploiting the loopholes in rules to their fullest. I like characters that are cards to begin with, but I LOVE characters that develop over the course of a game. Don’t make me deal with two-dimensional characters that have one annoying trait they exploit over and over, and I won’t have to make a tarrasque show up. Deal? Deal.

What kind of player am I NOT looking for?
People who have played this adventure before (Sorry), and Power Gamers (not sorry) and rules lawyers (really not sorry).

What kind of players AM I looking for?
Ooh, this one is good. I am not really looking for players at all. I am looking for a cast of characters. I’m looking for someone who’s committed to not only a good plot progression (characters or players that stifle the plot make me want to scream), but character development. I want to see your character grow into their role. I want to see selfish street rat become swashbuckling hero! I want to see bored pencil-pushing acolyte become punishing wrath of an angry god! LET’S DO THIS.

I’m also looking for people who can follow basic rules of grammar. That being said, I can be pretty lenient about mistakes. BUT...for the love of god, in a system like this, where you can edit minutes, days, weeks later...take a little pride.

Character Creation

First of all, this is a complete conversion to Level Up - Advanced 5th Edition from D&D 3.5 so a LOT has changed.

Character Creation & Play Guidelines: This document has everything you need to participate in one of my games. Includes rules for character creation guidelines and much more.

Character Creation and Play Version 3.1

Character Submissions: You will also need to start a thread in the application thread for your submission.

Free Online Resources

Main Website

Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition (A5E) (levelup5e.com)

All the Rules

Home | Level Up (a5e.tools)

Character Creation Walkthrough

Character Walkthrough | Level Up (a5e.tools)

Campaign Setting

This campaign takes place in my World of Elissar campaign setting, all relevant information can be found at the below website.

The World of Elissar (campaign setting website)

Technical Stuff

Application Deadline: August 1st, 2024 midnight (US Central Standard Time)

Post Requirements: Minimum posting rate of two to three times per week.

Party Size: Looking for 5 players.

Can I submit more than one character?
No. I'm going to go ahead and limit it to one character submission per person. That being said, feel free to change your character concept as much as you want between now and the close date!

Final DM Note

I know the above is a very, very lengthy process to go through to apply for a dungeon crawling online pbp game. I also know that some of you will be turned off by it. Some of you will cringe, but others will pour their heart and soul into their character and create something absolutely beautiful. When I have used this process before in the past it has given me the best roleplayers I have ever seen in a game and also the most committed group of players that are still going strong after two years of play. If you are looking for a quick game of fun and just want to slash up some bad guys and do your thing then this campaign is not for you. If you are looking for more.... then look no further than "Castle Whiterock".