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Although it’s billed as “an adventure” by the folks at Emperor’s Choice, that’s a very modest description of White Roc Inn. Weighing in at 108 pages of content, White Roc Inn contains an extremely detailed overview of Arduin’s Whisper Trees region, detailed descriptions of four different adventure locales within that haunted forest, write-ups for 70 unique magic items, and entries for 60 NPCs and monsters. In short, there is enough content within the pages of White Roc Inn for several adventures. White Roc Inn isn’t just “an adventure” - it’s a whole fist full of dark fantasy goodness!
The primary focus of White Roc Inn is, perhaps unsurprisingly, an establishment of the same name - a safe haven nestled in the dark shadows of the Whisper Trees. Under the ownership of Daeorin, a resident of nearby Arkham, the inn provides a base of operations for adventurers who find themselves traveling through the dangerous Whisper Trees. Here, within the walls of the White Roc Inn, adventurers can find reprieve from the bloodthirsty bandits, flesh-eating ghouls, and other unholy hazards that plague the Old Road through the Whisper Trees. But things are not always what they seem in the fabled lands of Arduin...
Once serving as a headquarters for murderous cultists, many tales of skullduggery at the White Roc Inn hang on the lips of learned history scholars in the lands of Arduin. Although this cult was long ago vanquished and the inn subsequently destroyed, the recent rebuilding of the inn under Daeorin’s watchful eye once again has tongues wagging. While spending a night at the White Roc Inn is still preferable to braving the Old Road after nightfall, rumors of ghosts in the inn and renewed cult activity have already begun to circulate through the streets of nearby Arkham - and, indeed, the White Roc Inn does still harbors a few dark secrets for you to discover.
Aside from the inn proper, a large portion of White Roc Inn’s pages are dedicated to detailing the surrounding area, including the ancient observatory of Dark Rune Ridge, the foul confines of the Ghoul Creche, the Lifetaker Cult’s compound in the Sodden Boughs, and the Whisper Trees themselves. While the Whisper Trees are given a broad overview, the other three aforementioned locations are explored in detail, each capable of standing on its own as an adventure - but also tied directly to the other locations within the pages of White Roc Inn by way of the inn itself. It is this level of detail that makes White Roc Inn less “an adventure” than a mini-campaign.
Each of the aforementioned areas of interest located within the confines of the Whisper Trees is given the same thorough treatment. Everything from the physical confines of these areas to the local rumors that swirl around them and the motivations of their denizens are completely detailed, giving the GM a huge arsenal of weapons with which to execute a memorable Whisper Trees campaign. If you like high fantasy horror and extremely detailed campaign environments (as I do), then you’ll definitely find that White Roc Inn is right up your alley, regardless of what system you prefer (for the record, my favorite system for such things is AD&D 1e).
The one thing noticeably absent from White Roc Inn is a predefined plot that PCs are expected to adhere to, White Roc Inn is an adventure environment left open for PCs to discover and interact with, not a predefined story for them to be guided through. This, obviously, won’t be to everybody’s taste - I personally like ‘open’ adventures as opposed to completely prescripted plots, but I realize that I might be in the minority here. Regardless of what your tastes where adventure structure is concerned, I feel that White Roc Inn makes a great setting supplement. Personally, I would have been more than satisfied if White Roc Inn stopped here - but it doesn’t.
In addition to all of the location-specific detail provided in White Roc Inn and the open adventure structure nurtured throughout, the publisher also saw fit to include several appendixes that detail poisons (and poison applications) indigenous to the region, NPC-specific combat tactics, Vampyr strengths and weaknesses, 70 unique magic items (including such atmospheric things as Giu’s Black Soul, an amulet that allows the wearer to harvest and bind souls of those individuals whom he kills), and 60 unique NPCs and monsters. Best of all, with the exception of the NPC/monster write-ups, all of this information can easily be ported into any roleplaying system quite easily. So then, what about those NPC and monster write-ups?
By default, the NPCs and monsters detailed in White Roc Inn are presented for use with The Compleat Arduin roleplaying game. I should point out that I do not own The Compleat Arduin and, thus, have no way to fairly assess the NPC and monster write-ups as mechanical expansions for said game. That said, I do own both Castles & Crusades, as well as 1st Edition AD&D and I can see using the White Roc Inn NPC and monster write-ups with both of these systems, although it will take a little conversion work. The good news is that given the detail provided in the rest of the module, swapping out favored monsters or NPCs indigenous to your system of choice for those provided in White Roc Inn should be very easy.
Now that I’ve covered all of the good that White Roc Inn has to offer, I need to touch on the bad. First, the artwork in White Roc Inn ranges in quality from just barely passable to good. If you’re a fan of consistency in art quality, you might have reason to take issue with White Roc Inn (thankfully, though, it doesn’t contain any abysmally horrid artwork). Second, the layout of the book itself falls a bit short of the currently accepted industry standard - it’s not disorganized, mind you, but it isn’t very attractive. Having said that, these two pitfalls are entirely cosmetic - if you prize content quality and utility over physical presentation, then you’ll find a lot to admire in White Roc Inn as a supplement for any roleplaying game.
Although my copy of White Roc Inn was complimentary, I’d have no problem dropping $19.99 on a product that can serve as the basis for an entire campaign. There is simply an incredible amount of useful information contained within the pages of White Roc Inn, and the fact that most of it is easily used with any roleplaying system just makes it that much more attractive. If you like high fantasy horror or are simply looking for a low cost portal into the lands of Arduin, I think you’ll be more than satisfied with White Roc Inn.
