Castle Whiterock: Made A Monster

Playing monsters in Castle Whiterock

Apr 02, 2026

Castle Whiterock goes live on Backerkit on April 7^th, but so do a whole bunch of tie-in projects! I’ve got my hands on Made A Monster, where we essentially use the Dungeon Dwelling Creatures rules to expand Castle Whiterock in the sense that it increases your options with how you interact with CWR. But I thought it’d be fun to share the story how we started creating this module. Note: I say we because I’m working with Eddie Bartlett and John Watson on this project.

So it started when we received an invite for a mysterious meeting about collaborating on an upcoming Goodman Games project. We attended the meeting and later talked (we’re in a small group of creators that we call the Inkslingers) about how we each really wanted to be apart of the project, but each were doubtful about the amount of time that we had available to put into the project. So the three of us elected to split the work, but we obviously needed to figure out what to do. So we decided to give ourselves some time to read through (honestly, mostly skim because its such a huge adventure) and try to get a feel for where there was room to expand.

We didn’t want to create another huge section of CWR, since we thought plenty of other groups would be doing that. And there certainly is some great competition there. We eventually started talking about the difficulties of running mega dungeons and if there was a way that we could make CWR easier to run. We had recently come off of the DDC crowdfunding campaign (which work is going well on! Still getting art and doing editing!) so it was kinda of our collective minds. We realized that the DDC rules would allow the PCs to communicate with many of the normal denizens of CWR. Since the early levels focus a lot on the Whiterock orc tribe, we thought those would be the perfect place to start.

So Made A Monster encourages the PCs to have a session or two of adventuring, but have things go awry one night while they recuperate at the Inn of the Slumbering Drake. Without spoiling too much, the PCs get changed into either orcs, goblins, or dybbuks (aka, ghosts that can possess dead bodies). Of course, a few more folks from the inn are also effected. The PCs will slowly more monstrously minded so they have to find a way to undo this magical effect, otherwise they become NPCs. But in the meantime, they get to turn multiple levels of killing orcs into situations that are first social roleplay but that may become combats.

And, slight spoilers again, after the PCs resolve their issue, they might just be left with the ability to briefly turn into their monstrous form, so the espionage doesn’t have to end! We’re also partnering with Descent of the Ancient Fane to create a collab bonus! More details on that to come later. Made A Monster also has a sweet deluxe package where you will get the module, plus a patch and a pin! I’m really looking forward to putting these on my battle jacket.

Anyway, that’s enough about CWR for now, but stick around. I aim to support my fellow creators so you’ll be hearing from a few of them in the upcoming weeks. Cheers!

Which of the CWR tie-in projects are you most excited about?