Jim Bambra reviewed "White Plume Mountain" for the British magazine "White Dwarf", and rated it favorably at 8/10 overall. He gave playability, enjoyment, and skill ratings of 9/10, and a complexity rating of 7/10. He noted that the adventure focuses on problem solving, with "many interesting problems for players to overcome". Comparing it to the challenges in the previous "S" series adventure "Tomb of Horrors", Bambra found "White Plume Mountain" "quite lenient." Where in "Tomb of Horrors" a wrong decision would leave the player's character dead, in "White Plume Mountain" it merely leaves the player frustrated. The adventure's tests are "designed to stretch a party to its limits, not deal death at every opportunity".