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So I didn't see this already posted, so here goes. I decided I want to run Carnival of Tears for Halloween this year, as my groups enjoy holiday themed adventures, as a diversion. So in preperation to running it I'm trying to compile miscelanious sound effects to make into a playlist or cd so I can add to the atmosphere. I want a carnival or circus music, and then a twisted version as well as a few others I'm looking into. As I find them I'll list them here, and if anyone has done this or is up to it Post your thoughts aswell!
While not totally related to your OP, Hangman's Noose would also be an excellent choice for a Halloween one shot.
While not totally related to your OP, Hangman's Noose would also be an excellent choice for a Halloween one shot.
** spoiler omitted **
Eh I wasn't impressed with Hangman's noose. Ok let's be honest it sucked.
The railroading was terrible, the plot cliche, and after we failed a couple search checks and I killed an NPC, totally justified btw, the game hit a metaphorical mountain and burst into flaming wreckage.Go with Carnival. We're doing that one ourselves soon.
As for music I think we're going with the soundtrack to American McGee's Alice in Wonderland.
While not totally related to your OP, Hangman's Noose would also be an excellent choice for a Halloween one shot.
** spoiler omitted **
Eh I wasn't impressed with Hangman's noose. Ok let's be honest it sucked.
The railroading was terrible, the plot cliche, and after we failed a couple search checks and I killed an NPC, totally justified btw, the game hit a metaphorical mountain and burst into flaming wreckage.Go with Carnival. We're doing that one ourselves soon.
As for music I think we're going with the soundtrack to American McGee's Alice in Wonderland.
Well you could be right, Ive only read the advenute and havent played in or DM'd it. The adventure seems like its very tricky to both run and play.reading this adventure made me feel as if it would make a great spooky one shot adventure, but maybe not so great as a campaign opener. Obviously though not everyone will agree if the adventure is good or not.
Haven't heard of Hangman's noose, only heard of Carnival because someone made a thread about it and I got curious, saw the authors and read the synopsis and I was in.
As for the soundtrack for American Mcgee's Alice in Wonderland, I know the games are twisted so I'll have to check that out. Right now I have "Sabre Dance" by Khachaturian, one of the most recognizable big top musics available as my opener, and then a cd full of screams and scary noises for various background. Also I have a scary sounding version of a circus type song for the big reveal. I'll look into that soundtrack, where can you get it (legally)?
Have to say the soundtrack was awesomeness.... and worked perfectly when combined with some other sounds I had...
A side note
I recommend a dual sound track.
Get a nice recording of happy fun, carnival sounds and stuff. Play that in the background. Then hide a portable CD player under the couch or something, preferably one with a remote control device you can hide behind the GM Screen. Put a LUSTMORD CD in it. Then, when you want things to get weird and creepy, press play, and PRESTO strangeness seemingly filters in from nowhere.
DRIDER will definitely back me on this one, as he's quite the LUSTMORD fan as well.
I was in Stew's 2nd group that played this module. We had a great time. It wasn't a tpk like his first group, we only lost one character (and that was in the 2nd to last round of the final fight).
As a side note, playing this and reading some other of the Pathfinder stuff has given me a desire to run a Pathfinder game, instead of the Eberron game I'd planned on running.
I have to agree with Wandering Nephilim, Pathfinder's setting stuff grows on me more and more I read, and even if I don't use all of the rules changes made I may be running a PF campaign setting soon enough...
Oh and the one lost character of that fight was due to
Kudos for a great adventure that made my hopefully Annual Halloween game a success.
While not totally related to your OP, Hangman's Noose would also be an excellent choice for a Halloween one shot.
** spoiler omitted **
It worked for my group. We played Saturday night by candle-light. I got a "prop" for each NPC, as the module suggested. My players and I talked a little about the module ahead of time, and there are a few things where they had to "play along". But overall, everyone had fun, so I chalk it up to a success.
While not totally related to your OP, Hangman's Noose would also be an excellent choice for a Halloween one shot.
** spoiler omitted **
It worked for my group. We played Saturday night by candle-light. I got a "prop" for each NPC, as the module suggested. My players and I talked a little about the module ahead of time, and there are a few things where they had to "play along". But overall, everyone had fun, so I chalk it up to a success.
** spoiler omitted **
Nice! I really had fun working up the cast for Hangman, glad to hear they worked out fun for your group.
Also, writing Carnival with Tim was an absolute blast. That's why he's my favorite co-writer.
Having a blast with the adventure! Kept the players' attentions pretty well, only one a bit squeamish, though another more familiar with these forums commented ("Oh, so that's why people shudder when they hear the name Logue...").
They had a good run through the regular carnivale, fully on the ready for a fight. Now they're through 4 of the altered encounters and have had several close calls (including a random 20-20-19 rolled on them).
Have to say the soundtrack was awesomeness.... and worked perfectly when combined with some other sounds I had...
Yes, McGee's Alice works quite well! I had the following (all bought off Amazon at the last minute):
Before Fireworks:
Classic Carnival Circus Calliope Music
Academy Of London - Saint-Saens_ Carnival of the Animals
After Fireworks:
Chris Vrenna - American McGee's Alice
Verne Langdon Carnival Of Souls Collection - The vocal from this is what I'm going to lead in with for the next game.
I think they'll be terrified of fey by the end of this.
I'm looking forward to run Carneval of Tears as the (for now) conclusion to my 1-year long Falcon's Hollow campaign. The PCs have brought down Thuldin Kreed, and are now relaxing and enjoying Quinn's Carneval (so far.. hehe).
It looks like a brilliant adventure, but I am a little concerned that the Cold Rider will be a little too easy to combat. Being vulnerable to so many things (and having those things pointed out to them by Syntira and/or the fortune teller), I fear he won't last many rounds. Having Quinn on their side doesn't make it harder, either.
I was thinking of removing the part where Quinn hands them the Wand of Cure and the fortune teller giving them the Wand of Shatter.. or maybe having Quinn hold on to the wand until it gets dire.
Anyone having fought the Cold Rider and have advice? For the record, I am removing some encounters due to time constraints. So both the Tent of modern engineering and Gradzaal / the Ice labyrinth will not be featured. I think this will be balanced due to the fact that
a) the characters are not really optimized
b) 3 of them are 5th level, 3 are 6th
c) Logue and Hitchcok wrote the adventure, and they like to kill and maim PC's ;)
I'm looking forward to run Carneval of Tears as the (for now) conclusion to my 1-year long Falcon's Hollow campaign. The PCs have brought down Thuldin Kreed, and are now relaxing and enjoying Quinn's Carneval (so far.. hehe).
It looks like a brilliant adventure, but I am a little concerned that the Cold Rider will be a little too easy to combat. Being vulnerable to so many things (and having those things pointed out to them by Syntira and/or the fortune teller), I fear he won't last many rounds. Having Quinn on their side doesn't make it harder, either.
I was thinking of removing the part where Quinn hands them the Wand of Cure and the fortune teller giving them the Wand of Shatter.. or maybe having Quinn hold on to the wand until it gets dire.
Anyone having fought the Cold Rider and have advice? For the record, I am removing some encounters due to time constraints. So both the Tent of modern engineering and Gradzaal / the Ice labyrinth will not be featured. I think this will be balanced due to the fact that
a) the characters are not really optimized
b) 3 of them are 5th level, 3 are 6th
c) Logue and Hitchcok wrote the adventure, and they like to kill and maim PC's ;)
Well I'll say this from experiencing this adventure twice in a row for halloween (as originally posted) The tent of modern wonderns encounter is alot of fun if played right, and I would recommend driopping the swinomancer first as he really doesn't put up much of a fight compared to frosty chiselers and ice brownies. That being said the minotaur was a laugh at best, being a one round waste of time that could easily be combined into another encounter to make him actually challenging and still get him in, however removing him doesn't really seem that bad. As for the cold rider, no one wanted the fortune tellers high cost for aid in either game preffering to sit on their gold, even though its a one shot... so they didnt get that and the cure wand didnt really affect the outcome much either game. The cold rider does go down like a sack of potatoes especially if theres a seoni-esque scorching ray machinegun in the party who hasnt burnt through their spells. Regardless of all other things the groiup with all the 2nd level slots killed the cold rider in 2 rounds losing only merisal to a critical charge from the rider in round 1. The group who used up said 2nd level slots on the fey were whipped like cream, but theres were the iconics and there were only the 4 of them so if you 6 players that could sway it.... and if you really want this to be an epic encounter give them all that help but make it cold riders. Thatd bump up the EL by 2 and even though one guy gets treated as sack o potatoes, the other rider gets a round or two before focused fire obliterates him. and if you decided to keep your game going (with interest of course) you could use the dark fey of the north as campaign enemies, after they have defeated the queens riders and angered her of course.
Well I'll say this from experiencing this adventure twice in a row for halloween (as originally posted) The tent of modern wonderns encounter is alot of fun if played right, and I would recommend driopping the swinomancer first as he really doesn't put up much of a fight compared to frosty chiselers and ice brownies. That being said the minotaur was a laugh at best, being a one round waste of time that could easily be combined into another encounter to make him actually challenging and still get him in, however removing him doesn't really seem that bad. As for the cold rider, no one wanted the fortune tellers high cost for aid in either game preffering to sit on their gold, even though its a one shot... so they didnt get that and the cure wand didnt really affect the outcome much either game. The...
Interesting... we have played one session of this adventure, only 4 players this time. They have reached the point where they have met Prig (haven't done much more than exchanged a couple of insults). The cleric did receive the scroll of shatter (I turned it into a scroll), but the players thinks that they have to use the scroll on the artifact.
The cleric wasted some resources when she tried (in vain) to walk on coal, but in the final half of the adventure, they will probably be 7 players (in addition to Namdrin, possibly)..
I was thinking of having Prig present at the final encounter (provided they don't kill him), and maybe whip up some stats for Ambrosia as well.... it is the last adventure of this "season", so I don't mind taking down a couple of characters.. rather that than having an anti-climatic end where the Cold Rider is taken down after a couple of rounds..
So I'm looking at Hangman's Noose for this years halloween game, and at first was weary after reading coments here, but after giving it a once over have decided it will be perfect. I've done some legwork to change some things (removing non essential encounters to fit into a 4ish hour game session and refocus it... my players I tell ya) but I'm excited since last years Carnival was such a big hit.
Well, crud. Bought Carnival in hopes of running it for Halloween, but I just don't see a way to make it work for my evil party. Townspeople being killed? Harumph.
Does anyone have a clever way to make Carnival work for an evil party?
Does Hungry Are The Dead or Hangman's Noose work better?
I think Hangmans would work better in the sense that you can tell them they have to solve it or die... I dunno Hungry are the Dead, but Carnival would only work for evil if you somehow make them want to save people... probably for their own survival. Do something like have the faerie queen tell them that its on their heads and they'll pay or somesuch.