The Carrion Crown Aventure Path promises to deliver a survey of classic gothic horror tropes, and in this installment, gives us an excellent examination of Shelley's classic (which for you non-readers tells a very different story than Universal Studios did).

The story of the module is brilliant. Yes, the party is railroaded, but the road is built in such a unique way that my players actually would have engaged it without the monetary reward. By established pattern, the second part of an adventure is generally where the PCs begin to interact with the overarching story and this one brings them in strongly.

The encounters are challenging, on the whole. One early encounter has the potential to be rather harsh (this would be the one that the other reviewers complaining about ability damage refer to), but if the group has just completed The Haunting of Harrowstone (and learned even a little bit from it), they've likely developed solid tactics for dealing with this manner of threat. A challenge, sure, but nothing insurmountable.

On the topic of encounter design, I'd like to spend a moment discussing the "middle boss" fight (V&G for other GMs). Wow. If there were any one thing in print that the publishers of 3D dungeon terrain could point to and say, "Look! This right here is why you want to purchase our products!", the three-level combat, with obstructed sightlines, narrow footing, and dynamic environment of this encounter is it. Markers on a battlemat simply cannot do this fight justice. 5of5.

The story overall mixes a healthy dose of investigation into the combat however. This is one for thinking PCs who know how to fight; a pack of combat monsters who depend on the story to feed them clues will go hungry (and the design of the story allows for that, too). The fact that the party is on a rigid and unforgiving schedule throughout the first part simply adds another challenging dynamic: they'll have to manage resources in a way they aren't likely accustomed to.

The second half is also well-designed, though by this point it is much closer to a traditional dungeon crawl than the first part. Our heroes' reward for meeting the challenges of the first half is another cinematic, tough, confusing boss fight, with a very thematic and story-inspired surprise element that will challenge their teamwork in a very unique way.

If I were doing the same story, I'd be hard-pressed to come up with any suggestions for improvement. The Hergstag encounter area does have the potential to either be a TPK factory, or a repetitive tactical exercise depending on how (and when!) the party approaches it. The second part is likewise somewhat flat until the final encounter begins, but when it does, the players are likely to stop complaining about having an easy time up to there!

Overall 4.5 of 5. This is my favorite.

Interesting, but lacks strong hooks. The caravan of freaks felt tacked on and unnecessary. The PCs have no connection to the questgiver other than money. PCs not motivated by a conscience could care less about the Beast. PCs are after the necromancers who upset the prison and there is little connection to the questgiver, Beast and cultists. 2/3 of the adventure is the PCs trying to prove the Beast innocent by collecting evidence at different locals. This is also how the PCs get the majority of their AP--through deductions. Of the locations, the most interesting is Vorstag and Grines. Some variant monsters and unusual environments are the highlight here. Vorstag and Grine's also gives the PCs a chance to stretch their sword arms. The trial is heavily detailed, giving roleplaying parties a fun time, but for parties not into courtroom drama it is simply a series of skill checks. The lead-in to Schloss Caromarc is especially weak, with either the questgiver spoon-feeding it to the PCs or the Beast's "I have to go see my daddy now".

Nevertheless, the Schloss is the best part. Finally, a dungeon for hack 'n slashers! The map is beautiful and could be recycled into a Hidden Falls Dojo for your Tian Xia campaign. Parties without trapfinding may be disadvantaged. The estate is very atmospheric and holds the Frankenstein theme well. I like the final battle, but it steals the PCs thunder with a deus ex machina, where they cannot possibly beat the BBEG and survive.

Again, until Schloss Caromarc this is mostly a roleplaying adventure. There are foes to be fought as part of the investigations. Less detailing of the courthouse and removing the carnies could've given room for more motivation and connection between the PCs, Beast, questgiver and necromancers. Reccommended for a DM who knows his group and can better motivate them than what the AP has laid out, otherwise he may feel that he is railroading the PCs into forcing them to help the Beast.

The investigations were a lot of fun. The timed aspect was great as well. The trial not so much. The citizens taking matters in their own hands while the "lawful" guards look the other way was trite and unsatisfying. The Final third of the module had all the flaws previously mentioned. For DM's, read the final part really well and maybe tweak to get a better ending depending on your gaming group. Overall a great story marred by some really bad tropes, that seemed put in without forethought.

My only regret with running this module is not religiously paging through it and taking excessive notes so that my players could have an even better experience.
Trial of the Beast wonderfully mixes skill checks, player intuition, combat, and roleplaying into so little space. I'd never heard of Mr. Pett before this, but I'm sure as hell buying every other thing he puts his mark on from here on out.
Encounters and plot twists can arise or be passed depending upon the party's success. Combat rarely feels pointless or obligatory.
The second arc (the Trial itself) plays out wonderfully- the party is forced to rush from A to B, solving the mystery, combating dangerous and devious foes, AND trying to find room just to rest in between.
The party Barbarian didn't feel so invincible after being drained to 6 Con and having to spend the next three encounters that way because the group had no time to drag her back to town; doing so could have meant failure.
Roleplaying was wonderful- a well-played Beast can have even the hard-heartened Wizard sniffling...even better if they fail.
The third arc promptly delivers one of the most grueling, challenging, and realistic dungeon-crawls I've ever seen. Foes come from a hundred different angles of play yet all have a logical place in the setting. More than once you'll find yourself mummering "now that's just..that's...wow. That's brutal."

All in all...you need to run this module with your group. But only if you're dedicated to Roleplaying and getting your hands bloody, because not one character or player came away from my table the same.

Having recently ran my party through this book I have to say the two seperate elements (Investigation and diplomacy at the start old fashioned muscle at the end) comes together very nicely in this book. Another excellent book from Mr Pett

You know how the first movie with few exceptions is awesome beyond belief, but then the sequel ruins the series as a whole. That's how I feel about this adventure.

Pros:
1)Interesting background fluff... which is pretty much just for the DM.

2) Interesting premise, and adventure idea.

Cons:
1) Weak character hook. Very weak. Literally six of six players went "And we care why?"

2) WAAAAY too skill roll intensive on the first portion. It just became annoying.

3) Trial itself was not all that interesting, I find myself bored with it at times, and can see the boredom in my players eyes. I felt bad for running this.

Overall, while an interesting idea on paper, it's difficult to run as written, and would take an extensive rewrite to make interesting. It either needs more book space to fill in the "unfinished" portions, or a different mechanic (A reason to get rid of the story section in the back?). It has a lot of individual pieces while each are interesting in their own right, are clunky slapped together the way they were..

Bottom line: I'd skip this adventure if I were to do it again.

The first adventure of this AP was one of the best I have ran in many years. This adventure was a waiste of money. The first half is very dependant on skill checks followed by specific decisions for the players. One clue required 8 individual skill checks, one of which is a DC 30 at level 5. If the initial check fails then skip that half page of the adventure. This portion of the adventure is more of a skill check portion then mystery.
The adventure ends with an NPC saving the day.

An adventure that is very enjoyable. The roleplaying in the trial and the "timed" atmosphere make it one of my favorite adventure to date.

This module has a very strong mix of roleplaying, mystery and adventure that not many modules can hope to emulate. Out of all of the Carrion Crown books, this book is the one with the strongest mystery/investigation section. It's recommendable on that alone.

The encounters are interesting, but, not much here that I find particularly memorable. There are the "expected" mid-low level stock monsters such as ghouls and trolls, and some very cool conceptual encounters that didn't translate well to my gaming table. In addition, some of the encounters are just plain mean-- which is great.

The only parts of the module I don't favor are 1) a significant amount of funds for the party are derived from stealing items from a person's home-- a person the PCs have been sent to save. They know he's likely alive, but the module expects the party has to steal everything he owns, which is distasteful. If they choose not to, it makes actual real-life sense, but now the entire group has almost no money because a majority of wealth is tied up in this mansion-- which is dumb.. and 2) the final encounter has a mechanic that's very reminiscient of a DMPC swinging in to save the day for the "weakling" (in comparison) PCs. This is also very distasteful-- I don't think anyone in my group enjoyed summoning him to save the day... especially after they almost killed the monster on their own.

A decent module-- a 3, but the investigation bumps it to 4.

This mod would be virtually impossible for a party of four like it suggests.

It also makes frequent use of the ability damage mechanics - possibly the most annoying way to interact with PCs.

Also, the only scary part comes from fear that you will be ability drained to death not from any Horror aspects of the adventure.