I have played this module as a DM with three players. I had some problems about difficulty of this scenario while playing though most of them were because of my own faults; I didn't let PCs to rest after the festival, I didn't reduce the power of the enemies as PCs were only four not three, blah blah... However, I guessed it would be hard even if my party were composed of four members. The overall difficulty is a bit high, especially since most of the encounters are in the last chapter of the scenario with no chance of rest on the way.

The major problem I am pointing is not about the scenario's difficulty, however. The first half of the scenario is consist of tourism in a mysterious, suspicious, and isolated village. Even though the villagers want to make the strangers in town believe there is nothing to see in the village, everything is somewhat wrong in some ways, and it is natural for PCs to guess that the tax collector did not escape the village and he is still at somewhere. My PCs were so excited to reveal the mysteries waiting for them.

Now the problem arises. The scenario encourages PCs to solve the mystery with Hack & Slash sword fight. After futile investigation PCs have made at day time, some cultists ambush the PCs at night and give them reason to get things rough. They even give the PCs a time limit. While PCs cannot see the response of 'innocent' villagers after questioning about the surprise attack at the last night, they just get into fight in an abandoned farm and a mystery circle in a crop yard. Moreover, every answer to their curiosity is there, so they don't need to struggle finding out what's going on. Since the friendly mayor is now mad cultist lord at night with absolute hostile attitude, PCs just have to kill him and solve every problem in the village. It is just wrong solution to such a mystery story.

The Feast of Ravenmoor is a great adventure for the party looking for an interlude to the dungeon crawl or as a go-between adventure in a larger campaign. As a gamemaster I had fun role-playing the NPCs as simple "swamp people" often using cajun accents for flavor.

The investigative flair of the module can be quite entertaining and was a good change up for my group. My players were both overly suspicious and perplexed until the final battle which was quite deadly. Gamemasters should prepare the final battle in separate waves or events to prevent a TPK. Otherwise a very solid module for a low-level party.

Ravenmoor does seem out of place in Varisia, so it worked for me to use it as an immigrant town of Andorans and Taldorans which helped to link continuity.

This adventure is a solid piece of work, with plenty to keep the party busy but nothing that will really wow the players. I recommend it if you are looking for a modest "creepy village" motif, but not for a major part of a campaign or a unique chapter in a saga.

The Good: This adventure has a fully-developed back-water village in which your PCs may muck about. It is a place with several dark secrets, unique locations, and a thriving culture. Reading this adventure you get a palpable feel for this village and its people. The story stems from this: There is no "must follow" storyline; rather you are given a setting and a time-line. How the PCs interact with it is up to them, and there are multiple paths that depend on their course of action. There is also clues to the deeper mystery, which the PCs may uncover as they see the weirdness about them. Overall, it is a solid sandbox adventure, with creepy locations and developed NPCs.

So Why Only Three Stars (or the Bad)? Much of this adventure simply fails to "wow" either the GM or the players. Most of the encounters are simple fights or straight out of the Bestiaries. There are no surprises. The "Grand Reveal" is rather cliche and the fight that follows is exceedingly difficult. My players did not find it to be that exciting. The village, while fully developed, is not terribly unique. There are a few minor details (such as the food they eat, or the manner of their worship) that are memorable. But this flavor does not really establish this setting from any other "creepy village." Many of the horror tropes end up being unfortunately cliche, and the mystery ends in the way that most people would expect it to.

If I may be permitted a bad analogy, this adventure attempts to be the original "Wicker Man" but ends up being a regular epsiode of the "X-Files." There is a lot that can be used here, but nothing that makes it a must-have or must-play.

My experience: I ran this for a five man, APL 3.2 group. Our spread was Fighter, Alchemist, Cavalier, Monk, and Witch. This was run for Pathfinder Society. It took us 10.5 hours over two sessions. It cuts nicely in two portions, not sure how I'd do it to break it into 4 hour slots. Probably Feast, House, Field.

Combat: The combats in this for the most part seemed right on the money. They challenged my party, pushed them to their limits, and made them get creative. There are a couple encounters that are rough on them. I would thoroughly encourage an APL of 3-4. Less than that and you risk wiping your table at times.

Roleplay: The roleplay is where this module truly shines. For a player to enjoy this they need to be willing to get “into” the scenario and be willing to explore new ideas and concepts. There are tons of RP opportunities in this module and that’s what made me love it. As a GM, you have to have a real strong attention to detail, because it’s the small things that make the RP spots what they are.

Overall: The module started out a little creepy, and kept getting creepier and creepier. My players were weirded out through and through by the end and were loving every minute of it. I heartily recommend this to anyone who likes a good story and a great adventure.

I ran this adventure several months ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Designer Brandon Hodge has done a terrific job of bringing the squalid, degenerate village of Ravenmoor to life in all its fetid, perverted glory.

I’m not going to go into great detail about the module’s plot and such like, but I will say that it has several absolutely cracking encounters that are really flavoursome and fun to run. If your party enjoy roleplaying as well as investigation you should definitely run this module. If they only like combat, they may get a tad frustrated as a fair amount of the time the PCs are interacting (non-violently) with the villagers.

Sadly, the module is not perfect. The final battle seems to be rather under CRed to me never mind the fact that it is an EL 4 fight followed immediately by an EL 5 fight; very harsh for a 3rd-level party if they are not super-optimised. I would advise anyone running this adventure to take a very close look at the end encounter and modify it to give their players a chance!

However, in my mind flavour beats crunch and so I have no hesitation in recommending this module to any group that isn’t obsessed with combat. Overall, I’m rating this module at 4.5 stars; I’m removing half a star for the toughness of the last battle. For the purposes of this platform though, I’m awarding 5 stars.

Well done Brandon Hodge; it’s a cracking module!