Basically, if the GM prepares the Cassomir map without the annotations and plays it smart, the players will undoubtedly have fun :) One of the comments was "We finally had to think about what to do next."

Also NPC tactics were fun - they wouldn't be much of a challenge if it weren't for interesting positioning and enviroments they were in.

All in all an awesome, exiting scenario.

More please!

I ran this tonight as part of an ongoing arc of The Devil We Know run for my local PFS game night. We've played them all in a row and will finish off with Pt IV next week.

Unlike some other posters here, I know how to use Some PDF Image Extractor and so I showed up with a large blown up map of Cassomir with its map key stripped off the map (along with blown up maps of all the other levels too), trimmed and taped together at 1"=1" scale.

Yes, the module should have provided this to you without having to jump through those hoops -- but it wasn't a big deal to extract the map file without the key and get it printed off for the players. An oversize map makes the puzzle aspect of the module play more smoothly, too. (Recommended: Extract the map using Some PDF Image Extractor, resample the dpi of the image to 300 in GIMP, resize and print off using legal size paper using the 2x2 poster print option. Carefully trim and tape together the 4 quadrants of the map for the best results.)

Together with the handouts, the whole puzzle experience in the module was great. Awesome, even. I would go so far as to say that this is the best puzzle based PFS scenario published as of this review. (Some may prefer the more tournament style mod in Rebel's Ransom - but I think Crypt of Fools is a better overall experience.)

I can well see how for some groups, the puzzle aspect of the module could go wrong and could prove to be ugly. It really does depend on the group you are running it for. But my PFS players were into it and they absolutely loved it.

Other Points

The Crazed Painter is an awesome NPC and was a lot of fun to roleplay.

The combats were actually nicely balanced for my party of 3 x 1st level and 2 x 2nd level PCs. Even still, the final boss was dangerous and downed one fighter and almost downed the Barbarian, too. It was touch and go in just the right amounts to be a perfect boss fight at low tier.

The maps were interesting and the combat they produced was varied. It might not have been perfect, but for a PFS module? Damned fine.

There were some connectivity issues which I filed down a bit and added some putty to do some bodywork and smooth over the connections between the modules. I think I did this reasonably well and my players seem pleased with the results.

There is no question in my mind that this module was the strongest in the four part Devil We Know arc and I will be VERY happy to run this module again. To date, easily the best PFS Scenario I've run or played in.

I did not parse the Chronicle sheet carefully for rewards and if Doug Doug has some problems with that, I won't disagree with him.

Still, the overall balance between RP, Puzzles and Combat was perfectly struck. We played the module to its conclusion in 3.5 hours and all the players were VERY pleased with the module and enjoyed it immensely.

I do object to the second Andor Faction mission which will tend to spoil the overall campaign arc feel to the module series if you allow it to have in-game effect. I permitted the faction mission to succeed and then advised the players of what was going on anyway as I think the overall player experience is more important. (They can divorce that information from their PC's minds if required). I was really not a fan of this faction mission. One of the worst I've seen outside a Season 0 mod in terms of its potential effect on the enjoyment of the overall story of the module.

End Result: Crypt of Fools is just a DAMNED fine module. I would award it only 4.5 stars if the ratings allowed me to do so, but voting low and going with 4 stars seemed to be a bit parsimonious, especially in light of some of the other reviews' too low scores for this great PFS scenario.

My players really hoped for more of a connection between the three adventures. The connection really is the city and it's problems. There are reoccurring NPCs but that is all. It is nice for fleshing out the castle city but be sure to download the adventure after they make a city map without the legend. Too many spoilers in the current map. Puzzles, and a scavenger hunt feel to most of the adventure which my table loved.

I played this scenario today. For the first 90 minutes or so, I had a lot of fun with the puzzle and details - extremely vivid. Running around Cassomir is what *several* mods should have felt like, but only this one did.

Following that, it stumbled on a number of fronts. The main fault seems to be an absolute assumption of

I was also expecting to see more on the chronicle sheet, from regular items to the purchasable bits in-scenario.

Again, high praise to the feel of this mod, but this was very painful at 6.5 hours (perhaps 5.5 of real play from initial scene to end of final battle).

This mod is a sequel to a pair of other mods and thus has a recurring theme. I for one found the story presented in this mod to be enjoyable in the beginning and the the bad guy at the end was kinda meh. I do not think this is in any way the fault of Larry as the bad guy is limited by the story line.

Positives
Insane painter guy is a hoot to roleplay for judges and players that are up to it.
Smaller puzzle solutions are fun, individualized and attainable .

Nags

Negatives.
Main puzzle is unsolvable unless the DM thinks to print or bring resources that are not included with the mod, namely a map of Cassomir. The map in the mod has the answer on it so is not a useful reference to the players as it then swings the puzzle to too easy.
This is a major issue and is 3/4 of why I marked it down so far.

None of the puzzles seem to count towards the encounter count. This mod consistently runs long because of it even with skipping the optional fight. A four part puzzle really should have counted toward the 5 encounter limit especially since it starts with a lengthy chat with a madman.

Once again the stat blocks are of the go back to the previous encounter and look there for them variety. Please start putting them in the back. It will save on print and save having to have so many different pages open to run a fight.

PS. Just changed my review score down to 1 from 3 due to the 2+ months that Paizo has known about the glaring problem with this mod with no fix.

The PCs return again to Cassomir but this time they get a better lay of the land. This scenario goes into greater detail of the city of Cassomir and its various points of interest. The path the players travel through the scenario is straight as expected, but there’s a lot of clever scenery along the way. Larry Wilhelm does a praiseworthy job with the maps, giving the players a lot of interesting details to soak up. The combats are balanced but predictable for anyone who has played Parts 1 & 2. Everyone will have something to do in this scenario. One regret is how loosely this sequel ties in with the first two in The Devil We Know series. Another disappointment is the bare Chronicle sheet, with so much room for interesting favors and unique items going to waste. I will say that this scenario did have good campaign world flavor, especially if you are from the Taldor faction. The faction missions are unremarkable.