My players LOVED this Rob Zombie-inspired dark fantasy adventure. The sandbox nature of events and the blend of social and combat encounters struck a note across the board. The level of horror is about the same as EC Comics (at their most extreme), so if you admire those, you'll enjoy Carnival of Tears.

As an extra suggestion, I recommend playing Nox Arcana's Carnival of Souls as background music.

Event-based adventures are never easy to write but this one has been
crafted well. The story evolves very smoothly and is chock full of
engaging independent encounters. This definitely isn't a mod for an
amateur DM but in the hands of a skilled storyteller this is
definitely going to be memorable.

My only significant disappointment was the chief villain and his fleet
footed side-kick. These characters seemed to lack depth (in stark
contrast to the NPC protagonist) and, as a result, I fear they would
drag the story down. That combined with the unavoidable high civilian
body count will make the finale of this story a bit of let down for
players. Players may also find the exceptinally high gore level of
this story a turn off.

This adventure turns everyone's fears of what could happen in a carnival into RPG reality.

It is "worth the ride," but beware! this module will chew up characters and spit them out ... in pieces (along with the rest of Falcon's Hollow)!

The PDF is an extra bonus making this adventure 5 Stars and then some!

This is a playtest review. We played through this adventure in two five hour session. Half of the players used the pregen characters, the other two created their own.

LIKED: The swinomancer was not very dangerous but visually very impressive. Players mentioned him again and again.

The atmosphere was interesting with sad music being played by the grigs. I started playing The Black Rider by Tom Waits in the background when we reached that point.

Not all encounters are necessary. Players can easily avoid some encounters if they they feel that they have to conserve their resources.

The pregen characters all have something useful against the predominant creature type without being obviously optimized. That makes the entire thing very organic.

DISLIKED: This adventure features no rest and no getting back of spells. That was bad news for the sorceror. The newbie player had created a sorceror without a wand of magic missile. Ouch!

The last foe has SR but I ignored it. The last foe also has Freedom of Movement and our barbarian was specialized in grappling. I ignored that, too. It really depends on well the party has been doing until now.

The nymph encounter was bad. I gave a hint about people clawing at the eyes and groaning with pleasure, asked for initiative rolls, the bard NPC won, failed his save, and turned blind. Ouch! A suggested solution in the book would have been great.

BOTH: One of my players said that if I hadn’t told them after the first session that they needed to disrupt n events to get the last foe to appear, he wouldn’t have known what to do. Another player said, however, that even though he did not know the exact number, he knew exactly what to do.

One player felt that the foes were incredibly tough with all the extra damage they were causing and their poisons, but another player felt that those made interesting encounters.

A rule to cut down a tents would have been nice.

Nick Logue and Tim Hitchock writing an adventure together?! Holy crap, the end is nigh!
These two sick MFers can come up with some straight up disturbing stuff. This is a must buy just to see where their sick minds went with this one.
Buy it! Run it! But you and your players will never be able to look at fey that same way ever again. BEWARE!

So I wrote this all inclusive review that got eated by the Paizo gremlins and I'm finally gettin back to doin another one, so here we go again.

Freakin great Adventure. This is defiantly one of those encounters that players will remember a long time and recant tales from for many years.

The events are non linear, so give the book a good read and get to know the NPCs as your party can encounter them in almost any order.

Your players MUST role-play a bit of this to enjoy the full experience of the carnival which I truly enjoy. I am really looking forward to throwing this at a few of my ROLL players and letting them see there is more to this game than dice.

There are some great new magical items to check out, and a menagerie of memorable NPCs. DnD hands out XP, this adventure hands out an experience.

Everyone loves the fun of the fair... and in this adventure, visitors get more than they bargained for. Not everything is as cheerful as it seems and evil fey are poised to take advantage of the unexpected.

As an 'event' based adventure, all the action takes place in and around the fairground, and the characters have a free hand as to where they go and what they do. All you need is provided in two indexed sections, the first being the carnival as it should be and the second in its perverted form. The people to be encountered, what they are doing and their likely reaction to the characters is all there. There is also a list of competitions and events to watch or to particpate in, as the characters prefer.

As the evening draws in it is not only the night that gets darker and colder - and it is up to the characters to prevent the carnage that will ensue. A strong stomach as well as a strong sword-arm is required.

This is a good adventure to add horror to your campaign where it will be least expected, a shocking perversion of what ought to be a relaxing, fun-filled evening. The underlying plot is strong, and rewards for success based on satisfaction at saving the township rather than monetary reward.

Im not writing another one. Its good.

I'll admit that my expectations were rather low, mostly because I've never seen the "bad circus" theme done well through 15 years of playing the game. However, I was very pleasantly surprised by this adventure. This is due to a grounding of the events in the community Falcon's Hollow, and a lot of focus on the atmosphere of the events. Not having played it yet, I suspect that it is rather short, which is not necessarily a weakness. It is original, but there are elements in it that some might find too macabre, or a bit anachronistic, perhaps. All in all, well recommended.

This is one wicked little module. Perhaps not for everyone, as it is grim, gruesome and gloomy... All the more fitting that it starts out as a comical diversion for the hardened adventurer!

Now, without spoiling too much, let me just skirt the specific details here. The module is an 'event' adventure, but is pretty much tied to Falcon's Hollow too. Not that it can't be lifted, but I figured it should be mentioned.

There will be casualties... Lots of them... In nasty ways. Can't really avoid saying this. It is a rather nasty module in places, and certainly not for the fairytale fantasy crowd (despite being full of fae!) who like to keep things light. It'd take some rewriting to fit that style.

But if you don't mind a little dark and macabre nastiness, then this is a fun module. Not as deadly to PCs as some have been either, but amidst the chaos and entrails it might be hard to tell!

You have been warned... But hopefully not warned off.