Carnival of Tears is like a slasher movie, a Clive Barker novel, a Stephan King novel, and a Conan the Barbarian novel all rolled into one. It is thick ghastly images, screwed-up monsters, and blood-curdling supernatural horror, all spiced with a hint of heroic fantasy.
It is however, a little shallow. The players fight horrifying fey while navigating a bleak carnival, and that's about it. There is no intrigue to speak of, and the writers turn more and more to shock value to keep the players engaged.
Overall, I would recommend it to fans of horror media and dark fairy tales, but not to players looking for a "traditional" fantasy romp.
This adventure isn't terrible. It has some good descriptions and ideas, but has cumbersome crunch, bad maps, and repetitive opponents. The weirdly shaped maps make it very hard for the Game Master, the promised handouts don't exist, and the primary undead opponents - festrogs - really aren't that interesting.
Overall, I would recommend it to hardcore fans of the undead or Tim Hitchcock, but no one else.
The Pact Stone Pyramid is a fun little romp packed with great concepts, interesting crunch, and beautiful fluff. There are conceptual gems scattered throughout the adventure that continue to inspire me even more than a year after I have picked the adventure up, and the encounters are really first-rate.
The stealth/assassination theme of the adventure is fun in theory, but it ends up getting somewhat repetitive. The players fight guards. Lots and lots of identical guards. If fact, 90% of everything you come across is some kind of human guard.
The last encounter is interesting, bit it almost feels as if they are trying to make it up to you for a few boring sessions before it.
It would recommend it for people who want to try out the Pathfinder system, since most of the crunch is pretty simple. I would not recommend it for experienced players, as it will make their eyes sag.
This adventure is tremendous fun for both new players and gaming veterans. It allows the players to unleash their inner immaturity by playing vicious little goblins, and the Game Master to unleash their inner sadism by torturing a bunch of pathetic little creatures that look like slimy gremlins.
