Pyramid Review
Carnival of Tears
Published by Paizo Publishing
Designed by Tim Hitchcock & Nicolas Logue
Developed & edited by Jason Bulmahn, Mike McArtor, & Jeremy Walker
Art & cartography by Drew Pocza, Jonathan Wayshack, John Gravato, Wayne Reynolds, & Rob Lazzaretti
32-page full-color softcover; $12.99
Roleplaying games are at their best when they run the gamut of emotions. Long separated from their simple hack-and-slash roots, they can now tell a story full of hope and horror, humor and drama. There's definitely a different feel to Paizo's GameMastery module E1: Carnival of Tears, one that may have the reader squirming a bit in his chair.
Namdrin Quinn was once a half-elven criminal who felt the world owed him a living (now he's still a half-elf, just not a crooked one). His life was turned around when the law caught up to him in the form of Tessa Kelrand, a beautiful constable who helped him onto the straight and narrow. The two were married, but their long and storied careers as partners in adventure (apparently a more civilized form of looting) came to an end with her death.
The half-elf gradually became proprietor of (and perhaps a father figure of sorts to) the various personalities inhabiting what is now Quinn's Carnival, an enterprise he originally secreted himself in to mourn. An early winter has come to Falcon's Hollow (a logging town GameMastery buyers might remember from module D1: Crown of the Kobold King), and with it the much-anticipated carnival. Even as the heroes . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: May 2, 2008
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