3 out of 5 rating for Carrion Crown Adventure Path
I'm completing the 5th book of this AP with my group, and we've been running the AP for over four years. I have mixed feelings about the AP. I believe that Paizo's design goal for this AP was to present a horror-themed adventure path which features iconic undead adversaries, and presents an overall feel of fear, dread and horror. To the good, the AP features a tour-de-force of classic horror monsters in the various chapters, focusing on one or two classic tropes per chapter. Ghosts, zombies, werewolves, vampires, witches and a lich end-boss are all well represented. If killing lots of undead in gothic settings is your cup of tea, have at it! The AP delivers this very well.To the bad, the AP does not deliver on giving the players an overall feeling of impending doom, as a good horror-themed game should. I think this is not so much a fault of the writing in the AP as it is a fault of the game system itself. The Pathfinder RPG is essentially a game of fantasy super heroes kicking ass and taking names. In my experience, the game works best when the players are allowed to be awesome, and face challenging opponents without too much worry about being annihilated by the opposition. This is not a good fit with a game that wants to instill a feeling of overwhelming odds, unbeatable opponents, and the threat of death (or worse!) at every turn. There also seems to be a lack of connection between chapters of the AP. As written, the main BBEG does not even become known to the party until chapter 5, and the party only sees him in person at the very end of the AP. I had to make a lot of modifications to the AP to make the BBEG more personal and despicable to the group (thanks Paizo message boards!). Paizo also has a severe crush on the Lovecraft mythos, which they tried to shoe-horn into chapter 4 of the AP. It did not work. The chapter seemed out of place, and was more of a side quest for the group; it didn't really contribute anything meaningful to the advancement of the main story. Final analysis: If killing undead is your thing, this is the AP for you. If horror themed games are more your style, skip this one, and play Call of Cthulhu instead.