The Good

• The plot. It's cheesy in the best way and the tragedy of the NPCs make the ending a bittersweet experience.
• Interesting mechanics. I love the Reputation and Names. I wish there were T2 adventures that take place in Joquiet.
• The tropes. Genre-savvy players will definitely appreciate the encounters and the overall narrative flow of Joquiet.
• Printer Friendly versions! Very considerate of the author to include it, thank you!

The Bad

• A very complicated module to run. Definitely one of those adventures that require several read throughs if the DM wants to deliver a satisfying conclusion to the story.
• Lethal. Gives the same vibes as playing "The Death House," to say any more would be to spoil the plot and encounters.
• CREEPY DOLL! (Okay not really a "bad" thing per se but it made my character cry).

An intense ending to a fantastic quadralogy! The tension in our party during play was palpable, even through online play. The incorporation of both "seen" and "unseen" characters was brilliant and who knew horror went so well soap operas/telenovelas? Definitely recommend getting all 4 modules and highly recommend playing all 4 with the same group of players and characters.

Overall, my group was very satisfied with the season finale. But we won't say no to a spin-off/sequel!

The amount of lore involved in this is staggering but in the best way! It really encouraged me to look up the "recommended reading" material and while RA's writing style doesn't really capture me in my current mind-frame, it helped establish the gravity of the setting. That said, the module is a long one and requires a lot of preparation on the DM's side, so this isn't really a pick-up-and-play module or something you can run cold. But why would you?

Preparation is a key requirement in order to run this module effectively and for maximum impact. My biggest regret was not alloting 6-8 hours of play. The focus seems to be more exploration, combat, and then roleplay (in that order) but what roleplay you can get has great impact especially for players of orc-blooded PCs and those who are really into the Forgotten Realms lore. And as someone who is biased in favor of orcs/half-orcs, this was a must-have adventure to run and play.

Two years after its release and this series still haunts me and my players. I recently reran the entire series from Tier 1 all the way to Tier 2 and being able to do so in mod-order really helped put the pieces together vs the initial disjointed run. The Tier 1 mods were relatively fine to run out of order, but Tarot 1-7 still had to be the finale, it just made the most sense that way. The Tier 2 mods could also be run out of order but only when clumped together (such as 2-2 first before 2-6, and 2-4 before 2-7). And like 1-7, Facades Undone must be the finale.

It's a bittersweet sensation to have run this series only to have the story be left unconcluded because of the loss of the CCCs. I hope the authors will release the final 5 parts to complete the major arcana, even as non-AL works.

If I could describe this epic, I'd call it "A Kaskur" because it boasts of an epic ending to the storyline being told from T1 all the way to its conclusions in T3. But in the end, it's nothing but a big old pile of disappointment. The rest of the review has some spoilers in it so be forewarned.

I bought this mod hoping for a satisfying conclusion to the Season 10 storyline but in the end, none of it mattered. I wish I could get a refund for the module and I wish I could get back the time I wasted playing because despite all that stress and tragedy the epic puts your PC through, Nothing of Value was Gained. The Magic Items rewards are probably only useful for trade-fodder between your own PCs (or you have druids who wears heavy armor), you get no interesting story awards for having played the epic, and the fate of the Thuunlakalaga tribe is pretty much "Wait, that's it?"

If you came in the epic having played NONE of the previous S10 modules and have no idea who is what and their significance to the story, this no-resolution-ending is tolerable. But if you did, like I and the rest of my party who played all S10 modules with the same group from T1 to T3, just ready yourself for the non-ending. Even if you succeeded in all the encounters, the ending is still a bleak, hopeless, aimless one. Oh and the one thing that does acknowledge previous module story awards punishes the players. FANTASTIC /s.

There is no exploration, there are no social encounters, it's one fight after another with no time to rest. You don't get to confront or save any of the NPCs, they're just there for you to watch them die. Which would be fine if this advanced the story somehow instead it just cuts everything short and leaves all these loose threads blowing in the icewindale wind. If this was just another module, I'm sure DMs could put their own spin to them and give a much more satisfying conclusion but as it's an epic, it has to be what is written. And what is written amounts to the storyline equivalent of the NPC Kaskur.

If all you and your group want is combat, this epic will provide you that and then some what with the enemy creatures from Ravnica and Theros and Wildemount being thrown at you. Just hope your rolls are excellent because I saw some players spend 3 rounds doing nothing but try (and fail) to make multiple saves against multiple conditions that effectively lock you down.

tl;dr - get/play it if you just want to hit things.

If you care about the NPCs, let me spoil the ending so you can decide if you want to skip it or experience it: the Thuunlakalaga tribe ends up leaderless with no idea what to do next and whether they'll survive with this power vaccuum.

The Tarot series is reaching the climax to the storyline especially with the second-to-the-last module in T2. It's tonally a departure from the other modules, providing several more light-hearted encounters, scenarios, and situations which, if your players have been playing the modules in order, is a welcome respite. While the decision that determines the story award is still going to leave the players uncertain whether or not they're hedging their bets on the "right" side, there is a definite feeling of "victory" rather than yet another ambiguous ending.

It's a fun little heist situation, which makes it great for players whose PC has not yet played any of the Tarot games. The only downside to the module is that it's not something you can run cold. A good deal of preparation is needed given all the traps and puzzles and the trigger conditions involved, but over all it's a neat module!

The Good

• Interesting Boss Fight mechanics
• Main storyline is really starting to ramp up
• Bonus objectives are always welcomed

The Bad

• That ending is such a downer. Not a good module to run for players with PCs not fully invested in Thentia's fate.
• Some players felt there were too many puzzles
• One of the bonus objectives needs a more creative mind than mine to organically weave it into the storyline. Players felt like the roundabout nature was unnecessary

The Confusing (Spoilers) Is the cure really the cure or not? The pcs were arguing that since they got the cure, NPC shouldn't have to be quarantined. Heck, a PC Dimension Door'd immediately to the NPC so the cure could be administered and I didn't have a good answer whether or not it worked. It felt like I robbed the pcs even after all they did. Game night ended with a downer mood.

Tarot parts 1-6 could all be played as "stand alone" modules. While Part 7 can be played as a stand alone, it has a much stronger impact on players if played as the finale. And what a finale! It is appropriate to be the ending module for T1, giving answers to just enough questions to be satisfying but still giving players reasons to play the future ones.

Maybe I was just lucky that both times I've run this module, majority of (if not ALL) my players were heavily invested in the story and the NPCs (practically everyone was pro Edea, so when they found THAT clue they looked so betrayed. Getting to listen to both players and CHARACTERS theory crafting was worth its weight in gold).

Similar to Part 4, the replayability of this module makes it great for both DM and players. And if I were only allowed to, I would have let the players to go through all 4 tasks (because the story is SO GOOD). A minor nitpick would be that the final encounter can be complicated in terms of book-keeping for the DM. A sort of cheat-sheet for fairly new DMs (like myself) would have helped with the flow but overall I LOVE running Part 7 even if we end up going over the suggested 4-hour play time.

The good:

• Challenging Combat Encounters - even when I was "pulling my punches," the players were on the edge of their seats during the combat. It made their victory feel hard-fought and gives players who are very keen on combat that thrill/risk of death that a lot of players complain they don't feel any more.
• Investigation and RP - the earlier portion of the module gives players who are more in it for the story than the fighting a great time to shine but may cause players who are more interesting in killing things to feel bored.

The bad:

• There doesn't seem to be a good in-story way to have the players discover the module's "backstory" unless they scour every single nook and cranny of the island. Most of the players might just want to bypass that portion and go straight for the final encounter
• It is a long module. Four hours does not seem like enough for this module especially if you have roleplay-centric players and some of the encounters feel like they should give more EXP than what the module can grant.

Overall: A pretty solid module but might take several re-reads for the DM to anticipate the branching paths and means of getting the party back on track because of how open-ended it is.

This module has a great balance of traps and combat and RP opportunities. It also has great replayability (for the players, not the characters obviously) given the multiple possible endings in the module. Though whether the party is more likely to go with path A over path B would depend on how certain NPCs have endeared themselves to the characters (or players), which Part 1 should have really addressed (because who doesn't love watching players make hard choices?)

I've run this module multiple times and each party approached the encounters differently (though they all seem to love a certain little old lady, which I heavily leaned on when these same characters played Part 4, the look on the player's faces was priceless.) though they all seem to forego the city path in favor of the crypt path.

All in all, characters who didn't play Part 1 can still be hooked into the adventure with minor difficulty, though the less charitable characters might take a bit more to get into the adventure.

I ran this for a full table of newbies and it was enjoyable both from a DMing standpoint and a narrative standpoint. That there are five different "mini-adventures" gave the players a taste of the different aspects of playing D&D (investigation, planning out attacks, urban adventures, foresty adventures etc.) It is simple enough to pick up and play without needing to encumber the new players with info overload.

However, it is not for more experienced players who might be looking for more of a challenge. (Or maybe I just roll really low 99% of the time.)

The Tarot series has a really great narrative going for it. Characters who played in any of the previous modules have an easy "hook" to pull them back into Part 4 (though to the series' credit I have five players who decided to "lock in" their characters into Tarot until all 7 parts are played before they'll play them in other modules). For characters who have not, the hook is just as viable for the "money-centric" characters as well as the "bleeding hearts" type so it's not very difficult to get character buy ins.

The product description DOES NOT DO THE MODULE'S STORY JUSTICE. And I wish I could elaborate more but that would be spoiling the story and that would be a disservice.

I wish I could better express myself beyond incoherent squealing and strings of ALL CAPS and emoticons on how much I enjoyed running this for my players. While the module's guidance on how to run the game is great, DMs are empowered to put their own "spin" to it (provided you work with AL's guidelines etc.) I found that having the players actually go through the event as opposed to merely narrating that it happened made all the difference (provided you're not pressed for time) between having pleasantly confused players to those who looked like they had their minds blown.

This module is so good I cannot recommend it enough.

Like many of the other reviews said, the story hook is weak and the players (especially those who play characters who can scry or use commune) might feel off-put if their spells/suggestions/questions can't be immediately answered. But the actual encounters are indeed a great deal of fun and can be challenging for the players as much as their characters (though that might be dependent on their builds as some were really combat-oriented and struggled with the non-combat encounters).

If you can get a player buy-in to just go with the adventure, they're in for an enjoyable (if surprisingly long) adventure.

Depending on how RP-inclined your party is, this module will run much longer than the 2 hours according to the module. I've both run and DM'd this, and even the most RP-averse group still spent at least 3 hours playing (though that might be due to having really poor rolls to hit the enemies and the DMs own rolls, which is hilarious looking back).

The story of the module itself is really good but is not immediately obvious to a DM on how you can present the information so the players get the whole story. It takes a bit of DMing experience/know-how to seamlessly reveal the backstories and frustrations of the NPCs to the party without it being a massive exposition dump (and it admittedly is something I am still struggling with for a lot of modules in general).

But overall, this is a great module to run and play.

I ran this module online via discord with little problem. There was enough RP avenues for the DM to provide the party clues and hints on where to go next. Though there is an exploration aspect, the layout of the dungeon was simple enough that it can be described without requiring visual aids. Even the traps and puzzles could be figured out with just the description in the module itself without needing to giveaway or be super obvious with the clues.

The combat might have been too easy for the party (despite going with the suggested APL difficulty) but that might be because party composition wasn't taken into consideration. Still, a good and fairly easy "pick up and run" type of module to run that's great for newbie DMs like me.

This is not a module where a DM can just give a quick-read and then wing the rest. It requires several re-reads along with a sort of trial run for new DMs to be able to do the module justice. And you want to be able to do this module justice because it is incredible fun!

There are interesting enough plot-hooks to get if not the character then the player to join the adventure and the NPCs (if portrayed to the liking of your players) can endear themselves to the party (to the point I had two PCs arguing who gets to be said NPC's mentor/guardian, and the players themselves decided to make a new PC inspired by said NPC).

The downside is, the lack of the island's geography. Not everyone is a gifted cartographer and while an accurately scaled map is not necessary, a visual "suggestion" of how the island looks would have been appreciated. That said, it's not a total detraction because the module still gives enough description to give the players an idea of the layout but I have a LOT of players who are "visual" and I was floundering on how to draw the island itself.

Still, I wholly recommend this module (even if the amount of EXP gained feels a little low for all the things my players ended up doing).