It's definitely a beautifully written supplement, but the PDF has its flaws - the Flyers chapter is in there twice with exactly the same text, and I'm left wanting for more background lore. However, as a DM, I will gladly accept the opprtunity to create my own story around it. I love these supplements and I do hope you continue publishing them.

I’ve purchased all of the Ravenloft Gazeteers for the purposes of adding a bit of spice to my Curse of Strahd Campaign. However, Carnival caught my eye first for a couple of reasons, the primary one being that the “set up sessions” of Curse of Strahd – for my group – were going to take place during a Vistani festival that comes to a town called Osburgh every year at Midwinter.

The Carnival, I decided, would be an AWESOME way to sort of coax my players INTO Barovia and to give them a taste of the macabre that they would be encountering there.

So, I modified the information presented in Carnival, used the Blade Brothers, the Organ Grinder, Tindal and the Skurra and then modified Isolde to be “Ionia,” the Vistana daughter of Madame Eva traveling to Osburgh with her husband, Stanimir as the “road bosses” of the Vistani Festival.

It was a MASSIVE hit. My players LOVED IT. There was no convincing necessary to get them into Barovia. Tindal assured my group that passage could be arranged through Ionia’s influence on the Vistani caravan, and then gifted them two kegs of Barovia’s finest wine from the Wizard of Wines.

The party drank while Ionia and Stanimir told the “fireside story of the king-turned-tyrant.” Before long, they drifted off into drugged sleep.

When they woke, they were in Barovia. Surrounded by a dozen of Strahd’s skeleton highway sentinels.
Boom. And so, it began.

An awesome little set of resources, I’m really loving the Ravenloft Gazeteer series. Carnival is the first one that I’ve used so far in my games, but I am positive that it will not be the last. The ONLY criticism I can offer is that I wish Oliver had a line-for-line type editor (which I would actually volunteer my services for) and that there were stats for using the Gentleman Caller, who I am thinking about modifying into another of Strahd’s alter-egos.

We’ll see what happens.

Regardless, Carnival is really good stuff for use in Curse of Strahd, I assure you.

A prettty nostalgic module based on the original Ravenloft Carnival. The price is great for what it offers. The author manages once more to give the horror tone that any Ravenloft module needs. Combine this Gazetteer with other Ravenloft products for maximum thrills.