Review of SS85 #1 - "Freeing Fatima"

The Premise:
Freeing Fatima is the first part of a series of scenarios for modern horror games set in 1985. Hence, the abreviation "SS85" for "Segovia's Series: 1985." These are scenarios so no game stats are provided and only key events and personalities are touched upon. Other events are left up to the imagination of the GM to flesh out. The main point behind these scenarios is to interject a bit of actual history with the supernatural.

What Ya Get:
Freeing Fatima is a sixteen page Microsoft Word document. The included WordPad application with any Windows 9x/2000/Me/XP OS (can we say "need to pay legal fees" boys and girls?) will open it just fine. Mac or Linux users will need a program capable of reading the DOC file type.

Cost:
Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Gratis. Free.

Appearance:
The appearance of the scenario is minimal. Text is single-column and typed at a very large (sixteen point) typesize. On one hand, its extremely easy to read. On the other hand, it eats up a lot of unnecessary paper. Also disconcerting is the large amount of cut and pasting of text that is evident. The document is split into a GM and a player section and the duplication of information in only sixteen pages borders on the excessive.

The Game:
The premise behind Freeing Fatima is that an unknown beneficiary has asked the characters to travel into Haiti to locate a young girl and bring her back. She is the daughter of two political activists who were killed during a demonstration. To complicate matters, she is being denied succor by locals because of pressure being applied by the Ton Ton Macoutes (secret police) who knows who her parents were. She is homeless and believed to be posessed by a demon after she joined in a jaimaica dance at a religious festival. So the problem becomes how to find her without drawing attention of the government forces, how to deal with the demon posession that is anything but benevolent and how to get her out of the country.

The strengths of this scenario is the information given on the culture of Haitian voodoo and how it impacts the beliefs of an entire country. This is especially useful in painting the atmosphere of the country as well as how to portray NPCs when the PCs start questioning them about a known demon-child.

The weaknesses of the scenario are obvious. An exorcism is the only way to break the demonic posession once the players realize what is going on. Despite this being a widely used plot device, it has many hooks thrown in to complicate matters. The exorcism takes a long amount of time to do and the demon isn't happy about trying to be driven out. Finding someone to do the exorcism could also be an issue as it is unlikely that one of the PCs is a Deacon or has the knowledge required to do the ritual. The demon could summon powers or other evil beings such as zombies or ghouls to try to stop the players... and there is always the presence of the police who could attack during the most crucial moment. In the end, the demon is drawn into the exorcist and he must be killed to banish the demon back to where it came from.

Another problem, in my opinion, is that the players are informed about her posession by the beneficiary at the beginning of the scenario. I think it would be much more effective to have the players find out about that on their own. What starts out as a "simple" recovery mission suddenly gets complicated, weird and deadly.

Overall Impression:
Freeing Fatima is a good start to a series of scenarios. It provides a clear plot with enough points included to provide enough complications to frustrate characters. The atmosphere established is sufficiently unsettling without breaking out into full horror until the actual events of the exorcism. If anything, the scenario could have been made better by the elimination of the some duplication of information and a bit of tightening of the text. Still, if you're looking for a quick idea for your next horror game or want to make your setting a bit more exotic, Freeing Fatima definately deserves your attention.

MetalMan signing off.