Fallen is Babylon RPG Review
Posted on January 20, 2011 by spikexan
Fallen is Babylon is part of White Wolf’s Storytelling Adventure System, a series of well-tailored games that can be picked up for one-shots or slipped (most of the time) into a campaign. This particular setting makes no specific claim to line. It instead provides a town with a curse of sorts. The appearance is that the supernatural isn’t welcome. Vampires cannot sire here, Will-Workers find their abilities bleeding away the longer they stay, and, well, you get the idea. Of course, a mystery like this needs to be investigated.
Enter the players.
Like with earlier SAS products, the production value is top-notch for the cost. These adventures are also very friendly for use on laptops with fully-linked scenes and such. Storytellers need only print the handouts from the adventure unless they like the feel of paper in their hands (and who am I to judge). The fonts are a jerky style that almost looks like the last written words of a dead man. The artwork within the 39 page PDF is brief, but looks good. The girl experiencing some psychic trauma on page 8 wins me over the most in this file.
The story itself is interesting, especially with some of the options it opens up with demons. Demons are, of course, the thing that can still make monsters look underneath their beds at night. The author takes one of the Seven Deadlies I generally think is useless and makes it truly horrible (and sensible). In fact, McFarland’s take on this Sin raises it right up my own personal charts of Things Not to Trifle With.
Another useful aspect of this adventure is that its design makes it an excellent introduction to a campaign. It’s a perfect setting to circumvent the dreaded “you’re all in a tavern when” opening. McFarland discusses ambitious Storytellers who want to use multiple lines for a single campaign. This adventure has this well in mind. The antagonist’s machinations could easily create a troupe that makes sense even if they are running across the board.
If I did wins and losses for this adventure, I’d have more wins. I keep from doing that though with such a short adventure because the material is subjective. There is no way I could tell what someone else would like. Now, in a sense of good writing and sensible plot, then yes, this is a great little supplement to try out for a new crew. In fact, it “might” be my opening to my new campaign that is switching from the Fate system to the Storyteller system (but that’s a whole different story).
Review Todd Cash
Tags | sas, white-wolf, world-of-darkness
