A while back, I wrote a review of for
Hunter: The Reckoning. I suggest you go back and read that review so
you've got the basics.
Before we get too much further, I hate
to admit that I don't have too much experience with running Hunter
games. One of the main problems with White Wolf games is that they
can be very intense and requires tons of preparation from the
Storyteller. I don't know how to explain how much work you have to do
before you even begin to have players creating your characters. This
goes double for a Hunter game. Unlike a game of Werewolf or Vampire,
which included several built-in villains and enemies, Hunter uses
every other White Wolf game as antagonists and enemies. In
the Hunter core book, they mention vampires, werewolves, wizards,
ghosts and zombies, and fae. In the core books of each of those
games, there's usually the “good guys” that the players are part
of and then the “Bad Guys” that oppose the organization that the
players are part of. The most classic example is from Vampire: The
Masquerade with the Camarilla and the Sabbat. When you do Hunter,
there's no difference between these two groups, not to mention the
various vampire clans. In Hunter, vampires are vampires. Of course,
if you really wanted to, you could have your Hunter group exploring
the subtly of vampire politics. But, I think you should just play
Vampire if you want to play that. Or pick up the pre-Hunter hunter
books.
This brings me to
another important point: The level of detail in the old World of
Darkness. By the time Hunter came on to the scene, the WoD had been
around for some time with tons of source books and lore. Because the
old WoD is now gone, you can't find a lot of source books anymore.
Even when they were in production, there were so many to read. These
days, with the World of Darkness Wiki, you can look up just about
anything you might need. Assuming someone has taken the time to type
out the details. Of course, it is your game and you can make up
whatever you want or need. I would dread playing a Hunter game with
an experienced Vampire or Werewolf player... If you get a detail
wrong, you'd have to deal with it and I hate that sort of thing.
Unless it's an honest mistake. I freely admit I like the lore and
cannon of games and don't change it lightly. And with the Old World
of Darkness having so much lore and history...
Hunter Source Books -
I'm not going to talk about the core
book, as you need it to play, and you should probably review it on
your own. Instead, I'm going to take some time to explore the books
I've read and what I think about them.
The Player's Guide:
This is an important book for both the
players and the Storyteller. Not only does it add Flaws and Merits to
the game, it does add a lot of stuff about making your character. The
most important thing is the addition of the two “lost” Creeds
(the Hermit and the Wayward), but also Bystanders (that I mentioned
in my review). The book gives you options for gaining new Edges and
even on changing your character's Creed. I'd like to point out that
changing something like a Creed is almost unheard of in other White
Wolf games, and having it in Hunter shows just how human the
characters are.
The Storyteller's Handbook:
This book provides almost no rules
information, but it's critical for a Storyteller. It helps you build
better monsters. It helps you navigate the World of Darkness and
gives you tips on how to run the game in depth. It even gives
suggestions for how to run a game for characters in prison. It also
gives you some tips on how to use the Messengers and what exactly
they are. While that might seem disappointing for people looking to
expand on the monsters, there are other books for that, as I'll
discuss below. All in all, the book is a very good resource for
people trying to figure out how to start a campaign of Hunter and
keep it going.
The Storyteller's Companion:
This is one of the books I just
mentioned. The book gives you more rules and abilities for the
monsters. It changes the mechanics for the monsters from the core
book back to their own systems, which is a little weird. While it
provides a wealth of new powers, the book is very thin, only 64 pages
long. I think it's the smallest Hunter source book out there.
However, it was coupled with the Storyteller's Screen, which may
explain why.
If you're going to pick up the Enemy
Books, you're going to need this book. All of the powers from this
point on are adapted to their systems.
The Creed Books:
As there are nine Creeds (when you add
in the two Lost ones), that means there's nine of these books. I
don't want to break down each one (I might in a Sources Say, if
there's enough interest), so I'm going to give you a summary of them
as whole. I own all of them and I've noticed they are laid out almost
exactly the same. Each book begins with a series of Hunternet posts
(or Creed website) trying to explain who and what Hunters are and
what each Creed is. From there, it has a series of additional
Hunternet posts, journal entries, or something similar, that come in
three different “Voices” or characters. Each of these characters
we follow are our way of seeing the three different “camps” or
philosophies of the Creed. They are almost universally the
Conservative camp, the Moderate camp, and the Liberal camp. Keep in
mind that all of this is just flavor and setting, no rules, and takes
up roughly two thirds of the book. After that, you get new Natures,
Demeanors, Edges, and each Creed's “super power.” Every Creed now
gets a power unique to them that reflects their aspect in the war.
After that, there's a brief bit with the profiles of the characters
you've been reading about in books.
In the end, I think these books are
worth having. They can help players understand their Creeds and give
them new options to explore. For the Storyteller, there's new
Derangements to give to characters based on their Creeds and some
potential antagonists for the troupe to encounter in the form of
other Hunters.
The Enemy Books:
Again, I'm just going to give a quick
summary of each book for now. I will do a full review of each book in
Sources Say in the future.
The Walking Dead gives details about
ghosts and zombies. Almost all of the book is Hunter-net posts that
include arguing, bickering, and a flame war or two. While it does
provide some information about what other Hunters have encountered, I
felt cheated. The last part of the book provides a few more rules,
including rules for Mediums, I don't feel like it's enough. Okay, it
does offer some details about what's going on in the spirit world and
some advice for running the undead, it just doesn't feel like enough.
I feel like there's too much information for players compared to what
the Storyteller gets. It's like, is this book for players or
Storytellers? If it's an “enemy” book, shouldn't it provide more
information to a Storyteller than the players?
The Moonstruck details werewolves and
other shape-shifters. That's right, now you have stats to you for the
other shape changers out there. Including werecrows, which I didn't
even know about. It also gives them some very powerful rituals that
can really hurt your troupe if they rub these creatures the wrong
way.
The Nocturnal gets into the vampires in
Hunter games. There's a lot to vampires that just gets a mention in
this book. If you don't know, there's two big groups of vampires in
oWoD and they're very different. However, looking at them from the
outside, I don't know how obvious those differences would be. The
book does a fair job of giving you different perspectives and
encounters between hunters and vampires in the first two thirds for
the book, which should help you if you're a veteran VtM player. The
last third of the book gets into the powers and personalities of the
vampires, which is worth the cost.
The Spellbound fills you in on the
Mages in the World of Darkness. Of all the enemies Hunters face, I
think Mages are quite possibly the hardest to use. They look human
but they aren't. They don't exist in the same reality of us. To them,
reality is mutable. And that is something really hard to nail down in
a game. Again, the first two thirds of the book are about how Hunters
and Mages interact. And, again, there's two different groups at play
that have radically different goals. The last third gives more
powers, as always, but does its best to help you understand the
“human on the outside, completely not on the inside” element of
Mages.
The Infernal is a unique book in that
there's nothing about the Demonic in the earlier books. At least, not
directly. You see, after White Wolf did Hunter, they made Demon: The
Fallen. Yep. Full Edge Lord Mode Engaged. However, the demonic does
make for a unique and interesting antagonist for the Hunters. They're
new, they're different, and they are very, very powerful, if left
alone for too long. The first two thirds gives you different groups
of Hunters to follow and different kinds of Demons they're up
against. One of them is very, very tragic, so be warned. There's a
lot to learn about these foes, so be very careful about including
them in a game, especially if you have players or characters of a
religious bent.
Survival Guide:
This book is misnamed. It's a “World
Tour” of the World of Darkness, as seen by a handful of Hunters.
Each continent is covered by one person, giving only their
experiences in some areas. However, it is very well written and
contains quite a bit of information from just those small entries.
It's all good to see how the Imbued are a global phenomena. As this
was written in late 1999, it isn't accurate to the world today, but
the basics are probably still good. It's also good to see them
looking beyond America, even if it's just bits and pieces.
Unlike The Walking Dead, I think having
this book contain almost nothing but stories and player information
as forum posts works well. Part of that is because the book is very
focused and doesn't get distracted. The characters, even the racists,
are engaging and present the information in a captivating way (even
if you want to punch them in the face). Also, they even say it's a
“player's guide” and was released after the Storyteller's
Companion and was the second source book for the game.
I would suggest picking this one up
because of the New Dijon incident, which is referred to in other
books. It's also worth it just for the stories inside.
Holy War:
You might think of this as a sequel, or
companion, to the Survival Guide, as it deals with the one part of
the world they didn't cover, the Middle East. Keep in mind, when the
Survival Guide was written, that area of the world wasn't as
important to most Americans. Then 9-11 happened, and oh boy, did we
sit up and take notice. And there in lies the rub. Hunters in the
Middle East get a host of different powers, are at more risk than any
other Hunters because of what's happening in that area, and are much
more complex than Hunters in the other parts of the world. Now, I'm
not saying that they're not and this is a bad idea, I just wonder why
this area is so important. Faith is a big deal in Hunter. The books
are littered with biblical quotes and the Middle East is the birth
place of not only the Bible, but the Torah and Quran and the faiths
connected to them. Could this be the reason? If so, that's fine. I'm
not sure how I feel about all this religious stuff, but I do have to
say that it does fit with the metaplot they've been developing. Since
this book was part of The Year of The Scarab, it's clearly an attempt
to fit something related to the Middle East into the Hunter series.
As they had also released Mummy: The Returned that year, I would have
rather had something more related to that instead of this. Then
again, it could be that the Middle Eastern Hunters were more
important because the End Of The World was suppose to start in that
part of the world. Who knows?
Utopia:
This is a very different source book,
as it takes the game in a very different direction. The book is all
about “winning” against the forces of darkness. Which is why it
isn't exactly canon. Okay, it's not about a total victory, but the
beginnings of one. I honestly don't know how I feel about this one. I
might need to do an deeper delve into it in the future...
Fall From Grace:
Oh boy... This book... This book is
pretty much your “end game” book for players (not campaigns, see
below). As you might remember, the powerful your Hunter gets, the
more insane they become. This book gives the Storyteller options on
how to handle that and tips for giving out Derangements. The major
thing is that it explains what happens when the character is getting
ready to get their 5-point Edge. It gets messy. You see, your
character has the option of becoming a direct servant of the
Messengers. Or simply forces themselves into that level of power. Or,
and this is a doozy, makes a pact with a demonic being for more
power. Yeah. Since Demon: The Fallen wasn't released until after
Hunter, it makes sense that they had to slowly slip them in here and
there. And this is one of those places. And given the biblical
feelings of the Hunter line, it makes sense to have being tempting
these “Chosen” and trying to corrupt them.
The beginning of the book has three
stories showing different ways the hunt has effected people. Notice
that these are stories, not Hunter-net posts and flame wars. And I
feel the book is better for it. I've felt that the Hunter world is
best presented in the form of fiction, rather than the ramblings of
people online. Unfortunately, the people they got to write the tie-in
novels weren't that good or couldn't make a story engaging enough for
a full novel. Now, when you read the stories in this book, keep in
mind that they're going to extremes. Harsh language, disturbing
images and topics, all that good stuff. I do think they went a little
too far, but it's not too bad.
Urban Legends:
This book is a good one for long
running Hunter campaigns. Why? Because it gives the Storyteller some
curve balls to throw at the group. And it expands the World of
Darkness. There are rules for mutants, Mummies (who had been skipped
so far), and “Anomalies” so you can cook up something even
experienced players haven't seen before. There's ideas for unique
monsters that they've already seen (atypical werewolves, vampires,
demons, etc), there's rules for places with serious bad ju-ju, and so
on. They also give some details of Fae, who never did get their own
source book.
This book is best used when you've been
running a game and find yourself tending to cycle through the same
type of enemies over and over again. Or, you have a campaign focused
on one type of enemy. This book allows you to have something
different pop up and make the characters question things all over
again.
First Contact:
This book deals with the other hunter
organizations (see below) that exist in the World of Darkness and how
to include them in a Hunter game. This is useful as one of the groups
is Project Twilight (see below), who are members of law enforcement,
someone that Hunters might interact with at some point. They do give
you rules for making your own “Twilight Division” for law
enforcement groups in whatever country you might live in.
These mortal hunter groups are also
useful to have information on, and possible interactions with
Hunters, if you're going to run a game that constant monster enemy.
If you're going against vampires, for example, you might want to
introduce the Inquisition. These human hunters could act as friends
or foes in a game, depending on how things go.
The organizations presented here are
each focused mostly on one particular type of enemy. The Inquisition
is trying to take down vampires, Project Twilight targets werewolves
(as they're eco-terrorists) and vampires, The Arcanum were a group
that focused on the study of the supernatural including vampires,
ghosts, and mages (and their source book is from Mage), and the
Dauntain that were Fae that fought against other Fae. It's
complicated. The book finishes with a handful of secret societies
that seem to come from most of the other lines.
Time Of Judgment:
This is it, the end of the line. And
the end of the world.
This book gives you three different
scenarios for the End Of The World, each one based on the primary
Virtues of the Imbued (Zeal, Mercy, Vision). This scenarios aren't
about stopping the end, and doesn't really give much about how the
end comes, but how to deal with things during the Last Days. Since
this book also includes the conclusions for Changling, Demon, Mummy,
and Kuei Jin, I suppose you could use any of those to explain the
end. Personally, just from a quick check, the ones from Demon offer
some pretty interesting options. It also discusses the reactions of
each of the monsters from the game to the end, cutting off or
empowering Hunters, and having humanity able to react normally to the
supernatural. If you want to end the world, I'd suggest picking up
this book and planning this out from session one...
Other Source Books -
The following are some books for other
White Wolf books I've picked up and found useful. This isn't an
exhaustive list, but you can look at it as a starting point.
Hunters Hunted (Vampire: The
Masquerade):
This a very old Vampire supplement,
dating all the way back to 1992, and lays the ground work for three
different hunter organizations (two of which are further detailed
below). The book was a chance to have your players take on the role
of normal human hunters, or you could use it to create hunters of
your Vampire players, and outlines several different philosophies for
hunters.
While extremely dated, the book does
have some good information for a modern game. As I mentioned, there's
a list of philosophies for hunters, which you can use for your own
Hunters or as suggestions for characters in how they think about the
hunt.
The organizations covered here appear
to be revisited for Hunter in the source book First Contact as well
as source books for their respective game lines.
The Inquisition (Vampire: The
Masquerade):
An expansion on an organization
discussed in Hunters Hunted, the Inquisition gives a much more in
depth history of the group and some additional powers. The
Inquisition shows that not only have some people been aware of
vampires and other supernatural creatures, but that they've
discovered how to hurt and kill them. As vampires and the other
creatures are aware that the Inquisition is still around and might
give the Hunters a scapegoat for a while.
Project: Twilight (Werewolf: The
Apocalypse):
I picked up a copy of this a few years
before Hunter had come out and never had a chance to use it, so I
sold it. Recently, I had a chance to pick up another copy for dirt
cheap, so I did. Now, with Hunter out, I have a use for it.
PT covers the US Government's attempt
to deal with the supernatural, covering the FBI, the NSA, and
mentions the CIA. It also reveals the infiltration of the
supernatural into the US government. While focused on werewolves, it
does have mention of vampires and mages.
Recommended Reading -
Please note that the source books each
have a list of things to read and watch. I'm adding more modern media
to the list here.
The Watch
Series by Sergei Lukyanenko:
This is one of my all time
Urban Fantasy book series. Well, the first three. The last three are
okay but not as good as the first ones. I think it best shows how the
World of Darkness would work, but with all of the “monsters”
organized into two camps: The “Good” guys and the “Bad” guys.
While these are inhuman vampires, werewolves, and mages are no longer
wholly human, they still come from humanity, that have had the veil
pulled from their eyes. I feel like this is perfect for not only
understanding the monsters in Hunter, but the Hunters themselves. If
you haven't checked out this series, I strongly recommend it. If you
don't have the time for the books, there are movies for the first two
books (Night Watch and Day Watch) that do an adequite job of
presenting the concepts for the books. Of course, they take things in
a very different direction, but they're not terrible.
Recommended Viewing -
Watchmen:
I hope you're not surprised by this
selection. I've seen people compare Hunter to super heroes and that's
not a bad parallel. However, I think this movie (or the comic, if
you're up for it) is perfect in showing what happens to a troupe of
Hunters as they continue down their paths. If you want to, try to
assign Creeds to various characters. And I believe Rorschach is the
path of all Hunters as presented in the books. So driven by their
mission, they can't even operate in normal society anymore. Think
about it while you're watching the movie.
Dog Soldiers:
Sure, this is an action horror movie,
but it does show a team of soldiers going against a pack of
werewolves. It's not a bad thing to watch and get ideas from. It can
also show players that werewolves travel and fight in packs,
something to keep in mind. Since it's a horror movie, a lot of the
characters die over the course of the film.
Ghost Machine:
Another action horror movie, this time
with some sci-fi elements, this one involves a ghost. There's a minor
romantic angle that some people may not like, but I thought it was
okay. I think it does a good job of showing the motivations of a
ghost, as well as the horror of what ghosts can do.
Underworld:
You might as well called this “World
of Darkness: The Movie.” Because it's not far off the mark. In
fact, White Wolf sued, that's how close it is. That said, I would
suggest watching the first two. The fourth and fifth movies can kind
of show why the vampires have the Masquerade, but they're not the
best. The third is something that some people love and some people
hate. No matter what you think of them, the do a good job of showing
how vampires and werewolves could operate in the modern world.
Kolchak: The Night Stalker:
There's two different versions and I'm
only going to talk about the original. Sure, it's old, it's hokey,
but it's got a really good Hunter vibe. You have a believer out
there, finding the supernatural, and no one believes him. There's
also your classic monsters; vampires, werewolves, and more than one
evil cult or magician. There's curses, monsters, and one guy out
there to tell the truth. Sounds like a serious drama, doesn't it?
Well, it's not. It's played for laughs. It's a horror comedy and it
really works for me. If nothing else, you can recycle the plots for
your own troupe. Werewolves on a cruise ship? Good luck killing them!
Starting Your Hunter Game:
This is discussed in depth in the
various books, but I thought I would offer my own ideas. What I've
done is create a document that includes some disclaimers, rules and
guidelines for character creation, and a couple of questionnaires.
I did the disclaimers because there's a
lot, and I mean A LOT, of racism, sexism, bigotry, and all sorts of
other stuff in the books. I just wanted to make it clear that I don't
support those things and that people be aware of it. I did the
guidelines and rules because of Twilight. Yes, I seriously say “NO
VAMPIRE BOYFRIENDS!” That damn series... Anyway, I also had some
other things about the characters because I had some ideas about how
I wanted to run the game. I'll talk more about that in a bit.
Now, I put in the questionnaire from
the core book for characters, with some minor changes and additions.
The one they give isn't bad, but I did have a few things I wanted to
ask about. The second questionnaire was one to help people figure out
what Primary Virtue their character might have. I would have loved to
have done a much longer one, as well as ones to figure out exactly
what Creed the character would have, but I just couldn't come up with
enough questions. Well, at least ones that wouldn't be too obvious.
I did all of this for the same reason
you should. You need to know what kind of characters you're going to
be having in the campaign. In most other games, the person behind the
screen can come up with an idea and then the characters can adapt to
it. White Wolf games aren't like that. They're much more focused on
the characters and their motivations. And unlike other White Wolf
games, you don't have a community structure to motivate or control
the players and their characters. As such, it's super important to
know what kind of characters people want to play.
Since you can't completely plan
everything out, what do you do? What I do is pick the location we're
going to play. I choose my hometown because there's a lot of fun to
take what everyone is familiar with and twisting it to something
darker. Also, there's a fair amount of dark history here that I can
tap into. It also makes it easier to map things out.
Next, I've been doing some research
into the supernatural history and seedy history of my town, as you'll
find that there's usually some crossover between the two. Let's face
facts, a lot of criminals die horrible deaths and those can lead to
ghosts. The best part of doing this, is that you don't actually have
to create too many hints or stories, you can use real ones. I
strongly suggest that you be respectful, as you shouldn't be a bag of
shit. But, imagine what it would be like to have your troupe finally
figure out who has been haunting the old library and putting that
soul to rest. Or bringing down a century old gangster and human
trafficker. By using these things, you bring the terror home as well.
They know these places. They've been there. And they're going to have
a totally different feeling about them now. Plus, it helps with the
hardest part of running a Hunter game: How to get them into the
Hunter. Unlike the other World of Darkness games, with mentors and
groups, Hunters don't have shit. So, if I suddenly got the power to
see ghosts, I would start investigating ghost stories and do what I
could.
When you need to get them out there,
use the news. Drop stories about wild dogs, people vanishing in a
park, a bar burning down, whatever. While your Hunters are probably
going to be proactive, they'll still need something to find. You
don't want them to always being on patrol and running across the
Monster Of The Week, because you've got a game specifically for that
(that's also named that). Instead, you're going for personal tales of
horror, bringing it into their lives. If a character has kids, have
them tell the character something that makes them think that there's
a monster on the loose. Maybe they saw something or heard something.
Make the Hunter almost crap his pants. And then throw them for a
loop. They can go out looking for one thing and find something
completely different.
Because there's a lot of comparisons
between Hunter and super hero media, you shouldn't be afraid to
borrow ideas from them. Look at low level stuff, the early days of
heroes, when they had to be worried about the villains finding out
who they were. Imagine having a vampire or werewolf or ghost find out
where the character lives, discovering their family. If things are
slowing down, feel free to throw in a past enemy (or someone
connected to them) at them, by attacking or even threatening their
families. Eventually, your group will come to a crossroads: either
they give up the hunt or they give up their lives as they are. And
that's when you'll be ready to give them their 5-point Edges...
I do have to say that there is a few
things you can plan out in advance: the power players. While the dead
don't seem to be very organized, most of the other monsters are. As I
mentioned above, each of the oWoD games came with a built in
antagonist for the players. Well, in Hunter, you have to deal with
both. Not only would you have to have a good idea of who's in charge
of the Camarilla faction of Vampires in your city, but you'd want to
have an idea of any Sabbat and Anarch terrorists in play as well.
You'd want to know who the most powerful werewolves and other
lycanthropes are in the city and if Pentex is involved. And so on.
My suggestion is to figure out their
places of power are, their hunting grounds, and the like. Once you've
got that figured out, work on the top of the organization and then
connect those places to those people. Think of it as a level in a
video game, with each step up this ladder as a “boss fight” but
don't frame it like that to your players. I'd suggest looking into
how very mafias and criminal organizations operate and use that as a
framework for the organizations. I tend to find that once you know
who's in charge, it helps set the tone for the organization as a
whole.
Don't feel like you have to map out all
of the intrigue right away, or even expect that it's going to come up
in the game, as you will want to adjust to the players and their
characters. Just have a rough map and be ready for anything. Once the
characters discover that vampires are real and they're bad news, I
bet you're going to want to have something ready for that. Maybe
they'll be happy with removing a minor player and then want to deal
with something else. Or maybe you're tired of them dealing with
zombies and need that change of pace. The more time you invest now,
the happier you'll be in the long run. Just don't get overwhelmed.
Okay, this has gone on long enough. If
you want to play this game, I hope this was helpful. If you were on
the fence about it, come on over and join us. I think you'll fit in
just fine...
