The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Hunter Apocrypha is a small, handsome, digest-sized, completely in-character resource to the much-maligned Hunter: The Reckoning series.

Oh, and it also makes the game playable.

If you're one of the folks who found H:tR complete at release, this review ain't for you; it's one big argument to the contrary. For the rest of us who eagerly anticipated the new game, and had our hopes dashed reading a hodgepodge that wasn't quite a mundane game nor a superhero game, read on. I think the time has come to dust off that core. ***

Some particulars. The book costs fifteen bucks, is the size of a Reader's Digest, and is a very quick read. This can lead one to feel it's overpriced for the quantity, and it is. But what it's not is overpriced for the level of quality.

Apocrypha is also solely written by the esteemed Tim Dedopulos, who delivers as usual. If he's guilty of any crime in the work, it's not making it longer.

***

So...how does Apocrypha make Hunter workable? For the answer, we need to look back to the problem with H:tR at release. Namely, that it wasn't a game about mortals as promised (or perhaps hyped?), considering the superhuman powers they exhibit. Nor was it a game of superheroes, considering how frail hunters can be.

It was a massive splatterhouse mess of a game, with no clear focus on mood, theme, or direction. (I'm being way too harsh on the writers, most of whom are damn good at their jobs. But this is the way we the playerbase, at least on the whole, felt. If there was some perfection to the system that made it all make sense, it didn't show to ninety-percent of those reading it. In that alone, it failed.) Hunters were the Lone Gunmen from X-Files, given kewl d00d powerZ of flaming swords and invisible limbs, while also being hillbilly paranoids certain their failures in life were all due to The Man. Read: The (de)Man. (The artwork only magnified this impression, sadly.)

I'm going to make no attempt to keep out spoilers. Pretty much if you read further you'll know the entire premise of the book (which for it's 62 or so pages, really has a very short explanation).

This mess of a focus is now over. Apocrypha points the game in a fairly different direction, and many players may decide the new game isn't for them. It is written entirely by a Russian Visionary who may be quite mad.

The Truth revealed is thus: Humanity and Monsters are two halves that were once a single species. In a Golden Age long past, this race of balanced humanity lived in perfection. Then, somehow, the positive and negative sides of humanity's nature were separated. Heroes (read: hunters) arose to push back the darkness (read: monsters), and set defenses against them.

This worked to push the darkness underground, where it developed it's trademarks of manipulation. Over centuries, the heroes having long ago seemingly won the war, the darkness plotted and worked to erode humanity's belief in them. Wards and defenses were slowly torn down by authority that knew no better. At the same time, the heritage of the heroes was spreading through the world.

Flashforward to just before the newly imbued (so October 1999-ish). Humanity is now entirely the descendants, in one way or another, of those long-gone hunter heroes. Every man, woman, and child possesses the genetic heritage capable of activating them to fight the monsters, but in varying quantities. It is the author's implication that the Messengers choose hunters based on those with the highest concentration of this bloodline.

He further states it's this heritage which commands us to fight instead of flee, and gives us the stamina to withstand the assault on the senses of such creatures being real. (One of my biggest problems with the game was exactly this "I pick up a cue stick and bash the living tar out of the unholy demon I should immediately go insane seeing" theme. Needless to say, I rather like the character's explanation of the gaming necessity to confront monsters.)

We now have a clear definition of what and why hunters are. Their abilities make sense in this context, as do the hunter's reactions and frailty.

What remains of the book is an entertaining rambling that further discusses particulars of belief systems pertaining to the Golden Age (I got the feeling Apocrypha was a bit of a teaser trailer for the new RPG), admonitions to not side with monsters or be sure to kill them afterwards if you do, and examples of the traces left on earth of the wards set against the darkness as proof of the author's theories. There's even a tad bit of a ghost story, albeit oddly placed. Good stuff.

The epilogue is a series of five Signs which will herald the great battle between the monsters and the monsters, and the monsters and humanity is about to begin. The author claims these signs were dictated to him by the Messengers (as indeed he claims all of the book's explanations have been revealed one way or another). Almost comically, the first sign is implied as the death of JFK Jr. Ooooookay...

***

If the book has a sour spot, it has to be Violin99. The poster from the core is back in this edition, commenting to clarify the mad visionary's theories. At best he's a bore pointing out the obvious, at worst openly venomous.

*** I should make note that this, being an entirely in-character document, could all prove to be completely, absolutely, 100% not true.

Buyer beware.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Hunter Apocrypha
Author: Tim Dedopulos Category: game Company/Publisher: White Wolf Line: Hunter: The Reckoning Cost: $14.95 Page count: 62 ISBN: 1-56504-744-3 SKU: WW8108 Capsule Review by Twist on 11/02/00. Genre tags: Horror	Hunter Apocrypha is a small, handsome, digest-sized, completely in-character resource to the much-maligned Hunter: The Reckoning series. Oh, and it also makes the game playable. If you're one of the folks who found H:tR complete at release, this review ain't for you; it's one big argument to the contrary. For the rest of us who eagerly anticipated the new game, and had our hopes dashed reading a hodgepodge that wasn't quite a mundane game nor a superhero game, read on. I think the time has come to dust off that core. * Some particulars. The book costs fifteen bucks, is the size of a Reader's Digest, and is a very quick read. This can lead one to feel it's overpriced for the quantity, and it is. But what it's not is overpriced for the level of quality. Apocrypha is also solely written by the esteemed Tim Dedopulos, who delivers as usual. If he's guilty of any crime in the work, it's not making it longer. * So...how does Apocrypha make Hunter workable? For the answer, we need to look back to the problem with H:tR at release. Namely, that it wasn't a game about mortals as promised (or perhaps hyped?), considering the superhuman powers they exhibit. Nor was it a game of superheroes, considering how frail hunters can be. It was a massive splatterhouse mess of a game, with no clear focus on mood, theme, or direction. (I'm being way too harsh on the writers, most of whom are damn good at their jobs. But this is the way we the playerbase, at least on the whole, felt. If there was some perfection to the system that made it all make sense, it didn't show to ninety-percent of those reading it. In that alone, it failed.) Hunters were the Lone Gunmen from X-Files, given kewl d00d powerZ of flaming swords and invisible limbs, while also being hillbilly paranoids certain their failures in life were all due to The Man. Read: The (de)Man. (The artwork only magnified this impression, sadly.) I'm going to make no attempt to keep out spoilers. Pretty much if you read further you'll know the entire premise of the book (which for it's 62 or so pages, really has a very short explanation). This mess of a focus is now over. Apocrypha points the game in a fairly different direction, and many players may decide the new game isn't for them. It is written entirely by a Russian Visionary who may be quite mad. The Truth revealed is thus: Humanity and Monsters are two halves that were once a single species. In a Golden Age long past, this race of balanced humanity lived in perfection. Then, somehow, the positive and negative sides of humanity's nature were separated. Heroes (read: hunters) arose to push back the darkness (read: monsters), and set defenses against them. This worked to push the darkness underground, where it developed it's trademarks of manipulation. Over centuries, the heroes having long ago seemingly won the war, the darkness plotted and worked to erode humanity's belief in them. Wards and defenses were slowly torn down by authority that knew no better. At the same time, the heritage of the heroes was spreading through the world. Flashforward to just before the newly imbued (so October 1999-ish). Humanity is now entirely the descendants, in one way or another, of those long-gone hunter heroes. Every man, woman, and child possesses the genetic heritage capable of activating them to fight the monsters, but in varying quantities. It is the author's implication that the Messengers choose hunters based on those with the highest concentration of this bloodline. He further states it's this heritage which commands us to fight instead of flee, and gives us the stamina to withstand the assault on the senses of such creatures being real. (One of my biggest problems with the game was exactly this "I pick up a cue stick and bash the living tar out of the unholy demon I should immediately go insane seeing" theme. Needless to say, I rather like the character's explanation of the gaming necessity to confront monsters.) We now have a clear definition of what and why hunters are. Their abilities make sense in this context, as do the hunter's reactions and frailty. What remains of the book is an entertaining rambling that further discusses particulars of belief systems pertaining to the Golden Age (I got the feeling Apocrypha was a bit of a teaser trailer for the new RPG), admonitions to not side with monsters or be sure to kill them afterwards if you do, and examples of the traces left on earth of the wards set against the darkness as proof of the author's theories. There's even a tad bit of a ghost story, albeit oddly placed. Good stuff. The epilogue is a series of five Signs which will herald the great battle between the monsters and the monsters, and the monsters and humanity is about to begin. The author claims these signs were dictated to him by the Messengers (as indeed he claims all of the book's explanations have been revealed one way or another). Almost comically, the first sign is implied as the death of JFK Jr. Ooooookay... * If the book has a sour spot, it has to be Violin99. The poster from the core is back in this edition, commenting to clarify the mad visionary's theories. At best he's a bore pointing out the obvious, at worst openly venomous. * I should make note that this, being an entirely in-character document, could all prove to be completely, absolutely, 100% not true. Buyer beware. Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 4 (Meaty)