The Inside Scoop on Gaming

First off, I have to come out and say that I *like* this game. I really do. Keep that in mind, because during this review, you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise.

The Good

The opening letter from the founder of Vampire Hunter$ Inc. is dated September 23 1995, which was the day I got married. That may mean bugger-all to you, but gives me a big damn happy every time I pick up the book.

The book itself is nicely put together; solidly bound with a good cover by Stacy Drumm, accurately portraying the sort of mayhem that lies within, without being bloodthirsty and putting the moms and pops off buying it for little Johnny.

The game uses the Cinematic Adventure system, just like Nightshift's earlier "Hidden Invasion" game. The system does exactly what it says it will, gives you a simple, fast system for heroic, movie-style action. Don't expect a high degree of realism from it, because what you're getting is a system that is designed to slow the action down as little as possible. Having played Hidden Invasion, I'm aware that the Cinematic Adventure system has its faults, but there's nothing there that a good GM couldn't fix on the fly if he felt the need. It's a good rules engine for this kind of game, and won't let you down.

The background is minimal, but interesting, and gives the GM enough to start his own campaign without bogging him down in too much detail. The background gets expanded in the horribly named supplement "Gimme A Stake Medium Rare", but there's just enough here to be going on with. There's an amusing dig at White Wolf in the Bestiary. One idea I particularly like is the After-Action Report; a form which the players fill in on conclusion of a mission. Like the man says "the job isn't done 'till the paperwork's complete", and the reports are a great aid for GM's (especially ones like me with lousy memories). Mark Arsenault has done a solid job of translating the atmosphere of monster hunting fiction (mainly John Steakley's brilliant novel "Vampire$", which the game mercilessly strip mines for ideas) to game form, and should be pleased and proud of the result.

On the whole, the interior artwork is passable (I love the fish guy on page 92 and the two hunter illustrations by Mills), if somewhat generic. Several illustrations are used more than once, which smacks of cheapness, but since Nightshift/CFE is a small company, this can be excused.

The Not So Good

The book is a conglomeration of poor design decisions, one of the worst I've seen since I last picked up the eyewrenchingly unreadable "Purgatory" supplement for KULT. The entire book is done in a "typewritten" font in which the loop of the "e" is filled in, drawing the eye to them and making the text actually unpleasant to read. You end up seeing a page full of "e"s instead of reading the book. While I'm fully in favour of using different fonts to convey "atmosphere" in tone setting fiction in a game book, it has no place in those areas of the book where clarity is important, like the rules section. Thankfully, Nightshift Games changed this slightly for the supplement, as it *really* detracted from the reading experience, to the point where I just wanted to throw the book across the room.

The pages are bordered with a dense black mish-mash of images, obviously intended to convey "gritty" instead of "messy", and page columns sometimes fade out towards the spine, as though badly photocopied. Text columns are often skewed at odd angles, and occasionally bend as though making room for an illustration that isn't there. While I can see what the intended effect is supposed to be, it's just distracting, and frequently annoying. Remember the very earliest RPGs? Nasty spiral bound things, typewritten, literally cut-and-pasted and churned out on a photostat machine? That's what this book looks like on the inside. No, I'm not kidding.

The page numbers vanish after page 90 (rather awkwardly, this is the first page of the GM's section, which needs page numbers more than *any* other section of the book). The book has the usual number of irritating text errors one has come to expect from recent games, including the obligatory "page XXX" gaff, and could have done with being more thoroughly proof read and grammar-checked. There is a fairly high number of spelling errors, and even the word "vampire" is misspelled at one point, something that even the most rudimentary of electronic spell-checkers should catch. C'mon guys, even the "Vampire Hunter certificate" included in my package had a spelling error on it!

On the list of misguided style decisions is the logo for "Vampire Hunter$ Inc." (also appearing on the nice quality T-shirt that was included in my package as a sweetener for having to wait several months for my copy of the game), which has the "N" reversed, possibly in an effort to appear somehow trendy. Unfortunately, all it does is make you wonder "why is that N backwards? Did they screw up?". Given the number of spelling errors in the book, my first thought was that it was a typo. The first day I wore my Vampire Hunter$ shirt, I got asked that very question by my wife. Argh!

The book features a number of maps, which we are told can be re-used in later adventures. Er, no thanks. I could do better in five minutes. In yet another poor design move, the maps are presented as pen sketches on crumpled scraps of paper. While this may be terribly atmospheric, it just looks cheap and makes the maps hard to read. Given that it's extremely easy to produce good quality interior maps these days, there's no excuse for this. If you can't read a map, what's the point of it?

The design of the book aside, there are some odd omissions in the text. While the benefits of working for Vampire Hunter$ Inc. are listed, there's no mention of salary anywhere that I could find. Though the cost of each item of equipment is listed, no mention is made of who pays for it - obviously the salary issue becomes more important if hunters buy their own equipment, or are allowed to buy personal backup weapons.

On the subject of equipment, I was surprised to notice that the most specialized pieces of vampire hunting equipment in the book were chain-mail and the super-soaker. Where are the holy water filled plastic collars? The stake-guns, silver knuckles, halogen cross lamps, silver-wire grenades, garlic mace sprays, silver-plated restraints, and other gadgets that any player with an imagination is going to think of five minutes into the game? According to the text, the company has been in business since 1995 at the latest. Surely they could have come up with some specialized gear in that time?

The fees for the organization seem awfully low, considering the risk these people are supposedly taking, and their insurance benefit (a whopping $10,000 dollars) is less than mine. The hunters work on a day rate, which is surely an encouragement to prolong investigations for as long as possible. I'd suggest changing to a "per head" rate, based on monsters slain (the image of battered hunters returning to the office with a sack full of steaming vamp skulls or a bag of fangs is just too sweet to ignore).

There's no real mention of what the world thinks of this company (they advertise and have a publicly listed number) and little comment on the legality of the venture - I'd expect the company to have a battery of high-priced lawyers around just to keep the property damage suits in hand. Surely the FBI would have an interest in a company that freely admits its employees kill monsters. And what about the monsters themselves? The offices of Vampire Hunter$ should be easy to find, so what's stopping the bad guys from trying to take out the opposition, either directly or through IRS audit, hostile media coverage or lawsuits?

It would have been nice to have a few personalities in the book; no characters are presented other than basic templates. There are no examples of a hunter team, and the bad guys are simply presented as generic monsters. The array of monsters is uninspired and unoriginal, with nothing beyond the usual range of hollywood inspired creatures; big blob, fish guy, elder thing, zombie etc. Maybe I'm not getting behind the spirit of the game, but the lack of detail on these beings merely sets them up as targets, rather than adversaries. Targets get shot at, adversaries fight back and have plans of their own, and are generally far more fun to play with.

One thing that puzzled me was the lack of vignettes in the book, especially given the literary roots of the game. Short fiction has become a standard in game books in recent years, and this game would have benefited tremendously from it. Tales of missions gone wrong (or right) from grizzled veterans would serve to translate the creatures from collections of stats and sketchy details into things to be feared, and yet this opportunity was totally missed.

The sample adventure, "Ladies of the Night", is a rather unimaginative effort involving a vampire and some prostitutes. The feeling is of someone who wants to write an R-rated game being forced to make it PG. It completely fails to show off the best aspects of the game, and compounds the sin by being rather dull. GM's looking for adventure material would be well advised to check the campaign presented as part of SHADIS magazines serialised RPG, "Hunter$ Inc." (issues 31-33, 35, 37, 39, 43 and 44) which covers the same ground as Vampire Hunter$, but does so with more style.

On the whole, though the omissions are niggling, they are minor. I'm hoping that further supplements will expand the world of Vampire Hunter$ Inc. a lot more. I'd like to see information on other hunter groups; surely the company can't be the only one out there? What does the government know? Do they have a hunters department, or are they puppets of the vampires? What happens if a franchise goes rogue, taking the concept of acceptable collateral casualties too far? Also, perhaps a typical franchise office could be detailed (preferably with readable maps this time).

The Bottom Line

Looking back, it seems like there's more wrong with the book than is right with it, but that's not true. Vampire Hunter$ is a terrific concept and a fun little game, great for a night with the guys, and is best played with beer, rock music and pizza. It has tremendous potential, but it's let down by execrable presentation. SHADIS magazine presented a more complete package in "Hunters, Inc." than you get in the main rulebook for Vampire Hunter$, and commited less crimes against good taste and eyesight. However, if you can look past the cosmetic problems, and you want to take back the night and kick some undead butt without selling your soul to White Wolf (again), you'll enjoy the heck out of Vampire Hunter$.

How'd I like *my* stake? Bloody.

Vampire Hunter$
Vampire Hunter$ Capsule Review by Chris Halliday on 28/04/01 Style: 1 (Unintelligible) Substance: 3 (Average) A fast, fun, action oriented game of monster hunting and nocturnal mayhem, let down by awful presentation. Product: Vampire Hunter$ Author: Mark Arsenault Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Nightshift Games Line: Cost: $24.95 Page count: 142 Year published: 1999 ISBN: 1-929332-16-5 SKU: CFE1500 Comp copy?: no Capsule Review by Chris Halliday on 28/04/01 Genre tags: Modern day Horror Vampire	First off, I have to come out and say that I like this game. I really do. Keep that in mind, because during this review, you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. The Good The opening letter from the founder of Vampire Hunter$ Inc. is dated September 23 1995, which was the day I got married. That may mean bugger-all to you, but gives me a big damn happy every time I pick up the book. The book itself is nicely put together; solidly bound with a good cover by Stacy Drumm, accurately portraying the sort of mayhem that lies within, without being bloodthirsty and putting the moms and pops off buying it for little Johnny. The game uses the Cinematic Adventure system, just like Nightshift's earlier "Hidden Invasion" game. The system does exactly what it says it will, gives you a simple, fast system for heroic, movie-style action. Don't expect a high degree of realism from it, because what you're getting is a system that is designed to slow the action down as little as possible. Having played Hidden Invasion, I'm aware that the Cinematic Adventure system has its faults, but there's nothing there that a good GM couldn't fix on the fly if he felt the need. It's a good rules engine for this kind of game, and won't let you down. The background is minimal, but interesting, and gives the GM enough to start his own campaign without bogging him down in too much detail. The background gets expanded in the horribly named supplement "Gimme A Stake Medium Rare", but there's just enough here to be going on with. There's an amusing dig at White Wolf in the Bestiary. One idea I particularly like is the After-Action Report; a form which the players fill in on conclusion of a mission. Like the man says "the job isn't done 'till the paperwork's complete", and the reports are a great aid for GM's (especially ones like me with lousy memories). Mark Arsenault has done a solid job of translating the atmosphere of monster hunting fiction (mainly John Steakley's brilliant novel "Vampire$", which the game mercilessly strip mines for ideas) to game form, and should be pleased and proud of the result. On the whole, the interior artwork is passable (I love the fish guy on page 92 and the two hunter illustrations by Mills), if somewhat generic. Several illustrations are used more than once, which smacks of cheapness, but since Nightshift/CFE is a small company, this can be excused. The Not So Good The book is a conglomeration of poor design decisions, one of the worst I've seen since I last picked up the eyewrenchingly unreadable "Purgatory" supplement for KULT. The entire book is done in a "typewritten" font in which the loop of the "e" is filled in, drawing the eye to them and making the text actually unpleasant to read. You end up seeing a page full of "e"s instead of reading the book. While I'm fully in favour of using different fonts to convey "atmosphere" in tone setting fiction in a game book, it has no place in those areas of the book where clarity is important, like the rules section. Thankfully, Nightshift Games changed this slightly for the supplement, as it really detracted from the reading experience, to the point where I just wanted to throw the book across the room. The pages are bordered with a dense black mish-mash of images, obviously intended to convey "gritty" instead of "messy", and page columns sometimes fade out towards the spine, as though badly photocopied. Text columns are often skewed at odd angles, and occasionally bend as though making room for an illustration that isn't there. While I can see what the intended effect is supposed to be, it's just distracting, and frequently annoying. Remember the very earliest RPGs? Nasty spiral bound things, typewritten, literally cut-and-pasted and churned out on a photostat machine? That's what this book looks like on the inside. No, I'm not kidding. The page numbers vanish after page 90 (rather awkwardly, this is the first page of the GM's section, which needs page numbers more than any other section of the book). The book has the usual number of irritating text errors one has come to expect from recent games, including the obligatory "page XXX" gaff, and could have done with being more thoroughly proof read and grammar-checked. There is a fairly high number of spelling errors, and even the word "vampire" is misspelled at one point, something that even the most rudimentary of electronic spell-checkers should catch. C'mon guys, even the "Vampire Hunter certificate" included in my package had a spelling error on it! On the list of misguided style decisions is the logo for "Vampire Hunter$ Inc." (also appearing on the nice quality T-shirt that was included in my package as a sweetener for having to wait several months for my copy of the game), which has the "N" reversed, possibly in an effort to appear somehow trendy. Unfortunately, all it does is make you wonder "why is that N backwards? Did they screw up?". Given the number of spelling errors in the book, my first thought was that it was a typo. The first day I wore my Vampire Hunter$ shirt, I got asked that very question by my wife. Argh! The book features a number of maps, which we are told can be re-used in later adventures. Er, no thanks. I could do better in five minutes. In yet another poor design move, the maps are presented as pen sketches on crumpled scraps of paper. While this may be terribly atmospheric, it just looks cheap and makes the maps hard to read. Given that it's extremely easy to produce good quality interior maps these days, there's no excuse for this. If you can't read a map, what's the point of it? The design of the book aside, there are some odd omissions in the text. While the benefits of working for Vampire Hunter$ Inc. are listed, there's no mention of salary anywhere that I could find. Though the cost of each item of equipment is listed, no mention is made of who pays for it - obviously the salary issue becomes more important if hunters buy their own equipment, or are allowed to buy personal backup weapons. On the subject of equipment, I was surprised to notice that the most specialized pieces of vampire hunting equipment in the book were chain-mail and the super-soaker. Where are the holy water filled plastic collars? The stake-guns, silver knuckles, halogen cross lamps, silver-wire grenades, garlic mace sprays, silver-plated restraints, and other gadgets that any player with an imagination is going to think of five minutes into the game? According to the text, the company has been in business since 1995 at the latest. Surely they could have come up with some specialized gear in that time? The fees for the organization seem awfully low, considering the risk these people are supposedly taking, and their insurance benefit (a whopping $10,000 dollars) is less than mine. The hunters work on a day rate, which is surely an encouragement to prolong investigations for as long as possible. I'd suggest changing to a "per head" rate, based on monsters slain (the image of battered hunters returning to the office with a sack full of steaming vamp skulls or a bag of fangs is just too sweet to ignore). There's no real mention of what the world thinks of this company (they advertise and have a publicly listed number) and little comment on the legality of the venture - I'd expect the company to have a battery of high-priced lawyers around just to keep the property damage suits in hand. Surely the FBI would have an interest in a company that freely admits its employees kill monsters. And what about the monsters themselves? The offices of Vampire Hunter$ should be easy to find, so what's stopping the bad guys from trying to take out the opposition, either directly or through IRS audit, hostile media coverage or lawsuits? It would have been nice to have a few personalities in the book; no characters are presented other than basic templates. There are no examples of a hunter team, and the bad guys are simply presented as generic monsters. The array of monsters is uninspired and unoriginal, with nothing beyond the usual range of hollywood inspired creatures; big blob, fish guy, elder thing, zombie etc. Maybe I'm not getting behind the spirit of the game, but the lack of detail on these beings merely sets them up as targets, rather than adversaries. Targets get shot at, adversaries fight back and have plans of their own, and are generally far more fun to play with. One thing that puzzled me was the lack of vignettes in the book, especially given the literary roots of the game. Short fiction has become a standard in game books in recent years, and this game would have benefited tremendously from it. Tales of missions gone wrong (or right) from grizzled veterans would serve to translate the creatures from collections of stats and sketchy details into things to be feared, and yet this opportunity was totally missed. The sample adventure, "Ladies of the Night", is a rather unimaginative effort involving a vampire and some prostitutes. The feeling is of someone who wants to write an R-rated game being forced to make it PG. It completely fails to show off the best aspects of the game, and compounds the sin by being rather dull. GM's looking for adventure material would be well advised to check the campaign presented as part of SHADIS magazines serialised RPG, "Hunter$ Inc." (issues 31-33, 35, 37, 39, 43 and 44) which covers the same ground as Vampire Hunter$, but does so with more style. On the whole, though the omissions are niggling, they are minor. I'm hoping that further supplements will expand the world of Vampire Hunter$ Inc. a lot more. I'd like to see information on other hunter groups; surely the company can't be the only one out there? What does the government know? Do they have a hunters department, or are they puppets of the vampires? What happens if a franchise goes rogue, taking the concept of acceptable collateral casualties too far? Also, perhaps a typical franchise office could be detailed (preferably with readable maps this time). The Bottom Line Looking back, it seems like there's more wrong with the book than is right with it, but that's not true. Vampire Hunter$ is a terrific concept and a fun little game, great for a night with the guys, and is best played with beer, rock music and pizza. It has tremendous potential, but it's let down by execrable presentation. SHADIS magazine presented a more complete package in "Hunters, Inc." than you get in the main rulebook for Vampire Hunter$, and commited less crimes against good taste and eyesight. However, if you can look past the cosmetic problems, and you want to take back the night and kick some undead butt without selling your soul to White Wolf (again), you'll enjoy the heck out of Vampire Hunter$. How'd I like my stake? Bloody.