Rediscovering an Old Dog
Okay, I'll admit it, for that last two years I was one of those "Ewww, Hunter: The Twinking" people. Reovering from the shockingly poor Year of the Reckoning range, I had joined the legions of jaded White Wolf players who felt the WoD had truly lost it's edge. Well, a friend of mine lent me a copy of Hunter a little while ago and asked me to look it over. He felt that people had given the game the short shrift without really examining the product.
He was right.
Overview
Where to begin...Hunter breaks from the standard WW "formula" - i.e. the woe is me I'm a monster syndrome - to introduce a new theme into the WoD. Hope.
Now I am sure that many Changeling: The Dreaming players will disagree with me here, but Changeling was still a tragedy tale - a world that is slowly being forgotten and crushed under the weight of Disbelief. Hunter, on the otherhand, is about people discovering the truth about the WoD and being given the power to stop it.
Setting
Hunters are "created" when a person receives a calling from beings known as "The Messengers" or "Heralds" usually along the lines of "THEY ARE AN ABOMINATION" (Messengers seem to like shouting)followed by some revelation that something is not-quite-right about the world. More often than not this means seeing a Zombie or vampire.
It should be pointed out that the world of Hunter, while the same World of Darkness, feels very different. There are a lot of references to Wraith - which I, an avid Wraith fan - thought was really good.
Anyway, following this revelation, the newly "Imbued" finds that she has the ability to see the truth behind the illusions that monsters and "nasties" have set up to hide themselves.
Creeds
Much like the other WW games, Hunter has the obligatory splats that allow new roleplayers to build a character from a stereotype. I quite like the creeds due to their flexibility. Unlike the Tribes/clans et al, the creeds merely represent the standard direction that a PC can take during a Hunt. Do they want to kill all monsters? Save them? Understand them? etc...
Buffy The RPG-Slayer?
Hunter is not a munchkin game. Sure, there are big guns. But there are costs, legal risks etc.. Hunter brings a human element to the World of Darkness setting. It is about discovering that the world is over-run with corruption and evil, and for some reason normal, everyday people have been chosen to fight back with a few simple powers and your convictions.
System
Now I don't care much for systems. Only ease of use matters to me, and the ST system has this in bucketloads. As with all WW games it is about setting and not system that matters. However, having said this, there are some interesting system points that WW have used that appealed to me.
Edges
There are three vital stats unique to Hunters - Edges, Conviction and Virtues. To discuss one is to discuss them all. Because they all inter-relate.
Conviction is precisely that. It is a power gained through a faith in the Hunter's personal ability. Once a Hunter gains 10 conviction points these can be cashed in for a virtue point.(I'll get to this in a moment.) Conviction is the meat and bones of the game. Spending conviction points allows hunters to see through illusions, recognise monsters, ignore ALL mind and emotion powers and generally battle the forces of darkness. However If a Hunter allows his conviction to drop to zero, then he becomes more susceptible than a normal mortal. Thus it becomes a true juggling act for a Hunter to keep himself fit for battle.
Virtues are listed as Mercy, Vision and Zeal. These allow Hunters to by Edges and also dictates the general "attitude" a Hunter has towards the Hunt. If a particular virtue exceeds the others by too much - the Hunter gets a derangment. This is an example of how the game works against munchkinism.
Edges are bought using Virtue points. Only edges connected to specific virtues can be purchased. For example, if you spent a mercy point, you could only buy a mercy edge. It is also interesting to note that Edges and Virtues cannot be bought with XP or freebies. They can only be earned via roleplaying...
Furthermore, edges can only reach level 4. To get level 5 edges the Storyteller must decide that the Hunter has earned the power...
Edges tend to represent detection abilities and psychic power more often than particularly munchy magical abilities. In play, we found that while useful they tended to be exactly what they claim - an edge - nothing more.
In Summary
While it is possible that Hunter
could be played twink style, Hunters are still mortals, more-or-less, and can be easily killed. This alone prevents it from being a munchkin's game. It is different from other WoD settings as well. There are a great deal of themes involving ethical, social and emotional problems that the Hunters must deal with as well as asking the question - If the supernatural are bad, what are we?
I highly recommend this game to people who like roleplaying over roll-playing. It as heaps of character and ideas that work quite well together. There are some interesting links and hints to Exalted as well...surprise, surprise. Well worth the look.
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(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)