After a few years of being a gamer you come to some conclusions. One is that a gamer always has a favorite game line, and they will always quest to have everything from that line. In fulfillment of that quest gamers soon come to a second conclusion: every game line has at least one book that is pure and utter crap. Even knowing said book(s) is (are) crap, diehard fans will buy the book, knowing that if they don't buy it now they'll have to pay an arm and a leg a few year down the line, to "complete their collection."
Do you have an idea of where this review is going yet?
Hunter: Apocrypha is a notebook-sized book with a faux-leather cover. In the World of Darkness the book was written by the Visionary Fyodor, and published by the Hermit known online as Violin99. This could have ben a really great player handout, allowing players to get glimpses into the World of Darkness through a Hunter's eyes. If it was well-written, Hunter: Apocrypha could have been a perfect introduction to Hunter for new players. Instead we get what appears to be an attempt to put as little work into a book as possible, while still charging full price for it.
I will start with the actual design of the book, which is supposed to be a collection of writings and drawings of Fyodor, along with some commentary by Violin99 and the occasional newspaper clipping or such collected by Fyodor. To start with, Fyodor's "handwriting" varies from section to section, with three different styles of writing supposedly coming from the same man. Being that it is supposed to be handwritten, the various fonts are larger than normally found in White Wolf products, meaning less text is needed to fill up more space. Of course, the extra large margins in this book also help to eat up space, along with Fyodor's "illustrations." Many years ago I was given a copy of X1 The Isle of Dread for Dungeons and Dragons. One of the maps was of a tribal village, and the paths on the map appeared to be drawn in black crayon, giving the young boy that was me at the time the brief thought that I could get a job at TSR crayoning maps for them. After looking at Hunter: Apocrypha I wonder if there are positions in White Wolf's art department for "Scribblers" and "Doodler." There are a few (VERY FEW) pieces of semi-quality art, but most are utter crap. Some would argue such a style of artwork adds to the realism, showing the author is not an artist. I say that for $14.95 US dollars we deserve some quality.
My, I almost forgot my complaints about Violin99's comments. You see, his thoughts show up in little boxes, often isolated on a page by itself, at one point including an entire page in which all Violin99 says is "Here, Here." Apparently the author thought such bits of wisdom were so insightful that no other text should be on the page, for fear of distracting from their importance. More of the "Less Bang for the Buck" mentality prevailing throughout this book.
Enough with the presentation of the book and how flawed it was. Now I'll explain why the contents of the book are so terribly lacking. Well, we get an explanation of the "true" history of Hunters; where they came from, their origins in prerecorded history, that sort of thing. I've been told by several people that have read Exalted that this portion of Apocrypha read to them more like a teaser for Exalted than a Hunter supplement. I can't back that up, having never read Exalted, but after reading the information here I felt disappointed. In the main rulebook and Hunter Storyteller Companion there was a good level of information on the "secret history" of the Hunters, while still being general enough to fit the way you wanted it to into your campaign. Hunter: Apocrypha seems to stifle such freedom, setting down in stone details of the Hunters origins, details which to me are very unappealing.
Also we get the story of Fyodor's imbuing, his dealings with a mage, an inhuman experiment on a fellow Hunter (followed up on in the Visionary Creedbook), and the first mention of the fire woman and shadow man, later described in the Hermit Creedbook. Oh, yes, the first signs of the Apocalypse are described. The ease with which I gloss over all this should let you know how poor the contents of this book are.
There's no way I can recommend Hunter: Apocrypha to anyone. I am certain that White Wolf could have taken the best portions (such as they are) of this book and done them in the style of the mini-books published for Aberrant/Trinity, in a 16 page, $4.95 format. As it is this is something that should be avoided at all costs. Your wallet and your sanity will thank you for it.
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