The Hunter Survival Guide was one of the first supplements for Hunter, a 136 page sourcebook which was supposed to be for Hunter what both editions of World of Darkness was for Vampire or Rage Across the World was for Werewolf; in other words a look at the state of the world through the eyes of whatever creature ruled the game line it was written for, with useful information and stuff to be used in your campaign. I can't honestly say that the Hunter Survival Guide lived up to that idea.
Before I begin, I want to warn you that this book suffers the curse of amazingly bad artwork that plagues most of the Hunter line. Not only is the quality so bad for 75% of the artwork that the art director for White Wolf should be punished for paying someone to draw it; at least two pictures (on pages 16 and 108) look like they were put in the wrong book, the former more appropriate for a Wraith, Mage, or Werewolf book, and the latter, with its one-handed gun-toting chick, looking like a picture from an Image comic. There's also one picture with a woman toting a handgun that's literally bigger than her head---can you say "not properly proportioned?" What truly saddens me is that later releases in the Hunter line make this art look good by comparison.
The prologue is a very nice piece of fiction, starring three of the Hunters who appeared in the fiction of the main rulebook, namely Leaf, Oaken, and Lupe. This is an excellent story, having a level of quality that I wish the rest of the book held up to. I won't spoil the details for you, but I do recommend reading it before perusing the fiction in the Redeemer Creedbook, so you won't have any surprises spoiled.
Next is the Introduction chapter, entitled "The Real World." Basically this is a few pages discussing the Internet and why Hunter.net doesn't draw the attention of normal humans. Nothing really noteworthy here, save it contains another reference to the original Hunter.net being knocked out of commission, and apparently restarted by the Messengers. Fine and dandy, except this is about the fifth time in a Hunter book this subject has been brought up and WE STILL HAVE NO IDEA WHO TOOK DOWN THE ORIGINAL HUNTER.NET! Mages? Werewolves? The "ILUVU" virus? I don't know, and frankly I probably wouldn't care if we weren't always being hit over the head with the idea that the Messengers themselves restarted Hunter.net, and the original Hunter.net and its takedown is always mentioned. Out with it, White Wolf.
Chapter One is entitled "Hunter Survival Tips," written by Wayward God45. This is laugh-out loud cool and clever; God45 made my list of the top five best Hunters after this chapter. If you ever see this book in a store just read this chapter and try to suppress the laughs at its over-the-top style. This is without doubt the best part of the book, adding a dark element of humor to the series without losing the underlying tone of horror.
Chapter Two begins the book's overview of the world with Africa, and almost immediately the problems with the book begin to surface. One of the problems with White Wolf that I've had for years is that all too often the politically correct bug strikes them in their descriptions of characters. By this I mean that often characters in a White Wolf game are minority members/physically challenged and or mentally disabled/suffer from a horrific past, and rather than merely being character traits of an individual, they're larger than life aspects that are drummed into us again and again, as if White Wolf is yelling at us "HEY, LOOK! WE HAVE [FILL IN WHATEVER BIT OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IS BEING USED IN THE BOOK YOU'RE READING] IN OUR BOOKS, AND THAT MAKES US COOL, AND IF YOU SAY ANYTHING BAD ABOUT OUR WORK WE'LL SAY IT'S BECAUSE YOU DON'T BELIEVE IN GIVING A PROMINENT ROLE TO [CURRENT BIT OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS BEING USED] IN LITERATURE." Well, it seems as though the folks at White Wolf decided to try and restore the karmic balance by the having the narrator of this chapter being a white supremacist. To be honest, his views and beliefs are portrayed much more realistically than the Politically Correct characters I mentioned earlier, but it still comes off like White Wolf thought having the anti-PC views of the Hunter will balance the PC views found in other books.
I could perhaps forgive this flaw, but this chapter suffers in another, big way. Throughout the overview of the nations the narrator continually gives out the locations of safe houses and aid stations for Hunters across Africa. HELLO? God45's intro, and countless other places in Hunter books, note the importance of not revealing personal info on the web, and the narrator gives out enough info for monsters to stake out most every Hunter-hidehole in Africa. By the end of the chapter it is revealed that the narrator has gone missing, perhaps because of giving out said information, but the fact is that he's described and portrayed as a very intelligent Hunter (albeit one with some very wrong views on society) who would not make such a foolish mistake, reducing my respect for this chapter greatly.
The next chapter covers Asia, so it could be viewed as "Hunter meets Kindred of the East." I read Kindred of the East several months after reading this book, and I will admit much of it made more sense then, but it is written well enough that you don't have to read that book on bloodsuckers to enjoy it. The chapter does have two flaws, however. First, the true identity of Pattern179 is revealed here, which seems odd, as for the most part the Hunter books ssem to occur in chronological order, matching up with the times they were published, and Creedbook Avenger (which came out after Hunter Survival Guide) has Soldier91 working off a "tip" from Pattern 179, something he would never have done if the truth about Pattern had already been revealed. Second, the Hunter narrator of this chapter encounters a shih, a type of monster hunter found in the East who can focus his Chi and often have powers beyond those of mortal men, but no mention is made of whether or not they show up as wrong to Second Sight. Do they show, did this particular shih not have any special powers, or what? There's also a really nice picture on page 54, for those of you who were wondering what I consider good art.
Chapter Four covers Australia. This chapter comes off poorly, owing to the fact that most of the info in this chapter is built around a vision prophecy (produced here with a lot of spacing, so it almost takes up a page, instead of a paragraph or two), analysis of said prophecy, and a half-page of Australian Hunter lingo. The problem in this chapter is that you get two vibes off it. The first is that White Wolf wanted to see if people got interested in this chapter, and if so they planned to release supplements based on it. The second is they might be planning to redo Rage Across Australia, and this was a prequel to it. Either way it leaves me fearful to use the info in the chapter, in case later releases build upon it. Then again, the info is so bad I'd have to rewrite It so much it would bear little resemblance to the original text.
Next up is Europe, which starts out with a bit of fiction involving a "I'm so much more hip and cooler than you" Hunter that made me think I was reading about a Kindred in a Vampire sourcebook; for the slow-witted, that's NOT a complement. This is followed by a very light look at Europe, and some descriptions of events involving monsters (some of which are written with poor grammar, presumably to let us know that the author's native language is not English) and some descriptions of monsters sightings or odd events in some major cities. Given Europe's rich folklore a lot more could have been done with this section, perhaps having one or two major-monster related stories instead of the lame hodge-podge published here. This chapter's really a let down.
Next we go to North America, a chapter with some distinct high and low points. Starting with the low, we find on page 94 that not only are silver bullets readily available at gun shops in the World of Darkness, but so are hollow-point silver rounds. Last I knew hollow points of any kind were illegal in both the WoD and in the real world, so either the author screwed up or Pentex lobbyists have REALLY been working overtime. Page 94 seems to indicate that Virtual Adepts look normal to Second Sight (something that White Wolf tried to explain away later in the Hunter Storytellers Handbook, which only raised more questions than answers) and on that same page a Hunter recounts seeing a member of a religious group display a devastating power, but there is no mention of Sight use to see if said individual is "wrong." This chapter also contains fuel for the "Do Kinfolk show up as wrong to Second Sight" debate (apparently supporting the "no" side of the argument) and there's a Garou in Crinos form speaking English!.
Now on to the good in this chapter. The tale of New Dijon begins here, which is later followed up on in The Walking Dead, and (to a lesser extent) the Innocent and Wayward Creedbooks. There is also a good bit of space devoted to the tale of Ciudad Juarez, which runs through many of the Hunter books. We also get a glimpse of monsters uncovering the existence of Hunters (which is followed up on in the Hermit Creedbook, though you have to pay careful attention to notice it), and an amusing court transcript involving a Hunter and his brush with the law. Some good stuff, evened out by the bad.
The last chapter of this book devoted to world coverage is focused on South America, and (pardon my French) it SUCKS! Imagine someone cribbed some notes from an atlas on South America, threw in some horror fiction that could have just as easily been set in Poland or the United States, and topped it off with some exceedingly poor grammar, ala parts of the Europe chapter as I described above, and you have this section of the book down pat. I could not find a single worthwhile thing in here a few minutes of online or library research could not have uncovered. A total waste is the best way to describe this chapter. There's a very nice illustration on page 126; too bad it should be in the next chapter, which is entitled the "Hunter's Most Wanted."
A vampire, a Bane, and two ghosts (one of whom's description ties into part of The Walking Dead, hinting at what is to come in the World of Darkness metaplot) are profiled and statted in the last chapter of this book. The text of the descriptions is intriguing, and I know I'd like to know more about the Hunters who penned them; hopefully White Wolf will reintroduce them in later products. It seems odd that one of the ghost profiled has killed hundreds of people without attracting Technomancer or other supernatural interests. If you read closely you'll find a description of another New Dijon-type incident. I must say that my respect for the write-ups for the ghosts dropped after reading The Walking Dead, specifically due to the rules for spirits' anchors in the living rules that are in that book; skip over to my review of that book to see what I mean.
So is Hunter Survival Guide worth the cover price? I honestly can't recommend it. There's not enough meat here for Storytellers' to use it like World of Darkness/Rage Across the World could be used to run worldwide campaigns, and players will find very little information they can use in their play. Maybe if you can find a used copy on sale, or if you're a Hunter fanatic, you should pick it up, but otherwise sink your money into a Hunter book of higher quality, like Judge or Martyr.
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