Hunter-Book Defender was the second Creed book released for Hunter, detailing those followers of Zeal who devote themselves to protecting someone or something. Despite suffering from low production values with regards to most of the art, and a problem with some text reminiscent of problems in both Avenger and Hermit, this Creed book is worth your time and money.
The Defender books starts out as the Avenger book did, with several pages designed to resemble web pages from the Vigil website, the headquarters for the Defender mailing list. While enjoyable and entertaining, it did not seem as meaty as the version found in the Avenger book. It seems to have more wasted black space that could have been filled with graphics and text, and it has two pages devoted to displaying a whopping sixteen web addresses, two of which do not actually exist. Can you say "filler" and "taking up space needlessly?" I knew you could. I noticed that after this book White Wolf layed off using this web approach to the Creed books for a several volumes---I like to think they took enough flak in the layout that they decided to hold off on using it for a while.
The fiction prologue is next, staring Guadalupe Droin, AKA Cabbie22, who first appeared in the Hunter rulebook. This Chicago-based Defender shines in the tale of her problem with a vampire, and between this story and her write-up in the back of this book Cabbie22 earned a place as one of my favorite Hunters.
The Introduction is next, pretty much the same as any other Creedbook's introduction, with nothing especially noteworthy.
Chapter one covers the usual "Why are we Hunters" stuff found in the first chapter of every Creed book, plus the views on supernaturals commonly found in later chapters of Creed books. I believe the reason for the latter being here is that the authors felt that with the story they had planned to tell in later chapters it would be too disruptive to suddenly interrupt it with discussion on supernatural creatures. One thing you will notice as you read this chapter is that one font, that used for the Hunter Oursine, fades in and out in terms of its darkness, making it hard to read sometimes, though nothing near as bad as the font problems found in the Avenger book. It continues on in this way throughout the rest of this book, and I notice that in later chapters it has a squeezed look at several points, as if during layout certain paragraphs were dropped to a smaller font size to squeeze in everything on a page. Similar problems can be found in the Hermit book, and its noteworthy that the font in that book is similar to the font in this book that has all the problems. If White Wolf is having such problems with it and its kin, why use it?
Chapter two kicks things off into high gear as one Hunter accuses another of murder. The apparently well-educated, prim & proper Frenchwoman known as Oursine113 charges that redneck, potty-mouthed Hannibal137 killed four innocent people. This accusation begins a heated debate amongst Hunters, on both how to police themselves, and, indeed, if they should even police themselves; with so many views on what the Hunters' true purpose is, who can be sure their views are the right ones? A large portion of this chapter concerns the back and forth posts between Oursine and Hannibal, and as the chapter progresses, we find the foul-mouthed Hannibal may be more trustworthy and grounded in reality than proper Oursine. Some people who have read this section have taken this dispute to be a kind of mirroring of the differences between hardcore, monsters-are-cool World of Darkness fans, and hardcore, monsters are mankind's oppressors Hunter fans. I'll stay out of this one, for now, and let you be the judge.
Chapter Three covers Hunter ideology and views, dominated again by Oursine and Hannibal. Again, very well-written, and very entertaining as Hannibal pokes holes in Oursine's writings.
Chapter Four brings in Cabbie22 to fill in for one of the posters in the previous chapters, lending some new perspectives from previous sections of the book. In this chapter we get the "Views on Other Hunters" found in almost every Creed book. One nice touch about this section is that for once a Hunter misviews another Hunter with regard to their beliefs, lumping an Avenger in with a Defender. I also respect this chapter for actually admitting that Martyrs can be more than "pain is good" type characters, something a lot of Creed books have a problem doing. I was a little disturbed by the fact that the headers for each Creed descriptions at times seem to be there solely for the reader's benefit, and other times it seems like they are posted there by the writers themselves; I think this is due to multiple writers working on this section. While not a very bad thing, it is rather annoying, as sometimes it seems a paragraph begins out of nowhere.
Chapter Five is the rules portion of the book, with new Edges (all very nice), new Nature/Demeanors, new traits (also very nice, fans of traps and strategic planning will like these) and new Backgrounds. A background called Fraternity is introduced, and is much like the Pawn Background introduced in the Avenger sourcebook---very nice for roleplaying, but why should I pay the same amount of Background points for help which may dick me over later, when I could use those same points to buy Resources, Allies, or any number of things which don't have the aura of mystery surrounding them? Perhaps Fraternity and Pawn should have been Merits (Flaws?). Among the flaws in this section is that the spending of Conviction by Hunters is again described as though characters actually have a little piece of paper with their current Conviction ratings on it, ready to cash them in once they hit the magic number ten. Also, the chapter has the "camps" section on Defender viewpoint; basically in each Creedbook White Wolf has decided to break all Hunters in a Creed as belonging to one of three vast viewpoints. Aside from my normal heartache over this section (namely, why do this after harping so much that Creeds are general descriptions, not hard and fast classes) I don't like how they are written as though Hunters get to get on the main line with the Messengers and pick exactly what powers they get. While some Storytellers may allow players to do so, this is written as though it is the characters who get that option in the game world. There's also a new Derangement introduced, Munchausen by Proxy, that seems so ridiculous compared to the tone of Hunter that I can't believe they published it. Those Hunters with this Derangement do such things as dress up as monsters and pretend to be vulnerable to monster weaknesses to draw out creatures and to alert normal people to the dangers of them. Yup, that makes perfect sense, and fits in with the tone of Hunter....
The Defender special power is detailed in this chapter, and they possess the ability to create Charms, which give additional soak dice to ordinary people or objects when attacked by the supernatural. However, other Hunters can't benefit from them. While from a game balance standpoint I understand that, the decision to prevent Hunters from benefiting from this power is bad for two reasons. First, the way the text banning Hunters from using Charms is written in such a manner that it sounds as though Hunters are not normal people---I'm of the belief that Hunters are ordinary people, albeit those who have powers channeled through them. Second of all, in earlier chapters it is briefly touched on that some Defenders choose to protect other Hunters as their charges----why wouldn't they be able to use their powers to protect them, as other Defenders can? It clearly states in the rules system for making Charms that Defenders cannot create a Charm for someone or something they do not feel a strong emotional bond to. This is more than enough to prevent an abuse of Charms by Hunters.
Chapter six has new templates for Hunters (I'm fond of the Parent template myself, a good example of how Martyr and Defender beliefs can overlap) and details on prominent Defenders. Cabbie22, Hannibal137 and others are all profiled, though Oursine is strangely missing (oh, so sad, too bad ;)) The Rose Foundation is also mentioned, a mysterious organization that somehow finds out when Hunters need financial backing and gets it too them. There was originally scheduled for the end of 2001 a Hunter sourcebook detailing the Foundation and other Hunter organizations, but it never materialized, so it may be years before we see the Foundation fleshed out beyond what we find in this book.
I can't end this review without mentioning how, for the most part, the art in this book sucks. The character template and prominent Defender art is for the most part good, but except for a stray piece now and then the majority of the artwork in this book is terrible. There are two pieces of artwork where I would like to sit down with the artist and ask them exactly what the hell is supposed to be going on in the pictures. Much of the artwork is rough, with at least one piece looking as though the artist began to shade things at random, then erased some of it, and then scribbled some shadowing onto it before it went to the printer, regardless of whether or not there should be shading there (some of it made me think of a child going outside the lines in a coloring book) There's also problems with proportions in some pictures, and one full-page illustration that it took me about three minutes to figure out what was supposed to be happening in it, owing to the artist's inability to create any illusion of depth in his work. I'm certain some of you will respond to my comments with the phrase "Those that can't, criticize." To you I respond that I may be unable to draw, but I've never handed in my poop-like sketches into anyone and expected a paycheck for it, as several of the artists on this book did. I really don't know why the art standards on so many of the Hunter books are so low---I get the impression White Wolf was trying to go below budget, and just hired anyone who can hold a pencil between their fingers or their toes. At least unlike the Avenger book there's only one character who looks like a famous individual from a video game.
Despite my art and font gripes I urge you to pick this book up. It's quality writing and deserving of a place in your collection.
Go to forum!
(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)