As I noted in my review of the Hunter Players Guide, White Wolf has the habit of bringing out three core books for their games: the actual core rulebook, a players guide, and a storytellers handbook. This handbook rounds out the trio for the Hunter line.
This review will first cover the presentation (style) and then the contents (substance) of the book, closing with a conclusion. If you're impatient for that conclusion here it is: this is a very good book. As with the Players Guide, you don't need it, as you can easily built a campaign with just the core rulebook, but is very, very useful. I don't say that your campaign will suck without it: I say that your campaign will be even better if you use it.
The presentation
Like the Players Guide, the Handbook is a sturdy hardcover book, with a full-colour cover and black-and-white interior. Cashing in with a handsome 220 pages, this a nice, thick book, with plenty of room for discussing a lot of subjects. There's is a lot of text in the book, as the amount of art is relatively small. Compared to other White Wolf books like, say, the Hunter core rulebook, there are few illustrations. Almost every square inch of the pages is used, with few headers and some sidebars to break up the text.
What's more, the illustrations are more to my liking than those in the core rulebook are. The number of guns and axe-wielding Rambo's can be counted on one hand. Strangely enough, the cover, depicting a hunter about to shoot a vampire's head off with a shotgun, is perhaps the most notorious offender. Hmm, that's not really fair to the artist, Glenn Fabry: the hunter is obviously hurt, and there is a pair of prone hunters in the back. Hey, that girl might even be the one depicted on the Players Guide. Cool.
Jason Alexander, Mike Chaney, Jeff Holt, Chris Shy, J. Stowe and Kieran Yanner split the interior art amongst themselves, whereas Steve Prescott made the chapter frontispieces. Each artist got to work on a single section in the book. Chris Shy did a good job here, and his moody, greyish pictures suit Hunter amazingly well. Jeff Holt provided the monster pieces, and his (watercolour?) pieces are fitting, as well. I'm not so happy about the pictures in the last chapter. While they're not credited properly, I guess they're Mike Chaney's handiwork. I think this kind of artwork may give Hunter's art direction a bad name: harsh, overly stylised and overdone. In some pictures, the sketch-lines aren't even erased properly. Steve Prescott's pieces are better, even as they're also in a pure black/white scheme.
The text is again written by a small crowd of writers and is presented as a collection of articles. This time, however, the text is more of a unity than in the Guide: there are few repetitions, and the articles are longer. The articles often begin with a vignette: a small story, about three paragraphs long, introducing some items to be discussed in the article. There are also examples inserted at some places, to explain some concepts. This, together with the vignettes, breathes life in the text. A good thing, for the articles can be dry to read.
I found the tone of the book very pleasing, and never did I get the idea that I was talked down to, or that I was shoved too much into a "one true way of storytelling". The authors talk directly to you as the Storyteller. There are quite a few references to other Hunter books, in particular the core rulebook and the Players Guide. The references to the creedbooks and other supplements can easily ignored, except for one instance. The monster templates refer to powers defined in the Hunter Storytellers Companion and are sometimes rather incomprehensible. I guess that's unavoidable, this being the "uber-book" and all.
All in all, thumbs up for the presentation.
The contents
The piece of opening fiction is nicely done, with a teenager being imbued. A teenager is imbued here, and shows the fact that the chosen ones are a diverse lot. It first builds the characters place in said world, sketching his environment and hopes, and then shatters it. It goes to show that Hunter is a very gritty setting — I'll get back to that.
The Introduction is not just that, it's far more. If you're used to skipping introductions, well, you may not want to do that here. In this section the truth about the Messengers is told. Yes, you heard that right. Of course, not everything is told, and it's still incomplete, but you get to know who the Messengers are, what their goals are, and what part the imbued play in their schemes. This is an excellent move from the developer, Ken Cliffe, as it gives the storyteller something to work with. What's even better, this "meta-plot information" can easily be ignored. If you don't like it, just skip it and continue as you were. I'm glad that the developer decided that storytellers are mature enough to receive this information, and leaves it up to them to use it as they see fit.
The rest of the introduction is occupied with a Frequently Asked Questions, with answers to queries like "How many edges can a hunter activate simultaneously?" and giving some statistics on the kind of monsters hunters encounter. The final question was one I've asked myself: "What approach is taken to the books' illustrations?" The "Rambo-ish" art was apparently a move to cater for a larger audience: "We hoped that by offering 'Rambo' art and 'personal' content in the rulebook, we could capture all interests." I'm glad that one's finally answered.
Chapter one is called Unveiling the Night and provides "guidance and tips on creating convincing antagonists and monsters that befit the imbued." And that it does admirably. The first article gives solid advice on building an antagonist, and takes three paths to do so: the organisation, the conspiracy and the climber. How did it come to be? How does it support itself? What is its chain of command? This is stuff every GM should read, whether directing Hunter or another RPG.
After this we get advice on how and where to use which monsters, complete with several templates. Which monsters are appropriate to what kind of themes? Also there is an excellent 2-page sidebar on why hunters are largely ignored by the supernatural, a thing that always bugged me.
The article "Monster versus Monstrous" is entirely built around the question "Who Is a Monster?" and contemplates on using normal people, or even imbued themselves, as antagonists. After all, is a child-rapist not just as evil, maybe even more so, as an possessing ghost. Food for thought, and just the thing to push your chronicle further.
Creating Human Drama is the apt title of the second chapter. It gives advice on how to make a human character, how to play it, how to keep this interesting, and so on. It covers the imbuing, the first few sessions, and how to take it there. Throughout the chapter, there are excellent sidebars, which give specific advice to experienced White Wolf players on how to 'get'
Hunter.
If you're beginning to see a theme here, you're right. I like this book. It covers all the things you need on how to use
Hunter, not just in the way the authors want you to use it (although that's certainly a major issue here), but also in your own way. It gives you tons of advice, again not just applicable to this game, but to other RPGs as well. How to move from those first sessions? How do I keep it realistic, but still fun? How do I use injuries not just as punishment, but as a way to propel the plot further? How do I keep the characters, and the players for that matter, together?
The thing with this chapter, and the book as a whole, is that it made me appreciate the game more and more. It gives you an idea of the tremendous effort the designers seemingly put in it. All those pieces in the core rulebook fit together here. It's impressive. And yet, it also made me realise that this is not a game I'll play for long, if at all. At least, not the way the authors envision it. It's just too gut-wrenching, too down-to-earth, and too gritty. But hey, your opinion may vary: maybe you like those things more than I do.
But before I lose myself in euphoria and contemplation, let me give you an overview of the final chapter, Guides on the Hunt. It's divided into 4 articles. The first discusses the Messengers and how to handle (or ignore) them in your chronicle. How do you use the hunter code, visions, patrons, edges, and so on. Nothing really inspiring here, except for the last option: using the Messengers as enemies.
The second part is discusses "Hunters and the Internet." Mind you, not only hunter-net, but other sites also, along with mailing lists and other related stuff. Why use the Internet, why not, how to handle players who want to use the net when you're not ready. The coolest thing was the sidebar "The Easy Method": why not use various (parts of) sourcebooks as online resources the characters just stumbled upon — now you can use all that in-character stuff on another level. (By the way, this is one of those places where things just fall into place, like I said in the previous paragraph.) This is very useful material.
Another inspiring section talks about styles of play. It gives you examples of various styles of play (action-adventure, espionage, etc) and defines the core elements of those. What exactly makes a whodunit? This is another section that should be useful for GMs in general, not just Hunter Storytellers.
The book closes with an article on location-based chronicles. It shows that not every chronicle should be character-driven, or plot-driven. The article also warns about the pitfalls: for example, characters aren't the stars of the story anymore, and some players could object to that.
Conclusion
As I said in the second paragraph: this is a good book. It is crammed with useful advice, not just for directing Hunter, but also for other RPGs. Some of this stuff, and I think of the stuff on styles of play and building a convincing antagonist, is required reading for every GM. A really experienced GM may have seen all this before, but I sure didn't, and certainly not in one single book. My substance rating is therefore a full 5 out of 5.
The presentation doesn't merit that high a mark, but still is very good. However, generally good artwork, no layout errors and very little wasted space assure a proper 4 out of 5.
If you (intend to) run Hunter, do yourself a favour and buy this book. It made me appreciate the game more, as many things fall into place. Even if you don't run Hunter, you may want to pick it up.
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