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First Contact is a book that allows the GM to introduce the Hunters to humans who have hunted the supernatural in their own way. The Hunters Hunted is an old line of books that includes The Inquisition, Project Twilight, Halls of the Arcanum, The Autumn People, and Mediums: Speakers with the Dead.

The book updates these organizations but does so in a Hunter viewpoint. E-mails, fictional encounters, and visual aids show what most often are random, chance meetings, between these groups are like.

The book is broken up into Five Chapters: The Inquisition, Project Twilight, The Arcanum, The Dauntan, and Secret Societies. Each chapter is divided into separate sections: Fictional, Structure, Coals, Methods, Themes, Meetings (broken down even further into First Contact, Common Reactions, and First Impressions), Likely Consequences, Storyteller Information, and example characters.

Other important pieces and provides the GM with ideas on what would happen if a member of the organization was Imbued and why would the organizations work with each other or against each other. For those GMs who feel really bold, there are abbreviated rules for making characters from each faction. In most cases, the special abilities that these people possess, used to heal or harm, are mainly done up in Hunter Terms which is good for simplicity sake, but bad for diversity.

In some cases, the authors go way overboard with the e-mail messages. For example, the Inquisition is almost more novel fiction than game material. It goes over the first encounter, numerous e-mail messages, some more fiction. Bits here and there provide the GM with some historical background and of course some fictional background including the different factions within the organization, but I want game goods, not fiction.

In this aspect, my favorite sections are probably the ones on Project Twilight and the Arcanum. Project Twilight isn’t a single organization or even a group of linked organizations. Rather it’s a name given to any government organization that knows there are ‘things’ in the dark and attempts to find out more about them and when possible, eliminate them. Now there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of difference between the organization here, SAD, and the NSA under Secret Societies at first glance, but it’s more apparent that NSA is truly secret while SAD is merely a small unit legally recognized. GMs can have all sorts of fun making their own little versions of characters from well-known television shows to help and hinder the characters.

This section does a nice job of hitting all the main questions that a GM must ask himself prior to making such an organization. How big is it? What type of resources does it have? What will they do if they discover what Hunters are?

The Arcanum seems a little confused at first. The book talks about how they keep trying to raise the awareness of humanity on the super natural through television, books, and the internet, and then talks about how obscure and hidden they are. Once you get over that little factor, figuring that perhaps it’s individuals in the Arcanum, not the organization itself, then it’s all good. The interesting thing here though is that the Arcanum doesn’t seek conflict with the supernatural, merely to study it. This can put them at the opposite end of many Hunter characters whose only goal that day is to send another one screaming back into the pit.

The section on Secret societies provides the GM with updates and background information on the Orphic Circle, a group that I’m assuming has had a lot to do with Wraith. In addition, the Benandanti, the good old speakers of the dead, and the NSA are covered.

I was a little disappointed that no mention of the two factions from Demon Hunter X didn’t make it into the book, but from previous browsing through other Hunter books, I have seen a few mentions of them made. I’m also a big fan of the old Sorcerer book with the older, non-flashy types of magic and outside of the Orphic Circle, which really seems to have more ties in with the upcoming Demon game than Sorcerer, there seems to be little acknowledgement of that type of character. I guess in some ways I was looking for it to be a Hunter in the World of Darkness as opposed to being a book focused on Hunters meeting human hunters.

The book is laid out in standard two-column format most of the time with good illustrations breaking up the text. Text density itself is fair and white space doesn't run rampant except a few cases at the end of a chapter.

As per most White Wolf products, chapters are graced with a full page illustration to help set the theme of the chapter. My favorite here is the Arcanum where a group of scholars and perhaps a few Hunters are awed by some creature that looks like it came straight out of a Mythos novel by H. P. Lovecraft. The only thing I don't like about the organziation is how sometimes information for the Storyteller is boxed in gray, and othertimes just part of the text. On a personal note, I hate ads in a book and this one has three pages of 'em. The book is huge though and I'm willing to overlook it since the product is under twenty bones before tax.

Part of the problem is that the book really works best if you have a full understanding of the World of Darkness. I’m not too familiar with Changeling for example, so when it starts talking about the Dauntan, a race of goblins who seek to end the Dreaming and make things more mundane, I’m lost. Can I use it? Sure. The examples are clear cut and the NPCs provide solid reference work to base any decisions I make. Is some player whose actually played that game going to wonder if I know what I’m doing? Yup.

This happens even when it’s just talking about how to make the characters or using Hunter with said information. Hunter Storyteller Guide? Hunter Player Companion? Book Y from Planet Zion? How many books does this thing require to get maximum value out of? Mind you the book works about 90% without those references, but it’s annoying to have over half a dozen products, some of them not in print anymore, referenced.

The book works well for introducing and using, infrequently, different organizations. If used too often, the intrigue tends to fade and worse, since the book doesn’t provide a lot of detailed information and no maps, leaves a lot of work in the GM’s hands.

Despite these issues I have, the book does have a lot of value to GMs who want to add some more human elements into his campaign. The GM advice on showcasing the contrasting abilities of the human organizations, who are often better funded, trained, and equipped, with the supernatural Hunters, are things that GMs need to know. It’s a small world and getting smaller all the time. To have a product that updates several older books into one worldview for one setting saves the GM a lot of time and energy and hey, it’s cheaper than renting old X-Files DVDs to get a proper atmosphere.

First Contact
First Contact Capsule Review by Joe G Kushner on 01/09/02 Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty) Want to add some X-Files style organizations to your Hunter Game? Read on. Product: First Contact Author: Carl Bowen, Ed Hall, James Maliszewski, etc.. Category: RPG Company/Publisher: White Wolf Line: Hunter Cost: 19.95 Page count: 144 Year published: 2002 ISBN: 158846704x SKU: WW8131 Comp copy?: yes Capsule Review by Joe G Kushner on 01/09/02 Genre tags: Modern day Horror	First Contact is a book that allows the GM to introduce the Hunters to humans who have hunted the supernatural in their own way. The Hunters Hunted is an old line of books that includes The Inquisition, Project Twilight, Halls of the Arcanum, The Autumn People, and Mediums: Speakers with the Dead. The book updates these organizations but does so in a Hunter viewpoint. E-mails, fictional encounters, and visual aids show what most often are random, chance meetings, between these groups are like. The book is broken up into Five Chapters: The Inquisition, Project Twilight, The Arcanum, The Dauntan, and Secret Societies. Each chapter is divided into separate sections: Fictional, Structure, Coals, Methods, Themes, Meetings (broken down even further into First Contact, Common Reactions, and First Impressions), Likely Consequences, Storyteller Information, and example characters. Other important pieces and provides the GM with ideas on what would happen if a member of the organization was Imbued and why would the organizations work with each other or against each other. For those GMs who feel really bold, there are abbreviated rules for making characters from each faction. In most cases, the special abilities that these people possess, used to heal or harm, are mainly done up in Hunter Terms which is good for simplicity sake, but bad for diversity. In some cases, the authors go way overboard with the e-mail messages. For example, the Inquisition is almost more novel fiction than game material. It goes over the first encounter, numerous e-mail messages, some more fiction. Bits here and there provide the GM with some historical background and of course some fictional background including the different factions within the organization, but I want game goods, not fiction. In this aspect, my favorite sections are probably the ones on Project Twilight and the Arcanum. Project Twilight isn’t a single organization or even a group of linked organizations. Rather it’s a name given to any government organization that knows there are ‘things’ in the dark and attempts to find out more about them and when possible, eliminate them. Now there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of difference between the organization here, SAD, and the NSA under Secret Societies at first glance, but it’s more apparent that NSA is truly secret while SAD is merely a small unit legally recognized. GMs can have all sorts of fun making their own little versions of characters from well-known television shows to help and hinder the characters. This section does a nice job of hitting all the main questions that a GM must ask himself prior to making such an organization. How big is it? What type of resources does it have? What will they do if they discover what Hunters are? The Arcanum seems a little confused at first. The book talks about how they keep trying to raise the awareness of humanity on the super natural through television, books, and the internet, and then talks about how obscure and hidden they are. Once you get over that little factor, figuring that perhaps it’s individuals in the Arcanum, not the organization itself, then it’s all good. The interesting thing here though is that the Arcanum doesn’t seek conflict with the supernatural, merely to study it. This can put them at the opposite end of many Hunter characters whose only goal that day is to send another one screaming back into the pit. The section on Secret societies provides the GM with updates and background information on the Orphic Circle, a group that I’m assuming has had a lot to do with Wraith. In addition, the Benandanti, the good old speakers of the dead, and the NSA are covered. I was a little disappointed that no mention of the two factions from Demon Hunter X didn’t make it into the book, but from previous browsing through other Hunter books, I have seen a few mentions of them made. I’m also a big fan of the old Sorcerer book with the older, non-flashy types of magic and outside of the Orphic Circle, which really seems to have more ties in with the upcoming Demon game than Sorcerer, there seems to be little acknowledgement of that type of character. I guess in some ways I was looking for it to be a Hunter in the World of Darkness as opposed to being a book focused on Hunters meeting human hunters. The book is laid out in standard two-column format most of the time with good illustrations breaking up the text. Text density itself is fair and white space doesn't run rampant except a few cases at the end of a chapter. As per most White Wolf products, chapters are graced with a full page illustration to help set the theme of the chapter. My favorite here is the Arcanum where a group of scholars and perhaps a few Hunters are awed by some creature that looks like it came straight out of a Mythos novel by H. P. Lovecraft. The only thing I don't like about the organziation is how sometimes information for the Storyteller is boxed in gray, and othertimes just part of the text. On a personal note, I hate ads in a book and this one has three pages of 'em. The book is huge though and I'm willing to overlook it since the product is under twenty bones before tax. Part of the problem is that the book really works best if you have a full understanding of the World of Darkness. I’m not too familiar with Changeling for example, so when it starts talking about the Dauntan, a race of goblins who seek to end the Dreaming and make things more mundane, I’m lost. Can I use it? Sure. The examples are clear cut and the NPCs provide solid reference work to base any decisions I make. Is some player whose actually played that game going to wonder if I know what I’m doing? Yup. This happens even when it’s just talking about how to make the characters or using Hunter with said information. Hunter Storyteller Guide? Hunter Player Companion? Book Y from Planet Zion? How many books does this thing require to get maximum value out of? Mind you the book works about 90% without those references, but it’s annoying to have over half a dozen products, some of them not in print anymore, referenced. The book works well for introducing and using, infrequently, different organizations. If used too often, the intrigue tends to fade and worse, since the book doesn’t provide a lot of detailed information and no maps, leaves a lot of work in the GM’s hands. Despite these issues I have, the book does have a lot of value to GMs who want to add some more human elements into his campaign. The GM advice on showcasing the contrasting abilities of the human organizations, who are often better funded, trained, and equipped, with the supernatural Hunters, are things that GMs need to know. It’s a small world and getting smaller all the time. To have a product that updates several older books into one worldview for one setting saves the GM a lot of time and energy and hey, it’s cheaper than renting old X-Files DVDs to get a proper atmosphere.