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In Short

The Good: Spirits are clearly explained, and the mechanics for both spirits and werewolves are easy to implement at the table.

The Bad: While this is certainly a useful book, I was disappointed that it didn't take lycanthropes and spirits into any interesting new directions. Some portions are bland by necessity, as they struggle to present very general ideas for werewolves in order to be accessible to everyone.

The Physical Thing

Under the Cover

Chapter One The Untamed Storm - 42 pages.

Spirit Slayers kicks off with a discussion of shape changers in history and mythology. While providing examples from history the book goes on to provide a variety of interesting stories and plot hooks, thereby supporting a Chronicle from the very beginning. Skin wearing, canibalism, bestiality, and all sorts of dark behaviors are featured as providing werecreatures with their existence. While not every tale is particularly thrilling, the large mix of ideas here is great because it means there will be at least one or two ideas that every reader finds appealing.

My favorite story involves a 1909 jungle expedition to discover the Orange Pendek, a particularly large ape. The expedition brutalizes the apes it encounters until a group of unusually large apes, wereapes of some sort. They kill the expedition, except for the sole surviving writer, and remain deep in the jungle where they have always lived. It's a great tale and it does a good job of emphasizing both the savagery and animal cunning of many werecreatures.

More attention to spirits would have been welcome, but on the whole Spirit Slayers starts off working to inspire the reader to bring in strange and, at times, antagonistic shape shifters to their Hunter game which is exactly what I would expect it to do.

Chapter Two Sheep's Clothing - 56 pages.

We start anew with a focus on cells, Compacts, and Conspiracies as they relate to spirits and shapeshifters. My biggest criticism for this content is that it's fairly generic and, at times, just not terribly interesting. I don't believe this to be the fault of the author but of the approach to the content. If you're already in Null Mysteriis then of course you're looking for an explanation for werewolfism. A few ideas are batted around, but in the World of Darkness's continuing efforts to avoid any true answer we're left with just a couple of vague suggestions that don't really assist with using the group at all. Ultimately, the handling of these groups goes nowhere as their discussion is purely stereotypical and completely foreseeable in light of their entries in Hunter: The Vigil.

Fortunately, every entry also contains a few plot hooks (up to a full page for some). While every single one of these plot hooks won't work for your game, a lot of them are interesting and just the thing needed to kick start a game when the Storyteller is having trouble finding inspiration. This definitely helps to counter balance the actual write ups, and it's exactly the sort of thing I would hope to find when casting around for ideas to include in a new Chronicle.

Three new Compacts are included, and I generally like them. Bear Lodge seemed a little weak at first, as the concept of “those who hunt the most dangerous game” is just about as vanilla as it gets for werewolf hunters. However, the author did a good job with the idea and the group seems to have enough variation and infighting that I'm likely to include them in future Hunter games.

The Illuminated Brotherhood is my personal favorite, as the entire Compact is based around survivors of pharmacological experimentation. Their brains have been fried, and maybe along the way they were enlightened a bit as well. Certainly not a novel idea, the great thing about this Compact is how harsh it is. The mortality rate is through the roof, and it seems as if a few academics are pulling the strings. Maybe the experiments never even ended! Their connection to the World of Darkness is much more focused on spirits, with attention given to altered consciousness enabling spirit interaction.

The Talbot Group is also focused much more heavily on spirits. This is an odd Compact that is heavily focused on redeeming the spirit possessed. They approach the matter in various ways, but typically with an emphasis on directly combating the spirits and/or using psychology to try and save the targeted individual. It's a particularly interesting group in that they're actively trying to help “wolf children” and others touched by spirits, but some are even open to alliances with spirits in order to protect humanity from the worst of the lot.

The new Conspiracy, Les Mysteres, is interesting. With a strong Mexican flavor, Les Mysteres represents all of the various spirit worshiping groups throughout the world. Those who take spirits into themselves or commune with spirits belong, and they use this insight to work against less savory spirits. Unfortunately for the Conspiracy members, Les Mysteres seems to be being used by spirits to take down werewolves and make the world easier for spirits to inhabit. For members of the Conspiracy the focus on constantly slaying monsters is noble and righteous, but over time they may discover that they have been puppets dancing to the plans of others.

Chapter Three Silver Bullets - 58 pages.

Herein lie the tools for defeating werewolves, spirits, and all such things that go bump in the night. New Tactics are introduced, of course, but the good news here is that these tactics are a little more interesting. While there are still a few I feel would be better handled with the core rules instead of a special Tactic, on the whole I'm much happier with the lot included than those in previous Hunter supplements. Disarm, for example, initially struck me as one of the many Tactics better handled by existing rules. However, this Tactic does more than merely take a werecreature's weapon away. It can represent counter magic nullifying the power of the object and any other group attempt to remove held items and stored magic from the adversary. While not all of these Tactics fulfill my requirement that they do something not easily accomplished with existing mechanics, all of them are at least very focused on taking down werewolves and spirits.

A smattering of new Merits and Equipment also add to a hunter's arsenal. I particularly like the four dot Null which causes the character to be a spiritual void. Not only does this prevent possession, it also scares the crap out of spirits. Any hunter group would benefit from having at least one cell member who can not be directly influenced by spirits, just as they would benefit from a stockpile of bear mace. Yes, bear mace is one of the equipment items introduced and while it initially struck me as a little silly I have to say that it does make sense for a group going up against werewolves. The other additions are similarly worthwhile, though the real focus here is on Tactics and Endowments.

Speaking of Endowments, about two per Conspiracy have been included. They're all focused on werewolves and spirits and sport a moderate difference in power. The Binding of St. Amabilis, a Benediction, really struck me as brutal since it completely neutralizes all werewolf regeneration and healing so long as the werewolves can hear it. That has the potential to make a battle go much faster. My favorite addition, however, is Familiar Betrayal. This Castigation power enables the hunter to bind the pack's totem spirit to himself and force it to work against the pack. Truly, there is no more dangerous group for werewolves to encounter than a well armed and well prepared pack of hunters.

Rites du Cheval is the new Endowment belonging to the Les Mysteres. It involves taking in spirits to sue their power in order to manifest various supernatural effects. Certain unusual actions are often performed as part of the power activation in order to appease the spirit. These powers are also notable because they're more general, sufficiently so that a character could still do well in a Chronicle lacking werewolves (but not one lacking spirits). That said, there's still a strong werewolf focus and a character using these options in a more general Chronicle will only have one or two powers per tier to choose from.

The remainder of chapter three focuses on creating werewolves and spirits. The goal here is to have a simplified but customizable system for creating these allies and antagonists without needing to turn to the Werewolf: The Forsaken rules. To that end they're very successful. Werewolves have simple shape changing rules, modifications for different forms, a power stat (Primal Urge) that governs their general supernatural strength, and a variety of different powers. Want a badass scout? Take City Eyes so the werewolf can see into all the windows of a building. Want a werewolf skilled at ambush? Pick up Nightfall, a two dot power that enables the werewolf to eliminate electric lights.

Spirits remain largely unchanged from the existing World of Darkness spirits, incorporating bans (weaknesses), loci (places where they can easily cross over), rank (how awesome the spirit is), influences (what the spirit can affect and cares about), and numina (spirit powers). Spirits may be quickly and easily built with the rules included here, and there are plenty of options to make certain that spirits can be just as varied as people on the street.

I'm quite pleased with both the werewolf and spirit NPC creation rules. They enable both types of entities to easily be introduced to a Hunter game without forcing the Storyteller to do any additional work.

Chapter Four Moonstruck - 51 pages.

The first half of chapter four sets out to just chew on the idea of werewolves. It throws out possible causes of werewolfism, discusses campaign themes, and sets out to delve into the minds of werewolves. Unfortunately, I don't find the discussion to be particularly useful. A lot of the ideas are very generic, which makes sense as the book is trying to be all things for all readers, but which ultimately results in a bit of a boring read. The upside is that regular story hooks are included here, which is a nice addition when focusing in on specific topic areas.

The second half details Philadelphia with an eye towards hunters fighting werewolves and spirits. A host of locations, NPCs, and plot hooks are included to get a game up and running as soon as possible. As with other World of Darkness books, I'm always happy to have more NPCs and plot hooks to draw on whether I ever set a game in Philadelphia. The characters are sufficiently tied together that the setting can be a fine base for a greater chronicle, and I particularly like the clear attention given to each of the Compacts and Conspiracies.

My Take

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