oWoD Hunter: The Reckoning. Get me started

[NekoJoker]

I want to start Storytelling a game of Hunter: The Reckoning for my current group, the group has had some experience with Vampire: The Masquerade and I believe they would like to take a tour around Hunter.

Now, there are a few things I like to take into account... I have read most of the manual and have found a problem:

*The written text shows me a gritty enviroment populated by regular people thrown into extraordinary situations and coming out of them alive ...although emotionally scarred.

BUT

* The pictures illustrating the pages show some random guy taking bites from 3 Garous and punching a whole through another one... and smiling happily.


the written text and the illustrations seem to show two different games!


I Understand that the game is supposed to be a human struggle against the supernatural.. but How do I get my players into the mindset of "you were a regular guy just last night, now your world is torn apart, the masquerade was broken and now you see that everything you evern knew turns out to be a lie" ?

The idea sounds awesome, but the group seems to be accostumed with having really powerful characters; How do I go around making this empowered mortals interesting characters for the players? without taking away the thrill of having actual human characters?

I believe that giving higher priority to character creation and development is key... but how do you go about it?

and I would actually like to roleplay their first encounter with the supernatural If any of you have ever run a Hunter game, care to give me some advice on how to stage the scene?

*****************************

One last thing, I am trying to create a copy of Hunter-net.org for the players to interact with [the basic idea is to create a fake forum with bogus accounts managed by my co-storyteller and myself] the site was originally a mailing list appearently, but I believe a forum could works just the same, Anybody else remembers anything else the hunter's site used to have?

[Super_Dave]

I'd say that the most important thing would be to just come right out and tell them "D&D is an adventure game, and the rules are designed to help you be awesome. Hunter is a horror game, and the rules are designed to screw you." Emphasize the bleakness, the hopelessness of it all. They're fighting a losing battle against creatures much older and stronger than themselves. It's just a matter of time before they slip up.

As for your issue with the picture of the Garou-puncher, just explain that he's smiling because he's a Neo-Pagan, and he's finally found his way into Valhalla: being torn apart by werewolves while punching one in the face.

[Jornophelanthas]

[QUOTE=Super_Dave;10195556]Emphasize the bleakness, the hopelessness of it all. They're fighting a losing battle against creatures much older and stronger than themselves. It's just a matter of time before they slip up./QUOTE]

Except that Hunters are relatively new in the world. They don't know yet that they're fighting a losing battle.

(The players should know. The player characters should not.)

[hangedman1984]

Hunters are a bunch of hypocrites anyway

[Loki Eremes]

Hunters are a bunch of hypocrites anyway

care to explain that?

[Lycan 01]

Weren't Hunters around in the Middle Ages, too? I read there was an add on for the World of Darkness "Dark Ages" series called Inquisitor, which was what Hunters in Ye Olden Days went by. Or something like that...

[Friv]

care to explain that?

There is a general belief that, as hunters are human beings who have been granted supernatural powers by external forces, it's a bit rich for them to go around declaring that all supernatural beings are enemies, as that sort of crusade by necessity would end with them sitting on top of a pile of corpses with a shotgun in their mouths.

I mean, yeah, they can fairly safely claim "human" status when compared to vampires or werewolves, but not so much in comparison to mages or many of the minor groups from the oWoD.

Past the corebook, Hunter actually spent some time dwelling on whether the Hunters were themselves becoming monsters like those that they fought, but the core didn't really explain why they don't all raise an eyebrow when they develop super-powers and wonder what makes their super-powers inherently more "human" than a mage or shapeshifter or what have you's.

[Lycan 01]

Isn't there a risk of Hunters turning into "monsters" in the psycho killer or mindless zealot sense? Is that in Hunter: the Reckoning or Hunter: the Vigil, or just a background fluff threat and not an actual mechanic?


I'm looking to pick up Hunter: the Vigil once I put a nWoD group together amongst my friends, so even if I do know anything about Hunter, it wouldn't be much help here I'm afraid.

[Attilargh]

There's a supplement for Hunter: The Vigil called Slasher, which has rules for all those lovely slasher movie freaks like Jason Voorhees... And turning into one once you stray far enough from the straight and narrow.

[TheCountAlucard]

There's a supplement for Hunter: The Vigil called Slasher, which has rules for all those lovely slasher movie freaks like Jason Voorhees... And turning into one once you stray far enough from the straight and narrow.

Actually ran a Hallowe'en game of nWoD with a Slasher as the antagonist, as well as another Slasher that was a "kinda-antagonist."

The party was all just ordinary Joes, straight out of the core book. It went very well...

[WalkingTarget]

Isn't there a risk of Hunters turning into "monsters" in the psycho killer or mindless zealot sense? Is that in Hunter: the Reckoning or Hunter: the Vigil, or just a background fluff threat and not an actual mechanic?

Well, there were the two "broken" Creeds that seem to have turned out wrong. One going the route of breaking under the strain of the constant reminder of "evil" in the world that they must crushcrushcru****ycrushkillcrushdetroyrevengecrush clinch and the others who develop severe social anxiety disorder since they get a lot of mental static around any form of supernatural being (including other Hunters).

[Wabbajack]

The lost creeds are Wayward and Hermit. Wayward can't disable their sight, which means that they see monster all the time and Hermits hear the voices even when they are alone, just quiet enough that they don't get a horrible headache.

And all hunters get mad sooner or later because humans were not made as vessels for such energies.

[Rumpus]

An important part of the game is the fact that the characters start the game not knowing anything about the rest of the World of Darkness. It really loses something if the PCs meet a werewolf in the city and say, "Well, he doesn't look homeless, I guess he's a Glass Walker instead of a Bone Gnawer." If you want to enforce ignorance, I see two main options:

1) Make it your own WoD. Changes the rules somehow, like allow Vampires to go out in sunlight (Dracula could, in the book). Make werewolves vulnerable to titanium instead of silver and abolish the tribes, or something equally significant.

2) Have the PC's first few encounters focus on non-core monsters. My brother ran a Hunter one-shot where the players were hunting a Crampus (Santa's demonic counterpart who takes bad children to Hell in Eastern Europe("The red fur snagged on the broken window is... polyesther?")). If your players aren't REALLY into oWoD, you could use one of the Asian variants from Year of the Lotus. Or just pick up a book on folklore, open to a random page, and build a story around the monster you find. After a few things they aren't familiar with, they won't take the standard monsters for granted.

I think calling the Hunters hypocrites is a little strong. These are people who saw a mind-bending monster preying on another human and did their best to rescue the victim and/or stomp the beast into the ground. Only two creeds are of the "Kill 'em all" school, the other seven are generally more nuanced in their worldview. The intra-party conflict between Mercy vs Zeal vs Vision is an important part of the game. If everybody just says, "Hey, let's go stomp evil!", you are missing one of the best role-playing elements in the game. And for that reason, a lot of D&D players have a VERY hard time transferring to WoD games in general, but Hunter in particular. If you want a more horror-ish feel, you might want to consider running Hunter: the Vigil instead of the Reckoning. Tier 1 groups in Vigil are just regular Joes and Janes without any special abilities, which sounds like it might be closer to what you are looking for.

[Chambers]

Calling them hypocrites misses the point completely. The game is supposed to be about how the characters deal with the supernatural as mortals. Eventually, they gain more powers, which decreases their humanity, so that they are not technically mortals anymore, but their reason for fighting hasn't changed. That's intentional - it's part of the dramatic tension that is supposed to be there.

One of the themes I always used in my Hunter games was "Welcome to being wanted by the Police."

The monsters are older than you. They've been around for centuries and are smarter, stronger, richer and more patient than you are. They don't hide behind society - they run society. They are the formerly invisible hands that pulled the puppets strings. Now your character can see the strings, and the puppeteer wears the mask of a monster.

When the hunters start going after the monsters, the monsters will fight back. Not just with goons and violence, but with deceit, trickery, and power. Manipulating records to have the hunters evicted. Fabricating evidence to have them arrested. Charming their friends and family and turning them against the hunters. This is how the monsters fight back. The police are one of the monsters greatest tools, because everyone knows that if you're wanted by the police you're a bad person, and good people should help the police by turning you in.

[TheCountAlucard]

One of the themes I always used in my Hunter games was "Welcome to being wanted by the Police."

Very nice little pointer there; having played as one of those monsters, I can certainly attest to that: if there's a pie somewhere, you can bet some filthy, power-hungry monster has his fingers in it.

Influence is one of the easiest way vampires have of getting things done, that's for sure, and they'll almost always employ it in lieu of combat with something that has the chance to end their shot at immortality.

And speaking of which, one thing I've pointed out to my fellow Kindred, for that matter, is to never take an elder vampire lightly, nor at face value. Ever. Simply by dint of being as old as he is, a single elder vampire has almost-certainly murdered more people than you can imagine.