Customer Reviews

Hunter: The Vigil

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When Hunter: The Reckoning came out, I was overjoyed. As a Storyteller, I enjoy telling stories from the human's perspective more. I find their struggle against the odds more in line with my skills and intents for telling stories. What I got was a good book, but it kind of took the focus in a more action-oriented, "blockbuster" arena. I still used it, but I thought for all the cool skills and abilities, it was missing something. So, when Hunter: The Vigil came out, I had high hopes that it would reinvent the series in a fashion more appealing to the kinds of stories I wanted to tell. It does that and more.

Hunter: The Vigil is a nice sized guidebook with plenty of clarification and subtle tweaks to rules already established in the core WoD guide. One of the biggest changes comes to the ways in which players can get back Willpower. It's a slight tweak that allows Hunters to get much needed (and, now, used) Willpower back, allowing them to "risk Willpower" on a roll that is for The Vigil (think gambling that your character will make the roll).

But what is the Vigil? The best way to describe this new structure is to think of a Hunter as a candle, fighting back the darkness. Those called to The Vigil are each candles, forming cells and larger organizations throughout the world. This structure is very fluid, allowing Storytellers and players to play through the game from various perspectives.

It also provides some terrific factions (called Conspiracies) to place your character in (or not). You can easily have your players form a small cell that doesn't know a wider organization exists. Or you can have them formally enrolled in one of the factions. Each conspiracy also showcases a huge variety, from the Lucifuge who believe they are Satan's children and want to atone for their evil ways to The Long Night which mimics and draws from Evangelical christians to what I find as the most intriguing group, The Cheiron Group. What's also great about these factions is that there are ways of creating antagonists between each group, providing some variety. Each group approaches the hunt differently, and there are some terrific story points that can be created with the factions not always agreeing.

Of course, the guidebook wouldn't be much fun without providing some interesting ways to deck your characters out for the coming fights and The Endowments listed in the book are terrific. What I appreciate about the Endowments is, again, the flexibility. Depending on which conspiracy(s) you want to utilize in your game, you can make your Hunter group as supernatural or science-oriented as you choose. Some of the powers are pretty spectacular like one of the Benediction abilities that allow skilled Hunters to bring recently deceased people back to life (though they come back a little off), to the Lucifuge's ability to create fire. Other abilities are more equipment based.

One of the Endowments allows players to equip themselves with ancient weapons embued with magical properties while another Endowment allows players to utilize the top, new equipment. One such piece of equipment is The Bleeder that causes supernatural creatures to excrete blood, but doesn't work (very well, at least) on non-supernatural foes.

Then there's the one that combines magic with technology. This is the more macabre area with one such ability allowing users to take a piece of skin from a vampire and replace a part of their neck with it. Even more disturbing (but functional), the piece of skin will wiggle whenever vampires are near. Very cool.

The rest of the book plays out as you'd expect; it's a good guide and reminder of rules established in the core book, but it also tweaks some rules to help give Hunters a little more delineation from a normal human. Whether you want to have a story involving a Hunter cell that has to scrounge the local pawn shops for a means to defend themselves, or a more powerful/supernatural group, Hunter: The Vigil will fill that demand.

I debated from the beginning what the rating should be. But, as I was reading through the book and getting more excited about utilizing the groups, characters and skills, I realized just how much I could squeeze out of this guide. For that alone, it was worth receiving high marks. I was really impressed with this book and definitely recommend it to those who want to play from the human side of things.

Hunter is a very pro-active game. In a sense, it doesn't matter whether your mortal character is built according to the Hunter rules or not. Unless he goes out into the dark and tries to push the monsters back, he's not really a hunter. That's what makes Hunters different from ordinary mortals and why they have a full game line: their obsession drives them, pushing them to extremes that regular people can't match. That's true for their physical abilities and their ingenuity, but also in their morals and sanity. For example, with many players seeing The Dark Knight, Batman is often presented as a Hunter model. He's good, but to my mind, Heath Ledger's Joker is not just an awesome example of a slasher, but of a fallen Hunter too.

Some people have evidently been calling this a core content update for the World of Darkness mortal game. While White Wolf may not like that perspective, there is a huge amount of material that can be used in any mortal and perhaps any game. Chapters 2 and 4 are the Character Creation and Special Rules chapters. The main innovations here are Practical Experience, Tactics and the Professions. Tactics are, usually, tactical applications of teamwork to achieve some specific effect. The names pretty much sum those up, for example Controlled Immolation and Dentistry (that's not so much removing teeth as smashing the mouth). Practical Experience supplements normal experience to an extent, and is earned solely through hostile encounters with supernatural beings. Hunters can deal civilly with supernatural beings if they choose, but only taking risks gets them practical experience for it. Professions describe various character types and give some specific benefits for Hunters from their day jobs. The Professions are not based directly on job-defined definitions, but what your character regards himself as. A science writer for instance could be based on the Academic, Journalist, or Scientist professions, just as the obvious choices. There is also a big section on equipment, which both adds new items and expands on previous descriptions. For any game that involves a character trying to be a part of the mortal world, the new equipment and Profession descriptions are wonderful additions.

Chapter 3 features the sample Compacts and Conspiracies. The Compacts can be defined as groups that share a common obsession. The Conspiracies are a bit more my style, as they are defined by the obsessions of their founders, rather than a necessity for all members. I don't genuinely like any of these organisations, however. The writer's intent seems to have been to give a strong dark side to all of them, forcing the question of how to fight monsters without becoming monsters. A good idea, that would have benefited from more work in giving any good qualities other than monster hunting. Also, the organisations seem rather generic and reinforce negative stereotypes. The only organisation engaged in systematic criminal activity are the Muslim drug-runners. The sinister corporation comes from Europe. Finally, the write-ups are more about the history and nature of the groups, while knowledge of how they behave seems to be left to the many references to them throughout the rest of the book. The chapter also has the Endowments for the Conspiracies and rules for making new groups and Endowments. That includes an unexpected gem: three or four research groups or strategies for each Conspiracy. They are well written, imaginative, and for a research type like me are brimming with story ideas.

Chapter 1 belongs with Chapter 5 and the Appendices as part of the Storytelling and Antagonist sections. Chapter 1 has a history section and discussion of the philosopy of the hunt, but it also has a section on what Hunters know and believe about the supernatural. I actually prefer it to the rules-based section in Chapter 5. Chapter 5 provides neat categories for the 5 previous game lines, whereas Chapter 1 depicts Hunters evaluating a supernatural entity based on what they see it do, not what the rules say it is. The Dread Powers system is based on that, too. People wondered how White Wolf would represent their supernatural beings without reprinting all of their rules. The Dread Powers represent the physical or mental effect a Hunter sees or experiences. It's a simple system for creating direct physical opponents for Hunters to face. Apart from that, the Storytelling section has an emphasis on Hunter vs Hunter conflict. It's definitely an area that deserved exploration, but it's given too much prominence. The monster hunt should almost always be at the forefront of a Hunter story, and I would not enjoy a Chronicle that consisted primarily of political infighting within an organisation and/or combat with Hunters outside it. Having said that, cults also get a prominent mention. (I predict the sixth book will be about cults.) Cults make good enemies for Hunters in particular because they force Hunters to confront the ethics of dealing with humans in the service of the supernatural rather than just the monsters, and the question of how different Hunters really are from those cultists. A question the book specifies that Hunters don't think to ask very often.

I have to admit that I wasn't too thrilled to hear this was the next line from the New World of Darkness, but once the spoilers started coming on White Wolf's webpage I started to change my mind.

Then I got the book. It was sooooooo much better than I had anticipated.

The gist of it is this: you play a mortal, with no special powers, no special resistances, no special anything, really. Sure, you've got Endowments that the higher level Organizations--such as Task Force Valkyrie Advanced Armory, Aegis Kae Doru Relics and the Cheiron Group's Thaumatechnology--grant you, but at that level you lose a bit of personality as you become part of a group, a team that may, in the end, try and go beyond the scope of the lone group of hunters out scouring the world of creatures that should not be.

This book, along with the World of Darkness Core rulebook, has everything you need in it to set out against the denizens of the night. You don't even need the other five Core books--Vampire the Requiem, Werewolf the Forsaken, Mage the Awakening, Promethean the Created or Changeling the Lost--as there is a section in the book detailing a quick and easy assembly of monsters that your Hunter can face off against.

That isn't to say that HtV isn't as readily compatible with the other systems. Just that the game was designed so that the other books weren't necessarily needed in order to hunt vampires, werewolves or whatever. (A good thing, too, as that could deep into your pockets.)

I was never a big fan of Hunter the Reckoning, and actually like the new World of Darkness tons better than the old, but this game along and blew me away with its simple and practical approach to making a hunter that can make a stand against those things going bump in the night.

I was a BIG fan of Hunter: The Reckoning and think that Vigil is a nice update to the new World of Darkness. It allows for players to get super high tech or super-natural like powers, as well as Hunters to remain people with weapons and the truth. It really seems to depend on what the group and storyteller would like.

The idea of Tactics are well done and interesting and I can't wait to see them in play. In a nutshell they are group efforst at attacking denziens of darkness with pre-meditated crippling (social, physical, and mental) effects. I.E. Dentisry involves grappling a monster and then bashing it's teeth out.

The new 'practical experience' idea is something I have to play with to get a better vibe, but it's one concept that might help give the Hunter's an edge.

It should be noted that there is not a template per se (i.e. super natural trait) but there are a few tricks for the characters to pick up to even things out a bit. I honestly enjoy the idea of the characters being overwhelmed (a la Cthulhu games).

I think it's worth the buy to use as player characters or as potent NPCs alike, and that future products should continue to impress or at least help generate ideas for your World of Darkness game.

I had a lot of trepidations about a "redo" of a line of games that I really loved. It seemed like an excuse to make my re-buy all of their products. But both books that I bought were well laid out and the information was easier to find. I like the fact that all of the world is combined compared to the previous incarnations. Before, everyone had issues with everyone else. Now, each character has more to worry about his own world than to worry about than another character type. vampires and werewolves are spending more time on their own issues than worrying about each other. It also feels like all of the games were written to compliment each other. Mainly meaning that not one book oversteps another one.

There are already many good reviews about this book, so I am mainly going to list the content of the book. Hunter:The Vigil(core rulebook) contains all the bases to play as a hunter. However, if it's your first time playing this, you should think about getting the World of Darkness(rulebook).

Why? Because Hunter:The Vigil(rulebook)dont cover many basics (example: Description of all attributes, skills, many combat rules, etc...). Moreover, Hunther:The Vigil(rulebook) often refers to pages and whole sections of the World of Darkness (rulebook).

On with the content of this book:

Amount of pages: About 370
Cover: Hardcover
Illustrations: Lots of dark, black and white illustrations. Adds a lot to the dark theme of this game. Almost all (if not all) feature characters or monsters.

Flesh Trade, Part One to Part Six (flesh trade is a story written in the WoD theme, it gives a good idea of what a plot could looks like)

Chapter One: Shadows cast by firelight (role of the hunters, history of the hunt, hunter society and cells, classes of monters, etc...)

Chapter Two: Character creation (character concept, attributes, skills, skill specialties, hunter template, professions, merits, etc...)

Chapter Three: Hunter organizations (descriptions of all majors compacts(group of cells) and conspiracies (group of compacts), such as the Union, Null Mysteriis, as well as special endowments (special equipments, elixirs, talisments and such))

Chapter Four: Special rules and systems (spending experience to improve your hunter, cells tactic (special group tactics, such as Controlled immolation), hunter's equipment (general gear, from rescue whstle to thermal scanner), mental equipment, computers, investigation equipment, weapons and much more)

Chapter Five: Storytelling (hint and guide on how to create a good story and making your players interested in it)

Appendix One: Morality and the vigil (virtues and vices and morality and how they affect your hunter as a human being)

Appendix Two: Philadelphia: Monster hunter in the city of brotherly love (honestly, I am not there yet in the book, but it looks like the story of Philadelphia, but contains also a lot of pages on various monsters, as well as power the can use (you can create monsters in a similar way players create their hunters, giving them special abilities to challenge your players).

There are lot more to find in this book, but this review should gives a good idea of what you are going to get upon buying this. Other books you might want to check, related with Hunter: The Vigil:

Horror recognition guide (journal themed book relating the encounters of a hunter cells)
The Vigil: Story teller screen (hardcover pannels with beautifull, dark illustations on one side, and usefull rule reminder on the other)
The Vigil: Night Stalkers (covers vampires monsters)
The Vigil: Spirit Slayers (covers shapeshifter and spirits)
The Vigil: Witch Finders (covers magic using creatures)
World of Darkness rulebook

Hunter the Vigil was a very pleasant surprise. When it came out, some people in my closest gaming circle dismissed it as something that didn't bring too much to the basic WoD table, why, it should have been a blue source book and that's it. I thought so at first. Even though back in the late 90s I hadn't liked that the Imbued in Hunter the Reckoning featured "powers", I came to like the idea of the game, and having not Imbued hunters in the current WoD was something that didn't attract me so much. Over time, however, I started reading more about it, and when I bought Geist The Sin-Eaters, I was intrigued by the concept of tiers and such.

Hunter the Vigil is, in a way a source book for the core system, but it comes filled with story hooks, ideas, and a wealth of information to play all sorts of hunters (from the down-to-earth normals championed in Reckoning, to high-tech quasi Technocrat agents, religious fanatics and even demon-spawn who hunt their progenitors à la Blade). I've read somewhere that the goal with this game was to give the players the chance to play all conceivable hunter types, and I think the book delivers this in spades.

Just like all books in Exalted, Second Edition do, every single word here is a nugget to be mined for your games. I have found out you can open a random page of the book, read a paragraph or two, and you've found a story seed. Aside from Exalted, in my experience, very few RPG products have allowed me to do that (perhaps a big exception is Vampire: the Requiem's Vampire Damnation City (Vampire the Requiem), another book I plan on buying soon enough. I also enjoyed the way the old Conviction mechanic was brought into this, by applying the "risking Willpower" mechanic. Nice touch!

To sum up, the book is an excellent resource from playing all conceivable types of hunters, and it has a lot of ready-to-use ideas. Top recommendation!

Hunter is another game that White Wolf has brought back and revamped for the new setting and 2.0. The game is about those mortals, humans who having had encounters with the Supernatural take up the fight against them to protect humanity.

There's no supernatural template for Hunters, they're straight up mortals. Something I like much better over Reckoning and the Imbued. Well, you kindof do, it's the character's profession. There's also the Tiers presented in the book, the level of organization a character is part of that can determine his network of contacts, knowledge and any specialized equipment they may have access too.

what I also like, is the section for dealing with monsters and having a list of powers so a ST who lacks any other core game line, can create Antagonists for the Hunter Chronicle.

Also new for the game and for Hunters is the ability to risk willpower when on the Hunt. There's also Practical Experience for a Hunter cell to spend based on their encounters and learning about the Supernatural. Also new for Hunter Cells is the use of Tactics in a fight gained from Practical Experience points. While not Supernatural, Risking Willpower, Tactics and Practical Experience help Hunters to have an edge on their fight against the Supernatural.

I used to be a Hunter: The Reckoning storyteller, in a time where the WoD were a pen-and-paper videogame (powerstats, powergaming, taumaturgia, 5 ranked werewolves, ascended mages, etc) so the level of satisfaction that the old incarnation of the game were relied on the good stories you could create. But the supernatural blessings for the Imbued, being the tool-of-the-trade, sometimes were a harsh dispute over the true nature of those holy warriors (they understood perfectly an inquisitor that could fill a room with fire, but for them a taxi driver with a steel pole on mystical energy was some kind of "abnormality").

This iteration of Hunter gives a new direction for the hunting on the supernatural grounds. First, the streamlined system allows the storyteller to focus the game more on the roleplaying than the dice rolling results, so the "fresh" hunters have the exact tools they need: weapons, wits, and GUTS. After that, the game craves deep into the hunter's society, zones where the hunter becomes more a being devoted to his mission, delving into knowledge lost in time, and a goal that turns an ordinary life into a life of light and shadows...

I strongly recommends this game to those who wants to take a look at the grounds where the human being remembers why the children have fear of the dark. Where the urban legends come truth. Where the world turns into an eternal night. But always with the candle on their hands, and their destiny to be written.