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Hunter: the Vigil vs. Hunter: the Reckoning
In some way, Hunter: the Vigil is a way of attempting to succeed where Hunter: the Reckoning failed.
Let me explain.
In Hunter: the Reckoning, sometimes you came across a desperate, fraught game where, for whatever reason, the characters didn't have access to any of the game breaking powers of the imbued at all. Perhaps they'd been stripped of their powers by the Ministers for some obscure reason: perhaps this was a bystanders game, where the hapless characters had seen Something, but could no longer afford to look away, pretend this hadn't happened.
The Demon: the Fallen sourcebook Damned and Deceived [citation required] also gave us the idea of ardent mortal monster hunters, this time taking on the Fallen. The furious soccer Mom, I believe that being the proper Usarian term, who picks up her kid's baseball bat to go and look for the monster who's now taken residence in her daughter's head; the defrocked priest whose crisis of faith is absuptly halted by the realisation that, while God might not exist, the Devil certainly does - and has made his infernal home in his old parish.
This was a hopeless, heartbreaking game where failure could as easily bring death as worse consequences. But these were human characters, pitting their strength and wits against the Darkness, all alone.
And this was a fantastic game. But this wasn't what you had, ultimately, in Reckoning proper. The imbued had their edges, Conviction, Second Sight and other manifestations such as Hunter Net, Violin99's and Fyodor's journals, and warchalking.
The concepts were good. But the execution was, well how do you say, a little flawed.
I can't say much more about Hunter: the Vigil right now, except to say that, if you were looking for those sorts of desperate, balls-to-the-wall, man vs. monster stories ... you can't go far wrong than by starting with the Vigil core.
Oh, and to tell you to follow the spoilers on the White Wolf site and on Matt McElroy's Flames Rising, if you want to know more.
Let me explain.
In Hunter: the Reckoning, sometimes you came across a desperate, fraught game where, for whatever reason, the characters didn't have access to any of the game breaking powers of the imbued at all. Perhaps they'd been stripped of their powers by the Ministers for some obscure reason: perhaps this was a bystanders game, where the hapless characters had seen Something, but could no longer afford to look away, pretend this hadn't happened.
The Demon: the Fallen sourcebook Damned and Deceived [citation required] also gave us the idea of ardent mortal monster hunters, this time taking on the Fallen. The furious soccer Mom, I believe that being the proper Usarian term, who picks up her kid's baseball bat to go and look for the monster who's now taken residence in her daughter's head; the defrocked priest whose crisis of faith is absuptly halted by the realisation that, while God might not exist, the Devil certainly does - and has made his infernal home in his old parish.
This was a hopeless, heartbreaking game where failure could as easily bring death as worse consequences. But these were human characters, pitting their strength and wits against the Darkness, all alone.
And this was a fantastic game. But this wasn't what you had, ultimately, in Reckoning proper. The imbued had their edges, Conviction, Second Sight and other manifestations such as Hunter Net, Violin99's and Fyodor's journals, and warchalking.
The concepts were good. But the execution was, well how do you say, a little flawed.
I can't say much more about Hunter: the Vigil right now, except to say that, if you were looking for those sorts of desperate, balls-to-the-wall, man vs. monster stories ... you can't go far wrong than by starting with the Vigil core.
Oh, and to tell you to follow the spoilers on the White Wolf site and on Matt McElroy's Flames Rising, if you want to know more.
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I personally liked Hunter because there was so much you could do with the setting and I felt the Edge and Conviction system was rather unique.
Unique
But what sold the game for me were Hunter Net and warchalking. You never hear people comment on how the imbued were the first real monster species to use the internet as an effective weapon against the supernatural.
And warchalking's been around since the days of the hobo code and earlier: but the imbued could spread The Word with remarkable efficiency with just a stick of charcoal or a spray can. In at least one case, sometimes a piece of warchalking turned out to be an edge or power in itself.
I wrote some beautiful stories for my Libra character on the old White Wolf Hunter mailing list - the real unsung hero of Reckoning, and a well loved community in its own right.
I wrote some very human stories, with little or no actual hunting at all. Just the imbued being ordinary people getting on with their lives, and the ordinary people they interacted with, and had to protect from the Darkness.
I loved that. So I leapt at the opportunity to make a contribution to its successor, knowing that I was part of making the older game come to life for so many and being given a chance to do my bit to make this one come to life for so many more.
Re: Unique
Re: Unique
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-=R286=-
no subject
Promethean seemed interesting, and I still owe it to myself to check it out. I wasn't really excited about Changeling, but it's good that the people loved it. I was trying to avoid Hunter, but I read this and now I'm interested.
P.S. If you could somehow get me into [instert obvious probable game title here], I'd owe you. Big time.
Like: Ash "big time".