Late Review: Hunters Hunted II

Hunters Hunted II

By Justin Achilli, Jason Andrew, Joshua Alan Doetsch, Martin Henley, Ryan Macklin, Matthew McFarland, Matthew Sanderson, Ree Soesbee, Eddy Webb, and Stew Wilson

2013, 182 pages

            Hunters Hunted II, the fourth supplement for Vampire the Masquerade: 20th Anniversary Edition, explores how mortals fight back against the predations of vampires in the World of Darkness.  These hunters aren’t Frank Castle, they aren’t super heroes, they aren’t trench coat wearing bad ass ex-Navy SEALs.  The hunters of Hunters Hunted II are regular people, the passersby who saw a vampire attack and couldn’t forget it until finally they felt the need to strike back.  But how does a regular man or woman fight against supernatural creatures that are stronger, faster, tougher and have access to a wide array of supernatural abilities? 

            Hunters Hunted II showcases the best and worst of the Storyteller system games.  The introductory story sets the mood of fear, paranoia, and uncertainty.  The first chapter is a first person story of the encounter between two hunters, one a rookie and the other a veteran.  The veteran explains his understanding of vampires and other things that go bump in the night to the new hunter who incidentally is tied to a chair.  This chapter, more than any other part of the book, is why I love Storyteller games and White Wolf/The Onyx Path games.  The authors explain the setting, mood, and themes of a hunters game without needing to explicitly say those words.  I was drawn into the world of the hunter, his/her experiences, losses, victories, and doubts, and this set the stage for the rest of the book. 

            With the focus of the game on ordinary people, the authors continually remind the reader that these people have families and friends.  They have jobs and responsibilities.  They aren’t the lone wolf out hunting vampires with a katana in one hand and a submachine gun in the other.  Chapter II guides players through character creation.  Beyond just creating a singular character, Hunters Hunted II emphasizes the need for players and Storyteller to work together to create characters that fit within the story being told.  Storytellers and players will need a copy of Vampire the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition to be able to build characters, but Hunters Hunted II provides plenty of extra backgrounds and merits and flaws for character creation with new Merits like Poisonous Blood (it works like it sounds) to Flaws like Hemophiliac.  New backgrounds such as Armory give Hunters the potential to have plenty of options available when they are gearing up to hunt vampires.  Base of Operations, another new Background, is complex but functional.  Players will split their points between three different categories:  luxury, security, and size. 

            Chapter III introduces a system where hunters can gain extra dice on future rolls by planning their missions.  The system is well thought out and I think that it’s a good idea, but it’s implemented poorly.  The method for gaining planning dice such as studying information about the target or poking holes in the plan is clearly explained, but the uses of those dice needs to be highlighted better.  They are buried in the text of the chapter.  I haven’t run a hunters game, so I haven’t been able to test this system.  So far I like the concept behind it, gaining extra dice in case bad things happen through planning, but I think it could have been presented more clearly perhaps with a table with each use of plan dice spelled out. 

            Hunters aren’t completely without supernatural abilities.  Numina are included that give hunters some abilities beyond those of normal people.  Hedge Magic which is a weak form of magic has two paths Curses which is extremely powerful because the curses reduce a target’s dice pool, and Healing which some groups could rely on too heavily because this one of the few ways mortals can heal faster than normal.  Psychic Numina offer a variety of options including Astral Projection, Pyrokinesis, and Telekinesis.  These are roughly equal to paths of Thaumaturgy from V20.  The most interesting Psychic Numina is Cyber Kinesis which lets the user control machines without touching them.  In a modern setting this could easily be overpowered, but the difficulty is high and the consequences could be severe if failed.  Finally, what would a hunters book be without True Faith?  As with prior editions Truth Faith is extremely powerful, just the first level allows a character holding a holy symbol to cause vampires to flee in terror.  However, this ability cannot be upgraded through experience points; only the Storyteller can award additional points in the ability.

            Chapter V is on Storytelling a Hunters game, but the information in this chapter is good for any kind of game.  The emphasis is on theme and mood as with all good Storyteller games.  However, my favorite part of this chapter is the addition of sidebars that provide story hooks for a particular genre of story whether that is the “Bravado and Bullets” genre of a John Woo influenced chronicle or the “Thriller” genre of Silence of the Lambs.  This chapter also explains how to build a story with an opening hook, intermediary scene, confrontation, climax and aftermath.  While this is a basic story structure, it will be endlessly useful to new Storytellers.  Also  included is a section on Game Structure that explains the main styles of games that could be run:  Linear, One Shot, Open Ended, and Sandbox. 

            For those looking for information on organized hunters, Chapter VI offers a look at the three major groups that hunt vampires:  The Society of Leopold (Catholic Vampire Hunters), The U.S. Government (Project Twilight), and the Arcanum (Occult Librarians).  Each sects gets a complete write up explaining its goals, history and offering a new Numina that is specific to that group.  Smaller groups are also discussed such as the Italian Mafia, Russian Mob, and even street level gangs.  Only a small sample is given for each of these groups, but those who have the older books will be able to easily bring those groups into V20 games, and hopefully, The Onyx Path/White Wolf Games will release full books for each of the three main groups of hunters. 

            A section of templates are provided for players or Storytellers looking for idea for characters.  However, none of these are “Vampire Hunters”, instead they are regular people reacting to extraordinary circumstances in a world of monsters.  I am really happy about this focus on the mundane rather than showing guys in Oakley’s with bulging muscles and giant swords fighting vampires.  My favorite templates are the Paranoid Surveyor who hunts through soon to be demolished dilapidated buildings to expose vampires to the sunlight and the Destitute Crusader who used improvised weapons to kill those who hunt the homeless.  All of the templates offer well rounded characters that are perfect to play. 

            Overall, Hunters Hunted II is a great book.  Every section of the book maintains the primary theme of a Vampire the Masquerade game:  Personal Horror.  Adding the Hunters Hunted theme of “victory with a cost” reinforces the terror of fighting supernatural creatures that can shrug off gunshot wounds and instantly heal from wounds that would kill a normal person.  My only real complaint is that the Planning Dice system needs to be better explained so that it will be easier to implement during play.  A simple chart or even bolding the words could solve that problem.  To nitpick, I didn’t like the Merit Research Grant because it’s superfluous.  Having a character with “College Professor” as a character concept and points in the Background Resources does exactly the same thing.  

            Despite one small complaint and one nitpicky complaint, I believe that Hunters Hunted II is the start of a long line of high quality supplements for Vampire the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition.  The artwork is gorgeous with bright, clear full color images that invoke the mood of hunting monsters, and the text is well written and offers a great mix of mechanics and story.  I couldn’t be happier with my purchase of Hunters Hunted II, and I am glad that I helped fund this book through Kickstarter.  For gamers looking to test their skills, Hunters Hunted II will offer a chance to create and play well-rounded characters that struggle against the evils of the World of Darkness.  Storytellers will be able to use the information in this book to create better NPC hunters, and the Storytelling chapter is a great resource for new Storytellers or Storytellers looking for more information on running a World of Darkness game.  

            Hunters Hunted II is currently available as a PDF from DriveThruRPG.  In the future, a paper version will be available. 

 

              

Late Review: Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand

Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand

By:  Steven C. Brown

1998, 127 pages

Amongst all the books I own and all the books published for Vampire the Masquerade, Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand (DSotBH) has the worst reputation.  Older VtM players hate this book because DSotBH introduces the True Hand or Tal’mahe’Ra (as opposed to the Sabbat’s False Black Hand) as a group of vampires who want to save the world from the worst machinations of the Camarilla and the Sabbat and bring back the Antediluvians who will scour the unworthy vampires from the world.   Beyond just their world saving mission, the True Hand also has the most diverse membership of any sect in the World of Darkness.  They count vampires, mages, wraiths, a mummy and an abomination (a werewolf that has been Embraced) amongst their members.  Finally, this is the book that finally explains what Vicissitude “really” is and the crusade to annihilate this alien invader from the Deep Umbra.

            The issue with DSotBH is that there are two books between its covers:  the book that the author intended and the book that was published.  I’m being generous when I say that because I saw a lot of potential for DSotBH as I read it.  The book is full of plot hooks, story concepts, and chronicle ideas that would be great for either a high level Vampire the Masquerade chronicle or a crossover game.  However, these are not fully developed or explored by author; instead these ideas are buried in the text.  As I have just finished a campaign where the PCs had topped out with over 150 XP spent each, I can say that having high level content for groups that have grown beyond the power level of their initial city would a great resource.  DSotBH should have been that book, but it was not. 

            The most obvious problem with DSotBH is that it ties together too many strands as it tries to build a grand metaplot for White Wolf’s Storyteller Games, Vampire the Masquerade, Mage the Ascension, Wraith the Oblivion, Werewolf the Apocalypse, and Mummy.  The RPG groups that I have played in have always wanted to bring together characters from all these different system into one grand chronicle.  The True Hand offers a way to do that because this sect was founded by Mages and Vampires, it has at least one Mummy as a member, its base of operations, Enoch, is in the Underworld, it has been known to work with some tribes of Werewolves, and members regularly travel to the Deep Umbra.  Except for Changelings, the True Hand offers an in world sect that recruits pretty much anyone and everyone. 

True Brujah from V20 Core book

            While the True Hand is dominated by vampires and their desire to build the “Army of Gehenna” to assist the sleeping Antediluvians in destroying unworthy vampires (those not of the True Hand), the True Hand also fights the Shadow Crusade against an alien creature that they accidentally brought back from the Deep Umbra.  Known as Vicissitude, the signature discipline of the Tzimisce, this alien creature infects those who imbibe Tzimisce blood and eventually takes over their bodies and minds.  The Shadow Crusade offers Storytellers a real villain for their campaigns that can’t be overcome by violence or politics.  Vicissitude is a force of nature that can corrupt anyone, and more importantly Storytellers can use this to create a sense of paranoia amongst players. 

            Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand also offers three new clans, the True Brujah, Nagaraja, and Old Clan Tzimisce, as options for players.  Two new Disciplines are included as well, Temporis, the time based Discipline of the True Brujah, and Nagaraja’s Nihilistisc which is based on decay and death and interacting with Wraiths and the Underworld.  Biothaumaturigic Experimentation, a new path of Thaumaturgy, along with some new Thaumaturgical rituals are introduced as well.  Most VtM players are familiar with the game breaking annoyance of the higher levels of Temporis that allows players to manipulate time including summoning the past into the present at Level Nine. 

            In addition to the new clans, DSotBH also has a summarized version of the rules for creating Elder characters.  By reprinting the character creation for Elders, DSotBH becomes a self contained “Epic Level” book for players and Storytellers looking to run high level games.  However, the rules for character creation weren’t proofread.  Otherwise why would the section on “Maturity” be included along with the Elder Background Age without an explanation of how they interact?  It’s confusing and honestly, Maturity shouldn’t have been included since it makes no sense.  Templates are included as well to give players ideas for characters, but none of them standout.  Most of the templates are rather obvious.  True Brujah Antiquarian and Globe Trotting Assassin don’t show the same creativity as found in the Clanbook Series.  The entire template section should have been cut. 

            The concepts and mechanics are flawed, but the artwork in DSotBH is probably the worst part.  Worse than dated, the artwork is full of examples of the worst excesses of 90s comic artwork.  Even the cover looks ridiculous with the woman cutting a man’s neck, but her face is doubled between a smile and licking blood from the man’s neck.  I’m not sure what Discipline that’s supposed to represent.  It just looks awful. 

I will stab the alien Vicissitude thing from outer space 

            Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand is not the worst RPG book that I’ve ever read, but it’s close.  What redeems DSotBH is that it does have some good ideas, but the presentation and implementation are awful.  The History of the Black Hand is a mish mash of ideas that references things from later sections of the book instead of explaining them immediately.  The section on Enoch in the Underworld should have been included in the history of the True Hand to tie everything together rather than separating Enoch’s history from the rest of True Hand’s history.  If anything, a map of Enoch would have been helpful along with a list of locations and rumors about the city itself.

            The major problem with DSotBH is that it included too much material that isn’t fully realized.  Instead of including the section on templates, the author could have included sections on how to integrate the True Hand into the World of Darkness.  An adventure that introduces powerful PCs into the plots of the True Hand would have been helpful.  Finally, the True Hand can’t come across as the “good guys” in the World of Darkness.  There are no “good guys.”  That’s kind of what makes it the World of Darkness.  Powerful beings manipulate mortals and fight over the dwindling resources in overcrowded cities against other manipulators as the end of the world rushes towards them. 

            The World of Darkness needed a book that offers advanced characters options for stories against powerful, new enemies, but this book failed to deliver that.  The World of Darkness also needed a book that allowed various groups, Mages, Vampires, etc., to interact as party members against a common threat, but this book failed to deliver that too.   Probably the biggest mistake of DSotBH is that it tries to tie together all the various White Wolf game lines together with Vampire the Masquerade taking the lead.  Publishing DSotBH as a Vampire the Masquerade book puts all the other creatures as subservient to the needs of vampires.  If the book had been focused on mixing the various game lines and published as World of Darkness book, then I think that it would been received better and been more helpful for game groups since almost every White Wolf gamer I knew wanted to run crossover games.

            Is Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand the worst book published for Vampire the Masquerade?  It could be if only for the fact that it was White Wolf’s attempt to create a book to support crossover games or high level content.  While the ideas are good, the presentation is awful.  I couldn’t recommend it to anyone unless they wanted to complete a collection of VtM or WoD books.  If you really need information on the metaplot, I’d recommend going to whitewolf.wikia.com, because White Wolf nuked the True Hand when they updated to Revised Edition.  Literally Nuked! 

            Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand is available at DriveThruRPG as either as pdf or print on demand or you can find the original available on Amazon.com.