DJOGamer PT
Arcane
I am not a White Wolf fan (literally only played VTMB and the new WTAE)
But I do like read the WW wiki as well as some of their rule books I have in pdf
And one particular "module" I find fascinating is 'Hunter: The Reckoning' - both in concept and it's place in the WW universe.
I've always preferred traditional horror concepts (undead, werewolves, witches, demons, etc...) over the more modern ones (including Lovecraft)
But the idea of supernatural hunters is something I think works best in games
Not that I don't appreciate them in film/books/comics, but it's mostly in the context of the action genre as I don't find them versatile enough for much else
But since one of the major functions of games is to "simulate" a challenge, hunters seem particularly suited to this medium
Which is why I always found odd why WW never bothered much with Hunter, specially pushing it in videogames (yes I am aware of the 'High Voltage Software' games, but that doesn't amount to much)
So I did a little "reasearch"
Publication History
-----------------------------
HTR came out in November 1999, and for the next months it was followed with complementary books for the various creeds
Then in 2002 it got a few more auxiliary books regarding implementations with other WoD creatures and events
By 2004 it was formally concluded in 'World of Darkness: Time of Judgment' (the "end times" book for the other WoD lines aside from the big 3)
And... really that's it.
After that there's nothing more regarding Hunter (same with the Fallen)
The new line 'Chronicles of Darkness' introduces 'Hunter: The Vigil' which gets roughly the same amount of content as HTR, but the CoD line is killed off in 2011 and replaced by the ressurected nuWoD
But Hunter just stayed dead and buried.
Why?
Well I didn't find anything specific on the sales, but it seems it's success didn't stand out nor was it negative
But I did find out that Hunter was a very divise line in the WW community
Some quite passionately loved the game, but most hated it and it's mention was enough to ignite flame wars in the WW forums
And this is why I think HTR failed, it ultimately wasn't a popular line, as it's premise didn't really satisfy most WW players
The system
-----------------------------
HTR premise is as it follows:
"Certain mortals when first come into contact with supernatural beings are, for some reason, bestowed upon supernatural power by unknown beings simply referred to as 'Messengers'. These powers reflect and are granted in accordance with the Imbued's personality, ideals and perhaps more importantly what action he took to deal with the supernatural during that first contact. After being "awakened" to this knowledge, their perception of the world is never the same. And they must continuously protect humanity from these perils, or risk losing their powers, the one thing that protects them from the monsters among us. This burden however slowly but surely takes it's toll on the hunters body, mind and spirit. Making the perservation of themselves is even more difficult a task than figthing monsters. Can the player succeed is mission and retain their humanity?"
At first glance threre seems to be nothing wrong with this concept, but the more you read into the specifics of the systems and rules, the more you'll see the contradictions in it's design.
The Imbued aren't very powerful.
Their "edges" are mostly scouting tools and protection against effects of mental influences (like illusions, werewolf's delirium, the pleasure of a vampire's kiss, etc...)
Their highest powers are specifically stated to be impossible to attain outside of "end times" scenarios where Messengers remove all restrictions on their Imbued, or if you GM explicitly let's you have them
But even then, these hunters are at most as dangerous as a newly embraced vampire
This is actually something that hilariously stands in stark contrast with the artwork in HTR books, that depicts hunters winning over werewolves in direct confrontations
In fact in this even why I said those 3 HTR videogames from High Voltage Software don't count, because those Imbued are far more powerfull than anything the rulebooks allow for
Indeed the way the Imbued are presented in those books, makes it impossible to design a satisfying HTR videogame (specially in the action genre)
Only if they work in groups could they be effective, but this is very difficult because of the next aspect of HTR design
There's a big emphasis on the Imbued's "sanity"
While a good idea on paper, one that does make sense and spices things up, it is unfortunately taken almost to the extreme in HTR
For staters the rulebooks encourage players to role-play specifically as "Joes" from the lower ends of society, but what's really bad about it, is how binary it wants your Imbued to go about: either he's some loner that it starting to crack over the pressure of mainting both his "regular life" and the hunt; or he's a member of a hunter's group made up of unhinged zealots
It really doesn't want the players to be anything in-between, like openning a buissness (even one as a front) or driving around the country taking jobs
It's either crazy loner or fanatical terrist cell
But wait, it's even more restrictive than this, as I previously said it's very difficult for groups of Imbued to get along, as the texts kept insisting that the Imbued are too ignorant, paranoid and insane to organize like this in an effective way
And to make matters even worse, the more powerful your hunter is, the more unhinged he becomes
Despite being established that the Imbued's powers are really nothing special
The problem
-----------------------------
So essentially HTR is a "orphan game", that can't decide if it wants to be about cool superpowered hunters, or if it wants to be White Wolf's 'Call of Cthulhu' copycat, and this split the playerbase
The people that liked the latter, hated everything sorrounding Messengers, specifically the powers they granted, as they saw that as making the Imbued just another supernatural creature instead of the advertised "regular folk" struggling with their newfound perception of reality
And the people that wanted the former hated the fact that powers were lame, lacked versatility and were simply weak, which didn't let them figth off monsters as they expected, plus the exaggerated insanity was just too big a penalty for so little gain
Both complaints are equally legitimate despite their contradictory nature
As I see it, the only ways to fix this systems would be by either:
And I don't see them ever making the Imbued that powefull, specially considering that most of WW fanboys would have a brain fart if their precious faggy leeches, fursonas and wicca self-inserts were to be this easily threatened by mortals
I personally prefer solution number 2, but the the only way I can see it being implemented, is if someone decides to make another HTR videogame...
But I do like read the WW wiki as well as some of their rule books I have in pdf
And one particular "module" I find fascinating is 'Hunter: The Reckoning' - both in concept and it's place in the WW universe.
I've always preferred traditional horror concepts (undead, werewolves, witches, demons, etc...) over the more modern ones (including Lovecraft)
But the idea of supernatural hunters is something I think works best in games
Not that I don't appreciate them in film/books/comics, but it's mostly in the context of the action genre as I don't find them versatile enough for much else
But since one of the major functions of games is to "simulate" a challenge, hunters seem particularly suited to this medium
Which is why I always found odd why WW never bothered much with Hunter, specially pushing it in videogames (yes I am aware of the 'High Voltage Software' games, but that doesn't amount to much)
So I did a little "reasearch"
Publication History
-----------------------------
HTR came out in November 1999, and for the next months it was followed with complementary books for the various creeds
Then in 2002 it got a few more auxiliary books regarding implementations with other WoD creatures and events
By 2004 it was formally concluded in 'World of Darkness: Time of Judgment' (the "end times" book for the other WoD lines aside from the big 3)
And... really that's it.
After that there's nothing more regarding Hunter (same with the Fallen)
The new line 'Chronicles of Darkness' introduces 'Hunter: The Vigil' which gets roughly the same amount of content as HTR, but the CoD line is killed off in 2011 and replaced by the ressurected nuWoD
But Hunter just stayed dead and buried.
Why?
Well I didn't find anything specific on the sales, but it seems it's success didn't stand out nor was it negative
But I did find out that Hunter was a very divise line in the WW community
Some quite passionately loved the game, but most hated it and it's mention was enough to ignite flame wars in the WW forums
And this is why I think HTR failed, it ultimately wasn't a popular line, as it's premise didn't really satisfy most WW players
The system
-----------------------------
HTR premise is as it follows:
"Certain mortals when first come into contact with supernatural beings are, for some reason, bestowed upon supernatural power by unknown beings simply referred to as 'Messengers'. These powers reflect and are granted in accordance with the Imbued's personality, ideals and perhaps more importantly what action he took to deal with the supernatural during that first contact. After being "awakened" to this knowledge, their perception of the world is never the same. And they must continuously protect humanity from these perils, or risk losing their powers, the one thing that protects them from the monsters among us. This burden however slowly but surely takes it's toll on the hunters body, mind and spirit. Making the perservation of themselves is even more difficult a task than figthing monsters. Can the player succeed is mission and retain their humanity?"
At first glance threre seems to be nothing wrong with this concept, but the more you read into the specifics of the systems and rules, the more you'll see the contradictions in it's design.
The Imbued aren't very powerful.
Their "edges" are mostly scouting tools and protection against effects of mental influences (like illusions, werewolf's delirium, the pleasure of a vampire's kiss, etc...)
Their highest powers are specifically stated to be impossible to attain outside of "end times" scenarios where Messengers remove all restrictions on their Imbued, or if you GM explicitly let's you have them
But even then, these hunters are at most as dangerous as a newly embraced vampire
This is actually something that hilariously stands in stark contrast with the artwork in HTR books, that depicts hunters winning over werewolves in direct confrontations
In fact in this even why I said those 3 HTR videogames from High Voltage Software don't count, because those Imbued are far more powerfull than anything the rulebooks allow for
Indeed the way the Imbued are presented in those books, makes it impossible to design a satisfying HTR videogame (specially in the action genre)
Only if they work in groups could they be effective, but this is very difficult because of the next aspect of HTR design
There's a big emphasis on the Imbued's "sanity"
While a good idea on paper, one that does make sense and spices things up, it is unfortunately taken almost to the extreme in HTR
For staters the rulebooks encourage players to role-play specifically as "Joes" from the lower ends of society, but what's really bad about it, is how binary it wants your Imbued to go about: either he's some loner that it starting to crack over the pressure of mainting both his "regular life" and the hunt; or he's a member of a hunter's group made up of unhinged zealots
It really doesn't want the players to be anything in-between, like openning a buissness (even one as a front) or driving around the country taking jobs
It's either crazy loner or fanatical terrist cell
But wait, it's even more restrictive than this, as I previously said it's very difficult for groups of Imbued to get along, as the texts kept insisting that the Imbued are too ignorant, paranoid and insane to organize like this in an effective way
And to make matters even worse, the more powerful your hunter is, the more unhinged he becomes
Despite being established that the Imbued's powers are really nothing special
The problem
-----------------------------
So essentially HTR is a "orphan game", that can't decide if it wants to be about cool superpowered hunters, or if it wants to be White Wolf's 'Call of Cthulhu' copycat, and this split the playerbase
The people that liked the latter, hated everything sorrounding Messengers, specifically the powers they granted, as they saw that as making the Imbued just another supernatural creature instead of the advertised "regular folk" struggling with their newfound perception of reality
And the people that wanted the former hated the fact that powers were lame, lacked versatility and were simply weak, which didn't let them figth off monsters as they expected, plus the exaggerated insanity was just too big a penalty for so little gain
Both complaints are equally legitimate despite their contradictory nature
As I see it, the only ways to fix this systems would be by either:
- Completly ditching the Messengers and their powers and tonning down on the whole "insanity" aspect
- Buff hunters to the point even a recently Imbued can directly take on newly embraced vampire
And I don't see them ever making the Imbued that powefull, specially considering that most of WW fanboys would have a brain fart if their precious faggy leeches, fursonas and wicca self-inserts were to be this easily threatened by mortals
I personally prefer solution number 2, but the the only way I can see it being implemented, is if someone decides to make another HTR videogame...
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