Rating: Summary: White Wolf's Feared and Hated Child Review: When this game came out, White Wolf's forums were...less than thrilled about this game. It's a shame that people judge this book before they read it, because it has amazing depth and humanity to it.You are the Imbued, regular blue- and white-collar citizens who one day get a big cosmic message from enigmatic beings (called the Heralds) waking you up to the fact that monsters not only exist in your world, but they have been there for a while and they've inserted themselves very neatly into law enforcement, politics, media, etc. Armed with "second sight" (the ability to spot these monsters out of a crowd) and "edges" (powers given to you by the Heralds to help you out in the hunt), Hunters can either strike at the darkness, search for redemption inside monsters, or merely try to learn more about them and figure out what went wrong. But as you begin to fight the good fight, you realize that you're outnumbered, outmanned, and underpowered. To top it all off, leading the crusade against darkness ultimately alienates you from your friends, family, and society. It's gritty, tragic, but ultimately hopeful. Despite it's bad rap as a twink game, Hunters are actually fragile, panicky creatures who bleed easy and go down fast. It's a welcome change from the usual White Wolf fare (if you haven't picked up a White Wolf game yet, I recommend this first before purchasing others...knowledge about the other games ruin the mystery of the monsters somewhat)
Rating: Summary: Hunter is a trophy to keep Review: While White-Wolf did basicly recycle their old games' systems into Hunter, the story is a new one. For years, White-Wolf's World of Darkness has been ruled by the creatures of the night: Reality shatters at a Mage's whim; Ghosts terrorize the living; Vampires see humanity as a group of cattle; Rampaging Werewolves can tear a human apart without a second thought... and not even our dreams are safe from the Changelings. In response to this, reality seems to have begun to randomly choose champions to fight back. The Imbued, also known as hunters, are taking the war back to the doorsteps of the supernatural. As opposed to other WW games, the Hunters are ordinary people with some extraordinary abilities. This is the emphasis of the game. They are students, mothers, doctors, DJs, whatever. But they aren't all fantasticly rich super-strong martial arts instructors. This is a game about finding hope through one's actions, and giving the innocent an easier sleep at night. Also, the writing in the book is well done, and the powers and abilities are fresh as well. Where Aeon floundered, Hunter will stand firm.
Rating: Summary: You don't need it at all Review: You don't need this book at all. If you want to run a Hunter chronicle buy the Vampire or Werewolf or whatever WOD rulebook. The rules are the same and to play a mortal human isn't that different from what a player should already know. Analogue to tribes or clans hunters are distinguished in this book by their reason to hunt and their ways to do it. This is boring! On the other hand, Hunter: The Reckoning innovates the imbued, a term for special super-human abilities. Forget these rules, make up your own. It will be much more intriguing. And most of all I guess in the real world only one in a thousand humans have supernatural abilities. The book implies, that almost every hunter is imbued. That kills the spirit of the World of Darkness. Humans are by definition mortals. They are not that strong, not that fast and not that powerful. They are human. Play it like that.
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