3 Approaches to Hunter: The Reckoning
By Reverend K.
I like Hunter: the Reckoning. In my mind it has the potential to
be one of the most interesting and powerful of the big 6. It is a
game that pulls no punches and is good for both beginners and
advanced players for different reasons. Other people don't like it so
much. they point to it's unrelenting pessimism and it's lack of focus
and they don't like the fact that as you get more powerful you might
go insane, and that the odds are stacked against you...
Pussies.
I am so sick of people who fail to plusses for all the minuses...mostly imagined. These same players that dislike all that stuff about Hunter might find the same things attractive about Call of Cthulhu. In order to rectify this gross inequity. I'm going to propose 3 separate and distinct approaches to H:tR. What some call a lack of focus. I call flexibility.
Approach 1: Mean Streets
I have always been in love with the Low Fantasy campaign. I actually dig it when you have a group of disparate individuals who have to come together despite their differences and try to stay alive, keep fed and maybe even accomplish a goal or two. Forget saving the world. Hell you'd be happy to save the neighborhood. What am I? Superman? Take every instance of urban squalor and decay that you ever experienced or witnessed or read about and then chuck in some supernatural nasties. Hey, Why stop at Vampires, and Werewolves, and Ghosts (Oh my!) Take those CoC manuals off the shelf and give them a work out too. Why stop there...THIS world has slave rings,snuff films,satanists,neo-nazis,drug dealers,republican senators and maniacs aplenty.
Here's an idea. Don't let the players see the book. Help them generate interesting human people. Then when the time is right have them run headlong into their wake-up call. An even better idea for beginners is to create a group of stock characters and allow the players to choose what role they'd like to fulfill. Yes, this will mean more work for you the ST but it will also mean that the players will have the interesting situation of knowing NOTHING! Not only do they not know anything about the Vampires but they don't know anything about themselves either. It's incumbent upon you ,the ST, to have the characters meet a few N.P.C.'s who think they know what's going on but with wildly differing theories...each more reasonable than the last. The One main thing to watch out for is too much pain and agony and death and gloom. Unrelenting darkness is what doomed Wraith.
To be sure, Hunter tends to lean in this direction. Even those who believe that their powers have been granted by God are often confused, feel helpless, and die. it's a harsh world but it leads to powerful stories of plain women and men striving against great odds. Isn't that what all heroic journeys are about?
Approach 2: B and A
For those of you who are not hip. I love Buffy: the Vampire Slayer and although it's generally darker in tone I also love Angel. These two shows deal with the pressures of people who have to deal with the forces of evil on a regular basis. Things can get serious and people can die but the shows are also smart,hip, and funny as hell at times. Buffy's never-ending struggle to have as normal a life as possible even while kicking vampire ass is a source of endless humor. and Angel is constantly drawn into social situations that he feels uncomfortable in while dealing with his own personal demons. At times he comes off looking like a dork. Angel is cool, he's just not with it. you know? the supporting characters and the antagonists are a riot at times too. although the show can still get scary because we actually care about the people involved.
The Point I'm going for here, is that while a Hunter game can be very serious stuff it can also have it's light hearted moments and full-on slapstick humor. Hunters that can banter with the Forces of Darkness are kind of neat.
Approach 3: The Word
I noticed this while watching Prophecy 3. Hunter script looks a lot like Angelic script (Enochian i think, i could be wrong.) This suggested a whole host (pardon the pun) of possibilities to me. What if the powers that have been gained by the mortals are angelic in origin? Did God give the order? or was the order given by someone acting in his behalf? The last times Angels moved freely across the face of the earth they were often corrupted and fell.(Check out the stories about the Nephilim in the Midrashim or in the Book of Enoch sometime) Human beings only have a pair of rabbit ears when it comes to receiving the Word of the Lord, but Angels have a built-in radar dish. Living on the material plane is as far from God as you can get and still be in touch, so is it any wonder that angels who come here commit sins and pernicious acts. This prevented them from acting directly but they couldn't stand by and watch the forces of the Adversary take the world without a shot being fired. In desperation they turned to the act of melding with the subconscious of humans that they selected. (This would also seem to be supported by the Bystanders. the spirit moved upon them but they did not act and so the angel moved on. leaving a terrible punishment in it's wake.)
The Hunter is now a meld of Angel and Human. Able to wield the powers of heaven for war or for mercy but unable to access the great secrets of heaven except in visions and dreams. Each Creed is indicative of a kind of angelic choir and as such have their own tendencies and strategies. Hunters often clash with each other more over methodology but almost never over the war itself. They kill the Vampires. They Destroy the Shapechangers and Mages who step out of line and they send Wraiths to their rest (willing or no.) They might not know exactly what to do about the Kithain and by turns they might help or harm human hunters ,but they are on a mission. whether they realize it or not.
This makes the change into a powerful hunter all the more terrifying. As more angelic power is earned,(and it is earned by god.) the Angel grows greater in the human, making him less human. It could be psychological stress, It could be that the Angel becomes deranged from spending too long on earth (Which explains why the lives of saints are usually painfully short.) but the most terrifying explanation for the derangement's that come with upper level powers is that Angelic Morality is too alien to bear. Supposedly Angels are capable of perfect love. and their first love is God. Helping a sick child or slaying a million people is all one to an Angel as long as it's the Will of the Lord.
This also offers the interesting possibilities of a game where the people involved ever so slowly uncover the truth about what they've become, what they used to be, and what's going to happen to them next. Strange symbolism and indecipherable visions punctuate hard-core action and heroism. Are they heroes because they're Angels? Or are they Heroes because they're human. You make the call.