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The Hunters Hunted 2
Most mortals turn away from the darkness that preys upon them, going about their lives in despair of the Damned and the evils they visit upon the world. But a precious few wage a personal war to shine light on those shadows and diminish them, like solitary candles shining in the night. The path of the hunter is lonely and fraught with danger, at once beset by the monsters they hunt and looked upon with suspicion by their fellow mortals they thanklessly seek to protect.
Hunters Hunted 2 revisits one of the seminal titles of the Vampire: The Masquerade, in which the players take on the roles of those who seek to bring an end to the depredations of the undead. Included are details on those who choose to take up the good fight, expanding the options available to players and offering a host of new storytelling opportunities. No lone hunter or vigilant troupe should face the night without learning the ways of the hunter contained within this book.
Hunters Hunted 2 includes:
• Systems by which to play a vampire hunter — one who hunts the Kindred in the World of Darkness.
• Practical advice and teamwork-tactics game systems to bring to bear against the Damned.
• Updated systems for supernatural Numina powers that can grant hunters an edge against the undead.
• Updated information on The Inquisition, Project Twilight, The Arcanum, criminal organizations, and additional gear included as a result of the Deluxe HH2 Kickstarter Stretch Goals.
Hunters Hunted 2 revisits one of the seminal titles of the Vampire: The Masquerade, in which the players take on the roles of those who seek to bring an end to the depredations of the undead. Included are details on those who choose to take up the good fight, expanding the options available to players and offering a host of new storytelling opportunities. No lone hunter or vigilant troupe should face the night without learning the ways of the hunter contained within this book.
Hunters Hunted 2 includes:
• Systems by which to play a vampire hunter — one who hunts the Kindred in the World of Darkness.
• Practical advice and teamwork-tactics game systems to bring to bear against the Damned.
• Updated systems for supernatural Numina powers that can grant hunters an edge against the undead.
• Updated information on The Inquisition, Project Twilight, The Arcanum, criminal organizations, and additional gear included as a result of the Deluxe HH2 Kickstarter Stretch Goals.
- GenresWorld Of DarknessHorror
183 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 12, 2019
The comprehensive guide to stabbing vampires right in the face.
It seemed a little odd to me that The Hunters Hunted would be the first book updated for V20 after the corebook, but after reading it, it makes a lot more sense. We live in a world with smartphones and the Department of Homeland Security, so a freelance job murdering creatures of the night is a lot more difficult than it was back in 1992.
Most of The Hunters Hunted 2 is taken up with describing the life of an ordinary person who turns to vampire hunting after some inciting event. Maybe they're a cop and they see one too many cover-up, or maybe their husband was killed by a vampire and they're out for revenge. Maybe they were screwed over by a vampire using Dominate or Presence, or used to be a ghoul. Maybe they narrowly survived a Sabbat massacre. Regardless, they have some reason to overturn their entire life and dedicate it to the hunt, which is the main theme of half the book. How do these people maintain (or fail to maintain) their normal lives, how do they deal with their spouse or boss so that they can keep their support network that allows them to fund their crusade, how do they meet up with other hunters and take back the night.
The main mechanic in this part are Plan Dice, which are awarded by the ST as the players come up with a plan and try to cover all eventualities. They can use Plan Dice to resist vampire powers and improve actions, and the ST can add additional Plan Dice as a reward for "coincidences" (not a thing in the absence of random tables) like a rave happening next to the vampire's haven and making it much harder to go in loud. There's explicit advice to let the players come up with a detailed and comprehensive plan and award them a bunch of dice, because vampires are a formidable opponent and anyway, no plan survives contact with the enemy. This was my favorite part of the book--I love forward-looking mechanics that reward players for thinking things through, and a dice bonus is the best mechanic I've found anywhere that allows players to say, "Ah yes, just as I knew it would happen!" and still come out on top.
The rest of the book is about various formal organizations that oppose the creatures of the night, like the Society of Leopold (the modern inquisition), the Federal government, and organized crime. On the latter, there's an explicit sidebar that organized crime remains more cohesive and extensive in the World of Darkness than it is in the real world, because of course. Each of these groups gets their own special benefits over individual hunters. Inquisitors have holy relics that have real supernatural power, government agents can requisition equipment up to and including drone strikes, and organized crime can rely on a lot of associates who are perfectly willing to break the law.
Also the Arcanum is in here, even though they don't actually do any hunting, I guess because they're a mortal organization that often deals with vampires. From a distance.
There are a lot of mechanics for Numina, the various supernatural powers also represented in Sorcerer Revised. And since the World of Darkness games have very little thematic or mechanical consistency, it's a completely different system here, including some powers that do the same thing but work differently. Different powers are in different places befitting groups more likely to possess them--the theurgy of the Society of Leopold (practiced by "Judas witches," which is amazing), which can call up spirits from the vasty deep, is in their section, whereas Anti-Psi is under the government and most generic Numina are in the beginning section. These are serviceable, I suppose, though I would have liked them presented the same way they were in Sorcerer Revised so it'd be easier to integrate them all into a single whole.
The best part is the focus on mood, though. Personal horror and victory at a cost--how much of their life is a hunter willing to give up now that they know what stalks the night? Are they willing to destroy their own happiness to preserve others, and to live with themselves if they don't? How much harm can come to innocents in the course of killing a vampire? I was originally surprised that The Hunters Hunted 2 kept the Humanity mechanic from Vampire: the Masquerade, but in that context it makes a lot of sense. Hunters with low Humanity have decided that all that matters is killing vampires and they're willing to do anything it takes to accomplish that even if they rack up a body count higher than the vampire might have done in an equivalent time frame. Where is your hunter going to fall? If they're successful, do they decide enough is enough after they've avenged their inciting incident, or will they not rest until humanity is free from fear?
"How are far you willing to go?" is a very World of Darkness theme, after all.
It seemed a little odd to me that The Hunters Hunted would be the first book updated for V20 after the corebook, but after reading it, it makes a lot more sense. We live in a world with smartphones and the Department of Homeland Security, so a freelance job murdering creatures of the night is a lot more difficult than it was back in 1992.
Most of The Hunters Hunted 2 is taken up with describing the life of an ordinary person who turns to vampire hunting after some inciting event. Maybe they're a cop and they see one too many cover-up, or maybe their husband was killed by a vampire and they're out for revenge. Maybe they were screwed over by a vampire using Dominate or Presence, or used to be a ghoul. Maybe they narrowly survived a Sabbat massacre. Regardless, they have some reason to overturn their entire life and dedicate it to the hunt, which is the main theme of half the book. How do these people maintain (or fail to maintain) their normal lives, how do they deal with their spouse or boss so that they can keep their support network that allows them to fund their crusade, how do they meet up with other hunters and take back the night.
The main mechanic in this part are Plan Dice, which are awarded by the ST as the players come up with a plan and try to cover all eventualities. They can use Plan Dice to resist vampire powers and improve actions, and the ST can add additional Plan Dice as a reward for "coincidences" (not a thing in the absence of random tables) like a rave happening next to the vampire's haven and making it much harder to go in loud. There's explicit advice to let the players come up with a detailed and comprehensive plan and award them a bunch of dice, because vampires are a formidable opponent and anyway, no plan survives contact with the enemy. This was my favorite part of the book--I love forward-looking mechanics that reward players for thinking things through, and a dice bonus is the best mechanic I've found anywhere that allows players to say, "Ah yes, just as I knew it would happen!" and still come out on top.
The rest of the book is about various formal organizations that oppose the creatures of the night, like the Society of Leopold (the modern inquisition), the Federal government, and organized crime. On the latter, there's an explicit sidebar that organized crime remains more cohesive and extensive in the World of Darkness than it is in the real world, because of course. Each of these groups gets their own special benefits over individual hunters. Inquisitors have holy relics that have real supernatural power, government agents can requisition equipment up to and including drone strikes, and organized crime can rely on a lot of associates who are perfectly willing to break the law.
Also the Arcanum is in here, even though they don't actually do any hunting, I guess because they're a mortal organization that often deals with vampires. From a distance.
There are a lot of mechanics for Numina, the various supernatural powers also represented in Sorcerer Revised. And since the World of Darkness games have very little thematic or mechanical consistency, it's a completely different system here, including some powers that do the same thing but work differently. Different powers are in different places befitting groups more likely to possess them--the theurgy of the Society of Leopold (practiced by "Judas witches," which is amazing), which can call up spirits from the vasty deep, is in their section, whereas Anti-Psi is under the government and most generic Numina are in the beginning section. These are serviceable, I suppose, though I would have liked them presented the same way they were in Sorcerer Revised so it'd be easier to integrate them all into a single whole.
The best part is the focus on mood, though. Personal horror and victory at a cost--how much of their life is a hunter willing to give up now that they know what stalks the night? Are they willing to destroy their own happiness to preserve others, and to live with themselves if they don't? How much harm can come to innocents in the course of killing a vampire? I was originally surprised that The Hunters Hunted 2 kept the Humanity mechanic from Vampire: the Masquerade, but in that context it makes a lot of sense. Hunters with low Humanity have decided that all that matters is killing vampires and they're willing to do anything it takes to accomplish that even if they rack up a body count higher than the vampire might have done in an equivalent time frame. Where is your hunter going to fall? If they're successful, do they decide enough is enough after they've avenged their inciting incident, or will they not rest until humanity is free from fear?
"How are far you willing to go?" is a very World of Darkness theme, after all.
April 29, 2016
A worthy successor The Hunters Hunted, on of my first favorite books for the original V:TM RPG. This sequel retains the awesome atmosphere while being better planned, organized, and executed. V:TM (including V20) is about the personal horror of becoming a vampire. The Hunters Hunted asks what it would be like to be a human who crosses the Kindred.
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