Hunter: the Reckoning
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Hunter: the Reckoning
Hunter: the Reckoning ( HtR for short) is a role-playing game set in White
Wolf’s World of Darkness (WoD). The world of darkness is a global wide rpg setting
where vampires, werewolves, mages, ghosts and changelings (fairies) fight for supremacy.
The WoD is basically the same as our world, except for these supernatural beings. Until
the year 1999 very few humans had any idea that these supernatural beings existed. All
that changes very abruptly, though.
The Few, the Powerful, the Imbued
The characters you play in HtR were normal humans, once. This changed
suddenly one day when they received a message from strange, mysterious beings called the
heralds, or messengers. They briefly see or hear something like “Inherit the Earth” or
“The Dead Walk Among Us.” Soon afterward they see things, strange horrible things.
Walking corpses, nine foot wolf men and men that glow are all common. They see these
horrible monstrosities and realize they must do something, but what they do and how they
do it depend on what creed they follow.
Creeds
There are many different types of hunters. Here is a basic list of them.
Vengeance- Basically the one you see in the movies, he goes out and kills
whatever isn’t human. They don’t normally make deals but can if in a dire need or are
way over-powered. Normally strong and well armed.
Defender- Protect the innocent, and make sure others stay alive. They try to keep
everybody in one piece and will sometimes take sides.
Innocence- The innocent try to be all nice and goody-two shoes. Sometimes it
works. Sometimes it doesn’t. Most of them are looked upon as fools are children by
other hunters (some ever are children).
Judgment- Judges seek to find the right and wrong, the good and bad in
supernatural critters. They can observe them for a very long time, trying to decide their
motivations. They are often seen as hesitant by other hunters, but once they get going and
make a choice they almost always follow through.
Martyrdom- Basically a cross between defender and avenger, a martyr will give up
anything he has to protect others and stop evil.
Redemption- Redeemers try to find the good in all supernatural beings. If they
find the slightest bit of it, they try to manifest it and make it more prevalent. With
patience and time, they can even bring vampires back to humanity (this is rare, but in a
world where men dressed like mad scientists run around warping time, anything is
possible.)
Visionary- Visionaries seek to understand everything, and are trying to find out
everything there is about all the monsters. They are normally smart, and can make good
leaders.
Personality
There are different things that give examples of what kind of person a character is.
Nature is what the person is really like. Demeanor is how others see him (this can be very
different from nature). Concept is a basic idea of what the character does and is.
Important Character Stats
Many other things affect who your hunter is. Unless stated otherwise, they are
rated from 1 (the worst) to 5 (the best).
Attributes- Attributes are basic ratings of your characters physical and mental
person. They are divided into 3 different categories: Physical, Social and Mental. Those
are further divided into 3 sub categories. Physical has strength, dexterity and stamina.
Social has charisma, manipulation and appearance. Mental has perception, intelligence
and wits.
Abilities- Nifty things your character can do. These are divided into (take a
guess) 3 categories. Knowledge is things your character knows about, from law to
politics to occult things. Skills are things your character has picked up. These include
things like demolitions, firearms and survival. Talents are basically everything else.
Examples of these are brawl, leadership and subterfuge.
Advantages
Advantages are things that give your character the upper hand. These are once
again divided into three different types: Backgrounds, Edges and Virtues.
Backgrounds- These describe what stuff your character has going for them
already. These include things like how much money they have and how many friends they
can call a favor from.
Virtues- Virtues are things that show what the determination of hunting has
gotten for a character. They are points that are spent only on edges. The three virtues are
mercy, vision and zeal. They all have different edge groups within themselves that have
their own edges.
Edges- Edges are really cool things your hunters can do. They are bought using
virtue points and can include all kinds of things. Each creed has a virtue category which is
listed under the 3 virtues. For example, the zeal virtue points can be spent on defense,
judgment or vengeance, because all of those are zeal edge categories. Each category has
five different edges, each one more powerful then the next. For example, the vengeance
category’s level one power is Cleave (Chop a zombie’s head off with a plastic spoon!) and
its level five power is Smite. To get Smite you would have to get cleave and powers 2, 3,
and 4. To get these you need to spend virtue points. The problem is, you only start with
a limited number of virtue points. How do you get more, you ask?
Conviction & Willpower
Conviction- This is the drive and loyalty a hunter has to a creed. Hunters can
have anywhere from one to ten conviction points at a time. Everytime they get 10
conviction, they can immediately cash it in for one virtue point. They then go back to
their starting conviction, usually 3 or 4. They may use conviction points to do things such
as see monsters for what they are and make edges more powerful. If a hunter’s conviction
falls to zero however, they become a normal human with very little power. After awhile
they can get their conviction back though and continue the fight with renewed vigor.
Willpower- Willpower is how determined a hunter is. Each hunter has a
permanent willpower and a temporary willpower. Willpower can be used to give many
rolls automatic success. It is also tested in some circumstances to resist certain things.
The System
The WoD gaming system is basically similar in all games. You roll ten-sided dice
to check against your characters ability. If you succeed, everything goes off OK. If you
fail, it doesn’t. If you roll more ones than successes, you botch horribly, where normally
something really bad happens. Throughout the game you explore the world of darkness,
trying to kill the abominations and stay alive past the GM’s hordes of evil. Along with
inter-system compatibility, which allows somebody’s vampire from another game to come
join in and help (sometimes) you, Hunter the Reckoning is an excellent new edition to the
World of Darkness.
Hunter: the Reckoning ( HtR for short) is a role-playing game set in White
Wolf’s World of Darkness (WoD). The world of darkness is a global wide rpg setting
where vampires, werewolves, mages, ghosts and changelings (fairies) fight for supremacy.
The WoD is basically the same as our world, except for these supernatural beings. Until
the year 1999 very few humans had any idea that these supernatural beings existed. All
that changes very abruptly, though.
The Few, the Powerful, the Imbued
The characters you play in HtR were normal humans, once. This changed
suddenly one day when they received a message from strange, mysterious beings called the
heralds, or messengers. They briefly see or hear something like “Inherit the Earth” or
“The Dead Walk Among Us.” Soon afterward they see things, strange horrible things.
Walking corpses, nine foot wolf men and men that glow are all common. They see these
horrible monstrosities and realize they must do something, but what they do and how they
do it depend on what creed they follow.
Creeds
There are many different types of hunters. Here is a basic list of them.
Vengeance- Basically the one you see in the movies, he goes out and kills
whatever isn’t human. They don’t normally make deals but can if in a dire need or are
way over-powered. Normally strong and well armed.
Defender- Protect the innocent, and make sure others stay alive. They try to keep
everybody in one piece and will sometimes take sides.
Innocence- The innocent try to be all nice and goody-two shoes. Sometimes it
works. Sometimes it doesn’t. Most of them are looked upon as fools are children by
other hunters (some ever are children).
Judgment- Judges seek to find the right and wrong, the good and bad in
supernatural critters. They can observe them for a very long time, trying to decide their
motivations. They are often seen as hesitant by other hunters, but once they get going and
make a choice they almost always follow through.
Martyrdom- Basically a cross between defender and avenger, a martyr will give up
anything he has to protect others and stop evil.
Redemption- Redeemers try to find the good in all supernatural beings. If they
find the slightest bit of it, they try to manifest it and make it more prevalent. With
patience and time, they can even bring vampires back to humanity (this is rare, but in a
world where men dressed like mad scientists run around warping time, anything is
possible.)
Visionary- Visionaries seek to understand everything, and are trying to find out
everything there is about all the monsters. They are normally smart, and can make good
leaders.
Personality
There are different things that give examples of what kind of person a character is.
Nature is what the person is really like. Demeanor is how others see him (this can be very
different from nature). Concept is a basic idea of what the character does and is.
Important Character Stats
Many other things affect who your hunter is. Unless stated otherwise, they are
rated from 1 (the worst) to 5 (the best).
Attributes- Attributes are basic ratings of your characters physical and mental
person. They are divided into 3 different categories: Physical, Social and Mental. Those
are further divided into 3 sub categories. Physical has strength, dexterity and stamina.
Social has charisma, manipulation and appearance. Mental has perception, intelligence
and wits.
Abilities- Nifty things your character can do. These are divided into (take a
guess) 3 categories. Knowledge is things your character knows about, from law to
politics to occult things. Skills are things your character has picked up. These include
things like demolitions, firearms and survival. Talents are basically everything else.
Examples of these are brawl, leadership and subterfuge.
Advantages
Advantages are things that give your character the upper hand. These are once
again divided into three different types: Backgrounds, Edges and Virtues.
Backgrounds- These describe what stuff your character has going for them
already. These include things like how much money they have and how many friends they
can call a favor from.
Virtues- Virtues are things that show what the determination of hunting has
gotten for a character. They are points that are spent only on edges. The three virtues are
mercy, vision and zeal. They all have different edge groups within themselves that have
their own edges.
Edges- Edges are really cool things your hunters can do. They are bought using
virtue points and can include all kinds of things. Each creed has a virtue category which is
listed under the 3 virtues. For example, the zeal virtue points can be spent on defense,
judgment or vengeance, because all of those are zeal edge categories. Each category has
five different edges, each one more powerful then the next. For example, the vengeance
category’s level one power is Cleave (Chop a zombie’s head off with a plastic spoon!) and
its level five power is Smite. To get Smite you would have to get cleave and powers 2, 3,
and 4. To get these you need to spend virtue points. The problem is, you only start with
a limited number of virtue points. How do you get more, you ask?
Conviction & Willpower
Conviction- This is the drive and loyalty a hunter has to a creed. Hunters can
have anywhere from one to ten conviction points at a time. Everytime they get 10
conviction, they can immediately cash it in for one virtue point. They then go back to
their starting conviction, usually 3 or 4. They may use conviction points to do things such
as see monsters for what they are and make edges more powerful. If a hunter’s conviction
falls to zero however, they become a normal human with very little power. After awhile
they can get their conviction back though and continue the fight with renewed vigor.
Willpower- Willpower is how determined a hunter is. Each hunter has a
permanent willpower and a temporary willpower. Willpower can be used to give many
rolls automatic success. It is also tested in some circumstances to resist certain things.
The System
The WoD gaming system is basically similar in all games. You roll ten-sided dice
to check against your characters ability. If you succeed, everything goes off OK. If you
fail, it doesn’t. If you roll more ones than successes, you botch horribly, where normally
something really bad happens. Throughout the game you explore the world of darkness,
trying to kill the abominations and stay alive past the GM’s hordes of evil. Along with
inter-system compatibility, which allows somebody’s vampire from another game to come
join in and help (sometimes) you, Hunter the Reckoning is an excellent new edition to the
World of Darkness.
