Review by Bill Voharas
Hunter: The Reckoning (HtR) is a new game by White Wolf set in its World of Darkness (WoD), using the Storyteller system, and is not Hunters Hunted reissued. In HtR, certain mortals who become aware of the existance of monsters (vampires, werewolves, etc.) become "imbued" by some higher power with perceive and fight these monsters and become driven to do so. What the higher power is, is left open. The Imbued become a new kind of supenatural being in the WoD. If you buy into the central premise of the game, you'll like the sourcebook, which is well written.
However, that's a big if. I was unable to buy into the concept of the Imbued. In the previous WoD games, they have beings that are based on already existing cultural stereotypes that we are all familiar with. Not so with the Imbued. And why do they exist now and not throughout humankind's history?
Second, I think the White Wolfers made a significant error in judgement in abandoning the Hunters Hunted format. In that and other game supplements, they created hunters who are mere mortals or who have minor paranormal abilities. Yes, they are weaker than those they fight, but this can be a game asset giving their efforts a heroic quality. White Wolf could have pulled the info from prior books about the various groups, Society of Leopold (church based hunters), the Arcanum (scholars of the occult), those within government who became aware of the threat (maybe create a clandestine group of government hunters, like Delta Green is in Cthulhu), and lone hunters etc. and made a real good game out of it, but they dropped the ball. For those who want to play this type of game, I hope they keep the old sourcebooks in print, but I am concerned that they'd let them go out of print so as not to compete with the new game - I have no info on this. To be honest, while HtR is well written, I thought "The Inquisition" (about the Society of Leopold and other church based groups) and the book about the Arcanum were better written. I also note that HtR acts as if these other groups of mortal hunters don't even exist.
I suppose I'll play HtR at cons or with friends if I have nothing better to do, but doubt I'll buy any more books in the series.
(Originally posted to the RPGSIG Message Board 11/27/99.)
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