Hunter: The Reckoning
Hunter: The Reckoning cover
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| Designer(s) | Mark Rein·Hagen, Andrew Bates, Phil Brucato, Ken Cliffe, Greg Fountain, Ed Hall, Jess Heinig, Michael Lee, Richard Thomas, Mike Tinney, Stewart Wieck |
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| Publisher(s) | White Wolf |
| Publication date | November 1, 1999 |
| System(s) | Storyteller System |
Hunter: The Reckoning is a role-playing game based in White Wolf Game Studio's World of Darkness. Compared to the other game in the franchise, Hunter does not explore the secret society of supernatural creatures founded over centuries, preferring to throw the player in a world of danger and mysteries. Players will take on the roles of hunters (or Imbued)—humans who are given powers by unknown entities to fight the supernatural. Those people will normally proceed to hunt down and take care of monsters, be it by killing them, cutting deals or leading them toward redemption. The Messengers will stay in the background and let their Imbued figure out what to do with their newly acquired powers.
The game states that hunters are really new to the World of Darkness, causing them to be unorganized and uninformed. In a classic game, they will form a team of mismatched protagonists arguing on how to attack or deal with monsters. They will try to keep a semblance of normal life, giving the player the opportunity to explore the troubles of living a double life. They will also have to try to figure out what being a monster really means and what being human is, as they meet humans worse than monsters and genuinely kind monsters.
The game is best played by gamers new to the World of Darkness as metagaming can interfere greatly in the experience. For example, the Imbued might think all supernatural creatures are on the same team, which is false in World of Darkness canon. Of course, a player can simulate ignorance or the storyteller (the game master) can alter as many details to create a new personal World of Darkness for the players.
Note that there have been groups of "hunters" prior to the Imbued that appeared in previous games and game supplements as antagonists. These groups however are very different from the Imbued. These "mortal hunters" were either normal people trying to fight against the monsters, ancient orders (such as the Shi or the Society of Leopold/Inquisition) that have protected humanity for centuries, or government agencies (Project Twilight and Strike Force Zero) that were equivalent to the X-Files with high-tech monster hunting gear.
White Wolf used 1999's yearly event, the Year of the Reckoning, to launch their next RPG line; Hunter: The Reckoning (1999), the sixth modern World of Darkness game, allowed players to take on the role of humans in the World of Darkness.World of Darkness: Time of Judgment (2004) ended the Changeling, Demon, Hunter, Kindred of the East, and Mummy lines. By the time the New World of Darkness' sixth RPG, Hunter: The Vigil (2008), came out, the "Storytelling Adventure System" (SAS) program was active; while Hunter's short-run line only received four print books in 2008, it was supplemented by numerous PDFs, including about a half-dozen adventures.
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