Hunter: The Vigil is the sixth game for the new Chronicles of Darkness. It was first hinted at with a teaser advert in the back of Changeling: The Lost, and was officially announced in a press release on January 2, 2008. The Hunter: The Vigil rulebook was released in August 2008. Like a number of other WOD games, Hunter is a re-imagining of one of the original World of Darkness games - in this case, Hunter: The Reckoning - but according to White Wolf staff, it is very different from its predecessor.[1]
Hunter is a limited series game, like Promethean and Changeling before it. It has five sourcebooks apart from the corebook, which were released one sourcebook per month for five months following the corebook's release. According to the White Wolf LiveJournal, the first three supplements were crossover books, each looking at one of the three 'main' World of Darkness games, Vampire, Werewolf, and Mage (Night Stalkers, Spirit Slayers, and Witch Finders, respectively) [2] with a fourth supplement called Slasher which focuses on serial killers like Jack the Ripper. [3] The final and fifth supplement Compacts & Conspiracies simply provides more information on compacts and conspiracies found in the HTV core rulebook.
There are two free Hunter: The Vigil quickstarts, 'The Hunt' and 'One Year Later'. At least two Storytelling Adventure System modules are scheduled for the game. A Hunter: The Vigil board game is also on the schedule, to be released a few months after the rulebook.[3]
With the announcement of the new Hunter, followed by the releases of Mummy: The Curse and Demon: The Descent, Wraith: The Oblivion is the only cWOD game lines yet to be reinvented for the new World of Darkness. In the back of the HtV corebook is a basic ad for Geist: The Sin-Eaters, of which details of that game can be found in its respective section for this wikia.
Tiers[]
Hunter society can be divided into three tiers of organization - cells, compacts, and conspiracies.
Cells[]
Cells are the basic unit of hunter society, typically a small group of people who defend their neighborhood or community. There may be a number of cells operating in a city at any time.
Compacts[]
Compacts are the next tier up from cells. Their numbers are generally larger as they are usually comprised of multiple cells of which their combined membership can range from a just a dozen or so to being well into the hundreds. They almost always have access to more resources which tend to be of higher-quality and sometimes assets such as safehouses, vehicles and specialist equipment which can be potentially shared by the compact as a whole. Their scale of operations and geographical reach can range local neighbourhoods to whole cities, with the biggest compacts covering entire regions.
Example compacts include:
- The Ashwood Abbey - In the tradition of the Hellfire Club, members of the Abbey desire to experience all that life, and unlife, have to offer - including the supernatural.
- The Long Night- A Christian group who attempt to bring on Armageddon by battling the forces of evil.
- The Loyalists of Thule - Occultists who seek knowledge of the supernatural in places few others dare to tread.
- Network Zero - A compact who try to publicize the existence of monsters through radio, TV and the Internet.
- Null Mysteriis - Scientific investigators of the supernatural.
- The Union - Working-class hunters who trace their heritage back to the labor movements of the 20th century.
Conspiracies[]
Conspiracies are the highest tier of hunter society. They typically have formidable resources at their disposal, are usually self-sufficient, and have considerable experience with the supernatural. Their reach can extend across the planet.
Example conspiracies include:
- Aegis Kai Doru - An ancient conspiracy that seeks out the legendary artifacts of history for use against the supernatural.
- Ascending Ones - Drawing on the legacies of Islam and ancient Egypt, this conspiracy looks to clean out some of the monstrous aberrations that haunt the world.
- The Cheiron Group - A group of corporations who have involved themselves in the supernatural, bringing considerable wealth and power with them.
- The Lucifuge - Descendants of a fallen angel who seek redemption through the destruction of true evil.
- Malleus Maleficarum - A conspiracy in the Catholic Church active since the Middle Ages.
- Task Force: VALKYRIE - A covert government group who recruit members from all branches of the military.[4]
See also[]
Footnotes[]
- ↑ See this thread (among others) on the White Wolf Forums.
- ↑ Monday Morning: It's Too Hot
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Rich's Reveal: 2008
- ↑ HTV: Hunter: The Vigil Quickstart — One Year Later