Hunter: The Vigil
Encyclopedia
Hunter: The Vigil is a game line from White Wolf
, announced on January 2, 2008, and released on August 14, 2008, when the sponsors for the second Free RPG Day
were announced. It is the sixth game line to be part of the World of Darkness
and the spiritual successor of Hunter: The Reckoning
from the old World of Darkness setting. Like Promethean: The Created
and Changeling: The Lost
, Hunter: The Vigil will be a limited game line, consisting of a core setting book and several supplements. A board game is also planned.
The first hints of the new game line came in the Changeling: The Lost
core book. At the back of the book was a word search, and after finding all the words and removing several Xs, all that was left was a cryptic message: thehuntersarrivetwothousandeight.
There are two sets of quickstart rules, one for Free RPG Day and another in line with the usual quickstart rules for the other game lines. They are "about 50% different".
Characters affiliations are categorized into 3 tiers:
Cells occasionally discover one another and band together for strength and mutual support. When multiple cells get together in a region, the organization often acquires an independent identity, a group structure known as a compact.
Frequently, a compact forms out of a sense of cultural identity or shared purpose: The Long Night, for instance, comprises mostly fundamentalist Christians
, whereas the compact known as Null Mysteriis draws its membership from the ranks of scientists and medical personnel who have been exposed to supernatural phenomena, and seek to strip it of all the superstitious hocus pocus surrounding it to find rational explanations for the irrational wherever possible.
Compacts can extend their reach to encompass large geographical regions, and even become global in scope through the medium of the internet if the compacts are particularly net savvy. Compacts sacrifice some of their flexibility for backup from other cells within the compact.
Compacts examples from Core Book:
Sometimes, a compact becomes something else: a truly global organization, with access to Endowments - powerful devices or other powers whose use blurs the line between the hunters and their prey. Conspiracies sacrifice flexibility for access to serious backup and firepower, including their Endowments. Some conspiracies date back thousands of years; others are relatively modern.
Conspiracies examples from Core Book:
With the release of additional sourcebooks for the game line, a greater range of compacts and conspiracies have been revealed.
Compacts from Sourcebooks
Conspiracies from the Sourcebooks
* Storytelling Adventure System
White Wolf, Inc.
White Wolf Publishing is an American gaming and book publisher. The company was founded in 1991 as a merger between Lion Rampant and White Wolf Magazine, and was initially led by Mark Rein·Hagen of the former and Steve and Stewart Wieck of the latter. Since White Wolf Publishing, Inc. merged with...
, announced on January 2, 2008, and released on August 14, 2008, when the sponsors for the second Free RPG Day
Free RPG Day
Free RPG Day is an annual promotional effort by the North American Role-playing game industry. Inspired by Free Comic Book Day, Free RPG Day was started in 2007 and is coordinated worldwide by Impressions Advertising and Marketing...
were announced. It is the sixth game line to be part of the World of Darkness
World of Darkness
"World of Darkness" is the name given to three related but distinct fictional universes created as settings for supernatural horror themed role-playing games. It is also the name of roleplaying games in the second and third settings...
and the spiritual successor of Hunter: The Reckoning
Hunter: The Reckoning
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...
from the old World of Darkness setting. Like Promethean: The Created
Promethean: The Created
Promethean: The Created is a role-playing game published by White Wolf, set in the new World of Darkness.The game is inspired by the classic tales of Frankenstein's monster, the Golem and other such simulacra. The characters are individuals created by first dismembering and reassembling human...
and Changeling: The Lost
Changeling: The Lost
Changeling: The Lost is the fifth supplementary role-playing game line published by White Wolf, Inc. It uses the Storytelling System for rules and is set in the new World of Darkness setting...
, Hunter: The Vigil will be a limited game line, consisting of a core setting book and several supplements. A board game is also planned.
The first hints of the new game line came in the Changeling: The Lost
Changeling: The Lost
Changeling: The Lost is the fifth supplementary role-playing game line published by White Wolf, Inc. It uses the Storytelling System for rules and is set in the new World of Darkness setting...
core book. At the back of the book was a word search, and after finding all the words and removing several Xs, all that was left was a cryptic message: thehuntersarrivetwothousandeight.
There are two sets of quickstart rules, one for Free RPG Day and another in line with the usual quickstart rules for the other game lines. They are "about 50% different".
Organizations
Hunters operate socially, in collectives and groups of various sizes. The smallest organizational unit in which hunters operate is the cell. Cells operate independently of one another, frequently without even being aware of the existence of other cells in the region. Individual cells make up for their lack of firepower with flexibility and local knowledge.Characters affiliations are categorized into 3 tiers:
- First-tier Characters (individuals who for various reasons do not affiliate with any organization other than their Cell)
- Second-tier Characters (individuals who belong to Compacts, small and loosely connected organizations)
- Third-tier Characters (individuals who belong to Conspiracies, large global groups that command greater power and resources)
Cells occasionally discover one another and band together for strength and mutual support. When multiple cells get together in a region, the organization often acquires an independent identity, a group structure known as a compact.
Frequently, a compact forms out of a sense of cultural identity or shared purpose: The Long Night, for instance, comprises mostly fundamentalist Christians
Fundamentalist Christianity
Christian fundamentalism, also known as Fundamentalist Christianity, or Fundamentalism, arose out of British and American Protestantism in the late 19th century and early 20th century among evangelical Christians...
, whereas the compact known as Null Mysteriis draws its membership from the ranks of scientists and medical personnel who have been exposed to supernatural phenomena, and seek to strip it of all the superstitious hocus pocus surrounding it to find rational explanations for the irrational wherever possible.
Compacts can extend their reach to encompass large geographical regions, and even become global in scope through the medium of the internet if the compacts are particularly net savvy. Compacts sacrifice some of their flexibility for backup from other cells within the compact.
Compacts examples from Core Book:
- The Long Night – ChristianChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
hunters trying to destroy monster to facilitate the second coming of Christ. - Null Mysteriis – A group that seeks to scientifically study the paranormal.
- Network Zero – A group trying to expose the supernatural world to the public via the use of media sites such as YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
. - The Union – Consists of regular folks mostly trying to protect their neighborhood from oppression of any kind (humans or monsters).
- The Ashwood Abbey – Thrill seekers who want to experience everything involving the supernatural from the most benign to the most psychotic (torture, mutilation, and worse).
- The Loyalists of Thule – Guilt-driven knowledge seekers who use what they learn to help the world after their assistance in creating the Nazi Party.
Sometimes, a compact becomes something else: a truly global organization, with access to Endowments - powerful devices or other powers whose use blurs the line between the hunters and their prey. Conspiracies sacrifice flexibility for access to serious backup and firepower, including their Endowments. Some conspiracies date back thousands of years; others are relatively modern.
Conspiracies examples from Core Book:
- Task Force: VALKYRIE ("The Men in BlackMen in BlackMen in Black , in American popular culture and in UFO conspiracy theories, are men dressed in black suits who claim to be government agents who harass or threaten UFO witnesses to keep them quiet about what they have seen. It is sometimes implied that they may be aliens themselves...
") – Founded after the "real" death of Abraham Lincoln, using high-tech weaponry to protect the public and keep them from knowing things they do not want to know. - The Lucifuge – Children of SatanSatanSatan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
, who use their infernal powers to hunt monsters. - The Cheiron Group – Group of international corporations who experiment on monsters in order to find cures for modern diseases such as cancerCancerCancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
and HIVHIVHuman immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
, and attaching parts of monsters to their field agents. - Aegis Kai Doru (Greek for "Shield & Spear") – Empowered by ancient relics and bound by a vow to destroy both werewolves and mages for an ancient grudge.
- Ascending Ones – Ancient EgyptianAncient EgyptAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
cult turned IslamicIslamIslam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
hunters, they are well known for their use of drugs to help aid their monster hunting. - Malleus Maleficarum – Secret enforcers of the Catholic ChurchRoman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
, based on the heretical bookMalleus MaleficarumThe Malleus Maleficarum is an infamous treatise on witches, written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer, an Inquisitor of the Catholic Church, and was first published in Germany in 1487...
from the InquisitionInquisitionThe Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
and specialize in vampire hunting.
With the release of additional sourcebooks for the game line, a greater range of compacts and conspiracies have been revealed.
Compacts from Sourcebooks
- The Barrett Commission - Groups of business and politically minded individuals in high positions of power dedicated to fighting vampiric influence in America, primarily through politics and economics.
- Maiden's Blood Sisterhood - College sorority created to protect colleges and universities from preying vampires.
- Night Watch - Organized vigilantes who protect slums and other urban areas from vampires.
- The Bear Lodge - American hunter group who pursue werewolves and other creatures for pure sport.
- The Talbot Group - American organization founded as a counseling service that aims to rehabilitate werewolves and other supernatural beings to humanity.
- Division Six - Extra-governmental group devoted to eliminating mages and other magic users.
- The Hunt Club - A group of wealthy socialites who partake in hunting normal, non-supernatural human beings for sport.
Conspiracies from the Sourcebooks
- Vanguard Serial Crimes Unit - Department of the FBI that uses psychics to track and capture serial killers and slashers.
- Knights of St. George - A group of so-called knights of England who seek to keep mages and magic users from attracting the attention of beings greater than humanity. Rumored to be responsible for the Tunguska IncidentTunguska eventThe Tunguska event, or Tunguska blast or Tunguska explosion, was an enormously powerful explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, at about 7:14 a.m...
. - Les Mysteres - Practitioners of Haitian vodou and Louisiana voodoo, the conspiracy hunts werewolves under the belief that they kill the spirits the group communicates with.
Endowments
Endowments are a new category of Merit, and represent "tools of the trade" that hunters use to hunt monsters in the World of Darkness. While most hunters hunt with "their wits, willpower, and whatever supplies they can gather from the local sporting goods store", others have access to "tools beyond those that ordinary men and women can acquire".Books
- Bad Night at Blackmoon Farm* (PDF Only) (October 2008)
- Under the Skin* (PDF Only) (February 2009) inspired by Spirit Slayers
- Spearfinger* (PDF Only) (January 2009) inspired by Witch Finders
- Murder Will Out* (PDF Only) (January 2009) inspired by Slasher
- Blood Drive* (PDF Only) (May 2009) inspired by Night Stalkers
- Collection of Horrors* (PDF Only) 16 guides that can working in conjunction with the Horror Recognition Guide. They were released as individual guides, as packaged bundles or as a weekly subscription
- 1 The Razorkids
- 2 Host of the Clutter
- 3 Frankenstein’s Mobster
- 4 Empty Space
- 5 The Man with the Gray Beard
- 6 Meeting the Frostbite Girl
- 7 Getting Her Back
- 8 Body of Evidence
- 9 Caveat Emptor
- 10 No Escape
- 11 Good for the Soul
- 12 Serpent’s Tooth
- 13 The Mother of All Wrong Turns
- 14 Mother to Monsters
- 15 Dead to Me
- 16 Mr. Thélème