With the Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition Kickstarter on, it feels like it’s now or never for reviewing Hunter: The Vigil 1st Edition. The Vigil is the Chronicles of Darkness spinoff of White Wolf’s Hunter: The Reckoning, a retooled vision of mortals in the world of monsters that track and slay the evil beasts and immortals. While it retains the theme of the original World of Darkness line, Vigil fits into the Chronicles of Darkness nicely. That said, let’s use my RPG-view Copy and check out Hunter: The Vigil 1st Edition.
Storytelling System
I’ve reviewed Onyx Path Publishing’s Deviant: The Renegade Kickstarter Manuscript Preview and their Scion: Origins (Phone Edition). Both use systems that have “story” in the name (Storytelling and Storypath), but each one is different. With HtV 1e, published by White Wolf, they’re using the Storytelling System for Chronicles of Darkness 1st Edition (which is different than the system for Deviant: The Renegade or HtV 2e). HtV 1e is part of the New World of Darkness (nWoD) or Chronicles of Darkness 1st Edition (CoD). For purposes of this article, I’ll refer to this as Chronicles of Darkness (CoD) for clarity and brevity.
CoD was a new beginning for the classic White Wolf system and settings offering a chance to re-envision the original mechanics and story points to establish a more uniform line of games. As a whole, these mechanical alterations are best illustrated in the rules for character creation. In prior editions of World of Darkness RPGs, the character creation processes were similar among the game lines but not identical. With CoD, the process involved seven steps and, generally, only step five, choosing the supernatural template, varies from game to game. Step five is the point at which you add your supernatural template, the particulars of your chosen core game, in this case, the Hunter Template that includes a Profession, Tiers, Compacts, and Conspiracies. In other words, what elevates a mortal to a Hunter.
Beyond character creation, the core mechanic of the Storytelling System involves rolling d10 dice pools composed of an Attribute plus a Skill plus any supernatural options and/or weapons and/or conditions (which can add or subtract dice). In combat, you lower your dice pool by removing a number of dice equal to a target’s defense and armor. You roll and every 8, 9, and 10 counts as a success. 10s explode allowing for re-rolls. One success equals success in the action while five successes is an exceptional success and it provides a boon of some sort.
In combat, every success is a level of damage. Considering most PCs and NPCs have 7 to 13 levels of health, and combat damage will probably be three points per hit, this means that encounters can be deadly for mortals. Keep in mind, the system is called “Storytelling” which implies more focus on the narrative than battles. With that in mind, let’s lean into the setting.
This World of Darkness
Something went bump in the night and, unlike other CoD games, it was not your character. Instead, you saw whatever it was as it killed someone you loved or, in some other fashion, ruined your happy existence. Vampires, werewolves, ghosts (from the World of Darkness core rulebook), zombies (such as the kind introduced in World of Darkness: Antagonists), demons, fae, mages, cultists, and Slashers all stalk the night and ruin the lives of mortals. The last group, Slashers, are an enemy specific to Hunters. They represent the slasher movie antagonists in the World of Darkness and offer an uncomplicated enemy to hunt (i.e., pure evil red shirts with no messy requirement to kill to survive like a vampire; instead they are driven by an evil desire to kill). While Slashers are not as two dimensional as I’m making them out, they hover in that realm. At some point in time, your character learned about one of those dark things and that bit of madness stuck with them and pushed them to get involved and fight back.
What does fighting back entail? Becoming a Hunter and joining a cell, a compact, or even a conspiracy (the three “sizes” of groups you might be a part of). Despite being in a group with assets and some degree of backup, your character is mortal and, as such, they’ll need to make use of three options to win fights against their more powerful adversaries.
The Hunter’s first advantage is Tactics. You know your enemy, you make a plan, and when you execute that play using Tactics, your team rolls together. One character is the Primary, the rest are Secondaries. Secondaries roll their actions first and add their successes to the Primary’s roll. An example of this is Corral, a Tactic that chases and corners a target. With at least three Hunters, the Secondaries roll Strength or Presence + Intimidation. The Primary, who must be have an Intimidation or Brawl of at least 3, rolls Presence + Intimidation + any Secondaries’ Successes. The target rolls Resolve + Composure. The higher wins and, assuming it’s the Hunters, drives the creature, probably towards a trap.
If you join a third-tier conspiracy, the largest organizations, they have high-tech and supernatural resources called Endowments to choose from. If you want to be a Hunter with enough firepower to stand up to the big bad, this is what you have to reach for.
The biggest weapon mundane characters can use is Risking Willpower. Once per Scene, for specific rolls, the Hunter can spend a Willpower Point to gain three additional dice to a roll, declare that the point is at risk, and roll. If they succeed, they regain the Willpower Point and add another one. If they fail, it’s a dramatic failure with all of those consequences. Why is this an important weapon? Because gaining Willpower now means that the Hunter has extra dice for critical encounters allowing them three additional dice per turn during the final boss fight.
Should Your Vigil Begin?
Obviously, this is a difficult question with a new edition being developed and promised for February 2022. Should you dive into an RPG that is an end-of-life product save for new material at the Storytellers Vault? It depends on what you’re looking for such as a system that’s compatible with other Chronicle of Darkness games, one with lots of supporting sourcebooks that allow you to play the victims of the other games as they fight back. Right now, if you’re interested in trying this book and all of its sourcebooks, there’s an add-on option for backers of the Htv 2e Kickstarter. You can choose either the $20 add-on with the bulk of the books as PDFs or some $3 add-ons that offer you additional pieces of the line, or get them all to have all of the HtV 1e products.
Still not sure this is for you? Then consider that there are not one, but two free quickstarts at the Storytellers Vault to help you decide. The first is Hunter: The Vigil Quickstart (The Hunt) and the second is Hunter: The Vigil Quickstart (One Year Later), which was White Wolf’s Free RPG Day 2008 offering. Take two free rides to decide if this hunt is for you.
Hunter: The Vigil Second Edition tabletop roleplaying game by Onyx Path Publishing
- END DATE: Thu, March 5 2020 2:00 PM EST.
- “Help us to create a traditionally printed, hardcover, edition of Hunter: The Vigil Second Edition, and then get it into stores!”
NOTE: This article includes affiliate links to the Storytellers Vault and DriveThruRPG Affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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