Hunter: The Reckoning is a horror tabletop role-playing game, and the sixth main game in the World of Darkness series. It was originally released by White Wolf Publishing in November 1999 as part of their Year of the Reckoning line, and is planned to be released in an updated edition by Renegade Game Studios in Q2 2022. It is supported by a series of supplementary books which expand the game's setting and describe types of characters.
Led by a storyteller, players role-play as human characters in modern times who learn of the existence of the supernatural, such as vampires, werewolves, and mages, and fight back as monster hunters. Having little knowledge of the supernatural and nobody but each other to rely on, they share information and organize through the internet forum Hunter-Net. The hunters are divided into several creeds, which determine their philosophies and outlooks on the hunt, and what sets of powers they learn.
The game was designed with themes of righteous fury, paranoia, hope, and retaining a normal life. The game was critically well received and considered appealing to both returning players and those new to the series, and became one of White Wolf Publishing's most successful and popular intellectual properties. It has seen several adaptations, including a fiction anthology, a novel series, several video games, and a live-action role-playing game.
Overview
Hunter: The Reckoning is a horror tabletop role-playing game set in modern times, in which players take the roles of regular human characters who become aware of the existence of the supernatural, including vampires, werewolves, and ghosts, and fight back as monster hunters. In the game's first edition, this revelation comes from the voice of beings called Heralds or Messengers, who imbue the player characters with insight and power; in Hunter: The Reckoning 5th Edition (H5), hunters do not become imbued. The hunters are mostly unorganized and know little of the supernatural, and have to rely on each other as the world at large does not know about it: they often communicate and share information through the anonymous internet forum Hunter-Net, which is managed by a hunter known as Witness1. Because of their lack of knowledge, they typically have to study their targets before attacking if they want to survive the encounter.
Players create hunter characters with a character sheet, assigning points to various attributes to determine what they are good at, and deciding which of several creeds they belong to: Avengers, Defenders, Hermits, Innocents, Judges, Martyrs, Redeemers, Visionaries, or Waywards. The choice of creed determines characters' philosophies, how they relate to the hunt, what their weaknesses are, and which powers they will learn. The hunters' powers are called edges, and are learned through paths, where the first power often is the most powerful; in the first edition, edges are supernatural, which is not necessarily the case in H5. Led by a storyteller, players role-play as these characters. The game uses the Storyteller System, where the outcomes of attempted actions are determined through the character's values in relevant attributes and through rolling dice pools.
Production
Hunter: The Reckoning was originally designed by Andrew Bates, Phil Brucato, Ken Cliffe, Greg Fountain, Ed Hall, Jess Heinig, Michael Lee, Richard Thomas, Mike Tinney, and Stewart Wieck, with art direction by Richard Thomas and cover art by Brian Glass. It was inspired by Ends of Empire, the ending of the earlier World of Darkness game Wraith: The Oblivion, which depicts the underworld being engulfed, leading to an influx of spirits and zombies in the human world. The development team designed the game with the concept of righteous fury as its main theme; other themes include paranoia and the fear of the unknown, the effect of monster-hunting on one's humanity, finding hope and continuing fighting in seemingly hopeless situations, maintaining a normal life, and how power can corrupt people. According to Cliffe, the inspiration for the hunters mainly came from average people, as he considered underdogs to make for better heroes than superheroes do. The game was mostly written in-character, to show rather than tell what it is like to be a hunter. Although the game includes monsters appearing in other World of Darkness games, they do not necessarily abide the same rules as in their home games, creating an experience that reflects how hunters do not know how supernaturals work. For example, a vampire in Hunter: The Reckoning may be more brutal and vile than one in Vampire: The Masquerade and may have other abilities and weaknesses.