Hunter: The Reckoning

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. A second edition, based on the Vampire: The Masquerade 5th edition ruleset, was released in 2022 by Renegade Game Studios. It is supported by a series of supplementary books which expand the game's setting and describe types of characters.

Led by a gamemaster, 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 no one 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 human characters who become aware of the existence of the supernatural, including vampires, werewolves, and ghosts, and fight back as monster hunters. 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.|name=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. 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,

A second edition, titled Hunter: The Reckoning 5th Edition (H5), is in development by a team that includes the series' creative lead Justin Achilli and art director Tomas Arfert. Achilli described the game as realizing the aspirational and hopeful aspects of the setting, through human characters who are given a fighting chance and can change the world. Development of H5 began during the production of the fifth edition of Werewolf: The Apocalypse, to be able to expand the line-up of active World of Darkness games despite the delays in Werewolf development, The hunters in H5 were conceived as street-level groups, rather than the large vampire-hunter organizations seen as antagonists in Vampire: The Masquerade, who instead are portrayed as secondary antagonists to the H5 hunters who want to preserve the status quo. and German. Prior to the H5 revival, the game line was ended with the cross-over event Time of Judgment in 2004. H5 is planned to be published by Renegade Game Studios in Q2 2022, and is planned to be supported by the online toolset World of Darkness Nexus, which includes a rules and lore compendium, tools for creating and managing characters, matchmaking, and video chat functionality.

The game is supported by supplementary books, which describe the setting and types of monsters and hunters; Like the game itself, the supplementary books are presented as taking place in real time.

| White Wolf Publishing