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Disclaimer; The Storyteller System, Vampire: the Masquerade, Werewolf: the Apocalypse, Mage: the Ascension, Wraith: the Oblivion, Changeling: the Dreaming, Demon Hunter X and A World of Darkness are all trademarks of White Wolf Game Studios and the use of these trademarks is without their permission. The mention of or reference to any companies or products including White Wolf Game Studios and their respected products is not a challenge to the trademarks or copyrights concerned.
Prelude
I walk the daylight hours, the sun feels good on my face. I walk among the herd, who are oblivious to the horrors that dusk brings. They will never know how close they are to death, and if I die defending them, my name will never be remembered.
I go into the shop and stock up on normal supplies, and the shop assistants look at the scar on my face which closes one eye. They must wonder how I got it, but cannot look at me long enough to see the full extent of the damage.
Someone knocks into me but doesn?t apologise. He?s lucky, he only has to worry about getting home, I have to worry about stocking up on ammo. Checking into the hotel, I go to my room and try and get a little sleep, but it is always touched with images of the horror I have witnessed. Suddenly, the sun is down I and I must wake or feel the vengeance of the things I hunt.
Preparing my weaponry for even this small supply run, I leave through the fire escape.
Getting in my black 1984 Thunderbird, I notice something different in the throng of the crowd. Something was stirring them up, and heading them towards me. I slam my car into reverse, trying to get away without hurting anyone, but they have me surrounded. Opening the sunroof, I pull out a shotgun and pull off a few rounds, effectively dispersing all but the most heavily enchanted. Seeing the fiend now, the vampire who was controlling the crowd, I fire into him, but quickly become disheartened when he shrugs off the damage. I duck back down and grab a crossbow before the wave of innocents reach my car.
Taking aim and firing, feeling the recoil as the crossbow ejects a bolt at high velocity, the vampire couldn?t move fast enough and it hit its mark true, making him keel over in torpor, seeing his lackeys move to help their fallen master, I drive forward, through the remnants of the crowd to the fallen vampire, and pull up next to him. I use a aerosol can and lighter to set him on fire, and the long sword I keep to lop off his head. Driving off quickly, I go to my old home, a place long ago destroyed by creatures of the night and weep.
After several hours I go to the gun-store and the silversmiths, and
pick up my usual orders, with no questions asked. With only a few hours
until dawn I decide to cruise around until once again I can feel the warmth
of the sun on my face?.
Hunters in the WoD aren?t new. The indiscretions of the supernaturals made sure of this. As long as the Vampires need blood, or the Garou battle the Wyrm, there will be civilian casualties, human hunters will be created. Unlike most of the creatures in the WoD, hunters tend not to have magical or hyper scientific powers, but years of hunting will teach them to utilise things they would never of believed before.
Systems
Hunters in this way are created slightly differently.
Choose Name, Nature, Demeanour, Concept and Reason and Method for the
Hunt.
Choose Attributes 6/5/3
Choose Abilities 11/6/3
Choose Backgrounds 4
Choose Virtues 7
Record Path, (self-control + Courage) Adrenaline (1), Fatigue (10),
and Willpower (4).
Spend Freebie Pts (21)
Clarifications
Reason for the hunt is very important as it defines why you do what you do. It also defines an outlook at the supernatural that wouldn?t normally see.
Methods are noted in more detail later.
New Backgrounds
Time
This records how long you have been hunting. This is a physical profession that cannot be denied, and it ages someone horribly. This although allows some free points, lowers the amount of tolerance you have to fatiguing effects.
* 10 years
** 15 years
*** 20 years
**** 25 years
***** Too long (30 years).
Each dot in time gives the character another Special dot (see below) and 5 freebie points. However it reduces fatigue by one permanent dot.
Renown
This background is a form of fame. It is only used in situations with other hunters or the supernaturals you hunt. It can be beneficial, but characters with this tend to have edicts on them (see below).
* You are not really known anywhere
** You?re well known in your particular hunting grounds
*** Your name usually comes up at meetings for your prey
**** Your prey recognises you on sight
***** Nearly everyone knows about you.
Adrenaline
Adrenaline is the hormone which powers the ?fight or flight? response in animals. Hunters have often mastered adrenaline so they can use it in much the same way as werewolves use rage. (I know this is wrong but it gives them an edge). This can be used in one of 3 ways: it can be used to increase strength by one dot for a turn, it can be used for a second action or for an additional dot of stamina for a turn.
Adrenaline is rated from 1 ? 10, and in temporary and permanent dots. Temporary adrenaline cannot be higher than the permanent rating.
Each temporary dot of adrenaline that is used will bestow 1 temporary fatigue.
Fatigue
Fatigue is acute the acute build-up of hyper tiring efforts. For hunters they often loose stamina to resist this build up. The more fatigued a character the harder it is to start any actions. Many things cause fatigue: use of adrenaline, use of Special or Chi. Also sometimes heavy actions cause fatigue.
Each level of fatigue adds a +1 difficulty to all physical and mental actions.
Temporary fatigue can be ?bled? off by taking a complete day of rest, this will remove 1 dot. If it gets to level 5 or above then it can only be bled off after a week of rest per dot. If fatigue gets to the permanent level, then the hunter must roll stamina (difficulty 7, no modifiers) to stay conscious. If they fail, then they loose one dot of permanent Fatigue, making it easier to become fatigued.
Hunter Merits and Flaws
Born to Hunt (4pt Physical Merit)
You were born to hunt supernaturals, it is all you can do. It is your destiny and you cannot get away from it. Whatever you do you will see the hand of a vampire, the wyrm, the technocracy. However if when you take the time background, you half all penalties.
Duty (3pt Psychological Flaw)
You don?t have a choice, you hunt because you must. You have a duty to perform, and it will invariably be to protect something from the things in the dark. You cannot hold a normal job (without someone knowing about it) and you have a +2 social difficulty with normal people.
Bete Blood (7 pt Hunter Merit)
You have somehow been injected with Bete Blood, or worse been infected with Bete Lycanthropy. This has had a strange effect on your human metabolism. Roll once on the below table for the effect:
1 You permanently change into a Fair Glabro (or applicable) form (as
the merit).
2 You gain a Level 1 gift (substitute Yang for Gnosis and Yin for Rage)
3 You have Garou Regeneration ability and silver vulnerability, half
all fatigue recovery times/ or have the Anansi blood pool.
4 You have Rage. This costs x2 the normal cost of Rage. This replaces
Adrenaline, but still causes fatigue. Also you can frenzy.
5 You have an automatic 2 points in Special.
6 You can Step into the Umbra with a Stamina roll vs. the local gauntlet
7 Your immune to the delirium and can sense Bete with a Perception
roll
8 You can take Hispo (or applicable) form
9 You have Gnosis. This costs x2 the normal cost, and can be used without
fatigue.
10 You have the gifts of Heightened Senses and Leap of the Kangaroo
on permanently.
This is a permanent change, ST?s should alter the costs accordingly.
Feral (5pt Hunter Flaw)
You don?t think on human terms why should you because you aren?t? You hunt the creatures of the night to assert your dominance over them. The humans are weak inefficient hunters with no rights to the world. While you always have Protean 2 and Auspex 1 on, you cannot think in human terms and subsequently automatically fail all social rolls with them except for intimidation.
Tainted (2pt Hunter Flaw)
For some reason you cannot fathom, you are tainted by the ones truly in the dark. This could be Satan, the wyrm, nephandus or just an accident of birth, but you are tainted. This makes everything you do more dangerous. In game terms whenever in dangerous situations, increase the difficulty of all dice rolls by 1.
See ?Pretenders? (3pt Hunter Merit)
You have had an unusual ability awakened in you. You can see non-humans for what they are. E.g. You can see a Garou in his Crinos form no-matter what form he is really in, or you can see a fae?s mien. This doesn?t give any other information other than the creature type.
Example Hunter
John ? Demoius? Scamanth
Nature: Judge
Demeanour: Bravo
Concept: Hunter
Reason: Revenge
Method: Hunter
Strength 3, Dexterity (cat-like) 4, Stamina 3, Charisma 2, Manipulation 3, Appearance 2(3, scar), Perception 3, Intelligence 4, Wits 5
Alertness 4, Awareness 1, Dodge 3, Intimidation 4 (scar), Streetwise
4, Subterfuge 3, Scan 2
Drive 3, Etiquette 1, Melee 4 (swords), Archery 4 (crossbows), Martial
Arts 5 (Hard Style), Stealth 3, Survival 5, Security 3
Computer 2, Enigmas 3, Science 4, Gun smithing 4, Occult 4, Area Knowledge
(Home Town) 4, Sewer Lore 2, Kindred Lore 4, Sabbat Lore 2
Resources 3, Renown 3, Time 3, Contacts 5, Arcane 1, Allies 1
Self-control 3, Conscience 3, Courage 5
Path of the Hunter 6
Willpower 6
Adrenaline 5
Fatigue 7
Special: Psychic Blast (5)
Psychic blast Doubles strength, immunises against pain caused by hitting things very hard, and causes aggravated damage. But it is very fatiguing (2 per turn) to use.
Image: John is a average man. He is 5?10?? tall and weighs 12 st. He often dresses in dark clothing with a leather jacket to top it off. His face is marred by the scar he had at the hands of a sabbat gangrel, which forces one of his eyes shut.
History: John was 30 before he knew about the kindred. His home was unexpectedly attacked by a pack of the sabbat after his daughter rejected one of the pack. John was out and got back to see them leave. A martial artist of many years, he used his knowledge of the arts to drive them away. Going inside he saw the butchered bodies of his family. Calling the police they were taken away and he never saw anyone arrested. Hearing about the brutal assault, Sulivan Dane found John and explained about the kindred and what he knew.
Using his martial arts background to good use, he quickly learnt how the best way to fight Kindred and set about looking for his families killers. It took him many years, and he hasn?t found them yet, but with the help of his ally and contact he feels confident that he will find and destroy them.
Edict: The prince of the city has decreed that he must be killed at all costs, as he reduces the vampire population nightly. Also he must be killed in an ?accident? as he has built up respect with the local law enforcement.
Dr. Adam Stevenson
Nature: Scientist
Demeanour: Caregiver
Concept: Research Scientist
Reason: Terror
Method: Scientific/ Heavy Guns
Strength 2, Dexterity 3, Stamina 2, Charisma 4, Manipulation 2, Appearance
2, Perception 4, Intelligence 5, Wits 5
Alertness 3, Brawl 3, Dodge 5, Intimidation 1, Empathy 2, Subterfuge
4
Drive 3, Firearms 5 (suit), Melee 2, Stealth 4, Survival 4, Repair
4
Computer 5, Enigmas 3, Occult 2, Kindred Lore 1, Kindred Anatomy 5,
Chemistry 4, Biology 5, Physics 4, Cyber-Engineering 4, Medicine 3, Linguistics
2.
Arcane 3, Resources 2, Contacts 1, Equipment 5 (VER Version 1 & 2 Upgrade)
Conscience 4, Self-control 3, Courage 3
Path of the Hunter: 7
Willpower: 5
Adrenaline 5
Fatigue: 9
Special: None
Equipment: The Vampire Emulation Rig (VER)
The Vampire Emulation Rig is a cybernetic body frame, which can be hidden under normal clothing. Version 2 is a set of add-on parts, which will re-create some of the more physically altering disciplines.
The VER version 1 gives the user the following disciplines at the following levels
Potence 2
Celerity 2
Fortitude 2
Auspex 2
Protean 1
Bio-siphon 5 (The suit runs on bio-energy instead of blood. This power allows the user to siphon on other people and drain the energy the suit requires to run. Each human has 10 bio-energy points and will recover 1 per day of rest.)
It also gives the ability to fly and hover at around walking speed. This costs 3 energy per turn to maintain.
With the Version 2 additions it also grants
Protean 2
O2 Tanks (6 hours worth)
Increased Potence, Celerity and Fortitude (raised to 4)
Dr. Stevenson has altered his VER to have flare-firing mechanisms just under the hands. These cost 1 power to fire.
Image: Dr Stevenson looks like a normal 26 year-old man, except for his eyes however. These look ancient and like blue pits of infinity. His skin is getting quite pale due to lack of sunlight and the sheen is being lost from his dark hair. He often wears the VER under a trenchcoat, with the version 2 upgrades in one pocket.
History: He was the best at sciences. The scrawny nerd who never played sports. He graduated top of his class and went to MIT.
