The theme for White Wolf’s new game, Hunter: the Vigil is “Light in Shadows” and this theme is well presented in the advance materials I’ve seen already…

At the barest level, hunters exist in ignorant, rag-tag cells – friends, family, or those driven together by maddening circumstances. They protect their stretch of forest, their city block, their network of women’s shelters. They don’t know the depth of what’s out there, they only have the meager light of their own candles to light the way.

Candles give way to torches, to cells who band together in localized compacts. They pool resources. They provide moral support. They present a more unified front against the denizens
of darkness.

And torches give way to raging bonfires as those compacts grow outward globally and backward through time. Ancient groups and modern conspiracies supply their hunters with potent weapons, some of which are so strange that those who use them can only wonder how
long they can truly maintain their own humanity.

This theme continues throughout the text. Individual Hunters acting as a point of light, driving back the shadows. Together that light shines brighter, those shadows retreat or are destroyed outright by the fire. Still, those shadows never go quietly and there are always more of them creeping their way into the world.

Player-character groups in Hunter: the Vigil are called cells, many of which are part of compacts made up of multiple cells. Sometimes these groups get large enough to become conspiracies, with all the politics, intrigue and other issues you can expect from large groups of people with plenty of secrets on hand.

Regardless of how connected a Hunter is to others like them, they still have to eat, they still have bills to pay…

Most hunters don’t get paid for killing monsters. The world doesn’t work like that. Hunters are people, just the same as anyone. Those who work for larger compacts, or groups that offer Endowments, may collect a paycheck for hunting, but most still have day jobs. A hunter has to balance her Vigil between confronting the dark underbelly of the world and doing
what she has to do to make a living.

This human element is one of my favorite things about the new Hunter game. Stay tuned to Flames Rising for more teasers, updates and conspiracy theories about Hunter: the Vigil as it gets closer to its release date…

You can Pre-Order Hunter: the Vigil at Amazon.com

Find out if your local retailer is taking part in Free RPG Day so you can get your free Hunter: the Vigil Quickstart on June 21st!

Join the Hunter: the Vigil LiveJournal Community today!

Tags | gencon, htv, hunter the vigil, rpgs, white-wolf