Mama Bear and Papa Wolf: Obviously one of the most common archetypes for truly passionate Defenders. What does remain consistent in the visions most Hunters get is the sense that the Messengers are plural, that they had some kind of hand in the creation of the world as it is but they themselves are not God or the Creator, and that they're trying to fix what went wrong with it. The Hermit: Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Edges and Perks are sort of one-off abilities. Judges tend to happen when the decision is over which monster's victory will save the most human lives; Innocents tend to happen when there aren't human lives at stake and the Innocent altruistically intervenes based on the monster's own welfare. The library has state-specific hunter the reckoning character sheet pdf form and other forms. But if I reviewed this after playing through a whole campaign, it would be months, if not years, in the making. Cowardly Lion: The personality type who becomes a Hermit is often someone who's very reticent to intervene in a dangerous situation but who ultimately feels a responsibility to act when no one else will.
Reluctant Psycho: Some Waywards who started out more "normal" than others try to be this, although it's a losing battle over time. Unfortunately, while the first game outing in Hunter The Reckoning was a good experience, the follow-up games were more along the average to middling game experiences. Moreover, we come to learn that the Messengers were somehow Sealed Good in a Can until the Week of Nightmares, just as the Demons were trapped in the Abyss until then — and, eventually, we find out from Lucifer that the Messengers must be acting on their own authority rather than God's and whatever they're doing is just as much a deviation from God's plan as Lucifer's rebellion was. Classical Antihero: The Innocent Creed embodies this — it's a Creed based on the very postmodern idea that "vices" like doubts and uncertainty, Conflicting Loyalty, a "cowardly" fear of bloodshed and violence, etc., might be necessary virtues in their own right, that keep you from going off the deep end as a Knight Templar. Most monsters experience it as blinding light, but it still acts as a repelling and confusing force field even to monsters who can't see. Darkest Hour: The offer made by the Ministers comes only when the candidate is bereft of all hope and is willing to give up everything, even their very soul and their free will, just so that their quest won't be All for Nothing. After a bit of time, the dust upon my coding skill will slough away and I should be good. Armor-Piercing Question: The level-2 Edge Insinuate is a weaponized version of this trope — without even really knowing what they mean by it, a Redeemer is guaranteed to pierce through a monster's psychological defenses and hit them with a blast of guilt and regret if they ask a simple question about their relationship to humanity (and they make a successful dice roll). Vegetarian Vampire: The Redeemer's non-Edge special power in their Creedbook is to create an alternative Power Source for a supernatural creature that allows them to continue surviving without their normal means of "feeding" (blood for vampires, Pathos for ghosts, Chi for Kuei-Jin, Glamour for changelings, etc. ) Dissonant Serenity: In a very Truth in Television paradoxical result of experiencing more trauma and feeling that trauma far more intensely than other Imbued, Martyrs tend to develop a Thousand-Yard Stare reaction to danger or pain that makes them seem apathetic and robotic to those who don't know better — something that can be a blessing or a curse depending on the social situation. Manifesto-Making Malcontent: The Avengers are the first Creed on to stake out a separate identity from the Imbued in general, as a result of several of them splitting off into their own subforum ("/firelight/") and collaborating on a militant manifesto stating their reasons for doing so. Witness1 creating hunter-net is the largest-scale example of this in the world, and his creating the /unity/ subforum (which ends up being patronized mostly by his fellow Visionaries) is an attempt to address how this plan started going south when Hunters started breaking up into communities by Creed. When subjected to repeated traumas that act as a slap in the face to their optimistic worldview, they may repress the memory or full-on retreat into a fantasy world.
We also get some glimpses of the government anti-monster forces from Brazil, Mexico, and the Philippines. We mark clearly which print titles come from scanned image books so that you can make an informed purchase decision about the quality of what you will receive. Rearrange and rotate pages, add and edit text, and use additional tools. Dissonant Serenity: The primary difference between Waywards and Avengers, even Extremist Avengers, is that Waywards are primarily a Vision Creed, not Zeal. Was Once a Man: The Redeemer philosophy rests on the assumption that all the "monsters" in the World of Darkness are in fact just different kinds of humans who have been twisted by magic in some way. In the early 2000s, this series of video games came out of nowhere, the Hunter The Reckoning series, or so I thought. Team Dad: If Innocents are the Team Mom who try to keep everyone's emotional needs met and to smooth over interpersonal problems to keep the community together, Visionaries are the ones who remind everyone why the community exists in the first place and give them "tough love" from a hardnosed rational perspective about subordinating their personal issues to the greater good.
This effect is so pronounced that Hunter: Holy War went ahead and said that the Martyr Creed straight-up doesn't exist among the Middle Eastern Hunter community, and all Muslim kiswah can get Martyr Edges for free (because anyone who follows the principles of Islam is already a "martyr" in spirit... a statement with racist Real Life undertones). Esteban Cortes' "Holy Word" Edge in the video game Hunter: The Reckoning, which he spams far more easily and casually than would ever be possible in the tabletop game (but then, the video game was very much about Adaptational Badassitude and Gameplay and Story Segregation). Overall, Hunter The Reckoning Core Rulebook is a great TTRPG. The variant Edges in the Innocent Creedbook — Ease, Inspire and Bond — are aimed at keeping the peace and enabling teamwork among Hunters rather than doing anything directly to monsters. Report this Document. We ARE Struggling Together: The Zeal and Mercy Virtues are naturally opposed to each other, by design, and Hunters of different Creeds can easily become bitter enemies as a result of this — sometimes ending up hating each other even more than the supernatural predators they're supposed to be opposing. This site uses cookies to deliver services in accordance with the Cookie Files Policy. Making the Demonic pact insteadly permanently severs the Imbued from the Messengers (and this severance remains even if the Demon is somehow banished or destroyed). Note that once a Bystander becomes a monster they're mechanically identical to any other monster and how sympathetic they are to the Imbued is entirely a matter of their own personality — and the question of how much the Imbued are willing to tolerate them is just as open. This means a Corrupt Extremist is feeding a Demon a huge number of Faith points every day, and if/when the Demon eventually takes the Extremist as their new Host they'll be suddenly able to channel far more advanced Lores by jumping ahead on the Demon Experience Meter (the equivalent of a Vampire: The Masquerade character completing diablerie). Any Hunters who are even slightly more in the know than average are pretty aware that the Messengers are dicking them around to some degree, and anyone with a bigger-picture view of the World of Darkness — especially "monsters" investigating the Imbuing from their own POV — finds it obvious the Hunters are being lied to about the nature of their mission. On a cosmic scale, the Divine Extremists' gift cannot be given to them by the Omniscient Council of Vagueness known as the "Messengers" themselves, but require direct contact with the "Paragons" of the universe itself, the Messengers' Man Behind the Man the Ministers (a pair of "archangels" who seem to number only two, the Scarlet Lady and the Ebon Dragon). The Edges aimed at preventing vampires from feeding physically on humans work just as well on a hungry ghost's need to "drain" Pathos from the living by scaring or traumatizing them, and the process of "healing" a monster maps directly onto the established ruleset from Wraith for achieving Transcendence by resolving one's Fetter and Passions. Evil Is Easy: The whole selling point of this Path.
If it didn't kill off the user so quickly, it'd be one of the Imbued's most versatile weapons — as it is, it's very much a Dangerous Forbidden Technique. Part-Time Hero: Innocents tend to be unwilling to let go of their previous lives and devote themselves fully to the Hunt, and to try to persuade Hunters around them that staying grounded in "normal" human life is absolutely necessary to avoid going off the deep end and forget what they're fighting for. We get some disturbing descriptions of how, over time, the use of Vengeance Edges and the killing of monsters becomes viscerally pleasurable for Avengers the way it doesn't for any other Creed. Their visions themselves look to the outside world like paranoid schizophrenia, and the damage it does to their minds always gives them an actual Derangement on top of it that enforces their namesake lifestyle. Of course, Redeemers don't tend to react as violently against Avengers as vice versa, although Avengers frequently accuse Redeemers of perversely holding their fellow Imbued to a higher standard for their behavior than actual monsters. Similarly, Vision tempered by Mercy — gaining the gift of direct communication with the Messengers and an understanding of how they see the world and the value and worth of every living thing in it — also drove everyone who got it mad and made them unable to interact with other people at all, hence the name the Hermit Creed. Reasonable Authority Figure: It's hard for any one Creed to claim a "leadership" role in the Hunter community, but Judges tend to be people who were already Reasonable Authority Figures of some kind in their everyday life, people who were used to having to make tough moral decisions and put principle before personal interest. Abnormal Ammo: Crusader17 (Wendell Delburton) runs out of ammo at a critical moment during his Ordeal, and prays desperately to God to be given what he needs to finish his quest at any cost... and suddenly finds himself able to shoot Frickin' Laser Beams of what looks like pure sunlight from his pistol, doing aggravated damage to any monster he hits. Never Split the Party: In-universe, Innocents are going to be the ones insisting on this rule both in the short-term immediate sense and in the broader social sense. Basement-Dweller: A Hermit isn't actually haphazardly "staticked" by normal humans, only by humans who are somehow touched by the supernatural. Insanity Immunity: Along with their brother Creed, the Waywards, Hermits get one small blessing, if you can call it that, from their damaged "Lost Creed" status — because their initial Derangement is so intrinsic to their situation, they don't gain any further Derangements from advancing their Vision stat until it hits 9. Spiritual Predecessor: As the "evil" splat for Hunter: the Reckoning either Waywards or Corrupt Extremists are this for Hunter: The Vigil 's Slashers. Became Their Own Antithesis: A Corrupt Extremist has made the conscious decision to become exactly what the Hunters were called by the Messengers to fight — and the instant they accept the Demon's Pact, they become a "monster" themselves and start pinging other Hunters' Second Sight, become vulnerable to Edges that only target "monsters", etc., while being permanently cut off from the Messengers and unable to ever become a "normal" Hunter again. Martyrs are, notably, one of the few Creeds to never have had their own subforum on, the other two being the obvious "failed Creeds", the Waywards and Hermits.
The only traces of it a Bystander has by default are a sixth sense to identify other Bystanders and Imbued by sight (the remnant traces of an Imbued's abilities like reading hunter-sign) and the ability to burn a Willpower point to resist a monster's mental control. My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Out of all the Imbued Creeds, Innocents are the ones who chafe the most against the term "Hunter" or its various synonyms as a way to describe what they are. Most Avengers are also Gun Nuts and for all practical purposes firearms remain a Hunter's bread-and-butter in fights, but thanks to the Cleave Edge's commonness and the creation of the Terrible Swift Sword as a means to channel it, you're starting to see a lot of Heroes Prefer Swords ARMA types in the Hunter community. The Fool: The Innocent Creed is associated with the Tarot Major Arcana of the Fool (known as "the holy fool" by some anthropologists). This allows them to share basic information, emotional states, and mental/spiritual resources like Conviction and Willpower. It's one of the most classic and potent reasons for someone to become a monster hunter, and it's the reason the Avengers are so often the "face" of the Imbued as a whole. In game terms, becoming a Divine Extremist requires turning both your Nature and Demeanor into one of three personality archetypes (erasing any Hidden Depths your character may have had), the Autocrat, Dreamer or Fanatic. Unfortunately, the resulting quality of these books is not as high. Token Evil Teammate: The jury's out on how good or evil other Hunters are in general, but a Wayward will definitely be this in almost any Hunter cell they're part of, if the other Hunters have tried to maintain anything close to normal human values. Badass Normal: Bystanders qualify for this even more than the typical Hunter, being far more "normal" than an actual Imbued — indeed, with a few exceptions they have no superpowers at all, and are the same idea as a generic World of Darkness "mortals" campaign except they live in a world where the Imbuing and the Imbued exist. The Black-and-White Insanity Fantastic Racism leads some of the most deranged Avengers to decide they're superior creations of God and possessed by angelic forces in the same way that other supernaturals are unnatural abominations made by Satan.
Chapter Four: Rules. Good is Not Nice: The primary principle that firmly places Judges still in the Zeal camp and divides them from the Mercy Creed — their moral code requires that the guilty must be punished, and holds them accountable for any harm caused by their failure to act when they knew wrongdoing was afoot. One reason for this is that the original intended backstory involved a direct connection between Exalted and the World of Darkness, which is an idea that was eventually abandoned and Retconned out. Of course, none of this is ultimately good for the Hunter in the end, but in the short term it's a major advantage over the level of supernatural support other Hunters get.
Even if you don't employ the story elements involved, some of the content can be heavy to engage. Refusal of the Call: It isn't required, but the vast majority of Hunters who hit level 10 in their primary Virtue and become "candidates" for Extremism will either start going down the path of a Divine Ordeal or Corrupt temptation, and will find the Independent Path by making the decison to reject it and find a path true to their own values. Applies even more to the variant 1st-level Edge Impact, which involves throwing something. Normally Hunters are granted immunity to this effect from each other's powers, whether or not they have Second Sight up. Vision tempered by Zeal was a Creed intended to be the "generals" or "leaders" of the Imbued, but unfortunately everyone inducted into it has gone quite insane and become an Omnicidal Maniac, thus being known as the Wayward Creed. Brainwashed and Crazy: The worst thing about the Wayward Imbuing is that while a high percentage of people taken by it were always "bad seeds" who showed Serial Killer traits beforehand, quite a few of them seemed perfectly normal and were transformed against their will into violent psychopaths. Unlike Attributes and Skills, Advantages and Flaws aren't often used to roll dice pools (although they are in some cases), but instead, at different rankings, they grant different benefits or disadvantages. Users Browsing this Thread.
The Paragon: The Innocent Creed is the one that insists that Hunters try to be this as much as possible, and that descending to Knight Templar actions can only undermine their cause. In Mysterious Ways: Extremely so. Note that this is the Ministers consciously emulating the structure of The Hero's Journey, and frequently entails forcing the Imbued to go through a Burning the Ships moment, destroying their connections to their ordinary human community and even to other Hunters so they have no one to turn to but the Ministers for aid, often pushing them into either violating their faithfulness to their core Virtue or committing an outright atrocity by human standards. You saw what you shouldn't have, the veil pulled back from the secret world and the monsters who prowl it.
Needless to say, the few non-Divine Extremists who have any idea how this works are shocked and appalled by it and consider it evidence that the Ministers are Evil Mentors (no less than Lucifer himself holds this opinion). The Inquisitive might get in trouble because they are looking for the "big picture, " while threats right in front of them may be endangering them. Note that this doesn't actually preclude being religious before the Imbuing, and indeed many Visionaries also become Visionaries because they had a well-thought-out, all-encompassing religious worldview that they're trying to harmonize with the All Myths Are True WoD. How to provide an Unity Connection issue?
Gone Horribly Wrong: It is very hard for even the most faithful servants of the Messengers to argue that the Hermits turned out the way they wanted them to. Smoke Out: The 3rd-level Edge, Smolder, which blocks all senses, both mundane and supernatural, except for a Hunter's Second Sight. Whatever you choose, you will be able to eSign your hunter character sheet form in seconds. Crutch Character: One suggestion for how to integrate a Bystander character into a campaign of Imbued characters — the Bystander is someone who's already Badass Normal, a soldier or cop or Gun Nut or otherwise highly competent individual, who can babysit the Unfazed Everyman Imbued characters, who steadily grow in power as their Virtues advance even as the Bystander's Sanity Meter steadily depletes. Most of the example vampires and werewolves presented are loners that have broken off from wider organizations. Just deciding an innocent human being is "demonically corrupted" and must be murdered, or that a whole race or ethnicity is, for instance. ) Their optional non-Edge power in their Creedbook, "communion", allows Martyrs to form a permanent psychic link with other Hunters or normal humans, at the cost of a ritual involving mutual Self-Harm. When Beatrice Tremblay gets a visitation from "the Messengers" that takes the form of her dead father to speak to her, it's a red flag that the vision is a fake sent by a Demon. Tragic Monster: The Redemption Creed is based on the belief that this is true of all monsters, even the ones in denial about it. Beyond the Impossible: Even for a level-5 Edge, Proclaim does several things that are borderline game-breaking — giving Bystanders a second chance to become Imbued, giving every Hunter present a plot-affecting prophetic vision from the Messengers, and, most controversially of all, letting the monsters know it's objectively true that God Is Displeased with them. However, the fact that Edges exist as an obvious and clearly defined Signature Move for each Creed means that it doesn't take the Imbued that long to figure out the Creeds exist and to sort themselves into them as a cultural identity.