Page 197 - Hunter - The Vigil

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C CHAPTER THREE: HUNTER ORGANIZATIONS
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In-Game R&D fortunately, he does take longer, and his search is interrupted.
He must find a way to deal with the guards — and he does, by

lying and saying he’ll leave, when he’s really just going to hide
A hunter doesn’t just say, “I think today I’m going to pray in the half-darkness of the warehouse.
to St. Athanasius” or “I wonder what happens if I graft the eye Matt finds what he needs after resuming his roll, and he

of a witch’s familiar to the back of my head” and expect a po- and the Storyteller determine that the diaries of one Doc-
tent new Endowment to appear. It takes time. It takes effort. tor Hauptherz note how werewolves are “feral” in their ath-
It takes story. leticism. And so it’s decided. It only seems natural that the
A hunter who seeks to uncover an old (or conjure a new) hunter’s bones should have lycanthrope tendons grafted to
infernal Castigation rite must pore through old books to find them! Of course, Matt’s hunter still has two more “conflicts”

what he’s looking for, or maybe he has to fly to Milan to speak to confront before this can come to fruition.

to one of the conspiracy’s “archivists.” Then he fi nds out that The first is, well, she’s going to have to procure those ten-

to truly learn the rite he has to debauch himself in some way dons, isn’t she? The hunt for a suitable lupine is not an easy

he’s never before managed, and so on the flight back…well, thing, and takes at least one exciting game session to resolve.
we’ll avoid the graphic details, but it’s the kind of thing that And resolve it does, in a bloody fight where Matt’s hunter

would make most of Middle America blanch.
takes a bad “fall” (read: she was thrown through a plate-glass

Optional System: Confl icts window). She has her tendons, but first she has to find a Vigil-
Storytellers, this part is your job, but players have to play friendly doctor to patch her up so she doesn’t alert the police
along, too: assume that for each Merit “dot” necessary to devel- in any way, and the Storyteller rules that this search works as
op a particular Endowment, you should come up with one main the fourth and fi nal “confl ict.”

story conflict that “blocks” the purchase of that Endowment. Now, she just has to get these lupine tendons into

A conflict might be a moral dilemma, a sidetrack on the ad- surgery with her. Matt has the hunter keep the were-
venture, a suspenseful dice roll, an attack by monstrous forces, wolf alive, too, so the cell can study the strange crea-

whatever works for the game. From these conflicts grow greater ture’s healing habits. Of course, this will bring its own
stories, which means that the development of a single Endow- conflicts to bear into the game, which is exactly what
ment can become the focus of a whole game session or story. the troupe wants: by pursuing this Endowment, new av-
For example, Matt wants to create a Thaumatechnological enues of story have opened.
implant that he hopes will allow his character to add +3 to her Appropriate Rolls
Athletics for the duration of one full scene, but it will force upon The Storyteller may deem a number of rolls appropri-
her a wretched nosebleed when activated, thus causing one le- ate to the Research and Development of a new Endowment.
thal point of damage. To apply the Endowment Equation: Note that a character seeking a new Endowment does not
Cost of Features (Enhance Skill at +3, Duration of One necessarily need to invent or build the item himself: as noted
Scene at +3) minus Discount from Frailties (Price of Pain at below, VALKYRIE is home to a couple of avenues that allow
-2), you get a four-dot Merit (3+3-2) which will cost him 20 the character to submit requests and research and aid in de-
total Practical Experience points. velopment while not directly building the items of Advanced
The optional rule is this: for each conflict the character Armory himself. That always remains an option, provided the

assumes, he can reduce the final Practical Experience cost by Storyteller stays consistent with the drama and conflict sur-

two. (This is something that must be agreed upon by Story- rounding the pursuit of a new Endowment. Some of the rolls
teller and player, mind.) below are meant to provide some direction for that drama and
Now, at present, Matt doesn’t really know what the im- conflict. They can be used as one point of “conflict” by the

plant is, and his character doesn’t know, either. Matt works Storyteller when a character works to R&D the Endowment.
with the Storyteller to determine the nature of the implant Research: Generally, use Research as it’s found on pp.
and how he’ll get it, but that’s all rolled into the story. With 55–56 of the World of Darkness Rulebook. That said, Aca-

a four-dot Endowment, that equates to four “conflicts,” which demics needn’t be the only Skill used. Occult is apt (particularly

reduces his total Practical Experience by eight (the final cost with Relics or Elixirs), and so too is Science (particularly with
being 12 Practical Experience). Thaumatech or Advanced Armory). Extended rolls should al-

The Storyteller determines that the first conflict is deter- ways be given some degree of suspense: a threat approaches, a
mining what kind of implant this actually needs to be, which time limit ticks away, or some other complication arises.
forces Matt to pore through a whole warehouse of Cheiron Development: Here, development actually equates to the

records and diaries to see if he can find any tidbits of salient designing, building and implementation of a new item, usu-
information. The Storyteller notes that this will require an ally something related to Thaumatechnology or Advanced
extended Wits + Investigation roll, with 10 successes neces- Armory. This is an extended roll, always, and isn’t something
sary and each roll equaling one hour’s worth of searching. that’s built swiftly and easily. Intelligence pairs with Crafts,
However, the Storyteller builds a second “conflict” into Medicine or Science in the extended roll, with a number of

the scenario: an as-yet-unmentioned time limit to that ex- successes necessary equal to three times the total Merit dots
tended roll. If Matt takes longer than three hours, some guards deemed necessary for this Endowment. Each roll equates to a

are going to find him and tell him he can’t be in there. Un-
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