Page 270 - Hunter - The Vigil

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across a room draped in webs and the venomous spi-
ders that live in them. The threat of danger tells a STORY HOOK:
character that she might have a time limit for un- ENEMY WITHIN
covering clues and that she is putting her own life at
peril by pushing for the truth (certainly one possible For some time, the cell has been exposed
theme of the Vigil). Maybe the footsteps outside was to the enemy through a route it had not
just the wind, and maybe the siren passes without predicted. Perhaps a character’s daughter
incident. But it got the characters’ hearts racing and, is dating a vampire and only now starts
by proxy, the players’. to show signs of physical weakness from
serving in his blood cult, or perhaps a
This Monstrous husband’s curious distance is now revealed
Heart as ghostly or demonic possession, and not
something simple like an affair with the
To reiterate: hunters hunt. And the various secretary. Whatever the truth, the cell
horrors and mysteries of the World of Darkness has been compromised, and it’s been that
are generally the targets of that hunt. When you way for a while now.
approach a game, it’s important to know how The link to the enemy might appear to be
monsters fit into the whole equation. How will completely in the dark about his or her

you present them in comparison to what the play- connection to the Vigil’s enemies, but the
ers and their characters expect? On one hand, if cell needs to act to remove this potential
they want a combat-heavy “all monsters are mon- threat. In cases of outside interference
strous” game, you want to give them that. Alter- (such as the daughter’s boyfriend), more
natively, it’s important to have the game pump in direct measures can be taken. In cases
unexpected situations that demand a reinvigora- where the compromise is more internal (such
tion of strategy or a newly complex moral quan- as possession), there’s no telling what
dary. If all the cell wants to do is coat every crea- the enemy now knows about the cell, and
ture in a blanket of napalm, what happens when it the solutions to the problem are likely to
meets one who looks like a little girl, or whom one generate stories in and of themselves.
of the cell members knew when “it” was a “him”?
Below are some considerations about how you
use the various fiends and creatures of the World of Darkness An adversary can appear in every session, or may recur once

in your Hunter: The Vigil game. every two or three sessions (arguably a more suspenseful approach,
given that the cell will constantly fear and perhaps hunger for his
The Inveterate Adversary recurrence, creating good tension). The adversary can certainly
Every night the cell hunts, they see her: the trembling ghost be violent or work in subtle ways against the cell: plundering the
girl with twigs in her hair and blood on her hands, and she cries out members’ bank accounts, calling the police on them when they
to them, but before they can answer, she’s gone. And every night hunt other monsters, leaving bait and traps for them. An adversary
after seeing her, they have the nightmares. needn’t be directly confrontational, though, and can represent a
The pitiless prick — a vampire whose business they keep “in- persistent mystery: a ghost whose restless mission must be unrav-
terrupting” — left a note pinned to the pillow of Roger’s daughter. eled bit by bit, or a demon that offers genuine information session
It said nothing but her name, signed in elegant calligraphy, written after session, but also “hooks” the players with various pact-bound
in what might be blood. tasks at the same time. Neither of these are necessarily confronta-
They kill them again and again. Once or twice a year, they tional or violent, but they still count as recurring foes.
rise up and set up their altars and sacrifice slabs in various aban- Be careful with the adversarial approach: it can grow

doned buildings, and the VALKYRIE strike forces go in and clean dull if every session is focused on this particular enemy.
house. But the goddamn Cult of Unihi-Pili (the Cult of the Earth- That tedium can grow if the cell seems unable to affect
bound Soul) keeps rising with new members, year after year. its foe in a meaningful way or if he always just one-ups
Recurring enemies work very well in a Vigil game. It it. While certainly he needs to be a difficult foe and con-
keeps a cell vested in the story at hand, because its members flict is healthy for a story, it’s important that the troupe
want to see the monster pay or feel genuine fear when his doesn’t feel frustrated with inability.
name comes up in conversation. A true adversary is a foil of Also worth noting: sometimes it’s best to let the cell defi ne
sorts to the cell: he’s either everything the members are not, its own adversary. If the characters go up against a monster you
or he’s a creature (or a group of creatures) that is, frankly, a maybe didn’t think was so important, watch their reactions. If
little too close for comfort. (Cults work elegantly this way, they botch an investigation or attack or react in a particularly
given the relative irony that most hunter cells, compacts zealous or curious way, keep that adversary around. They’ve
and conspiracies could be called cults. Certainly too close for made the first move and have “spawned” what may become a foe

comfort with an irony only some hunters see.) who haunts their every move from there on out.
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