Page 54 - Hunter - The Vigil

Hunters are not born or built. They are forged. People don’t idly
make the decision to risk their lives, especially not in the pursuit of
things most of humanity doesn’t acknowledge exists. The Vigil is a
choice that is made because all other options, including doing
nothing, are far, far worse. It is the choice to force your way into the
weird room in the basement of the district library, rather than to
turn and walk back out upstairs. It is the choice to follow up on the
paper trail of what appears to be a centuries-old person still alive and
kicking, rather than to write it off as obvious clerical error. It is the
choice to carve crosses into all your 9mm bullets because some nig-
gling instinct tells you it might help to knock down those “demons”
you’ve seen hanging out at the playground, waiting for children. The
Vigil is a choice: a very conscious, very obsessive, borderline insane
choice to walk where angels fear to tread and, once upon the path, to
remain there rather than run for the “safety” of willful ignorance.
Those who survive their initial choice are, through danger and
pressure, formed into something greater than they once were, and
yet, like any forging process, some aspects of the raw material are

sacrificed along the way. Those who remain on the hunt are like a
battle-worn sword — as they are used and abused, nicks and chips
form on the surface. It is not the visible scars, however, that are
the most dangerous. It is the hairline cracks beneath the surface, just
waiting for the wrong stroke to shatter a once-vital weapon into a
thousand razor-sharp shards.
To create a character for Hunter: The Vigil is to forge a role-
play persona that is, at once, altogether human and yet something
more. The character is crafted, step by step. It’s up to you to decide
both the raw material (who she is, where she comes from and where
she’s going) as well as how she was forged (what has happened to
make her a hunter and what shape those pressures will create in
her). As the creation progresses, each stage offers new opportunities
to hone your vision of the character to give her additional dimension.
As you proceed through character creation, keep in mind it is not
just a character’s strengths that make her the person that she is,
but her weaknesses, quirks, goals, desires and dirty little secrets.
While the skeleton of a character may be the Traits on the char-
acter sheet, it is how those Traits manifest, why they exist (or are
lacking) and what exists beyond the dots on the sheet that make a
character interesting.

A Note about Creating Cells
Groups of hunters (called cells) must rely upon one another
in life-or-death situations on a regular basis. This requires a certain
amount of compatibility, which would evolve naturally within the
cell, but which may need a bit of planning on the part of the players “There are a thousand
“There are a thousand
in a Hunter game. Because many Hunter games will focus on the
hacking at the branches
actions of a single cell represented by the players, it may behoove hacking at the branches
players to consider not only their own ideas but also those of the of evil to one who is
of evil to one who is
group when creating hunter characters. Creating characters that
striking at the root.”
can interact well together will go a long way toward promoting a striking at the root.”
cohesive game. Characters do not necessarily have to share in- —Henry Thoreau
—Henry Thoreau
depth backgrounds, goals or outlooks (although these ties can add
dimension to a game), but communicating enough during charac-
ter generation to ensure the characters won’t try to kill each other
on sight should help a game remain functional and fun.
Communicating openly with the Storyteller and other players
about not only the types of character you are interested in playing,