Page 61 - Hunter - The Vigil

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C CHAPTER TWO: CHARACTER CREATION
commodities that spurs a person to become a hunter, so a prelude The others are spread out in a half circle around you. You can
that gives a player the opportunity to experience them in a real see them moving forward in your peripheral vision. Jake with his
sense can add layers of reality to their later reaction if those valu- shotgun. Terry with a sawed-off. John’s got his service revolver,
able assets are threatened or taken away. and some sort of Taser he says they’d been experimenting with
Change to: down at the HQ. These are your friends, the ones who believed
This scene might be the one that leads directly to the char- you and your crazy story about what you saw that night. They
acter’s loss (see First Contact below), or it might just reinforce the helped you track down this…thing. You won’t even give it the re-
importance of these aspects in the character’s life before the Vigil spect of calling it a person.
takes over. An athletic character might play out a scene that John signals you forward, toward the caved-in shack you’ve
involved a sports triumph, while a soldier goes on a vital training tracked it to. Your hands are sweaty around the wooden stock of

mission. Characters with spouses or children might go through a your hunting rifle. You’ve taken down bucks with it, and once a
proposal, a wedding, a family celebration or holiday scene. Those black bear, but today you’re not out for sport.
with scholastic or vocational focuses might be taken through a For just a second, the heat makes your vision go red, and you
scene that involves a promotion, graduation, hiring or fi ring. see the scene again. The one you never want to remember. The
Scenes of everyday life can be played out as any other one you can’t forget.
game session. If traits come up during the course of the Every- The white cotton sheets stained crimson. The torn flannel

day Life prelude, just disregard any Traits added in Step Five jammies, one foot smeared where he’d tried to run. The floor-

and any Hunter-specific Merits the character has. The Story- boards puddled with red-brown-black.
teller may choose to use a narration style for this prelude, or to Sweat runs down into your eyes, the salt stinging. You can’t
have the player roll for signifi cant actions during this scene. blink back the tears.

“Now!” John drops his fist and the rest of the group jumps
First Contact forward.

You’re standing in the backyard, flashlight in hand. You’re shiver- What do you do?
ing and barefoot, because you didn’t pause to grab a jacket or put on Often a hunter’s first hunt comes long before he joins a

shoes. As you wave the flashlight around, the flickering beam barely cuts cell or is recruited into an organization. Protecting family and
through the darkness. Stupid dollar-store lights. Your heart’s still beating friends (or revenging wrongs done to them) can be a strong
double time and nervous little puffs of breath hang in the air as you catch catalyst for setting a person onto the Vigil. For others, the
your breath. There’s nothing here. Of course there’s nothing here. hunt begins with a religious epiphany, a chance encounter

The flashlight beam slides past bushes and trees, sending weird with a monster or a run-in with a hunter cell. It could even be

shadows all around. The yard is empty, except for a half-coiled that the hunt is a job, a “first encounter” planned and paid for
garden hose, a rusty grill and an overturned tricycle, one pedal still by an organization whose Vigil is clouded in mysterious mo-
spinning slowly. A sound comes from the vicinity of the back door. tives. Whatever the circumstance, the fi rst hunt is the begin-
“I told you to stay in bed while I looked arou—” ning of the rest of the hunter’s life, and playing that scenario
You turn just in time to see the back door shut. He must have out can give the player the opportunity to explore aspects of
gone back upstairs… the Vigil that might not otherwise come to light.
A scream from his room sends icy daggers down your spine
and you’re on the porch before it stops. But the door is locked. Final Questions
And through the back door window, you can see muddy boot
The following questions are provided to give you the op-
prints leading from the door toward the staircase.

portunity to add the final touches to your character post-pre-
What do you do?
lude. You are welcome to answer all, some or none of them,
Most hunters set out on the Vigil having experienced
but each detail you flesh out will make your character more

some kind of “inciting incident.” A husband finds something
realistic and three-dimensional.

preying upon his wife on their blood-slick kitchen floor. A
father tells a son that his is a legacy of holding back the shad- What Do You Look Like?
ows, and then puts a .22 pistol in the teen’s hand. A surgeon
How tall or short are you? How old are you? What race
gets a lucrative job offer from a prosthetics conglomerate, but
or culture are you from? What color is your hair and how
swiftly discovers they make their artificial limbs from some-

do you wear it? How do you dress, both during the hunt and
thing far more sinister than steel and plastic.
in your off hours? Has the Hunt left you with any scars or
Discovering the horrors and mysteries of the World of Dark-
lasting injuries?
ness is almost always an eye-opening and life-changing event.

Using a hunter’s first contact can be a powerful way to juxtapose What Brought You to the Vigil?
his pre-hunt life with the challenges he’ll face on the Vigil.

When were you first exposed to the supernatural (or do
The Vigil you still deny its existence?) Were you recruited by a cell or or-
ganization, or did you learn of its existence and petition to join?
The sun beats down on you, and sweat is rolling into your eyes, but
Did you start the hunt on your own and then were brought into
you don’t dare blink it away. If you blink, you might miss it, and you’ve
your group, or did you help found it with others?
waited for weeks for this moment. You aren’t going to miss a thing.
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