Page 85 - Hunter - The Vigil

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C CHAPTER TWO: CHARACTER CREATION
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A Hit Man’s Attributes play to his strengths.
MORALITY High Dexterity is a requirement for precision aim-
ing. Wits and Manipulation help a Hit Man keep
Hit Men sometimes try to mitigate his personal and professional lives separate, while
Morality loss. Simply doing their job Resolve and Composure both help him deal with
is a recipe for plummeting Morality, and what he’s seen. Useful skills include Crafts (often
becoming deranged makes it harder and with a Gunsmith Specialty), Firearms, Investiga-
harder for them to keep doing that job. tion, Persuasion, Stealth, Subterfuge and Weaponry.
They have to do something to maintain the Most combat Merits don’t apply to Hit Men. Many
balance. have Allies (a partner or confi dant), Contacts (Un-

They perhaps play to their Virtues derworld), Fast Reflexes and Resources.
more than other people, stepping in when Concepts: CIA assassin, corporate killer, duel-

something looks wrong and trying to make ist, infiltration expert, mafia hit man, marine sniper,
a difference in some small way. While stone-cold psychopath, unarmed combat expert
she can’t tap her Virtue for Willpower Asset Skills: Firearms and Stealth
more than once per chapter, acting on it Professional Training:
•
Gun nut
reinforces her sense of self — giving • Gun nut
her player a good justifi cation to regain •• Hit man
e
ip
Sn
•••
lost Morality points. It’s not surprising ••• Sniper r
to fi nd an assassin who works at a soup •••• Professional
The Bogeyman
•••••
kitchen, helps train abused animals, or ••••• The Bo ge ym a n
simply acts as a loving family man. Of
course, it’s also not surprising to fi nd Journalist
a Hit Man who’s cold and narcissistic,
Some things are too weird even for the Weekly
gladly putting a knife through a bum’s
World News. That’s not going to stop me taking this all
hand before tossing a couple of quarters
the way to the front page.
into his bloody palm.
Journalists are always on the lookout for a story.
Most spend years working for local papers, covering

charity bake sales and flower shows before moving
who knows what she does already, and has to play dangerous on to bigger news — if they ever get that opportunity. Journalists
games of trust, balancing what she learns and what she tells walk a thin line: on the one side, the truth, and on the other, a

to her new associates. Worse, joining a new cell of hunters fiction that’s guaranteed to get attention. Whether she works in
means she has their pending discovery of her actual profession television, in print or online, a Journalist often builds a follow-
hanging over her head. Having partners-in-crime on hand ing of people who like her work — and when she gets popular
can make that a lot easier. enough, of people who hate what she writes.
Larger groups of hunters often have fewer moral prob- A Journalist’s style depends on who publishes her. A right-
lems with bringing Hit Men into their numbers. Some simply wing tabloid encourages a different outlook and a different style
take over as a Hit Man’s primary employer. A number of com- of writing to a left-wing blog or a neutral broadsheet. Some
pacts and conspiracies are glad to have an assassin on hand to Journalists refuse to work for people who don’t understand her
do some wet work: the Union, Task Force: VALKYRIE, the views on controversial subjects, but for every Journo who takes a

Malleus Maleficarum and so on. Cheiron is always looking for stand, three more jump at the chance to reinvent their stance to
potential recruits with “fl exible attitudes” toward their fellow get a better job. Larger organizations require Journos to fi le evi-
human beings (somebody has to kill the things so others can dence and log facts to back up their stories, covering their asses
go to collect the “spare parts”). Some groups have a harder against libel suits and lying Journalists both, though the truly
time incorporating paid murderers into their ranks — a Hit determined can still game the system. Supermarket tabloids and
Man joining the Long Night must be very sure of his faith and shitty news rags have the same rule on the books, but it’s hon-
place in the afterlife. ored more in the breach than the observance. Hacks who sell in
Background: Some Hit Men take the job after spending those markets have much greater leeway with the truth.
time in the military. Unwilling to learn new skills, they’re un- Evidence is how most Journalists come to the hunt.
able to support their family without a job that pays as well as Whether she captures a photo of a slumlord dissolving into
the armed forces. A few discover — through whatever means a host of rats, or her exposé of secret meetings in City Hall
— a natural talent for murder, and look for a way to make uncovers robed people conducting human sacrifice, her nose

their skills profitable. Many come from organized crime: crim- for a story brings her to the dark underbelly of the world.

inals who don’t specialize in any role but who don’t have the Once she’s there, she has to fi ght back — if only for her own
conscience that warns them off killing. However they start, survival. She’s got to get the story out. When she does, she’ll
the successful ones become Hit Men. The unsuccessful ones often find that the only people who believe her are kooks and

are incarcerated, if lucky, dead if not. hunters — if she’s able to tell the difference.
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