Secrecy in Monster Hunters

[blacksmith]

Why is keeping the public from knowing about monsters important to a monster hunters game? Any one have practicle reasons for this?

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by blacksmith

Why is keeping the public from knowing about monsters important to a monster hunters game? Any one have practical reasons for this?

To match the source material.

Or, more usefully, because not all inhumans prey on (or endanger) humanity and so don't deserve to be destroyed. Likewise with the psychics and mages, who are ostensibly human to begin with and would really rather they weren't destroyed. The reasoning is: We are humanity. We do not understand. We fear what we do not understand. We hate what we fear. We destroy what we hate. We do not understand what we have destroyed. Wash, rinse, repeat.

[lexington]

Originally Posted by blacksmith

Why is keeping the public from knowing about monsters important to a monster hunters game? Any one have practicle reasons for this?

Mandate from a Higher Power (can be on either side, the Big Good might forbid it for mysterious reasons, the Big Bad might simply kill anyone who knows the truth)
Humans are dangerous and untrustworthy (most people who learn about magic will try to exploit it, worship the god of evil)
The PCs are inhuman and will be killed if the public finds out
Saving people from The Horrible Truth / avoiding mass panic
Tradition! (the sunk costs fallacy: "We've been lying for five hundred years it would be a waste of all the manpower to tell the truth now.")
The PCs are evil and benefit from the foes being poorly informed

[lachimba]

Originally Posted by blacksmith

Why is keeping the public from knowing about monsters important to a monster hunters game? Any one have practicle reasons for this?

I imagine each of the campaign seeds in MH2 will go in to specifics for each setting. Could very well be some general advice too.

That MIB quote in MH1 is a good start too.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by lachimba

That MIB quote in MH1 is a good start too.

Kay: A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.

... this one? :)

[PK]

Everyone's pretty much nailing the true-to-genre reasons and the in-game reasons, so I'll just discuss the meta-game ones.

The need to keep things a secret is the primary thing keeping the PCs from running off and getting a SWAT team or the National Guard every time they encounter an especially tough monster or group of monsters. If everyone knew about monsters, then the game would turn into "investigate, confirm, call 911." Secrecy in this case means that the buck stops with the PCs, period. This keeps the game exciting and ensures that the champions are the focus of the game, not the cavalry they call in.

In addition, the need to keep things a secret allows the GM to incorporate a much wider range of challenges by deciding how many bystanders and potential witnesses are around. Hunting a demon in an abandoned factory outside of town is hard; hunting the same demon in a warehouse on the docks is harder; hunting that demon in an occupied hotel is harder still. Outside of civilization, PCs can use grenades, explosives, and tons of ammo to get the job done; when people are right next door, you have to alter your tactics.

[Novembermike]

You could also pull a Dresden Files and have the PCs try to let people know about the monsters and have everyone call you a hack.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by blacksmith

Why is keeping the public from knowing about monsters important to a monster hunters game? Any one have practicle reasons for this?

Well, that depends on who your monster hunters are and who the monsters are.

For example in certain settings humans are so fragile that if you were to reveal the horror of the world to an audience of hundreds of millions, that entire audience would have to make fright checks, with quite low wills. You can wave bye-bye to sanity and civilisation.

In other settings the bad guys will only operate covertly as long as their secrecy is maintained, so once the secret blows up, that fires the starting gun for all out invasion.

In other settings hunters are themselves monsters and are just trying to deal with their misbehaving brethren and cousins before they trigger a pogrom.

In other settings it's because the hunters are the professionals and the last thing they want is a flood of incompetent monster chasers getting in the way even if the incompetents in question have badges.

In others, the monsters are so entrenched in highest levels of society that the resistance movement must step lightly or see the police and military coming after _them_.

Then again it could be because the government wants it kept secret so they can secretly exploit the arcane secrets the characters are discovering against what they see as bigger threats. Like commies.

Or humanity could just be so thoroughly, willfully blind to what is around it that if the PCs try to go public they will only damage their reputations and possibly end up institutionalized.

Of course secrecy isn't always mandatory. There's a whole genre of urban fantasy where the monsters came out of the closet a while back and the protagonists are merely policing crimes committed by or against them or both.

[RyanW]

The big reason:

Monster Hunters as a genre exists in the shadows of our world. If the existence of monsters becomes more than grainy footage and unconfirmable witnesses, the impact on the world becomes pretty significant, and it quits being that kind of setting.

[PK]

Originally Posted by RyanW

The big reason:

Monster Hunters as a genre exists in the shadows of our world. If the existence of monsters becomes more than grainy footage and unconfirmable witnesses, the impact on the world becomes pretty significant, and it quits being that kind of setting.

Pretty much. I could have written this line as GURPS Urban Fantasy, but that's not what I wanted nor what I enjoy running. IMO, a modern supernatural game works best when the "supernatural" bits are in the wainscot, far from the eyes of the world at large, for the reasons I mention above.