Monster Hunters: New information, leaks, and sample characters!

[Gizensha]

Originally Posted by Gnomasz

As the disadvantages' subject came out, I wonder if there would be a word or two about some specific disads, like Weirdness Magnet or Cursed, in MH. They would really fit to it, IMHO.

Weirdness Magnet, maybe... I'm not entirely sure Cursed (aka "Please, sir, whip me harder") has much of a place in most campaigns, though...

Like others, I'm guessing based on what has been said in this thread and others, but...

Originally Posted by Greg 1

Is there a stock setting?

A few, none-full, in MH2, I believe.

Does it support play at different TLs?

I doubt it does so explicitly, but I suspect that it will work with stuff within the same genre at different tech levels, at least for MH2 and MH3.

Does it support PCs who are not of high point value?

MH4 seems to have 200 and 100 point templates...

Would it be helpful for running a setting something like Delta Green (Call of Cthulhu) in which PCs are trained professionals, but should avoid fights with Things if they can help it?

At a guess, based on what PK stated in this thread about being able to run a Mythos campaign using it, yes, though that's not exactly in keeping with the Monster Hunting genre as I consider it.

It sounds very cool, either way, but I'd like a better grasp on it.

...I'd prefer to grasp it than have a better grasp on it, myself ;)

[PK]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Can someone link the post where someone (RPK?) talked about the different levels of "settings"?

It's actually linked in in the post above. If you click on the little blue thingee after the quote name, vBulletin jumps you back to the post from which the quote came. But here's the link as well if easier. I remember that some people said they found that "setting breakdown" post very useful in a general way, so hopefully this helps.

[PK]

Originally Posted by Greg 1

I'd like to learn more about this series. Is there more information available yet?

Absolutely nothing official, no. But I've been leaking all over the place if you have the time to sniff around. :)

I'm afraid that of the 11 examples of related popular culture given in the OP, I am familiar with only one, Evil Dead.

<utter shock>

You, sir, are missing out.

(And for the record, Evil Dead is by far the most tentative of those tie-ins! Still, by the third movie, Ash is definitely a monster hunter -- he's just one that started off as the survivor of an unexpected attack.)

The series is described as a "worked genre example" like DF. DF somewhat straddles a line between generic and specific. There is no set background in DF, for instance, but it comes packed with assumptions, such as magic works in the setting and what point cost the characters will be.

Yup. And Monster Hunters does the exact same thing. Now, just like DF or Action, you may still find the books useful even if you don't plan on running exactly that game -- for example, Action 2 is full of tons of great cinematic gaming advice for anything from a cinematic 50-point street urchin game to a cinematic 2,500-point supers game, and the Action 1 & 3 templates are a great source of character inspiration even if you don't want to make 250-point PCs. But there are definitely fixed assumptions, and your work as a GM begins once you start to deviate from them.

Is there a stock setting?

Heh. I don't know what you mean by "setting" here; see the link in my post above to see why. The short answer is, "The setting is our modern world. MH1 includes six sample campaign frames, and MH2 turns them into six campaign seeds."

Does it support play at different TLs?

Not out of the box, no. Though I've heard a rumor that someone (not me!) may be writing up such a thing as a Pyramid article in the future . . .

Does it support PCs who are not of high point value?

Monster hunters are 400-point PCs. There will be an option in Monster Hunters 4: Sidekicks to play 200-point PCs. (Note: Everyone mentioning 100-point characters is unaware that these will be a very small part of the book, and expressly designed as NPCs. They're filler for your ranks, a way to bulk up a team.)

Let's be clear, though. The genre here is monster hunters -- not "monster investigators" or "monster-attack survivors." The point of the series is to create PCs who proactively investigate, pursue, catch, and confront/destroy powerful monsters. So you can only go so low in power before you're starting to really rub up against assumptive bias.

Does it support PCs who lack cinematic abilities?

The PCs that you can create with MH4 lack cinematic abilities. (Well, there's one template whose whole shtick is having supernatural abilities, and not much else, but you can just not use that one.)

Would it be helpful for running a setting something like Delta Green (Call of Cthulhu) in which PCs are trained professionals, but should avoid fights with Things if they can help it?

Helpful? Yes. Can you run such a game out of the box with no extra work? No -- you'll need to do some reconfiguring first.

It sounds very cool, either way, but I'd like a better grasp on it.

Hope this helped!

[tg_ambro]

A blatant rip-off
helping anticipation
will those Champs come home?

-- Some pale imitator

[lachimba]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

J

Primarily recon, with secondary roles as a slayer (obviously) and as "the geek" of the team -- the latter since her circumstances of creation give her a large amount of scientific knowledge.

So a ranged attacker, detector/investigator/tracker, pointman for going toe to toe with monsters and a Scout.


Maybe a support caster, healer or someone to 'buff' other characters coming up?

[Greg 1]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

Hope this helped!

It was extremely helpful. Thanks for going to so much trouble. :)

Monster Hunters sounds awesome!

[PK]

BTW, if anyone spots a typo anywhere, feel free to let me know via PM. Honestly, it probably doesn't mean I'm going to fix it -- the whole "load character, edit character, print preview, use CutePDF to export character to PDF, upload character" routine is a lot of trouble to go through for anything minor -- but I'd rather see a PMed correction than a threadcrap.

[PK]

Okay, I pruned out the April Fool's posts and archived them over here, to try and ensure that current and future generations of gamers will be able to easily tell fiction from reality. I think it's smartest to leave the joke posts locked, for those who come across them by accident while doing a future search. If anyone wants to discuss them further, feel free to do so in this thread -- since we don't have to keep the joke going, it shouldn't be a problem.

And to answer NAS' final question on the subject, no, I feel anything but ashamed! I love a good joke. I'm glad that a lot of you had fun with the gag yesterday. And for those of you that hate April Fool's Day . . . well, take solace in knowing that you can be a big grumpypants the other 364 days of the year and you won't stand out one bit. :)

tl;dr: Everything I posted yesterday was a joke. The MH line won't feature fake cherubs, isn't particularly "adult," has nothing to do with Stephen King, etc.

[PK]

Okay, as a peace offering, here's what an outcast angel really looks like in Monster Hunters . . .

The fifth hunter is revealed!


Click here to see the actual character sheet for Dominic:
http://www.mygurps.com/m_samplehunters.html

[lexington]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

Okay, as a peace offering, here's what an outcast angel really looks like in Monster Hunters . . .

The fifth hunter is revealed!


Click here to see the actual character sheet for Dominic:
http://www.mygurps.com/m_samplehunters.html

I still like the idea of a martial cherub. It had a wonderfully irreverent bit of horror to it.