History TabletopGame / HunterTheReckoning

* LaResistance: A Hunter game can easily be run this way, since monsters are usually assumed to secretly control most aspects of government, law enforcement, and society.
* LesCollaborateurs: Most humans serve the monsters unwittingly thanks to TheMasquerade, but a few do this instead.

* TheHunter: Right there in the title.

** By default, the OldWorldOfDarkness is a delicate political balance both within each splat and between the splats. The Vampire power structure is often the only thing preventing Mages from taking over the city completely and vice versa, and the most visible members of the vampire community are usually the ones in charge that keep the lower-downs from going completely psycho. Hunters tend to just find the easiest-to-find monster and kill it, which inevitably makes things worse. Hunters also have a long-term goal of ending TheMasquerade entirely, which is a disaster for almost everyone.

* ArtStyleDissonance: One of the major complaints of the old ''Hunter'' line was that the art stood at odds with the writing, which portrayed a bloody, hard-scrabble fight against the forces of darkness, all of whom are likely more powerful than you, with only a handful of supernatural tricks to your name. The art... had a photo of a man dressed like Rambo taking bites out of three werewolves (who did ''aggravated damage'' back then) and ''grinning''. The writing said ''Hunter'', the art said ''{{Exalted}}''. [[note]]White Wolf explained in a later FAQ that the pictures were there to inspire players who wanted to play a game where they were on more level terms with the monsters, as opposed to a nearly hopeless struggle to survive. In other words, they wanted everyone who read all the way through the books to see a bloody, hard-scrabble fight against the forces of darkness, and they wanted everyone who just looked at the pretty pictures to see scenes from a truly awesome supernatural action movie.[[/note]]

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* TouchedByVorlons: The Imbued.

* ArtStyleDissonance: One of the major complaints of the old ''Hunter'' line was that the art stood at odds with the writing, which portrayed a bloody, hard-scrabble fight against the forces of darkness, all of whom are likely more powerful than you, with only a handful of supernatural tricks to your name. The art... had a photo of a man dressed like Rambo taking bites out of three werewolves (who did ''aggravated damage'' back then) and ''grinning''. The writing said ''Hunter'', the art said ''{{Exalted}}''.
** Though in hindsight, that man might have been a [[PowerBornOfMadness Wayward]].
** Actually, they explained in a later FAQ that the pictures were there to inspire players who wanted to play a game where they were on more level terms with the monsters, as opposed to a nearly hopeless struggle to survive. In other words, they wanted everyone who read all the way through the books to see a bloody, hard-scrabble fight against the forces of darkness, and they wanted everyone who just looked at the pretty pictures to see scenes from a truly awesome supernatural action movie.

* FantasticRacism: Some imbued look down on Bystanders, or even consider them cannon fodder.
** The attitudes of some of the less tolerant Hunters can come off like this towards the monsters, or even less Zealous Hunters. Innocents and Redeemers are noteworthy for averting this as much as humanly possible. Because this is the [[CrapsackWorld World of Darkness]], either side can be entirely justified.

* TheHunter: Well, duh.

* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: The more powerful an imbued becomes, the more insane they tend to go.

* TouchedByVorlons: The imbued.

'''BEHOLD THE TROPES''':

* TheMessiah: What Innocents at their best can be (particularly near The End).

* StaringDownCthulu: A variation on this trope, as Judges have the Burden edge that holds a supernatural creature in place as long as the Judge is staring at it.

* HidingInPlainSight - The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Hide]] edge, which Innocents use to observe the supernatural without being identified as a threat.

* StaringDownCthulu: A variation on this trope, as Judges have an Edge that freezes a supernatural creature in place as long as the Judge is staring at it.

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Waywards start off this way, but other characters should beware of this fate as well.

* PowerAtAPrice - The Martyr creed in particular gets hit with this. Many of their Edges come at some (though in most cases, temporary) personal cost to the Martyr themselves when used.

* OmnicidalManiac: Members of the Wayward creed, who want to wipe out every supernatural on the face of the earth, no matter how many people die.

* GlamourFailure: The imbued's 'second sight' enables them to see through the various supernaturals' {{Masquerade}}s, which is generally how said supernaturals notice the imbued at all.

[[caption-width-right:300:Defeat the [[OldWorldOfDarkness other game lines]] or die trying.]]

A tabletop game in White Wolf's TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness.

See also ''HunterTheVigil'', the game's SpiritualSuccessor in the new World of Darkness. For High Voltage's series of beat-'em-up video games, click [[VideoGame/HunterTheReckoning here]].

* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The Virtue and creed names (less [[MadOracle Hermits]] and [[HeroicSociopath Waywards]]). The Messengers.

* HeroicComedicSociopath: A Wayward is at best a literal example.

* HeroicSociopath: A Wayward is at best a literal example.

See also ''HunterTheVigil'', the game's SpiritualSuccessor in the new World of Darkness.

''Hunter: The Reckoning'' also spawned three beat-'em-up video games for the XBox, {{PlayStation 2}}, and GameCube, published by Interplay and Vivendi, and developed by High Voltage Software. All three games are multi-player hack-and-slashers in the spirit of the original ''Gauntlet'' games, and developed a modest fan following as excellent four-player party games.

The original game, ''Hunter: The Reckoning'', is set in the small town of Ashcroft, a town that was built around a penitentiary of the same name. For more than fifty years, the prison was run by a vampire named Cornelius as his own private playground and feeding pen. Cornelius's necromancy barely managed to bottle up the angry ghosts that haunted the prison grounds.

One day, the convicted murderer Nathaniel Arkady is executed at Ashcroft Penitentiary, and all hell breaks loose. The vengeful dead rise up all at once and attack everyone inside the prison. Four ordinary people abruptly become imbued, given great power from an unknown source, and have to fight their way out of the prison. They were able to seal the ghosts back up, and Ashcroft was quickly abandoned.

A short time thereafter, the prison is the site of an illegal rave, which draws in kids from all over the state, and that's enough to unleash the angry ghosts against the entirety of the town of Ashcroft. The four hunters - the Avenger, Spencer "Deuce" Wyatt, a biker; the Defender, Samantha Alexander, one of the cops who arrested Arkady; the Martyr, Kassandra Cheyung, a teenage raver and heir to a manufacturing fortune; and the Judge, Father Estaban Cortez, the priest who gave Arkady his last rites - return to Ashcroft to find it burning to the ground, and must rescue the surviving civilians while finishing off the ghosts of Ashcroft once and for all.

Two years later, Ashcroft is a ghost town, and people are slowly returning. It's still a focus of dark power, though, and two Wayward Hunters go missing within the city limits. The original four hunters, after seeing the calls for help on Hunter.net, reunite and return to Ashcroft.

The final game in the series, ''Redeemer'', is set ten years after the original game. Kaylie Winter, who was orphaned by the monsters in the original outbreak, has grown up under Estaban's care and become a hunter herself. She calls her adopted father and his allies back to Ashcroft, which has been revitalized by the presence of the corporation Genefex. Unfortunately for Genefex, it's unaware of Ashcroft's history, and it's being manipulated by unseen forces.

Interesting trivia for webcomic fans: the lead designer on the original ''Hunter'', David Rodriguez, is the writer of ''{{Shadowgirls}}'', as well as the independent comic ''Starkweather''.

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Tropes in the ''Hunter'' video games include:

* ActionGirl: Sam, Kass, and eventually Kaylie.
* AdaptationDistillation: A lot of the ''Hunter'' tropes get worked fairly naturally into the game, like Hunter.net being used as a source of notes for the tutorial.
* AnAxeToGrind: Deuce's weapon of choice.
* AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever: One of the first game's early bosses is against Kaylie's possessed teddy bear, which [[MakeMyMonsterGrow grows to gigantic size]].
* {{Badass}}: Pretty much everyone.
** [[BadassPreacher Father]] Estaban Cortez has an [[BadassLongcoat awesome leather trenchcoat]], and by the time of ''Redeemer'', is [[BadassGrandpa in his fifties.]]
** Esteban sports a BadassBeard and BadassLonghair in the first game.
** Deuce is a former [[BadassBiker Hell's Angel]].
* BagOfSpilling: The main characters survive for ten years' worth of adventures, but are still at level 1 with level 1 Edges at the start of each game.
* BareYourMidriff: Kass's outfits in the original and in ''Wayward''.
* {{BFS}}: Esteban's Cruciform Sword and Kaylie's Buster Sword both qualify.
* BowAndSwordInAccord: Esteban
* CastFromHitPoints: Demand costs the user both Health and Conviction, in exchange for a temporary boost to running and firing speed.
* ChainsawGood
* CrowbarCombatant: Joshua
* EscortMission: In the first game, The Hunters are tasked with escorting Kaylie through the cemetery to the church.
* {{Expy}}: Each of the four original Hunters has roughly equivalent areas of specialization to the original four characters from ''Gauntlet''. Deuce is the Warrior (high health, moves slowly, entirely focused on doing physical damage), Sam is the Valkyrie (well-balanced character with defensive abilities), Kass is the Elf (the fastest character and almost entirely focused on ranged combat), and Estaban is the Wizard (all his combat potential's built around his Edges, to the point where a high-level Judge player won't really use his weapons that much).
** Genefex, the evil corporation in ''Redeemer'', will be instantly familiar to any fan of the ''Werewolf'' games. It is never explicitly said to be a Pentex subsidiary, but it almost doesn't have to.
* FanNickname Often called Gauntlet: the Reckoning by fans of the original tabletop game, especially when it first came out, due to the play style. People were expecting something more akin to the style of VampireTheMasqueradeRedemption.
* FridgeHorror: The hunters eventually agree to cooperate with the werewolves in ''Redeemer'', but only after you've plowed through a couple of dozen of them. If you're a fan of the original ''Werewolf'', this is the point where you realize you've probably just killed every Gaian werewolf in the surrounding ''state''.
* GirlishPigtails: Kass in the second game.
* GogglesDoNothing: Kassandra usually wears a pair of purely decorative goggles on her forehead.
* GunsAkimbo: Kassandra's primary means off attack.
* HeyItsThatVoice: GreyDelisle voices Kassandra in ''Wayward''.
** TonyJay is the first game's narrator.
* KatanasAreJustBetter: Sam Alexander has a katana ''and'' a [[RevolversAreJustBetter revolver]].
* MightyGlacier: Deuce is seven feet tall and wields an enormous two-handed axe.
* MindControlDevice: Kaylie has the unique Edge, Shame, which forces ordinary enemies to turn against each other.
* NintendoHard: The original ''Hunter'' is explicitly balanced for four players and becomes extremely difficult with fewer than that. ''Wayward'' only allows two-player co-op, and is relatively easy right up until the final boss, who will kick your face in. Finally, ''Redeemer'' is a bit better-balanced than the previous two games and can be played solo relatively easily, although it's still a really good idea to use either Kaylie or Sam.
* NobleDemon: Carpenter.
* NoodleIncident: The story of how the original four characters became imbued in the first place actually sounds a ''lot'' more interesting than the plot of the first game.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Carpenter delivers one to the Hunters when they first meet.
-->'''Carpenter:''' Typical. I try to help and this is the thanks I get. Do you think I can't see you shaking at the other end of that barrel? Do you think I don't know your brain is trying to process the ''horrible'' fact that "Oh my god it talks!" and if it talks, it thinks, and you can't stand that, can you? When are you going to learn that you're not Hunters; you're sheep...''with shotguns''.
* {{Stripperiffic}}: In the original game, Kass is dressed like she's on her way to a candy rave and Sam has mislaid an entire leg of her leather pants. Both get distinctly more sensible as they get older, and are fully covered up by the time of ''Redeemer''... just in time for a teenage Kaylie to begin a career of fighting off monsters while wearing an extremely low-cut leather minidress.
* SquishyWizard: If either Kass or Estaban winds up in an extended fight at melee range, they're probably dead. If they can keep their distance, though, Estaban has the best direct-damage Edges and Kass can whittle just about anything down with constant gunfire.
* ThoseWhoFightMonsters: The Waywards in the game of the same name. One can be saved. The other... can't.
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Or purple hair. Or pink hair. Kass seems to change her hair color with each game and each unlockable costume.
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-->'''Carpenter:''' Typical. I try to help and this is the thanks I get. Do you think I can't see you shaking at the other end of that barrel? Do you think I don't know your brain is trying to process the ''horrible'' fact that "Oh my god it talks!" and if it talks, it thinks, and you don't like that.

A tabletop game in White Wolf's old WorldOfDarkness.