"Take all you need, but be mindful
that the hunter can become the hunted
and there are those who find us
no matter how we flee."
Gangrel, The Book of Nod


Chapter 2

Character Creation

Introduction:

What is the difference between making a regular human character, and a character for HUNTERS???  Not much but this page will give you ideas on how to bring all the books together with information from each of them.  This section tells you how to make a mortal HUNTER character and has some tips on playing a HUNTER.  Some items from books will be redefined so that they work better in other settings, specifically the HUNTERS setting.

What you will find:

Generic Humans:

As a general rule all human characters, or human related characters have the same number of starting points in attributes, abilities, backgrounds, and freebie points.  These numbers should stay the same for every character made unless you feel a definite need to go by the instructions in a certain book (such as the Project Twilight book for Backgrounds) or some other variant system.  If this is the case you need to talk with everyone else who is currently in the game because everyone is a storyteller including you.  If no one has a problem with the way you make your character, then continue with the process.

Attributes:

Abilities: Background Points: 5
Willpower: 3
Freebie Points: 21

Willpower, advantages and other items on the character sheet can change depending on what hunter/ally book you use.  Willpower is the one that changes the most frequently but in general humans have a base Willpower of 3.  This is all you need to make a generic human other then character background such as concept, demeanor, nature, and a history.


 

Advanced Humans (making the books work together):

Hunter/Ally books give you a chance to play a human in the World of Darkness, but they also create new minor supernatural creatures to play such as ghouls, kinfolk, sorcerers, enchanted, shih warriors and the new dhampirs.  All of these are possible for HUNTERS but many of them now have their own books making character creation different for each one.  For the most part follow the book for the specific minor supernatural.  Try and stick to the normal human as much as possible to keep things somewhat balanced and any questions should be consulted with your fellow players.  Any special powers given to the character during character creation are fine (such as ghouls receive an automatic point in Potence, and one other point in a discipline.)  Any other powers that are not given free should be bought with freebie points.  This includes all numina (hedge magic, psionics, faith) and extra points in character powers (disciplines, gifts.)

Some minor supernaturals/ and humans may receive other items such as humanity.  Only use these if they are important to the character (such as ghouls need virtues and humanity) otherwise do not bother with the item (humans do not need to worry about humanity unless they are turned into a ghoul or vampire.)  Use the above Generic Human rules to replace stats in the book (Inquisition character creation requires Willpower to be derived from Courage, instead just use Willpower of 3.)
 

Advanced Humans (making the character sheets come together):

At the end of most of the hunter/ally books is a specialized character sheet with all the important information for that specific character type (Inquisition, government, Ghoul.)  Many of these character sheets have different abilities listed on them.  For practical purposes all the abilities on any character sheet are available to all characters.  So, a character from The Arcunum who is using an Arcanum character sheet can use Empathy which is on other character sheets.  As a general rule all abilities cost the same amount of freebie/experience points no matter where you find them.  This is true for backgrounds, too.  If you do not have a specific character sheet for a character do not worry about it, the character sheets are only there to add feeling to the character, a Vampire: The Masquerade character sheet (or home brood) would work just as well.  White Wolf has a wide variety of  character sheets  on their web page.


 

Abilities:

There are many abilities in HUNTERS that can be found in many different books and all of them are useful.  If you find a specialty skill that can be covered by a general abilities then it is probably better to take the general skill.  So, instead of taking Search or Scan you should just take investigation.  Below is a list of some generic abilities that can be found on just about any character sheet:
 
 
Talents: Skills: Knowledge:
Alertness Drive Computer
Athletics Etiquette Investigation
Brawl Firearms Law
Dodge Melee Linguistics
Streetwise Stealth Medicine
Subterfuge Survival Occult

Abilities (Lores):

One of the most important abilities in a HUNTERS game is the knowledge lore.  Lore is a knowledge that tells you how much information you know about a specific supernatural or other occurrence.  Lores have a tendency to change, or become more specific as White Wolf releases more books.  In the beginning there was Vampire Lore, know there is Camarilla Lore, Sabbat Lore and possibly Anarch Lore, or the great mystery Inconnu Lore....  Beginning player characters should not start off with more then one point in any Lore unless it is specific to their character background (a ghoul character may have a couple points in Vampire, Camarilla, or Sabbat Lore.)

Abilities (Lore Occult):

The most generic of all lores is the knowledge occult.  Occult  will give you little bits of information on all the supernaturals but nothing detailed.  With occult general information can be discovered about the supernatural.  The characters know nothing of the Camarilla, Gaia, or the Technocracy but might be able to figure out that silver hurts werewolves, stakes and sunlight affect vampires ex ex.  A specialization in occult is equal to a one or two points in a general lore.  So, occult four with a specialization in werewolves would be equal to a single point in werewolf lore.  Five points would be equal to 2 points in a specific lore.
 
  1.  You've read books and seen movies on the supernatural and the cult, however you may not believe what you see or read.
  2.  You knowledge of the supernatural may be more fact then fiction, with knowledge of  wicca, magick and some supernatural history.
  3.  No more palm reading for you, this is the real thing.  Supernatural creatures exist and you have proof on two or three.
  4.  There are definitely vampires out there, but they calm themselves kindred, and werewolves calm themselves Garou.
  5.  Had breakfast with a pooka, brunch with a Verbena, lunch with a Fianna, dinner with a Toreador, and desert with a Haunter.

Abilities (Lore General):

General Lores are lores involving a specific supernatural or organization.  These lores cover all five major supernaturals (vampires, werewolves, mages, wraiths, changelings) and other organizations involved in the occult (Inquisition, Arcanum, The Benandanti.)  Though you may know a lot about the organization or supernatural you may not know about some of the elements that surround them.   So, you may know about werewolf tribes, where they poop, gifts, symbols, and what werewolf ninja fu looks like but you might not know a thing about the Wyrm, black spiral dancers or the Bastet.  Like occult a specialization in a general lore with give you automatic dots in specific lore.

Types of General Lore:
 
Vampire Werewolf Mage
Wraiths Changeling Inquisition
Arcanum Kuei-Jin The Imbued

  1.  As much as a new supernatural might know on his first night.  Vampires drink blood, hate sunlight.
  2.  You know the weaknesses and strengths of supernatural, or organization.
  3.  You know the basic structure of organization or supernatural.  (This is as far as the average character will get.)
  4.  You know more then the average supernatural or employee organization may know.  Black hand members ex.
  5.  You know secrets that will surely get you killed.

Abilities (Lore Specific):

Specific Lores are lores that are based off of a general lore.  After you learn something about vampires and have a couple points in Vampire Lore you may learn some detailed information about the Camarilla and take Camarilla Lore.  You do not have to have a General Lore to take a Specific Lore but it would make more sense.  You may think that the Camarilla is an organization of cannibalistic humans who stock the night and separate themselves into 7 different clans, but what's a vampire??  In general a human should not get 4 or 5 points in a specific lore because I do not think even White Wolf staff knows that much about The World of Darkness.  You have to keep some things a mystery.

Types of Specific Lore:
 
Camarilla  Black Hand Thin Bloods Gangrel
Wyrm Umbra Bastet Children of Gaia
Technocracy Horizon Realms Marauder Sons of Ether
Specter Underworld Renegade Sandmen
Seelie Dauntain Dreaming Redcaps

  1.  You know the basics and how to deal with it an not make a fool out of yourself.
  2.  You know some secrets that you can use to your advantage.
  3.  You seem to everything there is to know about the subject.
  4.  You know more then you're willing to tell.
  5.  You know too much!

Backgrounds

Hunters normally start off with 5 points in backgrounds, though some books offer more.  If you want to use the rules out of the book make sure you talk with everyone.  I have listed some backgrounds below that may be popular for a HUNTERS game, but there are many more that may be incorporated into the game.  Any background that cannot be found in any of the core books has the book listed where it can be found.  Some backgrounds a HUNTER cannot take such as retainers, and Avatar.  Try and use common sense when choosing backgrounds.
 


Quick Note - Some backgrounds you are already presumes to have.  You do not need to take allies to represent the characters main organization but they do have to take status/rank to show where they may be within the organization.

Advantages

The most common advantages that apply to humans are numina which consists of psionics, hedge magic, and faith.  These are not the only advantages that humans can take.  Some humans such as kinfolk can receive werewolf gifts and ghouls can use vampiric disciplines.  Not all HUNTERS have special powers, many of them don't.  Some HUNTERS find the numina powers to be suspicious and can be the center of an adventure or character concept (you are a deeply religious member of The Inquisition that has manifested psychic powers.)

Psionics - The ability to directly affect the world with your mind.
 


Hedge Magic - The ability to cast static/hedge magic.  The name of some spells are changed in different books.

True Faith - Faith is a character's deep connection with his god (not neccesarily the Christian God.)  It is a rating from 1 to 10 (usually 1 to 5.)  For every point in True Faith the character has he may push vampires back, add to the difficulty of a Werewolf's rage roll, or use as countermagic.

The Art of Notekeeping (Players):

Notekeeping for players is not as important as it is for Storytellers, but it can be helpful.   It can be problematic to keep track of who you know and what your character has done, especially if you play a number of different HUNTER characters.  Here are two helpful notekeeping techniques that will help keep the confusion down:

Keeping track of other characters:

A sheet where you write down every character you meet can be very helpful.  You might want to also write down little things you know about that character so information does not cross from one of your characters to another.  It is also helpful to write down major NPCs that you find important.  This keeps the confusion down and prevents problems like:

Joe: Did my character, Ezekial, meet your character, Sarah.
Lisa:  No.  Sarah knows your character, Micha, she never met Ezekial so he wouldn't know about my psychometry.

Keeping track of adventures:

Keeping a journal and what missions he has completed is a nice way to keep track of the character.  It ties in with the storyteller notekeeping and will also help justify your lores.  You might have werewolf lore of 2 but you definitely know something about the Glasswalkers after your talked with it for about an hour trying to help it kill a Formori which you have logged in your journal.

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