This forum has gotten a little quiet so lets start up a discussion:

I'm running a game where I just introduced a small group of vampire hunter NPCs but haven't really fleshed them out.  The conundrum I'm having is whether to make them actual Hunters with powers or just well informed and armed humans.

Right now I'm leaning towards the latter but at the same time I could not help but consider whether I should make them something more.  So I decided to delve into this forum and get some opinions on the matter.

I'll leave this as is for now but I have specific points that I'll want to bring up as the discussion evolves but first and foremost which would you rather deal with from a story prospective?

Then which is more dangerous, in your mind?

Funnily enough, I was debating the same question a while ago, except it was Inquisitors for a Dark Ages game. I'd say it depends on how powerful the PCs are and how prominent you want the hunter plotline to be in the game. In my case, I was also debating the possibility of eventually having Inquisitor PCs, if the plotline ended up developing far enough for them.

I think that making the hunters very efficient and lethal humans (rather than supernaturally imbued Hunters with a capital "h") makes them more horrific. I'm in favor of "small universes" where vampires are the only supernatural beings that exist, with mages and lupines being mere superstition and legend (or vice-versa with the other archetypes). Or at least, the supernaturals THINK they're alone in being supernatural.

It makes the game more organic, and helps prevent the meta-game thinking "well, what sort of Mage could be behind this plot" or whatever.

The key point is whether you want vampires to be the only supernaturals in the world. In that case the vampires can relax and the Beast becomes more prominent. If not, play as you like. If I were you I would make up a "discipline" or two the hunters would have just to make them tougher and leave players guessing how closely I follow the rules and what powers they might have. (Where the **** did they get Presence from? For instance.)

Well vampires are clearly not the only supernatural creatures as I alreayd have werewolves and other supernaturals in play as NPCs.  Now with that said I agree with you all on the "organic" feel.  I don't want things to start going hokie with a supernatural baddie behind everything.  In fact humans are an integral piece of the overall story I'm trying to build up to.

The problem I'm having is I think Hunters have a unique storyline that would be fun to involve in a story sense but it not might be very fun for the vampire players to keep running into super powered bad guys who only want to kill them.  Afterall I already have werewolves to accomplish that.

So what I'm trying to get to is do you think players would rather have disposable human villians to deal with or would it be more enjoyable to have powered up Hunters?]

Thanks for the input, I appreciate it!

Are there any possibilities for some of the Hunters to be allies of the PCs? Or, perhaps not allies, but infiltrators with complex hidden agendas rather than straightforward combat-type opponents? Perhaps there could be a group of Hunters that are mainly interested in taking out the werewolves, for example.
This message was last edited by the user at 23:21, Thu 17 Apr 2008.