Hunter: The Reckoning – Basic Mechanics Guide

Preparing the Table

For the whole cell of Hunters, measure Desperation and Danger as two trackers of 1-5. You can do it by placing dice in two different colors in the middle of the table.

Hunter: The Reckoning Basic Mechanics Infographic

Rolling the Dice

Take as many d10 dice as the sum of Attribute + Skill required for the test. If the test is in your creed field, you can choose to tap into your Drive and add as many d10 dice as your cell’s current Desperation level. Make sure these dice are in a different color than your basic poll (or use Hunter: The Reckoning Desperation dice).

Creed Fields

Entrepreneurial	Building, inventing, repairing
Faithful	Direct conflict with the supernatural
Inquisitive	Gaining information
Martial	Physical conflict
Underground	Stealth and subterfuge

Dice Results:

• 6-9 on d10 or Fire on Hunter Dice – Success
• 1-5 on d10 or Empty on Hunter Dice – Failure
• 10 on d10 or Big Fire on Hunter Dice – Success, Potential critical
• 1 on Desperation d10 or Exclamation Mark on Hunter Dice – Failure, potential Overreach or Despair

Storyteller (or your opponent’s roll) dictates the difficulty you need to beat.

Common Rolls:

Dodging	Dexterity + Athletics
Forensics	Intelligence + Medicine
Holding breath	Stamina + Resolve
Noticing clues	Wits + Investigation
Punching	Strength + Brawl
Shooting	Composure + Firearms
Sneaking	Dexterity + Stealth
Surveillance	– Resolve + Awareness

Example Rolls

Let’s assume the difficulty your Storyteller has given you is 3.

• A player rolls and has 3 successes (2 Fires and 1 Big Fire on Hunter Dice, or 2 dice results of 6 to 9 and 1 dice result of 10). This test passes! In cases of draw, the “attacker” – active party rolling against a passive object or defending person – wins.
• A player rolls and has 1 success (1 Fire or Big Fire on Hunter Dice, or 1 dice result of 6 to 10). This test fails, as it’s 2 successes short!
• A player rolls and sees 3 successes (Fires on Hunter Dice, or dice results of 6 to 10) with two of them being either Big Fires or dice result of 10. The pair of 10s or Big Fires automatically adds 2 successes to your roll, on top of the regular result. This gives you 5 successes total, the test passes!
• A player rolls and sees two successes, plus one Exclamation Mark or dice result of 1 on Desperation d10. This test fails, and Hunter automatically enters Despair.
• A player rolls and sees three successes, plus one Exclamation Mark or dice result of 1 on Desperation d10. Because the amount of successes is enough to win the test, player can now make a choice. Either the test fails and Hunter enters Despair, or the test succeeds as an effect of Overreach, which poses additional risks to the cell of Hunters.

Despair

When player roll fails with Exclamation Mark or a dice result of 1 on Desperation d10, the test fails and player character enters Despair. In this state, you can’t use Desperation dice in tests up until Redemption for your Drive is achieved.

Redemption requirements depend on the Hunter’s Drive. Redemption may be done by individual Hunter, but can also be treated as a group effort – if a cell mate fulfills requirements of another Hunter’s Redemption, said Hunter can also leave Despair.

Redemption requirements per Drive

• Curiosity: uncover new info about quarry
• Vengeance: hurt the quarry
• Oath: actively uphold or fulfill your oath
• Greed: acquire resources from enemies
• Pride: best the quarry in some challenge
• Envy: ally with quarry or sample their power
• Atonement: protect someone from quarry

Overreach

When the test is successful with Exclamation Mark or a dice result of 1 on Desperation d10, player may decide to enter Overreach.

In that case, the roll succeeds, but the chronicle’s Danger level increases by 1 for each Exclamation Mark or a dice result of 1 on Desperation d10. This may have dire consequences to the whole cell of Hunters – see Danger below.

Danger

Danger is a storytelling tool rather than purely mechanical, and is used to raise stakes and suspense during the Hunter chronicle.

How to use Danger – examples

• Add Danger rating to test difficulties
• Add enemy goons protecting the main quarry in the quantity equal to Danger
• Add additional in-game events at high Danger levels

Damage & Healing

Superficial Health Damage: Equals margin of successes in attack rolls + weapon damage rating, halved and rounded up

• At the start of the session, heal amount equal to your Stamina

Superficial Willpower Damage: Caused by embarrassment, shaken confidence, and other social conflicts

• At the start of session, heal amount equal to Composure or Resolve (pick higher).

Aggravated Health Damage: Caused by fire, firearms, cutting and piercing weapons, or exceeding your Health tracker with Superficial damage

• Intelligence + Medicine test at difficulty equal to sustained damage converts it to Superficial

Aggravated Willpower Damage: Caused by revealing secrets about the target, social attacks from close friends and trusted figures

• At the start of session, heal 1 if you acted according to your Ambition

Desperation

Desperation fluctuates throughout the chronicle and can be used as a storyteller’s tool to build up tension.

Desperation increase examples

• Serious injury or death within the cell
• Quarry managed to escape Hunters
• Cell failed to protect the innocents

Desperation decrease examples

• Cell gained vital information
• Cell prevented harm of innocents
• Cell managed to harm the quarry