Who hunts the Hunters?

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?


I have a brilliant idea for a next possible game. I'm sure it's been thought of before, but not by me so it's all new and awesome: in Hunter: the Vigil fallen/rogue hunters and hunters who have taken a Slasher undertaking are presented as antagonists. What if the actual Hunters were the enemy?

I'm thinking of making it just a blue book game, I doubt I'll even give the main characters Hunter professions. The main characters are forensic detectives, cops, autopsists, and such who are on the trail of someone big - a real nasty serial killer with a near indiscernible M.O. They eventually busts into the guy's house (as in, safehouse) and find all sorts of twisted things: relics, tokens, fetishes, azoth-imbued items, photographs, newspaper clippings of all his kills, security cameras obtained illegally, big computer with a killer tracker/stalker function, silver bullets and daggers, wooden stakes, and occult books on goetia (to name a few). Who the hell is this guy?

Then when the PCs eventually catch the guy in the act they deliver him to a psychologist for figuring out. The guy isn't too messed up; in game terms: nothing less than a morality 5, maybe just a major tell, no derangements, no Slasher undertaking. But...he is that messed up. He has to be. What's with all the weird oddities in his apartment? Why's he killed all these people seemingly unrelated to each other? Does he really believe ghosts and monsters are real?

What happens when he's thrown away into the Asylum and a vicious werewolf begins to prowl? How does this murderer get away with blurred photographs and videos (lunacy) and cannibalism (for essence)? Are the PCs really going to ask that other serial killer for help? What the hell's going on?

*looks at the title*


pretty much every supernatural out there and plus other Hunters. 

Slashers would be more common. Pretty much any supernatural would hunt the hunters when they catch wind of the hunters hunting them and want to turn the tables.

Sounds like a pretty good standard WOD core book storyline, if you want to get rid of some of the supernatural problems, ignore lunacy for the purpose of actually having a functional party.

Hunters often have people hunt them back, in my game my players are trying to get revenge on a large hunter group called Malleus Maleficarum but the real problem is...how do you tell who's a member of this violent church group, and who's a simple member of the church. In my last game they burned down a large church but didn't choose to execute a downed hunter in front of a group of bible study students. On top of it, the party is receiving help from a member of the Lucifuge. Hunters are kinda wicked as enemies because they can just go back into the crowd...they don't stand out like supernaturals.

No doubt every Hunter will eventually be profiled by other supernaturals as a threat and become hunted. It just dawned on me to look at a standard, normal, sane Hunter from a mortal's perspective - from the perspective of somebody who doesn't even know the World of Darkness exists.

To a  Hunter, and other supernaturals, you aren't killing people, you're killing monsters. To a bunch of cops that don't see through all the Masquerades they are just people, though, and no matter how vigilant this Hunter is, to mortal homicide detectives he looks like a wack job. That's what intrigued me: to innocent eyes, even the most sane and good-hearted Hunter is just another serial killer. Good job heroes, you just locked away the city's best hope.

GothBabeAlex:

how do you tell who's a member of this violent church group, and who's a simple member of the church

I really like that idea. It's also similar to my suggestion: how do you tell the difference between a homicidal maniac and a Hunter who's just doing his job by killing evil monsters?

That is a catch 22. Also another catch is if a supernatural is protecting a person from rogue supernatural or even the hunters. For example, a werewolf is protecting his mate because she is pregnant with his child; the mate loves the werewolf even though she won't know about the werewolf part, but would the hunter understand that it was out of love that she wanted the child, or would he assume that it was rape and kill the werewolf for the rape or the kid for being a werewolf baby. And another is that a ghost is haunting a hospital and harming residents, a hunter would salt and burn the body. Is it putting a ghost to rest or desecrating the body?

There can be a lot more moral issues depending if the supernatural is harming people or not.

Sometimes, there's also the cop who knows the victim's a monster...but is an innocent one.

The Sin Eaters are way different than Hunters. Sin Eaters know that putting a ghost to rest helps mortals. But what if that ghost is a sibling, child, or lover of the Sin Eater? That would be a synergy roll like it would be a Morality roll for Hunters.

PaladinDemo:

The Sin Eaters are way different than Hunters. Sin Eaters know that putting a ghost to rest helps mortals. But what if that ghost is a sibling, child, or lover of the Sin Eater? That would be a synergy roll like it would be a Morality roll for Hunters.

Exactly: these monsters are people.

To those uninitiated into the World of Darkness and just go about their mortal lives, when they see some guy dressed in black suit with sunglasses on point-blank shoot some ugly, hunkering, muscle guy it just looks like a messed up murder. That's how the cops will see it. Any real Hunter, though, would see it's another Hunter finishing off a Promethean. That doesn't necessarily make the Hunter a serial killer (read: a slasher); in my Hunter games I use the Morality variant that gives a +1-3 bonus to resist Morality degeneration depending on the inhumanity of the monster. So chances are this Hunter killing a reanimated isn't going to be losing his morality or state of mind anytime soon, and that's what makes the situation so bewildering to police

Yeah, i guess that's the point, playing a group of mortals "hunting" hunters is that. They[hunters] are murderers and must be stopped.

I think it sounds like an awesome idea.

Mr Gone:

I think it sounds like an awesome idea.

I second the notion, these are all great ideas.  I'm jealous, I wanna play!

-D

Atlantis:

They eventually busts into the guy's house (as in, safehouse) and find all sorts of twisted things: relics, tokens, fetishes, azoth-imbued items, photographs, newspaper clippings of all his kills, security cameras obtained illegally, big computer with a killer tracker/stalker function, silver bullets and daggers, wooden stakes, and occult books on goetia (to name a few). Who the hell is this guy?

Wicked! What a great idea and I thought tier 1 hunters were the ultimate underdog.
Not when compared to a mundane mortal.

yeah, people make the best monsters sometimes.