The reckoning is coming. Here's an interview with Ed Hall!

You all know that I'm a huge Warhammer buff. That said, there's one setting which is even closer to my heart - the Classic World of Darkness. When it comes to its many splats, I've always adored Hunter: The Reckoning the most.

I will write an entire post about my all-encompassing love towards H:TR, but for now let's just say that I'm all about the common folk, facing off against the myriad terrors of the night. I've always rooted for the underdogs and the Imbued, as the hunters of this setting are known, perfectly encapsulate this term. That said, I will write a legthy post about this game, as well as the Classic World of Darkness in general, in the near future.

I have so many great memories, associated with this logo

I was very lucky to be able to interview Ed Hall, one of the original creators of Hunter: The Reckoning. He's an incredibly nice man who was patient enough to answer all of my fan-fuelled questions, and there were a lot of them! You can check 'em out yourselves below. Enjoy!

Xathrodox86: How did Hunter: The Reckoning came to be? Who came up with the idea about this game?

Ed Hall: The Wieck brothers, Steve and Stewart, were motivating forces. Also in the meetings we had were Ken Cliffe, who eventually became the game's developer, and art director Rich Thomas, as well as myself.

Other WW full-timers attended those early brainstorming sessions, but I can't recall who.

Xathrodox86: What was your original vision about the game? Did it differed vastly from the final version?

Ed Hall: I wrote a pitch that was more like "The X-Files" set in the WoD. Yes, it differed hugely, as it resembled "Project Twilight", with nonpowered agents of the FBI.  

Xathrodox86: How did the process of writing the game looked like? Did you organised brainstorming sessions? How did the communication between the authors and artists looked like?

Ed Hall: At the outset, I was the H:TR developer, and I wrote the bible for the game, which I recall being a perhaps 20-page-long document distilling the setting, imbuings, what hunters do and don't know, details on the game's version of the walking dead, hunter code (in whose design I took a very active part), etc.  

Xathrodox86: How did the publisher reacted to the idea of a not-so-normal humans fighting against the monsters? Were there any problems with convincing the higher ups to your idea of Hunter?

Ed Hall: I think Steve (and possibly Stewart) was more interested in powered hunters than I was, but I eventually came to see the numerous advantages of powered Imbued, which basically made them akin to the psychic detectives of the pulp era.  

Xathrodox86: What was the hardest part about devising the game, both lore and rules-wise?

Ed Hall: Like many WW projects, we initially looked for literary underpinnings. At some point, early on the seven ages of man and the (seven?) 'vials' from the Bible's Book of Revelation, and other such touchstones. I think Waywards and Hermits were added on to make nine Creeds in three classes.

I recall us struggling with the Visionary powers and what they might affect until I stepped up to the whiteboard and said, 'Time,' then etched several of those powers.

Whereafter Rich Thomas said, 'Look at the big old brain on Ed.'

Xathrodox86: What is your favorite thing about Hunter: The Reckoning? What truly sells this title to you and why?

Ed Hall: What other contributors brought to it. The best thing that ever happened to the game was the decision (not mine) to replace me as developer with Ken.

Ken, with his love of fishing and beer, had a foot in a world known to lots of people, but not me. I am an eccentric, and I have been since childhood. Ken brought a real everyman sense to the game that it would've lacked under my guidance.

Some of the writers who contributed to the core rule book brought to my attention what an elegant critique of policing and of waging war the game could be. Thereafter, I tried to put such ideas into anything I wrote for the game.

Xathrodox86: The Imbued are normal humans, but with extraordinary powers. One of the biggest citicisms aimed towards H:TR is that the players aren't human at all, while they should be, at least according to the theme of the game. What is your opinion about this statement?

Ed Hall: I dismiss any notion that the Imbued are not human. Again, as a metaphor for waging war, H:TR vividly presents the alienation that can come for anyone who wages combat that has fatal results for its participants. I know, because I saw what my own father's participation in WWII did to him.

Killing other people - or 'monsters' that sometimes/always resemble people - is destructive to the human psyche, unless that psyche is already afflicted with murderous desire. Remember, Waywards are not intended to be player characters. Waywards are intended to be counterexamples, uncomfortable allies, or outright adversaries to other hunters. Hunters are to Waywards as normal human beings are to serial killers.

Xathrodox86: How did you came with the idea about Huters' powers? Do you think that the Edges are stronger or weaker than, let's say, Vampires' disciplines or Garou's gifts?

Ed Hall: We strove to keep hunter powers pretty limited. Doing so followed lines of logic both in game and not: The Messengers had previous experience with bestowing supernatural powers upon mortals (I believe "Exalted" was intended to portray such an episode), and it didn't work out so well. Limiting the powers of the Imbued was the Messengers' way of increasing the likelihood of mutually lethal interactions between hunters and supernaturals (self-tidying minions, you see). Leaving a lone hunter unable to subdue most WoD critters makes for group cohesion among players, too.  

Xathrodox86: Another thing about Hunter: The Reckoning, that many people disliked, is the artwork. In the rulebook we see pictures of the Imbued tanking three Werewolves, while the theme of this game is about your ordinary Joe suddendly waking up to a living nightmare. Why was the rulebook's art made like this?

Ed Hall: Art often proved a disappointment to me in the H:TR books ... but the only piece of original WW art I own came from H:TR! It's the full-pager Mitch Byrd drew for my Haiti-set chapter in "The Walking Dead". Exquisite!

Some of the other moody pieces work really well, too. I'm thinking of a portrait of a bearded hunter with a baseball cap who stands and smokes in the dark, outside his home, as the silhouette of a woman is backlit at the door while she clearly watches him watch for ...what? We don't know, she doesn't know, and he might not know, but he knows what's out there ... and he can't tell her.

Xathrodox86: The Imbiued are facing the myriad dangers, found in the World of Darkness. There are rules for different enemies, both in the rulebook, and in the dedicated enemy books. However like other classic World of Darkness books, H:TR is not really suitable to be used in conjecture with other splats. Were there ever any ideas about using this particular game with, let's say, Wraith: The Oblivion or Vampire: The Masquerade?

Ed Hall: Not from me. There's a lot of Wraith in Hunter, but rules were never my area of primary interest. We devoted whole books to integrating other WoD critters ("The Moonstruck" et alia), but whether those creatures are Garou, Kindred, etc., as such, is at the discretion of the H:TR storyteller.  

Xathrodox86: What is your favorite Hunter: The Reckoning title, including the novels?

Ed Hall: "Wayward". I never read any H:TR novels, tho'.  

Xathrodox86: Hunter: The Reckoning hasn't been grandly portrayed, when it comes to Time of Judgement. How would you've written the definitive ending to this particular World of Darkness game?

Ed Hall: Because I still dream of running a hunter-centric game set at the Time of Judgment, I'll forgo answering this one.

Anybody wanna play a game?

Xathrodox86: Which one of all the Imbued described in the books is your favorite, and why? Which one did you disliked the most?

Ed Hall: I like the military men, Soldier and Shaka, neither of whom I created, but both of whom I had the honor and pleasure of fleshing out.  

Xathrodox86: Hunter: The Reckoning has been adapted to a couple of older video game consoles. Did you worked on any of these adaptations? What do you think about them?

Ed Hall: Because the video version of H:TR was a first-person shooter (as I recall), I felt it couldn't possibly capture the nuances of the tabletop game, and I avoided it entirely.  

Xathrodox86: Do you think if we will ever see Hunter: The Reckoning 20th anniversary edition? What would you like to see in it? Do you think that the game should be modified, in order to suit the more modern times of smartphones, drones and wideband internet?

Ed Hall: I have no skin in the WW game(s) these days. I glanced at "Vigil" but felt no affinity for it. An anniversary version? I have no opinion.  

Xathrodox86: Just one more quick question. What was your inspiration when it came to the creation of Hunter code and Hunter.net. Was the actual online website your idea?

Ed Hall: Hunter code has roots in a Piers Anthony novel called "0X". The pattern entities in that book were my basis for the Messengers' appearance. On a certain level, hunter code and the Messengers are different aspects of the same beings.

The Messengers, in other words, were "sentient messages".

Have a look at the endpapers of the core rule book and see what Rich Thomas did with that idea.

Xathrodox86: Thank you for your time and answers. Hunter: The Reckoning is my favorite World of Darkness game of all time and it was an honor to be able to interview one of its creators. 

Ed Hall: Thank you, Michał! I appreciate your interest in the game and the part I had in making it a reality.

Wow, I'm sitting here, typing these letters... and I still can't believe that I was able to interview the man who's responsible for one of my favorite RPG's of all time. Life can be good. I would like to once again thank Mr. Hall for his willingness and time to answer all of my questions. It was quite an experience. I'd advise you to visit the (Old) Classic World of Darkness fanpage on Facebook. It has everything that any fan of the classic, gothic horror might want... and more!

Oh and you can also find Mr. Hall there, so that's an even bigger incentive to visit this place.

Next post will be a review of the newest edition of Warhammer Fantast Roleplay. Stay tuned.

Until next time!

Xathrodox86