Review of Hunter: Mortal Remains

Originally published May 7, 2014

Last week, Hunter: Mortal Remains was released. This eagerly awaited title covers the various supernatural monster types not already dealt with by the Hunter line. Previously we had vampires were covered by Night Stalkers, werewolves by Spirit Slayers, and mages by Witch Finders. This book covers Prometheans, Changelings, Geists, Mummies, and Demons as well as providing a limited rules update for the God-Machine Chronicle rules.

Overview

Each monster receives their own chapter following the rough layout shown in earlier books. Each chapter begins by describing the monster's abilities, its background and its relationship to hunters. Then the creature's mechanics are provided, simplified for use in Hunter: the Vigil. Then we are given the viewpoint of each Conspiracy and Compact on the monsters. In previous books this has been one of my least favorite sections but the presentation in this book did not feel so drawn out. Many of the Conspiracies are provided new Endowments as well. Then we are given a few "Wandering Monsters", sample antagonists for the Hunters to encounter, as well as a series of story hooks that can be customized by tier. Lastly each chapter ends with a set of books and movies to use for inspiration.

The Monsters

Chapter 1 details Prometheans from the perspective of Hunters. Since Promethean: the Created is my favorite limited line next to Demon: the Descent, this was my favorite chapter. It was nice to see some new material for the line, even in passing, after all of these years. The chapter is full of useful crunch including 6 new Endowments, 3 sample monsters, and a Condition to handle Disquiet. The viewpoints of the Hunter groups do a good job of demonstrating the conflicted nature of hunting a monster who just wants to be human. I found the material inspiring and useful, even the nicknames for the different lineages had some nice gems I intend to use in my next Hunter game.

Chapter 2 deals with Changeling: the Lost as well as True Fae, Fetches, and Hobgoblins. The majority of the material however focuses on the most visible and vulnerable, the changelings themselves. This chapter is also quite well written and also plays up the ambiguity of hunting a monster that is essentially a victim. Like the previous chapter we get 6 new Endowments and 3 sample monsters (including one ancient and powerful member who would make a nice urban legend). My enthusiasm was dampened mainly by the fact that I've been playing and running Changeling for a year now and I'm feeling a need for a change. The material itself was excellent.

Chapter 3 describes the Fogmen, Hunter's nickname for Sineaters from Geist. This section is fairly weak on crunch and history, but the modern-day fluff provides interesting ideas and points out how Hunters and Sineaters can and do work together against hostile ghosts. We get only one sample monster and no new endowments however. It may be the shortest of the limited lines, but I would have like some more example characters at least.

Mummy: the Curse gets discussed in Chapter 4. As one of the most recent lines, the material for these ancient horrors is ironically much fresher than the previous chapter. In addition to the normal overview, we get a sample monster, a new compact and a new conspiracy. The compact, the Habibti Ma, deals with saving people from cults. It is not as action oriented as other groups but would make an interesting allied group in a Hunter Chronicle dealing with Mummies or their cults. They come off as more of a help group than a monster (or cult) fighting organization. The Faithful of Shulpae are a conspiracy devoted to the idea of getting closer to divinity by eating their flesh. Thus they are not very player character friendly (unless they like playing Ashwood Abbey types) but do make a good if creepy antagonist group to use against Mummies. Overall I liked the chapter.

Chapter 5 deals with the most recent addition to World of Darkness, Demon: the Descent. This section includes not just the demons of that game but some of the ideas from World of Darkness: Inferno as well as "Institutional Demons", demons that embody companies and structures, in other words Infrastructure of the God-Machine. The ideas here are excellent and I really look forward to using the ideas within the Institutional Demon section. We get 3 new Endowments for the old Conspiracies as well as a new Compact and Conspiracy. There are no sample monsters however. The Compact, Utopia Now, is a group using parts of the God-Machine (and possibly demons) to build the world of tomorrow. They would be a good fit for a God-Machine Chronicle, Demon, or even Promethean. The Knights of Saint Adrian is our new Conspiracy, a bounty hunter company working for Angels. With a new endowment that uses magical tattoos to expose and defeat demons, they seem fairly interesting, if unsuited to where I'm planning on going for my Hunter and Demon games.

Then we reach the Appendix. Here we get a massive load of new Dread Powers, updates for the old powers to interact with God-Machine rules update, and advice on building monsters. There is plenty of great material here and between the monster material and the Rules Update (below), this is probably the strongest section of the book.

Rules Update

Finally we get a rules update for Hunter: the Vigil. Note that this is not a Chronicle book like Blood and Smoke. There are no major changes here, that will have to wait until another day.

What we do get are tweaks to existing merits, practical experience, risking willpower, and the benefits of status in a Compact or conspiracies. Several Endowments also get revised. Overall there isn't much to change and the material might seem underwhelming. I would have liked update to Tactics in general or some new Tactics as well as thoughts on how to incorporate Tells into Integrity system.
Conclusion

All in all the book is great. We get a nice view of how hunters view the various monster lines, great advice on creating their adversaries and tools for doing so, and a number of ideas for stories. We also get a little system update to tide us over until Hunter can get its own Chronicle book.

If you are planning on running a Hunter: the Vigil game or the God-Machine Chronicle, I would recommend taking a look at this. For those of you running Demon: the Descent or Mummy: the Curse, you might find some handy antagonists here. And those of you who miss Promethean: the Created like me might enjoy seeing something written about them.