BY CHRIS PRAMAS, MIKE NYSTUL, LESTER SMITH, JULIE HOVERSON, TODD MILLER, BRIAN E. KIRBY, AND NEAL DARCY
PUBLISHED BY RONIN PUBLISHING
92 PAGES
$14. 95

In 1994, Mike Nystul released a swell game of beer- and-pretzels Gnostic horror, The Whispering Vault. With its dark art, iconic characters (players are Enlightened Stalkers who hunt down Awakened Shadows and the... gasp... Unbidden), and elegant "handful of d6" mechanics, the Vault quickly became beloved by many. Its familiar simplicity and grinning bloodthirstiness have earned it the nickname "Yahtzee with meathooks," and it remains an excellent way to get some gaming done when the key player in your campaign has been suddenly sent to Sao Paulo for three weeks.

The Whispering Vault was designed to be a great one-shot game, and it succeeds gloriously. Its only real flaw is the eventual formulaic sameness of all the adventures; a formula actively encouraged by the rulebook. First you receive the Call, then you call the Navigator, dismiss the Guardians, mend the Enigma, and if need be Bind the Unbidden. This repetition is intended to put players into almost a liturgical frame Of mind, and it's a great technique for establishing the ritual nature of the Stalkers' duty and the symbolic insights available in all things. But, like anything else, familiarity breeds contempt. In a game where building the mood of horror is all-important, anything that seems mundane will hurt things eventually, no matter how creepy it looks on paper.

In The Book of Hunts, editor Chris Pramas tries to alter that formula a bit. He gives us six scenarios, each intended to stretch the concept of the Hunt in a new and different direction. Only three of the scenarios are "standard" Hunts, in fact, and one of those, Julie Hoverson's "Let's All Be Frank," is pretty darn weird. In it, the Unbidden Feeder lets his unwholesome fascination with FDR get the better of him, to the delight of all. This is a keen scenario, mixing surrealism, horror, and just plain oddity for a grand spin on the Hunt structure.

In Lester Smith's "Life Abundant," the structure is flung down and danced upon. This moody little creeper is broken into bite-sized chunks to be inserted throughout an ongoing campaign, and it ties into the Crossroads, a new sort of place in the Realm of Essence where Stalker Circles, well, circulate.

Todd Miller's "Bumpy Toad" is a delightful fairy tale of a Hunt - one of those fairy tales from before they edited out all the blood, burning shoes, man- eating carp and child's-meat pies.

Brian E. Kirby's "A Thousand Pounds of Flesh" is a more conventional Hunt, set in the Arizona Territory of 1870. This one might make a fun Deadlands adventure, if your players can handle it.

Chris Pramas' "The Sword of Allah" has a twist on the old Enigma story. Set on a space station orbiting a black hole in the far future, it's more mystery than horror. It also helps open up the mental vistas of Vault GMs; once you've read this one, you'll be mentally translating a lot of old Doctor Who episodes into Vault scenarios.

The final scenario, Neal Darcy's "Playground of the Damned" turns the splatter quotient up to eleven. Mayhem, whole hosts of Minions and Shadows, geeks and freaks aplenty - they're all here. Where's here? Why, that most terrifying of psychic cauldrons, that veritable Tartarus on Earth, the circus. If you weren't scared of clowns before, you will be soon.

So what have we all learned from this? Well, we've learned that the Hunt structure of The Whispering Vault is by no means as restrictive as we thought. We've learned that even within the most familiar formula, new things are always possible. We've learned that The Whispering Vault is in good hands with Chris Pramas and Neal Darcy's Ronin Press. And we've learned to stay the hell away from Baphomet, the Three- Faced Clown.

You're welcome.