This was a Kickstarter purchase. The campaign ran 7/15/24 to 8/14/24 with a projected delivery in 10/24, with physical delivery actually being 11/15/24. I did the $25 tier which got a physical and pdf copy, whereas $15 got you just the pdf and $20 got just the physical copy. Not the biggest fan of that kind of pricing, but whatever. This Kickstarter had some addons available, one of which was a prompt deck for $10. As part of the stretch goals, I also received a game token, sticker, and a set of 5 D6 in a nice wood box.
Hunt(er/ed) is, to me at least, a variant type of RPG. This can be played solo or with 2 people. The standard game needs 2d6 for each player, or 3d6 if solo, a deck of playing cards without jokers, a piece of paper and writing utensil, and a token.
Character creation is straightforward: one plays the hunter and the other plays the monster. For each there are 4 sections with 2 questions each to answer. There’s even a collaborative stage setting where you figure out the basics of where and when this is taking place. Before starting, take a piece of paper and put 5 circles on it, set a token on the middle circle, and you’re good to go. Gameplay itself can run 15 minutes to an hour or two. It starts with each player rolling their dice trying to get doubles before the other. When doubles are rolled, the player who rolled them advances the token one spot closer to their opponent and deal themself a prompt card out of the deck (black for hunters, red for monsters). The prompts are all listed in the book. Using the prompt, you describe the current state of the hunt. Once the token is off the board the one has caught the other and gains narrative control, getting to describe how the hunt ends.
There are other opportunities for roleplaying along the way and how the story ends is determined by the victor, be it hunter or hunted. The main variation with playing solo is there are 7 circles with the word ‘accept’ written on one side and ‘deny’ on the other. Character creation follows the same procedure with a different set of questions. Using the cards (in one pile instead of 2 like standard) the first card has you answer a prompt (different from the others in the book) based on whether black or red, with all other cards defaulting to the usual prompts. As noted earlier, you roll 3d6 and still try for doubles. The game ends with either full acceptance or full denial. The concept of the game intrigued me and after reading the rules, it intrigues me even more, as it’s tactical to a small degree with a high element of chance.
