Pacing the Hunt - Desperation & Danger Storyteller Tips for Hunter: the Reckoning 5th Edition

A set of four Hunter dice, two orange regular dice and two black Desperation dice, showing the range of results with standard d10s underneath showing equivalent rolls.

One of the most obvious things that distinguishes the 5th Edition World of is the shift from standard d10s to ten-sided dice with icons that correspond to: 

• 1-5 = Blank/Failure
• 5-9 = Success 
• 10 = Potential Critical Success.

The basic mechanic is that players roll a number of dice equal to the sum of an Attribute, like Wits, and a Skill, like Investigation. They hope to get a number of successes (6+ on a standard d10) to match or exceed a target difficulty. A pair of critical results (10s) makes a critical success and each of those counts as two successes, so that a roll of 10,10,9,3,2 would be 5 success, one for the 9, two each for the 10's.

Each game has a set of special dice, used for Hunger (Vampire), Rage (Werewolf) and Desperation (Hunter) that add additional complications. For Hunter, the Desperation Dice have what would be the "1" side result in Overreach or Despair, while Vampire and Werewolf have their own thematically appropriate complications on both successes and failures.

In Vampire and Werewolf, the Hunger and Rage dice track an individual PC's Hunger and Rage, replacing the old Blood/Hunger and Rage tracks from previous editions. They serve as a Push Your Luck kind of mechanic where a player can risk getting more Hunger or Rage to fuel their supernatural powers—a mechanic which I find to be an elegant replacement to the mere resource tracks of previous editions.

What sets the Hunter Desperation Dice apart from Hunger or Rage dice is that they are tied to a track shared by the entire Cell (Hunter party) and not any single PC. This ties into one of the two Trackers that are unique to Hunter in the 5th Edition World of Darkness games, Desperation and Danger. This means that instead of individual players managing their Hunger or Rage, it's the Storyteller of a Hunter game who handles these important mechanics.

For a Storyteller new to Hunter, this can be tricky, the core rulebook has only a couple of pages covering the mechanic without much advice at all on how best to use them. It took me several months of running Hunter before I realized that it's best to think of them as tools for Pacing the Hunt...

How does the game describe these Mechanics?

Desperation

Desperation is a tracker shared among the cell of Hunters, spanning from 1 to 5. Each member contributes to it and is affected by its rating.

Desperation represents the state of urgency and anxiety of a cell and dictates the amount of Desperation Dice that each Hunter can add to their pool by tapping into their Drive*. The higher a cell's Desperation is, the greater the strength of the Hunter's Drives* and, in turn, the risk of Danger and Despair. Generally, Desperation increases at the end of a major scene when things do not go in the cell's favor, and when the fate of the Hunters, their quarry, or innocents is on the line. Ultimately, the storyline and the Storyteller should dictate what conditions cause Desperation to increase or decrease.

If a member of a cell parts ways or if the entire cell breaks apart, they all start with the same Desperation level as the parent cell. Any further changes to the tracker, however, will only impact the specific cell. (From the official Paradox Hunter Wiki. *Importantly this should be Creed not Drive, but the error is replicated in the Core Rulebook as well.)

Danger

Danger is a tracker between the cell of Hunters, which each member contributes to and is affected by. Danger spans a rating from 1 to 5, but this rating can be expanded or limited depending on the chronicle.

Danger represents the extent to which their enemies are aware of the Hunters, and the likelihood of them becoming a target. Each level of Danger increases the amount of danger that the cell will face as enemies tighten their security, hire more henchmen, and eventually begin taking actions directly to counter the Hunters. The exact effect of Danger can change depending on the chronicle, story, or even scene, as can the length of the tracker. While Danger does not carry over from story to story, some chronicles may have an additional overarching Danger tracker separate from the usual one.

The tracker itself increases as the Storyteller sees fit, based on the story events or by the Hunters when they Overreach. It is rare for the Danger to decrease, but it is possible if the Hunters lay low for an extended period of time. This can cause them to lose crucial opportunities. (From the official Paradox Hunter Wiki)

It's a little confusing because they each seem to track how much trouble a Cell is in, though in different ways, Desperation tracks the Cell's struggle during the Hunt while Danger tracks how aware the Quarry, the supernatural entity or entities the Cell is hunting, knows.

In practice I've found it better to think of these as two different ways to amp up the tension and pace Hunter stories. As a Storyteller I think of them as (kinda) pro-active and reactive trackers. On the (kinda) pro-active side, Desperation should increase when the Cell struggles, when they hit a road block, when they learn of a new threats. It results from their actions in a much more pro-active fashion—increasing Desperation is a way to help players 'Fail-Forward' as it gives them Desperation dice they can rely on to improve their chances on future rolls, at a risk of course.

Danger, on the other hand, is reactive in my mind. It tracks how the Quarry reacts to the Cell, and can, and often should, be increased as a result of successes as much as failures. If the Cell discovers the Quarry's hiding spot or they rescue an NPC from the Quarry's clutches that could alert the Quarry to the Cell just as much or more than if the PCs just had a string of bad luck in their investigations.

Desperation and Danger also help you communicate the stakes to the Players: increasing Danger tells them they are getting closer, even if they don't realize it. I use Desperation when they are getting into dire straits—If the cell is spending too much time on a minor tangent, telling them that the Desperation is increasing can help refocus them.

Overreach & Despair

So mechanically, increasing Desperation seems pretty good for the Cell, it lets each PC draw upon their Creed to tap into one of the things that sets their character apart from the rest of the Cell. The downside is the risk of getting a pair of ! symbols on the Hunter Dice or 1s on standard d10s. When that happens, they have to choose between Overreach or Despair: Overreach means they succeed but the Danger increases as they reveal themselves to the Quarry while Despair means they utterly fail and lose the use of their Creed, and more importantly, the Desperation dice, until they complete an action to redeem themselves as specified by their Drive, something like "Gain a small victory over the quarry" for a Hunter driven by Pride, for instance.

In my experience, players almost always choose Overreach, and it's worth keeping that in mind as a Storyteller. Even if the Danger is already at the maximum of 5 you can have the PC's Overreach provide another opportunity or advantage for the Quarry to exploit due to the Hunter's overconfidence and recklessness.

A Few More Tips for Desperation & Danger

Here are some general tips to keep in mind to help you tell better Hunter stories with Desperation & Danger.

• Get Desperation to two as quickly as possible. When Desperation is at one, there is no risk for players to use it.
• The Hunter Corebook as a few suggestions for narrative ways to describe the Danger increasing, things like "You don't know it but eyes are watching you from the shadows." These are genuinely good and it's a shame that they are kind of buried in a chunk of text rather than listed out in a table or bullet points. It's worth looking at them on Page 126, noting them down and thinking about how they can inspire you to describe Danger increasing in your own game. However, since Danger is an important mechanic and not just a narrative tool, I think you should always also tell players that the Danger level has increased in addition to any narrative pizzazz you add.
• Consider letting your players ask for Desperation to give them a little narrative control. This will let them gain some benefit for when they feel stuck or like luck is not with them.
• Consider using Desperation and/or Danger of three to be a good place to aim for half-way through a story and either one or the other or both should be at four or five for a story's climax.