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Block by Bloody Block $8.99
Average Rating:4.7 / 5
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Block by Bloody Block
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Block by Bloody Block
Publisher: White Wolf
by Robert F. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/27/2012 22:24:20

This is easily one of the two or three best supplements for Hunter. It gives a good outline, backed by real world and entirely fictional examples of how to build a city for Hunter, The rapport system is excellent and illustrated to good advantage with the use of relationships amongst changhelings, vampires, mages, werewolves, slashers. The city described could easily be fleshed out to a campaign of urban control and politics. A great read and well worth the price.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Block by Bloody Block
Publisher: White Wolf
by Ryan C. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/23/2011 22:44:39

An excellent Hunter the Vigil sourcebook that builds on concepts laid out in Damnation City for Vampire the Requiem. I bought this as a pdf when it first launched, as well as the new print on demand version. In fact I recommend the print on demand version of this book; the cover was glossy and properly colored, the pages were aligned, and more importantly, the book used glue binding. The retail print run of this book that appeared in my FLGS was bound by a couple of staples.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Block by Bloody Block
Publisher: White Wolf
by Jason C. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 03/14/2011 13:21:46

This was my first order from the print-on-demand section, so this is as much a review of that service as it is of the book itself.

Damnation City is one of the best and most overlooked supplements for Vampire: The Requiem. Its strongest part was a method of creating influences and control, and adjudicating players' and NPCs' attempts to maintain and expand their power in Your Campaign City. Ever since its beginnings, Vampire has had a game of politics and power as one of the many options, but Damnation City was the first to put in game mechanical terms how much easier and more permanent murder is as a means to power. By tempting players to choose unethical strategies, the characters were, for the first time, really, pushed down a slippery slope. Those that tried to maintain control and their humanity were taking a dangerous stand and a challenging path.

Hunter: The Vigil also lends itself to this kind of approach, because of its investigative angle. The characters must find the monsters before they can learn about them and learn about them before they can kill them, and even after they kill them, they must know what other monsters are tangled in their business. Organizing monsters in Hunter: The Vigil is a very time-consuming (but very rewarding) part of that game for the GM.

Block by Bloody Block describes how you can use geography to organize the monsters in your Hunter game by theme. It contains an explanation of the approach, followed by several examples - a suburb whose motivational organization is a murder cult, a set of public housing projects whose drug dealing gang is headed by a warlock. These excellent examples are layered with several sorts of hooks for the various sorts of Hunter campaigns there are.

I really enjoyed the work, and appreciated that it pointed out that while Grand Theft Auto may be a cartoony and satirical videogame, it also realizes neighborhoods and controlling them as part of the geography of the game(s). This is a good insight. I have often thought that GTA has a lot to teach gamers if we really look at it closely. The influences from GTA are clear in this book.

I got this through print-on-demand, so some discussion of that service is necessary here too. The book was mailed within 48 hours of me placing the order and received in good condition. The quality was very good, the cover was glossy and the colors were as good as anything I've seen from White Wolf's normal producers. The internal pages were well-aligned and the whole thing seemed sturdy enough. If you're like me and you end up printing out a lot of material from a book to use, or if you prefer a print copy for various reasons, it's a bargain to get both.

Because I loved Damnation City so much and it fits Hunter so well, because geographic organization in sandbox play is a hobby horse of mine and because my first POD experience was so great, I'm reviewer-tilting this one up a star to give it my highest rating. Kudos to everyone involved.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Block by Bloody Block
Publisher: White Wolf
by Douglas E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/08/2011 10:16:16

This is one tough gritty book; I wasn't so sure about Hunters in the old World of Darkness setting but I find that I like the system this go around. For anyone that ever played a Mage: Technocracy game under the old setting it recaptures (for me) that X-File(ish) feel of hunting things that go bump in the night for the good of Humanity (cough the Masses cough).



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Block by Bloody Block
Publisher: White Wolf
by Scott R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/03/2011 16:15:11

This is a barbed little sourcebook for Hunter : the Vigil designed as Hunter's answer to the Vampire supplement Damnation City, which instructs Storytellers how to flesh out an urban landscape so that it becomes like another character in your stories. Like Damnation City, Block by Bloody Block gives you sample neighborhoods suitable to drop into any real or fictitious city setting. It weighs in much lighter, though at about a tenth of Damnation City's 400+ page girth. There is a marked difference in tone, as monster hunters seize and hold territories in a much different fashion than vampires, and for vastly different reasons.

Each neighborhood is competently described, with sample locations and descriptions of the feel and tone of the setting and inhabitants. Also included is a "bad guy" who controls things either overtly or behind the scenes that can serve as an antagonist, foil or potential ally in your chronicle. A number of minor Non-Player Characters are included as well. The consequences, assets to be gained and consequences of holding the territory one of the books finest points. My favorite "neighborhood" is the subway system, controlled by a secretive motley of changelings. Astute Changeling : the Lost fans will recognize the group's leader, Nyx, from The Fearmaker's Promise. There are story ideas, political intrigues and plot hooks scattered all over the supplement, enough for quite a few fruitful game sessions.

Although Hunter is designed as a stand-alone line, needing only the World of Darkness core rulebook to play, fans of the other game lines will enjoy little Easter eggs sprinkled through the book. The changelings are clearly Winter Court; the mages of the contested financial district seek to gain control of five buildings they call "the Watchtowers" for some secret and possibly insidious purpose.

The only complaint I have is that there are too many other hunter groups already living in the various districts, if it was played as presented I imagine it would get a little crowded. However, it is clearly stated that the sections are modular and that you should take what you want and change what suits you. Block by Bloody Block works effectively on it's own or in conjunction with Damnation City to create an intricate and immersive urban fantasy chronicle.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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