On Twinking, Twinkery and Twinkdom

How to avoid going overboard in your Hunter story

I ran through the corridors, my heart pounding in my chest. The sweat was beading on my brow. This couldn't be happening, it just couldn't, I thought.

I knew they were right behind me, slavering beasts that shouldn't exist. They'd killed my family, and now they would pay.

Assuming, of course, that I survived this.

Damn. A dead end.

I spun, my black coat flaring. There they were, seven of them, Black Spiral Dancers from the Dioxin Genesis Pit. Those Pentex bastards had finally found me.

I could have gone for my gun, a gift from Agent Smith. It would have turned them all into hamburger in seconds, spewing silver-plated death at 300 rounds per minute, but that would have been too good for them.

Instead, I drew my silver-plated katana, the one that I had forged by my own hand under the tutelage of the blind master Yoshida. I let the energies flow through and let loose a battle cry…

See how a good story can be ruined?

As much as it pains me to say it, it is obvious that there are many out there who do not understand the themes of Hunter: the Reckoning. Not only that, but many of those same people post to the list. The purpose of this essay is to outline what twinking is, why it should be avoided, and how to avoid it.

First, a matter of definition. What is twinking, you might ask? There are as many forms of twinking as there are grains of salt in a shaker. For some, a twenty-year-old multi-millionaire Japanese lesbian ninja with yakuza connections is twinking. For others, it takes more, such as a Hunter with a doctorate in genetics and no fewer than thirteen five-dot traits scattered about the sheet, including Brawl, Melee, Firearms and Demolitions. For still others, it takes less, such as a nineteen-year-old waitress with a cell who is willing to kill any hunters who interfere in her domain.

A short definition of twinking might be any series of actions in a role-playing game which might be construed to be a desperate bid for more power for one's character; see also munchkin, powergamer. Twinking involves acts that are taken just to make a character more powerful than is right for the game that you are playing.

Many twinks seem to think that the objective of any role-playing game is to create a character that is the most effective combat machine possible. The old stalwart, Dungeons and Dragons, is probably responsible, at least in part, for this perception. Another factor is probably the influence of computer 'role-playing' games.

Make no mistake, each has their place, and under the right circumstances, can be fun. But, Dungeons and Dragons has a certain reputation for characters walking around and fighting monsters while collecting treasures. Even when D&D is a subtle game with depth, characters are larger than life, noble knights and cunning wizards, burly dwarves and graceful elves. They are bigger and better than the common man, wandering around, saving princesses, exploring dungeons and discovering magical devices and foes. This sort of philosophy was common in many of the first role-playing games. The tradition can still be seen today, to a degree.

A computer RPG is a misnomer, because usually the objective of those is to engage in combat in order to make your character stronger, while finding bigger and better swords/guns/whatever. The interaction between characters is minimal, and usually based on predetermined responses. In the end, you have created a superhuman fighting machine, with arrows of instant slaying and rocket launchers.

Even White Wolf's other games can be seen to have contributed. In those games, you play creatures forever apart from human society, controlling it from the shadows. Despite their warnings about the 'reality' of the World of Darkness, there is little real about shape shifting creatures raised in a hidden warrior culture, nor about blood-sucking manipulators who have kept themselves hidden for millennia. The standardized angst of such creatures is coupled with two unfortunate trends in White-Wolf games: the emphasis on powers and the easy categorization. What is normal about a standard issue punk who drinks blood to survive and whines about how gloomily existential he is while he can throw a car and has fun adventures, politicking and uncovering conspiracies? While this is a deliberate misrepresentation, one should keep in mind that the other World of Darkness games are inherently different than Hunter.

My personal favorite example is a quote from Space Opera, first published in 1980: "A PC should not be considered in the same class as the 'common man.' The 'common men' stay home! They find nice, steady jobs, get married, raise families and settle down to a mundane and safe existence marred by few surprises and, hopefully, even less danger. The 'common man' is no hero, no adventurer. To inflict the usual 'averaged' characteristics upon PCs and the players is a failure to recognize that PCs are 'heroic' not only in their drive to reach goals that lesser men cannot hope to attain, but also their capacity to actually win through to these goals. The PCs are cast in the larger-than-life tradition of science fiction. Only rarely will they be truly deficient in any of their personal characteristics."

This sort of philosophy has permeated game design since the early years of the role-playing game. Even in White-Wolf, it can be seen to be present, with the emphasis having shifted from the acquisition of external power in the form of cool toys, to the acquisition of Disciplines, Gifts and Spheres. There is nothing wrong with this, and there is a place for it. One of the best role-playing experiences I ever had involved a Tremere character with several high-level Disciplines. But, this sort of power-quest is inherently at odds with what Hunter: the Reckoning is about. This is not to say that Hunter is a game that is superior, just different.

All can be a great deal of fun, in the appropriate setting. However, all are at odds with the themes and core values of Hunter. Hunter is not a game about superhuman killing machines, nor is it at heart a game about larger-than-life treasure seekers. Hunter: the Reckoning is about ordinary people, average joes and janes who have had their mundane existences ripped apart by something outside of them. Hunter, at its core, is about regular people, with their meaningless lives, their deficient characteristics, their limited resources, and their less than heroic outlook on things. Hunters are not trained warriors, but draftees yanked from their homes and thrown out into the world, without even the most basic of explanations about what is going on.

Hunter is not about Rambo, the trained soldier who is good at killing stuff. Hunters are not larger than life heroes who kick ass and then smoke a cigarette. Hunter is about ordinary heroes, regular people in extraordinary circumstances who show something about courage and the human spirit. One poignant analogy might be the firefighters and policemen who give their lives in the line of duty, but the better analogy would be the ordinary person who rushes back into a burning building to rescue a stranger. A firefighter has protective equipment and training, and knows that their duty is to fight fires. That ordinary person is more of a hero, because that person is going beyond their duty, risking their life.

And, of course, Hunter makes a point of the high mortality rate of ordinary heroes.

The difference between Hunter and the other games set in the World of Darkness is two-fold. For new players, these differences are very important to keep in mind. The first difference has to do with culture. All the other games have a long-standing culture for their particular type of creature, complete with creation stories, traditions rooted in the ancient times, worldwide conspiracies to keep their existence hidden, and elder creatures telling the young ones the hows and whys of the real World of Darkness.

Hunters have none of that. Instead, hunters barely have a sort of loose association based on informal ties. They have no background, no knowledge of what is going on. They do not have a Clan of which they are a member, nor do they have elders who can explain to them the laws of Gaia, or the structure of reality and why there is a war being fought over it. Even the creeds are not hard and fast collections of Hunters, but more of aids designed to help players figure out the motivations of their characters.

Hunters have no society, and there is nothing that would indicate, despite anything that the books might claim, that the Creeds will capitalize themselves and become hard and fast divisions within Hunter society. The idea that Visionaries of various scientific, mystical, religious, and philosophical stripes will come together is the purest bullshit, as anyone who has spent any time in the academic world will tell you. And the major difference is that there are no games of influence. The same mechanisms that are used to conceal the depredations of monsters on mortal society also exist to eliminate or otherwise make life difficult for those mortals who find out too much, which of course includes Hunters.

As a result, Hunters do not have midnight sword-fights on top of abandoned factories, nor do they shoot up shopping malls. They are extremely vulnerable to prosecution, and do not have elders to bail them out in the name of preservation of secrecy.

ON MARTIAL ARTS

Useless. Absolutely useless to Hunters.

Yes, black belts are real people, too. I know a black belt, personally. She weighs in at about ninety pounds and is the first to admit that, if someone bigger than her wanted a fight, she'd be in a lot of trouble.

You might think it's cool to have a character who is a black belt. That could work, if you were willing to do it in a realistic manner.

Any black belt with less than five years of solid training will be in trouble. It's hard to train yourself to react like that.

For most monsters, martial arts would be useless. "I do a spin kick." "It rips your leg out of its socket." They are stronger and faster. If you get that close, you're dead.

Some martial arts consider weapons to be an important aspect of training, but others do not. Just because you have a black belt does not mean that you know how to use a sword effectively.

Just because you have a black belt does not mean you can do back flips and climb walls. You can't necessarily sneak like a ninja.

The benefits of martial arts? You might be able to throw an attacker and run away. You'll probably be a bit more flexible than most, and in better shape than some. You;ll have more endurance, and you'll be able to do the most important thing a hunter can do better than most: Duck.

Of course, you can get the same benefit from dance lessons.

And, just remember: virtually all martial arts studios are run at a loss.

SWORDS

Oh, yeah, swords are cool. Braveheart, Highlander, Crouching Tiger. The problem, of course, is that, while swords might make a hell of a lot of sense in medieval warfare, as hunting tools, they're stupid.

Now, it is easier to learn to use a sword than most people believe, between community college fencing classes, kendo, and the SCA. Some of you might even fancy yourselves as pretty good with a sword.

That being said, swords are stupid as weapons for hunters.

Most people do not know how to use a sword. That's a fact of life. Most hunters, on figuring out that violence is needed, are not going to drop two hundred bucks on a sword. (Even if they did, they'd probably get one that would break the first time it hit bone, because they wouldn't know what to look for.) Given the choice, I suspect that most would rather invest it in guns.

Fencing, as taught as a sport, is not a very effective combat art. Even as a combat art, against zombies, it is useless. The idea in fencing is to use a nice, pointy sword to poke lethal holes in the internal organs of your foe while preventing him from doing the same. Since zombies and vampires do not have functioning internal organs, that isn't very useful.

Broadswords and katanas, as slashing weapons, might seem to be a great idea. Maybe you can hack off a limb or a head. Of course, unless you've got an actual combat-ready weapon, as opposed to what you can get mail order or off e-bay, you won't be doing that, most likely. The first time that blade hits a bone with you swinging it as hard as you can, the blade will chip and/or break.

For most hunters, learning to use a sword post-imbuing would not be high on the list of priorities. Swords are expensive, difficult to conceal, and certainly are distinctive forensically.

If that wasn't enough, the real skill in using a sword is not offensive, but defensive. The skill is in parrying, not in hacking and slashing.

Since most hunters will be avoiding situations in which they are swordfighting, that point becomes moot.

So, why spend two hundred on a sword, when you can spend, say, forty on an axe or a machete, both of which raise fewer eyebrows and are designed for cutting through thick branches? I see no real reason why.

Heck, a bokken would be just as effective. Heavier, and enough blunt trauma will have an effect on just about anything. Of course, at that point, you're beating them with a stick, but at least it will look cool.

ON GUNS

Newsflash: on most denizens of the World of Darkness, GUNS DON'T WORK.

Vampires laugh at bullets. Werewolves think they tickle unless they're silver. Guns miss mages, and jam, and misfire, and are loaded with duds, or blanks, or stick out a flag that says, "BANG!"

Ghosts? Right. Zombies? They'll grunt and keep coming. Changelings get annoyed when you kill their entirely human hosts, but that doesn't really get rid of them.

That being said, guns are a very, very good idea for the most fragile residents of the World of Darkness, because they lend distance. You just need five or six hunters with them to expect to take anything down.

No, as cool as it looks for the hero to use two pistols, that doesn't really work. Don't do it. No, really, don't.

Automatic weapons? At twenty yards, you'll be lucky if you can manage to put three rounds into a human-sized target. That's not what they're designed for, and that's not what they do. A friend of mine missed sharpshooter qualification by two points, and that only because his weapon jammed. He'd rather take single shots with an M-16. Though it was fun to use on rock and roll, he couldn't hit much that way.

.44 Magnum? .50 Desert Eagle? They don't fit that well under a jacket, and you cannot fire them one-handed. They are punishing weapons that kick like no-one's business. For a .44 magnum revolver, a special offset stance is used, because without, the recoil would kick the hammer of the gun right into your forehead.

Sniping? Most don't have the patience. Sniping is as much a discipline as any martial art, and it takes a special mindset for it. A rifle with a good scope is costly, and even an expensive rifle cannot put the rounds in the same space. Wind has to be taken into account, as does range. For the average good sniper rifle, the best accuracy you'll get will spread the rounds into a group one inch across for every one hundred yards of distance. At four hundred yards, that's enough to miss the target's head completely.

And, once you've taken your sniper shot, that only puts the enemy down, not out. It'd just piss off a vampire. And, once you've taken the shot, they know where you are.

The shotgun? We like the shotgun. The shotgun is the weapon that most hunters should be using. The shotgun can put things down long enough for you to do something permanent. However, shotguns also have a great deal of kick, don't cycle very fast, are difficult to reload in a combat situation, are difficult to conceal, and are very, very loud. On the plus side, they are cheap and legal for most people over 18 to own.

Just remember: Most things won't stay down once they've been shot. Hunters are supposed to do something more after they shoot the place up.

Oh, and cops respond to shot fired with guns drawn, ballistics evidence can be very damning, and, if you can shoot at them, they can shoot at you, too. Bullets do not always miss hunters, and there is no Bulletproof edge.

ON FIRE

There's a reason that fire isn't very often used as a weapon. It's notoriously difficult to control and direct.

Fire is a living thing with a mind of its own. Fire doesn't always go where you point it, or stay where you put it. Fire does not care if you are a good guy or a bad guy.

Fire doesn't really destroy all that much evidence. Fingerprints can be lifted from Molotov bottles. You might destroy some fiber and hair evidence, but you'll be leaving evidence that arson investigators make a living looking at. You'd probably want to use an existing fire source, like a furnace, for disposal purposes. That was designed as a fire source, but even then, you have to be careful.

Is what you're burning going to exceed the temperature specifications? Is evidence going to survive the temps it's designed to withstand?

Fire spreads, and fire consumes. Yes, you can burn down a vampire's house. But can you keep it from spreading to the neighbors?

Hairspray and a lighter is stupid. Don't do it. No, really, don't. If you tried to fight that way, you're as likely or more to burn yourself.

ON EDGES

There are several good reasons for Hunters to have edges. See above.

Edges can be used creatively, and are essential to the themes of Hunter. "Wow, how the heck can I do that?" It adds, in many ways, to the mystery.

Without edges, you might as well make Rambo. It'll get the job done better.

Edges allow Joe, the fifteen-year-old with pimples, and Sally, the thirty-three year old mother of two, to have a chance of survival. And Joe can use Bluster just as effectively as John Rambo, if not more so.

That being said, edges are not and should not be the focus of the character. Just as most normal people don't actively pursue occult studies with the goal of getting more power, most normal people wouldn't necessarily go out seeking edges. If anything, edges should be a little scary.

Even low-level edges are useful and interesting, and often the most flexible. Dole out edges to your character slowly, and inventively. Don't hand them out all at once, and do not come in with a character already possessing a full range.

Have fun with your edges. Be creative, but not showy. The use is much more interesting than the special effects.

ON RESOURCES AND ARSENALS

Most real people do not have limitless wealth or dozens of unregistered weapons. Assets are rarely liquid in large quantities. Most resources are in the form of houses, cars, and other types of property that would have to be abandoned by a hunter on the run. The idea that hunters can sock away huge quantities of untraceable cash is not based in any reality I know of.

I don't know how to fence stolen property. I wouldn't know where to start. Most people don't. And, just remember: Fences deal in stolen property, but when the cops come in, they'll roll if there's murder on the line.

One more thing, your character may find the WoD equivalent of the Hope diamond, but it's not worth much on the market without something very important. It's called "Provenance." That means the documentation to prove that the item is what it claims to be. You aren't going to get that proof in any legitimate way, so don't expect to get top dollar for any antiquities you might 'acquire.'

Likewise, guns can be obtained illegally, but first you have to know someone who deals in illegal arms. And asking around is something that people tend to remember when cops show up.

ON INSANITY

I have one, and only one thing to say about this.

Insanity is not having your character repeatedly say "I've lost everything to the hunt, including my sanity." Insanity is not saying "I'm insane" at every opportunity. It is not proclaiming yourself the Angel of Pain or whatever's kewl this week. Insanity is not something to spend willpower to fight against. Insanity is a scary thing. Treat it with respect.

There are several websites that deal with the tragic realities of mental illnesses of all kinds; avail yourself of those resources. Do some research. It's a challenge to portray, but it's worth it. PTSD, alcoholism, manic depression, chronic insomnia. These are the sorts of things that hunters have to deal with.

One of the most important themes in Hunter is the price of power. Do not make light of it.

ON CONSEQUENCES

The best way not to twink is to remember that all actions have consequences. Police exist in the WoD, and they investigate crimes. Perhaps in the WoD, they are more corrupt, but that does not work in a hunter's favor in any way.

Crimes have punishment, whether in the form of arrest, or revenge because the cop sent what they knew to the bloodsucker's friends. People cannot hang around shooting at others without being wanted.

If you're wanted, you have to leave town.

All things have consequences. The decision to live a life of violence is not easy, and most people wouldn't want to make it. It's a hard life, with personal repercussions.

Just keep that one fact in mind, and you should be on your way.

The Student