Olivia wants to thank the San Jenaro Discord community and the San Jenaro Co-Op.

You’ve given her a whole

new lease on making games. She doesn’t want to start listing people by name because this book has a word
count limit and she’s afraid of leaving someone out. Also thanks to Tina, Katy, and Dade.

#iHunt is a game by and for the LGBTQ+ community. This is a game by and for poor people. This is a game for all
the people society leaves behind and lets fall through the cracks. We wrote this game to see ourselves kicking
ass in a world when the game industry at large is still hostile to diversity despite all claims to the contrary. This
isn’t a game with some milquetoast sidebar about how “you’re allowed to play gender nonbinary characters.”
This is a game about marginalized people. Are you allowed to play it if you’re not from a marginalized group?
Of course. But understand that this is a game written with our concerns unapologetically first and foremost,
front and motherfucking center. This is our world. You’re a tourist. Welcome to the show.

Content Warning: Violence. Economic Anxiety. Drug Use.

Note On Drug Use: The characters and rules in #iHunt take a non-judgmental look at drug use. The usage
in this book is designed to best suit the intended feel of the game. It doesn’t imply any sort of real world
endorsement. But, frankly, this is a piece of fiction based on a world where real people use drugs. Those
people aren’t morally inferior. Those people aren’t inherently flawed. They’re just people, and they all have
reasons for their choices.

THANKS
This work is based on Fate Core System and Fate Accelerated Edition (found at http://www.faterpg.
com/), products of Evil Hat Productions, LLC, developed, authored, and edited by Leonard Balsera,
Brian Engard, Jeremy Keller, Ryan Macklin, Mike Olson, Clark Valentine, Amanda Valentine, Fred Hicks,
and Rob Donoghue, and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).

The Fate Core font is © Evil Hat Productions, LLC and is used with permission. The Four Actions icons
were designed by Jeremy Keller.

#iHunt’s world and setting is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share-

Alike 4.0 International License. You can read more about this at CreativeCommons.org.

All of the art is sourced either from our own work, public domain sources, or licensed in such a way
that we retain the rights to the transformative works herein. So it’s included in the licensing as-is. The
manga in chapter 8 is from ブラックジャックによろしく. The creator, Shuho Sato, released his works for open
usage in such a way we thought was super cool, so we thought we’d build a chapter around it.

The long and the short: The systems stuff is all licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
license. The setting, characters, and all the stuff that doesn’t involve numbers or dice is Creative Com-
mons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0.
 Killing Monsters
in the
Gig Economy
Olivia Hill + FILAMENA YOUNG

http://machineage.tokyo

Character Sheet by Francita Soto

 #THEDOWNLOW 4 #PEOPLESKILLS 94
CONTENTS
(INTRODUCTION)
THE CONVERSATION 4
(SKILL SETS)
BUILDING STUNTS 95
WHO IHUNTS? 4 STUNTS95
WHY PLAY IHUNT? 5 THE SKILL SET LIST 96
THAT’S DEPRESSING 6 - ACADEMIC 97
OKAY BUT MONSTERS? 6 - ASSASSIN 98
CAN I PLAY A MONSTER? 6 - ATHLETE 99
INSPIRATIONS7 - FIGHTER 100
THE GAME  7 - GRIFTER 101
THE CHARACTER SHEET 10 - GUERRILLA 102
BASIC ACTIONS 12 - HACKER 103
THE LADDER 12 - INFLUENCER 104
NARRATING RESULTS 13 - INVESTIGATOR 105
FATE POINTS 14 - MAKER 106
THE EDGE DIE 16 - MEDIC 107
USING THIS BOOK 17 - OCCULTIST 108
WHAT IS IHUNT? 18 - ORGANIZER 109
- PROFESSIONAL 110
#THEPEOPLE 32 - SOCIALITE 111
(CHARACTERS) - SOCIAL WORKER 112
- SPY 113
WHAT IS YOUR KINK? 42
- SURVIVOR 114
CHARACTER CREATION 60
NEW SKILLS 115
CHARACTER CREATION QUICK REFERENCE 61
CHARACTER CREATION 62
#SELFIES 118
#MYSCENARIO 72 (CHARACTER ADVANCEMENT)
(ASPECTS) BIG MOODS 119
BIG FUCKING DEALS 120
WHAT IS AN ASPECT? 72
LIFE-CHANGING EVENTS 121
WHAT IS A FATE POINT? 72
USING A SCRAPBOOK 123
TYPES OF ASPECTS 73
ANATOMY OF A SELFIE 125
THE ROLE OF ASPECTS 76
MAKING GOOD ASPECTS 77
#THEHUSTLE 128
INVOKING ASPECTS 82
FREE INVOKES 83
(ACTIONS AND OUTCOMES)
COMPELLING ASPECTS 84 THE FOUR OUTCOMES 129
ASPECTS FOR ROLEPLAY 85 THE FOUR ACTIONS 130
IMPERILLING ASPECTS 86 CREATE AN ADVANTAGE 131
FATE POINT ECONOMY 88 ATTACK132
SKILL SETS 94 DEFEND133
#THEEDGE 136 #THESTREETS 252
(THE EDGE IN PLAY) (BUILDING SETTING)
SETTING CHEAT SHEET 254
#THEFLOW 142 PEOPLE256
(FLOW OF PLAY AND DIRECTING) BUILDING THE ZONE MAP 258

CHALLENGES143
#THINKPOOR 262
CONTESTS145
CONFLICTS148
(RUMINATIONS ON CAPITALISM)
TEAMWORK157 POOR TAXES  266
THE LEGAL SYSTEM 272
#THEGIG 160 LIFE HACKS FOR POVERTY 276
(THE HUNT AND JOB CREATION) THE WORKING POOR’S BURDEN 282

PARTS OF A JOB 161

#IHUNT 288
USING THE JOB GENERATOR 162
- THE CLIENT 163
(THE IHUNT APP AND HUNTING)
- THE MARK 164 WHO MADE #IHUNT? 289
- THE TROUBLE 165 WHO'S BEHIND #IHUNT 291
- THE PLACE 166 THE WAY IT "WORKS" 292
- THE CHARGE 167 OTHER HUNTERS 294
- THE SCOPE 168 OTHER APPS 298
- THE HANGUP 169
- THE OTHER HANGUP 170 #SANJENARO 304
- THE AFTERMATH 171 (THE “CANON” #IHUNT SETTING)
MORE ON THE AFTERMATH 172 SAN JENARO NEIGHBORHOODS 308

#THEMARK 176 #ADVANCEDCLASS 312

(MONSTERS) (ADVANCED TECHNIQUES)
MONSTER BASICS 177 MASTER CLASS 312
MONSTER TRAITS PRIMER 178 FATE SUCKS FOR HORROR 312
CLADES180 FUCKING LADDERS, HOW DO THEY WORK? 312
- VAMPIRES 182 FUCK THE HERO’S JOURNEY 314
- SORCERERS 192 THE FATE FRACTAL 314
- WEREWOLVES 198 COMPOSITION & FRAMING 315
- REPTOIDS 204 CUT ASAP 317
- DEMONS 210 IMPACT AND FEEDBACK 318
- THE HUNGRY DEAD 218 CUTAWAYS318
CREATURE FEATURES 224 RULES EXCEPTIONS 319
MONSTER GIFTS 234 DIRECTING ASPECTS 321
MAGICAL GIFTS 243 THE SUPPORTING CAST 322
MONSTER BANES 246
 Ladies Night Out: Chapter 1
#ONTHEJOBTRAINING
It’s Friday. I’ve got my paycheck. I’ve paid “Shhhhh!” She snaps. She peeks around the
rent. I’ve paid the water and sewage. I’ve paid trash dumpster. There’s a man walking down
my phone bill. Everything’s good. Well, except I the alley. Big, in a suit. He’s got that feeling about
need groceries for the next two weeks, because, him. Like you know he’s guilty of something.
you know, food. I check the pile of envelopes Something real fucking bad.
by the door.
Oh my god we’re robbing someone. She dragged me
Oh, also I forgot the fucking electric bill. out here to help her mug someone.

Not that remembering would have changed “This is him. Just follow my lead. No matter
anything; it wouldn’t make my check any what you do, don’t stop, and don’t let him look
bigger. And this one isn’t a late notice—it’s a you in the eyes.”
shutoff notice.
“What in the fuck Elaine—”
I remember that my friend Elaine does odd
jobs on some app. She said I’d be great for it, Before I can think, Elaine jumps out into the
because I’m basically fit, and more importantly alley and jams her knife into his stomach.
I need the money enough to do anything. She
“Elaine!” I stand, not entirely sure what’s going
says it pays well, and it pays quick. So I grab my
on right now.
phone, and hope the bill payment went through
so I have service. Sometimes it takes 48-72 Oh my god she’s an assassin. This is a Senator
hours for a payment to post when they shut off and I’m gonna be on the run from the law for
service. The phone says I’ve got a signal, so I call the rest of my life.
her up.
The man looks down at his stomach, then to
She tells me to dress in dark clothes. Dark Elaine, then laughs. This is not the laugh of a
clothes, I have. Light-colored clothes stain, so man who just took eight inches of Big Fucking
I have to replace them all the time. She has me Knife to the gut.
meet her in an alley in a shit part of town. The
kind of neighborhood you go to get robbed if “Get over here and help!” Elaine snaps, then
you’re not a drug dealer or, well, a robber. It’s rips her knife free and swings it wide at his face.
the kind of neighborhood where you can get The man slaps her hand away, then punches
apartments in cash with no background check. her in the stomach.
I had to live here a while after a particularly bad
breakup where my partner fucked my credit Whatever’s happening, if I don’t act, Elaine’s
score. dead. She’s had my back before. Whatever’s
going on, she needs me.
“What the fuck is this? I thought this was an
app thing? Like you drive people places, or clean Sometimes it’s not about who’s at fault, but
their apartment naked, or model for someone’s who you need. I need Elaine. And right now,
stupid juice machine.” Elaine needs me. So I charge up behind the
man just as he’s grabbing Elaine by the neck
She looks over at me. “Be quiet. We don’t want and lifting her off the ground. I wrap both
to give away our position. You’re gonna want hands around the knife handle, and plunge it
this.” She holds out a knife. Not a knife like I into his back. I, like nearly one hundred percent
might use to serve birthday cake for the kids of the population, have never plunged a knife
I’ll never be able to afford to have. A knife like into someone. This doesn’t feel right. Not like
I imagine would be between Dolph Lungren’s “you’ve done something wrong,” but like, “his
teeth as he creeps through a jungle prowling for back didn’t feel like skin.” His back broke away.
otherworldly menaces. Jagged. It was dry, crumbly.

Serrated? That’s the word, right? He isn’t bleeding.

“What do I need this—” “Don’t stop!” Elaine shouts as he drops her.

2
 I don’t have to think twice. I stab. I stab again. I stab again.
By the time he’s turned around to face me, Elaine’s gotten
her knife and slashes his throat.

He falls to the ground, and his body crumbles to dust. I

blink. I stare. I forget the cold night wind. I forget where you
am. I’m staring at a pile of dust that I helped to… kill?

I drop the knife. While I’m gawking at the pile, Elaine puts
something in my hand. Paper maybe?

“What’s that?” My voice is cracked. I’m not even sure if she

could hear me.

“That’s $700. In the business, it’s what we call ‘your cut.’”

I look down. It’s a wad of cash.

“Huh?”

“I made $1,500 on this gig. Spent $100 on those knives.

They’re silver-plated. Not cheap. The rest I split with you.
Good first gig.”

That pile of paper looks like my electricity this month. It

looks like next month’s rent. It looks like groceries. For a brief
second, it looks like a pile of ash. It looks like the guy I kind
of maybe just murdered. But mostly, it looks like groceries.

It looks like I don’t have to work extra shifts next week.

It looks like temporary freedom.

Elaine’s walking back toward her car.

“Wait!”

“What?” She glances back but keeps walking.

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me what we

were doing?” I hesitate for a moment, but start
after her.

“If I told you, you wouldn’t have gone through

with it.”

“You didn’t know that!”

She did.

And she was completely, 100% right. I wouldn’t

be standing here with a fist full of grocery
money if she told me what I was about to do.

But now? I think I could do it again.

I think I will.
3
CHAPTER ONE:
#THEDOWNLOW
(INTRODUCTION STUFF)
#iHunt is a game about stories. Stories about how people The game’s rules are really a way of mediating that
react to utterly fucked circumstances. The characters in conversation, and helping to figure out what comes next
#iHunt kill to survive. Not because they’re in a war zone. when you’re not sure what should happen. Conversations
Not (usually) because someone’s trying to kill them (at aren’t always fair. Sometimes people get more airtime.
least directly). They hunt because they’re broke, and in the Sometimes participants just listen. Sometimes they build on
gig economy, everyone’s gotta hustle. #iHunters use an app each others’ ideas. Sometimes they just wait for their turn to
called #iHunt where they take contracts to kill monsters. It’s speak. This game helps the conversation move in the right
like Uber, except instead of picking up thirty-somethings direction to tell #iHunt stories.
who want to save a few bucks on cab fare, you’re stalking
and killing terrifying creatures of the night. The idea’s the Keep it casual and friendly. The point is to have fun and
same—a day job’s just not enough anymore. With mounting tell cool stories. If it’s stressing you out too much, it’s a shitty
healthcare costs and rising rent, sometimes you’ve got to put conversation.
your health and safety on the line to… have health and safety.

You see, in game design, we call this “the core gameplay

WHO IHUNTS?
loop.” It’s the shit you do which is fun, and has consequences Millennials, mostly. Haven’t you read all the articles about
and rewards which cause you to go back and do that shit how they’re killing your favorite fast casual dining restaurant
again. But Olivia, you say, “dying from a lack of access to that you haven’t actually eaten at but maybe once in the past
healthcare isn’t fun!” You’re damned right it isn’t. That’s why two years? Or what about the one where they’re killing the
you kill monsters. You see, we’re taking really awful, heavy diamond industry? Or the one where they’re killing the travel
shit, and using something totally fantastical and viscerally industry? What you don’t read is the one about how they’re
engaging to talk about that. Sounds pretty deep, right? I also killing vampires, ghouls, zombies, and werewolves to
want to note that there are currently no tabletop roleplaying make ends meet.
game industry awards for “pretentious bullshit talking about
social issues using egregious violence.” If you’re reading this What’s a millennial? For these purposes, a millennial was
and you have any say in tabletop roleplaying game industry born some time between 1980 and 2005, generally identifies
awards, I’m just gonna save you the trouble and nominate strongly as part of the information age. They’ve never had
myself. Thanks all for your support. We couldn’t have done a job during a time of general economic prosperity. They
it without you. started working after “the bubble popped.”

People with good, comfortable, healthy backgrounds

THE CONVERSATION don’t hunt monsters. People from good, safe, wholesome
upbringings have faith in institutions. They know they can
People have all sorts of takes on what a roleplaying game or
call for help and someone will answer. The worst shit they
a storytelling game or whatever you want to call this kind of
have to deal with, they can just sit down with some sheet
game with pens and paper and dice and shit is. Maybe it’s
cake and #selfcare it away. While that might be true most of
like Cops and Robbers. Except All Cops Are Bastards,
the time, it’s not true when monsters come out to play. A lot
so that’s not a good #iHunt comparison. Maybe it’s like
of times, those people stumble upon #iHunt, end up getting
improvisational theater. I move around like a jackass then
together the cash to take out a contract, and calling for the kind
stop all of a sudden and you have to come up with the next
of help that can actually stop monsters. But the important
part of the improv machine and... no. That’s not #iHunt. Not
thing is, they’re not doing the hunting—their instinct is to
really. #iHunt stories are conversations. The whole idea is
look for the hunters. What’s the old Mr. Rogers quote? Look
that you’re telling this story with a group of friends. You’re
for the helpers? #iHunters are the helpers. Sometimes, just
talking about these characters and all the weird shit going
sometimes, a person from a good life can get broken enough
on in their lives, and all the great, not-so-great, awesome, and
to take up the hunt. That happens most often when they
tragic things they do.
experience repeat encounters with the supernatural.

4
 WHY
PLAY
More often than not, it’s people from broken homes
iHunt?
that end up hunting monsters. There’s a few reasons. First
[ Humor. #iHunt balances series issues with tongue-in-
cheek attitude. Even at their most serious, #iHunt stories
off, they need cash. Poverty and misfortune isn’t a singular are still stories about killing werewolves, zombies,
instance or just temporary inconveniences—they’re cyclical. and mummies. No matter how scary you make them,
Second off, these people have the tools and adaptability to monsters are kind of silly. Even a murderous demigod
deal with diverse threats. Maybe a kid off the streets doesn’t is worth a chuckle if he speaks with a Transylvanian
know vampires are weak to stakes through the heart, but they accent. Besides, these monsters can and will kill you
know how to handle a scary motherfucker trying to kill them. if they get the chance. So a little gallows humor goes a
They just called him “dad.” Third off, they’ve hit bottom. long way.
Someone who’s lost everything isn’t afraid to die. They know
desperation—and if they’ve lived this long, they’ve been
empowered by the results.
STORIES ABOUT POVERTY
#iHunt is based on a series of novels that are weird
For many hunters, #iHunt is their first chance to truly metaphorical stories about poverty, and the way people deal
take control of their life. It’s not perfect, but it’s a way with poverty in the 21st century. You’ve seen the thinkpieces.
better paycheck than minimum wage. Think about it like coal “Millenials are killing (insert an industry or societal
mines for millenials. It’s dangerous. It’s fucking deadly. But institution)” Millenials are killing casual dining chains.
when that check comes in and you can tell the bank to fuck Millenials are killing diamonds. Millenials are killing home
off for another month, who cares about the bloodstains on ownership. Millenials are killing nuclear families. These
your jeans? #iHunt’s about hunting monsters. But it takes stories all come down to declining income, increasing costs,
an ultra-modern view on the job. Not just “characters have and s society that loves to blame the victims. In #iHunt, your
smartphones.” But #iHunt’s world is the late 2010s with all characters take on the mantle of hunters and killers because
the tense political and economic climates of this era. they have to. Millenials are literally killing; not because
they chose to—but because they just don’t have enough
WHY PLAY IHUNT? opportunity otherwise.
[ Drama. #iHunt stories are about the struggles the The rules of #iHunt assume characters who need to
monster hunters face. Sometimes these struggles have struggle to get by. Hunting monsters isn’t a career where
fangs. Sometimes they have subpoenas. If you like you put in your 9-5, clock out, then hang up your hat. It’s
human drama, #iHunt’s got it. Monster hunters live fiery, a lifestyle. It’s dangerous. It’s thankless. Even though you’re
fast-paced lives where every second could be their last. doing society a huge favor, you’ll never be recognized for it.
This means fast friends, faster enemies, and desperately
trying to find comfort and sympathy wherever you can
find it. Sometimes on the hunt, it’s any port in a storm.
If you like stories about the consequences of choices
made in the heat of the moment, #iHunt’s got it.

[ Action. Because violence favors the aggressor,

hunters often win. #iHunters aren’t your typical super
heroes, they’re not even the typical blue collar heroes.
They’re service industry hunters. They bag your fair
trade locally-sourced certified organic greens. They
also know that if you layer plastic grocery bags three
thick and put them over a sorcerer’s head from behind,
the sorcerer can’t cast spells. They’re the ultimate
underdogs, fighting evil with pocket change, grit, and
youth.

5
THAT’S DEPRESSING
So that said, what do the monsters really mean?
Whatever you want. The thing is, #iHunt is a game
Everything in the previous two paragraphs is awful. It sucks. about individuals. Tons and tons of individuals. That’s
It’s depressing. And frankly, sometimes you just want to play diversity. Some vampires might stand for one thing, while
a game where the underdogs kick a whole lot of ass and another stands for another thing. Maybe some are mass
save the day. #iHunt also supports this. The idea behind all murderers, while some are girlfriend material. This is
of #iHunt’s rules is, they’re modular, and “opt-in.” Players important. Super fucking important. Every monster is an
have the opportunity to take character traits which let them individual, but the #iHunt app and its fucked up gig economy
explore certain aspects of the world, like the struggle to get micro contracts want you to think of them as blights to be
by in a shit economy. However, you can just as easily play exterminated. It literally dehumanizes the monsters, and
without those more depressing elements. “Kill Monsters­— wants you to do the same. As far as the #iHunt app and its
Get Cash” is a perfectly valid #iHunt story if you want it to creators are concerned, it’d be best if every hunter went in,
be, and we’ll provide rules to support that style of play. ground the target into dust in the most efficient, unfeeling
way possible, and got that five-star review. When it’s just “a
Also let’s put it out there now: Generally the Players’ vampire,” that’s easy. But when it’s Lisa, and she just had to
characters win. The #iHunters come out on top. Even if they quit her job at the Carver’s Supercenter because she can’t
don’t shirk the chains of capitalism, they kick a lot of monster work during daylight hours and now she’s mugging people
ass and squeeze by with just enough to survive. You can just in the business district late Saturday nights because she
have fun with that. That’s okay. needs blood and cash but she tries really hard to shake
down sexual predators... shit gets a lot more complicated,
But this is a dark game. Check >>PAGE 26 for guidance right? #iHunt doesn’t care what her name is, just that you
on doing “dark” without being a fucking asshole. killed her. (Well, and that you took a selfie to confirm the
kill. )
OKAY BUT MONSTERS?
You’re hunting monsters. Monsters are popular metaphors CAN I PLAY A MONSTER?
for all sorts of awful shit in the world. They’re literary Yes but not right now. Sometimes #iHunters get infected
devices. In #iHunt we use them for two core reasons: with lycanthropy. Sometimes they become vampires. It
happens. But I haven’t really come up with the rules for how
[ If we can accept that generally, monsters are awful, then
that would work. If this game does really well, I’ll do books
it’s not so bad when we have to kill them for cash. But
where you can do all that. Your best bet if you really want
fighting them is scary because they’re super powered
to play a monster is to buy seven copies of this book. One
and terrifying. So hunting monsters is kind of like a
for use at the table. One for saving in pristine condition for
metaphor for a soul-sucking or dangerous job. Because,
when you run across me at a convention so you can net that
well, it is.
prize autograph before Netflix gets their heads out of their
[ If we feel like getting introspective and philosophical, asses and commissions the #iHunt animated series. One
maybe some monsters don’t deserve it, and that means for bathroom reading. Then four to give to all your friends
you have to ask yourself why you get to eat and have when you’re guilt-tripping them to play a game. Don’t think
a home at the expense of innocent lives. That’s like of it as buying seven copies of the same book in hopes I’ll be
working a job where you know you’re hurting people able to write supplements.
for your boss, but you have to keep doing it because the
alternative is eviction. Think of it as a life hack. How does this make you feel? Tell
me in three emojis or less in the comments.
Let’s be perfectly clear: Monsters are devices which
represent individual transgressions. Monsters can be stand-
ins for that asshole that victimized you when you were a kid
or a metaphor for that guy that catcalls you on your walk
home, but monsters aren’t directly responsible for societal
and institutional ills. Hitler wasn’t a wizard—he was a
human fucking being and he led a whole bunch of human
fucking beings who did atrocious fucking things. When the
bank forecloses on your house, it’s not because of an ancient
mummy. When elected officials fund brutal right-wing
coups to topple democratic governments, it’s not because
some vampire was pulling their strings. When cops murder
children for having dark skin, that’s not an ancient elder god
dreaming beneath the sea—it’s because of a racist culture
producing racist enforcers of racist laws.

6
INSPIRATIONS THE GAME
Games emulate genres. I could give you this really huge Now let’s do the nitty gritty shit about the game. This should
list of shit you could watch, read, listen to, and otherwise all be fairly familiar if you’ve played, like, anything. First off,
consume, consume, consume to better understand how to there’s two types of player: Directors and Players. Since
run #iHunt stories. That’s fucking stupid. We’ve all watched they’re both technically players, we considered calling the
the same shows. You’ve seen Buffy, right? Well, this is like capital P players Actors. But that sounds a little weird, and
Buffy, except completely different. I’d rather spend these we tend to forget. So just remember that while the Director
pages telling you what the game actually is. But I’m gonna is a player, the Director and Players are two different things.
give you three things to buy, consume, and mold your You’re smart. I have faith in you.
identity with for profit, so as to better understand #iHunt.
#iHunt . This game is based on a book series. So gosh, THE DIRECTOR
go read it. It gives you a real clear idea of what an #iHunt
adventure should be like. But important: Buy multiple The Director is one of the players. Everyone else is a
copies. Buy one copy for each of your friends, that way you Player. You call them the Director because they do all the
can all read, study, and digest the details of the #iHunt shit a Director does in a movie, kind of, because this isn’t a
canon. This way you can argue what Lana’s statement on movie. They foster the plot, and keep things moving forward.
page 162 actually means. Double points if you tell me on They describe locations. They describe the consequences
the internet how I’m wrong and what I was really trying to of actions. They also play every character that isn’t one of
say. I love that shit. the Players’ #iHunters. This means bit part characters like
the GameShop employee that saw a ghost, it means rival
I just realized I made a joke about buying multiple copies #iHunters, it means villains, it means whatever. You can call
on the previous page. How crass. But technically this is a them “Dungeon Master” if you’re nasty. But only if you’re
different joke since I’m talking about the novels and making nasty, because that’s a trademarked term and the owners
a crack about canon arguments. will complain endlessly if we use their pseudosexual
terminology.
Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?,
by Mark Fisher. This is a nonfiction book about how we’re WHY DIRECT?
stuck up to our chins in capitalism, and the culture of
consumption is destroying our ability to say new things So, the Director doesn’t get a full-time protagonist #iHunter
with art. It’s about how capitalism is such an all-consuming character? Then why fucking Direct? The game is called
monster that we can’t even imagine a world outside of it. “#iHunt,” not “Do All The Shit Around #iHunt But Not
This is important for #iHunt, because it’s a world where Actually the #iHunt Part.” (Although in retrospect, maybe
capitalism is scarier than monsters. I should have called it “ Do All The Shit Around #iHunt But
Not Actually the #iHunt Part” because then distributors
We have this agenda with our games. In the first review of wouldn’t carry my game and I could get a lot of sales based
our first game, Maschine Zeit, someone said, “Maschine Zeit on ginned-up controversy about “censorship.”)
takes anti - capitalist liberal agenda to new, never before
seen heights. By page 30 of the introductory fiction in the You Direct because it’s fun. It’s fun watching the looks
beginning of the book, I was convinced that the ghost of on the Players’ faces when you surprise them, when you
Howard Zinn was one of the primary authors. By page 70 embolden them, when you disgust them, and when you
I felt like his ghost was taking a cheese grater to my brain. make them think. It’s fun jumping from character to
It does not help that the only conservative voices in the character, enjoying new personalities, accents, perspectives,
introductory fiction are presented as either being corrupt or and whatever else. Also you’re necessary, and it’s kind of
moronic. A quick note to the authors: please, for the love all cool to be needed.
that is Holy, tone the rhetoric down a little in your future
works!” Yeah we’re not gonna fucking do that.
THE PLAYERS
Sorry To Bother You, by Boots Riley. This movie is
Oh gosh. The header style I used doesn’t differentiate
an anticapitalist masterpiece from an utterly amazing hip
lower case and capital letters. Just presume it uses the
hop artist. But the reason we recommend it is that it focuses
capital “Players.” Anyway, Players are players who portray
on the alienation of modern capitalism and the lies of the
a single protagonist character each. This probably means
gig economy. It’s a great combination of horror, comedy, and
an #iHunter, or someone in the immediate periphery
social commentary which really aligns perfectly with what
of #iHunt. They’re in charge of that character’s destiny.
we’re doing in #iHunt.
They come up with that character’s arc, and they use their
awareness and attachment to that character to navigate the
Director’s world.

7
 HE KILLED WHY PLAY?
It’s fun. This is a silly question. You get to play a cool

SIX PEOPLE. character, revel in their tragedies despite not having to

endure them for real. You get to play them at their most
badass, when they’re slaughtering hordes of the undead.

HE’LL NEVER You dive in feet-first into a world of killing people to make
ends meet. If that sounds cool, you want to play.

KILL AGAIN. #IHUNT AND FATE CORE

#iHunt is built off a rules foundation called the Fate Core rule
system. There’s a great book called the Fate Core Rulebook
that’s sort of the starting point for the #iHunt rules. While
we go off in some weird directions and add things to the
game, it’s still a very useful resource for dedicated #iHunt
players. It gives far more casual examples, and more generic
usage for the system. We strongly recommend you check it
out, especially if you want to hack and change your #iHunt
game to suit your particular group’s needs.

The Fate Core Rulebook goes into great detail about some
things we glossed over for page space reasons, or because
they would only be edge cases in your average #iHunt
game. But it’s super useful for things like building stunts
and aspects.

WHAT YOU NEED TO PLAY

You just need a few things to get started.

[ Scrapbooks. Every player needs a scrapbook or

notebook or something similar to keep track of their
character and Selfies. The first two pages should be
the character sheet, which you can find at the end
of the book on PAGE 324.

[ Dice. You need at least four Fate Dice and one

regular six-sided die. Fate dice are special dice that
have six sides, but instead of numbers, two are marked
with a plus sign ( +), two are marked ( -), and two
are marked ( 0). You can find Fate Dice at many game
stores, or online at www.evilhat.com. The other die
is just a normal old die like you can steal from most
popular board games. We call it the Edge Die.
[ Tokens. You need a nice big bag of counters, chips,
beads, whatever. At least thirty. More is better.
[ Index Cards. You will need to jot down notes that
everyone can see at any given time. Later we’ll talk
about aspects, and you’ll need the ability to make
and remove these from play quickly. So index cards,

ALL THANKS post-it notes, anything easy to scribble some stuff on

and move around the table is helpful.

TO YOU.
[ Props and Mood Music. This is complex, and
one we’ve got a whole bit on later. But you’ll want to
bring stuff to the game which will help improve the
atmosphere.

8
THE Example Game Filamena’s playing Molly, the protagonist of
the Reaching Out book series. She’s an empath
Different people learn through different methods.
and medium who is working with Lana for the
Some just consume text and go forward into the
convenience of this super-contrived scenario.
breach. Some people like learning from examples.
So, we’re peppering this book with examples in the The third Player is Snurk, who is a totally real
form of a fake-ass game we didn’t actually play. person I swear, and he’s playing Snflrak, who isn’t
the protagonist of a novel series, but by all means
You see, if we just transcribed a game we played,
please do some Snflrak fanfiction. Snflrak generally
it wouldn’t really target the content we need to
pisses Lana off and mucks up her plans. Which is
address in the order we need to address it. It’d
rather impressive, really, because most of her plans
also be full of referential discourse, banter, and
are just, “We’re gonna kill this thing before it gets a
complaining about the general quality of the snacks.
chance to react.”
This fake game will have three Players and one
We’ll reserve these pink style boxes for example
Director. Sam’s the Director.
play segments that help to reiterate and contextualize
Olivia’s playing Lana, the hero of the #iHunt the rules we’ve just talked about.
book series. She’s a sarcastic fighty type hunter
who does a lot of coke and kills a lot of vampires.

Now let’s jump into the basics of how you play, including the character sheet
(which goes at the front of your scrapbook) and the basic action rules. It’s not a full
treatment of the rules, but it’s enough that if you’re just playing a game and someone
knowledgeable is Director, you can jump right in. Then we’ll loop back around and
talk a little bit about the world of #iHunt.

9
 The Character Sheet
Here’s the character sheet, for an idea of how it works:

LOGO N
The #iHunt logo. It’s snazzy!

DESC

ASPECTS
These help describe your character
and their role in the story. Read
about aspects on >>PAGE 72 .
HIGH CONCEPT

DRAMA

VISION BOARD

DAY JOB

EXTRAS
This is like note paper. Space for
extra stuff like your character’s
Refresh.
EXTRAS

PHYSICAL 1
STRESS
MILD

1 2 MODERATE
2
When your character is hurt
3 4 3
physically, stress keeps them going.
SEVERE

Do you see how the 3 and 4 boxes

aren’t filled in? You have to unlock
those will the Athlete skill set. If you
CONSEQUENCES
do, just fill in the box. Read more on Consequences come from mental and
physical stress on >>PAGE 152 . physical harm. They’re like very bad aspects.
Read more on consequences on >>PAGE
153.

10
 PERSONAL INFO
This stuff just tells us about your character.

NAME PRONOUNS

KINK

DESCRIPTION PLAYER NAME

SKILL SETS
Skill sets are your character’s specific
talents and training. Do you see the orange
triangles? Those are the skill set levels you
have available as a starting #iHunter. Read
more on skill sets on >>PAGE 94.

STUNTS
STUNTS

1 MENTAL
2 1 2 STRESS
When your character is hurt mentally or
3 3 4 emotionally, stress keeps them going. Do
you see how the 3 and 4 boxes aren’t
filled in? You have to unlock those will
the Survivorskill set. If you do, just fill in
the box. Read more on physical stress on
>>PAGE 152 .

11
 Basic Actions
THE LADDER
Almost every dice roll in #iHunt represents an attempt to do
one of the four following things:
In the Fate system, we use a tool called the ladder to
To Overcome an Obstacle

O >>PAGE 130
determine the results of an action after adding a relevant
skill set. The ladder is a series of numbers coupled with
companion adjectives to help describe our narrative.

To Create an Advantage for your

C character. Usually this means an aspect .

>>PAGE 131
+8
+7
+6
Legendary
Epic
Fantastic
To Attack someone else

A >>PAGE 132 +5
+4
+3
Superb
Great
Good
To Defend yourself

D >>PAGE 133 +2
+1
Fair
Average

Both the Players and the Director roll the dice when they’re
+/-0 Mediocre
doing one of those four things, and there’s a noteworthy -1 Poor
chance that it might not go well or a Player’s character is
contesting the effort. -2 Terrible
Every group will use the ladder differently. Some like
ROLLING DICE communicating in numbers. Some in adjectives. Hell, you
might have both type of player working around the same
Rolling the dice happens in two basic ways. Either you have table. My instinct is to be all artsy-fartsy, and tell you that
The Edge or you don’t. If you don’t, it’s a normal roll. If it’s best if you find a way to wrap the ladder adjectives into
you do, it’s a roll with the edge. your descriptions as part of the storycraft and (assume I
made a loud fart noise here.) Some people like that. Some
NORMAL ROLL don’t. Don’t yuck another player’s yum.
For a normal roll, you take four Fate dice and roll them. If you want to come up with your own ladder terminology,
Every + counts as +1, every 0 is a 0, and every - is a -1. knock yourself out. I straight cribbed the list above from
Add these results together, which means you’ll have a total the Fate Core Rulebook. I had some ideas when I
of -4 to +4. was writing these, but they mostly sounded goofy as hell,
and were all based on memes that probably won’t even be
ROLL WITH THE EDGE remembered by the time this book actually hits print. But if
you ever have a result of +30-50, that’s some feral hog action
When you roll with the edge, you take three Fate dice right there.
and the Edge Die. Basically you replace one of the Fate
dice with the edge die (a normal six-sided die.) You roll them
and add them together, just like with a normal roll. Except,
with the edge die, you’ll get a result from -2 to +9.

Once you have your dice roll, you can also add a Skill
Set if one applies to your action.

Now you have your total, compare it to the Ladder.

12
Narrating Results
The goal when rolling dice is to roll higher than the Liv wants Lana to find the stupid MacGuffin so we
opposition. Opposition comes in two forms, active can call it a night. However, Molly thinks Lana’s
opposition from someone trying to stop you, and being “irresponsible” and “risking the entirety of
passive opposition, which reflects obstacles or human existence because she’s being impatient.”
other circumstantial and environmental difficulty (or if
the Director doesn’t want to make dice rolls for a minor Molly’s trying to stop her. She’s the active
character.) For passive opposition, the Director determines opposition. Mena rolls ++0- for +1, and adds
a rating on the ladder for you to overcome. For active her +2 Grifter skill set, setting the opposition at +3.
opposition, you simply compare to the dice roll.
Lana isn’t having it, so Liv rolls and gets +0--
If you beat the opposition, your action goes off. If you for -1. Even with Lana’s Hustler skill set at +3, that’s
exceed the opposition by a lot, you can cause an extra effect. still only +2, not even enough to tie.
If you tie or get below the opposition, you either fail your
So, Lana says, “Fuck it, we’ll do it your way, Molly.
action or you succeed at a cost (more on >>PAGE
But don’t come crying to me when we have to sit
129.)
quietly and do this stakeout for like three days
The difference between your roll and the opposition is straight.”
called shifts. A tie has zero shifts. If they roll +3 and you
roll +5, you have 2 shifts. If you roll +2 and they roll +7, they Molly glances up at her and says, “I don’t have
have 5 shifts. any problem with stakeouts. I like the quiet.”

Lana sticks out her tongue when she thinks Molly

isn’t looking.

13
 Fate Points
You’ll use tokens, beads, or any other sort of counter to Lana’s fighting Radu Bratcul, a terrifying vampire
represent fate points. Every player will have their own from the old country. She insists he’s Dracula. He
collection of fate points­, which represent your ability to claims he’s not, but, Lana rebuts, “that’s exactly
influence the story to your #iHunter’s benefit. what Dracula would want us to think.”
Also keep a pile, bag, or other container of fate points in Lana has an aspect called PROBABLY GOING TO
the middle of the play space. As you spend fate points and
DIE ANYWAY. Dracula, I mean Radu, has an aspect
gain them, return them or take them from that pile.
called I’VE LIVED TOO LONG TO DIE NOW. There
Fate points do a few specific things in play. They can be are two scene aspects, CLOSE QUARTERS and
spent to invoke an aspect or declare a story detail. SITTING ON 50,000 GALLONS OF GASOLINE.
You can gain them when compeled or imperiled by The scene’s taking place at a gas station, okay?
an aspect .
In a dramatic second act reversal, Radu is hunting
INVOKING AN ASPECT Lana, because he’s tired of her constant pestering
and all the attempted murders. Frankly, we have
Whenever you’re making a roll, and you think an aspect trouble blaming him. He has her cornered in a
might influence the outcome, you can spend a fate point to gas station outside of town. He’s slaughtered the
invoke that aspect and influence the dice roll. attendants, because he has absolutely no respect
for what the working class go through, and, you
You invoke an aspect after you’ve made the dice roll, when know, he’s a vampire. She’s in the bathroom, and
the result isn’t to your liking. Invoking an aspect allows you he’s trying to get the jump on her.
to choose from one of the two following advantages:
Sam rolls ++0- for +1, and adds Radu’s
[ Reroll the dice. If you do this, you have to take the Spy skill set which adds +2. So he sets the active
second roll. opposition at +3.
[ Take +2 on the roll. Just add +2 to the total after you’ve
Liv rolls ---- for Lana. She adds her Spy skill
added your skill set.
set of +3 for -1. She blinks a couple of times at the
Note that you can spend more than one fate point to invoke result. “I’m gonna invoke the CLOSE QUARTERS
multiple aspects for a single roll, but one aspect can only aspect to reroll that, okay?”
affect a single roll once. When you invoke an aspect, you have
to explain why it’s relevant, preferably in your description of Sam says, “I don’t get how that applies. Unpack
your action. More on invoking on >>PAGE 82. it?”

Liv thinks for a moment. “Well, it’s not like there’s

DECLARING A STORY DETAIL a ton of places to hide. He can only come in one
way, and Lana knows to pay attention to entrances
As a Player, you can use a fate point to intervene and alter
and exits.”
a detail in the story in your character’s favor. Usually this is
a matter of coincidence and chance, for example, when the Sam nods. “I’ll take it.”
Director introduces a random character to the story who you
know you’ll have to win over to progress the gig, you can Liv knows adding +2 will still put her at +2, not
choose to make that character a high school friend who owes even comparable to Radu. So, she spends the
you a favor. fate point and rerolls her dice. This time she gets
+++0. That’s +3 with her Spy +3, so +6. “So I
You have to explain the connections and how the change
fits, and the Director can veto anything that’s too off-the-wall. hear him coming?”
The basic rule here is, if the change is something big enough Sam nods. Liv thinks, “Alright. I’m making a trap
that it’d take a number of dice rolls and aspects to make
for him. You said there’s a bucket earlier. Are there
happen normally, then it’s probably beyond the scope of a
any cleaning chemicals in the bathroom?”
single fate point.

14
 Sam shakes his head.
COMPELLING
Liv throws a fate point in the pile to declare a Aspects are designed as double-edged swords. They can
story detail. “Now there are.” benefit you, or get in your way. Any time the Director thinks
one of your aspects could get in the way, they can compel
Sam nods. Liv explains that Lana mixes the
it. That means you have to make a choice to either accept the
chemicals and puts the bucket above the slightly
complication, or refuse it.
open bathroom door, so it’ll fall on Radu’s head
when he enters. [ If you accept the complication, it becomes a
tangible problem relevant to the aspect. This takes
Sam says, “Really?” story events, roleplay, or an overcome action to end the
complication. If you accept the compel, you get a fate
Liv says, “Did I stutter?”
point.
Liv gets +00-, +0, on her trap roll, with +3
[ If you refuse the complication, you have to
from her Guerrilla skill set, for +3 total. Sam rolls
spend a fate point, and that fate point either creates a
and gets +000 for +1 and adds his Spy skill new situational aspect reflecting the refusal (which gets
set for +3. They tie. Sam offers Liv the choice to a free invoke), or you add a free invoke to an already
get chemicals on both of them or they simply miss existing situational aspect that’s relevant.
Radu entirely.
Note that players can compel other characters’ aspects, but
While Liv debates, Sam says, “Wait, isn’t Lana this costs a fate point. When you do so, hand the fate point
PROBABLY GOING TO DIE ANYWAY?” He holds to the other Player (or the Director.) More on >>PAGE 84.
up a fate point to tease Liv. “That’s a compel.”

Liv takes the point and says the chemicals spill IMPERILING
on both of them. Although Lana’s in terrible danger Imperiling happens when an aspect puts a character between
because of the caustic chemicals, Liv rolls to have a rock and a hard place, and the story (or another character)
Lana bear hug Radu. Long story short, she wins, exploits this. This is different from a compel because in a
and he’s grabbed. She then points out that earlier compel, the character chooses between facing complication
in the story, she established that there was spilled or choosing resistance. Imperling forces a hard choice.
gasoline, and a little chemical mixture could ignite it.
That’s where we got SITTING ON 50,000 GALLONS An imperiled character always receives a fate point. When
OF GASOLINE. you imperil a character (also known as making them
face a dilemma,) you give them the choice between two
Sam checks his notes. “Damn, you’re right. But different but mutually undesirable outcomes.
he’s got you in his grasp and he thinks he can
survive long enough to kill you.” As a Director, you imperil players to make them make hard
choices. Under late stage capitalism, #iHunters often have to
Liv smirks. “Didn’t you say HE’S LIVED TOO make sacrifices to get by. This represents those sacrifices.
LONG TO DIE NOW?” Sam nods. “I want to imperil
As a Player, you can imperil rivals and enemies, to force
him.” She tosses a fate point in the pile.
their hands and make them make awful choices. Often, you’ll
“Okay? What are his choices?” Sam says. want to do this once setting up a proverbial trap, letting them
choose between literal or metaphorical destruction, and
“Simple. He doesn’t get what he wants. He lets walking right into your well-laid snare. When #iHunters fight
me go, runs, and lives to fight another day. Or, he fair, they die.
gets his bite on me. But I blow the place up with
Players can imperil a character with an aspect by spending
both of us in it.”
a fate point. When you do so, hand the fate point to the other
Sam chuckles. “Okay he runs.” Player (or Director.) More on imperiling on >>PAGE 86.

15
 The Edge Die
There’s a bit of #iHunter slang called a “Fair Fight.”
When an #iHunter says someone had a fair fight, it
means they’re dead. After all, monsters are fucking
scary, and in a fair fight, the monster always
wins.

Now, #iHunt in general is a game that explores power

differentials. On a mechanical level, we represent this
with a rule called The Edge. If you’re familiar with
Fate Core, this is a place we differ pretty heavily. In any
conflict, one party at a time can have the edge. We’ll talk
more on this on >>PAGE 136, but at any given time,
one group has the upper hand. Part of winning means
seizing that upper hand.

Whomever has the edge gets to use the edge die in

their rolls. Remember, a roll with the edge uses
three Fate dice and the edge die.

All other things normal, a monster always starts

with the edge. #iHunters can seize the edge from them
through a few methods. The most common way is with
an overcome action that has a passive opposition equal
to twice the monster’s star rating. Monsters have a
rating of 1-5, which we detail on >>PAGE 179. This
can be tough, but #iHunters have tricks and methods
for making that happen.

It’s important to pay attention to the stark difference

between a normal roll and a roll with the edge. As noted
before, a normal roll ranges from -4 to +4, but usually
falls in the range of -2 to +2. Rolls with the edge go from
-2 to +9, but most rolls trend around +2 to +5. This is to
say, on the low end of average, a roll with the edge does
better than a normal roll on the high end of average.
And rolls with the edge that go beyond what a normal
roll can even achieve in the best case scenario are still
quite common!

#iHunters won’t always have the edge, but they

should always be fighting for it, for this reason. Monsters
often also have skill sets that put hunter capabilities to
shame, which coupled with the edge means they can lay
waste to an entire crew of hunters with little resistance.

We’re not going to offer an example of this in play,

because it’s a more complex topic that needs greater
attention. We just wanted to touch on it here early on,
so it’s fresh in your mind how all this works.

16
USING THIS BOOK In #THEEDGE on >>PAGE 136, we break down the
way the edge works.
You have a practical knowledge of how the game works.
There’s a lot of nuance and granularity, the ways characters In #THEFLOW on >>PAGE 142, we give advice for
take harm, the skill sets, the powers monsters have, all that the Director to help foster a more interesting story.
sort of stuff, but this is enough to understand the basic
In #THEGIG on >>PAGE 160, we talk about how
mechanics for play. You should be comfortable picking up
#iHunt contracts work as a story framing device.
the dice and taking basic actions.
In #THEMARK on >>PAGE 176, we go over monsters
In the next few pages, we’re going to give some setting
and their powers, how to make them and kill them.
primer stuff that’ll help you get a better feel for the world of
#iHunt in the form of a magazine profile of an #iHunter, and In #THESTREETS on >>PAGE 252, we talk about
a short gig. It also shows what the actual app looks like. setting building and making your game world your own.
In #THEPEOPLE on >>PAGE 32, we break down In #THINKPOOR on >>PAGE 262, we give some
how you make an #iHunter and talks a little bit about who advice for how to deal with economic issues, poverty, and
#iHunters are, and the groups they form. how to adapt these ideas to the #iHunt Fate rules.
In #MYSCENARIO on >>PAGE 72, we go over In #iHUNT on >>PAGE 288, we give details about the
aspects and fate points in greater detail. world of #iHunt, the various apps and elements that make
#iHunt stories unique.
In #PEOPLESKILLS on >>PAGE 94, we break down
character traits like skill sets and stunts. In #SANJENARO on >>PAGE 304, we give you a
starting setting in the form of #iHunt’s city, San Jenaro.
In #SELFIES on >>PAGE 118, we go over how
characters advance and change over time. In #ADVANCEDCLASS on >>PAGE 312, we wrap
with advanced tools for running a better game all around.
In #THEHUSTLE on >>PAGE 128, we talk about
actions, challenges, conflicts, and opposition in greater detail. Now let’s get started on that magazine profile.

What is midnight but

another hour to make
ends meet?

17
WHAT IS IHUNT?
It’s on the tip of everyone’s tongue. What is iHunt? Are millenials emulating their ancestors and
stalking deer for dinner? San Jenaro Beat’s own Gina Esposito dives in so you don’t have to.

Kill monsters, get cash. Sounds fairly simple, • 21-35

doesn’t it? After all, your favorite blockbuster • Single
Movieland™ superhero could fight werewolves in
her sleep. Can’t you picture yourself bashing in • Renter
zombie skulls like your favorite prime time drama • High school or GED graduate
character, except for the part where he murders
• Misdemeanor record
racial minorities (spoilers!)? Well, it turns out,
hunting monsters isn’t for the light of heart. Let’s • $40-100k debt
talk for a second about the average #iHunt user: • Chronic medical conditions
• Working full-time elsewhere
• LGBTQ+

As you can see, #iHunting isn’t for everyone. Why does #iHunt trend toward the underprivileged? It appears
that killing monsters is actually a highly dangerous line of work, with high casualty rates and excessive
medical complications.

During my investigation, an #iHunt user named Tara explained her situation. She deals with Crohn’s Disease,
and can’t normally afford treatment despite working 30 hours per week at Carver’s Supercenter and 8-12
hours part-time at GameShop. To afford medical care to help alleviate her chronic pain so she can manage
her normal work schedule, she takes on an average of one #iHunt contract every two weeks. She explained
that on her hunts, she has to navigate the pain from her Crohn’s.

18
“In a way, #iHunt is about control.”

MEET TARA
Tara isn’t the hardened, grizzled badass from Dark humor, she says between sips of coffee,
your average comic book. She’s 32 going on 65 is a common trait in #iHunters. Everyone has a
she tells me. She wears long, over-worn pencil joke about how they’ll eventually die. Always
skirts that range from faded brown to faded on the hunt, never at home of illnesses or
gray. That is, when she’s not on the hunt. She poverty.
tells me she has to buy expensive cut jeans
to keep her legs safe while pursuing her prey, If I met her on the street, I’d assume Tara to
and she can’t afford to get a skirt caught on be just another boring, non-confrontational
a chain-link fence. Chafing, she says, can kill person. But to see her in person? To interact
you. She has the mousy voice you might expect with her? She has a confidence like I’ve never
from a librarian, although she doesn’t really experienced before. Tara explains that’s just
spend any time researching ancient horrors part of the job. When you face down death day
in libraries. Her deep red lipstick is far louder in and day out, being shy and coy just seems
than she is. Although I wonder if she just wore like a waste of time.
that for me. Tara doesn’t date. She says she’d like to, but
In fact, Tara says werewolves are her favorite with 60 hour schedules and another 10 to 20
targets since she doesn’t have to do much hours dedicated to the hunt, it comes down
research. After 11pm, after a full morning shift to either sleeping or dating. Sometimes she’ll
at Carver’s, and a closing shift at GameShop, find a hookup on the FlingFinder app, but it’s
the last thing she wants to do is research. usually difficult to explain her hunting wounds
Who could blame her? She says that killing and it really takes the fun out of a one-night
a werewolf is exhilarating, and helps her stand. She says that some hunters end up
forget about the pain for a while. After all, she in flings. While that means never having to
jokes, it’s hard to focus on the pain of bowel explain bruises, it also means competing for
inflammation when you’re being disembowled contracts.
by a werewolf.
 T ara explains that she’s an average #iHunter, but
they run the gamut. Some are outright criminals
who can’t apply for jobs thanks to outstanding
Tara tells me that normally she’d stake out the
area for a while and learn about the monster.
But since she has no experience with gremlins,
warrants. They like #iHunt because it pays under she makes an exception to her “avoid research”
the table. Many of these hunters are just as willing methodology.
to take out private contracts on other people, or to
kill other hunters to stifle competition. On the other Tara’s what iHunters call a “Knight.” Knights are
end, you have trust fund kids who hire small teams hunters who like to take the fight to the monster.
to tackle jobs efficiently, and make small fortunes. Their first response is to kill the beast. She tells
She knows of two CEO’s children who have turned me there are other hunters who specialize in
#iHunt into lucrative business models this way. collecting lore about monsters. They’re called
Evileenas. When I laugh, she says it has something
I asked her if there was one thing she wanted to do with an old b-movie actress. When she needs
readers to know about #iHunt. She said this: information, she talks to an Evileena friend named
Curtis. Unfortunately, he’s busy tonight, so we
“In a way, #iHunt is about control. Control of have to put off the hunt for a night. This, she says,
yourself. Control of your situation. If there’s one is common. “Hurry up and wait is the name of the
thing I’ve seen in every single #iHunt user, it’s that game,” she tells me.

DAY TWO
they’re under a huge burden and it feels like life
is spiraling out of control. We’ll probably all die
hunting monsters. But until then, we don’t have
to worry about coming home to the electric being
shut off or not being able to replace a pair of shoes
when you’ve worn a hole through them. You know?” D ay two, we meet Curtis. He has a tiny apartment
at Modena Beach, overlooking the shore.
There’s almost nothing inside but a computer
I ask her to take me on a hunt, to see what this desk, a futon covered in clothes, and a bunch of
hot new app is all about. She agrees, under the technology I couldn’t identify if you put a gun to
strict condition that I don’t get a cut of the bounty. my head. In fact, we have to stand while we talk to
him. He apologizes and tells us he’s “house poor,”
I tell her I have a small stipend to pay consultants.
and that he pays a ton to stay in this tiny apartment
She tells me welcome to the hunt.
because seeing the beach reminds him why he
Then she tells me to dress in clothes I wouldn’t fights.
mind ruining. Tara and I would be BFFs for the next
Tara lays out the details we got from Marjorie, and
week.
Curtis starts searching the internet for information.

DAY ONE
I ask Tara why she couldn’t just do that on her own.
She explains that this information isn’t just on the
internet for the world to see. The Evileenas keep
massive databases hidden on the Dark Web. You

O ur first day on the job, we meet with the client,

Marjorie. She’s the property manager at a
trailer park in San Maria Cay. She’s put together
have to have special logins to access them, and
they’re constantly changing their security to make
sure monsters don’t get access.
$4,000 for anyone able to solve her community’s
gremlin problem. Tara says she’ll do it. Curtis shows us some information that makes
no sense whatsoever to me. It’s just text on an old
Of course, I’m skeptical. Gremlins? Is this a webpage that makes Geocities look advanced. Tara
“feeding them after midnight” issue? Or is this a skims it and nods a few times. She points at the
William Shatner on an airplane problem? screen and tells me that some bit of information
says that gremlins are creatures of habit. They’re
Marjorie doesn’t seem amused by my wit and sentient, and considerably intelligent, but they
charm. She explains that the residents have been think differently than humans. Typically when
having trouble with their technology, and their gremlins cause widespread problems, it’s for a
maintenance guy has a waiting list a mile long. secondary reason. I ask what that means. She
Apparently, she explains, their refrigerators have says that means we’re going to have to do some
been exploding into giant messes, their toasters detective work.
will burn out, and their microwaves catch fire. So
far, nobody’s been seriously hurt, but she tells us
she’s not going to wait until it’s too late.

20
DAY THREE
T he next night, we head back out to The Cay to
investigate the trailer park. Marjorie asks if we’ve
made any progress. Tara tells her we’ve got some
leads but it’ll take a few days. Marjorie pressures us,
saying that a few tenants have already moved out,
and others are threatening to. Tara asks if we can
see the abandoned trailers. Marjorie agrees.

The place, in no uncertain terms, is a hellhole.

Even without the gremlinms, the trailer park barely
has any grass. Many of the trailers have broken
down cars and piles of garbage outside. I imagine
Marjorie doesn’t have a waiting list of new tenants.

Tara leads into one of the abandoned trailers.

The first thing I notice is the smell. Everything has
the sweet stench of rotten meat barely hiding the
strench of years and years of cigarette smoke. The
second thing is the flies. It looks like a gremlin hunt
as directed by David Fincher. Everything’s speckled
with red, gummy sauce. Maybe spaghetti sauce?
It’s hard to say. Anywhere the sauce isn’t sprayed,
there’s a thin brown nicotine film. Tara pulls her
t-shirt up over her mouth and nose. I follow suit.

Everything’s old. Ancient, even. There’s one of

those gigantic wooden stereo units, and the sort of
TV with the bubble screen and the massive clunky
dial. There’s a giant metal VCR that fits two tapes at
a time, and an Atari with the sleek wood panel finish
circa 1977. The kitchen appliances all come from
the tail end of the atomic age, with formerly white,
rounded edges and exaggerated chrome accents.
More importantly, everything’s torn or blasted
apart. Everything with a cord or a battery.

She tells me to look around, see if anything stands

out as weird, besides the obvious. We spend about
a half an hour looking through the mess. It’s a mess.

Marjorie shows us to two other trailers, each

destroyed in very similar ways.

Then I notice one very weird thing. Each trailer has

numerous VHS and audio cassettes, all meticulously
unwound in piles. This is a far cry from the wanton
destruction throughout the rest of the homes. Tara
agrees this is weird, but can’t explain why. She takes
some photos, and I do, too.

Why are these gremlins only attacking homes

with collections of outdated tape mesia? It can’t
just be that everyone in the trailer park has a VHS
collection. Three hours later, stumped, we call it a
night.
 DAY FOUR The place is like a museum of cassette tapes.
I can’t remember the last time I even saw one of
these, let alone bought one. I look over some of

T he following night, we make another trip to

meet with Curtis. I’m expecting another night
of looking at his computer for hours, but Curtis
the price tags. Some of these tapes are going for
hundreds of dollars. Then again, the place is bone
dry the entire time we’re there.
nods knowingly the moment he sees the photos. The owner, a sandy blonde named Terry, greets
“They’re hunting for a specific tape. They won’t Curtis. He introduces us, and tells her we’re hunters.
stop until they find it.” He tells us. She locks the front door and tells us to have a seat.
“Gremlins like weird and rare technology. Stuff We recount our story, and show her the photos.
with obscure significance. Nobody really knows She nods and listens, then tells us, “They’re
why. But, when a group of them decides they need looking for Ted Merchant’s copy of Frankenstein’s
a thing, there’s no stopping them.” Castle of Freaks,” with the kind of certainty with
Tara asks what they should do, then, since she which a mother tells you her children’s birthdays.
can’t just let them tear apart the entire trailer park. Apparently, Ted Merchant is a Betamax collector
Curtis explains that he knows a woman who known world round. He makes a living buying and
collects rare tapes, and if anyone in San Jenaro selling rare tapes on online auction sites. Most
knows what these gremlins are looking for, it’s her. importantly, he lives in that very trailer park. She
She’s sort of a hunter, but only because monsters explains that if a gremlin’s looking for a tape, that’s
tend to have access to the strange and esoteric the one it wants. It’s his prized possession, and the
toys she collects. rumor is, it’s the only one still in existence.

We all get in Tara’s 1997 Honda Civic and drive to “We’ve got to get that tape,” Tara tells me.

DAY FIVE
what looks like a pawn shop in San Filipe, the Flip.
The sign above the door says “Tape Dungeon.”
Posters say they deal in rare audio cassettes from
all over the world, and they buy and sell rare VHS
and Betamax movies as well. Also, they transfer
tapes to DVD “for archival purposes only.”
T he next night, we tell Marjorie we have to speak
to Ted Merchant. “That’s gonna be tough,” she
tells us, “because he died two weeks ago.”
She tells us he was a hoarder like you’d never
believe. She explains that his niece inherited his
trailer, and she’s been trying to clean it out for
weeks.
We thank her for her time, and scope out his
trailer. To call him a hoarder would be a massive
understatement. From the outside, you cannot see
in because piles of tapes cover the windows from
floor to ceiling.
Tara tells me I can’t explain how we make our
way in to his trailer, for legal reasons. But we do.
The inside’s barely even movable. The piles of
tapes are like makeshift walls, turning the already

22
 DAY SIX
small trailer into a meticulously stacked Betamax
hallway. You can’t see a single intended wall. He
even has piles of tapes on his kitchen counters.
As we look around through what seems to be
thousands of these tapes, we hear screaming from
somewhere nearby. Within seconds, Marjorie’s
O n our last day on the hunt, Tara offers Curtis a
couple hundred dollars to help in our search.
An hour later, we find Frankenstein’s Castle of
yelling for Tara. Tara starts running outside and Freaks.
waves me along after her.
We’re busy debating what we should do with it,
There’s smoke coming from one of the trailers. when there’s more screaming. Tara rushes over just
Marjorie’s outside, jumping and waving her hands like the day before. Except instead of drawing her
at Tara. A family’s huddled nearby, with three club, once we get inside she kneels down in front
young, crying children. Tara whips out a collapsible of the monsters and offers them the tape. The
baton she hid in her sleeve, and rushes to the trailer. monsters look between each other, squeal, grab it,
Not knowing what else to do, I follow along and run.
behind her. Just then, Marjorie tosses me a fire “All in a day’s work.” Tara says.
extinguisher. Once inside, it’s impossible to not see
the problem. Gremlins. They’re maybe a foot tall, “How much are you getting paid for this gig?”
and look like little people with shredded, ill-fitted Curtis asks her.
clothes and spikes on their backs and heads. They “Four grand, why?”
have little red, beady eyes and bird-like talons.
“You know that tape goes for ten grand, right?”
I scream.
Later that night over drinks, Tara explains that
Tara starts waving her stick. They hiss and start sometimes doing the right thing means losing out
closing in on us. I turn for the door, and four of on a little cash. She also tells me that she’d probably
them block my path. be better off just being a cat burglar.
They swarm Tara, and she swats them away with I ask why she hunts, if that’s the case. She tells
her club. She yelps out in pain as a couple get close me it’s a calling. It’s not for everyone, but if it’s for
enough to claw at her and bite her. you, you can’t just walk away from it.
Then they come at me. I freeze. At least, I freeze She asks what I thought about the hunt.
until one jumps up and rips into my stomach,
hanging off my shirt and shrieking. I ask her when the next contract starts.

I yell out, and follow my first instinct. I slam it

in the face with the fire extinguisher. It falls limp
on the ground, and I stomp it. The others’ eyes go
wide and fall back, running away like cockroaches.
I look to Tara, her assailants are now nowhere to
be seen.
“We’ve got to find that tape.” She tells me.
But before we do that, we spend a few hours at
the emergency room, getting tetanus shots and
stitches. Tara’s hesitant to go at first, thanks to her
insurance’s horrible copay, but I offer to expense it
and she agrees. Afterwards, I offer to let her stay
at my apartment, since it’s nearly 4am and hers is
on the other side of town.

23
THE APP
THE RATING
This is the minimum average hunter rating
for the job. If you don’t have at least an
average rating of that star level, you can’t
take the job. Generally, higher paying gigs
require higher average ratings, but this isn’t
always true.

THE PHOTO
Tara says this is a recent addition to the app.
Tara explained that the #iHunt corporation
decided that a shift to photos was essential
to keep competitive. However, most photos
are all but worthless on the hunt. Since
every listing requires a photo, many listings
simply have an uploaded image of a black
box, or the client’s favorite Pokemon. She
says taking photos has gotten more than
a few clients killed. There are rumors the
app will shift again to video, which could be
downright deadly for clients who insist on
filming monsters in action.

THE LISTING
The listing name should give a pretty good
idea of what you’ll be hunting, and where
you’ll be hunting it. Tara says a lot of clients
don’t actually know what you’re hunting, and
they’re just guessing. So if the client says it’s
a werewolf, you might very well be dealing
with a skinwalker, which, she explains, is a
completely different fight.

The time is what’s allowed for the contract.

Most clients will just repost the same listing
if it expires. It’s not like a haunting just goes
away because of an arbitrary deadline. If you
take longer than the deadline to complete
the gig, the client may or may not pay.

24
Before Tara even sees the contract, the client has to post it. Let’s take
a look at a sample #iHunt contract listing and break it down:
MESSAGING THE FIVE BUTTONS
This is how you connect with the client. If you need The five buttons are how you primarily engage with
job details before accepting, you hit them up here. the app. This is how they work:
But if you ask any questions about money, you can be
reported and lose your account. The company says
they don’t want clients to feel “pressured.” The undo button can cancel your last
contract, if you tap it within ten minutes of
taking the job. After that, you’re obligated to
THE PAY complete it.
This is the base pay for completion. It’s discretionary.
The client can reduce pay by up to 25% without The X button is how you tell the app you don’t
justification. If they score you 2-3 stars, you only get want the contract. Tap this, and it vanishes
50% of the base pay. If you get a one-star review, you from your queue forever.
only bring home 10% of the base rate. Tara says that
a 25% pay cut is fairly common. So when you take a
job, consider the pay to be 75% of the listing and “be The approve button is how you take a job.
pleasantly surprised” when you get full pay. Tap this and it’s yours. You have ten minutes
to cancel, but otherwise you get any additional
Pay can take between 24 and 72 hours to post, job details as well as the client’s direct contact
depending on your bank’s relationship with #iHunt. information.
Sometimes #iHunt pay gets flagged as suspicious
activity, which can lock your account for upwards of
The heart button saves a contract you might
45 days for investigation. That’s rare.
be interested in but don’t want to take. Clients
have an option to offer additional money to
clients who have hearted their contracts.
SHARING BUTTON
If you don’t want to do a job, but know a friend who The cash button is how you outbid someone.
might, you can share it with this. If they successfully It animates for ten minutes after another
pull it off, you get 5% of the contract amount (taken hunter has taken the contract. Tap this, and
out of their cut.) The app doesn’t show all listings you under-cut their rate by 5%. They have ten
normally; an algorithm curates listings for you minutes to counter with an additional 5%. So
specifically. So you may only ever see some contracts on, and so forth, until nobody outbids for ten
through referrals. Nobody really knows the criteria minutes.
the app curates with.
Outbidding is a new feature, and a highly
JOB DESCRIPTION controversial one with hunters. There’s some
evidence that it’s caused fatal conflicts that
The client provides a short description. Sometimes claimed at least four hunters’ lives in San
it’s enough to do the job. But usually you have to Jenaro alone.
consult with the client for the necessary information.
This should detail the basic requirements, and any If you approve of the listing, you can also just swipe
potential bonuses available, usually for quick, quiet, right. If you want it out of your queue, you swipe
or thorough work. left. Unfortunately, Tara says, sometimes accidental
swipes happen, and abandoning a job is grounds for
a one-star review. Hunters affectionately call these
mistakes “Butt Hunting.” When she explained this,
she blushed and glanced away.

25
CHAPTER 1.5:
#PLAYNICE
(PLAYING LIKE A NON-ASSHOLE)
Like we said before, #iHunt is a dark game. Unapologetically
dark. It’s a game about how sick and fucking insufferable late #IHUNT ISN’T KINKY SEX
stage capitalism is, how it destroys people’s lives, and how it I promise you, it’s not. It’s actually a story game where you’re
forces good people to make bad choices. We do all this shit playing monster hunters in the gig economy. Maybe your
with irreverent gallows humor. We laugh at something awful characters do some kinky sex stuff and that’s all cool. Or
to take the edge off, and we smooth over the sting by doing maybe you play with a small group and you do sexypants
some monster ass-kicking. stories that act as foreplay for your orgy after game. That’s
If that doesn’t interest you or you don’t think you can’t great! Or you can also be asexual and totally uncool with
handle that, no judgment, but maybe this isn’t the right game sex at the table. That’s okay too! But the point is, #iHunt is
for you. That’s okay. Not every game is for every person. You a game. Sex is a very specific, very intimate set of behaviors
can even play #iHunt without ever touching on those topics that isn’t really anything like #iHunt. In #iHunt, you’re
if you just want to do escapist monster hunting shit. That’s collaboratively building a story where there has to be room
okay too. But that’s the game, and it’s better to acknowledge for surprises and you have to acknowledge that the worst
that going in than pretend it’s something it isn’t as a way to that can happen under normal circumstances is upsetting
convince yourself you should play something that’s going to fiction despite temporary vulnerability. It’s far more like an
hurt you. You deserve to have fun. And hey, if you normally improv theater game than a BDSM session.
dig it but you need to step away, take a day, take a break, or If someone starts using the language of kink to describe
play something else for a while, that’s cool too. Not everyone methods and tools for play, run so far away. Concepts like
can do dark dark dark day in and day out. safe words don’t fit in #iHunt, because they weren’t developed
This section has rules to help keep the game from dipping for games like #iHunt. They were designed for extremely
into unwanted discomfort and hurt. vulnerable situations where a person’s life can literally be
in another’s hands. If someone’s coopting that language for
a roleplaying game, then either they don’t understand what
RULES, NOT TOOLS that language means and thus are potentially dangerous,
or they’re trying to pressure you into things this game isn’t
This stuff is rules text. It’s not some bullshit, tacked on
meant to do and thus are potentially dangerous. That leads
“sensitivity appendix” or whatever. #iHunt is a game by
us to the golden rule:
and for marginalized people, and it’s intended to be played
with sensitivity at the forefront. The darkness of the game
is tempered with escapism and humor because #iHunt is PLAY WITH PEOPLE YOU TRUST
supposed to be fun and cathartic even when it’s tackling
some harsh as fuck real world shit. And don’t pull any of Seriously. If you don’t trust someone with the depth with which
that gamer garbage like, “this is a roleplaying game so we’re you’re engaging the game, do not play with them. If you’re
encouraged to make up our own house rules.” That’s for how just playing a casual game at a convention, knock yourself
hard it is for a character to jump a fence, not the rule that out. But if someone starts making you uncomfortable, do
says don’t fucking hurt your players. If you’re ignoring the what feels right to address the situation and do not hesitate
basic fundamental essence of #iHunt to be a fucking asshole, to cease playing with that person. If you’re playing a game
you’re so far beyond asshole that you’ve come out the other with friends and one of those friends is kind of a shit, either
end and now your mouth is spewing shit. Go play another don’t play, or don’t engage with a degree of intimacy and
game. vulnerability that will allow them to hurt you.

Consider a game of #iHunt as a series of knobs and dials.

You choose your involvement. Part of that is addressed on
the levels sheet on >>PAGE 29. But on a more organic
level, you know what you’re okay with. If you’re playing with
someone you don’t entirely trust, you need to be mindful of
your boundaries. Do not hesitate to establish and enforce
your boundaries.
COMMERCIAL BREAK WHEN THESE RULES FAIL
#iHunt is structured to feel sort of like a serialized TV show. Look. These rules are all well and good. They do a fairly good
One thing the Director is supposed to do is cut scenes as job of handling most scenarios with most vaguely rational
soon as possible >>PAGE 317. However, every player is adults. But there are terrible people in the world and there
empowered to call for a Commercial Break at any time, even are people who have never been socialized to consider others’
in the middle of a dice roll. feelings and there’s nothing I can do as a game designer to
protect you from that.
A commercial break is a little breather, where everyone
gets up and takes a step away from the game. This can be These rules will not always work, and you cannot let the
to use the restroom, to grab a snack, whatever. But most framing of this game dictate the ways you engage with things
importantly, it can be used to stop and alter a scene in that could hurt you.
progress if it’s not comfortable for a player. A player calling
the commercial break due to uncomfortability—which they I could write at length about all sorts of pretty ideas like,
don’t have to announce to the group as such—is encouraged “what if you put a card on the table that’s red on one side and
to do one of three things: green on the other and you flip it to red any time you need
things to stop but you flip it to green when you want it to go
[ Talk to the Director and request a change of events. If again?” I could. But in my experience that would be doing
something isn’t working, if something doesn’t feel right, you a grave disservice because people who fundamentally
if something just isn’t cool enough, it doesn’t fucking understand sensitivity and the community around play can
matter, the player can make the request and the Director use whatever tools you want to use, but people who don’t
needs to work with it. respect those concepts won’t no matter how many clever
rules you use. In those cases, I find that drawing lines and
[ Talk with another player and request a change in the veiling the game behind too many metagame rules:
current scene. This is a collaborative game, and the other
player is encouraged to Just Fucking Do It. If someone a) Doesn’t actually work because those types of players
asks you to change something, change it. This might will simply escalate when called out on their shit.
just be “fade to black so we don’t have to play through
this,” or it could be a full-on, “I don’t like the way this b) Places an undue burden on the player to remember
scene went and I’d like us to go back ten minutes and do and engage these rules which aren’t necessarily reliable
it this way.” Just do it. or comfortable in the heat of the moment.

[ Leave. If a player needs to leave because they’re feeling Everyone has their own personal tools for facing the world.
uncomfortable, they don’t have to answer to anyone and What works for one person will leave another a quivering
cannot be punished for it. The Director has to either call mess. #iHunt is not therapy. I cannot provide you with
the game off and pick up later (or not,) or continue the surefire tools to address personal conflicts that will arise.
story without the player, explaining it away in the most
Let me be perfectly clear: There is no reason, none at
charitable way possible. Period.
all, that you should ever do anything at a table you’re
“But Olivia... What if a player uses these rules to get a uncomfortable doing. You don’t have to explain yourself.
competitive advantage in the game and then they—” You don’t have to justify it with cards and code words. You
don’t have to play with people who make you uncomfortable.
Jesus Christ just follow the fucking rules. It’s just a fucking Anyone who would make you do something you’re not
game and this is a rule meant to protect people from shit comfortable doing is not your friend and honestly, not
that actually for really real hurts them in the real world. If welcome to play this game.
you don’t trust someone enough to use these kind of rules,
don’t play the game with them. It’s really as simple as that. If
you trust them enough to play with them, then play with the
NO FASCISTS
fucking rules. If you’re a fascist, you’re not welcome to play this game. It’s
against the rules. If you’re reading this and thinking, “You
just call everyone you disagree with a fascist,” then you’re
probably a fascist, or incapable of drawing inferences from
context and acknowledging a dangerous political climate
that causes the oppressed to be hyperbolic. Don’t play this
game. Heal yourself. Grow. Learn. Watch some Mr. Rogers’
Neighborhood or something.
THE LEVELS SHEET THE TOPICS
Everyone’s cool with different levels of shit, and that’s okay. The levels document has a number of topics, which you can
The thing is, like we keep saying, #iHunt is a game. It’s opt-in see on the right. These are intentionally pretty broad. You’re
by its very nature. Nobody’s being forced to play #iHunt. It’s all adults, and it’s important to interpret and navigate these
a leisure activity. By playing, you’re asserting that you want issues live at the table.
this. So it would make sense that the content in the game
should also be positively asserted, right? THE LEVELS
That’s where the levels sheet comes in. There’s two basic Each topic needs to be assigned a level.
ways it gets used; first is in a one-shot game the Director
organizes and provides materials for, and the second is in
a standard series of #iHunt where the players make their
A-OK
hunters and work with the assumption they’ll be playing at This level means you’re completely okay with not only the
least a few episodes of a story. If you’re using another basic topic existing in the game, but it being described in graphic
play format, adapt it to suit. detail, or being a core, driving element of the plot. The Friday
the 13th film series would have “Brutal Murder” at A-OK.
ONE-SHOT PLAY
In this mode of play, the Director has to do a lot of the legwork
ON-SCREEN OK
up-front. This includes the levels sheet. The Director has one This level means it can happen on-screen and to the hunters,
copy of the levels sheet, and fills it out. The sheet becomes an but the troupe shouldn’t belabor the point. If “Brutal Murder”
affirmative statement from the Director that “this is the stuff is On-Screen OK, a slasher killer can stab people to death
I’ve planned for the upcoming game.” It’s a content warning. actively in the story, but maybe you should stray away from
explaining how the victims tried to hold in their guts as blood
Now if you’re Directing a one-shot game, especially with
poured, bubbling from their lips.
strangers like at a convention, you should play it a bit
conservative. If you aren’t really planning for a story that
calls for gratuitous gore, then don’t list it on the levels sheet OFF-SCREEN OK
as such, and don’t push the story in that direction. This level means it’s okay if this topic occurs in the story, but it
Before play, pass around the sheet so everyone’s aware cannot happen in live play. For example, the characters might
of what’s up, and what their expectations are. If someone’s arrive on the scene and find a brutally murdered corpse if
pushing the boundaries of what was on the sheet, call a “Brutal Murder” is Off-Screen OK, because the act of violence
commercial break to address it. occurred off-camera.

STANDARD PLAY HARD LINE

In standard play, every player needs a copy of the levels sheet This level means the topic is completely forbidden at the
to go along with their character sheet. If you’re planning table. It cannot happen on-screen, off-screen, or even in
scrapbooks in advance, then include the levels sheet right background material. If “Sexual Violence” is a Hard Line,
in there. Then the Director needs their own levels sheet. The then players can’t even include it in their hunters’ back stories
Director should use it as an aggregate and note sheet for in any way that would be mentioned in play.
their own reference. Basically, the Director needs to mark the
highest acceptable level on each topic, and note down specific NOT ME
objections. This master document needs to be available to
This level means you’re okay with the topic occurring in play,
everyone, so they’re all aware of the ground rules going in.
but not to your character specifically. This isn’t directly a
level—it modifies the other levels. For example, if you mark
“Loss of Agency” as On-Screen OK, but Not Me, then you’re
alright with it occurring to any other character, but not yours.
A Living Document
On the next page you’ll see the levels sheet. You can also
The levels sheet is considered a “living document,” download it at http://machineage.tokyo or wherever you
this is to say that it can be changed and adapted to bought this game.
suit the changing needs of the game and the players.
Just be communicative and open about it. If you want
to change your levels sheet, it’s your responsibility to
let the Director and the other players know.
 Levels Worksheet
Player:
Character:

K
K

K
en O

en O
en O

en O
ne
ne
Scre

Scre
d Li
Scre

Scre
Me
d Li

Me
K

K
Har
Off-

Off-
A-O

Not
Har

On-

A-O

Not
On-
Bigotry: Racial      Romance     
Bigotry: Religion      Self-Harm     
Bigotry: Sex and Gender      Sex     
Blood      Sexual Violence     
Brutal Murder      Starvation and Deprivation     
Bullying      Torture     
Confined Spaces      Violence to Animals     
Drug Use      Violence to Children     
Gore     
Insects      Other Topics (Write In):
Loss of Agency          
Medical Treatment          
Natural Disasters          
Police and Political Violence          
Pregnancy (Traumatic)          
Physical Restraint or Paralysis          

(You’ve gotta respect how meta this is.)

 Ladies Night Out:
“Remind me again why I can’t just bring
a gun?” I hold up my arms to block Elaine’s

Chapter 2
punches. The pain blended together about
twenty minutes ago. I cried at first, but
eventually I choked it down. I’ve been in a fight

#BLOCKPARTY or two, but I’ve never really been punched

over and over by someone who knew what
she was doing.
“Because if you fire a gun in the city, cops’ll be
on your ass, and police chases are even more
deadly than your average monster.” There’s
something caring in her punches. She’s not
going easy on me—every hit stings as much as
the last—but she’s very intentional, waiting to
make sure I can take it, then hitting in just the
right spots. There’s no trickery. No fucking
around. She wants me to learn to block a
punch. This isn’t about pride or dominance.
I can’t remember the last time I trusted
someone this much. Especially someone
hitting me.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it. That’s why I’m
learning to block a punch. When am I gonna
learn to throw a punch?” Fighting, to me,
was never really presented as an offensive
possibility. Everything I know about fighting
is defensive, stuff like how to hold your keys
when you walk through a dark parking lot. It
feels kind of nice to think that maybe I could
be on the other end of that for once. I’ll be the
one throwing the punches, now.

30
 “You’re not. At least not for a while. Thing What in the fuck is she getting at?
is, punching won’t do you any good unless I roll again, and she slams her foot down. As
you’re really, really good at it. We can’t just she brings it up again, I realize she’s not just
fight these guys—we’ve gotta figure out what gonna stop because I dodge. I don’t know if
hurts them the most, and use that. Silver she’s aware how much I’m hurting, or even if
knives. Protective circles. Cold iron. That she cares.
sort of thing. You’ll learn to punch in time.
But you’ve got to learn the bare essentials While she’s got her leg in the air, I look
first.” She’s starting to punch harder. Every hit around quickly for a solution. There’s nothing
pushes me back a little more. to grab. Nothing except the yoga mat.
So much for being the one who throws the punches. I grab the edges of the mat, put all my weight
into it, and pull. Elaine’s leg flies out from
“Okay. We use tricks. Weaknesses. But what under her, and she falls to the floor, slamming
about when stuff goes wrong? I mean, stuff hard on her tailbone. For a split second, I feel
goes wrong, right? Stuff always goes wrong.” bad—guilty even. But that’s not enough to
Elaine mixes in a kick. I don’t quite put my stop me. I scramble to a crawl, and climb on
arm in the way in time, and buckle over. It top of her, straddling her chest. I don’t know
hurts. It’s a new hurt. A burn in my stomach. I what she wants right now, but all I know is
feel like something must have ruptured. that I need her to stop.
“Yeah. Stuff always goes wrong. That’s why So I throw a punch at her face. It connects,
your single best tool is improvisation. That’s and hurts my fist just about as much as when
why I knew you’d be good. You’re a problem she was hitting me. But it connects, it’s loud,
solver.” and Elaine puts her hands up.
I try to open my mouth, but everything hurts. “Good. That was good. Quick thinking.”
I fall over to the side with a thud, hitting her I hold my fist up, shaking, ready to attack
yoga mat. I look up to her. My vision’s blurry again.
from the pain, from the shock. She brings her
leg up high, like she’s about to kick down at “Let’s get you into a bath. Relax. I put you
me. through hell. You deserve some ice cream
and a massage.”
I feel like if she kicks me again, I might not
survive it. I know she’s trying to teach me. But My jaw quivers, and I keep my fist ready.
this is too much. I want to trust her. I really do. But also, I’m
afraid and I’ll do anything to not hurt like that
I throw my body weight to the side and roll. I again.
don’t have much more control than that. She
brings her foot down hard where I was. I feel “It’s okay.” She says, and leans up to put a
the thud like a shockwave through my body. hand on my fist gently. You’ve got the right
instincts. You’ll kill. You’re a killer.”
She brings her foot up again. I put everything
into another roll. She slams her foot down I release the fist and realize she’s right. I
where I was, and raises it again. want to think about that. I want to linger on
it, to consider what it means. If it’s what I’ve
“This is easier for me than it is for you. I can become, or if it’s what I’ve always been.
do this all day. You can’t.”

Right now, it just hurts too much and I

really need that ice cream.

31
CHAPTER TWO:
#THEPEOPLE
(CHARACTERS)

If you want to jump right into character creation, go to >>PAGE 60.

So you know what #iHunt is. Now we jump into WHO AM I PLAYING?
the #iHunters. These are the protagonists of
our stories, the (not really) heroes of these tales. You’re probably a millennial. Ask a lot of people
The idea is, we’re going to tell you about who what that means, and you’re gonna get a lot of
#iHunters are in the world of #iHunt. You got different answers. For the purpose of #iHunt,
a little of that in the previous chapter, but here millennials are born between 1980 and 2000.
we’ll give some more variety. Then we’re going You’re an adult that grew up in a time when it
to make hunters, with an example in the form of was still cool to joke about “when MTV used to
Isabella (Izzy) from the opening fiction pieces in play music.”
the first three chapters.
You’re lower to middle class. Your parents
If you’re the Director, which is to say probably made more money than you’re making, while
the person owning this book, if you want your not working as hard as you work. They think you
Players to really get #iHunt but don’t want to don’t own a home because you eat too much
take a lot of time, this chapter is a crash course. avocado toast. You can’t fucking afford avocado
Couple it with the pink “What Is iHunt” pages toast unless you get the expired avocado that
from the last chapter and you’re fucking golden. has brown spots on the inside.
The great thing is, most hunters don’t really know
tons about monsters, so the players don’t really You either work your ass off at a day job, or
have to know that stuff. Some do, but they’re not you’ve got some other situation that just barely
the sorts of hunters you should see at the start keeps you not-quite-afloat, like a disability
of play. benefit payment or something like that.

32
WHO AM I PLAYING?
The key, defining factor here is that you are not We’re never allowed getting ahead. When we
a person who is comfortable. There are people in ask for our basic needs, we’re told it’s too much.
the world of #iHunt who hunt monsters because We have to fight for even milquetoast reforms
they’ve got everything they want in life and they that aren’t much better than a disposable plastic
need some thrill and excitement because they’re bandage over a knife wound.
overstimulated. You are not playing those people.
You hunt out of necessity. You hunt because the Even the politicians most praised for social
alternative is so much fucking worse. justice and class consciousness are shareholders
in those 100 corporations, and we’re watching
Without getting too much into political them further those companies’ agendas while
ranting, you’re a person living in a world where people post cheerful fanfiction memes of them
the climate is rapidly elevating to an apocalypse- like they’re our chums and our mischievous
level event, and the 100 corporations responsible uncles. Meanwhile, they’re lying to start wars
for 71% of that apocalypse are reporting record to seize petrochemicals and feed the military
profits while telling you that you need to stop industrial complex’s greed.
using straws.

33
 This isn’t a world that’s a dark mirror of our own. That’s who you’re playing. You’re the blue line,
It’s exactly fucking like our world, except there and there’s no sign it’s getting better, but there’s
are also monsters that have fangs in addition to absolutely fucking signs that the red line’s gonna
the monsters with billions of dollars. go much, much higher. Makes you want to kill
something, doesn’t it?
Maybe there won’t be a tomorrow. So maybe
today it’s not such a big deal to put your life on Here’s a wooden stake. Don’t try to put it
the line for a paycheck on your terms. through the ribcage. That only works on TV. That
shit is hard. You want to jam it down the soft spot
We’ve heard gamers like charts and graphs and in the clavicle right next to the neck. If you do
shit. So I’ve included one for your convenience. it well enough, it goes straight through into the
chest cavity. Or, you just keep hitting until it goes
This is from 2011, from the Congressional
through. You either get the quick win, or you get
Budget Office, so it’s even worse than this today.
to vent some of that frustration.
But you’re that blue line, and the way you’ve
been busting your ass is represented by the Congratulations, you’ve just paid your rent and
green line. The red line is the rich motherfuckers your car insurance for the month.
getting richer off your green line.

Be angry at this shit.

34
WHAT DO I DO? in portraying an #iHunter, it’s important your
character doesn’t stop living just to stay alive, as
I mean, you hunt monsters. You make money. the classic Offspring song “Meaning of Life” said.
You spend money. Repeat, right? But... not (I think I’m supposed to call it classic because it
really. That’s just part of it. Really, the reason was kind of popular when I was growing up.)
you’re hunting is for the cash to stay afloat and
live your life. While your character might not Look at it like a slice of life. Except some of the
have much free time with a two part-time jobs slicing happens to monster necks. The way I
and moonlighting as Abraham fucking Van explain it at the table is, pretend you’re playing
Helsing, your character still has a life. If life isn’t TV characters. It’s important to also give the
worth living, then it’s not worth risking. A hunter audience those moments that make them ship
really needs a bold instinct to survive, and that’s the characters, posting all over Tumblr about this
generally inspired by a fundamental desire to cool moment or that cool moment. Not all the
live. Sometimes it might not feel like it, but, life cool moments should happen in fight scenes.
can be pretty cool. #iHunters argue and make up and fuck and make
cool things and love people and hate people and
As a Player, your job is to not just represent your forget people and damn that’s awkward. They
character’s money struggles and monster hunts, get into stupid feuds on social media and they
but those little bits of grace and awkwardness have very strong opinions about their favorite
and comaraderie and loneliness and whatever season of that TV show that got canceled too
else makes inebriated college students wax soon. They also kill monsters.
philosophical about the meaning of things. So

35
YOU & FRIENDS AGAINST THE
WORLD
Hunter crews aren’t necessarily friends any
The world’s out to get you. You’re held down. more than any coworkers are, but they all have
So what’s your relationship with other hunters? the same struggle, and the same fight. Hell,
While #iHunters can take solo contracts, and sometimes they’re also roommates. They might
often do, this game focuses on the ones who also be coworkers at a day job. Everyone in that
work in groups. How does a hunter group work? call center has bills to pay, and when they clock
There’s two really easy analogies that don’t out at 9pm, maybe they kill an ancient mummy
involve monsters. instead of going to the Buffalo Wing Warlock for
The first is roommates. Take a couple of seconds Trivia Or Die.
to look up the average cost for an apartment in Most of the time, they sort of stumbled upon
major cities compared to the number of hours it one another by chance. Maybe they were on
takes a person to make that much. Living alone’s similar contracts, hunting different monsters in
just not feasible for a lot of people. A handful the same place. Turns out, vampire clubs are full
of people can throw in together and have of vampires that need killing. Hunters can either
some extra cash available, or just have a better piss and moan about territory, or they can work
apartment. With #iHunt, a monster that could together and both have twice the chance to kill
just straight-up fucking murder you one-on-one both their marks.
might not look so tough to four people. Sure, you
only get 25%, but you live to fight another day, Given a little time, they stumble on another
right? Also, four people means a quicker job, so hunter and another, and before too long they’ve
you can move on to the next gig. got this little thing they do and they’re getting
to the point where one of them is ready to quit
The second is political and labor organizing. If their day job and take up organizing hunts for
you’re working at the call center and you put the team as a full-time gig. While the #iHunt
down your phone, cross your arms, and refuse to app is regimented and full of stupid rules and
work until you get a raise, you might as well turn bylaws, hunters organize organically, from each
in your resignation. Your shit is canceled. But get according to their ability, to each according to
forty of your coworkers to all slam down their their need.
phones at the same time, bossman has to listen.
Monsters are kind of like bosses. You can be real
fucking loud and real fucking forceful alone but
it doesn’t really matter because he holds all the
power. Get enough voices together, and that
power dynamic shifts.

36
 1,997,981 BCE: Dawn of humanity. As long as 2004: Lana Moreno joins the forum.
there have been people, there have been people
hunting monsters. 2014: #iHunt is founded, but is in beta. Some
believe the founder was a former messageboard
1,997,980BCE - 1978CE: Hunters learn from member.
other hunters, journeyman-style. With a few
weird exceptions. Isolated hunters spring up here 2015: Another user makes a joke about a post
and there to handle specific problems without by Lana Moreno citing her obvious love for a
training. Some research the occult. These types 90s supernatural drama called DemonKnight.
all know each other purely by word of mouth. They begin to refer to her as "Knight" on the
messageboard despite her (often violent)
1979: The first hunter-focused BBS appears, protests.
networked from various university computer
labs. At this point, the BBS is focused mostly 2016: #iHunt grows in popularity and the
on watching and monitoring monsters. Sorting locations on the internet where hunters and
through the conspiracy theories proves difficult would-be hunters communicate spreads.
at first. Contracts for hunts online funnel to the point
they’re almost all either illegitimate or on the app.
1980: Adrea Cortez is shot 66 times by cops
in the middle of an intersection in San Jenaro 2016: Other hunters who use traditional
California. Since then, deaths involving 66 shots, methods with more traditional training end
stabbings, or other forms of injury pop up in and up lumped in with Lana by members of the
around San Jenaro law enforcement. community, often being called KNIGHTS as
shorthand.
1980: Infamous BBS user filmuserinterface (FUI)
created an invite-only newsgroup for people he 2017: Hunters who had previously been
considered "legit," shortly after Cortez's death. community-focused and learned their trade in
It and other 66 incidences were major topics on isolation begin to run into other sorts of hunters
the newsgroup. A messageboard followed six thanks to #iHunt and the online communities.
months later with slightly more open invitation. Thanks to some connection to the thirty year old
66 killings, these sorts of hunters are commonly
1983: Hunters on the messageboard who referred to as THE 66.
push for heavier uses of technology in tracking
monsters and finding clients to help fund hunting While hunters frequently communicate and
start to use the nickname PHOOEY, a phonetic plan on the internet in various places, iHunt
play on the board founder’s screen name. has consumed the market of getting hunters to
clients and vice versa. For now, anyway.
1985: In a famous argument between FUI and
another board member, hunters who prefer to
draw from ancient knowledge and occult studies
to hunt end up with the nickname EVILEENAS.
Over time, the teasing nickname becomes a term
of affection more than an insult.

37
 DIVERSITY IN TACTICS
Everyone hunts differently. Even without any
sort of formal training, every hunter approaches
every hunt a little differently than another
hunter would. Hunters informally divide these
general approaches to the hunt into what are
called “Kinks.” You can find more about those
on page 22. There are four main Kinks. But
there are highly-focused, regional, and esoteric
approaches that don’t fit cleanly into those four.
This is an excuse for us to make supplementary
content you hopefully want to buy.

But for now, this is what you should know:

[ Evileenas are the info nerds. They hunt with

knowledge.
[ Knights are fighters. They win by kicking the
most ass.
[ Phooeys are tech wizards. They fight with
tools.
[ The 66 fights with communities. They know
people.

DIVERSITY IN SKILLS
You don’t really go to hunter school. There used
to be formal monster hunting schools, but
almost all have vanished in the last few decades.
There are even some families that have hunted
monsters for centuries, but those hunters don’t
use #iHunt (and they tend to be effete arseholes
from “the Old World.”)

iHunters hunt with whatever they bring

to the table. If you’re a boxer, you hunt with
punching. If you’re a skateboarder, you hunt
with a skateboard. If you’re a DJ, you hunt with
music. Now, if you discount hyperbole about
Smashmouth memes, music doesn’t really kill
people. But use it cleverly, and you’ve got one
tool in a box. Get a few hunters together with
other tools, and you start to see creative solutions
all over the place. That’s one huge advantage to
the group dynamic—nobody has to carry all the
skills for the team.

When you’re coming up with your hunters,

diversify. It’s not gonna break the game if more
than one hunter’s good at one thing or another,
but it’s best if everyone has a place they can
shine.

38
DIVERSITY IN AVAILABILITY
Remember how we said that hunters tend to
work other jobs? When you’re working the night
shift at Lobster & Steak, you can’t just tell the
shift supervisor, “Oh, I’ve got to go kill a vampire,
no big deal. I’ll be back to help clean up the
grill.” Hell, even if your shift supervisor is also an
#iHunter, they’re not going to give a shit because
you need to cover the grill right then, right there.

A diverse group means a better saturation of

availability. Sometimes you’ll find a hunter crew
that all work together in their day jobs, but it’s
fairly rare. More likely, a crew will have members
who work 9-5 (well, 9-7 to be honest, this is 2019,)
members who work service jobs that demand
weekend and evening hours, factory workers
who work four very long nights a week, and any
combination of other times.

This of course can lead to conflicts within a

group when a member who works 70 hour
weeks can’t commit to as much hunting work as
a person with a stable 40 hour job.

DIVERSITY IN EXPERIENCES
A bishop, a nun, and a rabbi walk into a bar. Stop
me if you’ve heard this one. The bishop gets
invited to political fundraisers. The nun talks to
everyone at the homeless shelters. The rabbi’s
shul mostly works in the shipping industry on
the west side of town. Between the three of
them, there’s not a vampire in the city that can
go unnoticed.

You can learn to shoot a gun and what plants

you can burn to repel demons. You can’t just learn
an upbringing. Different people fit in different
places. There are just some environments
where you’ll always be an outsider. On the hunt,
this means it’s valuable to have diversity of
experiences, so you can hit on all angles.

Maybe you don’t have someone who can walk

into a rich person’s party through the front door,
but you have someone who can get a gig doing
catering at that party because they know who
to talk to, so they can march right in the back.
That’s just as valuable, maybe more. iHunters
do best when they can walk unnoticed, when
they’re “the help” that nobody gives a shit about
while they’re off doing their dirty work.

Let’s break it down with a few sample crews,

just to give you an idea of how this might work in
practice. Then we’ll jump into Kinks.

39
SAN FILIPE STAKE AND SHAKE [ Frankie: The gang’s PHOOEY. She’s a car guy.
Frank, Phoebe, Thelma, and Shaky live on the Van guy? Van girl? She keeps the van souped up
road with their puppy named Groovy. They’re and running strong, with a silver-plated bumper
technically a band even though nobody really custom-designed for werewolf slaying.
shows up for their shows. They get a few bucks [ Phoebe: The gang’s KNIGHT. Her dad was an army
from every tour stop, do an #iHunt contract, and tactician, and she takes after dear old dad even
move on to the next city. Even though their songs if she was the family black sheep. She makes the
all sound the same and Shaky can’t keep a beat, gang fight like a well-oiled machine.
they’ve become expert occult investigators and
living in an old conversion van means no rent. [ Thelma: The gang EVILEENA. She’s a mousy nerd
by day, and a mousy nerd who casts spells you can
They’re also sort of a loose polycule, but they only cast under moonlight by night.
don’t make a big deal out of it. It’s hard to date
non-hunters, and anyone outside the crew is [ Shaky: The gang 66. He saved Groovy from a life
just competition for gigs, which makes fucking as a drug-sniffing dog, and he’s deeply invested in
totally a chore. “No, Darla, I didn’t take this job safe drug culture.
because I was jealous. Sometimes it’s just about
money.”

40
THE ELEPHANT SHOW [ Sharon: She’s the team KNIGHT. By day, she’s a
Sharon and Lois started hunting and dating gym teacher, because of course she is. A broken
around the same time. They were hunting knee ended her career in Tae Kwon Do. But that
a dragon, Dungeons & style. Well, actually it doesn’t stop her from hunting.
wasn’t a dragon. It was a mutated crocodile.
[ Lois: Lois is the team PHOOEY. Zhe was a metal
Anyway, they were in the sewer system and
shop and robotics teacher before budget cuts.
ran into Graham, who was also hired to hunt it.
Now zhe teaches health class or some shit. But zhe
Long story short, they saved Graham’s life. Then
still has a robot lab.
Graham saved theirs. It was a weird coincidence
because they all knew each other from their day [ Graham: Graham’s the team EVILEENA. He’s the
jobs at Cesar Chavez High School in Modena school librarian by day, the, um, team librarian by
Beach. Now they’re hunting, they’ve moved in night? He’s cute in a sweater vest.
together, and Lois is expecting.

JOE STARS [ Joe: He’s the family KNIGHT. As a teen, he was

always in and out of police stations for fighting.
Joe, Jo, and Jio are technically relatives, in that weird He seemed bound for prison. But now? Now he’s
“everyone who visits during holidays is extended family fucking unstoppable and nobody’s ever going to
even if we’re not sure who is married to who.” They tell him that punching vampires is bad.
call each other “cousin.” They hunt together because
they all stumbled upon #iHunt when a vampire with [ Jo: She’s the family PHOOEY. Mom left the old
a strange stone mask killed one of their uncles, one of country after some controversy with a car bomb,
their fathers, one of their cousins (all technically the and Jo inherited some of her tricks.
same guy.) [ Jio: She’s also the family KNIGHT. She was doing
carjacking and breaking and entering before she
started hunting. Well, she’s still doing that. But
they’re vampires’ cars, and she runs the owners
over with them.

Alright. There’s the sample crews. I could Remember how very early on, I said the game’s
probably come up with thinly-veiled pop culture kind of like a conversation? Making your crew is
references all day, so I’m just gonna stop. You definitely a conversation you need to have. Work
get the idea, right? The group needs a dynamic. together to build a cohesive team. If everyone
The group needs members that fill a number of walks away thinking everyone else’s character is
niches. As you come up with these characters, cool and interesting, you win at everything and
you don’t necessarily have to know exactly what should be proud of yourselves. Perhaps consider
and how they hunt on the regular, but a lot of getting yourself some candy in celebration.
times as the characters come to life, so will the
way they hunt together.

41
WHAT IS YOUR KINK?
(Or: How to use this section.)

A couple of things to get out of the way first: OPENING TEXT STUFF
[ This is in bullet points because we like them. This is a short description to give you, the Player,
an idea of what it looks like when hunters with
[ Your Kink is just a formalized way to describe how
with Kink do their thing. Just a taste of what’s to
you get an edge on monsters when hunting. It’s
come.
nothing innate necessarily. Being a Knight doesn’t
mean you never do anything like an Evileena.
Starting out in The 66 doesn’t mean you won’t AT YOUR BEST...
some day call yourself a Phooey.
At your best is broken into three groupings.
[ These groups are not organized. Not by #iHunt, These reflect specialized behaviors within that
not by hunters. Nobody. They aren’t teams or kink. You know, roughly, what a Phooey does
clubs. They’re simply descriptions that fit a certain to hunt monsters, but that doesn’t mean all of
sort of hunter. Imagine having to convince another them can hack a computer network. Not every
hunter you’re who they need to get a job done in a 66 knows how to start a riot.
text message. It’s like that. Being in The 66 doesn’t
give you any special loyalty to any other 66. These aren’t formal groups. Not that Kinks
are formal groups in the first place, but these
[ Using the term Kink to define how you go about are more... topics of conversation that come up
killing monsters is a sort squicky for the sex- around these informal groups. They’re trends
positive types. That’s valid. But in-setting, it grew within those broader methodologies. You don’t
organically as a good way to have a conversation have to pick one, but thinking about the Kinks
about how you hunt in semi-public spaces like the in these terms will help understand where their
Internet in a way that causes most people to check Kink Stunts come from.
out immediately. Not all hunters refer to their
methodologies as their Kinks. In-setting, hunters WHEN YOU GREW UP...
still argue about how Kink is a bad word for hunting.
Nobody’s proposed an alternative that’s stuck. This section gives you three fast seeds to get
started when you’re fleshing out your character.
[ Like calling them Kinks, not every hunter defines These are idea seeds, just to help you get some
themselves by the nicknames used here. It’s usually inspiration for who your hunter is.
more the other way around. You might not call
yourself a Phooey, but others would call you one. That said, you should have a sentence in mind
to explain why you hunt and maybe how you ran
[ These are starting points for building a character. into the app. More on that later.
Only starting points. Tweak what you want. We’re
not going to show up at your game and judge you.
(That’s what forum posts are for.)
AT YOUR WORST...
Being focused on how you do what you do is
NICKNAME good. But there are downsides to focus. (Fun fact:
You can’t actually survive hunting without some
Just the common nickname this sort of hunter kind of focus. Hence your Kink.) So this is a list
might use to define their hunting style. It’s of some common shortcomings among hunters
important to note, these change. Right now, with this Kink. Pick one or make one. As with
in 2019, these are the most common terms. By your background, you can tweak it a bit or come
2020, the trends might have changed. Language up with your own in the same vein. However you
shifts. Trends evolve. Deal with it. The only thing want to do it, you need to have a weakness for
we can be sure of is that young people will the sake of drama and good storytelling. For
continue to make new names for things. many hunters, this weakness is how you end up
finding that last fair fight. For others it’s just why
they’re always broke. YMMV.

42
MONSTERS? IN YOUR KIT...
This is a small spectrum of opinions an average Depending on your Kink, you have access to
hunter with this Kink might hold on monsters in a particular set of stunts. We call these “Kink
general. Pick one, tweak it, play it straight, it’s up Stunts.” Yeah that sounds weird. No, we’re not
to you. But be ready to tell the Director and other going to apologize for it. Every one of these
players what your character generally thinks sections calls this something different. Like,
about the monsters they hunt. Your character’s Evileenas call their Kink Stunts “Evileena Lores.”
default opinion will probably change over time,
but at the start of play, it’s important to know Kink Stunts are typically stronger than normal
how they engage with the hunt and the targets stunts. They’re not really available to just
of it. anyone­—they reflect a bit of insider information
and training that these informal groups share.
Why yes, technically a Knight could learn
WHEN YOU WORK WITH OTHERS... Evileena Kink Stunts, but in practice, that’s not
Keeping in mind, of course, that Kinks are too common. You can’t start play with another
not organizations, this section is less about Kink’s Stunt. If you want to buy one with a selfie
stereotypes of other hunter groups, and more >>PAGE 121, then you have to have a damn
how you might hunt along side a hunter with good reason for why you learned it. And don’t
a different Kink. Don’t get hung up on your be a shithead—if someone in the team already
character having a huge sweeping opinion on has a given Kink Stunt, don’t overshadow their
all Evileenas. (If they do, that’s a personal thing expertise by taking it.
rather than something assumed in-setting.) No You get the first Kink Stunt for free, just by
hunter makes it entirely on their own, and these being part of your Kink. It’s a sort of foundational
are starting place ideas for how you can make ability which helps build toward all the later ones.
your money while working with someone who Then there are three other stunts, one for each
can do something you can’t do. of the “At Your Best” groups. You can buy one of
those at character creation by spending one of
your starting refresh.

43
 ”When I hunt,
I steal fire
from the gods. ”

44
 You take what monsters don’t want you to know and use it against
them. They hide clues, truths, wisdom, and power in texts and
traditions then lock them away and keep them for themselves.
The secret, the profane, the forbidden should be shared with the
world, even if the world isn’t willing to use it. Because if we don’t
use every tool at our disposal, some day, darkness will overtake
the world. Which is a really really dramatic way to say, fuck the
shadows, bind them, burn them, bring them to ash.

AT YOUR BEST...
You duck left while your team goes right after the nest. It’s all part of the plan. But the
spider god was said to have a massive collection of Rosicrucian texts. You know exactly
what title and what volume you need while Jimboy and Left-Eye are crushing the offspring.
But... It wouldn’t hurt to grab two of these related texts before you all make scarce, right?
You’re a WATCHER. A full throttle action librarian every nerd says they want to be but don’t
have the guts to go in for. It involved a lot of weight lifting, to be honest. Books are heavy.
You dust off your hands and look around the room. Salt of angel tears? Check. Homemade
sacred palm oil? Check. Fourth Greater Circle of Purity drawn on the floor? Close enough.
They’re still not sure if this is going to work. You’re like... 99% on it. Which is better than
98% right? Nothing to do but set fire to the oil and scream the name of the Unspoken.
You flick through a few motivational posts on Instagram first, then drop the match to the
oil. You’re an ARCANIST. You’re not a sorcerer, or even a proper witch, but you’ve learned
enough tricks along the way to use their own shit against them. Protection is for everyone,
it has to be.
You know that most of that alchemy stuff was metaphor or written in code to keep the
proles from getting at the good stuff. Which is such bullshit. That’s why you’ve got a Youtube
channel where you unpack the ancient recipes you come across on the hunt. You call it
fiction. Other hunters know it isn’t. They pay for what you make, which is good, because
finding a vegan replacement for ambergris is kind of expensive. You are an ALCHEMIST.
Basically, you make magical potions to keep your friends on their feet or give yourself an
edge when you hunt solo. Some of this stuff is more dangerous than heroin, so it’s a fine
line to walk, but no one signed up for #iHunt as a long term solution.
 GROWING UP...
You had this spooky aunt no one liked to talk to. Only, you knew she was the real deal because she’d
shown you a trick or two. When men in suits took her away it was like everyone else forgot she’d ever
existed. Looking for her led you to #iHunt and other people in need.
You were raised on a movie set. You were in that one movie where a few kids ran into spooky stuff on
bikes? You’re addicted to horror movies. The thing is, horror movies tell the truth, at least symbolically.
The trends than persist through to the medium, well, they’re powerful. Powerful enough to use a lot of
that stuff as a starting point for your research and your hunt.
You were raised in a cult, actually. It was all very One with the Universe gentle vegan feminist stuff
until the charismatic leader started worshiping something horrible. It ate everyone, but you made it out.
Some days, you wish you could go back to when your life was simpler.

AT YOUR WORST...
You believe in fairies. You’ve seen enough beyond the natural to know that there’s magic and
intrigue everywhere. But sometimes, you want that magic of the universe to solve problems for
you. Sometimes it does. Most of the time it doesn’t.
You overload with information. All of this is so interesting to you. There are so many connections.
The web of knowledge is vast and tightly interwoven. When people put time limits on answering
their questions, you know you’ve got caught up in your own head again.
You see the occult where it just isn’t. Not everything is the work of ancient vampires. Not every
storm cloud is an omen. Not every unlucky song is a hex-song.

MONSTERS...
• “I really wish we had more time to understand it before we had to put it down. Well.
Next time maybe.”
• “Not all of them, but this one? I think we can stop this one without killing it.
• “Gold’s not getting any cheaper. You want a transmutation agent, you’re going to
have to put down some high ticket monster. It’s not any more complicated than that.”

WHEN WORKING WITH OTHERS...

You tend to enjoy your time working with PHOOEYS. When they can stop looking down
their nose at you long enough to realize you’re right about the arcane.
You tend to get very anxious when working with KNIGHTS. They get results, and for the

46
greater good that’s good. But. So much violence.
You tend to have great working relationships with THE 66. You are often the first place
they turn coming up, assuming they don’t run into witches first. Which suits you fine.
 L AT...
MARVE
EVILEENA LORE!
KNOW STUFF
Evileenas are all about the knowledge. This basic stunt lets you “hold on to” a situational aspect
related to your knowledge of monsters. You can keep one such aspect as long as you’d like, and it gets
one free invoke in any scene where it’s relevant. But to take a new aspect, you have to abandon the
other, letting it fade away into nothingness.

Library-Fu
The WATCHERS developed this trick which to the dismay of many is not a recognized martial art
form. It makes you super good at research montages. When you have a scene dedicated to research,
you always have the edge. Also, so long as you have access to a situational aspect related to some
research you’ve done, you can use the Academic or Occultist skill sets for defend actions. This has to
reflect something like protective amulets, salt circles, advanced economic theory, or other stuff you’ve
dug up for protection.

”Potions”
ALCHEMISTS can make “potions,” which are kind of like normal drugs except they come in dorky
bottles. Alchemist potions make you stronger, faster, hotter, awesomer. If you invest a fate point in
making a potion, you can tie it to an aspect you make up for its effects. Any time someone drinks it,
they get that aspect and two free invokes. If it’s a poison or negative potion, the aspect can exist only for
compels, and you get two free ones if you can get some poor sonofabitch to drink it.

Witchcrap
ARCANISTS study literal magic. Real minor magic, but magic. Every time you take this Stunt, you
can choose two ranks in magical gifts to represent your weird magical knowledge. But if you take
something else, you’ve got to figure out how your character does it with simple ritual and sigil style
magic. The magical gifts start on >>PAGE 243.
 Some hunters
fight with
knowledge.

Some fight
with tech.

Some fight
with people.

Me?

I fight

48
with fighting.
 You overcome your quarry with overwhelming force.
There can be finesse behind the application of your
force, but the force is the key here. Surgical strikes are
great as long as they come with a lot violence. You’re not
a surgeon with a knife. You’re a surgeon with a shotgun.

You may come from a more traditional hunting background, or else you’re just an adrenaline junky who picked
up a baseball bat one day and said, “I’ve had enough of this shit.”
When it comes to what you’re putting on the line, it’s your body. You call your left fist Shock and your right fist
Awe, and most hunters are too intimidated to point out how silly that is.

At Your Best You take a hit off of your inhaler and check your
watch at the same time. Most other hunters
You duck down behind a parked car because would panic being pinned down like you. But
the fucking wizard is throwing fireballs at you. they don’t know what you do. Your watch rolls
Fucking wizards. However, in ducking down, over to 12:01 and you hear distant explosions.
you notice some shithead has left the keys in the Betty pulled through just like you knew she
viser of the car because he apparently doesn’t would. The power grid for the whole block goes
know what neighborhood this is. You break the out, and Left-Eye and Jimboy breach the door.
fourth wall to grin at the audience and climb in You duck as they open fire on the shamblers just
to the car. Fireballs don’t beat Chrysler grill. Not behind you. Everything according to plan. Now
when there’s a solid brick wall you can drive him you’re worried. You’re a PLAYER. You use your
into. You are an OPERATIVE. The world around unit, your team, as an extension of your own
you is an extension of you body, and you use all body. It means putting them on the line the way
of it. Parkour, parked cars, or park gates. It’s all other Knights put themselves there, but loyalty
good for bringing down your quarry. goes a long way. As does skill.
You hop up and put your feet on the wall behind
you to push with the whole of your body to GROWING UP
shove your quarry back against the meat hook You were formally trained. You learned from
on the wall. When the vampire flails backward, another, more experienced hunter. They found
you tuck in to control your fall so you can land you covered in your family’s blood. You saw
on your terms. This is all about on your terms. what cannot be unseen and so they took you
The meathook still isn’t in far enough, and you under their wing. They’re gone. They’ve taught
wonder what your gymnastics coach would you everything they could.
think about you cartwheeling over to kick with
You learned all of this shit in the military as
your full force to push him the rest of the way
part of a now defunct op. You weren’t anyone in
onto it. You’re a HITTER. Your body is a tool and
charge, you just got your training and were sent
no one knows it like you do. You weren’t born for
off to die. Only you’d didn’t. They did. And now
this work, you honed yourself full time most of
you’ve got a lot of skills in a society that doesn’t
your life and it’s paying off.
have much room for professional murders.

49
 Were a natural talent. A sort of murder protege.
You’ve got a juvenile record for killing that guy
Monsters
when you were 14, but it wasn’t a guy, and [ “Fuck ‘em, I need rent.”
before you found the app, you never realized
there would be people who might believe you. [ “No one is going to get hurt by this fucker
again. Stuff your pity parade. If they didn’t
At Your WORST do something awful first, no one would
have hired me.”
You ignore the flesh. When you start thinking
about your body as a tool, you forget you have [ “I don’t make it personal or get invested.
to live in it. You take a lot of risks people who Trying to understand what is and isn’t a
plan to have full lives don’t take. But you weren’t monster and what that means? That’s a trip
going to retire anyway, right? I’m not taking.”

You’re only happy when you’re high. That might

be drugs, but the drugs are just your way of OTHERS
surviving through to the adrenaline rush.
You have a a PHOOEY on speed dial to lend
You’re not suicidal per se, but kind of waiting to
support without hesitation. Mad respect. You
die. Looking for the mistake that’s going to get
just don’t hang out with them after.
you out of this nightmare. You takes risks no one
should take. If you had something better to live You’ll contact an EVILEENA when you’re totally
for, you could get past this, but for now you’re stuck, but have to get pretty short with them
too tired to live and too stubborn to die. to make sure they don’t inundate you with too
much info. You’ll crash with one, because their
movie collection is probably pretty cool.
You try to respect THE 66’s turf whenever
possible, and are pretty happy to trade skills.
You’ll smoke a joint with them when all is said
and done, if they’re into it.

U 326 HUNTER FEATURE STORY

The Knight’s Code

+ Lana The Impaler
Nov 6 - 2 min read

c Technically, I’m why Knights are called Knights. I liked a show called Demon
Knight when I was 16, and I’m never going to live that down. Because of this,
people keep asking me to do a “Knight Manifesto” or some shit.

At risk of getting too pretentious, being a Knight (god I hate that word) is sort
of “non-philosophy.” Phooeys do tech. Evileenas do info. Knights? As far as I’m
concerned we’re the default state. It’s not like I don’t use tech in a fight. I do my
research when I need to. People lump me in as a Knight because when it all comes
down to it, the only thing that matters is that I get the job done, and the job is
usually “killing shit.” Just happens that if your goal is killing shit that only dies in
certain specific ways, killing shit means hitting it real hard with something pointy.

50
 K night
Arsenal S
The Best Defense
The basic Knight stunt teaches you that the best defense is a good offense. Since you’re a badass
Knight, you’re liable to do something fucking menacing and hit some motherfucker really hard. When
you get a good attack action roll, you can spend a fate point to “seal in” that roll. Resolve the attack like
normal, but jot down the total you got, after all invokes and skills and everything are added in.

At any time in the same game session when you’re making a defend action, you can opt to “spend”
that saved up roll, and use it instead of your defend action. You can do this after your roll, just like with
an invoke. But it replaces the roll result instead of adding to it.

Situational Awareness
OPERATIVES are really good at dealing with the world around them. Any time you’re compelled or
imperilled by a situational aspect relating somehow to the physical environment, you get a boost. It
doesn’t matter if you pay to refuse it, if you accept it, whatever. You find a way to flip the situation in your
favor. Additionally, any time you make an aspect reflecting your ability to repurpose the environment
into a weapon, it invokes for +3 instead of +2.

Don’t Hurt
Pain Don’
HITTERS learn to push their bodies beyond what any reasonable human should, and come back
punching. When you’re hit by a physical source of harm, you can spend a fate point to ignore some of
that harm and turn it back around on your attacker. Reduce the hit by 2, and take a boost. You can only
do this once per hit. Also, any time you take a major consequence, you immediately get the edge.

Team spirit
PLAYERS use the team as a weapon. Any time someone in your team acts according to plan and
spends a fate point to invoke a situational aspect you created, it gets a free invoke. Once per game
session, you can spend a fate point to reverse an action after the roll is made. Essentially, you say, “Aha,
I was planning for that!” Then you explain your contingency. The action gets restated, return all the fate
points spent on the initial action, then resolve it anew.
52
 You use tools because that’s what separates us from the animals, right?
But more importantly, tools are what separates us from monsters. om
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.
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 GROWING UP...
You were told you’d never be “normal” and sending you to normal school would be dangerous.
Face-to-face communication is very difficult for you, people don’t say what they mean with their
words or their expressions. But online you can learn all the stuff they all tried to hide from you. You
like the truth a lot.

You remember the first time you took apart your dad’s Apple IIe and almost caught the belt until
you proved you could put it back together. Since then you’ve dodged a lot of beatings by being able
to fix and destroy stuff. Hunting became a natural extension of that.
You knew girls don’t get into STEM. Even if the cute posters and ad campaigns say it’s safe now, it isn’t.
Your male classmates actively sabotaged your degree at UC San Jenaro so you can’t find work no matter
how brilliant your engineering is. You’ll show them. You’ll show them all.

AT YOUR WORST...
You know that technically, technology doesn’t reach everywhere. Not yet. Which means you have to
be careful in situations where that’s true. Or. You should be careful. But in reality you often deal with
situations where technology can’t fix things by ignoring the facts and hitting it with your computer
until it works. Or you fail.

You see, just because you CAN reroute the entire building’s security system through a smart
phone doesn’t mean you actually need to? Sometimes you just need to sneak in the back door and
drug the security guard. But sometimes you just prefer the complicated as long as it makes you look
cool.

You know there’s a fine line between “classic” and “outdated” but you see it as miles wide. If you’ve
determined something is the second and not the first, you want nothing to do with it. Even if it’s,
say, a historical document that might clue you in on how to kill the monster. You need the original.

MONSTERS...
[ “Monsters are old. Dinosaurs will die.”

[ “Day by day, we’re growing to understand our ideas of sentience and even sapience are
broadening. What it is to be human will be redefined to make room for uplifted dolphins,
robots, AI and who knows what else. But monsters? Yeah. Well. I gotta eat long enough to
see that future.”

[ “lul whut?”

WHEN YOU WORK WITH OTHERS...

You give a KNIGHT a hard time. A real hard time. But the fact is you’re always glad to have one around.
Better them than you.
You give EVILEENAS a really hard time. Honestly, what are they even doing? Your best hope is to rub off
on them and teach them to live in the same century as the rest of you.

54
You don’t give THE 66 a hard time because, frankly, they probably don’t need you as much as you need
them. While they might not be able to hack into a corporate database, they know ways to get a secretary
to just hand them a printout. Mad props tho.

54
 BASIC PROTOCOL: PHOOEY CACHE
Phooeys do tools and tech. They solve problems. If they have access to even rudimentary tools,
once per scene they can eliminate a situational aspect without needing to overcome it or anything.
They flip a switch, hit a button, unplug something, and it’s fixed so long as a tool could fix it.

HACKERS REFERENCE
HACKERS do shit with computers. Hack the Planet, or some shit, right? With this stunt, so long as
the edge hasn’t already been established, and your action ties directly to using a computer, you
start with the edge. Whenever you create a situational aspect using a computer system that’s
attached to another character, any effort to overcome it is made at a threshold equal to your
Hacker skill set. If you’re actively opposing the action, take +2. If you can do it with a computer, you
can always imperil aspects against someone, once per scene.

FANCY DRIVING
DRIVERS drive. Any aspect that you create around your vehicles or drones gain an additional
free invoke. Additionally, any defend action you make while driving or piloting gets +2.

The Driving Skill Set?

Okay so what skills set do you use to drive? Good question. Depends what you’re doing. It
could be Guerrilla, Athlete, Influencer, Spy, Fighter... Think your approach and goals.

ANARCHY IN THE IHUNT

Phooeys make things. ANARCHISTS make things broken. Any overcome or create an advantage
action based around destroying something gets +2. If successful, you get to make an additional free
aspect with a single free invoke, usually relating to distraction, confusion, or complication arising
from the destroyed thing.

55
 EOPLEFIGHTTOPROTECTTHEPEOPLE THEPEOPLEFIGHTTOPROTECT

EOPLEFIGHTTOPROTECTTHEP
THEPEOPLEFIGHTTOPROTECTTHEP
When you hunt, you get word back from a couple of kids, they all say
the same thing. Monster’s on the move. As planned, the car that “broke
down” northbound on Maple directs the flow of traffic, boxing in your
quarry. You hear sirens en route, but timing is everything. They’ll get there
just after you make your shot, you know, because you know exactly how
fast cop cars take the turn at Wells and Largo. This is your part of the city,
and the monster pretending to be a Councilman picked the wrong ward
to infect.

AT YOUR BEST...
You have the right bag but the wrong shoes. So it’s going to be super
important to keep their eyes on your smile. You don’t belong, but as long
as you don’t let on you know that, they won’t know. You’re in a sea of
predators and your job is to record your target saying a few words. That’s
it. In and Out. Easy. That is, until you see your crooked ex husband is at
the same table as the monster you need to kill. You’re a FACE. You blend,
you sneak in, you navigate complicated social interactions the way some
people breathe. You know when to be noticed and when to disappear. Like
a ninja in a prison guard uniform—or a cocktail dress.

You know Benny the Butch is big time and has been big time since 1910.
For a vampire gangster he’s kind of alright. Fair anyway. You also know
if this team of hunters you’re with really wants to take down the plague
demon you’ve been hired to handle, its going to mean working with Benny.
You’re about 85% you can get him to play ball IF Wendy doesn’t freak and
blow the whole thing by staking the old monsters. You’re a CUTOUT. A
trusted go-between. You’re got a nack for appearing neutral and getting
two parties to come to some sort of agreement. You know people. All
kinds of people. Even “people” in scare quotes. Comes with the job.

You’ve been handing out leaflets for about three weeks now, but that was
sort of a cover for the rest of the operation. See. Everyone knows Kamiel is
only in prison to cover for a cop. They just don’t know that cop fucked up
because he’s an infected werewolf. Something’s gotta give, and the media
needs to know about Kamiel’s situation. But more importantly, if things
get tough, they’re gonna sneak that shitty cop out the backdoor and off
to his suburban home. You’re just there to make sure when the riot starts
and the pig runs, he doesn’t get very far. You’re an AGITATOR. You use
the pressure of the people to corner your targets. It’s not about putting
protesters on the line, mitigating harm is part of the job. But it is about

57
making sure monsters remember angry mobs with torches and pitchforks
when they decide if they’re going to do evil or not.
 You’ve erased yourself. You’ve played so many
GROWING UP... parts, or martyred yoruself for others so many
times that who you are is a mystery even to
You were raised a good Catholic. You still stick you. You’re a mask without a face under it,
around the Church because your Bishop is and without the emotional labor to define you,
pretty chill and the community is so strong. you’re kind of nothing.
You’ve left the dogma behind, but, what you’ve
picked up, on hunting monsters that threaten
your community from the nuns? Priceless.
MONSTERS
You did three years for a possession charge.
“9 times out of 10, monsters are just people
Three years was a long time to think. To plan.
the system failed. Hunting is a necessary evil.
The fucker, the monster that flooded your
But I for one want to work on the conditions
block with dangerously addictive drugs and
that cause them in the first place.”
trafficking? Yeah. You’ve had three years to
work out and think about how to get at him. “He came into my neighborhood to make
You’re more than ready. some noise. I’m louder. We’re having a party
tonight, kids.”
You were everyone’s Aspiration party.
“Look how far she’s gotten in life with her… “Found a witch, no shit. Real honest to God
limitations.” It’s bullshit and ablist as fuck. But witch. She was cool. Didn’t have to kill her, which
on the bright side, they have no idea how much was real dope. Anyway, not taking contracts
you pull off from your chair and your boring from that client again. Motherfucker.”
job at County Records.

WORKING WITH OTHERS

AT YOUR WORST... You’re cool with KNIGHTS. But their collateral
You have too much faith in people. You know damage is usually too high, so you keep ‘em
everyone is capable of better, you know the hell out of your personal work.
it deep down in your soul. So when you’re
disapointed, as you often are, it gets hard for a You’re cool with PHOOEYS. But sometimes it
while. You’ve toughend up over the years, but doesn’t feel like they live in the real world. Half
the pang happens regadless of how much you the kids in your neighborhood don’t have free
let it effect you. wi-fi at the library, so… a lot of their solutions
just don’t work where you’re from.
You have no faith in anyone. You’ve seen behind
the masks of so many monsters and so many You’re cool with EVILEENAS. But they’re kinda
people that you’ve developed a real cynicism. weird. They’re not just in another world, they’re
What’s the saying? People are basically good on another planet. But some of that magic shit
and deserve saving? You believe the second works so, okay.
part of that.
66 Street Knowledge
People who know people
The basic foundation of 66 work involves knowing people all over. When you spend a fate
point to declare a scene detail, and that scene detail is a character you know, that person is an
expert. Either they have a relevant skill set at 4, or they have it at 3 and have a small group at
their disposal. As well, make a situational aspect based on that character, with one free invoke.

Deep Cover
A FACE blends in. A good Face does their homework to sell the story, and learns their craft
well. When you create an advantage relating to blending in with a subculture or clique you
don’t belong to, you can choose a relevant skill set that relates to that group’s expected area of
expertise. As long as that aspect exists and remains relevant, you have access to that skill set
at 3. Alternatively, choose one stunt related to that skill set, and you can use that stunt. You can
only have one such aspect/skill set at a time.

Diplomatic Immunity
CUTOUTS make connections. They act as go-betweens. You’re good at getting the upnod or
blessing from the enemy, even. Since you tend to hunt societal predators, you’re good at getting
their superiors and peers to kindly look the other way. If you create an advantage relating to a
group’s general acceptance (or grudging acknowledgment,) that aspect remains so long as it’s
relevant, and every scene you get a free invoke on it. As well, any time you successfully defend
from someone trying to upset that relationship, you are considered to have defended with style.

Target On His Head

AGITATORS turn public opinion against their enemies. So long as you’re dealing with a known
enemy and there are bystanders or witnesses and you haven’t totally fucked yourself, you’re
always considered to have a situational aspect that gets one free invoke and a free dilemma.
If the enemy isn’t quite known yet, you might have to create an advantage to draw public ire.
But in those cases, take an extra free invoke.
CHARACTER CREATION
Now that we’ve talked about the Kinks and who This character creation session is basically
#iHunters are, let’s talk about how we build the pilot episode for your series. It’s where you
#iHunters together. discover who the characters are, how they work
together, and what rough points you need to
That bit? Together? It’s super important. hammer out before you get things going good.
Imagine a movie where five different people
made the main characters separately without The other huge important thing the “pilot
talking to each other, then tried jamming episode” phase does is set up your story and
them into a story together. Most likely it’d be explores where the players might want to take
a shitty story. You might pull something cool it. In some games, the GM/Director/Whatever
out of it, but mostly you’re just setting yourself is expected to plan everything out and roll with
up for frustration since character strengths the punches when the players go left field. In
and weaknesses would overlap, and the group #iHunt, the Director is expected to follow the
dynamic just has to be trusted to work and not Players with a camera and watch them rip things
feel forced. That’s what happens if you don’t apart. Seeing how they want to do that together
create characters together. is an important step toward facilitating it.

Start by making sure everyone has a copy of WRITE SHIT DOWN

the character sheet, or a notebook. Copy it from
>>PAGE 324 or get it at machineage.tokyo. The Director should write down all these
Everyone should have a notebook or some aspects as the players come up with them. This
extra paper to use as a “scrapbook.” You use is a great improvisational trick. You note down
the scrapbook to collect “selfies,” which are the all these aspects as they’re being built, then
milestones by which your character advances. whenever you’re struggling to figure out what
to do next, look at this list and figure it out from
HIGH CONCEPT AND DRAMA there. If someone took the drama aspect HIGH
FUNCTIONING ALCOHOLIC, then the next scene
The first things you need to think of are the basic takes place in a bar.
idea behind your character and what causes This way, you always have
them shit.

Write down that basic idea. The basic idea is

your high concept aspect. Try to keep it short,
sweet, to the point, but double-edged. There’s a
whole section on how to make a good aspect on
>>PAGE 77. You should go consult that.

Then think about what causes your character

problems. This isn’t just some annoyance—this
is the kind of thing that gets in your way fairly
frequently, and may or may not be a part of
your character’s personality. That’s your drama
aspect.

You want to pick these together, because your

character’s drama should be tied to their basic
identity, as much as possible.
Record scratch. Freeze frame. Let’s talk on
page 62. You can look at the quick reference
on the next page first if you want.
CHARACTER CREATION
QUICK REFERENCE
Basics
Consider who your character is. Think about where they come from, their name,
whether they’ve already encountered the supernatural, and if they’ve hunted in the
past. If they’ve hunted, are they part of one of the four Kinks?

Aspects
You get six aspects.
High Concept: The basic premise for your character.
Drama: The thing that causes repeated trouble for your character.
Vision Board: A non-essential thing your character struggles to achieve.
Day Job: The “real job” your character works (or doesn’t work) when not hunting.
Two Others: You get two other character aspects to round out their identity. They’re
non-specific.
More on how to make a good aspect on >>PAGE 77.

Skill Sets and Stunts Kinks

Skill Sets: You get an array of skill sets. Evileenas: They fight with
You get one skill at +4. knowledge and lore.
You get two skills at +3.
You get three skills at +2. Knights: They fight with
You get four skills at +1. martial skill and force.
Starting Stunts: You get two stunts of your choice.
Make your own or pick from the lists in chapter 4. Phooeys:They fight by
Kink Stunt: If you chose a Kink, you get the first Kink exploiting systems and tech.
Stunt from the Kink list for free—you can only take that
one. This is the only way to have a Kink Stunt play start. The 66: They fight by
Additional Stunts: You can take up to five additional mobilizing the people.
stunts at character creation, for 1 refresh each.

Final Touches
Starting Refresh: The default rating is 5. Every stunt beyond the normal two starting
and the free Kink Stunt cost 1 refresh.
Stress: There are two stress tracks—mental and physical. Each starts with a 1 box and
2 box normally. An Athlete skill set at +1 or +2 gives a physical 3 box, and +3 or +4 gives
both a 3 and 4 box. A Survivor skill set at +1 or +2 gives a mental 3 box, and +3 or +4
gives a 3 and 4 box.
Consequences: You start with a Mild, Moderate, and Severe consequence box.
 CHA
ARACTER CREATION
N
(With Lana)
Olivia was writing this section and
she realized she's done this shit like... I Aspects
dunno a million times before. She wrote
this stuff in a game about vampires. Then
one about werewolves. Then one about spies. You need to come up with four specific
Then one about wizards or some shit. She aspects. Liv talked about high concept
was all, "Okay this is bullshit. I'm so and drama already. But to reiterate:
tired of writing the same exact 101 level High concept is a simple description of
shit." She was gonna walk, and this book who your character is. It's like if you're
is like most of the way done now. So I telling a friend about your favorite
picked up the slack. character in a TV show, how you sum them
You see, I put out this ad on Fiverr as up. "Professional Sumo Wrestler With A
a joke a few years ago. It was like, "I'll Heart of Gold" is a high concept. I don't
write the character creation chapter of know that it's an #iHunter concept, but
your shitty RPG book." I didn't expect hey, you never know. My high concept is
anyone to ever agree to it. But here I am. "Foul Mouthed Fourth Wall Breaker." I
picked this one because I like talking to
I'm Lana. I hunt monsters for a living. the audience. Yes, I picked my own aspects.
Yes, I'm the protagonist of Olivia Hill's No, I'm not telling you how that works.
#iHunt book series, and that of course
makes my story weird and implausible, but Drama is the shit that gets in your
god damn it I don't need your negativity way. It's the crap that Keeps. Coming. Up.
right now you don't know what kind of Goddamn it. My drama is "We're Withholding
stress I'm under. She hired me to do it. Funds for 48 to 72 hours." So many of
She didn't just write in my voice. Go with my problems are based around the stupid
me on this. It'll sell the theater. bullshit that financial institutions and
bureaucracy use to fuck me on a regular
Liv already said you need to make basis.
your characters together. Okay. Do that.
But, like, what if you can't? What if Liv said we were going to make Izzy
you're working on limited time, and you from the first three chapter short fiction
only have a single four hour block to pieces, didn't she? Fuck. Okay. So, let's
play #iHunt? Well, you acknowledge that say Izzy's high concept is "Bright Eyed
you're all goddamn adults and you make and Bushy Tailed." You'll understand why
characters by yourselves. But hey, life in the next chapter. I READ AHEAD. Her
hack: You have a cellphone or internet drama is "Crushes Hard." I think she's
or whatever. Talk to each other. Touch gonna fall for Elaine real hard, and
base. Actually in the Aspects chapter, all that's probably gonna cause her a whole
the examples are done like text messages bunch of trouble. But hopefully Elaine
because hey, we're all adults here. doesn't die because this isn't some Joss
Whedon bullshit up in here.

62
 Vision Board Pilot?
The third aspect is your vision board. You actually get two more aspects, but
It's the thing your character is always don't pick them yet. They come up in play.
striving for. It's their best argument These four basic aspects define who your
for getting out of bed every day. This character is. This should be enough to so
shouldn't be a complete necessity, because your pilot episode short story.
sometimes you won't get it.
Some guidelines for the pilot. Make sure
In my case, the vision board aspect is everyone knows them, so you can all work
"Find Family." Not like, my real family. from the same page.
I want to find places to belong. I don't
like to admit this. That's why I'm putting [ In the pilot, you don’t use dice. You
it in a game book. Okay that's a stupid just talk over what happens.
idea. I get it. [ In the pilot, you skip everything but
Anyway, let's focus less on me, more on the meaty shit. Try to describe things
Izzy. We don't really know what Izzy wants, instead of playing them out.
aside from paying her bills. That's not [ The pilot is not canon. Afterward, you
a good vision board, since it's necessary. can throw stuff out, you can change
So, we've got to make something up. I characters, nothing is set in stone.
think Izzy wants to "Start a Family."
Like, maybe she wants to adopt kids or [ Focus on establishing character
something? I dunno. We'll figure it out relationships and very basic histories.
in play. How do they work together?
[ Keep it short. You should be able to
Day Job talk over all this stuff in under an
hour.
The fourth aspect is the job you work [ Keep notes. If any fun lines or
when you're not #iHunting. Just remember characters come up, write them down.
to phrase it like an aspect, so be specific This is a great place to establish
and say as much as you can with it. catchphrases and signature moves.
"Unemployed" is a valid answer. Just try
to be clever about it. Even if #iHunt makes [ Your goal is to fill out most of the
enough cash, it's not a stable paycheck. character sheet. You might not fill
out the whole thing. That's fine! You'll
My day job is currently "Shifting To add the remaining traits in play.
Full Time Freelancing." Which is a fancy
way of saying unemployed. [ The pilot is a group origin story.
Think with that in mind.
Izzy works at the local Carver's
Supercenter. But to make it more interesting [ It's a conversation. The following
and specific, let's say she "Comes Home section's full of questions the
Smelling Like Meat." She works the deli Director should be asking to prompt
counter slicing cold cuts all day. It's conversation.
hell on your back. But she gets access to
really nice kevlar gloves.

63
 Part 1: Meet Cute
The first step is just getting everyone
together. You have a few basic ways you
can go about this, based on a few questions Idea Board
you can ask the group:
- A couple of characters share a love
[ Are the characters already familiar of vintage arcade machines, and meet
with the supernatural? over a rare import cabinet.

[ If so, are they already established - It’s all about the food. One character
accidentally spills the other’s favorite
hunters?
dish, and this causes a scene.
[ If so, were they solo, or were they - Two characters are both experts in
part of other groups before? their field. They meet in a class or
professional event where they feel
They don't have to answer this just yet.
compelled to one-up each other.
But keep it fresh in mind. But someone has
to step up and decide their introduction - Due to a server mixup, two hunters are
point. Maybe mom's waking them up for sent out on the same job.
breakfast. Maybe the gas company is
- One character’s family is terrorized by
banging on the door threatening to shut
monsters. When a hunter helps out,
them off. Maybe it's the first day in a the former character asks the hunter
new school. Or if they're an experienced to train them.
hunter, it could be that they're just out
on the job; but it should be an important - Dating as a hunter is hard. The
job, a job where shit's not as expected. solution? Speed dating.

Then you have to make at least some of - Two characters have to show up for
court over outstanding traffic tickets.
the characters meet. As you describe that
first day, the moment anyone has a good - Everyone’s at a party. They’re caught
place to drop in their character, they together in the middle of a fight.
should. The important thing though is the
- It’s trivia night at the local bar, and
Meet Cute. You have to come up with cool,
the characters end up teamed up.
fun ways for them to connect, that way Tonight’s topic? Monster movies.
you can vamp off the meeting itself and
build those character dynamics quickly. - Two words: Escape Room.

With the meeting, focus on bringing up

a skill set. Not necessarily using it, but
bring it up. This is a good time to mark
your most impressive skill at +4 or +3,
showing off something your character is Keywords:
great at. Like, a defining feature, the Cute and Memorable
kind of skill that makes you truly vital
to a hunter crew. These scenes should be
fun and memorable above
Also? If there was an audience, they all else. First impressions
should already be shipping some characters. are HUGE!

64
 Part 2: Monsters
Next, you gotta get into the supernatural
shit. This is #iHunt, not Dawson's Creek.
Inspiration While we can get into more nuanced monster
shit later on, in the pilot episode, you've
- Vampires jump out and terrorize people. got to start early, and start heavy. No
Everyone knows there’s a standing fucking shame in having some vampires
contract for $500 per vampire kill. jump out and terrorize people.
- A succubus is on the scene, doing a really
Hell, Raymond Chandler said, "When in
obvious job of seducing men and eating
doubt, have a man come through a door
them alive. Also there’s a monster, I dunno.
with a gun in his hand." Do that. With
- Zombie outbreak But don’t call them monsters, it instantly gets people asking,
zombies because that word’s racist. "Okay what the fuck is going on here?"
And answering those questions can guide
- Ghosts are possessing people and causing
mischief. Like Punk’d Of The Living Dead. you through the whole rest of the story.

- Werewolf? There wolf. Now this is #iHunt, so it may or may

not be a professional thing. It could be
- A mad science lab “accidentally” let out an emergency gig. But hunters run into
some terrifying experiments. #iHunt says monsters outside the job. Once your eyes
they’ll pay for a real quick coverup. are open to the supernatural, you can't
- The team finds themselves right in the close them. Or if the characters aren't
middle of your favorite supernatural hunters yet, this is a great place to
action movie plot. Except they’re hunters. introduce them to the real world.
- A wizard has cursed someone in a really So ask everyone:
ridiculous, obvious way. Fuck wizards.
[ What kind of monster would piss you
- The team stumbles upon a botched hunt off the most?
job. Like maybe the church failing to do an
exorcism so now a poltergeist is loose. [ What stakes would motivate you to get
involved right now?
- A monster asks the crew for help. How
does this monster know they’re hunters? [ What could make you work together?
GOOD FUCKIN’ QUESTION FIGURE IT OUT YO
In this phase, you've got three big
goals.
1) Get everyone who isn't already
introduced fully introduced. The second
is to round out some more skill sets.
Keywords: 2) Anyone who hasn't used their +4 skill
Punchy and Unchallenging set should now. And everyone gets two +3
This is your first chance for skill sets, and three +2.
the hunters to show off! Don’t
make them feel like losers.
3) Show off. This is where you do slow
Make us root for them! motion badass moments of competence porn.

65
 Part 3: Reveal
Now you have to reveal something deeper!
Oooo spooky! Basically once the initial
supernatural threat is solved, you have Brain Spew
to tie it to a bigger problem, then you
- The problem from before was just the
have to give the players a chance to play big bad testing the waters. Those were
around with that a little bit, plan, and the advance scouts. Cannon fodder.
do something about it.
- The thing you dealt with earlier was
By now you should have a lot of skill the big bad’s gang. And boy is he pissed.
sets filled out. This is a chance to fill
out some of the others. Also, this is a good - There was a hunter, a non-#iHunter,
after those things you killed. He didn’t
opportunity to talk about some stunts.
get his trophy and now he wants your
Everyone gets two to start, more if they heads on his wall.
want to spend refresh. You don't have
to fill these in, but it's a good chance - That monster had a family! You
to show off. You should definitely know murderers! And the family’s even
your +4 skill set and probably your two fucking worse. So goddamn worse.
+3 skill sets by now. You also get three - The things you dealt with were
+2 skill sets and four +1s. So keep those infectuous, and you didn’t quite stop
in mind. This is a good place for stuff the spread...
like research montages, or establishing
some initial team relationships. Let the - That was just a trial run. Someone
wanted to hire you for a bigger job, and
players butt heads a little. Let the
needed to see you in action first.
characters find their problems with the
others' styles. - Turns out, the monster earlier was
actually a haunting. The big bad? He’s
Let the players interact. Let them figure been dead for a century.
out who they're playing. But ask them:
- At the end of the previous scene, you
[ What would change this one job into a pulled off the monster’s mask and
lifestyle for you? realized it was Old Man Chalmers from
the creepy amusement park. Now, to
[ What would bring you closer to these fight the clowns...
other characters?
- The big bad’s master plan is...actually
[ How could this matter more personally good? Now you have to kill him
to your character? without destroying his life’s work!

By the end of this phase you should

have a strong idea who you're playing,
and how they might work together. Take Keywords:
some notes about the conflicts that come Oil and Water
up, so you can revisit them and explore
them in more detail later. This is really where you
find out how everyone
Also? Make sure to acknowledge #iHunt fits together and doesn’t.
pay if it's a gig. Focus on that!

66
 Part 4: Finale
Now you wrap up the motherfuckin' story.

Phthbsdsklpsd Hell yeah! The hunters take down the big

bad, or whatever in the fuck was causing
the bigger problem you established in
By now you already should know what
this scene looks like. In the previous bit, part 3!
you figured all that out, right? So instead Get yourselves some skill sets! Fill that
of giving ideas for it, let’s talk about
shit in the best you can! If any stunts
tricks for making it work.
come to mind, what better time to bring
Here’s my two favorite tricks: Camera them up than when you're kicking the
angles and choreography. shit out of a demon?
Of course you’re describing everything. This is also where you should establish
There’s no real camera. But... really? You which Kinks you belong to, if that's not
describe from a point of view. Think about already painfully obvious. Some characters
the way you focus on the scene. When
will just fit into certain types. That's
you’re describing how your characters take
okay. Hell, you probably had an idea when
down the big bad here, think about how
to best showcase them. Don’t focus on you first made your character.
the wider picture-focus on the parts that At the end of this scene, you'll want
really matter. Show off those stunts!
to write down your starting refresh. It's
Same with choreography. You’re just normally five, but if you took extra
telling a story. But everything should have stunts, every one reduces that number by
its positioning. I like to draw a little map. one. Also note the stress and consequences
You don’t need to break out the grid paper you have, depending on your Survivor
and miniatures for this. Just know where >>PAGE 114 and Athlete >>PAGE 99 skill
everything’s at, and try to use movement sets.
and dynamic positioning to tell us about
your characters. For example, when I fight, What you should be asking:
I like to use the environment. I grab shit.
I slam monsters into shit. So a lot of my [ What could make your character more
fights involve moving from whatever thing badass right now?
to another thing quickly.
[ What trouble does your character have
Also consider camera transitions. Just that you want to explore later?
say it. “Fade to black. We fade back in, and
Lana’s pissing on the guy’s face.” [ What does your character think of the
hunt?
You can close this section out with a
short scene where the characters relax
Keywords: and recoup after the finale. That's fine.
Bam! and Kapow! But don't dwell on it too long. The goal
This is where we fall in love is to have more or less finished character
with the characters, laugh sheets.
with them, and want to see
them kick more ass!

67
 Doin’ It Live
Okay so now let's go over one of these Part 3: Reveal
pilot episode things for Izzy and Elaine,
so you can see it in action. I go over the basic training and bathtub
scenes in the chapters 2 and 3 short
Part 1: Meet Cute stories. Except in this version, Elaine
reveals that the monster they fought was
Elaine and Izzy work together at an underling for a state senator, and one
Carver's Supercenter. Izzy works in the of his rivals has hired her to take out
deli. Elaine works in women's fashion. They all these underlings. If she does a good
sometimes go to the sports bar together job, then she'll get a huge payout for
for quiz night. The bar gives women free killing the senator himself. She can't do
drinks because the place is a fucking this alone, so that's why she's bringing
meat market that puts Izzy's deli gig on Izzy.
to shame. In fact, I'm starting at quiz
night. Izzy just walked away from her Because of this, I give Elaine +2
team, pissed, because they only invited Organizer. I also give her the In This
her because they all want to fuck her. So Together stunt to reflect the way she's
Elaine meets her at the bar to comfort coaching Izzy through the difficulty of
her and get her a drink. all this.
They banter a bit. We find out Izzy's I have Izzy pop off some pop culture
pissed they don't take her seriously knowledge and reflect back on quiz night.
because she really knows her shit. She's We give her the Trivia Buff stunt.
a +4 Academic. She says she didn't drop While Elaine's talking, I also have Izzy
out of her master's program so she could look up dirt on the senator with _2
be flirted with at fucking quiz night. We Investigator.
also find out that Elaine's a +4 Socialite.
I accidentally typed Socialist the first Part 4: Finale
time I wrote this. Anyway, Elaine's super
witty and immediately helps Izzy out of I decide not to kill the senator yet.
her funk. Izzy says she's partly just in That's a "season ender" goal. But he does
a shit mood because she doesn't know what confront Izzy and Elaine, and they get to
she's going to do about her bills this kick ass on one of his demon lieutenants.
month. Elaine invites her on "a thing" It's awesome, you'll have to take my word
the next night. She promises it pays well. for it. I use the chance to establish
Elaine's +2 Athlete and Izzy's +1 Athlete.
Part 2: Monsters We also give Elaine +1 Survivor.
I think Elaine's a Knight because I'm
Next night, Izzy meets Elaine and biased. So I give her the Knight stunt
they kick the weirdo's ass like at the The Best Defense. Izzy might also end
beginning of chapter 1. Here we find that up a Knight, but not yet. We'll see. She'd
Elaine has +3 Assassin and Izzy has actually make a pretty cool Evileena I
+2 Fighter. Also Izzy has +3 Survivor think with her trivia bent. Hell, let's go
because the way she shook off the unholy that way.
terror of all this shit.

68
 Recap
So I'm gonna recap what we have so
far. Then I'll fill in the rest of the
sheets with red. You don't HAVE to fill
in the rest of the character sheets. But
I'm doing so to make the examples more
robust. I'm also filling out Elaine who I
didn't start with.

Elaine Izzy
Kink: Knight Kink: Evileena

High Concept: Guide Through The Darkness High Concept: Bright Eyed, Bushy Tailed

Drama: Homeless By Choice Drama: Crushes Hard

Vision Board: Get A Dog Vision Board: Start a Family

Day Job: Ladies' Fashions All Under $19.99 Day Job: Comes Home Smelling Like Meat

Other Aspect 1: Louder Than Hell Other Aspect 1: Always Curious

Other Aspect 2: Ice Cream Socialist Other Aspect 2: Owns 15 Flannels

Skill Sets Skill Sets

+4: Socialite +4: Academic

+3: Assassin, Occultist +3: Survivor, Professional (Retail)

+2: Organizer, Athlete, Grifter +2: Fighter, Investigator, Hacker

+1: Survivor, Fighter, Medic, Maker +1: Athlete, Influencer, Grifter, Organizer

Stunts Stunts

1: In This Together 1: Trivia Buff

2: Kill Shot 2: Shake It Off

Kink: The Best Defense Kink: Know Stuff

Refresh: 5 Refresh: 5

Physical Stress: 1, 2, 3 Physical Stress: 1, 2, 3

Mental Stress: 1, 2, 3 Mental Stress: 1, 2, 3, 4

Consequences: Mild, Moderate, Severe Consequences: Mild, Moderate, Severe

69
 Ladies Night Out: Chapter 3
#iSCREAM

70
 “So in the monster hunting business, there are really two I take a big spoon of the ice cream and let it melt in my
major philosophies when it comes to therapeutic ice cream.” mouth. My eyes roll back in my head. This slightly freezer
Elaine comes into the bathroom with a blue camping cooler burned, corn syrup and chocolate covered ice cream feels
and a couple of bowls. They’re plastic, white with little like the best thing I’ve ever eaten.
pictures of Snoopy on them. I feel like she must have gotten “I dunno. Keep your place? Get a cash room? There’s a lot
them as pack-in promos at some fast food place or another. of possibilities. You’ve just gotta figure it out for yourself. I’ll
“Oh? And those are?” I lie back in her tub. She’s added give you some advice and support you. But like I said, my
some lemon-scented bubble bath. life’s not for everyone. Some people like, you know, having
“Well the first is, you go for the expensive stuff. The Ben things.”
and Jerry’s or the Häagen-Dazs or whatever.” “What about the stuff you need to hunt? You said we need
“Ooooo. What’s the second?” I fall back into the tub, letting tools. Silver daggers and magic books or… whatever it is you
the water creep up my hair. The heat does wonders on my said we need.”
arms and ribs. I almost feel like I wasn’t being pounded on She shrugs. I take another bite. “I keep stuff in a few dead
just an hour ago. That, and the Tylenol 3 Elaine gave me, drop spots. I have a little storage unit for bigger stuff. But a
and I’m almost good as new. lot of the ‘stuff ’ we’re talking about is digital. I’ve got a whole
“The second is you get cheaper, bulk ice cream. The kind library full of demonology and magic spells, all on my
that’s a few dollars for a gallon bucket. Then you focus on iPad in PDF. My advice—go with the model with the most
toppings. This is nice, because monster hunting pays well, memory.” She takes a bite and leans back on the doorframe,
but doesn’t pay reliably. You never know when you’ll need watching me soak and eat.
some ice cream between paychecks.” “But what if… I decide hunting’s not for me? Like, I…” I
She pops open the cooler to reveal a bucket of vanilla and freeze. Partly because of a revelation. Partly because of
some chocolate syrup. brain freeze.

“Can’t argue with more ice cream.” I close my eyes and slow I know too much. She’ll kill me if I ever decide to walk away.
my breathing, trying to shake off the last bits of the pain. “So “Then you walk away.” She shrugs. “It’s not like monsters
how can you afford this place? It’s really nice.” She lives in are some big secret. Most people have been socialized to
a house. I can’t imagine someone my age living in a house ignore uncomfortable truths. Monsters do a pretty good job
unless it’s their parents’. Even a shitty house in a shitty of hiding themselves. If you don’t want to hunt them, you
neighborhood within an hour’s commute to San Jenaro runs walk away. I won’t hold it against you. It’s shit work, but it
a half million dollars. pays.”
“Truth is? It’s not really my place. I’m squatting. It’s a I don’t respond. I just sit there, eating, trying to make heads
foreclosure awaiting auction. That’s why we went in the or tails of all this.
back.” I’m going to hunt monsters. I’m going to be a superhero.
What in the fuck have I gotten myself into? Murder? “Just don’t go thinking you’re gonna be a superhero or
Trespassing? I guess murder’s probably worse than anything.”
trespassing.
I snap to attention. “How’d you know what I was thinking?”
“Can’t beat that rent.” I shrug.
She can read minds. The only possible answer.
She taps my arm. I look over, and she’s holding a bowl of ice
cream slathered in chocolate syrup. “Nope. No credit checks. “Because it’s the first thing all of us think after our first
No need for a stable bank account. Life’s complicated when successful hunt. But monster hunting is hard, thankless
you’re paid in lump sums by a shadowy company from an work. Sometimes you’re helping people. Usually you’re just
app, and sometimes only once every few months. Every making life more convenient for some rich motherfucker.
hunter handles it a bit differently. I just squat. I like the Just like any other job, we’re working for the people who can
lifestyle—living out of a duffel bag. It’s not for everyone.” afford to pay us.”
My eyes go wide at that. But I take the bowl. “What should
I do?”

I nod, and keep eating my ice cream.

Superhero ice cream.

71
 NAME PRONOUNS

KINK

DESCRIPTION PLAYER NAME

HIGH CONCEPT

DRAMA

VISION BOARD

DAY JOB

EXTRAS STUNTS

MILD
1 1
1 2 MODERATE
2 2 1 2
3 4 SEVERE
3 3 3 4