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Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology $3.99
Average Rating:4.4 / 5
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Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology
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Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology
Publisher: Onyx Path Publishing
by Robert T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/19/2022 15:58:22

This was a short little anthology about the unsung heroes of the WOD- the hunter. My favorite being "HOA/DOA", about a homeowner's association member who stumbles across a kindred and ghoul couple who just are not following the rules. Told in a journal/diary format, puts a twist on the nosy neighbor. The first story, "Safe House" is a sequel to the framing story from the original Hunters Hunted sourcebook of the early 1990's.
There is a market for these type of anthologies, like the old ones White Wolf put out in the 90s with stories by James Moore and others. Maybe a tale could be written about the cover, about a former Starfleet "number one" turned priest/vampire hunter...



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology
Publisher: Onyx Path Publishing
by Björn L. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/04/2021 13:46:06
Hunter or hunted? - a Mephisto review

Of Predators and Prey

Of Predators and Prey has been released as a companion short story collection to the Hunters hunted II sourcebook for Vampire V20. A total of nine stories are dedicated to the theme of vampire hunters and, as the title suggests, play with the question of who is the hunter and who is the hunted. Thus, sometimes vampires meet surprisingly well-prepared hunters, sometimes unsuspecting humans stumble into misfortune, and sometimes the line blurs as to who the real monsters are.

Thus, the stories cover a wide spectrum of hunters, sometimes ordinary humans who stumble into the vampire menace, and sometimes professionals who are totally dedicated to the hunt. Just as varied are the vampires they must face. In most of these hunts, the outcome is uncertain. The stories are varied, surprising, and exciting and offer what one expects from short stories: entertainment with a few surprises. However, those who expect greater mysteries or connections of the World of Darkness in these stories will be disappointed. With few exceptions, the hunters know so little about the World of Darkness that this background plays only a minor role. In my view, this is also consistent and does not detract from the stories. Those who expect mysteries and strong references to the setting from this book will probably be disappointed. However, if you are looking for a few vampire hunter stories that are worth reading and that also provide inspiration for hunter characters (as protagonists or as antagonists), you will get an entertaining short story collection here.

(Björn Lippold)



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology
Publisher: Onyx Path Publishing
by Adrian S. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 06/22/2014 23:30:46

‘Of Predators & Prey’ succeeds as gaming fiction, and in that alone it is a fine resource for players and Storytellers alike. Gaming fiction should provide practical examples of how people live and interact within a game world, should be internally consistent, and should provide ideas for character and chronicle design. The authors of this anthology deliver on all points, as well as providing a suite of fresh, engaging stories around what could have been a very ‘tried and true’ product.

The stories all manage to offer something slightly different, but focus on the ‘everyman’ as either individuals or as groups. There are no super-powered action heroes, just regular folk who have glimpsed the reality of vampires and are simply trying to find an appropriate response. From folk who have turned their houses into fortresses that would make an AD&D DM envious, or a small organised force with some basic training and military hardware, or even a gang of children keen to save a school friend, there is an element of believability to each story. Of particular interest is the marriage of reality television and the hunt – and the possible reaction of vampires to televised interviews, but the story told of the vampire who’s ‘only trying to do the right thing’ is just as strong. It is all too tempting to go through each story and provide a brief synopsis, but you should go into these cold and simply enjoy the experience. Every piece vies for the ‘favourite story’ position in my mind, and it is clear that the editor did a fine job of selecting this showcase of work.

In short, do yourself a favour and pick up this book in whatever format you can. Keep a notebook and pencil nearby and I’ll guarantee that you’ll not only have a great time reading the book as fiction, but allowing your imagination to run with the ideas from these characters and their stories.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology
Publisher: Onyx Path Publishing
by Alexander L. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 01/23/2014 07:28:12

Originally posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2014/01/20/book-review-of-predators-and-prey-the-hunters-hunted-ii-anthology-vampire-the-masquerade-20th-anniversary-edition/

The Hunters Hunted II has been my favorite release for Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition. Like a lot of the Classic World of Darkness releases, The Hunters Hunted II was a very successful Kickstarter project. With overfunding came stretch goals, one of which was the anthology we are reviewing today. At only 115 pages, Of Predators and Prey is far shorter than other recent OPP anthologies. Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II was another Kickstarter stretch goal (this time for Werewolf: The Apocalypse) was 240 pages, and The Strix Chronicle Anthology was 154 pages. So it was a bit of a disappointment to see this collection turn out as short as it is.

Of course, the quality of this anthology is another disappointment. As much as I loved The Hunters Hunted II, this anthology left me cold, both in terms of editing and writing. Very few of the stories actually involve hunters. Most of them just involve humans who just end up encountering vampires through sheer dumb luck. At least two stories use the “Ho ho ho, the person you thought was a vampire was a ghoul and the ghoul was really a vampire.” At times, this collection seemed to be more about ghouls than vampires or hunters. Two stories also have strange editing. One has a little girl show up on the second to last page of the story without any mention of them before, but the characters all treat her as if she has been there the entire time. Another has a character there one paragraph, and the next they are dead without any explanation. It really feels like the collection needed to be edited and vetted better. When you only have nine stories, and several of them repeat themes and plot twists, you have to wonder why someone didn’t go, “No. Too similar. Back to the drawing board.” So yes, Of Predators and Prey is easily the weakest fiction anthology put out by Onyx Path for their various lines, but as you will see, it’s not all bad.

Our first story is “Shut-In,” and it’s about an old woman who needs to sell her house and the person who wants to buy it. Of course, the old woman is a shut-in, per the title, and the reason why relates to events that happened over twenty years ago. The woman won’t come out after dark, nor will she let anyone in after the sun sets, and the end result is a cat and mouse game between two beings, both of which assume they are the predator and the other is the prey. It’s a wonderful way to start off the collection, and it also highlights that even sometimes the hunter is more of a monster than the Kindred they want to destroy. A great way to start off the collection. 1 for 1.

“HOA/DOA” is done in an epistolary style and is a fun story about two anal retentive, uptight people in a community and the vampire that both unites and divides them at the same time. The story is a comedic romp at times, but the ending is quite dark. This is another story where the vampire seems like the lesser of two evils when compared to the obviously insane hunter. I had a blast with this story, and although it is very different in tone and style than most V:TM pieces, I think that only helped to make it stand out. It’s nice to get a breath of fresh air once in a while. 2 for 2.

“Lest Monsters We Become.” A story of two hunters, both with very different motivations for why they do what they do. This story actually involves the Sabbat and shows how different they can be from Camarilla or independent vampires. It’s also the third story where one of the hunters is worse than the vampires. The fact that this is three in a row with that sub-theme had my eyes rolling, but that’s an editing/selection problem rather than a writing one. “Lest Monsters We Become” is well written and a lot of fun, and I enjoyed the juxtaposition between the two different hunters. 3 for 3.

“Psy-Fri Friday.” Oof. This was a stinker. From being the second in the “Vince Russo style vampire reveal” in this collection, to the fact the story just ends at what feels like the halfway point without any resolution whatsoever, this was pretty much an example of how NOT to write fiction. When a story just ends abruptly for no reason with every single plot line left dangling and no resolution, you have to wonder if there was a editing error and part of the story was cut off, or how the hell this was accepted by anyone for publication. This was just bad in every way a piece of vampire fiction can be. If you really want a story about club kid vampires and the people they prey on, I guess you can read this, but the writing is terrible. Don’t say you weren’t warned. 3 for 4.

“Blood Will Have Blood.” This was just terrible. Bad writing, bad characterization, bad flow, bad editing, bad everything. It’s a story of a group of hunters and the revenge a pack of vampires takes on them. Also, one character just ends up being pyrokinetic at the end in a badly drawn out affair. This is the story where a little girl just shows up at the end who was never mentioned until the second to last page and everyone just acts as if she was there the whole time. It features a terrible dues ex machina ending, one of the worst written uses of spontaneously occurring Numera powers I’ve seen in V:TM, and I just found myself wondering how this got by editorial. This was painful to get through. 3 for 5.

“The Ivy Twines.” Surprise! ANOTHER story where a ghoul is the main focus. This is the fifth out of six stories with that aspect. Oh man, the selections really needed to be vetted by someone else. It’s just too much of the same themes reoccurring. No anthology should be this repetitive. Anyway, it’s yet another story where the hunter deals with a vampire and a ghoul and gets tricked/outsmarted to some degree. It’s also a love story… kind of. It’s also a story written by someone that really doesn’t seem to get how homeless/transitional/permanent supportive shelters actually work, as it gets everything wrong about them. Five to thirty minutes talking to someone from an agency like HUD or DHS could have easily made this from an erroneous, implausible mess to a pretty solid tale. The writing style is good, but the suspension of disbelief was totally lost because of the lack of knowledge about the subject matter the author was writing about. 3 for 6.

“Feeding Habits.” This is another story where you kind of feel the vampire is the good guy and the hunter is far more of a monster. Yeesh. The good thing is that “Feeding Habits” is really well done. It’s told from the point of view of a vampire who has spent the last eighteen years refusing to kill and trying to maintain his humanity as best a Kindred can, when he ends up being the target of a group of hunters. The story has a pretty dark and depressing ending, but it’s also a very nice twist. I was happy with this story from beginning to end, and it was a nice change of pace to see a vampire as the focus of the story and what it is like to be hunted from their point of view. 4 for 7.

“Showbiz.” This is a weird one, and I still don’t know if I liked it for the surreality of it all, of if I think the concept was incredibly stupid but that the author was such a skilled writer that they made it work. A set of three friends put together a faux reality tv show about vampire hunting. Sure, they meet people who think they are vampires, like psi-vamps and blood fetishists, but what happens when they run afoul of actual Kindred? The answer will both surprise and amuse you. This story was a lot of fun. 5 for 8.

Our final story is “Patrol,” and it just didn’t work for me. You have a bunch of high schoolers talking like thirty year olds, yet another story where the ones who are supposed to be vampires are ghouls, a vampire that is completely implausible by V:TM terms, a group of “hunters” that get mad at their leader when she kills obvious murderous bad guys, and a totally anti-climatic ending. The writing just is a bit nonsensical at times and the motivation of characters, especially the abrupt change at the very end, just doesn’t add up. This story had interesting ideas, but they just weren’t written or implemented very well. 5 for 9.

So there you go. Five good stories and four bad ones. So the positive outweighs the negative, but only ever so slightly. As a freebie to Kickstarter backers, I can’t really complain, because hey, free anthology. I can’t really recommend this for purchase unless it had something like a $2.99 price tag attached to it (Author note: Which they ended up doing! Hurrah!), simply because the stories weren’t all that great and Onyx Path really should have solicited more potential authors and vetted the submissions for quality. Compared to other World of Darkness anthologies (both Classic and New), this was really lackluster, and I’m kind of disappointed that once again, V:TM is getting the short end of the stick.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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