Developer Diaries 001: The Thrill of the Hunt

Mechanics for dynamic hunts in RPGs

You know what movie absolutely rules? Predator. An ensemble cast anchored by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, and Jesse Ventura turning in fun and memorable performances as tier one operators who find themselves in over their heads. I talk about this movie a lot because it’s a masterclass in tension which seems tailor made for roleplaying games. However, there seems to be a gap in monster design that makes recreating the tension of Predator a lot more difficult. We have a lot of resources that help us understand how monsters function in a dungeon or when encountered in the wild. We even know how monsters function as units in battle. However, not a lot has been done to help us create the asymmetric warfare of hunting, or being hunted by, a lone creature or a small pack of creatures. Mechanics that allow GMs to track the movements of a monster in pursuit of a specific goal, whether its finding food, fleeing from danger, or stalking a target, will be useful to create scenarios in which players are pursuing a target like the commandos in Predator. Since my next adventure will heavily focus on monster hunting, today I will be putting forward my prescription for how to handle this mechanically. In taking this step-by-step, I hope to create a system that challenges players and creates the kind of tense scenarios that they may wish to recreate.