Hunter and Prey: Of Gods and Men is one of Arbor Productions Hunter and Prey line of PDFs. Effectively, from what I've gathered, is the Hunter and Prey line is meant to be a collection of PDFs that contain a pre-generated group of generic NPCs and an adventure for their use in. To be honest, I'm not terribly fond of generic line support. There's already a vast number of Superlink products out there that include generic material and I'm not buying most of them. The only reason I am buying Hunter and Prey was because I purchased Autumn Arbor and was familiar with Arbor Productions high quality work.
At 30 pages, H&P: OFG&M isn't much larger than a comic book itself. Unfortunately, it costs about twice as much as a comic book at roughly $6.00. Worse, there's the fact that it exists only in PDF format. I've heard it mentioned that Arbor Productions eventually intends to compill 4-5 of these PDFs into a single print volume. Presuming the resulting product ends up being about 160 or so pages and ends up costing as much/slightly less than the Autumn Arbor book then it will actually cost less to buy it in physical format.
These aren't serious detractions but I wouldn't be surprised if the H&P series doesn't become a money maker for Arbor Productions until it's available in crisp hand format. There is, of course, the benefit that the PDFs are in color which won't be the case for Arbor's print line and this is a VERY colorful book.
With these concerns out of the way, I still acknowledge that the writer has a hefty job on his shoulders to convince me that this book is worth the purchase. The characters will have to be extremely enjoyable and interesting to justify the cost. Likewise, the art will neeed to be very visually interesting as well. So, is it worth the cost? Yes. Though not outstandingly so. Nothing will blow your socks off like Autumn Arbor but the writer manages to acquit himself well by remaining within comic book conventions yet going SLIGHTLY ajar enough to be interesting.
The Ten NPCs are the real heart of the book with a roughly equal divide between heroes and villains. The majority of the characters are tied together by little used Hindu theology. We get stats for Ravana the Lord of the Rakashasa, his Rakashasa henchmen, Karttikeya the Thor-like Son of Shiva, and Badash the Volcano controlling villain. Badash is my hands down favorite of these characters because you can't get much better than a villain who controls volcanos. Right there you have me sold. Plus, his name is ripe for punning. "So, you think you're a real Badash do you?"
Hindu theology, note I don't say mythology, is a little mined area of comic book storytelling so this manages to elevate the material a little above the usual Aesir/Olympian storytelling we often see. Hindu storytelling has such a diverse and interesting cast of characters that its nice to see even a portion of it used. While some of it is questionable, like the retconning of Ravana to a straight up villain, the fact that he eventually reforms can be justified by the fact he doesn't NECESSARILLY reform by the time of the PCs.
The only problem I have with the characters is the author feels the need to remind us how awesome Vedic civilization is. It's sort of like opening up a write-up of Sinbad the Sailor with "Arabs were the most advanced civilization in the world around the Crusades and gave us the current number system we have."
The characters of Professor Poppycock and his Enigmachine are a fairly straight up "Lovable Mad Scientist and His Robot." Professor Poppycock is mostly interesting to me because he looks identical to Professor Psion from Freedom City except wearing Doctor Octopus' harness. He's also useful for anyone wanting to run a Ghostbusters style game since he's a Scientist Wizard. The Enigmamachine is nothing particularly special but raises slightly above generic robot status by the fact he's a Robot powered by Magic and alters reality around him like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Probability Drive.
Zaneyack, Hokus, and Pokus are a trio of Demons that I have mixed feelings about. Hokus and Pokus are great. Mostly because they're a Satanic Jay and Silent Bob. I intend to fully portray them as such when they are incorporated into my games. Lazy, Stupid, and evil Demons from the LOWEST hierarchy from Hell manage to get past their origin simply by the fact they're not particularly competent. Zayneyack is more of a problem. Ostensibly because he's supposed to be the competent one of the group, he needs something to distinguish him. Unfortunately, he doesn't really and comes off as my least favorite character of the group.
The last character is Denalli, whom I love for a number of factors. First of all, she's not a hero or villain but a relatively minor powered psychic who just happens to be a descendent of a villain. Denalli is also a beautifull illustrated female from India, which we should always have more of and can definitely join the PCs as a love interest or supporting cast member post the adventures. We need more of these.
The final portion of the supplement is "Of Gods and Men" which is a crowded adventure where the PCs find themselves in Pompey's ruins and in the middle of Ravana's plot to defeat Badash so that he can steal his powers. The adventure is one of those "all Hell breaks loose and you're not quite sure where the PCs fit in" type stories. I think they tried too hard to fit in all the supplement's NPCs to one adventure.
The biggest mistake of the supplement is the fact that the adventure pretty much expects Badash to die despite the fact he's hands down the most awesome of the characters. If I were running it, Badash would destroy these pitiful fools and then set up his empire of LAVA across the corpses of a Post-Volcano Apocolypse world! Seriously, they seriously misjudged who would get repeat use in this supplement. While the adventure leaves the option for his survival, it's only in a drastically weakened state.
The positives of this supplement are considerable. The art is gorgeous and the writing is well done on the characters. I definitely got more than the necessary value from this than two comic books and will use the characters, so while it isn't as good as a purchase as Autumn Arbor then it's still worth the money. However, the product didn't WOW me I'm afraid to say.
If I had a recommendation for Arbor Productions, it would be when they made the Compilation for this that they added a 20 to 30 page chapter about how to add this supplement to the Arborverse and remove the genericness from it by making it an official part of the setting. I know it goes against what its supposed to be but I prefer work that ties into something larger than itself.
6.5/10 for this product.
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Saving the world, one d20 roll at a time
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