Wednesday, December 6, 2017

6 Setting Crossovers for Your Savage Monster Hunter International Game

Unlike last time, as the current Monster Hunter International RPG Kickstarter has been going on, I've been refraining from giving constant updates on its status. Suffice to say that at this point, just 24 hours from ending, all the stretch goals have been hit and the deal is better than ever.

But perhaps you're unsure about how useful the new material will be. In that case, let me show you how it could easily mesh with some of your favorite Savage Settings:

East Texas University*: Probably the easiest setting to mesh with Monster Hunter International, as the basic premise is playing occult-investigating college students. As the typical ETU campaign has a built-in endpoint (graduation), it might be fun to have a recruiter from MHI show up to attract promising graduates. On the other hand, the college-town setting of Pinebox would be a good place to base a Hunter team out of, even if the PCs weren't enrolled in the school.

Chuck Finley: Zombie Hunter!
Tropicana*: A tropical island city-state crawling with spies, jet-setters, criminals, and modern-day adventurers of all sorts is almost guaranteed to have some monsters crawling around at the fringes. The company is called Monster Hunter International, after all, and wouldn't the PCs just love to take a job in a Caribbean paradise? Co-starring Bruce Campbell!

Deadlands*: It almost seems like cheating to mention this one, but as the Old West monster-hunting setting (now expanded to what the old MHI RPG called the Pulp Era*!) it's definitely worth a look. Of course it's a pretty crazy-gonzo alternate history, what with California falling into the sea, the Four Horsemen empowering undead monstrosities and mad scientists alike, and, worst of all for the Alabama-based Professional Monster Killers, a Union-Confederacy cease-fire.

Rippers*: For a slightly less gonzo 19th-Century monster-hunting experience, the world of Rippers is much closer to that of Monster Hunter International, by which I mean it's like the real world, except all the classic horror-movie monsters really exist. And while Bubba Shackleford may be reluctant to indulge in Rippertech, some of the other Hunter groups that existed back then may be less choosy . . .

50 Fathoms*: OK, this is an odd one, being a swashbuckling fantasy setting. It is, however, a swashbuckling fantasy setting that expects the PCs to be visitors from Earth, and there's nothing to say that those visitors couldn't be from the 21st rather than the 17th century! Whether they get caught up in the hag-curse related metaplot or just indulge in fish-out-of-water goofiness, a brief trip to Caribdus would be just the thing to shake up a Hunter team based out of Hawaii or Miami - or Tropicana, for that matter.

The Day After Ragnarok*: I love this setting, I really do. From the incomparable mind of Ken Hite comes an alternate world where Nazi sorcery unleashed a giant serpent on Europe, bringing about the ruin of every nation that touches the Atlantic. With the Confederacy on the rise (again) and snake-based monsters and magic popping up everywhere, there's plenty for WWII-era Hunters to involve themselves in, either as their standard globe-trotting adventurous selves, or perhaps pulling a Newton Knight and setting up their own independent settlement. Especially if they can navigate the wreckage of Europe and link up somewhere in there with Franks, who is undoubtedly beyond pissed at all this.

*Affiliate link. Provides extra gaming money to me at no cost to you.