From: Patrick_Andrew_Barnes@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: The Hunt
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 92 01:59:27 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)

Well, I don't hold out much hope that anyone plays this seemingly obscure and
little known game, but while the designer says to write him if you have any
problems I could find no address anywhere to write to, so I thought I'd try
my luck here on the net.  I must have read through this thing 3 times and I
can't for the life of me figure out how Stealth & Perception are supposed to
work.  Page 6 says 'the position of pieces is known to all unless a stealth
roll is made (see SKILLS)'.  But under skills on page 9 the entry for stealth
says merely 'a successful roll gives you a chance for surprise'.  That really
is extremely vague.  What exactly is the chance for surprise?  How long do th
effects of a successful stealth roll last?  When must a stealth roll be made?
Could I move up to adjacent to another hunter then make a stealth roll and
attack with surprise on my next turn?  Judging from the cover illustration
and description of the maze in the text, I don't see how you could possibly
hide from anyone else unless you were behind a corner but the stealth skill
gives no such requirement for use.  If you make a successful stealth roll and
then use your next action in a turn to move, do you become visible again or
are you now considered to be moving stealthily?  Combat modifiers aren't give
for range 0 attacks.  Does this mean you can't occupy a hex with another piec
Do pieces block other pieces from moving through them?  How is initiative
order determined when two characters have the same initiative stat?
Page 24 lists Crowd Appeal skill rolls as one of the zero action items but
the example on page 25 says 'Faceman has a Crowd Appeal of 8 and chooses to
take an action to make the roll.'  Which is right?  Does an action need to
be taken for a Perception roll?  Are perception rolls automatically made 
if a character encounters someone using stealth or a booby trap?  What are
the perception skill ratings of prey and animals if a character decides to
use stealth on them?  The Points Leader optional rule states that the
points leader at the end of the turn will be worth double points for the
next round.  What does this mean?  The points leader gets double the point
awards he wou ld normally get the next round?  It sounds like it is saying
that points scored ON him, not BY him will be worth double...is this the
case?  Another optional rule simply says to allow players to climb over or
throw things over the walls.  What are the rules on this?  Does it take
extra movement points to climb over a wall?  Are there negatives to hit if
you throw something at a character over the wall due to not having a line of
sight?  If a character is using layered armor does the ablative effect 
subtract from each layer of armor or only from the total amount of the 
layers?  'turn loss' is listed for a concussion grenade.  How many turns
are lost?  Does the turn loss as well as the damage apply to everyone in
the blast radius?  
The Hunt seems like a fun game but the rules leave a lot of holes.  When
a game says something like "find someone in line of sight.  Announce
target to referee" and when there is a hidden movement system, the ought to
include specific rules for determining line of sight and exactly what blocks
it.  Leaving questions open like whether or not two pieces can occupy the
same space and whether or not they block movement through a square is just
not something that a preofessional game designer ought to do.  I wish a
phone number or support BBS had been included for Maverick Games because I
would really like to try this one out but as it is I have paid $12.50 plus
tax for a virtually unplayable game due to gaping holes in the rules.