Anomaly Hunters by Jonathan Sevigny, Maïthé Roussel and René-Pier Deshaies-Gélinas is a role playing game published by Wendigo Workshop based on Breathless.
The supplement is available as an 18-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $6.00 but was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. Two pages are the front and rear covers, one the front matter and one the table of contents.
You’re Hired! is written from an in-universe viewpoint, speaking to the character who has just been hired for a show that covers haunted locations.
Before We Start explains that this is a horror game and references a sidebar related to consent.
Playing the Game explains that it requires a GM and players and works on a monster of the week format, with each finished adventure being an episode of the show, concluding when the monster is destroyed or all the protagonists die.
Checks explains that these are done when an activity is risky. A die is chosen that matches the rating of the appropriate skill. 1-2 is a failure and reduces the Cool Rating, 304 is a costly success and a 5+ is a pure success. Everyone who rolls reduces the rating of the skill they used, down to a d4 minimum.
Take a Break explains that taking a break restores skills to their original rating, but the GM adds a complication. Taking a break can even be done in combat.
Loot Checks are done with a d20 to look for a useful item. A 1 means something bad happens; 15-20 find items of varying and increasing value.
Backpack explains the backpack has three items that can be used in place of skills, but each also has a die rating and when reduced to a d4, the item is lost.
Stunts are done with a d12, not skills, and can only be used again after taking a break. Succeeding increases the Cool Rating whilst failing decreases it.
Stress can be increased by consequences and once it reaches 4 the character is vulnerable. Once vulnerable, failing a dangerous action can mean being taken out or dying.
The “Cool” Factor explains that as a TV show, people need to watch. Episodes end with a 1 to 5 rating. 1 means it’s cancelled (create new characters), 2 reduces skills on the next episode, 3 means only 2 items are chosen next episode not 3, 4 has no positive or negative consequences and 5 means all skills are increased by one level on the next episode.
The Briefing is the information on the adventure.
What If… You All Die explains the episode might be continued with new characters and “found footage” of the last set.
Your Character explains characters have six skills; Bash, Dash, Sneak, Shoot, Think and Sway. All have a base d4 rating; a d10, d8 and d6 are assigned to three. Two items are selected from a list at the start of each episode and these start as d10 items. The items are explained in their function.
Choose a Role has the character types. The Cameraman is the one filming, the Face is in front of the camera, the Comic uses humour, the Tech Guy handles technology, the Exorcist expunges the forces of darkness, the Witch is a more esoteric version of the Exorcist, the Medium can see and feel spiritual presences, the Investigator finds clues, the Intern does everything no-one else wants to and the Lookout makes sue everything goes well. Each role has their own skills and starts an episode with a related item.
Random Tables has a set of tables for determining locations, events, items, zombie attributes and werecreature types.
Monsters has the bestiary, with each monster having a description and information on how to destroy them.
Game Master Helper has some things to help the GM, most notably a set of assignments the Anomaly Hunters could do, with a name, description, entity and material for the GM.
The final page of content is the character sheet.
Anomaly Hunters in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and has enough sections that these would have been useful. The table of contents covers the major sections and is hyperlinked. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of errors. There are a number of black and white illustrations. Presentation is okay.
This is a fairly simple game, intended to have quite a bit of improvisation, but one that still has a reasonable amount of crunch. It’s also a potentially dangerous game for characters; as stated, it is a horror game after all. Given the monster of the week TV show episode formula, it also shouldn’t be too hard to come up with additional assignment ideas from shows that do have monsters of the week. Anomaly Hunters is a decent little game and it can be found by clicking here.
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