Hunters: Born of Blood (WIP) (Update 29/02/24)

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Hunters: Born of Blood

Everyone always told you that monsters didn’t exist, that your nightmares couldn’t hurt you. They weren’t real, you believed that. Or, at least, you did… until your nightmares entered the waking world and tore apart everything that mattered.

Now you know the truth.

Entering a world both new and yet disturbingly familiar, you realise that the shadows might just be holding monsters after all. So you’re trained to fight, to kill, to pursue the horrors that once haunted your dreams.

All the whilst hiding the fact that you might just be one of the very things you’ve been trained to hunt…

Features:

  • Play as male, female or non-binary
  • Embrace or reject your growing powers that you struggle to understand.
  • Hunt down Aberrations from other worlds.
  • Do whatever it takes to get your revenge on the man that ripped your family apart, or learn to let go.
  • Have your emotions rule you as you struggle to cling on to your sanity, or let the world tear them away completely.
  • Romance a sorceress, vampires or other humans and choose where your loyalty lies.
Warnings

Contains violence, death, swearing, reference of child abuse (not the MC)
Trigger warning - The MC witnesses the death of their parents
This story can get relatively dark with the MC being traumatised through the events of their life- but you can control how far they potentially fall/recover.

Romance Options

There are currently 3 male and 3 female options available for any MC:

  • (F) Tara Russo - Sorceress
Summary

Appearance: Straight dark blonde hair and light, golden brown eyes

Having spent most of her life outcasted and feared Tara puts on a cold exterior in order to protect herself from the people around her. With questionable morals and a restless craving to learn all she can about the magic that runs through her veins, there are few lines she would not cross in order to find freedom from a world that shuns her.

But more than that your very fates seemed intertwined…

  • (M) Alex Fraser - Human
Summary

Appearance: Dark brown hair, often mussed from running his hands through, and forest green eyes.

A Hunter for the Corporation and your partner. Determined to prove himself Alex prefers to hide his emotions behind a near constant smirk. Confident and defiant Alex thrives on the danger and challenge of the life you live. Yet it was a life he was born into, and sometimes you can’t help but wonder how much of his beliefs are truly his own.

  • (F) Ashley Conaway - Vampire
Summary

Appearance: Wavy auburn hair and grey eyes, her already pale skin made even more so.

A newly turned vampire Ashley struggles to know who to trust. Headstrong and fiercely protective of her younger brother she views the Hunters with fear and resentment. Unsure who she is and what she really wants, all Ashely knows is that she’s willing to burn the world down for the people she cares most about.

  • (M) Isaac Conaway - Human
Summary

Appearance: Short, wavy auburn hair with eyes the same shade of grey as his sisters.

Blind to the monsters around him yet determined to uncover the truth about what happened to his sister, Isaac walks the line between the ordinary and the supernatural world. Stubborn to the core with a charming smile, he’ll fight to his last dying breath for what he believes is right.

  • (F) Skylar Coleman - Human
Summary

Appearance: Long black hair she often keeps in a messy braid and dark brown eyes.

A scientist for the Hunter Corporation Skylar tends to keep to herself. Highly intelligent and avidly curious she can come across as brazen and insensitive to those around her. Yet sometimes you catch something in her gaze when she thinks no one is looking, a sympathy she tries to mask behind indifference.

  • (M) Lawrence Blakewell - Vampire
Summary

Appearance: Short, wild brown hair and deep brown eyes with the typical pale complexion of vampires.

An ancient vampire whose polite smiles hide something far more sinister. But when you’ve lived as many lifetimes as he has, it can be hard to hold on to your humanity. Manipulative and selfish you would be foolish to trust him, yet sometimes, if you look hard enough, you can see the sadness buried in his eyes, and you realise that a long existence can often mean a lonely one.

Word count without code: 65k
Average play through: 26500
Demo: https://dashingdon.com/play/aj/hunters-born-of-blood/mygame/

Currently the demo includes the prologue right up to the end of chapter 2. The prologue covers the MC’s childhood and Chapter One will contain the lead up to joining the Hunters. Time jumps around a lot to start with since it covers from childhood through to (eventually) early twenties by the end of Chapter 3.

Please let me know if anything feels rushed! Any feedback in general would be greatly appreciated - grammar, flow, errors, suggestions or choices you might want, if this is even a good idea, etc,

Thank you for your time! :blush:

Updates:

20/10/23

Chapter one has been added standing at around 23.5k words taking the total to about 35k with an average of 15.5k per play through. A few small edits have also been made to the prologue. Chapter one covers the immediate aftermath leading on from the prologue and basically covers the MC’s introduction to the Hunters.
It might be a bit messy at the beginning due to the amount of code jumping that goes on so please let me know if something doesn’t feel right for your character/you feel there’s a choice you want to make that’s not available :slight_smile:

29/02/24

Chapter two uploaded! The chapter adds about 30k words taking the total word count to about 65k without code and about 26500 on an average play through.

Save system has also been implemented (hopefully) and a few changes/choices to the previous scenes :slight_smile:

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This super interesting! I really like it so far :slight_smile:

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This is interesting so far. I liked how many options we’re given regarding how the PC acts, it helped solidify them a bit more in my mind.

In my opinion, the prologue didn’t feel rushed. It’s nice as it is, as it allows us to dive into the main story sooner, which is presumedly what most will look forward to playing. There’s always the other side of the coin, and one could say that exploring a bit more of the PCs childhood could help build their character and make players more attached to playing as them. Maybe we could have some short flashbacks at a later date to make up for it, if it ends up feeling necessary. Well, to be honest, either a longer prologue or as it is, is fine by me, as I both like slower-paced stories as well as those that just dive right into the meat of it.

Anyways, thanks for sharing this story. Hope to see more of it :))

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i’m intrigued so far, its pretty short but interesting. I;m curious to see where this story goes

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Thank you both so much!

@Rock Thank you! It can be hard to tell after staring at your own writing for so long so I really appreciate the feedback - I feel like flashbacks could potentially work, definitely something to consider for later.

Thanks again :blush:

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I found the pacing to be fine, the way it flows currently.

The thing I recommend doing to help the rhythm of the story is to signal the jumps in time better. Currently, the transitions from one to the next seem a bit inconsistent to me.

Perhaps it is this that causes you pause?

I felt that a “stoic” type of choice for the different “how do you feel” choices would work well … perhaps they were there, but I did not realize that.

This is a good start, and I look forward to more of your writing.

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This is goddamn good. I was mad as hell when the demo ended, I wanted more! I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this baby, you have my complete attention :saluting_face:

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Sounds interesting

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Okay, I just read this demo and I immediately loved the prologue. I think it’s written well. The choice where the MC can’t really ‘connect’ with other people is interesting. It put an emphasis on how the nightmares changed the MC’s mind as a growing child.

Or maybe it’s just my MC. Haha
Anyway, keep it up, dear author!

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I think you could be right there - at one point I changed the transitions so it had the passage of time at the top of the page in bold - then I scrapped it but maybe something like that would be less jarring?

Thanks I’ll have a look through and see what I can do! I did try and add more ‘stoic’ choices when I could but I can see a couple of places where they’re missing/maybe not so clear :slight_smile:

Thank you for trying it out!

@Facepalmcity Thank you so much I’m glad you enjoyed it!
@Harley_Robin_Evans Thanks :blush:

@Ashi Thank you! Yeah unfortunately the MC really has had it rough and that feeling of disconnect from everyone else will be a part of why they end up joining the Hunters

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I think you’ve almost pretty much nailed the prologue, managed to make me care a lot about both the mc and the mother with so few interactions it almost made me feel a little silly at the end. It’s short but somehow still very impactful. And perhaps the interaction between the mc and mc’s mother at school depends on my choices there but I think that part specifically was extremely well written and very efficient character development.
The only criticism I would have is the part where you swap pov to the two girls, a bit jarring, maybe I missed something that makes it more relevant than I perceived it to be, but it just felt out of place in the moment at least.
Overall loved it and I’m very curious to see where you take this :blush:

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Jist gotta say…

django-attention-curiousity

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@Mercz94 @Thanatos Thank you both for playing, I’m so happy you liked it! :blush:

I’m genuinely so glad you think so, I really wasn’t sure if people would care what with doing a short prologue so it’s a relief to know at least one person did. :laughing:

She’s the girl from the MC’s dreams/nightmares if that helps? It’s meant to lightly link in with one of the earlier nightmares the MC had and introduce one of the ROs a bit more - but if it doesn’t work I can look at maybe changing it up somehow :thinking:

Thanks so much for the feedback!

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I got a question. Is the powers we get something we can choose or something that’s predetermined? And if it’s the latter, then what is it?

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Soo good so far, cant wait for more
And i am interisting to see the MC hidden powers

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Pretty interesting, writing was ok but its too early and short to judge for now.

I personally would have put the “childhood” segments as a flashback in future chapters and start with in the middle of the action from the get go.

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Sorry for the late reply I’ve been on holiday!

They’re predetermined, I guess if I were to generalise them then the MC basically has ‘psychic’ powers which has currently been seeing glimpses of the past/future. You’ll be able to decide how much you want to explore and develop them in the future.

@Bretayal837 Thank you for playing I’m glad you liked it!

@Heartbreak Thanks for playing! At this stage I don’t think I’ll be switching the prologue around - but any further childhood memories will happen in flashbacks.

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I really enjoyed this. I loved the pacing and I really look forward to developing the MC’s powers as the story progresses.

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Thanks so much I’m really glad you enjoyed it :blush:

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This is a grand tragedy, how could it end so soon!!! Absolutely love what was offered in the demo and I’m greatly saddened that I finished it! Keep up the amazingly terrific work!

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