Hi everyone!
I’m a new player, planning on attending E4 this year as my first event.
A have always loved monster hunter style characters like the Witcher and Van Helsing so I originally planed on joining Varushka as a warden.
Unfortunately I really don’t like the Varushkan style so I instead opted to play as an ex warden, now from the league, Temeshwar, since it has close ties to Varushka and I understand darker colours are more appropriate there.
I’m wondering if there will be much catered towards that style of play? completing quests on behalf of other players, skirmishes, a sword for hire but specifically targeting monsters or monstrous humanoids.
Im not too worried and will still play that character if not. If trawling through forums and discords has shown me anything, it’s that there’s no shortage of things to get up to. Just wondering if anyone thinks it’s possible to start building a reputation and moderately successful business in Anvil (very Leagish) through that kind of work.
Cheers in advance 
First up, welcome to the game and the forums 
Temeschwari (ex-Varushkan Warden) Monster Hunter is a solid concept, and I have good news and bad news.
Good news: There’s a fair call for it. There are often Winds of Fortune with plotlines like “this dread beast is being escorted thence by it’s orc handlers, if only someone could kill it in transit…”, or “big hairy teeth thing with teeth eating farmers in this region”, and there will be skirmishes (think group quests) through the Sentinel Gate to deal with them. Heck, there are often a few big beasties on the main battles, for which several Field Marshals would love to have a cadre of monster hunters as a quick counter.
Bad News:
Dealing with them is not as cool as you might imagine (or have played in computer games). Because the monsters are 1+ person in a big suit, you cannot hamstring them, climb up their backs to stab up their eyes, take them down with one strike to a vulnerable spot, or feed them a giant explosive when they roar… The fights are still pretty cool though.
Mixed News 1:
This sort of thing is Popular. There are groups dedicated to beast hunting. There are monster hunters across most of the nations. They meet up for chats and bragging and planning on a regular basis. There are artisans who will make you big honking magical axes for use on big smelly magical beasties (for a price). This does mean that there’s a LOT of competition. You want to go on that quest to kill the Black Beast of Otterland? So do those 50 other people, and it’s a 30 person quest, and there’s a dedicated 10 body team at the head of the queue already…
TL:DR = Yeah, you can do it, it’s quite fun, there’s stiff competition though.
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Do rats count? Graveyard rats - Empire
I would not recommend pinning your enjoyment on getting to go on the rare skirmishes that involve beast hunting. There are new clarifications of rules against contacting skirmish organisers online. Online - Empire If you prove yourself as a competent fighter within the League then you should be able to get onto some of the League-centric skirmishes, but you will fund it harder to find and convince organisers in other nations.
On the other hand, if you have a military unit as your personal resource then you will probably have opportunities to send them on relevant actions in between events and come back with stories about them.
As an ex-Varushkan, you should learn about Sovereigns Varushkan Monster - Empire and keep an eye out for relevant winds of fortune so you can talk about them with confidence to other Leaguers (you don’t need to be an expert – just better than your average Leaguer) Mistaken for strangers - Empire Less welcome tenants - Empire
You should also look out for the Gathering of Hunters Imperial Huntsmarshall - Empire
They are your like-minded individuals.
Welcome to Empire!
not being able to scramble up the side of a monster and gauge out it’s eyes doesn’t worry me 
I’m under no illusions of the limitations of the hobby 
everything else sounds great! I definitely won’t be pinning all my enjoyment on it. was more just curious of it’s even viable and it sounds like with a bit of hard work and some clever advertising, it will be.
I have done a tonne of research into wolves and sovereigns to prepare for the more roleplaying aspects of the character.
I was also thinking of using my prop making skills to craft some enchanted warden-style charms to sell to the more superstitious folk in Anvil but I’m very much coming to this whole thing with an open mind and very little expectation 
I figured I would take some artisan skills to make them work in-game but I have barely scratched the surface on magic items and how that all works so I have no idea of that’s something that can actually be done or if I’ll just be selling weird little trinkets wrapped in red string. again, I’m happy either way
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If you are thinking about artisan as a possibility, you should definitely take it at character creation so you start with some free items. You don’t get them if you take it later (like I did).
Magic items are mostly about enhancing combat, heroic (also combat), magic or religious skills. Mostly I make items to order, or make free items (warrior plate or mendicant cassock) on spec. Because magic items only last a year it’s quite tough to find a buyer for an expensive item quickly enough.
Artisan + combat skills, a military unit (Monster Hunters R Us, Temeshwar branch) should be an interesting combination to keep you busy.
Buying and selling the random loot your mob brings in to make the shinies for yourself and others… possibly marketed as bits of monster? 
“And with this sword I’ve used a plaguewulf fang as the pommel, which gives a bit of malice to the magic, as well as a nasty pommel strike if needed…”
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This is EXACTLY what I had in mind!
Just have to see how it goes. I’m sure I’ll be too busy gawking at the insanity around me to actually do anything but it’s definitely something to aim for!
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Let me know whether you’d like an IC connection with me before you start. I’m a League banker/trader which means I often buy “random loot” and occasionally finance actions. There’s a bit of time before E4 so it’s worth looking out for interesting military unit possibilities that you could claim to have gone on as part of someone else’s unit.
Im going to E4 and have created a monster hunter - E 1 was my first event and i have set my military unit to hunt in the suaq wastes in downtime. Just working on More fur and animal parts for my costume.
More then happy to meet up on the thursday and talk and hang out