Monster Hunter International

Not to be confused with Capcom's popular video game franchise

Monster Hunter International
Role-playing game published by Hero Games, Gallant Knight Games
Rule System	Hero System, Savage Worlds
Authors	Larry Correia
First Publication	2013, 2019
Essential Books	The Monster Hunter International Employee Handbook and Roleplaying Game

"It turns out that monsters are real. All the things from myth, legend, and B-movies are out there, waiting in the shadows. Officially secret, some of them are evil, and some are just hungry. On the other side are the people who kill monsters for a living. Monster Hunter International is the premier eradication company in the business."

– Back of the first book

In the world of Larry Correia's Monster Hunter International every supernatural monster (except possibly unicorns) exists, and most of them are hostile to humanity. These range from the well known (werewolf, vampire, zombie, Eldritch Abomination) to the obscure and bizarre (Things like Luska and Worm That Walks are just the start).

Countering these monsters are two types of organizations. The first are well funded government task forces for whom things like the Posse Comitatus Act are a mere appropriations issue. In the United States this role is filled by the Monster Control Bureau, a well meaning organization that unfortunately tends to be like Commissars when it comes to enforcing secrecy about the supernatural and be clogged down by bureaucracy, as well as having some uncarring power freaks in middle management. The second is private hunting organizations who get money both from people who pay them to remove/keep monsters from their property, and the PUFF (Perpetual Unearthly Forces Fund) bounty system, which was setup by Theodore Roosevelt after encountering a few monsters himself. These organizations are slightly less well armed, restricted to small arms (though explosives are allowed and they generally stretch the "small" part as far as possible) and unarmed support helicopters. The largest and oldest private organization, which the series centers on, is a family owned business in Cazador, Alabama called Monster Hunter International (originally known as Bubba Shackleford’s Professional Monster Killers) that has been exterminating monsters since 1895.

Compared to Hunter: The Reckoning and the rest of the World of Darkness, humanity is doing pretty well for itself in this universe. Monsters don't secretly control the government (though they can be pretty high in influence), monsters generally die with application of sufficient Dakka (especially silver), and the masquerade only exists because the world governments believe (possibly wrongly, but not proven conclusively either way) the supernatural gets more powerful the more people know about it. The books put emphasis on that humanity wins through a combination of learning from their predecessors on how to deal with monsters, and through the power of modern technology, particularly firearms. Morality tends to stick to black and white, with the only instance of gray morality being the government agencies that genuinely want to protect the world but are ruthless and uncaring in the process.

Not all monsters are inherently evil (though outside of humanoids like Elves and Orcs the non-evil monsters are the exception to the norm) and some are evil yet sane enough to know working for the US government is better than having them try to kill you (at least one demon has one). For these monsters there is a PUFF exemption system, generally earned by serving in the shadowy "Special Task Force Unicorn" (the acronym is intentional and reflects its secrecy) with the only known alternative being for those capable of scrying. Unicorn uses monsters as deniable, expendable spec ops soldiers against other supernatural threats or enemy nations. Once you've done your time in Unicorn, you're free... unless you've got a longer than human lifespan, then you may have to renew your exemption later on.

The series biggest claim to fame is that, since Larry Correia has a history as a gun shop owner and competitive shooter, firearms are portrayed with heavy, accurate detail. Characters unload firearms properly before showing them to other characters, specialty ammunition fails to cycle self-loading firearms and Desert Eagles are derided as range toys for people with more money than sense. Each character's choice in firearm is used to characterize them, and it's rare any character uses a firearm that isn't elaborated on by name. The fourth book is outright set at a secret, hunter focused part of SHOT Show. Larry Correia also has a fondness for /tg/, though this doesn't show up much beyond some inspiration for monsters and a reference to characters playing Warmachine (which he has also written fiction for, though he has since soured on the brand for its fiction creation department being as horribly mismanagemened as the rest).

These books have been adapted as a pair of RPGs. The first was based on the Hero System. It was solid rules-wise, but the complex options the system allows were wasted on player characters who were generally mundane humans with guns and skills. The art was also inconsistent and often really terrible. Several years (and novels in the series) later a second RPG, based on Savage Worlds, was published. In addition to being RPG books, both serve as universe bibles for official collaborations (though the original is now outdated by several books).

Beyond writing, Correia's other claim to fame is destroying any remaining credibility of the once prestigious Hugo awards. Noticing that for several years the awards that claimed to represent science fiction fans had exclusively gone to "message fiction", often with personal connections to the judges, and that nominees were purportedly based on total member nominations and anyone could become a member for a small fee he organized a campaign called Sad Puppies Think of the Children to nominate good books for a change, recommending books by other authors he had read. After getting several quality books into the nominees, the judges continued to give awards to absolute garbage with the right message/author identity despite much stronger nominees against it. In response others would organize a successor campaign without him known as Rabid Puppies. Rather than simply force good books to be on the nominees list, Rabid Puppies would organize enough nominations that these options would be the only ones that could be picked by the judges. Forced to pick between only good books and a piece of un-obfuscated gay bestiality erotica that shared the judge's politics but lacked any deniability, the judges instead handed out more "No Award" decisions in one night than the organization had in its entire history prior, burning down any illusion the Hugos were a fan award.