Post by doc on Dec 1, 2007 18:26:51 GMT -6
Coming from Fantasy Games Unlimited circa 1978 (IIRC), Villains & Vigilantes wasn't the first superhero game (that honor would go to Superhero 2044), but it WAS the first one to make a major impact on the market and was the top superhero game in the world until Champions later hit it's stride.
V&V was heavily influenced by the traditional tights and capes heroes of the sixties and seventies. Character creation was unique for the time in that you started out by writing up stats for yourself, thus playing yourself with super powers tacked on. This generated a lot of arguments at the gaming table, especially centered on the potential Charisma scores of the players. Just how do you tell your overweight, loud, hygienically impaired gaming buddy that others might not agree that he has a Charisma of 17?
You generate your number of powers randomly, then roll on a master table to determine what powers you get. If you get a power or two that don't jive with the character concept forming in your head, you can always drop 'em. You get to roll for a weakness, too, with all of the traditional weaknesses that you remember from the four color comics you read as a kid.
Character creation is somewhat detailed, and there is real math involved. Once you do it for the first time, though, it becomes a snap. My first character took 30 minutes to make; my second about ten. The systems are primitive, but work. The combat system is cumbersome and dull, the worst part of the game, but we quickly threw out most of the combat rules that slowed the game down and added a few new ones to imitate the slam-bang world of knocking caped crooks through windows. By the second edition of the game, most of the combat snafus had been cleaned up a great deal.
The adventures are almost all very well written and have a strong comic book vibe. Some are more serious and dire than you would expect from a game of this sort. The true strength of the game, though, are the NPCs. Each adventure is brimming with them and there were at least three sourcebooks with nothing but well-written heroes, villains, and assorted loonies to make your hero's life more complex.
There is no actual setting for V&V, but the game suggests that the players' home town is where all the action takes place. Not bad if you live in London or New York, but if you live in Crunchy Frog, Arizona, the villainy might be limited to The Destroyers trying to knock over the local mini-mart and shake down a trailer park.
The reason that I wanted to write about V&V first is because this is the game that got me into the hobby. I played a few sessions of D&D beforehand, and enjoyed them, but at that age my true love was superheroes and this game was tailor made for me. Later on there was lots and lots of D&D, Arduin, and other games, but for me, V&V is where it really started. From day one I had all these cool heroes and villians in my head, and over the course of the next few years I got 'em all onto paper and into the game.
I realize that this is kind of a sketchy post. If anybody has any specific questions about V&V, please don't hesitate to ask.
Doc
V&V was heavily influenced by the traditional tights and capes heroes of the sixties and seventies. Character creation was unique for the time in that you started out by writing up stats for yourself, thus playing yourself with super powers tacked on. This generated a lot of arguments at the gaming table, especially centered on the potential Charisma scores of the players. Just how do you tell your overweight, loud, hygienically impaired gaming buddy that others might not agree that he has a Charisma of 17?
You generate your number of powers randomly, then roll on a master table to determine what powers you get. If you get a power or two that don't jive with the character concept forming in your head, you can always drop 'em. You get to roll for a weakness, too, with all of the traditional weaknesses that you remember from the four color comics you read as a kid.
Character creation is somewhat detailed, and there is real math involved. Once you do it for the first time, though, it becomes a snap. My first character took 30 minutes to make; my second about ten. The systems are primitive, but work. The combat system is cumbersome and dull, the worst part of the game, but we quickly threw out most of the combat rules that slowed the game down and added a few new ones to imitate the slam-bang world of knocking caped crooks through windows. By the second edition of the game, most of the combat snafus had been cleaned up a great deal.
The adventures are almost all very well written and have a strong comic book vibe. Some are more serious and dire than you would expect from a game of this sort. The true strength of the game, though, are the NPCs. Each adventure is brimming with them and there were at least three sourcebooks with nothing but well-written heroes, villains, and assorted loonies to make your hero's life more complex.
There is no actual setting for V&V, but the game suggests that the players' home town is where all the action takes place. Not bad if you live in London or New York, but if you live in Crunchy Frog, Arizona, the villainy might be limited to The Destroyers trying to knock over the local mini-mart and shake down a trailer park.
The reason that I wanted to write about V&V first is because this is the game that got me into the hobby. I played a few sessions of D&D beforehand, and enjoyed them, but at that age my true love was superheroes and this game was tailor made for me. Later on there was lots and lots of D&D, Arduin, and other games, but for me, V&V is where it really started. From day one I had all these cool heroes and villians in my head, and over the course of the next few years I got 'em all onto paper and into the game.
I realize that this is kind of a sketchy post. If anybody has any specific questions about V&V, please don't hesitate to ask.
Doc