The Inside Scoop on Gaming

What were you thinking, buying this?

The usual reason: it said Heroes Unlimited on the cover. Plus, it promised to have new super powers and weapons, a must have back in the old days. It was also supposed to have a lot of villains, so I wondered if I would be able to squeeze a few of them into my games, a trait that would have kept me from having to make new villains every game session after the last ones died. I've gone over my dislike for setting specific information elsewhere, but when this book came out, I wasn't nearly as picky.

So, what's up with the book?

Villians Unlimited is primarily a big book of NPCs and organizations built for use in a Heroes Unlimited Revised game. The book has not been updated for Heroes Unlimited 2nd Edition yet, and since it was written by Kevin Long, who no longer works for Palladium, hopes for a new edition are pretty slim.

The book starts out with a brief section on creating villains. Most of this is pretty good, particularly for new GMs. Immediately following that is a quick section on the difference between realism and plausibility, between having a realistic world and place that makes sense. Looking over it again, I wish that both of these items had made it into the GM's Guide, since both cover topics that most GMs need to hear about as much as possible. True, it's all been said before, but a GM's Guide really isn't complete without it. At least it's in this book.

Combat Clarifications come next. Keep in mind that this book was put out in the early nineties, just after Palladium began implementing their new rules for modern weapons in Robotech, TMNT, and Heroes Unlimited. The clarifications include material which has made its way into the new Palladium Main Books, like Systems Failure and Heroes 2nd edition. Higher target numbers based on range, specifics about shooting wild, knockdown rules, pain penalties, and so on. Actually, it is pretty much the same material that was in Rifts Conversion Book One. Decent additions all around, but difficult to implement since they are in a separate book than the main one.

New Super Powers. These are all made for Heroes Revised, so if you are using Heroes Second the abilities are not as powerful as their new counterparts. That point is irrelevant, though, since all of these are now in the Second Edition Main Book. For Heroes Revised, though, they are all pretty neat. Some are of less obvious use than others, like the differences between Control Radiation and Holographic Memory Projection, but each is fairly balanced for the old game.

Organization rules follow the powers. The usual point-based organization rules are found here, the ones that have been reprinted in so many different forms throughout Palladium's lines. A few changes make them appropriate to a super-hero game, but they are essentially the same as the ones in Ninjas and Superspies. I have always found the rules functional and useful when I need them, though that isn't very often. Lone villains have always been more my speed. Organizations, though, have their occasional place and these rules are pretty decent for their purpose.

Example organizations follow the rules. Normally, I find little use for this sort of material, but I find I've actually included most of these in my games at one point or another. The material is made so that it doesn't require a special location to work or push a particular storyline or world event into the campaign. S.C.R.E.T. (Superbeing Control, Retrieval, and Elimination Team), in particular, has always been handy, providing a governmental control force to use in case your PCs feel that laying waste to multiple city blocks is the sign of a good adventure. One important note is that this is the only book to date where S.C.R.E.T. is detailed. Since the organization was written solely by Kevin Long, I'm not sure how likely it is that we will ever see a 2nd Edition version of the organization. Since their hardware is now outdated by 2nd Edition standards and they are mentioned in later books, like Century Station, this puts us in the awkward position of needing this book because of something that is of limited use in order to understand what comes later. If anyone at Palladium is reading this, please see what you can do about getting a new version of these guys into a 2nd Edition book, preferably The Nursery. It would help us all immensely.

NPCs and NPC super teams take up the next 117 pages. I've looked over the majority of these and they are well written, but I've only used maybe three or four of them. Using the book NPCs never seemed as personal as using my own villains, which is probably what first started my dislike towards specific setting and character in official books. Fun fact for Palladium historians: this section features the first appearance of the Chiang-Ku dragons and Tattoo magic.

Adventures round out the book. I can't recall ever using any of them, since they either never seemed appropriate or were way to underpowered for my group. Hardcore min-maxers will find these runs a bit too easy, but more "average" heroes would likely enjoy them.

Yeah, right, but what about the pretty pictures?

Layout: It's Palladium, so the interior is black and white, two-columns, with artwork breaking up blocks of text. Functional, though not very pretty.

Kevin Long drew the majority of the interior artwork. An artist known for his ability to duplicate other sources and tweak them to fit whatever he is drawing for, that trait doesn't appear to be active here. Not counting an NPC called the Usurper who looks like a near carbon copy of Doctor Doom and another that looks very much like the Rhino from Spider-man. Kevin Siembieda and Mike Gustovich provide additional interior artwork. Out of the three of them, I think I like Gustovich's the best. His work looks slightly more three dimensional than Long's and Siembieda's do. To tell the truth, very little of the art work here reminds me of modern comic books. I can't quite place my finger on why, but none of it makes me want to dig out a copy of X-Men or Green Arrow. It's just not... comic bookish. Sure, there are guys in tights, but none of them seem like real heroes or villains.

Worth the dough?

At the time, yes. The rules clarifications helped substantially, as did the new powers and organizations. Now, though... I'd have to say not. For $20, the only things of real use to a 2nd Edition game are S.C.R.E.T. and the articles on making villains, since all the characters are underpowered and have incorrect stats when put into the new game. The price is a bit too steep for just those two items. If you're a completist or just really strapped for bad guys, the book might be worth the cash but its not really necessary item for the average Heroes Unlimited GM.

Villians Unlimited
Villians Unlimited Capsule Review by FlashFire on 03/06/01 Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 2 (Sparse) The Big Book of Passible Bad Guys for Heroes Unlimited Revised. Product: Villians Unlimited Author: Kevin Long and Kevin Siembieda Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Palladium Books Line: Heroes Unlimited Cost: $19.95 Page count: 224 Year published: 1992 ISBN: 0916211-49-5 SKU: Comp copy?: no Capsule Review by FlashFire on 03/06/01 Genre tags: Modern day Superhero	What were you thinking, buying this? The usual reason: it said Heroes Unlimited on the cover. Plus, it promised to have new super powers and weapons, a must have back in the old days. It was also supposed to have a lot of villains, so I wondered if I would be able to squeeze a few of them into my games, a trait that would have kept me from having to make new villains every game session after the last ones died. I've gone over my dislike for setting specific information elsewhere, but when this book came out, I wasn't nearly as picky. So, what's up with the book? Villians Unlimited is primarily a big book of NPCs and organizations built for use in a Heroes Unlimited Revised game. The book has not been updated for Heroes Unlimited 2nd Edition yet, and since it was written by Kevin Long, who no longer works for Palladium, hopes for a new edition are pretty slim. The book starts out with a brief section on creating villains. Most of this is pretty good, particularly for new GMs. Immediately following that is a quick section on the difference between realism and plausibility, between having a realistic world and place that makes sense. Looking over it again, I wish that both of these items had made it into the GM's Guide, since both cover topics that most GMs need to hear about as much as possible. True, it's all been said before, but a GM's Guide really isn't complete without it. At least it's in this book. Combat Clarifications come next. Keep in mind that this book was put out in the early nineties, just after Palladium began implementing their new rules for modern weapons in Robotech, TMNT, and Heroes Unlimited. The clarifications include material which has made its way into the new Palladium Main Books, like Systems Failure and Heroes 2nd edition. Higher target numbers based on range, specifics about shooting wild, knockdown rules, pain penalties, and so on. Actually, it is pretty much the same material that was in Rifts Conversion Book One. Decent additions all around, but difficult to implement since they are in a separate book than the main one. New Super Powers. These are all made for Heroes Revised, so if you are using Heroes Second the abilities are not as powerful as their new counterparts. That point is irrelevant, though, since all of these are now in the Second Edition Main Book. For Heroes Revised, though, they are all pretty neat. Some are of less obvious use than others, like the differences between Control Radiation and Holographic Memory Projection, but each is fairly balanced for the old game. Organization rules follow the powers. The usual point-based organization rules are found here, the ones that have been reprinted in so many different forms throughout Palladium's lines. A few changes make them appropriate to a super-hero game, but they are essentially the same as the ones in Ninjas and Superspies. I have always found the rules functional and useful when I need them, though that isn't very often. Lone villains have always been more my speed. Organizations, though, have their occasional place and these rules are pretty decent for their purpose. Example organizations follow the rules. Normally, I find little use for this sort of material, but I find I've actually included most of these in my games at one point or another. The material is made so that it doesn't require a special location to work or push a particular storyline or world event into the campaign. S.C.R.E.T. (Superbeing Control, Retrieval, and Elimination Team), in particular, has always been handy, providing a governmental control force to use in case your PCs feel that laying waste to multiple city blocks is the sign of a good adventure. One important note is that this is the only book to date where S.C.R.E.T. is detailed. Since the organization was written solely by Kevin Long, I'm not sure how likely it is that we will ever see a 2nd Edition version of the organization. Since their hardware is now outdated by 2nd Edition standards and they are mentioned in later books, like Century Station, this puts us in the awkward position of needing this book because of something that is of limited use in order to understand what comes later. If anyone at Palladium is reading this, please see what you can do about getting a new version of these guys into a 2nd Edition book, preferably The Nursery. It would help us all immensely. NPCs and NPC super teams take up the next 117 pages. I've looked over the majority of these and they are well written, but I've only used maybe three or four of them. Using the book NPCs never seemed as personal as using my own villains, which is probably what first started my dislike towards specific setting and character in official books. Fun fact for Palladium historians: this section features the first appearance of the Chiang-Ku dragons and Tattoo magic. Adventures round out the book. I can't recall ever using any of them, since they either never seemed appropriate or were way to underpowered for my group. Hardcore min-maxers will find these runs a bit too easy, but more "average" heroes would likely enjoy them. Yeah, right, but what about the pretty pictures? Layout: It's Palladium, so the interior is black and white, two-columns, with artwork breaking up blocks of text. Functional, though not very pretty. Kevin Long drew the majority of the interior artwork. An artist known for his ability to duplicate other sources and tweak them to fit whatever he is drawing for, that trait doesn't appear to be active here. Not counting an NPC called the Usurper who looks like a near carbon copy of Doctor Doom and another that looks very much like the Rhino from Spider-man. Kevin Siembieda and Mike Gustovich provide additional interior artwork. Out of the three of them, I think I like Gustovich's the best. His work looks slightly more three dimensional than Long's and Siembieda's do. To tell the truth, very little of the art work here reminds me of modern comic books. I can't quite place my finger on why, but none of it makes me want to dig out a copy of X-Men or Green Arrow. It's just not... comic bookish. Sure, there are guys in tights, but none of them seem like real heroes or villains. Worth the dough? At the time, yes. The rules clarifications helped substantially, as did the new powers and organizations. Now, though... I'd have to say not. For $20, the only things of real use to a 2nd Edition game are S.C.R.E.T. and the articles on making villains, since all the characters are underpowered and have incorrect stats when put into the new game. The price is a bit too steep for just those two items. If you're a completist or just really strapped for bad guys, the book might be worth the cash but its not really necessary item for the average Heroes Unlimited GM.