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Villainy Amok

Overview: Villainy Amok (VA) takes seven staple scenarios of the Superheroic and Action Adventure genres, it breaks them down into the component parts, and then re-assembles them with dozens of permutations to mix and match resulting hundreds of unique spins on the basic seven core concepts. Each topic is explored in depth and pays heed to time honored traditions but thankfully comes installed with a cliché warning for the truly overused elements.

Scott Bennie’s writing style is excellent with a good dose of humor thrown in that makes VA an entertaining read. He more than adequately covers the various twists and turns available for each set-up with colorful elements of plot, person, place, and the invariable complications that can arise. The book adheres to a rules light approach with about 30 pages being mechanics (mostly character write ups) and the remaining 146 being applicable to any supers game and most modern action adventure games.

If you like fun stuff, pay attention to the “Ten Unusual” sections in each chapter. In each chapter these little sidebar gems can steal the whole show and change the entire feel of the meat and potatoes. FREX: In the bank robbery scenario one of the unusual set ups is the bank in being robbed by a master of magnetism who wants the hardened vault door to construct “something terrible.”

Layout & Design: The cover of the VA is a wedding scene about to become a very large super-brawl by Brett Barkley.

Interior Art – The interior art ranges but IMO was notably devoid of the out of place/out of style illustrations that have popped up in other Hero products.

Editing and Layout – There is little to note here. Editing is well done. Layout is standard two column Hero with frequent sidebars.

Chapter by Chapter Hands in the Air – (for reference, each chapter is set up in a very similar manner even if I don't describe it in detail) The bank robbery, however this section has good reuse with nearly any theft type scenario. Some interesting facts about bank robbery starts off things with a bang and segues nicely into the motivations for robbery including ones not seen in the real world like the “Gladiator” whose sole purpose is to force the heroes to come out and play. The Who’s Who of robbing banks includes eleven of robbers, nine types of people who get caught up in the mess, and seven folks who will make life harder or at least more interesting on the players.

Next comes banks and bank like institutions to provide some scenery, including an odd tidbit about ATMs in the super’s world. I never though about it much but would you really want an ATM in a world with folks who can rip the suckers out of the ground and jump/fly away with the whole she-bang? Different ways of running the scenario touches on special obstacles such as the ATM and elements of all three of the basic phases of the set up (PCs know before hand, crime in progress, and it’s all over) and concludes with “Complications & Variations,” a small section given over to options for making the scenario more than an infinitely reusable one-shot. Finally, the chapter finishes with a short adventure.

Prelude to Invasion – Readily admitting that an entire invasion scenario is beyond the scope of the book but having to make the nod to that classic staple, Prelude is a great compromise. The chapter covers a whole host of ideas ranging from Aliens with fetishes (and you know what I am talking about) to an actual War of the Worlds pre-invasion assault.

Again we have eleven motivations, seven targets, seven types of alien probes or invaders, and ten personalities who will make things more interesting for the players. There is a detailed section developing the scenario and hooking the characters into the story including special scenes like some whacko capping an alien as he peacefully disembarks his ship.

Once again the “Ten Unusual” pulls through with some great spins, my favorite being the War of the Worlds was not a story told by Wells, it was a premonition.

The character write ups are colorful and well done. Gus Jethro, the local sheriff, being such a well done parody that I think I may actually know the guy.

Preludes is an outstanding read and should be considered mandatory for anyone who is going to run an invasion scenario regardless of genre or system.

The Super-Powers Drug - Alright, even for me this one seems overdone in the comics. I put off reading it till the very end (nice trait for the book is that you can skip around as desired). There were, of course, several gems in this section. Playing the scenario as a tragedy using the “Good-Hearted (but damned) NPC” is fodder for a campaign sub-plot that keeps plugging away until it reaches its tragic ending.

All the usual suspects find their way into this chapter as in the previous two. “Who Needs Dreams” another of the “Ten Unusual” deserves a whole campaign to itself. A new designer drug gives people PSI powers but radically alters their ability to sleep and rest, eventually driving them nuts. Established mental characters are getting addicted and the public is rapidly going rabidly anti-teep. This isn’t a scenario, it is a campaign arch and a nasty one at that especially if your group has a few supers who feature PSI type abilities. The final battle naturally must result in someone falling into a vat of the liquid drug.

Burn, Baby Burn – All about fire in RPGs. This is easily the most rules intensive section of the book. While not as exciting in the super’s genre as many of the other chapters, Fire holds its own. This chapter provides some of the best options for introducing horrific villains. [Personal disclaimer – I was a fire fighter for nearly a decade and find it somewhat blahh to read about.] It is well done and interesting even if it didn’t float my boat.

It Came from the Mad Scientists Lab – Cooky and cliché in modern fiction, the mad scientist has gracefully left the building but his progeny have returned to pick up the slack. Genetic science, computer wizardry, and theoretical gravatetics replace the alchemist but like poor old grandfather not only do their plans often go awry, they often breakfree to menace the entire planet. Mad science is such a broad field and can involve so many other plots (terrible robots, clone armies, and mole men) that game masters are sure to use this chapter over and over and over. The tone of the chapter runs from 1930s pulp to the adventure at the end involving the fusion of two singularities.

My Big Fat Caped Wedding – With more contrived elements than a soap opera wedding day, the Caped Wedding is easily my favorite scenario. In fact, I am trying to figure out a way to run it at a local game day. Huge and rollicking in the way that only misadventures at a wedding can be, the small adventure at the end of the chapter looks to be one heck of a game.

If you can think of something gone bad, it can happen. Accidentilay marry the wrong person: yeap. Find out your new father-in-laws secret identity is Doctor Destroyer: yeap. Freakish bachelor party: yeap. The wedding scenario just begs to have the PCs groaning at the end of the night. Most interestingly, the adventure doesn’t even need one of the PCs to be getting married. Now that is service.

The Plot Gallery – This is something every Hero System DM has needed for a long time. Campaign beginnings, villainous master plans, personal dilemmas, story hooks, and most importantly how to mess with your PCs Disadvantages, it is all here. The Plot Gallery is a huge collection of one paragraph ideas on a theme. Want cool ideas for your characters hunted? Want to make them sweat out that secret identity? Then you want to read this chapter.

Summation Villainy Amok is a great resource for anyone running a superheroic campaign be it Mutants & Masterminds, Villains & Vigilantes, Silver Age Sentinels, or Champions. It is an idea generator, not a laid out and fully mapped campaign. DMs old and new will find a bucket of good ideas or be reminded of great ideas that they had but never got around to using. It does what it aims to do in providing variations to your meat and potatoes diet.

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