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The cover depicts a 3-on-1 fight later explained on page 3 as “the tragic death of Freedom Eagle” at the hands of a bug-eyed supervillain with a katana, a female superspy, and some guy in a yellow baseball uniform. It looked so exciting before they pulled that unhappy ending on me.
This edition is dedicated to “all the V&V fans around the world, past, present or future, as well as those on other planets, parallel timelines, or alternate dimensions” as well as “our lawyer and new best friend Brent Rose”.
The text seems nearly exactly like the edition I have from 1982, only with new art and layout, a few new sections at the end, with typos corrected “and hopefully very few new ones introduced.”
1. Introduction simply states that Villains and Vigilantes ™ “is a role-playing game simulating the lives and adventures of comic-book style superheroes.” It says certain items like this rulebook, paper, polyhedral dice, pens, pencils and erasers are “highly recommended” and “some are essential.” Presumably the latter would include the rulebook.
The Introduction also states that while players create superhero characters, unlike most games, each player is assumed to play himself with the addition of superpowers.
2. Characters starts the V&V character creation process. It is still rather unique in that it begins with the premise that the characters are not simply alter egos of the player, but that the rules are set up on the idea that your PC is you, only with powers and abilities added. Thus, you start making the character using your own gender, your own age and your own height and weight. There is a Good and Evil alignment system; “If any GM has a player in his group who could truly be classified as Evil, we can only wonder why that player should be allowed to participate at all.”
This also means that when you set up your PC's five Basic Characteristics – Strength, Endurance, Agility, Intelligence and Charisma- you are basically measuring your own traits on the subjective judgment of yourself and the other players in consensus. This means that you're usually not going to get a very generous score in anything, but it probably means that none of your stats will be that low. If this approach is unfeasible- for instance, if you're replacing a PC who has died- the GM may allow you to use the random stat generation rules for NPCs given later.
It is after this step that you do a random roll for superpowers. (Yes, this is before you get the tables for how the stats above work. This is because the random power roll tables include enhanced characteristics.) You first roll 1d6+2 to determine how many powers you get, and your main non-random choice at this point is which power origin list to roll on for each: Powers (generic), Devices, Magic/Psionic Items (basically Devices, except...), Skills, and Magic/Psionics. After determining which powers you get, you must then make a random roll for a Weakness (could be anything from a Kryptonite-like Vulnerability to Prejudice against the character's public image). You must then select one of the random powers to discard. You also get to choose to drop the Weakness, but then you have to drop a second power if this option is taken. With this random roll system, the GM is advised to bump up a given ability for a character with one or few powers, on the principle that a character with few powers is less capable than a character with many. It is also admitted that “random die rolls cannot be expected to consistently produce sets of powers which go well together.”
After this point a good deal of math is involved. First, while the actual Powers are described later, some adjustments to the Basic Characteristics need to be made if any of the powers selected increase or decrease those characteristics. Then you write down what we might now call “figured” or “derived” stats. You first determine Basic Hits by taking your (adjusted) weight in pounds, dividing by 50, and rounding down. Then you get an Agility Modifier based on final weight, where heavy characters (over 240 lbs.) receive a penalty while dainty characters (like Tinkerbell, or Summer Glau) receive a slight bonus. THEN you have to look up separate tables for EACH of the five Basic Characteristics- four of them minus Charisma apply a multiplier on Basic Hits to your total Hit Points score, while each stat also has its own purpose. Strength is a large part of the Hit Point figure. Endurance is an even bigger part, and is also the basis of Healing Rate. Intelligence is a minor factor in Hit Points and also modifies one's Detection rolls (on percentile dice) and one's Damage Modifier (presumably being smart means knowing where to hit someone effectively). Agility affects HP, damage AND Accuracy (to-hit bonus). Charisma is used as a modifier to NPC reaction rolls, usually a bonus for one's own side (on Good vs. Evil) and a penalty to reactions from the enemy. Given this context it's as much a “reputation” score as anything else; high-level, high-powered characters tend to have great Charisma.
After all THIS, you have to figure a PC's Carrying Capacity on the arcane formula of [(S/10)3 + (E/10)] x W/2, OR, one-tenth of Strength, cubed, plus 1/10 Endurance, and times the result by half the character's Weight. THEN you look up another table for Hand-to-Hand Damage; the higher the character's Carrying Capacity, the higher his base damage dice code. (Characters with capacity of 121 to 240 pounds do a base of 1d4, while characters who can lift 7681 to 15360 can do 2d10 damage.) (NOTE: While V&V, unlike AD&D 1st edition, doesn't limit female Strength scores per se, this use of mass as a base for carrying capacity, and the fact that most women are shorter and lighter than most men, means that the average female character is going to have less effective strength than the average male, even if they have the same Strength score.)
Finally, your Movement Rate (ground) per turn is on a scale where one “inch” equals five feet, and is determined by totaling your Strength, Endurance and Agility. You also determine your Energy rating (for fueling powers, fighting, etc.) by adding all stats together except Charisma. You put all these totals together, and you've got yourself a superhero character.
After this, section 2 lists all of the Powers in alphabetical order (including the Weaknesses, which aren't really Powers). Anybody who's seen Palladium games like Heroes Unlimited might find this part familiar. As with most random-roll power sets, some powers are A LOT better than others. Animal Powers, for instance, is basically a package deal where you first roll on the animal type, get attribute bonuses for the animal type and THEN get 1d6 more powers as part of the suite. However the tables for such powers include Weaknesses. There is also the great “Mutant Power”, which gives the character “some sort of new, unique ability” that the GM and player are expected to write up together. In other words, “Screw it, fill in the blank here.”
After the Powers descriptions, section 2 says that all characters each get a costume that conceals their secret identities (if desired) and also withstands the side effects of their powers, no charge. In some cases, like powered armor, a Device might BE a character's costume. Having a secret identity is assumed to be standard procedure, given that without one, a hero has no “off time.” Worse, his loved ones can be targeted by bad guys.
Next, this section talks about experience awards, including Charisma bonuses. As in old-school D&D, villains captured and taken to the authorities are worth a certain number of XP, specifically a figure of the villain's Hit Points plus Power score times his experience level, divided by the number of heroes it took to capture him. Notably, you are not allowed experience points for villains killed, “unless the GM agrees that the act was absolutely necessary or unavoidable.” Characters can also get XP by donating to NPC charities, on a ratio of 1 XP per $10. The GM reserves the option of bonus/miscellaneous experience awards, but it is recommended that these not exceed 500 points a session. Experience follows a table where 1st level is 0, 2nd level is 200, and each level thereafter is 1000 x the new level (+3000 for 3rd level, plus 2000 equals 5000 to get to 3rd level, 9000 [5000 + 4000] to get to 4th, and so on).
Charisma, again, is equated to one's public reputation in most respects. Thus characters may receive bonuses up to 3 points per session for especially heroic deeds, while long periods of public inactivity may reduce Charisma, though usually not below original score. However acts of cowardice or immoral activity may also reduce Charisma for a hero. “Charisma reductions can be as severe as the GM decrees, being one of the few ways a GM can keep his players in line. In all fairness however, Charisma penalties should be given out with care and a player who truly deserves a penalty in excess of six points from a single session should probably not be invited to participate in another.” Charisma can also be earned through charity, on the scale of +1 Charisma per $1,000 donation. Charisma and experience cannot be earned through the same donation, nor can a PC gain bonuses by donating to charity with money he did not actually earn (the book says 'gifts and discovered treasures' don't count; a four-color game also probably shouldn't count loot taken from criminals).
When applying experience, a character is always assumed to be training up his abilities; a PC must note a “Training” stat on his character sheet, and must specify which improvement he is making during that level. The increase occurs when the character makes level, at which point he selects a new Training project. This can be “whatever the GM deems reasonable” but is usually a stat increase of one point, +1 to hit with a certain attack, +1 to damage with a certain attack, Animal Training ('Pet' is one of the Powers options and Training allows a character to train his pet or teach it special tricks), Education in a specific background (see section 4) or one can either gain weight or lose weight (since in this system, either choice may alter stats at a certain point). As in other level-based games, level increase also increases your base chance to hit in combat.
3. Combat Speaking of which. When starting a fight, the sides must check for ambush. The ones being ambushed roll against Detect Danger (which again is a percentile roll determined by Intelligence). Those who are successfully ambushed cannot roll initiative or perform normal actions in the first round. Initiative is rolled by each character as 1d10 + Agility score. Ties are won by the better Agility, or if that is also tied, the winner of a die roll. Multiple actions occur every fifteen phases; thus if a character actually managed to get 31 for an initiative score he would go first on 31, then on 16 and then a third time on 1. Each action after the first costs 2 points of Power. Note that most characters won't have this opportunity unless they were able to load up on Heightened Agility and/or the Heightened Speed power (which adds percentage dice x 10 to the character's movement rate AND takes 1/3 of the result and adds to initiative). An “action” is either a move or an action, and in a given phase a character can both move and take a standard action, which could be anything from attacking to evading. “Simple activities such as opening a door, pushing a button, etc. can be assigned a cost in inches of movement and count as part of the character's move rather than his action.” However this part isn't very clear about what those costs should be. If a character gets to move on multiple phases of the turn, he can spread his movement rate between phases as long as his maximum number of inches is not exceeded (this again makes Heightened Speed very convenient). Combat turns are on a scale of fifteen seconds. This means that complex actions like demolitions or lockpicking may take multiple turns to complete.
Attacking and defending in this game is done on a somewhat convoluted table that requires you to cross-reference the individual attack power with whatever applicable defense is used against it. The initial base chance to hit (that number or higher on d20) is equal to the smallest of the numbers available. If no numbers appear, then the power's base chance to hit is listed in parentheses with that power. For instance “Emotion Control (7)” gives a base chance to hit of 7 or more with your Emotion Control power, with “Charisma +” being a 5 and “Charisma -” being a 9; that is, if your Charisma is higher than the target's, you only need to roll a 5 or higher, but if the target has higher Charisma, you need to roll a 9. This score (which may start at a base of 0) is then modified for various reasons, such as a difference between the level of the attacker and defender (favoring the higher-level character), range, and “facing”. With regard to the latter, the game is assumed to use a map with square counters to represent each character (usually with a little picture of the character inside). The counter has two “side” facings, a “front” facing which is about a 60 degree arc, and everything else is “rear.” A character cannot normally attack to his rear, and attacks to his side are at -2. Attacks TO a character's rear (or from surprise, including surprise from above or below) are at +4 to hit, with attacks to the side/flank being at +2. As in most d20 games, a natural 20 is always considered a hit while a natural 1 is always a miss.
A character can also perform the evasion action, which creates a negative modifier (penalizes his attackers) of 1/10 his current Power score rounded down.
If a character is hit, he may take the damage to his Hit Points but also reserves the option to “roll with the punch” by taking some damage to his Power instead (up to a maximum of 1/10 current Power). Hits also cause knockback equal to one game inch per Hit Point of damage (minus the target's Basic Hits). An attacker can pull his punch by simply stating how many points of damage he intends to subtract from his damage roll before it is made.
The Combat section also includes a list of Weaponry, with “Fist” being base chance to hit and basic HTH Damage, with other weapons having an adder to basic HTH damage and usually a bonus to hit. For instance a Katana or other long blade is +2 to hit and HTH +1d6 damage. Ranged weapons (that are not simply hand weapons usable at range, like shuriken) have a base damage rating (a rifle is 1d10) and base chance to hit (a rifle has +4) and a range based on the character's Agility (a rifle's effective range is A x 10) When using automatic ranged weapons the bonus to hit is replaced by +1 for every bullet fired, and the autofire attack doing X number of base damage dice for the weapon times the number of bullets fired minus each extra bullet spent after the first (an automatic rifle does 1d10 damage per shot, -1/damage for each extra bullet). Incidentally, on the ranged weapon scale, a nuclear bomb is 20d20 damage with a +30 to hit.
There are also rules for a special attack or what is usually a “called shot.” Thus, a successful head shot, for instance, quadruples the chance that a hit will knock the target out. The mechanic here is that you simply have to roll twice to hit the target. There are also “carrier attacks” for things like tasers or poisons; in this case the “carrier” has to hit for the “payload” (like a taser shock) to be able to hit with a second roll. It is mentioned in the rules that incidental effects (like spreading a fire when using a flame-based power) are deliberately avoided in the default combat setup, so as to avoid the “sometimes cruel side-effects of various powers.” Such have to be declared as special attacks, but the book advises the GM that “unnecessary cruelty by the players or against them should be strictly avoided.” Multiple attacks can be made in the same phase (even when a character doesn't get multiple actions) if the attacker is willing to spend the base Power for each attack plus 2 for each additional attack, up to and including the first miss. However the attacker must roll separately with each attack and if any of them miss, then all are considered to have missed due to off-timing.
Hit Points of course represent one's ability to survive, while Power represents one's ability to exert energy; even mundane characters use Power in making moves, attacking, etc. A character with no Power remaining is “fatigued” which means that most of his relevant stats (including movement, base HTH damage and Carrying Capacity) are halved. Also, any further Power expenditures have to be taken out of Hit Points. A character who runs out of Hit Points but still has Power points has been “beaten to a pulp” and is called incapacitated- any further damage must come out of the character's Power. Whenever a character takes damage there is a base chance of 1% times the damage that the hit will knock him unconscious. A character with no Hit Points OR Power Points left is dead. An unconscious character (who still has Hit Points) can make a 'wakeup roll' each turn, which is a percentile save vs. his Endurance score. An incapacitated character (who has Power Points but no Hit Points) makes his wakeup roll only once per hour. For each minute of rest, a character regains one point of Power. Hit Points are healed according to a formula of the character's Basic Hits times the Healing Rate derived from his Endurance (a character has 4 Basic Hits and an Endurance of 16; on the table, the Healing Rate for Endurance 16 is .4 = 1.6 Hit Points healed per day). Medical attention can multiply the healing rate.
There are also rules in the Combat section for NPC reactions and morale- to my memory they seem to be lifted from Gygax' old text from the original Dungeon Masters Guide. Basically your Charisma is a modifier to the NPC's Initial Reaction on the Reaction Table, which in turn creates a lesser reaction modifier that in turn modifies the Loyalty rating of an NPC who serves or works with the hero; Loyalty matters if that NPC is “severely tested” by losses in battle or other misfortunes. In such cases there is a 10 in 20 chance of the NPC losing morale, modified by both Reaction and Loyalty. In such case the NPC rolls on percentile with results including “Conditional Surrender: if conditions not met, roll again for new idea” and “Suicide. If unable, then goes Berserk.”
4. Creating A Campaign is largely technical advice. “These rules are geared towards adventures on a world very much like present-day Earth, with the addition of super-powered individuals.” The book also suggests alternate settings, such as World War II AND World War I, Outer Space Contemporary (like Green Lantern), Outer Space Future (like Legion of Superheroes), Outer Space Long Ago/Far Away ('Same as the above, except that Earth would be totally ignored'), etc.
The book also stresses some emphasis on the characters' personal lives (outside of costumed ID), which assumes that the GM and each player have worked out the details of each PC's background. “The importance of the GM being familiar with comics and the way things work therein cannot be overly stressed.” Overall, the book says that the players are going to have to work within whatever framework the GM sets up- therefore it would be a good idea to find out what they are interested in doing.
One of the common aspects of a superhero universe is the organization - either a super-crime organization or an official organization which is intended to be allied to the heroes. Thus V&V has a section with examples of such. In the game's default universe, the super-law enforcement organization is called C.H.E.S.S. - it is considered to be an extension of both the CIA and FBI, and is commissioned to deal with super-powered threats both within and outside America's borders. Much like DC's Checkmate, it uses a chess motif for its agents, with Pawns actually being robots (like SHIELD's Life Model Decoys), Bishops being elite Bond-type agents, and a King and Queen who supervise all male and female agents respectively. The main evil organization in the world is called Intercrime, and is apparently both sinister and skilled enough to have absorbed more famous organizations like the Mafia without their general knowledge.
Section 4 also contains rules for the generation of NPCs. These are mostly done on random rolls that the GM can modify at his leisure. As a rule the five Basic Characteristics are rolled on 3d6 each, with other tables for an NPC's experience level, Training bonuses, etc. There is also a % table for the NPC's place of origin (including 'Anachronism' from another time) that could optionally be used for PCs. NPCs are also assumed to have two fields of professional training which can be used as sources of income, rolled on percentile; these could be anything from Journalism/Broadcasting to Game Designer/Bum. It is also possible to be an “Inheritor” of wealth, which gives a one-time bonus to income. It should be noted that these are the only rules for determining skills usable out of combat, and then mainly for the purpose of giving the character's secret ID an income.
There is also a Designing Adventures subsection which consists largely of one table of 7 types of adventure and subtables for each. But here it is again emphasized that “V&V ™ is not intended to simulate reality; it simulates comics.” Thus certain assumptions for plots only make sense in terms of traditional superhero comic format, and both GM and players should be familiar with such.
5. The Government section details how the government in a given superhero universe deals with supers on both sides of the law. The book's default universe takes a middle ground between extreme friendliness and hostility, with a neutral government that “acknowledges the value of superheroes but gives them only the special freedoms they require to do what they do” (that is, what they can do better than law enforcement). However, the actual text hand-waves a lot of the legal details that were brought up by former lawyer Steve Long in his Hero Games sourcebooks. In the V&V universe, heroes are vigilantes who just happen to work with the authorities, in an arrangement that everyone has more or less agreed to. For instance, vigilantes are usually exempt from having to appear for testimony at a villain's trial- it is assumed there is usually enough evidence in the case to make this unnecessary. Superheroes do not have to follow most police procedures. Basically the main thing that keeps them in line is unwritten custom and the practical matter that there is always going to be someone more powerful (higher-level) than you to beat you up if you actually cross the line.
In regard to those details, section 5 has a subsection for each character's Legal Status. A character who actually has a criminal record is generally not trusted by NPCs, which can be another factor in keeping rogue PCs in line. One benefit of actual government sanction is Security Clearance- this is rated on a 1 to 20 with 1 being access to the ultimate Top Secret material and 20 being the worst that any character could have. It is calculated as a base of 40 minus the character's experience level, his Intelligence and his Charisma. If the character has a criminal record, has the Prejudice Weakness or is an 'alien' (either from another planet or a hostile foreign power) this may reduce any bonuses the character gets towards heightened Security Clearance.
In this system, heroes can get rewards from wealthy individuals, interest groups or insurance companies when they turn in criminals, especially wanted criminals, as a practical means of funding necessary superhero activity. The amount is calculated from the criminal's Charisma and experience level, with a multiple if said criminal is a supervillain and is halved if the criminal was not already Wanted by authorities. Government-employed characters, including superheroes, are legally restricted from taking these rewards and instead get a salary of $300 x experience level per week.
Section 5 also has a list of major laws that heroes and criminals usually have to deal with, their basic definitions and their usual punishments. The text says that this list is based on the laws of New York state as of 1982. After this list there is a short discussion of how an arrest is carried out (again, superheroes have much more latitude than law enforcement officers, though the hero is always expected to cooperate with the law- if he actively defies law enforcement at the scene he risks arrest or having a warrant placed on him, which could be carried out by other supers). Then there's a set of rules for what sentences are faced for a particular crime, as well as the possibility of getting convicted. As one might expect, this is done on random roll but is heavily weighted towards releasing the truly innocent and punishing the guilty. Since Charisma is a bonus towards one's own “side” a high-Charisma defendant is more likely to be convicted if he's Evil and more likely to be released if he's Good. There is also a mention of super-prisons with the note that these will always have special flaws which result in high escape rates, especially if the superpower-neutralizers can themselves be neutralized or otherwise dealt with.
6. Being A Superhero is three short bits- the first is “Acting the Part”, or advice on properly roleplaying a superhero. In the text, it is not simply a matter of playing the character according to the four-color code, but recognizing that if the character is based on you (which again is the default premise of V&V) then what you bring to the table from real life is part of the character, and what you get out of the game is that when emulating a superhero “any greatness that emerges can be taken home with you. Be a superhero.”
Secondly, there is a rule for “Merchandizing”, which was originally one of the unique things about V&V (before indie comics and later, Aberrant, embraced the idea of a superhero selling himself). Even though the game operates on a default of superhero altruism, you still have the option of doing product endorsements, promotional appearances, etc. for cash. There is also the option to donate to charity, but charity rewards boost only Charisma, not Experience. Also, if you decide to profit from your merchandizing, this creates a “buffer” against charity donations on a 1-for-1 basis, such that if you took $10,000 in merchandizing profits without donating to charity, the next $10,000 you donate to charity provides no Charisma benefit- only after donating that 10k does your future charity boost your Charisma reward again.
Third, you have the system for Inventions, Inventing Points, and Gizmos. This was, again a unique feature of V&V in its day, although Mutants & Masterminds has a similar principle with the Inventor feat. Invention Points are obtained through the character generation system as a derived stat from Intelligence, and you get more as you go up in level. Some heroes (like Spider-Man) are sufficiently inventive and experienced as to produce more than one Invention even if they don't become permanent equipment, but most NPCs, who rarely advance in level, will only have so many in their careers; this is why few NPCs are willing to just give their inventions to anybody. In this system you can get permanent powers with “New Equipment” though this takes time and investment, and the text tells the GM not to let such devices be more than a third as powerful as a listed superpower. There are also “One Shot Inventions” of limited usefulness (like a device that neutralizes a villain's powers) that either break down or cannot be applied again (e.g. when Spider-Man used a one-shot device to counteract the Vulture's flight harness, the Vulture redesigned his equipment so the neutralizer wouldn't affect him again). Each of these one-shots still cost one of your precious Invention Points, but have the advantage of being available after just a short time in the lab.
7. Gamemastering V&V is mainly an example-of-play chapter. The original edition featured the martial artist Lightning-Fist ambushing a gang of scumbag criminals and generally being badass. In this edition the gadget hero Gunsmith has to rescue a young runaway from a “crime academy” run by the mysterious Crime Teacher. Gunsmith isn't quite as smooth as Lightning-Fist.
8. Appendices is of course all the rules that didn't go anywhere else. First, there is a conversion table: 1 turn is 15 seconds, 1 'inch' is 5 feet and 1 phase is about 1 second. When converting a movement power or character's movement rate from inches to MPH, you divide by 4.4, so when you take a base speed in miles per hour it converts to inches per turn at a multiplier of 4.4.
There are also rules for falling, including the possibility of using Agility to “acrobatically cut” the damage a falling character takes, and the option to catch a falling object (including the chance of taking damage from it, assuming the catcher is not airborne).
There is also the concept of a material's structural points. Any character attacking an object has to do at least that object's structural points rating to inflict any damage to it at all- if he does, it takes full damage, but otherwise it has no effect. A hand attack that fails for this reason will inflict half its damage to the attacker; a character can try grappling-type attacks to break an object to avoid inflicting injury on himself, but that means he only does half damage. An object's Structural Rating is measured in terms of cubic foot; very large objects can be up to three points higher while very small ones can be up to three points lower. However, this is on a scale where Bone is 5, Aluminum is 8 and Titanium is 13.
There are also rules for jumping (effectively strength-based, which again really means Carrying Capacity). As mentioned before, some characters can get “Pet” as a Power; thus this section includes rules and stats for common animals. This includes a mechanic for animal training. There is also a short list of common vehicles. This leads to a discussion of general equipment, with the advice that superheroes (unlike some fantasy characters) “do not drag great heaps of gear along with them wherever they go.” Such hoarding is also either redundant (an energy blaster who carries guns) or against 'theme' (Tiger-Man carrying a rifle). The GM is advised to apply Charisma penalties as a general punishment for such genre abuse. However this section also includes rules for Shields, which as we know are sometimes in-genre. A character must evade to use a shield and applies a Parry Factor where an unarmed parry is base 0, a sword is +3 and a shield is +5. Rules for damage to the parrying object are also included, although they don't explain what damage a barehanded parry inflicts to the defender, since: “Evasion without an attempt to parry is assumed to employ empty-handed parrying attempts when possible.”
Finally the new edition has a “Bandidos y Vigilantes” appendix for “Mexican wrestling moves” to take advantage of the current lucha craze, although it's not quite so detailed as Lucha Libre Hero. In fact, it's only a little over one page of rules. But since they allow fairly realistic yet bloodless combat resolution, they're important.
The last page is a simple character sheet. There is no index.
SUMMARY
The new Villains and Vigilantes is a great value simply in being a complete superhero RPG with just 56 pages of text. (62, counting the PDF spacing)
However, it is also kept mostly as-is for purposes of authenticity, and thus really shows its age. For one thing, again, it has no real skill system. Which means that while they mentioned that demolitions or lockpicking attempts may take more than one combat turn to complete, it doesn't tell you how to resolve them. And again, the concept of “game balance” is rather unheard of, since V&V actually predates the point-based systems which are almost the norm these days. The closest thing to such is the experience level mechanic. A great deal of things (like Mutant Power) are left to the GM to determine for himself. Of course that's the “old school” feel that a lot of players find attractive. The game has enough solid basis to where one is able to extrapolate if the GM and players want to do that work.
And in some respect, the random roll system for powers does accurately simulate that even comicbook characters who are some respect on the same “experience level” are not all created equal. “OK, Clark rolled Heightened Strength B, Heightened Strength B again, Invulnerability, Heightened Endurance B, Flight, and Vulnerability, Dick got Heightened Agility A, Heightened Attack, Heightened Defense, Natural Weaponry, Vehicle and Willpower, Diana got Heightened Strength B, Heightened Agility B, Flight, Special Weapon, Special Weapon twice... and Arthur got Telepathy and Animal Powers/Fish.”
“Fish?”
“I can talk to fish.”
Style: 4
Villains and Vigilantes is exactly as advertised: An old-style D&D type game system used for superheroes. The new layout and graphics by Dee are generally better than Living Legends. And the rules and setup do a fine job of emphasizing the tropes of four-color superheroics.
Substance: 3
This is only 3 because again, many improvements have been made to game systems since V&V first came out. But it is still quite usable as is, although (unless you're a AD&D/Palladium veteran) the math may take some getting used to.
