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The Island of Doctor Apocalypse is the conclusion to the adventure started in Death Duel with the Destroyers.
LIke Death Duel, Dr. A is very professionally written and presented. It is a very open ended adventure that spends most it’s time describing the various locations on the island, rather than a sequence of events (that are common to most supers adventures). Characters are free to explore the island and plot how to defeat Dr. A in whatever way they desire.
The adventure is very “classic” for adventures of the time, with maps of the general area, and maps of each location, with keys to the maps taking up the bulk of the adventure. You can tell it was a semi-awkward phase, when people were just starting to get the idea that they can pull away from typical D&D (dungeon and surrounding area) adventures.
One thing that is obvious, it that this isn’t a “typical” supers adventure. If I was asked to summerize it’s tone, I would say James Bond meets super heroes. That said though, I enjoyed reading and playing in (as a PC) this adventure. This is a very fast paced exciting adventure that gives the players a lot of opportunity to plan , think, and debate. I doubt your players will be disappointed playing in this one.
Appearance:
Typical of all the V&V adventures I’ve reviewed, this is 20 pages, black and white double column interior and cardstock color cover. The cover and interior illustrations are by the author, Bill Willingham. The cover is nice, but not near as cool as the cover of Death Duel. We only get 5 interior illustrations. One is a full page comic that is pretty cool, but the others are nothing special. Kinda a disappointment after the cool illustrations in Death Duel. This adventure has a ton of maps.
The Story:
Spoilers follow!!!
There isn’t much to be said in summary of this adventure. In Death Duel, the PCs learned of Dr. Apocalypse, and his evil plot to take over the world, and the location of his base, the Island of Nacht near Bermuda. This adventure is about the PCs going to the island to deal with the good doctor, and put his satellite (you know, the one that is he is going to use to destroy cities until he is given Manhattan Island...see my Death Duel with the Destroyers review :)) out of commission.
As stated above, this adventure describes all the locations on the island. How the characters explore them is going to be up to them. How the PCs plan and plot is going to be up to them also. It’s hard to summarize such an open ended adventure. However, I will say that the PCs will have every opportunity to render the sattelight useless and kick (or get their butts kicked) Dr. A’s butt.
Some things worth noting...There is a sinister secret to the island and Dr. Apocalypses powers. It’s kinda cool, but I don’t want to ruin it for any sneaky players who might be reading this. It’ll also give any GMs reading this something to look forward to when they get the adventure (this one is still in print).
Other things worth mentioning are the fact that, other than the doctor, this adventure is void of super powered villains. The PCs will spend their time fighting 10 foot tall guardian robots (can you say, “sentinels”?), and androids. Kinda dull, but it fits in well with the espionage style of the adventure.
Locations include native villages, a temple, Defensive stations, an old military base, tracking station, caves, and oceanographic base, The Doctors Villa, and an undersea base. Most the locations offer clues or opportunities to further the adventure, and plenty of robot bashing. The most notable thing in all the locations is the collection of Alan Parsons Project records, wedged between all his classical records (this was before DVDs kids!) in the Dr.s villa.
The Doctor himself is a HUGE villain at level 15 (and you can even choose his powers if you like)! Should be an interesting fight for any PCs.
Conclusion:
I know the “story” part of this review doesn’t reveal as much about this adventure as it did in other V&V adventure reviews I’ve written. It’s due to the modular open ended style of the adventure. It really allows the players and GM to make their own story, and this can be a lot of fun.
While not exactly a classic style supers adventure, The Island of Dr. Apocalypse is a fun James Bond style adventure, and an excellent 1 or 2 night conclusion to Death Duel with the destroyers. It is also a good chance for PCs to take some time exploring, plotting and planning, rather than just bashing super bad guys.
I give it 2 thumbs up for a fun adventure, well worth the $6 as a V&V adventure or as inspiration for a espionage adventure.
