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It had to happen sooner or later! I’ve been reviewing some of the better, and my favorite, V&V products. I’ve been pretty much going in order, so now we come to FORCE. FORCE, while not “terrible” certainly isn’t a great adventure, and slightly worse for the fact that it really isn’t a very good SUPERS adventure on top of that.
I’m going to be pretty straightforward with he review itself, and leave all (OK, most of) my personal opinions for the end. If you don’t care what I think you can skip that bit. :)
Appearance:
Again, typical for a V&V adventure, FORCE has black and white double column small font interior text. There is a cover cardstock cover, saddle stitched. This is one of the (few) earlier adventures that don’t include counters. The art is by Jeff Dee, but isn’t his best work. Other than the Huge breasted blond, the cover is pretty much a waste. The Villain illustrations are pretty decent, but a few (Stargazer and Teleporter) are kinda stupid looking. Fortunately the 2 full page comics (one is on the back cover) is typical Dee quality work, very nice! I should also mention that there are a LOT of big and little maps in this adventure filling up the pages.
The Plot:
Spoilers below, read at your own risk!!
The FORCE (not to be confused with Force, the super villain leader of the group), an unknown super villain group, is blackmailing the USA. They are demanding $500 million in diamonds, or they will set off a hidden nuclear bomb that will release a deadly biological agent in a 100 mile radius (that will kill people in a nasty way). The USA has 10 days to comply. This is explained to the PCs by the government, who are pretty much out of the picture after this (?).
About 5 days to D-day, A stranger approaches one of the PCs, claims he has information about FORCE, screams, grabs his head and dies, blurting out one last word, “Shadowhawk”. Yeah, that’s how it’s presented in the adventure! A little investigating informs the PCs that he is a reporter doing a story on a commune led by Father Heronomos Kinkaid. More investigating turns up he (Kinkaid) has a boat named, “shadowhawk”. This gives the PCs 2 possible leads to follow up on, the boat or the commune. They both lead to St. Sebastian Island (although the Shadowhawk lead gets you there faster!).
The Shadowhawk goes to an island where the PCs find a large underground complex, a FORCE hideout (one of many owned by the leader, Force. He has lots of goons), and from here they can learn the location of the bomb and deactivate it. The commune leads to a (you guessed it) large underground complex, where you can learn about the island complex.
The big oooh ahhh to the story is that Kinkaid is Force (duh), who uses his commune to induct followers to his cause (um...him ruling the world, I guess) and to find depressed religious fanatic super villains to help him do (obviously evil) things to help in his cause (...still ruling the world!).
grubmans opinion:
First off, yes, you could have fun playing this adventure. However, it will be pretty much a disappointment to anyone over 12, unless the GM is really good, and adds to, and fleshes it out a lot.
The adventure is written in a style that reminds me of my writing when I need to get something done fast, so I skimp on any details, and write in hyperstyle.
The plot itself is ok if taken at face value, but it falls apart when you think about it. The leader has 3 persona, and only 2 of them are really a part of the adventure. One of his persona is rich, so why the hell is he blackmailing the USA for cash he obviously doesn’t need...especially since he is supposed to want to promote a religious order where everyone is treated equally (and why the hell diamonds??).
The religious commune thing, that sounds like one of the more interesting aspects of the adventure is really nothing. It is a small farming community filled with people who are slightly more fanatical about their religion than most people. I’m not sure why Force bothers with this cover since, according to the text, they have bases set up everywhere. It just really doesn’t have anything to do with furthering the adventure. The whole commune thing could have easily been left out of the adventure.
The adventure itself is little more than 2 dungeon crawls (and a tromp through the very boring commune). The underground complexes are far to vast for an action game like V&V. It reminds me of old D&D dungeons where things go on in each room unknown to the rest of the complex. Most rooms are boring or filled with goons. How many comics do you read where the heroes have to go through 40 mundane rooms to find the villains? It’s just not a very good supers adventure.
The super villains are ok,statwise, but the backgrounds are rather lame, and they come across as cardboard villains. This is a huge disappointment after experiencing the Crushers and Destroyers in the adventures that came before.
Conclusion:
FORCE is currently out of print, so you’ll have to search to find a copy. I’m here to save you the trouble! With so many good V&V adventures to choose from, I wouldn’t bother getting this one unless you get a great price on it, and you want to do some reworking of the plot, villains, and locations. Of course, if you’re like me, you will need it to fill your “collection”.
