Villains and Vigilantes
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| Villains and Vigilantes | |
|---|---|
 Revised Edition Cover |
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| Designer(s) | Jeff Dee, Jack Herman |
| Publisher(s) | Fantasy Games Unlimited |
| Publication date | 1979 (1st edition) 1982 (Revised edition) |
| Genre(s) | Superhero fiction |
| System | Custom |
Villains and Vigilantes was a popular superhero-themed role-playing game (and arguably Fantasy Games Unlimited's most famous game) written by Jack Herman and Jeff Dee, competing primarily with Champions and Superworld in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The Villains and Vigilantes rules were revised significantly between the first and second editions, and many agree that the art, while still primarily provided by Jeff Dee, also improved significantly.[citation needed] The rules were perhaps less flexible than either Champions or Superworld, but Villains and Vigilantes managed to maintain a comic book-like feel that other systems were lacking.[citation needed] This was in part due to the game's premise that a player character should be based upon the real person playing it (although this was based upon a contentious system wherein players were expected to estimate their own real-life characteristics such as intelligence). Also lending a sort of genre authenticity was the fact that superpowers were randomly assigned, much as they would seem to be to the inhabitants of a superhero world, although in reality the supercharacters of comics are designed around themes.
Bill Willingham's modules "Death Duel with the Destroyers" and "The Island of Dr. Apocalypse" served as the inspiration for his later Comico comic book series, Elementals.
Contents |
[edit] Crisis at Crusader Citadel
This was an introductory module, published in 1982 by Jeff Dee and Jack Herman. In it, the players controlled neophyte superheroes looking to apply for membership in the Crusaders, an esteemed team of superheroes. During the adventure, the player-heroes have to stop a crime wave being carried out by the Crusaders' opposite numbers, a villain team called the Crushers.
Four years after the adventure booklet was published, the setting of the module were used as the basis of a Villains and Vigilantes comic book mini series by Dee and Herman published by Eclipse Comics. Each issue included character sheets for new heroes and villains and update material for the existing ones for use with the game.
[edit] Publications
- Crisis at Crusader Citadel
- Death Duel with the Destroyers
- The Island of Doctor Apocalypse (sequel to Death Duel with the Destroyers)
- FORCE
- Assassin! (sequel to FORCE)
- The Dawn of DNA
- From the Deeps of Space
- Battle Above the Earth
- To Tackle the T.O.T.E.M.
- The Devil's Domain
- The Pentacle Plot
- Terror By Night
- Pre-Emptive Strike
- Organized Crimes
- Enter the Dragon's Claw: Honor
- Search for the Sensei (a sequel adventure, Revenge of the Yakuza, was announced in the booklet but not published)
- Alone Into the Night
- The Secret in the Swamp
- The Great Iridium Con
- For the Greater Good
- Dawn of the Devil (sequel to The Devil's Domain)
- Breakin at 3 Kilometer Island (published by Judges' Guild)
- Trouble For Havoc (published by Chaosium, Superworld adventure with V&V stats)
- The DNAgents Sourcebook
- Opponents Unlimited (contained pre-created villains and villain teams)
- Super-Crooks and Criminals (ibid)
- Most Wanted (volumes 1 and 3; volume 2 was never published, ibid)
[edit] Living Legends
The unofficial "sequel" to the Villains and Vigilantes game is a new game called Living Legends, designed by Villains and Vigilantes co-creator Jeff Dee and published under his Unigames imprint.
[edit] GURPS
While Villains and Vigilantes has no formal connection to the GURPS universal system, the author of the GURPS "house campaign world" for superhero roleplaying, Robert M. Schroeck, has indicated that his GURPS International Super Teams was in fact inspired by a long-running Villains and Vigilantes campaign.
