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Villains and Vigilantes |
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Death Duel with the Destroyers The Island of Doctor Apocalypse Villains and Vigilantes Collector Checklist Villains and Vigilantes Websites More Superhero Roleplaying Games Quick Villains and Vigilantes Resources Villains and Vigilantes Encyclopedia Article from the Wikipedia Villains and Vigilantes DMOZ Listings the Open Directory only lists unique sites The best Villains and Vigilantes site online - my site pales in comparison A Villains and Vigilantes forum from RPGHost Villains and Vigilantes comic book reviews - links to reviews of several other Villains and Vigilantes products. Villains and Vigilante Yahoo Group - more discussion, this time via an email list RPGNet's list of Villains and Vigilantes products from their index of gaming stuff |
 Welcome
to the unofficial Villains and Vigilantes website. The
purpose of this site is to provide reviews and histories of
Villains and Vigilantes products.About Villains and VigilantesIn my memories, Villains and Vigilantes was the 1st superhero themed roleplaying game, but in reality, the 1st superhero roleplaying game was actually Superhero 2044. Until last year, I'd never actually seen a copy of Superhero 2044, but now I own a copy of the game along with its only supplement, and I'm convinced that Villains and Vigilantes, in spite of its minor flaws, is a far superior gaming experience. The 1st edition of Villains and Vigilantes was published in 1979, and a revised 2nd edition was released in 1982. Another revision of the Villains and Vigilantes rules from 1998 is available at the official Villains and Vigilantes site, which seems to be seldom updated. VnV was the 1st game designed by Jack Herman and Jeff Dee. About Jeff DeeJeff Dee is not only the creator of Villains and Vigilantes; he's also a notable gaming artist whose work was featured prominently in the original edition of the Dungeons and Dragons supplement Deities and Demigods. You can visit Jeff Dee's official site here, and you can also find a gallery of Jeff Dee's artwork for both Villains and Vigilantes and DnD here. Dee's more recent RPG work can be found at Unigames official site, which includes links to the new Living Legends RPG (the official sequel to Villains and Vigilantes), the Pocket Universe RPG, and the WarChest customizable board game. (Please note that most of these pages haven't been updated since 2005.) About Jack HermanI've been unable to find any kind of biographical information about Jack Herman on the web. Please contact me if you have information about his website or any of his other projects that should be discussed here. Playing Yourself
But Villains and Vigilantes was unique in encouraging players to design characters based on their real life personas, but giving them superpowers. Characteristics were determined by the consensus of the group, which made for some interesting conversations in my gaming group, for sure. (Imagine having a discussion about how high your intelligence is numerically compared to the other players in YOUR gaming group.) Thinking about it now, it might be fun to play a Villains and Vigilantes campaign today with characters based on myself and my buddies. Talk about old school RPG. Superpowers were determined randomly, which also led to some really bizarre power combinations. Where to Buy Villains and VigilantesUnlike most fantasy roleplaying games from the 1970s and 1980s, Villains and Vigilantes can still be purchased directly from the publisher, Fantasy Games Unlimited (publisher of Villains and Vigilantes) at their website. It seems like they have a reasonable selection of VnV merchandise still available, although they do not have a complete collection available. (I couldn't find an option for ordering the original boxed set, for example, or for the classic Death Duel with the Destroyers adventure.) About MeMy name is Randy Ray, and even though this site is about the game Villains and Vigilantes and not about me, I thought it would be appropriate to relate some background about me and my experiences with Villains and Vigilantes. My 1st roleplaying game was Dungeons and Dragons, but VnV was my 2nd rpg, and it appealed to me for a lot of reasons. I started collecting comic books before I could read, so I had immersed myself in a universe of superheroes long before I had discovered a world of wizards, warriors, and hobbits. Dungeons and Dragons was, for me, a chance to recreate the adventures I'd read about in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings. But Villains and Vigilantes provided me with something more: the ability to play myself as a superhero with superpowers. How could something like this possibly not be attractive to a 10 year old comic book fan? |
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Roleplaying games in the 1970s and 1980s always recommended
playing fictional characters that were quite different from your
real life persona. Some of this was inspired by some of the silly
and stupid accusations pointed at Dungeons and Dragons
related to various suicides and murders that were supposedly caused
by the inability of players' to distinguish between reality and the
violence in the games. And some of it was just the obvious point of
why play yourself in a game where the whole point is to play someone
else?