Hey! That’s Grand Rapids, Michigan! I grew up there! Well, more specifically, I grew up about 60 miles away from there, but it’s the closest major city. If I’d known it had superheroes I would have visited more often.

Despite having written my own superhero role-playing game long ago, if I were to run a supers game this weekend, I’d use Villains and Vigilantes. As much as I enjoy my memories of using it, Men & Supermen is inscrutable. When I was an obsessed college student, obsessive detail (though, even then, not at the level of Champions) made sense to me. Now, I can’t understand the rules I wrote.

The only disappointment for me back in the old days was that, in V&V, unconsciousness is pretty common. Your average male character is likely to have about 4 hit points; your average female about 3 hit points. They have a Power Point score of about 40, which means that they can reasonably take four points of damage for their first attack, and then three points for the next three subsequent attacks. Any damage taken beyond that goes to hit points; like original D&D, zero hit points means unconsciousness. Your average punch does 1d4 points of damage. An agile or intelligent person will gain bonuses to damage (strength applies to what the initial die rolled is); many powers will, as well, and weapons also add to that total.

Which means that it doesn’t take much to knock someone out with one or two punches. Having armor of some kind is fairly essential in this game. In its defense, it is very hard to die unless you’ve got a sadistic villain who keeps pounding you after you’re down. Which is good, because the default in V&V is to play yourself in a world of superheroes.

In its basic form, it doesn’t even have you roll up initial stats: your GM rates you, personally, on the five stats (strength, endurance, agility, intelligence, and charisma) and you play yourself in a superhero universe.

You then roll up three to eight powers, discard one, and roll a weakness; then, optionally either keep the weakness or discard both the weakness and one other power.

Here’s an example. I rolled 3 on d6 for number of powers, so I get to roll 5 powers. I choose to roll all of them on the Powers table.

• Non-corporealness (non-permanent)
• Darkness control
• Weakness detection
• Heightened Strength B (+15)
• Force Field

I have to discard one. I’m going to discard Heightened Strength B. As useful as it is to have super-strength, I like the amalgam of the other four powers better, and I usually enjoy playing characters with powers more than character with heightened characteristics.¹

My weakness is Phobia/Psychosis. I could choose to discard another power to discard that weakness, but I want to keep all four powers. The GM will decide what my Phobia/Psychosis is, but I’m guessing that something on the order of fear of open spaces² would work. There may be some other options depending on how “I” got the powers.

This is the older version’s cover. In both cases it looks like the villain is winning over the vigilantes. (For the newer version, look on the inside for the description, and the back for a continuation.)

This “2.1” edition, product ID 2001, is very similar to the “revised rules” version I have, product ID 2000 from 1982.

There are some modifications to the original rules. For example, my non-corporealness costs 7 Power Points per hour. In the original rules, it only cost 4 Power. The GM will choose my ability scores, but assuming that they are all average I’d have a Power of 40 (the combined total of strength, endurance, agility, and intelligence³); that difference in power costs is substantial.

That and a typo are the only differences in description between the two rulesets for this list of powers and weaknesses. Darkness control and Phobia/Psychosis are exactly the same in both versions.

There are a couple of additions to the game since the last version. The older version only goes up to 8.8. The new version includes 8.9 (shields) and 8.10 (Mexican wrestling moves). It also has a new dedication; there are probably other minor changes that I didn’t notice reading through it. It’s been a long time since I’ve played Villains and Vigilantes!

Combat remains the same. You roll a d20 to see if you hit, and you gain bonuses due to skill. One of the neat features of Villains and Vigilantes, however, is that the base chance to hit varies according to the defense type and the attack type. The core of the combat system is a chart that lists all of the defense types (such as Android Body, Force Field, and Stretching Powers), and all of the attack types (such as Disintegration, Flame Power, Hand to Hand, and Sonic Abilities). And then it provides the base chance to hit according to how easy it is for that power to get through that defense. For example, if I want to punch someone who has an android body, I need to roll 3 or less on d20. If I switch to pummeling with my force field, then I need to roll 16 or less.

When more than one defense applies, use the lowest number, but there is always a chance of hitting! Even if I try to punch an astral projection, I need to roll 0 or less on d20; if I have an experience bonus, or a detect weakness bonus, I can increase that number; and a roll of 1 always hits in any case.

A force field will hit an astral form on a 16 or less, however, so I shouldn’t have to resort to punching the air if I have the Power left to use it. Force fields look to be fairly powerful. The only defenses they don’t easily get through are magnetic powers (requiring an 8 or less), and other force fields, which require a 0 or less. I really ought to consider dropping something other than heightened strength, so that my force fields actually do damage when they hit!

Another neat trick is that any character can attack as many opponents as they want at a time⁴. The default is to attack a single opponent. But let’s say I want to pummel four henchmen with my force field. I’ll need to spend the power cost for each pummel, and I’ll need to roll to hit on each. The catch is that if any roll fails, they all fail. But if they all succeed, then I have pummeled four henchmen on one action. This ability becomes more useful as characters rise in level; if I were 6^th level or higher, and the henchmen were 1^st level, then I would have to roll 19 or less to hit them—making it easy for high level characters to take out henchmen. This rule applies to any attack type, including punching or martial arts.

The Defense Type vs. Attack Type table provides basic chance to hit depending on what you’re hitting and what you’re hitting with.

Looking at this character, I’m reminded of one of the other things that used to bug me a little about V&V: many of the powers are rated according to a basic characteristic. In some cases, such as Mind Control range being governed by Intelligence, this makes some sense; in others, such as telekinesis and force field, it’s more than a little arbitrary. With Force Field, for example, I can “pummel” opponents with waves of force. The damage I do will be equal to my normal hand-to-hand damage. This makes me second-guess dropping strength yet again, because if I were physically stronger my force fields would do more damage.

I vaguely recall a house rule in my college days that said, if any power uses a basic characteristic, and that characteristic isn’t reasonably tied to that power for everyone, then just roll 3d6 to get the power’s score. Thus Gorilla Grodd’s telekinesis would not be automatically massively stronger than Yoda’s or Brain Wave Jr.’s. As it stands, I’m seriously inclined to drop Darkness Control rather than Heightened Strength, because the latter will drastically improve my Force Field⁵.

I’d probably add, today, that if a character has a heightened characteristic that would have impacted the power, then they can choose to replace heightened characteristic with heightened power.

That aside, I’ve always had more fun with Villains and Vigilantes than with Champions or any other supers game I’ve read beyond my own, and nowadays I’d rank it above my own as well. I’m glad the authors have taken V&V back, and it’s awesome that services like Lulu.com make it easy for them to quickly get a product into the marketplace.

Now, about my character. I’ve got a character with the ability to become non-corporeal, control and create darkness, detect weaknesses, and project force fields. How about a name? Heading over to 50 Random Superhero Names, I get a list that contains The Mighty Wicked Tenth Saint. I think we’ll call him The Tenth Saint for short. But we’ll remember that he’s mighty wicked.