For this week's Geek Tee I have dug out a really old shirt that I printed up myself as I doubt there was ever any official merchandise of this, at least not as far as I know! This is from a really great RPG that gave me hours of fun and entertainment back in the day called Villains & Vigilantes or V & V for short. The video tells everything really about my history/love for the game but here's a bit of history.
Designed by Jack Herman & Jeff Dee, the 1st edition was released by Fantasy Games Unlimited in 1979 but I got it from the 2nd edition that was released in 1982. I think I was perhaps 17 when I got this game so about '86 I think. I was an avid reader of Marvel & DC comics and knew that both had RPGs out but I wanted to create my own characters not play as somebody else's. And just look at that cover!! How could I resist, that cover tells a story that just dragged me in.
The rules are a bit tricky initially but once you get a bit of practice in they are pretty simple really and character creation is again slow to begin with but once you get used to it I was rolling up characters in probably 10 minutes maximum. You do need a calculator though I will say that.
An updated version of the game has since been released, if you are interested in trying out the games, try either of these two links.
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The idea was to play as yourself so I created a NPC (Non-player character) of myself who was called Photon, he has light powers, strength and illusions and his origin was that the Alien Protector was engaged in an aerial battle with a super-villain (I forget which one?) and got fatally wounded, he crashed down on top of a bus shelter as I walked past and with his dying moments he reached down and grabbed my hand channeling his powers into me. (I realise now how derivative of Green Lantern's origin it is!) Later on in the campaign the persona of the Alien Protector started to try and take control of my psyche.
I had a ton of fun doing these games and will sign off with the names of some of the player characters I remember. My sister was The Elementalist, my little bro was Mindwing, my big bro was The Hermit (crab powers!), Raj was Transflame, Dave was The Crimson Knight, Martin was Sonic Speeder, Mosquito, The Crab (and a couple more I am sure but I forget!) and my cousin Amos was Beast Man, Protac, Titan (I think), and Gauntlet.
As an interesting snippet of information, Bill Willingham of Fables
fame wrote a couple of early V&V campaign books, Death Duel with the Destroyers and The Island of Dr. Apocalypse.Update: I just got a comment on my video by Jeff Dee the games co-creator. His YouTube channel shows game sessions of him playing the new version of V & V HERE
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