Morpheus Unbound | Villains & Vigilantes
Version 1.2
A: What you are reading here is what
If you are reading this, you are encouraged to
Q: What is the "to hit" number?
A: One of the issues here is that the V&V "to hit" is a bit like AD&D - the ability to cause damage is built into the attack roll.
Thus, Force Field, Power Blast, Flame Power, etc. reduce the chance for an attack to hit. For some, it seems obvious - the guy has a force field, is blasting incoming attacks, has a corona of flame, whatever. In effect, though, these don't necessarily mean the attack missed, merely that it didn't score damage. There's no logical reason that Life Support or Adaptation would magically help the character dodge an attack. Instead the attack "hits" but because these powers partially absorb or deflect the energy of the blow, thus preventing the character taking any damage. Keep in mind, the Human Torch rarely dodges, but in V&V he never gets "hit" (i.e. takes damage) either (Flame Power defense).
Q: Are the special effects of a Power hard-wired to the mechanics of the Power?
A: If V&V has an internal point of contention akin to rival the "character point system" debates, this would be it. Ergo, this is best left to a matter of individual interpretation. Fortunately, we all agree that V&V has a system that lends itself to tinkering and manipulation.
While it is true that almost every Power in the rulebook has a clearly defined special effect, some people are very comfortable keeping a set of mechanics and changing the SFX. Two examples might be "Plasma Control" (a SFX variant of Flame Power) and "Matter Creation" (a SFX variant of Ice Powers). Some groups will also change the mechanics slightly (e.g. Telekinesis linked to I instead of S) and still call it the same power.
If your group is not comfortable doing this, it is recommended that you make use of Mutant Power to recombine the desired special effects with the desired mechanics, e.g. "Mutant Power (Plasma Control)".
Q: How much damage does a "move-through" or "move-by" do?
A: The consensus seems to be that for a "move-through" where the attacker slams his body into the victim, the attacker does a base amount of damage based on his weight, plus his velocity (anything up to his maximum movement rate per turn, regardless of how far he actually moves), plus his Basic HTH damage. Summary
Damage = [ Weight Damage ] + [ Velocity Damage ] + [ Basic HTH ] + [ Other bonuses ]
A "move-by", where the attacker moves past the victim, striking out with a limb, appendage, or carried object does half that.
One school of thought has the attacker take half damage when performing a "move-through".
Another school of throught drags the falling rules into it to suggest that if the attacker has more Basic Hits than the victim has Basic Hits or Structural Rating, the attacker takes no damage. Using these same rules, any damage the attacker does suffer from the attack is divided by any remaining points of Invulnerability. In this case, if the attacker suffers damage, the damage is based on half the weight and velocity based damage (not including either Basic HTH or other bonuses).
Q: Is the rules upgrade
better than the Revised V&V rules?
A: Some are inclined to feel that the upgrade changes enough of the core rules and concepts that it might be considered a different game.
Is it a better game?
That's a matter of interpretation. If you want a game/campaign that makes use of skills and a generally lower power level ("super-normals" or "super-agents" kind of campaign) then I think the upgrade is better.
If you want a daytime-television, larger than life, powerful heroes kind of game where skills are a plot device and superpowers rule, I think you need to stick to the original.
A: Villains & Vigilantes Second Edition is another name for Revised Villains & Vigilantes published in 1982. When people talk about Villains & Vigilantes, you can assume this is the book they are talking about.
I have no idea how it differs from First Edition, which was published in 1979, because I've never seen a copy of the First Edition.
The Rules Upgrade is the current "name" for what was going to be the Living Legends rules. Living Legends is still a superhero game, but now has nothing to do with the Villains & Vigilantes rules, per se, and uses a completely different set of game mechanics. The Rules Upgrade is just that, an add-on to the core Revised Villains & Vigilantes rules. The Upgrade is meaningless without a copy of the Revised V&V rulebook. Advanced Villains & Vigilantes is a name that was kicked around for the Upgrade, but was discarded in 2005 due to possible trademark infringement (Fantasy Games Unlimited owned the trademark to the Villains & Vigilantes name until mid-2010, when Jack and Jeff got it back).
There is no Revised Updated Second Draft of the First Edition. I made that up to see if you were paying attention.
So, to summarize-
1979 - V&V (1st Edition, published by Fantasy Games Unlimited)
1982 - Revised V&V (aka 2nd Edition, published by Fantasy Games Unlimited)
2005 - Living Legends (1st Edition, published by UNIGames)
2010 - Living Legends (version 1.1, published by Monkey House Games)
2010 - Revised V&V version 2.1 (that's the official name, published by Monkey House Games)
Q: What are Fantasy Games Unlimited, UNIGames, and Monkey House Games?
A: Fantasy Games Unlimited, Inc. owned the V&V Trademark from about 1979 to 2010. They were the sole legal publishers of V&V products (excluding magazine articles) during this time period. They continued to have product stock available, so were able to retain exclusive publishing rights.
UNIGames, Inc. is owned by Jeff Dee and his wife, 'Manda. They publish a bunch of cool games, and published Living Legends from 2005 to 2010.
Monkey House Games, Inc. is owned by Jack Herman and Jeff Dee, the
original creators of V&V and the universe / campaign-setting that
both V&V and LL reside in. In 2010, Jack and Jeff were able to
reclaim both the Trademark and publishing rights to V&V. Because
LL is set in the same universe, that game was transferred to Monkey House
Games.
(Note that Jack and Jeff always retained the Copyright to V&V,
just not the rights to the name, nor to publish. It's
complicated.)
Q: Where can I find conversion notes to convert from V&V to Champions or Superworld?
A: Several FGU-published adventure books include notes in the back pages.
Q: Where can I find conversion notes to convert from V&V to other game systems?
A: Haven't got a clue. Try the WebRPG forum or the VandV list on Yahoo! You will quickly find dozens of great people experienced in that other game system willing to share his or her thoughts and experiences.
Q: Where can I find conversion notes
to convert from other games to V&V?
A: Haven't got a clue. Try the WebRPG forum or the VandV list on Yahoo! You will find dozens of great people experienced in that other game system willing to share his or her thoughts and experiences.
A: Many places, but try http://www.patric.net/morpheus/other.html for a short list of useful links to get you started. Especially check out the page at Wizards of the Coast.
A: Technically, he's only a Demi-God of Role-Playing Games. For some people, that's enough and they revere him with much higher status. For others, that is completely irrelevant and they treat him like a normal guy. It is rumored his wife 'Manda (a Hero of Role-Playing Games) treats him like a normal husband.
Q: How does someone become a Hero
or Demi-god of Role-Playing Games?
A: You're not seriously asking this are you? That was a joke. OK, fine, for purposes of this document, a Hero is anyone who has made money by selling a home-built role-playing game or product (like Utter or Mactyre). Selling to magazines isn't quite enough, but it's a good start. You have to sell a book. To become a Demi-god, you have to sell lots of books and have your face recognized at game conventions. To become a Higher Power still, you have to have [flame] wars fought over the meaning of the doodles you leave on napkins in the cafeterias at game conventions. (Think Dowd, Jackson, and Gygax here people.)
Q: Who maintains this piece of crap document anyway?
A: Known by any other name, I'm Patric L. Rogers. You can learn more about me than you could possibly care to know at http://www.patric.net . If you want to skip to the gaming part of my site, use http://www.patric.net/morpheus .
Q: Okay, Mr Smart-Ass, Patric Rogers, are you a god of role-playing games?
A: I wish. I expect I currently aspire to somewhere between undeserving mortal and Hero of Role-Playing Games stature. Technically, I have written a lot (you're on my site, right?), been involved a book that did make it to hardcover (Secret of the Arcanexus), been involved with several book-like PDFs (notable to this page is Unofficial Living Legends Companion), but (in spite of my own vanity) simply don't have enough recognition yet to be a Hero. ;-)