Day 1 of Character Creation Challenge - V&V 2.1

 

I have decided to take on this challenge by making a Superhero a day. I might not post it on the day but I will create for each day of January and post it on this blog I wanted to start but didn't happen.

I will be posting from my collection of Superhero games. I will try to remember to state whether the game is still available or not. Most will be available in a PDF file format on DrivethruRPG. So always check there first.

First up is the go to RPG game of my colleges days and the one I always went back to until its authors released a new updated version (That version will be day 3).

Villains and Vigilantes 2.1 (prior to that it was 2.0) that is available on DrivethruRPG under Monkey House Games. If you prefer a print copy to go with the PDF then Lulu is the source to order a printed book.

Villains and Vigilantes by Jeff Dee and Jack Herman was a favorite role-playing game for decades. It has been replaced by Mighty Protectors (V&V 3.0) but this version this holds a special place in my gamer heart. I started with V&V as a freshman in college in 1983.

Interesting trivia about the genesis of V&V, when the authors were first teaching the rules to new players most hadn’t played Dungeons and Dragon before. V&V was their first role-play game experience. Computer games were starting out with Zork and Doom, so the idea of having an avatar in a MMORG was years away. In order to bridge the concept of V&V Jeff and Jack had to start with what the players were used to. The concept the players was used to was that the players were playing a game as themselves. The idea of playing totally different character was very hard for them. That is why character generation was written that way. For myself the concept of playing someone else wasn’t an issue, I had played D&D in high school. My characters ranged from a Human Ranger to Half-Orc Warrior. My love of fighters came from reading Lord of the Rings, the Conan book series, the Horse clans books, Arthurian/Camelot stories and Greek Mythology.

For the #31dayCharacterCreationChallenge I will be following the rule books as written. So in honor of my starting point, I will be generating my character as my freshman college Self.

Identity: Tom Hise

Side: Good

Sex: Male

Weight: 175

Age: 19

Experience: 0  Level: 1

Strength (Str)              8

Endurance (End)         12

Agility (Agi)               14

Intelligence (Int)         16

Charisma (Cha)           10

I use the Character Record Sheet (available Free from Monkey House Games website). So it calculates all the other items like Power Points, Hit Points, Hand to Hand damage, Healing rate, etc.

Number of powers is 1d6 +2: 4 – One power will be dropped, if weakness dropped then a 2^nd dropped.

Power 1: Skills d100: 54 - Heightened Senses

Power 2: Skills d100: 40 – Heightened Expertise; Roll for expertise d100: 20 – Expert in 1 weapon.

Power 3: Powers d100: 2 – Absorption

Power 4: Powers d100: 94 - Water Breathing; dropped

Weakness: d100: 95 - Vulnerability

Absorption will be substance. I like the ability and it hasn’t been overdone. In Marvel there is Absorbing Man and Mondo. Both were either villains or anti-heroes depending on the writers. I can’t remember a DC character with the power which touching an object is a requirement of the power; so it would be a Chemical power and not Absorption in V&V 2.1. Other publishers and TV shows have done it. Ben 10 (if you consider it a Superhero show with Aliens as the power source) has a character. I am going with a maximum amount that he can have at any one time and loses old absorbed characteristics to gain new ones. It takes one action to absorb. If incoming energies (i.e., attacks from other characters) are to be absorbed, the character must have a saved action to expend when the attack occurs in order to successfully absorb. If an incoming attack is absorbed, the character takes no damage from the attack. My time limit will be that I can’t rest or sleep in an absorbed form; I must revert to flesh to regain Power Points and Hit Points through rest.

So I will create the different levels of material based on when the Carrying Capacity (weight change driven) and Agility modifier score changes. So I will have a row for the most common types or certain materials with effects I need to be aware, like the rules mentioning that wood burns, water evaporates, etc. There aren’t rules for burning damage (e.g. damage on following turns – lingering/reducing), so I will house rule that Flame damage is stopped by the SR rating.

Having this power will let me play with the Structural Points portion of the rules. I think it is awesome set of rules for the game but its application underutilized. One of the big changes for my campaigns was its application to Armor. In most campaigns, and even character books, Invulnerability is over used and is often used in place of Armor. In the Armor section it is clearly called out as ablative. Meaning once it is damage it is reduced in protection both its ability to protect and absorb damage. So instead of bullets bouncing of the Armor, the bullets are damaging the Armor and exposing the wearer. By applying the Structural Points, the bullet has to exceed the Structural Rating of the Armor. If it doesn’t not damage to the Armor, if it does that all the damage is applied to the Armor. So this change doesn’t make it better than Invulnerability because stops the damage every turn while the Armor would stop it only once (ablative aspect of Armor) but it is make it equal to Invulnerability that anything less carry over to next turn.

So with Substance Absorption I want to tie the heightened senses into it. So I will be able to sense all material, with knowledge of their exact location and content. No fooling me with plastic resembling steel or cubic zirconium. The rules specifically state to make the heighted senses super, so I am adding the ability to find weaknesses and hidden/open sections within structures. For game terms I get 5x multiplier on my detect hidden and detect danger percentages when examining materials, structures, etc.  Hmm… maybe in the game I should major in civil engineering and see if I can get a job as building inspector.

I still need to establish his weakness which is Vulnerability there are two choices Vulnerability to a type of attack or Achilles’ heel. I want to tie this to the Absorption power. I think that an Achille’s heel doesn’t really fit but Vulnerability to Ice attack works as freezing all materials is detrimental. I don’t think I would be easier to hit, so additional damage is the choice. Looking at the Structural Ratings I notice that Brick has a 5 SR. Most of the material which freezing damages significantly are below that SR and the materials which withstand freezing better (including Brick) start at 5 SR and go up; based on this I will set the additional damage at +4.

I have the super hero name: Material Man. It is a riff on the song Material Girl which Madonna released the same year as I am playing myself in the game.