Very cool, I had posted previously about some guidelines for the non-combat use of powers, like saving people from burning buildings, floods, crowd stampedes, etc... I think someone was going to create a mini-adventure around this, but I may have lost the thread... I love the quicksand stuff, I can see that modified to escaping an undertow, hurricane swells, any number of scenarios.  Impressive stuff, thanks!

For whatever reason, my group didn't use many modules beyond the first few, so I missed all this cool stuff.

So thanks for posting these!

The revised rules mention that dimension-traveler Nomad sends criminal Mammoth to limbo. A representation of Mammoth makes a cameo appearance in The Dragon of Juompur magazine adventure, but what happened to the villain himself?

Here's what other V&V resources tell us about limbo.

The Zuvembie Lord from Terror by Night has a Magic Spell Device: Dimension Travel -- use of the spell opens a portal to 'Purgatory', a misty grey Limbo echoing with screams of the damned. A character can escape by making an INT roll on 1d100, but anyone so transported loses 2d6 power/turn. This spell can be cast five times/day.

The Hauntress (previously Shrew), described in Issue 3 of the V&V limited series has this dimensional Vulnerability: For every type of energy attack that successfully hits her, there is a 1% chance of causing "ectoplasmic disruption" equal to the damage done - 9 (Basic Hits + Level). If this happens her spirit is transported to limbo, where it takes ninety days (in time by our reckoning) to re-form her astral body.

Finity: If Nomad's "limbo" was simply a euphemism, there's somewhere else Mammoth might have gone: the dimension of Finity, described in Pre-Emptive Strike.

Time travelers are constantly creating divergent worlds--even universes--with each jaunt into a past or future. Not the past or the future, but timelines which would not have existed without them.

Finity exists on such a timeline: It is an Earth which was sterilized by a solar flare during the Devonian Era, two hundred million years before the first dinosaurs, four hundred million years before man. The cause of the solar flare is uncertain ... and a use was found for this doomed Earth--a prison colony for those supercriminals who could not be restricted or confined by normal methods.

Finity was the discovery of Myrthryl, a Dimension-hoping being who is said to have inspired tales of Merlin, and he alone knows the correct path through the twisted timelines to reach it. Since the recent discovery of force fields to confine the Non-Corporeal, the Vibratory, and the most destructive criminals, a .... Finity has been little used and its popular is less than one hundred criminals.

The module goes into greater detail about Devonian environmental conditions.


Other Dimensions? Although dimension-travelers appear in other sourcebooks, the only other dimension I've seen detailed is the divergent timeline from The Pentacle Plot, which offers many additional rules for a ancient-medeival military combat.

I am loving this thread.  Thanks!

Hammer wrote on Sep 19^th, 2009 at 9:23pm:


Sonic Abilities may be used as normal but with twice the normal range.

Vibratory Powers isn't specified as an attack type but it might fall into this category: Emotion control, Force Fields, Hand-to-Hand without weapons, Telekinetic Blasts, Mind Control, Paralysis and Transmutation may all be used underwater without further modification.

Also:
Lightning  Control generates a ball of lightning with a radius of E/2.

Chemical Powers: usable only as a radius attack, with a maximum range of S/3, unless the chemical is one that reacts violently with water (e.g. sodium or potassium), in which case treat it as a non-nuclear bomb.

Explosives may function normally, depending on design.

Here are some detailed rules from Battle Above the Earth about using super powers while wearing space suits in outer space.

Any character with Life Support as a power will be able to use any of his powers while in a vacuum.

Characters who have to wear space suits will find themselves extremely limited. Without special adaptations, most powers will be either useless due to confinement within the suit (i.e. Stretching Powers, Shrinking) or would break the suit (i.e. Growth, Lightning Control, Power Blast).

Weather Control will not work in a vacuum itself, although it can affect pressure within another suit if a special role is made. 

Non-Corporeal characters can survive in a vacuum only as long as they can hold their breaths. Characters in astral form are unaffected.

Characters with invulnerability can survive for one turn per point of invulnerability, but must spend one turn recovering for every two turns of exposure to a vacuum.

Characters with Absorption-Substance could be able to survive in a vacuum, depending upon whether the GM determines that a character who has absorbed all the qualities of steel would still need to breathe.

Characters with Flight move normally in Zero-G.

Characters with wings can fly only if they can survive without space suits. However, they must state every time they move that they are compensating for the lack of gravity or they must make a percentage die roll vs. Agility to prevent them from continuing their movement path in a straight line for another 1-10 phases.

Characters without Flight move at a rate of (S + A)/2. However, they will always continue on at their last movement rate unless they have some special way of braking/stopping, such as magnetic boots, a tether line, etc., so it is recommended that they do not move more than three or four inches per turn. Tether lines are assumed to have 4 structural points.

If a character takes a knockback, he will keep on going at a rate equal to the amount of damage he took (in inches for this movement) until he hits something, someone grabs him, or he uses Flight  Powers or some other means of braking/stopping.

Also, characters are still limited to their normal carrying capacities due to the natural inertial of an object. If they try to lift or move anything heavier than their carrying capacity, they will usually only push themselves away from the object.

The laws of action and reaction still apply in space. Hitting a target will cause the "hitter" to take a knockback as if he had taken the amount of damage inflicted by his blow on the target. Example: If Kodiak throws a punch for 9 points of damage, he will go flying back 9 inches and continue to fly back at this rate of movement per turn (9 inches/turn) until he can brake/stop himself.

Combat is otherwise assumed to follow the standard rules.

Be careful if you're fighting in an underground cavern. These rock-slide rules from This Empress Earth were created for Gargantua (52 strength), but notice how they could apply to anyone with a score of 24 or higher.

Any time a blow by Gargantua misses its target, there is a percentage chance equal to half Gargantua's Strength score that rocks will crash down around the combatants. This rule may apply to the characters as well if their Strength scores are 24 or more. Falling rocks will do 2d8 points of damage to each combatant that fails to avoid them. The rocks can be avoided if the players roll under their Agility score on 1d20. The person causing the rocks to fall has a +2 to their Agility for this roll only.


From the Deeps of Space come these rules for meteor storms:

Roll 1d20 for the intensity of the storm. This is how many meteors there are in the field.

Swarms with 1-10 rocks have a size of 5: they do that much damage when they hit, and have that many hit points over their structural rating of 6.

Swarms of size 11-14 are size 3.
Swarms of size 16-20 are size 2.

One half of the rocks in a swarm will attack each turn; if the character cannot destroy a rock through HTH, powers, or weapon blasts, it makes a HTH attack at level four skill and then passes beyond the character.

For example, Cherenkov-Man runs into a size seven swarm. Four rocks attack on turn one; he smashes two with a multiple HTH attack, one with a power-blast with his second action. The remaining rock hits Cherenkov-Man and does five points of damage. The next turn, the remaining three rocks approach and must be dealt with by Cherenkov-Man.

The GM may wish to make some swarms out of nickel-iron meteors, which have a structural rating of ten but can be deflected by magnetic powers.

Nice, anything about burning buildings or fire in general?  I haven't seen any modules/adventures with this, but I'd think it would happen with fair frequency.  Explosions, falling beams, backdrafts, etc... I'd think someone would have come up with something so I don't have to recreate the wheel. 

Thanks, I was looking more for environmental stuff than "flame throwers".  I think Mr. Sumner was going to write a mini adventure around this, but I haven't seen it... I may have lost it in the posts.

Majestic wrote on Oct 13^th, 2009 at 4:25pm:


I would enjoy reading a House Rules thread about burning buildings any other dangerous situations.

Knockout gas looks like a good guideline for smoke inhalation, but I think it usually starts high, and comes down...

No kind of expert there.

Alone into the Night includes this trap inside a locked room. The only remaining way to enter the office is with force. The door has 3 Structural Points. Suddenly, upon bursting into the room, an instrument on the ceiling will fire a laser at the intruding character. The beam attacks as 4th level, doing 2d8 damage with a 3 inch range. Attacks are made as for Light Control and will continue until the intruder is destroyed or the device itself is destroyed. the laser device has 5 Structural Points.


The B.A.D. headquarters in Opponents Unlimited includes a booby trapped safe that contains a blaster gun that fires when the safe is opened: one random person in the room is subject to a power blast attack each turn that the gun remains in operation. The blaster gun fires automatically on phase 16 of every turn after activation (it fires instantly when the safe is opened, regardless of the phase) at any moving character or other moving object in the room. It attacks as a 4th level character. The gun itself has a structural rating of 8 and deactivates automatically when damaged.


This Empress Earth may bring the heroes trapped in a combat arena with hidden pits (Detect Hidden x 2 to spot). The pits are 12 game inches deep and have a 50% chance of being spiked (+3d10 damage). ...
From her seat in the balcony the Empress can activate a 66 PR Force Field that protects her booth and seals off the top of the arena, preventing flying characters from escaping. The Force Field is invisible.


The Pentacle Plot includes a holding cell with six-inch thick walls  covered in elastic foam. A force field (gives wall "Invulnerability 10") when in operation and prevents X-Ray vision and Astral/Incorporeal travel through the walls), and a sonic (Vibratory Powers) device to paralyze occupants. Captured PCs with extreme strength will be held here after being stripped of devices, armor, etc.

John wrote on Oct 24^th, 2009 at 10:06pm:


I posted Pre-Emptive Strike's underwater rules earlier in this thread.

Outerspace combat/effects appear above in the posts pertaining to Battle Above the Earth and From the Deeps of Space (more ideas for encounters appear in that module as well).

Polarboy you are amazing, this is the kind of stuff I've been looking for.  I was thinking about making up some kind of random roll per turn someone stays in a burning building, something like:

1-5 intense heat felt, smokey smell (nothing dramatic
6-9 Open flames visible in distance
10-12 Open flame attack - 2d8
13-15 ceiling/Floor collapses - 3d10
16-18 Explosion/Backdraft - 2d20 (as large bomb)
19-20 Building collapses - 1d100

Not sure how this would work, and things would have to be adjusted for Character powers/specs. 

Smoke would probably be a constant, then you just place your NPC's with care, figure out any special incidents (trapped under a beam, door stuck, etc...)

I love the scene in Spider Man I with the Green Goblin, starting the blaze, then attacking inside the burning building (Willem DaFoe is an awesome villain).

Polarboy, I have to say, this his entire thread has been great, thanks for taking the time to sit down and write all of this out.

polarboy wrote on Oct 28^th, 2009 at 7:14pm:


Agreed (both with the thanks and how much stuff was already out there).  I'm thinking of taking all of the stuff you've compiled and making a "V&V Compendium" (more or less a Word document that compiles all of this extra stuff), so that's in one nifty, easy to reference place.  If I ever get around to doing it, I'll let you all know so that you can each have a copy!

I've actually got all of my house rules compiled into one document, but still have a number of them that I still need to add (formally write-up).

Some of you know Justice (who has even visited these boards); he was over at my place for a few days (from Chicago, I think for GuardianCon) and he undertook (and finished!) the massive undertaking of re-writing the entire 2nd Edition Rulebook in Microsoft Word (keeping the formatting and everything!).

One of these days, if I ever find the time, I could re-do the entire thing by easily inserting (or changing) our own home brewed rules, so that we'd have everything in order and easily referenced.

If only there were more hours in the day!   

that sounds great i would like that also

There are various electrical traps throughout the V&V modules, with damage varying by intensity. Here's what The Island of Dr. Apocalypse says about a 12-foot-tall electric fence:
Any player character who attempts to scale it will take 2d10 electricity damage unless he has some power that will protect him from the effects of electrocution. ... There are no signs on the fence to warn that it is electrified.

Here's what that module says about the conditions outisde a base 800 feet below sea-level:

Characters with the power of water breathing or adaption will have no difficulty getting there under their own power. Player characters with the power of independence from atmosphere will have no trouble with breathing, but may (Gamemaster's discretion) have difficulty with the tremendous pressures at that depth. Characters with armor as a device should, in most instances, be able to make the dive down to the base, and those with the power of teleportation will have not trouble getting themselves and possibly others there, as long as they have accurate information on the location of the base.

The module Assassin adds this note about undersea combat: When fighting underwater, quarter (1/4) all non-swimming movement and halve (1/2) all Agility scores (for purposes of Agility Saves and Initiative). Unless there is some form of external communication link-up between the heroes, communications should be kept to a minimum. Use common sense with modifying powers for underwater use.

A character will be able to hold his breath for a number of turns equal to his Endurance score. If 'knocked back' by a blow, the Player-Hero must make a save against his Endurance on 1d20 or begin taking 1d10 + 5 points of damage per Turn underwater to having 'lost his breath.' Obviously, these rules do not necessarily apply to aquatic based heroes.

This Assassin module increases the range and damage of Oscillator's vibratory and Hailstorm's ice powers by 50% when fighting underwater.

Hammer wrote on Sep 19^th, 2009 at 9:23pm:


Hammer, I wanted to finally get back to you in more detail about Vibratory Powers. Page 24 of Assassin says that Oscillator's vibratory powers should be increased by 50% underwater, doing 50% more damage. As you say, p. 30 notes in his character background that Oscillator will be the villain the heroes meet if encountered underwater specifically because his powers work better there. Since Pre-Emptive Strike didn't mention Vibratory Powers in its long list of underwater rules, that sounds like the official V&V take on things.

Here's the tricky part. Assassin also says that Hailstorm's Ice Powers should be increased by 50% underwater, but Pre-Emptive Strike says that damage goes down by 1 point per inch between an Ice Attack and the victim (as I noted in an earlier post). Maybe both hold true in that case: Initial damage with an ice attack is 50% higher, but that damage then proceeds to go down depending on distance.

Pre-Emptive Strike
Trap: The area between the stone wall and the log palisade is irregularly set with sharpened and envenomed stakes. They are approximately one to two feet apart, stand three feet high and are set one foot deep in the soil. Falling on a trap causes 1d4 points of damage per stake one stake per basic hit, plus falling damage. Save vs. Agility on 1d20 to avoid each stake. The Venom does 1 point of damage per turn: save vs. Endurance on d100 between turns.

Dawn of DNA
Dr. DNA's room has an added feature: a secret door of six inch thick super alloy (Structural Rating = 30) concealing a boobytrapped escape slide. The first person down the slide will pass unharmed, but the next to follow will trigger an electric-eye resulting in an explosion equivalent to a VERY large bomb (HTH +6 to hit, 3d10 damage with a ten inch blast radius). The explosion will not only cave in the escape slide, but also most of the factory. Everyone inside will have a minute or so (about 4 turns) to get out, after the bomb goes off and the cracks in the walls start to grow.

Here are two more from Organized Crimes:

Fighting within a hall of mirrors: All circus employees know the path through the maze, but a hero caught in here would have to make a successful Detect Hidden roll to land a punch or attack a real target or just to find the path out. A roll will be made each turn the hero spends to find his way out. Of course, force could be used to escape.

Merry-Go-Round: This is just a typical kiddy ride. If being fought upon while in operation, a roll vs. Agility on d20 must be made per action by the combatants. Failure in this roll causes loss of balance and -4 to be hit in that combat act (or as the GM desires).

OK, I'm feeling a little Polarboyish...

In the module FORCE, any captive characters are held in clamps that hang from the ceiling and are connected to it by chains.  Anyone held in those clamps are actually held in place by forcefields and lifted off the ground until they are three feet in the air.  Metal poles are plugged into the wall and attached to the prisoner by additional clamps.  If the prisoner attempts to blast fee of the clamps, they will feel some energy buildup inside the clamps.  The buildup is actually due to the forcefield, and if they do more than 11 points of damage they will break free.  Failing that, the prisoner takes the damage themselves.

In Assassin, there is a similar but different type of Force Field owned by Deflector...

Deflector Device: Creates a Structurally invulnerable screen of 30 points. 30 points of damage must be done to the screen in one shot (or a simultaneous attack by more than one hero) in order for the screen to be pierced. It has Lightning Control defense against attacks directed at it. It costs 1 charge to set up and then 1 charge per attack repulsed. The device has 20 charges. (Deflector has never had his Screen pierced and is unaware of the fact that if it is pierced, the Device will arc, inflicting 2d10 + 2 points of additional damage on him!).

Terror by Night includes bio-electric force fields that not only stop characters with non-corporealness but that also inflict 2d6 damage to any non-corporeal character who even attempts to pass through them (no roll to hit necessary).

Devil's Domain includes some guidelines for visceral reactions:

If the characters open a door to the filthy home of the Pit Fiend they will be struck with a pungent odor so strong that all must save vs. Endurance or lose 1d10 Power Points.

Upon entering throne room, filled with objects of great beauty, each character must save vs. Charisma on 1d20 or be stunned by the room's grandeur for one turn. (This is the closest example I've found in V&V of making COOL checks, like those described in Living Legends.)