Ypsi, I'm all for improving my game but if that was the worse mistake by an author or lack or proof reading by a staffer I have ever seen I might mess with you. As it is, it's not not by a long shot

You guys put out some very nice stuff

Ironnerd wrote on Mar 5^th, 2013 at 11:11am:


Hey YJ,
I've always HATED Heightened Attack, so I'm not surprised you made an error with it. It always struck me as a worthless power at 1st to 3rd level, and kinda outrageous at 7th level or more.

Whenever I see Heightened Attack when doing a random build (and most are), I think "hmm... well I guess I'm dropping that for the weakness". If a player gets it, it's an auto reroll result. The only variant you'll ever see is Heightened Attack: +4 damage (regardless of level) and then use the same table as expertise (so it works with 1 attack form, a group of attack forms or all attack forms).

Another one use, but almost never as described in the books is Weakness Detection. It's never just a bonus to hit: I break up the bonus between a bonus to hit, a bonus to damage, and a penalty when the target tries to hit them. This means the weakness detector gets a more well rounded bonus, rather than just "I can always hit you". I learned this from Motivator in Most Wanted, Vol 1... even as a 12 year old I could see the power as written in the book couldn't really handle super genius types in a balanced way.

But I'm rambling...

Ramble 

Well... "What power(s) would you change in V&V?" is a very large can of worms.

Were I king for the day, I would change "Lowered Intelligence" to "Reduced Intelligence" so it would be placed with the rest of the "Reduced Stats". I might include "Diminished Senses" in there as well.

But more to the apparent topic of this drift - I would make "Heightened Attack" mirror "Heightened Defense", so it simply added a +4 to all attack rolls. At low levels the +4 to hit is a useful bonus, and at higher levels it also helps, but is not over-powering.

Beyond that, some basic clarification on some powers. Nothing earth-shattering.
I would not add any new powers. Really, anything I see a need for as a "new power" is an adjustment to an existing power or is easily covered by "Mutant Power" or "Psionics".

Ironnerd wrote on Mar 14^th, 2013 at 7:37am:


I always thought the reason they used "Lowered" instead of "Reduced" was because it was the only one that subtracted 3d6 instead of 2d6.

That said, if I were King for a day I'd do away with all of the reduced/lowered stats.  Or more accurately I'd make them -1d6 (or perhaps -3 or -4).  Then I'd focus on all the tons of weaknesses that aren't included, that one sees in the comics all the time (Dependents, Rivals, Enemies, etc.).

Ironnerd wrote on Mar 14^th, 2013 at 7:37am:


I really like Mutant Power, Psionics, and the other wild card powers, too.  There's a few powers, though, that I think would be helpful to add in.  Like some sort of Water Control, for instance (rather than shoe-horning it in to be Ice).

Okay good people... We'll talk about the changes you dream about over here:
http://www.villainsandvigilantesforum.com/public_html/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=...

I am NOT saying that ANY changes of ANY KIND are in the works... But it is always fun to talk about what you would do if you were King for the day, and how you use Power "X" to get effect "R"... And such discussions don't belong in this thread.

dsumner wrote on Mar 17^th, 2013 at 3:58pm:


Congrats!
I can't wait to see your work available with all the spit and polish it deserves. And you've been a great fan and supporter for so long, you deserve some time up in the limelight! 

Ramble

Hammer wrote on Mar 20^th, 2013 at 2:38pm:

Here freaking here, I second that motion whole heartedly. I'd love to see a Summer/Singelton Most Wanted

We shall see gents, we shall see.

Now that Drivethru/RPGNow offer print on Demand (and good ones too from all the ones I've purchased), I don't get why people don't use it more for rpg printing. Plus it would allow print/pdf bundles to be purchased, which makes things a lot easier than having to buy them from 2 separate sources.

I do agree about the art in Ancient Evil too, though I will state that the image of Devestatia was (imho) not on par with the usual state of art in FGU's releases.

John wrote on Mar 21^st, 2013 at 1:04am:


I think James does good work. So does Yad. And not just the character illustrations, but the page layout, cover art, card counters and mapping is also consistently strong. They ought to be proud of the work they do.

(I still geek out about the fact that my Zodiac got 8 PAGES of card counters attached to it...)

Ramble

It's funny. You look at the books from M&M, or Icons, or D&D, or D20 Heroes and you're like "WOW! LOOK AT ALL THE COLOR!" Crazy layouts everywhere! Inset examples. Sidebars. Graphics galore! They're just really awesome work. Then you look at the Plain Jane B/W art and simple layouts of FGU's books and people say - "Dude, that is so CLEAN! Niiiice." (True story, happened at the comic book shop).  I just had to chuckle...

Anyway, for "The Department" Yad has received permission to "Experiment" with the layouts. Just a tiny, tiny bit. I got a hint of it when he did a mock-up layout for Great Bridge 2, and it is actually pretty cool. Still B/W. Still simple and clean. Same margins, fonts, spacing and all that, but just slightly massaged. I think you guys will dig it.

Sadly, he is currently planning his wedding (well, he's agreeing with his fiance a lot and handing over the credit card), he caught my "Please kill me now" 24 hour flu, his future in-laws are visiting, AND his thermostat has gone insane doing odd things to the temperature inside his charming domicile - so not a lot of art going on there...

I told him "You gotta suffer to write, Dude." He shouted back. "I don't write, you weird bastard! I DRAW! And I have to be HAPPY to draw!"

Artists [shrug].

S'okay, he's giving me breathing room on my space adventure (which is kicking my butt).

AlabasterKnight wrote on Mar 21^st, 2013 at 7:59pm:


That has certainly been my experience.

Because I know people like to know what's coming down the pipe...

Home Front is written and submitted to FGU, just waiting in the queue for the artist work to begin. Home Front is set in North America in 1941, and it's my first pack of mini-adventures. It contains 4 mini-adventures and 1 IOU (Integrated Optional Upgrade).

While the adventures and characters are affected by WWII, Pearl Harbour is still prestine, and there's lots of wiggle room for an enterprising GM to work with. I started writing Home Front on January 1st, and submitted it on Saint Patrick's Day. It's the first of five books I intend to submit this year (it's part of my New Year's Revolution).

Back to work!

Ramble

Yesterday, I finished World War II Super Soldiers, and submitted it to FGU. Nice to have that one finished.

This will be the 2nd offering of the WWII Giant that I'm building. Since the book covers both Axis and Allied forces, I think it makes a strong foundation for a GM to build from, and as always, there are references to past and future books to be found for those who know their V&V mythology.

Not sure when it will be done and available for purchasing... I'm waiting for an artist to be free to work on it.

Keep your stick on the ice.

RAMBLE

Ramble, both of these sound cool as hell and I look forward to seeing the final product (I've had an itch for some WWII material ever since I read over some old JSA stories a few months back).

On the artist front, if James is tied up with other projects, and I'm not sure if you have any say-so in who handles the art chores, but I know Joe Singleton is looking to pick up more RPG work, and I've seen some of his WWII/Golden age work. I think he'd do an awesome job on both books.

dsumner wrote on Apr 8^th, 2013 at 11:33am:


Hey Super-D,
I'm glad you like the sound of these books. The truth of the matter is that, to my mind, they're a bit risky. This is a ton of WWII material that I'm working on, and with all the characters and history that surrounds the War, I hope I can build a land that really speaks to players and GMs alike. And it took FOREVER to write WWIISS... I started this project back in 2011. But I think the characters cover all the genres that we want to see... there's steampunk, there's demons, there's cocky bastards, and goose-stepping sociopaths. There's heroes and villains draped in the flags of their country, and I try not to shy away from the ugly topics within the war like torture, propaganda, eugenics, and racism. And I have villains working for the allies, and I have heroes drafted into the ranks of the Axis. There is a lot in this book... so, yeah, I think fans will love it.

As for artwork... well, I leave that assignment to Mr. Bizar. After all, I don't own the artwork, so as long as it's an accurate reflection of what I write, and professional quality, i'm pretty easy to please. Besides, I'm too busy writing...

The third and last piece of the WWII Giant is a full length adventure that I began writing yesterday. I hope to have it finished before Canada Day (July 1st). This is the first time i've written a single full length adventure (I count Zodiac as a sourcebook), so I'm hoping it will draw on creative bits I've never used before. We'll see.

RAMBLE

Ranger wrote on Apr 9^th, 2013 at 2:04pm:



I try to play test them after they are written but before they are published. That said, my current gaming group won't playtest - they don't like superheroes RPGs. So... playtesting has become a challenge for me since I essentially need to build a group of newbies to do it.

If you want to know what a book of mine without playtesting looks like, you can look at Zodiac or Mercenaries. Both have characters from past campaigns (when I had another group that did play V&V), but didn't get playtested. In both cases, I have had to work harder to ensure that I've covered all the bases I could think of, and that the ideas are clear and clean.

Now, in the interests of full disclosure, I take it that you can point to books that have been boxed nightmares?

RAMBLE

RAMBLE

Almost forgot, the official word from MHG, is that there is no official word.    But Jeff did make note that he's working on 3.0, and he's been playtesting it at cons.