I'm re-reading as much of the old materials I can get my hands on and I'm seeing an interesting scenario.

Quite often characters and NPC are using a "Power" slot that while in the 1980's may have been akin to a super ability is today simply a piece of modern technology.

GPS, Droid, I-phones, Nightvision googles, body armor, etc are all more and more along the lines of a character with a gun or sword in V&V 30 years ago.

Does anyone allow characters to intergrate modern technology of today into the NPC's or player characters without "charging" them a "Power" slot? Of course these devices would be alot more fragile than a "Power"ed Device but hell today's high-tech cell phones, with internet access, would have only been seen in something like Ironman's armor 30 years ago

Just wondering

Yep, I allow normal technology as a freebie (unless the character is destitute).

What are some of the catalogs you use?

mw

Remind me never to piss off Dsumner.

John wrote on Oct 19^th, 2010 at 4:55pm:


Oh, I've got plenty of goodies at the house, and that's not counting what I've got access to at work, and the National Guard. I used to work for a company, US CSOG, that did field testing for tactical gear, weapons, and equipment. We were some of the first people to try out the X-26 Tasers, FN 303 Pepperball guns, and Sig 556 SWAT Rifles. Good times.

Ranger wrote on Oct 19^th, 2010 at 10:15pm:


Actually there are a couple of companies that specialize in making bullet resistant clothing (everything from vest to kids clothing). You can also purchase things like flame retardant suits, gas masks, pepper spray, GPS, stun guns, less lethal munitions, etc. on the internet, military surplus, tactical gear shops, etc. Things that would have been considered "super powers" when V&V was first released.

Just do a Google search, and they should pop up. If you're looking for a specific piece of gear, tell me what you're looking for, and I'll see about working up some V&V stats for it. A lot of it should be covered already though.

Display Name wrote on Oct 19^th, 2010 at 4:32pm:


No specific catalogs; I just always tell them that if they can find it in a catalog, then they can have it.  Meaning the general Sears, Penney's, etc. catalog (or even online).

Lord Inar wrote on Jan 28^th, 2011 at 7:19pm:


Fun - giant computers, dot-matrix printers, pagers, and suitcase-sized cell phones!   

When did the Avenger Card come into use?

A credit card sized communicator, years ahead of its time. Just about same as a fancy cell-phone these days no?

By the way, welcome to these boards, Elongated Man!   

V&V books? Or stuff from real life.

PulpCitizen wrote on Nov 4^th, 2011 at 4:28pm:


Here's a link with Armor B examples from classic-era V&V adventures.

http://powersandpossibilities.blogspot.com/2009/11/armor-b-adr-examples.html


Here's another link with many weapons from the 1980s modules and sourcebooks:

http://www.villainsandvigilantesforum.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1258954867

Here's a link with examples of poisons and teargass:

http://www.villainsandvigilantesforum.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1256446819


More gadgets and gear are described here:

http://www.villainsandvigilantesforum.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1258690857

In the examples polarboy posted above, we see that Swamp Rat had the equivalent of a bulletproof vest with ADR=45.

My one problem with that is that many of my players - especially ones that don't have any defense - have asked if their characters can just have a bulletproof vest.

Having worn one many times in real-life, I can tell you that they can be awkward and annoying.  They're uncomfortable when it's hot out, and they add a bit of bulk to anyone.

In some game systems, the more armor one has the more weighed down a character is, sometimes giving an Agility minus.  I've thought of making bulletproof vests available to characters that want them, but at the expense of a point or two of Agility.

Majestic wrote on Nov 7^th, 2011 at 2:54pm:


My problem with characters wearing vest is this, how many superheroes do you see sporting body armor? While it might make tactical sense for them to be wearing one, just as it would for them to carry a firearm, it doesn't fit the genre. So my answer would be be no, with a capital "N".

Yeah, what Pulp Citizen said.

Combine that with the fact that it just would make sense for a character (see the movie or comic Kick Ass) going out to potentially face bullets and knives.

I still would only allow it for characters that don't have much in the way of other defenses, usually.

PulpCitizen wrote on Nov 7^th, 2011 at 4:57pm:


But body armor works for their character concept, all are street level vigilantes, without any super powers. You don't see the Teen Titans, Avengers, X-Men, etc. sporting body armor.

John wrote on Oct 20^th, 2010 at 3:46pm:


Is it sad that is how I like to play even with superpowers?

I think the high tech gear needs to have its place for characters. We all know the usefulness of a smartphone. Now take even a moderately tech minded character and comic book it up, where does it go?

Armor gets complicated especially when trying to fit a particular genre. Batman yes, Green Arrow no? My opinion is vest should work off Invulnerability say 5 to 8 pts and drop the character 3 Agl pts. This way he suffers an automatic hit point loss to balance the extra protection.

Game Balance

Speaking of Invisibility should be trainable to include the Infrared and Ultraviolet spectrums

btw - a reminder don't piss off DSummer
(John asked to be reminded - lol)