Many of you have read and enjoyed the interviews that Dominique has done with the various people involved with the game.  So I thought many of you might enjoy getting a chance to know his story as well!

Dominique, first off I’d like to thank you for taking time to answer these questions.

1. Would you mind sharing a bit of your back story with us, namely how you got into gaming, and how long you have been playing RPGs?

Well, I completely stumbled into gaming by accident. It was the Summer of 1980, and I was 10 years old. I'd had just moved to Florida, and really didn't know anyone. My parents were tired of me hanging around the house and sent me outside to play for a while, so I wondered to the playground around the corner. There wasn't much going on, when I saw a kid sitting down reading some comics. One of them was Sgt. Rock, one of the few comics I'd read at that point, so I asked if I could check them out. He let me read over the one he had, and after flapping our gums for a few minutes, he invited back to his house to see the rest of his collection. When we got there, we walked upstairs and I saw his older brother, and a few other teens sitting in the floor. They had some funny shaped dice, paper, pencils, and some hardback books. I remember one of the books caught my eye. It had what looked like a statue of a demon, and some knights on it, and a guy was prying a gem out of the statue's head (it was the 1st edition AD&D Players Handbook). I thought it looked cool and asked about it, and the guys let me skim through the book, while my new friend dug his comics out of the closet. When my buddy handed me some copies of G.I. Combat and Sergeant Rock (I was just getting into comics and those were two of my favorite titles), I went to sit down on the bed, so I could read them, and there was some stuff in the way. I went to move it, and that's when I saw what I thought was the coolest game I'd ever seen, it was a little zip lock baggy with a book inside of it. The book had a picture of a couple hovercraft on the back of it, and they were shooting at some guys in armored suits that looked like Ironman (It was Steve Jackson Games G.E.V. micro game), and I was hooked. I've been playing board, and PRGs ever since. 


2.  How’d you first stumble onto V&V?

I was playing Champions, with a couple of guys at school. One of my buddies, a guy named Kevin, got into an argument with another guy, over who's character was better. Kevin's or this guy's. This guy is going on and on about how much better his V&V character is than Keven's Champions character. I'd never heard of V&V, and Kevin had only seen the 1st edition, but could tell me much about it, so I figured I'd check it out myself. I made the trek to my local game shop, and asked if they had it. They were out of the boxed sets, but had copies of Death Duel, The Island of Dr. Apocalypse, and FORCE on a spinning magazine rack, along with some other FGU stuff. I picked up FORCE, skimmed through it, and was blown away. I recognized Jeff Dee's artwork from D&D. I also skimmed through Death Duel, and loved it, as well as recognizing Bill Willingham's art as well. FGU had it's hooks in me. Since my funds were, and still are limited, I asked for the Boxed V&V set for my birthday and got it. I devoured the rulebook, and got cracking on running my first game using Crisis at Crusader Citadl. There was me, and my character Dark Angel. John Gould (He recently retired from the Air Force), Dustin Langley (he's actually a big time anti-war protester now), and Robert "Robbie" Adams (he became a research scientist for NASA). I used Dark Angel as an NPC to flesh out the group. Good times.


3. You’ve got a PBP (play by post) V&V game going on the Villains &Vigilantes Forum called Empire City.  Can you share a bit about the campaign with us?

Well, Empire City started as a way to let me get back into running V&V again, as I've got a funky work schedule, so I can't really play on a regular basis, as well as serving as an outlet for some of the ideas I've got bouncing around inside my head. For a while, I had 8 regular players, with that total dipping to 6 for a while as peoples real life schedules interfered. I had to put the game on hiatus while I deployed to Iraq, but started it back up earlier this year, only to have things taper off again, as my workload increased these past few months. Which is unfortunate as this were starting to roll along at a pretty good pace.


4. What are some of your fondest memories of playing V&V?
I had a lot of good memories. Just hanging out with my friends on a hot summer afternoon, trying to stay cool. Running the guys through Death Duel, FORCE, etc. Watching them try to come up with a plan of action that would save the day. Rolling characters up,  digging through issues of DC's Who's Who and the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe trying to come up with cool new powers, or trying to simulate a certain power in the game, and just shooting the breeze. As I said, good times. I miss those days.


5. Why do you think of V&V’s revival?

I love the fact that after all of these years the game is still out their bringing some fun and excitement into peoples lives. And let me say this, no mater what happens on the legal front, I want to thank Jeff Dee, and Jack Herman for creating a game that's brought me many hours of fun. And Scott Bizar for taking a chance on them. I truly hope that one day, the three of you will be able to sit down, and resolve your differences.


6. Is there anything else you’d like to share?

Just this, go out there and enjoy the game.