Inspired by Infinity Inc., all of the heroes in my new campaign have ties NPCs from adventures published in the 1980s. These are the descendants or students of those heroes and villains. I will post write-ups of some of the characters here.

Baretta wrote on Feb 5^th, 2014 at 10:41pm:



Hmmm...sounds interesting.

this sounds so good

CHIVALRY

Identity: Guinevere "Gwen" Laird
Sex: Female
Level: 1
Side: Good
Age: 19

Powers:
1. Heightened Charisma B: +20
2. Flight: 156 m.p.h. PR = 1 per hour.
3. Ice Powers: 1d12 damage, PR = 5 per attack.
4. Low Self-Control: Armour Defense Rating with Ice Powers cannot exceed her Charisma score.

Weight: 120 lbs.
Strength: 13
Endurance: 12
Agility: 12
Intelligence: 13
Charisma: 30

Hits: 8
Power: 50
Accuracy: +1
Damage: +1
HTH: 1d4
Movement: 37" ground, 686" flying
Det. Hidden/Danger: 10%/14%

Origin: "Gwen" Laird takes after her grandfather Excalibur, the legendary British hero of WWII. She does not take after her uncle Stormlord, the infamous member of the Crushers.

For effect, her ice armour resembles a suit of Medieval armour. She calls this her icemail.

INVENTION

With his 37 Intelligence (Inventing 111%), Mercury Mechanic is using one Inventing Point at the start of the game.

Rust Gun: Range = 10", attacks as Paralysis Ray, 6 charges. Effects opponents with Android Body, Robotic Body, Bionics, Cybernetics, Armor B (Device).

Dr. Dave wrote on Feb 6^th, 2014 at 7:11pm:


I went back and added some stats for the characters. There are still one (maybe two!) members who need to get fleshed out before we start playing.

MAN-WING

Identity: Johnny Shakura Jr.
Sex: Male
Side: Good
Level: 1
Age: 18

Powers:
1. Regeneration: Requires one action to heal 1 Hit Point. Damage from electricity/lightning heals at the normal rate.
2. Wings: +3 Agility. 60 m.p.h. PR = 1 per hour of flight.
3. Stretching Powers: Maximum length = 72 inches. PR = 1 per use as a defense.

By stretching himself to the size of a large enough net, his body can automatically catch a falling object in mid-air, taking no damage.

Weight: 160 lbs.
Strength: 14
Endurance: 10
Agility: 14
Intelligence: 12
Charisma: 12

Hits: 7
Power: 50
Accuracy: +1
Damage: +1
HTH: 1d6
Movement: 38" ground, 74" stretching, 266" flying
Det. Hidden/Danger: 10%/14%

Origin: When Evergreen requested to go on maternity leave from the original Crusaders two decades ago, her teammates were "shocked" to find out that she had been having a longstanding, secret romance with Shocker. Born with an eclectic combination of powers, the baby grew up to be Man-Wing.

With his Stretching Powers, he can make his Wings look bird-like, bat-like, reptilian, etc. He can also "retract" his wings to pass for normal. There is no power cost for these cosmetic changes.

Here are a few more notes about the campaign game world.

1) Many (maybe all) of the published adventures from the 1980s took place and were taken care of by the heroes of the day. But we should assume that all of those heroes and villains are retired, dead, or otherwise inactive -- and serve only as footnotes. I liken this to the way that the characters from the 1940s were considered out of the picture when Marvel launched the Fantastic Four -- with a few notable exceptions who were revived, like Captain America and the Sub-Mariner.


2) CHESS and FISH (and any other SHIELD-like organization) are all one in the same. The names might have changed during different political administrations. But CHESS is currently the preferred name.

Great stuff, Baretta!

You're spot-on about smaller, more Agile creatures.  One weakness/flaw of V&V (IMHO) is that the huge, monstrous creatures have low Agility scores.  Agility is so important to the game mechanics that it means they (a) move slow, (b) have less HP than they probably should, and (c) are horribly inaccurate.

Baretta wrote on Feb 14^th, 2014 at 8:54pm:


Baretta, is there a specific event referenced in the 1E rulebook?  I own a copy, but have (sadly) not read through it much.  I should really do that some day, as I never did play the game back then (I started around 1982 with 2E) and it does look like it has some fun stuff in it.  I know it came out in 1979, but am wondering if it had some "V&V Universe event" that occurred in 1977?

That's super cool, Baretta!  I'm pulling out my copy of the 1E rules, as I am definitely going to start reading through it (for the first time)! Thanks for explaining.

The adventure continued in ...

#2. Voodoo Island, Part 2
The New Crusaders rest up and recover Power Points. Man-Wing regenerates all the Hit Points he lost against the Pteranodons.

Then ... the everyone's surprise... a blast of energy comes down from the sky and hit the Spotted Leopard -- almost knocking out the physically toughest member of the team.

Mercury Mechanic fires his Rust Gun in the direction of the blast. The Rust Ray bounces off of something invisible about 50 feet in the air. The two flying heroes attack the unseen opponent who they then hear fall to the ground.

Lying on the ground, the body of the defeated opponent became visible. It was a man in a super-costume with a star symbol on his chest. But the man's head was missing?

Perhaps his head was permanently invisible, the heroes thought, until ...

They were ambushed by three more headless men. All three fought HTH. None spoke a word.

One of the headless men was very muscular and wore a costume with the letter M on his chest. He took several hits to beat.

Another headless man wore a white lab coat and a CHESS I.D. badge. that said Charles Bells.

Another had a CHESS badge that said Ronald Freeling. He wore a uniform that was reminiscent of the uniform worn by Bishop Victoria Broyko and a radio communicator that Mercury Mechanic thought looked "cutting edge" for 1980.

The mysterious clouds the covered the island prevented the heroes from accessing CHESS records online.  Mercury Mechanic used a one-shot Inventing Point to compensate.

Here's what they found.

The costumed man with a star was a short-lived hero from the 1980s named Pulsar. Known powers: Invisibility. Flight. Power Blast.

The costumed man with the M was a short-lived hero from the 1980s named Masher. Known powers: Heightened Strength and Endurance.

Charles Bell was a CHESS scientist credited for inventing the first hyper-drive device.

Ronald Freeling was a CHESS Bishop during the early years of the organization.

All four were murdered in the early 1980s by the mystical super-criminal known as Headhunter (read all about it in Most Wanted Volume 3). Voodoo Island must have been where Headhunter disposed of their bodies ... Bodies that recently revived as malevolent (or maybe just misunderstood) revenants.

The end ... ?

Here is an important background NPC in the campaign. He's not quite a legacy character ...

Identity: John Croaker
Sex: Male
Side: Good
Level: 17
Age: ~40
Weight: 180 lbs.

Known Superpowers: Telepathy, Psionics: automatically resists Mind Control.

Origin: John Croaker's mutant powers began to manifest as a boy when he assisted a group of superheroes (as told in Secret in the Swamp). He is now widely regarded as the most powerful telepath on Earth, since the demise of Motivator (from Most Wanted Volume 1).

Following the retirements of Homer Grimsby and Alexandria Huntington, John Croaker was promoted to King of CHESS. More streamlined now than in decades past, CHESS has only one top commander these days rather than two. In other words, CHESS does not currently have a Queen.

#3. St. Patrick's Daze

Loose Ends: Following the heroes' debriefing, CHESS deploys a squadron of Knights/Valkyries to patrol the borders of Voodoo Island to prevent any "monsters" from escaping.

Meanwhile, the New Crusaders move into their new HQ, which is actually a slightly remodeled version of the original HQ used by the original Crusaders on top of the Harmon Building. They each claim one of the four quarters.

Unlike the original Crusaders, the new group does not have a jet helicopter, hovercraft, or shuttle craft. Instead, they continue using the flying craft that CHESS lent to them (w/stats from Island of Dr. Apocalypse). Building on the pioneering research in warp-drive theory by Charles Bells (from  last session), Mercury Mechanic earmarks an Inventing Point to add warp-drive to their vessel -- christened the Crusader Cruiser.

While getting a bird's-eye view of the city from the roof of their HQ, Man-Wing sees a suspicious looking green car speed drive down the street and park in front of Casey's Department Store (from Menagerie). Cartoonishly bugging out his eyes with his Stretching Powers to (maybe) get a closer look better, Man-Wing sees eight men squeeze out of the vehicle clown-car style. They all have green, shamrock costumes (using counters #8-15 from Organized Crimes).

The New Crusaders arrive to find that the men are armed and speaking in bad, Irish accents and demanding that Casey's give them all gold merchandise: gold watches, gold earrings, etc.

The heroes stop the Shamrock Gang. The goons say they were talked into wearing costumes and committing the crime by a Leprechaun (from Menagerie)

The four heroes disguise themselves in the costumes of the Shamrock Gang and go to the wooded area outside of Center City where the gang was supposed to drop the loot.

Lo and behold, a Leprechaun appears.

Chivalry puts the imp on ice. He concedes that he was "defeated fair and square" and offers to do the heroes a favor in return.

The only favor they ask is that he abide by the law, which will mean serving time in Wonder County Penitentiary -- also called the W.C. -- home of all the "washed up" criminals!

In thanks for their help, the management at Casey's Dept. store asks the New Crusaders to appear on a float during Casey's annual St. Patrick's Day Parade!

Loving how you're incorporating so much stuff into your game, Baretta!

#4. En Passant

Roll Call: Chivalry, Man-Wing, Mercury Mechanic, Spotted Leopard

The "trouble alert" sounds at New Crusaders HQ. The heroes learn from CHESS liaison Victoria Broyko that (TOP SECRET) android CHESS Pawns that are obsolete or malfunctioning beyond repair have been warehoused at Manning Enterprises. But tonight ... somehow ... one of those androids came out of "sleep" mode, broke out of its crate, and reactivated many of the other androids -- all slated to be disassembled/trashed in the coming days. Now the android army is "mindlessly" trashing the administrative building. of Manning Enterprises (from the original Crisis at Crusader Citadel adventure).

The heroes arrive and take down the android-duplicate Pawns (borrowing stats for the SLAM androids from Island of Dr. Apocalypse).

This is the first mission so far that Mercury Mechanic's Rust Ray is effective at subduing an opponent (as none of the earlier missions involved mechanical threats).

With only one exception, the Pawns largely fight HTH. When one of them hits Spotted Leopard," he says, "Check."

One of the Pawns is a double of Homer Grimsby, back when he was King of CHESS. In combat, this malfunctioning Pawn calls himself "Gemini the Twin."

A female android carried a stylized blow and arrow. This was the Pawn duplicate for Alexandria Huntington back in her days as a field agent known as Diana. But this Pawn now refers to herself as Sagittarius.

(Counters for Huntington and Grimsby courtesy of Dawn of the Devil.)

One of the Pawns kept slamming itself into a wall until it beat itself to a pulp. Two other Pawns fought each other.

After the heroes mopped up the dozen or so Pawns at large, they spotted a card on the floor near the spot where the Pawn for Huntington/Diana was defeated. It had an arrow-like insignia. This was a calling card like one of those used by Crossfire/Sagittarius of the original Zodiac back in the 1980s.

The Pawn for Diana/Huntington had been secretly carrying the card as part of her malfunctioning identity crisis.

In an conversation that "breaks the fourth wall" the heroes note that the CHESS database outlines only Crossfire/Sagittarius and Leo in the Most Wanted Volume 1 files from CHESS. But there are no references to the original Zodiac in Volume 3 ... and Volume 2 cannot be found.  The heroes ask if information is available about the presumably other 10 members of the original Zodiac.

CHESS liaison Victoria Broyko explains that she cannot explain the apparent hole in CHESS records. Perhaps faulty record-keeping was to blame. Perhaps those files were somehow lost. Perhaps sabotage on the part of the Zodiac, Intercrime, or some other criminal organization from decades past corrupted those files. Or perhaps they are classified at a Security Clearance beyond the heroes' access level. No matter what the cause, she advises them not to lose any sleep over it this evening.

Prologue: The four New Crusaders are now second level.

Majestic wrote on Feb 17^th, 2014 at 7:34am:


In reading through the 1980s material, I stumbled up this gem about the "cosmic axis shift" at the beginning of the entry for V.I.L.E. in Opponents Unlimited:

When the cosmic axis shifted and the citizens of Earth found that they could obtain super-powers, existing criminal organizations were forced to sink or swim. Without a few super-powered villains to help, the average gang could not get by in a world of resourceful vigilantes. V.I.L.E. realized this and set out to hire or create a set of supervillains. Once firmly established, V.I.L.E. restarted its criminal activities and is now a successful, modern-day super-crime ring. They specialize in carefully planned heists, industrial espionage, and long-term business rip-offs.

I thought this was gonna be about the Archie comics super heroes of the same name.

Anybody else reading The Fox?

Majestic wrote on Mar 5^th, 2014 at 1:38pm:


Fox is a hero mentioned as being missing in Education in Terror by  Jeff Dee. It is a V an V adventure he made available online a long while back.

Matt wrote on Mar 5^th, 2014 at 3:57pm:


I'm not debating your knowledge of Archie. But it has nothing to do with my group and our V and V campaign. A character named Fox is mentioned in the V and V adventure Education in Terror. I am sure many other characters have used that name, just as others outside of V and V have used the term Crusaders. But it really has no connection to this thread.

Matt wrote on Mar 5^th, 2014 at 4:36pm:


Matt, I did read your first note and have not "chosen to ignore it" -- as you say. I just don't know anything about the Archie characters and never heard of the character named Fox who you asked about. Since this is a V&V forum, and I started this thread about my campaign group, I thought it was interesting to note there was a character named Fox mentioned in Education in Terror (which, coincidentally, I just recently read).

If I knew anything about the character Fox you asked about, I would have said so. But he(?) doesn't have anything to do with the posts here.

#5. The 29th Annual Great Iridium Con

Roll Call:
Chivalry
Man-Wing
Mercury Mechanic
Spotted Leopoard
And introducing Omicron!

The New Crusaders travel to Iridium Vale for the 29th Annual Great Iridium Con. Scarcely known outside of Center City, the heroes can enjoy the science-fiction, RPG, and comic book convention in costume unrecognized to most others in attendance.

One of this year's organizers is Joe Newmann (who only recently learned of his own mutant abilities and has never adventured). He is attending the convention in costume using the heroic name Omicron (an homage to his dad, the former hero Epsilon from The Great Iridium Con published adventure).

The good-spirited convention turns sour, however, with the arrival of an elitist villain named Focus (from Menagerie). With a blinding flash, he temporarily hinders much of the crowd while proceeding to steal rare collectibles to complete his childhood collection from dealers' tables.

With a special attack from his Rust Gun, the hero Mercury Mechanic disables the villain's Monocle device.

While the other New Crusaders beat Focus to a pulp, Omicron shows off his powers for the first time by telekinetically returning the stolen goods to their rightful owners.

Following the fight, the Spotted Leopard was approached by a marketing representative from Jungle Life After Shave (one of the sponsors of the convention). The hero Tiger Man had been a sponsor for the brand since the early 1980s (see the Merchandising section of the revised rulebook). Now that Tiger Man is getting long in the tooth and retiring, the company asks Spotted Leopard to consider being the new corporate "mascot" so to speak.

The heroes spend most of the session talking to convention-goers and answering questions about their powers, etc.

After a loooong hiatus, it happened.

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS AT CRUSADER CITADEL #6

Roll Call:
Chivalry (granddaughter of Excalibur, niece of Stormlord)
Man-Wing (mutant love child of Evergreen and Shocker)
Mercury Mechanic (son of Mercury Mercenary)
Spotted Leopard (apprentice to Lightning-Fist)
Omicron (son of Epsilon)

Synopsis
The New Crusaders are overjoyed to hear that reserve member Omicron has come to visit them in Center City. During the tour of the esteemed headquarters, the heroes discover a box of magazines previously owned by the hero Blizzard. Within the box is  Different Worlds #30 (Sept. 1983).

Just then, a mysterious woman in a blue cloak appears. Why, it's none other than Raven from the New Teen Titans, circa 1983 !?!?!

Raven explains that an implied crossover from years gone by brought versions of the New Teen Titans into the world of the Crusaders, etc. leaving lingering inter-dimensional schisms that went unresolved in the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Raven refers to the homeworld of the Crusaders as Earth-Ten (as opposed to Earth-1, Earth-2, etc). The heroes later unpack this to mean the world of Villains & Vigilantes = (V & V) = (5 + 5) = Ten.

Healing the inter-dimensional damage, Raven is afraid, requires the New Crusaders to battle the version of the New Teen Titans involved in that crossover.

To help balance sides, Raven, will act on the side of the New Crusaders -- using her healing power to aid them.

Even so, the New Crusaders complain, they would still be outnumbered … and vastly overpowered by Robin, Wonder Girl, Kid-Flash, Changeling, Starfire, Cyborg, and Terra.

To be continued soon ..

Here's the rest …

Raven tells the New Crusaders that the New Teen Titans will soon materialize on the rooftop of the Crusader Citadel. As a caveat, she adds that -- due to the inter-dimensional damage, the winning team will be the team whose reality survives!

The New Crusaders realize that, even with Raven's assistance, they have no chance of defeating the New Teen Titans, but they plan to do their best to strategize and wait.

When the New Teen Titans do materialize, they are surprised, giving the New Crusaders the initial advantage.

Mercury Mechanic uses his Rust Gun to paralyze Cyborg!

Spotted Leopard knocks out Changeling before he can become something more dangerous than a green-skinned 16-year-old.

The New Crusaders are aware that Terra ultimately betrays the Titans, but since she is still working on their side at this point, they thought it was unlikely that she would betray them NOW. As a result, Chivalry puts Terra on ice.

Man-Wing and Omicron both tried attacking Robin but missed, given the advantages of his high level, even when surprised.

The next turn …

Kid-Flash easily beat Mercury Mechanic, saying that he is neither as fast as nor as smart as the real Flash (a.k.a. Barry Allen)

Robin easily beat Man-Wing, making an off-handed reference to Man-Bat

Starfire easily beat Chivalry, saying she is as cold-hearted as her sister

Wonder Girl hit Spotted Leopard, but her bracelets deflected his attacks

Omicron couldn't hit anyone with his telekinetic attacks

The following turn, Kid-Flash knocked out Omicron

Wonder Girl defeated Spotted Leopard.

Raven used her absorption power to heal Mercury Mechanic. The team's resident genius proposed that he could use his superhuman intelligence to patch the inter-dimensional damage, allowing both teams to continue to exist in their respective universes. Robin agreed to the plan.

Mercury Mechanic's one-shot attempt worked, and the New Teen Titans went back to their own reality.