During the 1980's when I was games mastering my group of wargaming and role-playing friends there was one superhero RPG that we played many, many times. It was
Villains and Vigilantes (V&V) by Fantasy Games Unlimited (FGU).
V&V was far away FGU's most successful game and more supplements and scenarios were produced for it than for any other game in their range. In the late 1990's we switched to
GURPS Supers. However, I converted a few of the
V&V scenarios to
GURPS for my group to play. Carrying on from my recent posts for the
Forgotten Heroes challenge I thought you'd like to see some some of my earlier superhero figures that I made and converted for those two superhero RPGs. The majority of the figures I created back then came from various supplements and scenario packs for
GURPS Supers and
V&V. In this post and the next few, I'll show you some of them, starting with this trio of lone supervillains.
At the far left is the supervillain, Doctor Apocalypse. He was the primary protagonist of the scenario set,
The Island of Doctor Apocalypse, published in 1982 for
V&V. Pietor Apoucalos was a megalomaniac whose powers came from the mystical Apocalypse Gem which was grafted to his forehead. This allowed him to use any six super powers of his choosing at any one time. I forget which six powers he used in
V&V but in
GURPS Supers, I kept the six powers limit and gave him up to 1200 points to spend on them. In his current incarnation he chose Enhanced Strength: 80 (200 points), Extra Hit Points +40 (200 points), Immortality (140 points), Increased Speed +10 (250 points), Laser level:10 (270 points) and Teleportation level:30 (self only) (120 points). I spent 1,180 points on his super powers and his total points cost came to 2400 points. When I ran
The Island of Doctor Apocalypse scenario using the
V&V rules, he wiped the floor with the superheroes of my players. This was the one and only occasion that they lost a fight. He was simply too tough and too powerful for them. Much later, with some trepidation, I replayed the scenario using the rules for
GURPS Supers and a team made up of Gothique (a player created Dark Elf superheroine), Vampirella (obviously played by me) and Wolverine defeated him.
The figure was sculpted by me and is based upon the front cover illustration of Doctor Apocalypse that appears on the
V&V scenario book. His head is far too big, I realise but I was happy with him at the time so never bothered changing him.
Next up are my two winged flyers. In the centre is Blue Demon, who was one of the villains featured in the
GURPS Supers supplement,
Super Scum. This was a collection of supervillains both loners and teams. Blue Demon was unwittingly summoned to Earth by a coven of witches (now all dead). He caused carnage wherever he went and was responsible for the deaths of thousands of humans. Annoyingly, he has been killed several times but he always comes back later. His super powers include Doesn't Breathe, Flight, Hardened Skin (metallic blue in colour), Pressure and Vacuum Support, Regeneration, Regrowth, Super Strength and Unkillable. In
GURPS Supers he cost 1400 points. My players had no problems in defeating him in both games, although they could never kill him and thus, like any good villain, he would always return. For my figure of him I used the wings of an old Citadel Khorne Demon of Chaos. Being made of metal, these helped to anchor him to his base. Note that his feet do not touch his base. The rest of his body was made out of Milliput modelling putty. He looks exactly like the illustration of him (see below) and I'm very pleased with my sculpt of him.
Finally, we have Talon, another character from the
GURPS Supers supplement,
Super Scum. Jani Yamahito, a brilliant geneticist, was transformed into the monstrous, reptilian Talon after a failed laboratory experiment. She is not truly evil, even though she has killed, her violence is mostly unprovoked. Her super powers include Chameleon Skin, Claws, Clinging Ability (she can walk on walls or ceilings at half Move), Flight, Regeneration, Regrowth, Super Strength and Toughened Skin. Although she cost 900 points in
GURPS Supers, she could still be taken out by a single superhero and she'd be no match for a team of heroes. My figure of her is a conversion of an old Citadel Dark Elf Harpie (similar to the one I used for my conversion of Purgatori). I simply remodelled her head and added a long tail with a forked tip.
I'll leave you with illustrations of this trio of supervillains drawn and digitally coloured by me.
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| Doctor Apocalypse |
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| Blue Demon |
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| Talon |
Blog News. Those of you who are interested in the
Shadows of Brimstone game should check out my review of it on The Gamers Cupboard blog here -
http://thegamerscupbard.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/shadows-of-brimstone-overview.htmlIf you think you've already seen it before, think again. It has been rewritten and greatly expanded.
