Jeff Dee's Mighty Protectors (Villains & Vigilantes V3) on Sale in PDF

I never owned Villains & Vigilantes growing up as a gamer but I sure played it. We tried about every supers game in the late 70s and early 80s and while none stuck around and were played for any length of time, V & V stuck around in our minds. How could it not? The ads in Dragon Magazine just looked so damn cool.

Well, the latest edition of Villains & Vigilantes just released in PDF and its called Mighty Protectors.

You can combat the forces of evil! Find their hidden enclaves with your super-senses, and bust your way in with powerful fists! Use your incredible agility or invulnerability to ward off their attacks as you blast away with energy bolts, or confront them with your martial arts or weapon skills! Drag them squirming and cursing to prison, to be brought to justice! Become a champion of truth and an idol of millions! 

Villains and Vigilantes TM - the world’s first complete superhero role-playing game - is back again. V&V 3.0 Mighty Protectors® features dynamic random & point-balanced character creation, accessible fast-paced rules, brand new powers, streamlined mechanics, all-new illustrations, and an imaginative, far-ranging campaign setting - The Mighty Protectors® Multiverse - created by Jack Herman and Jeff Dee! 

Mighty Protectors is a registered trademark of Monkey House games. Villains and Vigilantes is a trademark of Scott Bizar, used with permission.

Mighty Protectors is $14.99 in PDF.

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Kickstarter - Villains and Vigilantes™ 3.0: The Mighty Protectors™ RPG

I had an opportunity to talk with +Jeff Dee at NTRPG Con this past June. His excitement for the latest version of Villains and Vigilantes just oozed from him.

I never played V&V's earlier editions, although I do remember creating characters for it back in my High School days. I do remember it was referred to among my friends as "the playable" superhero game (as apposed to Champions, which was simply too crunchy for us)

I'll be backing Villains and Vigilantes™ 3.0: The Mighty Protectors™ RPG the moment my first pension check comes at the end of this month. I think that's going to be the hardest part of retirement - adjusting to once a month checks ;)

From the blurb:

The new 'third edition' has a name, and not just a number: it’s called MIGHTY PROTECTORS™ after the player group from the very first V&V campaign in our official setting – the Mighty Protectors Multiverse. 

Mighty Protectors features a new streamlined and expanded revision of the V&V rules, an intro to the Mighty Protectors Multiverse (about which we've only provided scattered details before), and all-new artwork.

Yep, I'm in.

Monkey House Games (Jeff Dee and Jack Herman) Reaches Settlement to Publish Villains & Vigilantes

It's been a long road, which included a GoFundMe to help pay for the legal costs, but Jeff Dee and Jack Herman now have the rights to publish Villains & Vigilantes.

Here's the relevant wording from the recently updated Villains & Vigilantes page at OBS:

This latest version of the game- dubbed version 2.1- revives the 1982 version with a few corrections and rules additions. It also features brand new illustrations from co-creator Jeff Dee. Villains and VigilantesTM is a trademark of Scott Bizar, used with permission.

Jee and Jack didn't win the final lawsuit, but at least there is a settlement.

You can read a much more detailed article over at Workbench. Rogers does a nice job following the case through the courts. Give it a read. It's well worth your time.

Tip of the hat to +Harley Stroh

Mini Review - JD2 Darkland Moors (OSR Sandbox Adventure for levels 3-5)

The second part in the Jeff Dee series of adventures (thus the numbering of the adventure as "JD2"), Darkland Moors is a sandbox adventure of sorts. The only map supplied is an outdoor map (supplied in both DM and player versions, which is damn cool and very suitable for VTT play).

So, your players defeated the bog-mother or whatever she was in JD1 and are going to continue adventuring in the area - this is their sandbox.

You get your choice of three hooks to get your players involved, which is cool. If your players kicked off the campaign with JD1, you should probably home brew and adventure or two before kicking off the plot line in JD2, but as you have the local sandbox supplied as well as the local map, that shouldn't be much of an issue. Unless, of course, you failed to move a decimal point in the loot values in JD1 - in which case your PCs may already be level 3 to 4... sigh.

Actually, Darkland Moors is a nice little sandbox so long as you put some minimal time into fleshing it out. There really is a lot more this can be used for then just the included storyline. Why waste a sandbox that's already been handed to you? There are roughly 500 square miles of adventuring in the Darkland Moors. Use them to your, and your party's, advantage.

From the blurb:

A huge, monstrous presence rampages through the farms and villages of Darkland Moors, throwing the locals’ formerly peaceful lives into turmoil. What manner of giant is responsible, where is it taking its captives, and what is their fate? To restore peace, our heroes must scour the misty Moors and track the beast to its lair! This is the sequel to JD1 Cess-Pit of the Bog-Mother!

This module was originally created as a stretch goal for Jeff Dee’s Kickstarter project to re-create his lost paintings from the covers of the classic RPG adventures A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity, A3 Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords, and C2 The Ghost Tower of Inverness. The author wishes to thank all of his backers, whose support made this work possible.

Included are three alternate introductions to this outdoor adventure, stat blocks for the standard creatures which appear herein, complete stats for unique creatures especially designed for the adventure, plus GM and player maps.

Jeff Dee's Latest Art Kickstarter to Recreate His Art from the Fiend Folio

The above piece is a signed 8 1/2 x 11 print from an earlier Jeff Dee art Kickstarter. I actually make a point of NOT looking at his Kickstarters these days, as I'd be supporting just about every one and I have no place to display the art I currently have.

All of which boils down to this - the current Kickstarter for Jeff Dee to recreate his art from the classic Fiend Folio is down to about 8 hrs or so. Looks like I'm "kicking in". The Fiend Folio was my first monster manual AND the first AD&D book I bought myself (second RPG product I bought with my own money after the gray boxed Gamma World).

Here's the basic list of what Jeff is recreating:

Dead Giant (p. 6)
Aarakocra (p. 8)
Aaracocra Closeup (p. 8)
Giant Two-Headed Troll (p. 90)
Cyclops (p. 103)
Dragon (p. 106)
Knotwork Carving (p. 107)

and here are the stretch goals:

The portraits for fourteen creatures in the original Fiend Folio book were left blank. Every set of seven postcard prints - and every set of seven signed 8 1/2" x 11" prints - will ALSO include prints of brand new drawings of these overlooked creatures when backing reaches the following levels:

UNLOCKED! $1700: Astral Searcher (p. 13)
UNLOCKED! $1900: Devil Dog (p. 26)
UNLOCKED! $2100: Dune Stalker (p. 30)
UNLOCKED! $2300: Goldbug (p. 46)
UNLOCKED! $2500: Imorph (p. 52)
UNLOCKED! $2700: Magnesium Spirit (p. 62)
UNLOCKED! $2900: Nilbog (p. 67)
UNLOCKED! $3100: Poltergeist (p. 73)
UNLOCKED! $3300: Protein Polymorph (p. 73)
UNLOCKED! $3500: Sheet Ghoul (p. 76)
UNLOCKED! $3700: Symbiotic Jelly (p. 85)
$3900: Urchin (p. 92) (actually unlocked)
$4100: Vision (p. 93)
$4300: Whipweed (p. 94) AND: Every backer who pledges $5 or more will ALSO receive a signed, postcard-sized print of my re-creation of this drawing from Dragon magazine #49:

I guess I'll go in for the post casd sized and stretch goals.

Came Home to Some Great Art - Elric By Jeff Dee!

Got my Kickstarter package from Jeff Dee. The man is a really good artist. I'd jump in for more stuff, but I'm going to have a hard time finding places for these after I get them framed. ;)

(poor lighting in my dining room didn't help the shots- ah well)

Jeff Dee's Kickstarter - Recreating the Melnibonean Artwork From Deities & Demigods

I really, really, really need to stay away from Kickstarter.  There is just way too much cool shit to be had, especially if you are a gamer or tech geek or both.

Monte Cook turned me on to Jeff's latest project earlier tonight on G+ and I figured I had to share it also.

Nearly all of Jeff Dee's early work for TSR was thrown out by the company, so Jeff is redoing the missing artwork and selling signed prints.  I loved Elric and Stormbringer (heck, almost all of the Eternal Champion series) so Recreating the Melnibonean Art is a no brainer for me.  The only question is do I up my amount to get an original piece of art and not just a signed print.

Oh, and those that pledge $45 or more get a recreated print of Lolth in Amber from D3 (that's the pic above left).