V & V again!

Back in the day, if you wanted to play a superhero role playing game you had a few serious options. Champions was the leader but as cool as Foxbat was, it had a large amount of modules and supplements. This made it a bit daunting to jump into starting with it. Marvel Super Heroes was another one (FASE RIP) that I ended up getting – but it was more of a simplified game. It eventually ended up with a large amount of books but it started out small – plus it was heroes from Marvel. When I decided to get into another one, I went with Villains & Vigilantes (2nd edition).


Besides having an ampersand, it also was written (with Jack Herman) and had artwork by Jeff Dee – who had drawn some of the pictures in the original Basic D&D book. They eventually had a bunch of supplements and modules as well as a set of comic books. Then they stopped. Eventually, they had come out with Living Legends game – which was effectively an expansion of the Villains & Vigilantes rules. We had a campaign that we ran for a while and I still think of my weight in how many Basic Hits it will generate. But the math formula for the carrying capacity was what really endeared the game to me.



There now seems to be new modules coming out for V&V. What is interesting is that they are being published by two separate companies. There is a legal dispute over who has the rights for the system.

FGU or Fantasy Games Unlimited used to publish V&V, plus a bunch of other games that I had also picked up. They were dissolved by the state but are still printing new modules at their new site. They have almost a dozen modules as well as some of the counter sets from the old modules.

Jeff and Jack have formed a new company called Monkey House Games and have also printed about a half dozen modules as well as a newer edition of the game.  They also have some character sheets and counters available as downloads from their site.

Windows 8 - not a fan

With the new year I was finally able to convince the wife to get a laptop of her own. Since she was having issues doing what she wanted on the old laptop and we kept swapping it back and forth (to update our Castleville accounts) a new laptop would start her fresh – and free up the old laptop for me to use.

Because her laptop is new, it comes with Windows 8. My first impression of it is that I don’t like it. It’s app based – like a smart phone or ipod – both of which I am not comfortable with. With some help from the web, I was able to load Diablo 3 on it for her. Now I just have to load Office and she will be set.

Then I have to try and figure out how to get flash working on her tablet so that she can play Castleville away from home.

Heroclix overview - 2012

While I didn’t achieve many of the goals I left last year, I do feel better about my Heroclix collection. I did get a few packages to start filling some of the gaps in my sets and picked up a few of the LE/single-figure-box sets as well as kept up with the starters and Fast Forces sets. I didn’t pick up any bricks but did get a brick of Batman:Streets of Gotham as well as a few boosters for Christmas. I did manage to complete one set – Justice League. I also picked up most of the Batman Alpha sub set, including the Target exclusive figure, now only needing 4 more to complete it.

In addition to the 4 regular sets that they published, and the single-figure-box sets that went with them, they also churned out another 5 mini-sets as well as eight starters/Fast Forces sets to go with them. That’s too much. Even if I had dedicated much more resources to keeping up I still would be behind.


I’m still close on Ultimates (6+7), Mutant Mayhem (3+7), Legacy (6+11), Fantastic Forces (0+2), Armor Wars (11+1), Collateral Damage (8+0), Supernova (6+0), Origin (9+0), Avengers (0/3), Mutations & Monsters (1/5), Crisis (0/10), Secret Invasion (2/6), Arkham Asylum (0/6), Hammer of Thor (3/8), Brave and Bold (8/7), and Web of Spider-Man (9/11). I’m still working away at Sinister (14+2), DC 75 (33/11), Avengers Movie (17/18), Chaos Wars (38/9), DC 10th (18/0), Marvel 10th (18/0), Batman (47/11/5), and Batman:Streets of Gotham (26/15/3). I still haven’t picked up any of Giant-Size X-Men (45/13/6), Captain America (47/11), Incredible Hulk (36/10), Galactic Guardians (36/10/6), The Dark Knight Rises (29/0), and The New 52 – Justice League (21/0).


Right now, I need 760 figures – 561 REVs and 199 U/SRs. This is almost as many as when I started keeping numbers – back in April of 2007. Any brick purchased would have brought both of these much closer. Counting figures by Wizkids or Neca – 126/634 compared to last year’s number of 155/258 you can see that I made a little progress towards the old figures and see the amount of new figures churned out this year.

I kept up with the starters/Fast Forces sets – managing to find the ones I had missed so all of those are current.

On the large figure side, I still need the Spectre, two Fooms, and both of the Phoenixes as well as the original Manhattan and Galactus. I even picked up some of the maps but still need most of the new maps – although I did get the Helicarrier maps.


That one last LE from Horrorclix still evades me. I’m going to put a bit more effort into finishing that off. I’ve still been looking for another another map from the Cthulhu set.

I’ve got that last ARC-170 to get to ‘complete’ what I want from Star Wars minis. I’ll probably try and get some more Monsterpocalypse figures. I still have to look out for the Voltron set. I am also hoping to fill in the gaps in my Cheapass games as well as pick up a few new games. This will cut into my ‘Heroclix budget’ for 2013.


I’m going to try and keep up with the Fast Forces/starters as well as some of the smaller sets. I’ll try to pick up some of the previous sets as well as some of the figures needed to work at finishing the older sets. I’m hoping to complete at least two more sets as well as keeping the number of figures to under 1000.   I'd like to see the number of pre-Neca figures be under 100.

Figure buying total 2012

So my January purchases ended up being all the unpainted miniatures that I ended up buying for last year.  I did pick up two tubs of pirates and skeletons in October that I did not add here - mainly because I have no current plans to paint any of them for any games.  If this changes I will add them to the buying total.

40K Kroot Carnivores (in bits) - 12

40K Raveners (in bits) – 3
2 sets Western Wagons and figures - 22
Dreadfleet – Windgauge and Ships’ Wheel – 3
Dreadfleet – Navigation Rod Ruler – 1
Dreadfleet – Treasure tokens - 5

Final total 2012 – figures bought 46, figures painted 0

I also did not paint any figures this year.  I came close with the Tron figures and the animals for The Rules With No Name but still have not been able to complete any.  The pressure on my first completed figure now builds.  With the new edition of 40K and the rules worked out on the Tron games and TRWNN, I have hopes of finally painting something this year.

However, I also have hopes of picking up more 40K figures - ideally not until I get over the edge of painting some for use.

Books read - September to December 2012

Sept

Turn Coat by Jim Butcher
Heat Wave by Richard Castle
Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Warfare by Jason Fry

Oct
Secrets to Painting Realistic Faces in Watercolor by Carrie Stuart Parks & Rick Parks
Artemis Fowl – The Last Guardian by Eoin Colfer
Changes by Jim Butcher
Side Jobs by Jim Butcher
Ring by Koji Suzuki
Mail Order Mysteries – Real Stuff from Old Comic Book Ads! By Kirk Demarais
Future Shop by Daniel Nissanoff

Nov
Ghost Stories by Jim Butcher
The Mighty Mars Rovers: The Incredible Adventures of Spirit and Opportunity by Elizabeth Rusch
Mastering Comics by Jessica Abel & Matt Madden
Earth Unaware by OSC and Aaron Johnston
Star Wars: The Secret Life of Droids by Jason Fry
Ductigami: the Art of the Tape by Joe Wilson

Dec
The Old West: The Cowboys by Time Life Books