Meet Junior Justice (I) – Nightfang

Before we launch into the final character profile for the first iteration of Junior Justice, I’d first like to relate a story about how real life can be more weird and cool than any fictitious game event. The real-life player of today’s featured character is a third-generation role playing gamer. I know because I’ve played RPGs with three generations of his family.

Meet Junior Justice (I) – Lightning Lama

From soccer player to superhero in the blink of an eye…

Meet Junior Justice (I) – The Wraith

When a secret society of mystics imbued an ornate vase with a portion of their power, they had no way to know with whom that power would eventually reside – only that the higher being the mystics served would ensure that the owner would be worthy to wield it…

Meet Junior Justice (I): Deep Freeze

Continuing with the stats for our Silver City V&V campaign, we now present our player characters. First up, yours truly, with some yah-dah yah-dah backstory added at no extra charge.

Adding breadth to a superhero RPG campaign’s world

When I began running a Villains & Vigilantes RPG campaign for my twins I had the happy idea of linking it to my solo V&V campaign from the early 1980′s. This allowed me to give instant depth to our campaign – our world immediately gained a history which stretched back a quarter century (later expanded still farther back into the past by the introduction of Golden Age hero Jack Victory).

But after an adventure or two, I decided that my world needed breadth as well as depth. I wasn’t happy with Silver City being the entirety of our campaign universe; after all, our hometown isn’t even the second largest city in Maryland, much less a major metropolis. It stands to reason that Baltimore (called Calvert in our game universe) would have its own superhero team, which I decided to make THE pre-eminent group of supers on Earth-1.

Meet the Justice Federation: Ruby

Last, but certainly far from least, in our series about the Calvert MD superhero team the Justice Federation, we bring you a profile of everyone’s favorite queen of magic (and pop culture): Ruby!!!

Meet the Justice Federation: Revenant

When computer programmer Ronald Fredericks left his home to drive downtown with his wife and infant daughter, he had no idea that his life was about to be altered forever…

And a whole lot more “GI Jive”

This site looks to have everything that archive.org has, and then some:

Meet the Justice Federation: Crimson Guardian

When forest ranger Rick Allyn went out on call to investigate a reported woodland fire, he had no idea that his life was about to change forever…

Meet the Justice Federation: Halcon

Eduardo Graywolf, born of mixed Native American/Mexican-American parentage, doesn’t speak often (and never of himself) which makes his words carry more weight on the occasions when he decides to open up a bit. The source of his metahuman abilities is unknown; Eduardo attributes his powers to “the blessings of the Great Spirit”.

Meet the Justice Federation: Ishtar

In the late 1990′s, a new heroine appeared in Calvert, Maryland; a woman who not only fought against criminals, but also against the “mad dog” amoral street vigilante “heroes” who had been dominating the costumed crusader scene for the previous decade. Purported to be the ancient Babylonian goddess of love and war, the woman called herself Ishtar.

Meet the Justice Federation: Doc Falcon

While the Crimson Guardian is the Justice Federation’s commander out in the field, the real brains behind the operation belong to Dr. Everett Falcone, a.k.a. Doc Falcon. While not a founding member of the Justice Federation, Doc has proven his mettle in a crisis so often that even Ishtar defers to his judgement.

Meet the Justice Federation: Bluestreak (redux)

Talk about an eleventh hour save! Mere days before the twins moved out of the house for their freshman year of college, we were able to play one last session of Villains & Vigilantes, thereby bringing the campaign to a logical stopping point. There are still loose ends a-plenty, but we did get to finish the “Jack Victory Returns!” scenario which had been hanging fire half-completed for more than a year.

More about that “hypothetical question”

I remember kicking back with a particular issue of Conan the Barbarian around thirty or thirty-five years ago (in the glory days when Roy Thomas was writing it); I don’t recall the exact issue number. But I do remember a brilliant little bit of business which Roy included in the story.

Meet the Justice Federation: Bluestreak

Today we’re kicking off the Villains & Vigilantes profiles of the world’s greatest superhero team: The Justice Federation! Based in Justice Tower (the former Crusader Citadel) in Calvert, Maryland’s Inner Harbor, the Justice Federation has been keeping the world safe for more than a decade. We’ll begin the profiles with one of the Federation’s founding members, wisecracking speedster Bluestreak.

Villains & Vigilantes – Bridging the gap between the 1980′s and the 21st Century

The status of our Silver City Villains & Vigilantes campaign is somewhat in doubt. The kids and I haven’t played the game in over a year and, with the twins heading off to college in just over three months, it’s not terribly likely that we’ll be able to tie up all the loose plot threads even if we went back to playing regularly.

Our problem is an embarrassment of riches. I’m a lifelong game collector and it seems like a new game catches somebody’s eye practically every week; there’s just not enough time to play everything we’d like to play.

Happy Holidays!

Speaking for the lawful metahumans of Silver City and Calvert, Maryland (Junior Justice, The Justice Federation, and our friends Jack Victory, Commando D, and Kid Commando), I’d like to wish our friends of Earth-0 a joyful and safe holiday season!

Christmas Eve. The lights begin to come on in Silver City at the start of a (thankfully) silent night.

 

Have fun! — Steve

Hey Lightning Lama! Hey Wraith!

I know what you guys are getting for Christmas! BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!!!

(Even Doc Falcon doesn’t know — and he usually knows everything. Heh.)

– Deep Freeze

Meet the Paladins: Luna

For our final profile in our series on The Paladins, Silver City’s 1980′s superhero team, we’re proud to introduce you to the lovely Luna!

Meet the Paladins: Traveller

The story of the third member of the original Paladins is almost a Greek tragedy, and full elaboration would require a book. Instead we’ll have to content ourselves with a brief description and stat listing for the most ill-starred member of Silver City’s “hard luck hero” team of the 1980′s: Traveller.

Meet The Paladins: The Brain

Who says heavy metal music will rot your brain? In the case of Andy Paulus it turned him into a superhuman genius.

Meet the Paladins: Deep Freeze

Silver City, Maryland was a dangerous place in 1982. The city was mired in the depths of the “Reagan Recession”: factories closed, businesses moved away, and the town was left with 25% of its population unemployed. Many residents fled in search of greener pastures; more than a few who remained turned to crime to support themselves.

Will return shortly…

I’m in the midst of switching computers. This is the fifth time in two years — what a freaking grind.

I’ll be back with some Villains & Vigilantes writeups for The Paladins (the original Silver City campaign from the 1980′s) after I’ve made the switch.

Have fun! — Steve

I’m back, I guess

I figured I’d just dash off a quick post tonight.

This past Friday I finished up a stint of thirty-five consecutive days without a day off, and this past weekend saw my first two consecutive days off since March. So this blog hasn’t exactly been at the forefront of my mind.

Peeking behind the curtain at The Liberty League

Now that we’ve met the members of the Liberty League, it’s time to look behind the scenes and explain a few things which would have disrupted the individual characters’ narratives if I’d included them previously. First (and most surprisingly), the Liberty League’s members aren’t randomly rolled characters. They’re “modeled” characters designed for another game entirely, namely