The edition that is being sold by Monkey House Games (Jack Herman & Jeff Dee's game company) is considered version 2.1, so modifying characters to that edition should be easy.  The original 2nd edition game is still available from FGU.

3rd edition V&V is still under construction.

I don't think you'll be seeing MHG selling v2.1 much longer. It is my undertanding that FGU was ruled as never dissolved so MHG jumped the gun on this in more wys than one.

I wouldn't expect MHG to be allowed to produce 3.0 if this is correct.

Did they "fix" your strength score determining how much damage you did with firearms in any of the editions?

Not to say I didn't find it charming!

Quote from: Imaginos;568863I wouldn't expect MHG to be allowed to produce 3.0 if this is correct.

They could still produce it. it just couldn't be called V&V 3.0

Quote from: urbwar;568944They could still produce it. it just couldn't be called V&V 3.0

True. Though in hat case they could save the effort and just rerelease Living Legends.

Quote from: Imaginos;568863I don't think you'll be seeing MHG selling v2.1 much longer. It is my undertanding that FGU was ruled as never dissolved so MHG jumped the gun on this in more wys than one.

I wasn't able to find any references online via google - where'd this happen?

Quote from: jcfiala;569139I wasn't able to find any references online via google - where'd this happen?

I read it on the wiki entry for V&V. Here's the section (I bolded the part about the Judgement in favor of FGU):

QuoteAs of 2011, the game's creators are involved in a legal dispute with Fantasy Games Unlimited. They claim that Fantasy Games Unlimited, Inc. ceased to exist in 1991, and that their contract specified that in such an event the rights would revert to them, and that therefore the current Fantasy Games Unlimited (which they claim is a separate legal entity, although with the same owner) has no right to sell V&V material[5]. A court case filed in U.S. Federal court, Arizona district (REFERENCE: case no. 2:2011-cv-02036) supports the claim by Fantasy Games Unlimited that the owner properly followed procedure to continue with the obligations of the New York business entity in continued operations as the Arizona entity. The case also asserts further that at the time of its dissolution in New York, FGU was current on all obligations with that state and in good standing which then devolved into the entity currently operating simply as Fantasy Games Unlimited. A judgment given on July 11th, 2012, on the first two counts of case no. 2:2011-cv-02036 in U.S. Federal court, Arizona district ruled in favor siding with Scott Bizar resulting Jeff Dee and Jack Herman being guilty of libel and unfair business practice causing unspecified damages to the plaintiff. More judgments on other counts were still pending as of that date. The judgment ordered (not withstanding any other punitive measures to be determined for damages on all counts) the defendants within 30 days to post conspicuously in every place on the internet a retraction/corrective measure where their false statements have been posted. Whether or not they comply with this remains to be seen.

In addition, I emailed Scott Bizar to see if they might be willing to allow 3rd parties to produce V&V material. He told me that the case is still ongoing, but that they had won the first round. Jeff Dee seems to be posting about rpg material other than V&V of late (on FB, all he talks about is his art kickstarters, cavemaster, and the Pathfinder version of Quicksilver), and Jack Herman seems to not be online much of late. They haven't released anything since Ancient Evil, and the supposed re-release of Bill Willingham's Death Duel with the Destroyers/Island of Doctor Apocalypse omnibus in full color hasn't been mentioned in about a year. On the other hand, FGU keeps pumping out product at a decent rate, and it's been pretty good quality as well. I think that tends to support that this appears to be true.

There is also a new "Official Announcement" on the Monkey House Games site here, which was posted today. After reading this statement, it seems that the wiki article hold some truth, as they are making a public apology regarding some statements made in the past (mostly, iirc, made by Jeff Dee).

ouch

Methinks this bodes ill...

The lawsuit has worked out in Bizar's favor as it has drawn attention to V&V again.  It was only after Monkey House Games started printing their updated version that FGU started cranking up the presses again.  Also, .pdf sales have given new life to these older games.

Quote from: David Johansen;569243ouch

Methinks this bodes ill...

Not really.While MHG might have started things with 2.1, they released very little product. There's 3 or 4 that I can think of, 2 of which were, iirc, freebies. on the other hand, FGU has put out around 12 new products, possibly more (I haven't been keeping track), with one just released this week, and at least 3 in the pipeline. Maybe Dee & Herman got interest going again, but it's FGU who've really supplied the demand that is there for product.

It's sad that both sides couldn't work things out, but Dee/Herman made their bed, and now have to lie in it. They've been working on what they were going to call V&V 3.0, but as Jeff Dee has been pimping other rpg materials (along with redoing his old D&D), it seems they knew things were going south for awhile now.

Quote from: Roll 3d6;569261The lawsuit has worked out in Bizar's favor as it has drawn attention to V&V again.  It was only after Monkey House Games started printing their updated version that FGU started cranking up the presses again.  Also, .pdf sales have given new life to these older games.

Considering there's a forum for V&V that is quite active (and was so while no one was releasing stuff), there was a built in, if small, customer base ready to buy stuff. The lawsuit might have brought some new people into it (or like me, back to it), but I still don't think the game is anywhere near where it used to be in popularity.

I still enjoy playing it, but more for the fact our GM is one of the best I've ever had, and not necessarily the game system itself (especially given his extensive house rules that make it play better, imho)

I wish personally that they'd realize it work best if Dee and Herman had the writes and would willing sub-license them for supplements to Bizar. Because lets be franks--its been almost dead for years and years, and its been propelled to activity thanks to Dee and Herman.

Sometimes the Shadowrun way of solving problems is best.

I read that V&V entry on Wikipedia several weeks ago. I thought it a bit odd that they were treating what looks like simply moving a business from New York to Arizona as a full on winding down of business. Businesses relocate all the time for whatever advantages they can gain.