RPGPundit Reviews: The Villainomicon!

This is a review of the "Villainomicon" sourcebook for the ICONS RPG, written by Steve Kenson, GM Skarka, Walt Ciechanowski, Morgan Davis and Theron Bretz.  I had recieved two different "villain" sourcebooks for the ICONS game, so I thought I'd review this one first, being as it is the "official" one.

Putting it very basically, the Villainomicon is a big collection of NPC villains for your game.  I've normally never much cared for those kinds of books. This one offers a few additional tid-bits, but the question is whether its worth getting?  I mean, I can make up my own villains.  If I'm going to use premade villains, I'd rather have statted-out versions of actual Marvel and DC villains, rather than the "amateur" unknowns that Kenson or Skarka might produce.   In order to appeal to me, a Villains book would have to be either extremely creative, having a really diverse set of villains that I wouldn't have thought up on my lonesome; or just the opposite: It would have to read like the Marvel & DC supervillain list with the numbers filed off, I'd want to see stats for Rex Ruthor, the Jester, Doctor Damn, the Grim Goblin and Magnetic-O.  And the latter only if they damned well seemed like the right stats for the comic villains I love.  We'll have to see if Villainomicon manages either of these difficult tasks.

To start with, the book provides some introductory material, in the form of new rules for the ICONS game in general, as well as for villain-creation in particular. For the general rules, its got some variant damage rules, an optional rule where everyone gets a bit of invulnerability (against certain kinds of attacks, anyways) which seems like it might be a sensible rule; some variants on how to spend determination points, how to generate determination points, and how to handle "success pyramids" (tasks that could be done by one person doing a really big success, or a group doing a bunch of little successes).

In the area of rules specific to villains, you get some information on how to roll up the concept of the villain, complete with a new table.  Vilain types include "adversary" (basically a guy with no special connection to the hero in question), Nemesis (he's got the "opposite" origin from the hero, ie. a science villain for a birthright hero, Luthor vs. Superman etc), Opposite (a guy with "opposite powers" to the hero, Killer Frost vs. Firestorm, the Turtle vs. Flash), or Reflection (a guy with the same powers but evil, ie. Professor Zoom vs. Flash, Joker vs. Batman). You're also given some very good advice regarding not really sweating the details, and not being afraid to cheat, with villains, that I suspect comes out of the mind of Skarka, though it could just as easily have come out of my upcoming Guide to GMing...

Anyways, you also get some rules governing Natural Disasters (how to handle floods, fires, etc), and some new specialties and powers. There are just four new specialties (animals, areas, deception, and nature).  The new powers are "Affects Incorporeal" (which is really a bonus power that can be added to any power), animal mimicry, dream control, dream travel, elemental control (new variations), emotion control (new info), empowerment, immortality (clarification on the power level), Immunity (ditto), mind shield, mind switch, resistance (new variations), Sensory link, sleep, and "transit".  These sound like a lot of new powers, but bear in mind that several are rehashes or clarification on powers in the main book.  Also, note that all of those powers fill up only 4 pages of a 128 page book.

Oh yes, the book itself.  It looks a lot like the ICONS main book.  Same paper quality, same gloss, same silly art.  Shit. I really wish they'd have used something more palatable for the superhero art of what is without a doubt my favorite superhero game.  Maybe someday we'll get a second edition with art that looks like it belongs somewhere other than the "marvel juniors" line.

So, of the 128 pages of the book, 104 pages are devoted to villain NPCs. If I counted right, there's 51 different supervillains detailed in the book.  Each gets a drawing (in the typical ICONS art style), a statblock, several paragraphs of personal history and background, and a few "Adventure ideas" describing how you might use this character.   For example, the very first villain is "Auntie Social", a Granny Goodness-type villain, who looks like a sweet little old lady running a prestigious private school, but in fact the school is a front to brainwash young minds to her bidding. You are left open as to why she does this (other than that she actually despises children); she might be an alien, a demonic entity, serving some kind of greater overlord, or just a petty crook, depending on what your campaign requires.  Possible adventure seeds include a number of hacking thefts being traceable back to Auntie's academy, or Auntie expanding to an "Online tutoring" program meant to subliminally enslave thousands of youngsters, or that perhaps Auntie has found a way to mentally subvert the PCs themselves.

The villains are each and all of them very detailed in the description, and do seem to run the gamut of powers and backgrounds. Many of them tend to resemble known villains.  "Zergo" is not unlike "Mr. Mxyzptlk", Earworm is a kind of "Mister Mind", The Grudge is your "Solomon Grundy" type, and "Tarpit" is really similar to Clayface.   "Harlequin and Columbina" are literally the old Blue Beetle villains Punch & Judy, just barely renamed, "Tempus Khan" is very much like Kang, and "Professor Hominid's" character is basically Vandal Savage to a tee.   You also get some that are drawn from other sources, like "Dirge", who on the one hand is a pretty typical Sorcerous Cosmic Entity, but is patently set up to bring some Cthulhuesque elements into a game.  There's also some organizations, like the Black Hoods, which are your typical "brotherhood of assassins"; and The Sisterhood which are the same but all sexy female assassins.  A couple of slightly politicized characters, like "The Patriot", a right-wing fanatic who kills villains, but also kills leftists he doesn't like.  And you get a couple of villains who are clearly inside jokes for the gamer community (or maybe the authors blowing off some steam); characters like "The Killer Gamemaster"; and "Sock Puppet".

So, well, you have a good range, and that's a plus.  On the other hand, quite a few of the concepts seemed rather corny to me. The villains that were somewhat more original, many of them struck me as kind of goofy (not unlike the characters provided in the main ICONS book), and the ones that were copies all seemed to me to feel like second-hand copies.  Obviously, the writers' hands were tied in that they couldn't just stat out actual DC or Marvel villains, or even make them too close to the originals for fear of getting sued.  But I look at this and say to myself: if I want to run a campaign with DC or Marvel villains, am I better off trying to "convert" these, or just finding some fan page out there that might have the real villains stated out? In that case, the answer would be the latter.  Of course, if there are no such stats to be found, then "converting" these might be easier than just trying to do them myself from scratch, time-wise.  

So I don't know.  I'm going to be running an ICONS game very shortly (my Golden Age campaign), and I really doubt I'll be using very many of these villains, either in their original form or for conversion purposes, even though there are some here that are "generic" versions of the very Villains I plan to use.  So I guess that makes this an unfavorable review.

On the other hand, people are different.  There's nothing really wrong with this book, it delivers what it promises and no less, and some other GM  might find it to be just what he needs for his campaign.  So, you know, I guess the final grade is a solid C.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Lorenzetti Oversize + Image Latakia

It is one of those books I'm glad I bought in PDF, as opposed to print. Mostly because I don't find a lot of utility in it--I am surprised at the similarities to H&S.  Which also had  "The Sisterhood" which once contained Dagger Diamond and Sister Scorpion. A group of women-assassins who focus on taking down men who abuse their power. Of course the villainous bent of the former members let to their dismissal.

I've never read a 5/10 review filled with so much love!

A 5/10 review is pretty rare for me. Normally, a game will end up getting either 3 or less, or 7 or more.  This one left me totally torn as to its value. So like I said, a "solid C".

RPGPundit

That's strange. Lots of 6s recently!

It's similar to Pundit's evaluation of The Intercosm. Though he thought the product very decent he didn't think it was very original and therefore not so useful, rating it 5/10. According to some, a bit low for a perfectly decent product maybe, but at least it's consistent.

It sounds rather a lot like a cross between the V&V books of villains (many of whom looked like they ought to be chasing down some light flaky pastry somewhere) and the M&M Archetype Archives, which were explicitly "here's how to build famous character X in M&M without ever actually saying their name."

I've honestly never understood why superhero RPG publishers always default to yet another Monster Manual book of supervillains; surely a handful of comics from the ten cent bin down the local comic shop would be a better investment.

Yeah, I don't know. I'm of the same opinion as you; I don't feel I really need a big book just full of NPC Supervillains, and also wondered why they're so common in supers rpgs.  But I have a friend here who is also a supers-genre GM, and he LOVES this stuff.  He thinks its the most useful thing he could have, because of idea-mining I guess.  His favorite is Palladium's Villains Unlimited, and not because he's any fan of palladium's system (he's not, he runs GURPS supers) but because he thinks that the characters therein are great.

RPGPundit

I actually like idea mining...it helps me a lot when I GM...so I wouldn t think this book is bad...

Quote from: RPGPundit;477688[...] also wondered why they're so common in supers rpgs.

My thesis is that since Champions, all superhero RPGs have been bogged down in the effects-based point-buy swamp.  That makes character creation difficult and time-consuming, so a book of premade characters is of value in those games.

By contrast, in games like FATE and HeroQuest2, "Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! And nothing less than a bursting shell could penetrate his skin!" is your entire character sheet, so a book of premade villains is somewhat pointless.

And yet, they still have "monster manual" style sourcebooks...

I will always buy monster or evil supers books. I get cool ideas, and I don't have to waste time statting up bad guys myself.

Quote from: RPGPundit;479296And yet, they still have "monster manual" style sourcebooks...

Do they?  I haven't noticed any such supplements for the FATE and HQ2 game lines.  A quick spin through their respective web sites shows no such supplements available or upcoming.

Quote from: daniel_ream;480173Do they?  I haven't noticed any such supplements for the FATE and HQ2 game lines.  A quick spin through their respective web sites shows no such supplements available or upcoming.

ICONS is a Fate game.

RPGpundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;480544ICONS is a Fate game.

Neither Steve Kenson nor the original designers of FATE agree, and have been quite clear on the matter.  Icons has much more in common with MSH/4C than Fate.