Fantastic product with a great tongue-in-cheek style. It covers a variety of ways in which the dead may return to zombie-like life from alien intervention to video games! Includes difficulty ratings for dealing with the threat.

The flesh trade is one of the most pivotal aspects of making any game grim-n-gritty. It immediately showcases that the campaign isn’t going to duck the uglier issues, and puts a more mature, more dark spin on things. After all, killing monsters and taking their stuff is one thing, but finding a thriving economy based around the buying and selling of sentient creatures is quite another. Of course, in such an economy, there’ll be people who specialize in the acquisition and training of such “merchandise.” Enter the Slaver advanced class.

Like all of the “Dispatch” series from RPGObjects, this product is a short one, being five pages in length (one of those pages being the OGL). The book opens with some grim (and slightly gruesome) flavor text showcasing the capture of a new slave. Following this are a few brief paragraphs about the kind of circumstances in an area that give rise to a Slaver, and some text about what sorts of character builds make best use of this advanced class.

A full 10-level class, the Slaver uses the Modern d20 rules, and isn’t Darwin’s World-specific. In fact, there’s no reason this class needs to be post-apocalyptic at all, as it’s certainly feasible to have such a character existing in the contemporary world, or possibly even the past. The class itself is based less around the process of capturing slaves, than it is about their training and breaking. The class abilities are both colorful and balanced (save for the mindcrusher ability, which has no cap on the total bonus it can grant), granting things like a small pool of obedient slaves the Slaver can command, or even the ability to change a slave’s allegiances! At the same time, the flavor text in the ability descriptions are minimal, meaning that the text never becomes uncomfortably detailed regarding the “how” of the Slaver’s slave-training abilities.

Overall, I found myself rather impressed with this advanced class. Save for the single mechanical problem mentioned previously, all of the class mechanics are well-done, being both innovative and colorful, as well as balanced. The flavor for the class is a bit on the sparse side, but there’s still enough here to thoroughly convey what it’s about and how it works best. Clearly, this is a class that will be regulated mostly to NPCs, but it helps fill a small but important niche in that regard. If your Modern campaign has a slave trade, the Slaver is an excellent addition.

An excellent supplement to Soldiers and Spellcasters. AD&D meets World War I in the skies over the trenches in France. Historical pilots are interwoven with fantasy creatures taking the best of both worlds. Sopwiths and Fokkers engage Griffins and Wyverns. Vickers and Spandau machine guns go up against Wands of Fireballs. Don't forget your ring of feather fall. A great way to bring Historical Wargamers together with Fantasy Role Players

I am extremely pleased with this product. So much so that I'm looking for an excuse to run a Supers game, just to use H&V rules-set.

I may have to sneak a bit of it into my 3.5 game.

H&V accomplishes everything it sets out to do, neatly, and succinctly, without any wasted effort.

I'm a big fan of Villains & Vigilantes, and I would use H&V without reservation to play a d20-based version.

Anything more I could say about H&V would just make me sound like a fangirl, so I'll stop here.

Buy it. You won't regret it.

All told a fairly useful piece of software, though there are one or two drawbacks. If you have a large number of SKG tiles I'd say its almost an essential purchase. I'm currently running a SF campaign using SKGs efuture range and this product has made life much easier.

Good points:

Very simple to use. Gives a first class prieview of the SKG tile-sets Saves a huge amount of time designing maps

Bad Points (well lets call them minor gliches or oversights):

You can't flip or mirror tiles (which most modern printers are capable of). I've found this the largest drawback so far. Some tiles are missing (bonus tiles or those produced for the ronin arts run of space ships) Some tiles don't line up properly. You can correct that when the tiles are printed but its a bit annoying when your producing handouts and deckplans

I've really had gret fun using this software. With practice and alittle patience 1st class results are possible. If the 'bad points' could be addressed it would certainly be worth 5 stars.

excellent up date to a great set of core rules i'd get it even if I'd had to pay

A very use expansion to "Soldiers and Spellfighters." It fleshes out some prominent aces, their squadrons and aircraft. Flying creatures are well covered in the original game, but stats are provided for comparison. Famous units such RNAS 10 Naval Ten and their Sopwith Triplanes are highlighted. Pilots and their Observer/Spellcasters have a brief but detailed biography plus full game stats. Even players who don't S&S will find it useful if you ever wanted the to play AD&D meets the Red Baron. An interesting World War I alternate fantasy history

I just bought this product yesterday afternoon and I couldn't stop playing with it! It's addictive! I must have made over 20 maps last night. With access to over 2000+ tiles you can go absolutely nuts creating everything from cave complexes to starship deckplans. The only 2 improvements for this product that I can think of it needing is 1.) the ability to stack the tiles to make them fit some of those hard to fit areas. 2.) the ability to have the tiles flipped for the mirror image, this would in effect double the amount of tiles available in the sets. Overall the product is great and I love all the SkeletonKey games tile sets that I already own and plan to buy many,many more in the future!

P.S. When can we see some more desert scenery? I'm in need for some obelisks, sphinxes, and such!

Modern Dispatch #126 is the 5th in a series of alternate history superhero supplements for the Supers20 system set during World War II. The first supplement is the free Modern Dispatch #122 – Small Arms of WWII (available here: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=56906), while the 2nd is Modern Dispatch #123 – The Eugenics Brigade (available here: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=57067). The 3rd is Modern Dispatch #124 – The Crown Guard (available here: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=57164). The fourth supplement is Modern Dispatch #125 – Pearl Harbour December (available here: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=57274)

This release is called “Vigilance Force” and is 9 pages (7 content, 2 license) long and introduces the major characters of America’s superteam called Vigilance Force. The background of this release details the emergence of metahumans in America and their role in the 1st World War. Provides a context for Germany’s creation of the Eugenics Brigade and provides an anchor for including the superspy agency known as USHER in this alternate history. The bulk of this product provides you with statistics, backgrounds and quotes from the major characters associated with Vigilance Force.

The characters presented include Captain Miracle (super genius, gadgeteer), Deuce (vigilante/trainer), Freight Train (speedster/football player), Hornet (like the Wasp [but less slappable]), Marauder (damage sponge), Minuteman (time travelling battlesuit), Old Glory (like a human torch) and Talon (animal friend [eagle and wolves])

The product also contains one adventure hook and the power Control Time. The average power level of Vigilance Force is 7 and the average character level is 10. There are also Modern Dispatches with England’s Crown Guard, Germany’s Eugenics Brigade and Japan’s Pearl Harbour December.

I think this is the strongest of the four and pulls together threads from the other three.

Supers20! is a 50+ page super-heroic supplement for the Modern20 system by Rpgobjects. The product is divided into four chapters – three related to character generation and one related to GMing a Supers20! Game. The product opens with a bit of a design discussion for people who are coming to Supers20! from the Vigilance super-hero roleplaying game.

Chapter 1 of this tome is only a single page in length and provides you with four new character occupations for heroes or villains. The occupations presented are Super Team (like the Initiative), Mastermind (like Kingpin or the Rose), Vigilante (like the New Warriors) or Super-Agent (like Black Widow or Checkmate). Each of the occupations provides professional skills, improved feats and some have occupation specific feats like the Super Team’s “World’s Greatest” ability. There is also an “alter ego” disadvantage for character that have extended transformations to get into character.

The second chapter is the longest at about 25 pages. This is chapter that makes these character’s superheroes instead of just heroic. To model superheroics in the Modern^20 system, a power control skill, General Super Feats and Power Feats have been added. The Power Control skill allows you to push your power to accomplish feats of heroics beyond their normal limits as well as gives you access to power stunts (making fire cages, causing earthquake tremors – that sort of thing). The General Super Feats modify existing Power Feats like adjusting the duration or range, linking powers together or performing comic book attacks like fastball specials. The most important feat in this section is the Power Level feat which is use to control the relative strength of all your powers. Your powers in Supers20! do not scale with character level but instead scale with the number of times your purchase the “Power Level” feat. This allows for characters of different character levels to be more similar on a superpower basis. The Power Feats are a host of 70+ superpowers that your hero could take by selecting the appropriate feat. Powers range from Ability Drain to Wealth. The powers are remarkably consistent internally, so there isn’t really on “attack power” that is a must have or a “defense power” that is a must have. One feature that I really like about the Power Feats section is the inclusion of power limitations that can be placed on powers such as limited uses which grants a power level bonus to a power in exchange for only being able to activate it a limited number of times per day. With the inclusion of power limitations, characters can differentiate their superpower’s Power Level so not all powers operate on the same level.

Chapter 3 is a small equipment chapter that adds energy guns, energy rifles, energy reflective armorsuits, vacuum suits, and a small assortment of super vehicles. The chapter is only two pages but most of the equipment you need is in the Modern20 book.

The last chapter is focused on the gamemaster and adjustments to the rules. It opens with a discussion of comicbook genres to base your campaign from (Gritty, Street-Level, Four Color, Cosmic). Each of the genre contains a description of the play style as well as suggested starting levels and power level range. The product doesn’t address the concept of advancement overtly, within the superhero comics, character advancement is often more “character” based than “power” based. Technically, with the Supers20! System characters could sprout a new power anytime they have a new feat – this could damage the “feel” of a superhero game. It might be necessary for a Gamemaster in a Supers20! gain to limit power acquisition after character creation or slow character advancement to be more “authentic” to the source material. In terms of combat additions, this supplement adds rules for knockback and environmental damage. I didn’t care for the mechanics for Knockback because there are two may variations in it and it would be one of those rules that I would probably have to keep looking up during the game. There are tables for character advancement beyond level 20 as well. There are four campaign models as well, one gritty, two street-level, and one cosmic. The Gritty model is called the Countdown Killer and features a serial killer that kidnaps and mutilates women every nine days. The first four-color model is a campaign set at a “Hero High” type setting. The other four-color model is a Supers20! reimaging of the USHER campaign model for the superheroic world – I reviewed USHER here: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_reviews_info.php?&reviews_id=11091&products_id=3306&it=1 and here: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_reviews_info.php?&reviews_id=11093&products_id=20065&it=1 The cosmic campaign model is focused on an alien/supervillain invasion of earth.

The final item in this book is a set of generic NPCs from all classes at 1st, 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th level. I don’t think of these as NPCs though, I think of them as templates that I can use to make quick villains or heroes. Each of the NPCs is missing some information for you as the GM to customize. For instance, 12th level Empath (Psychic) has 3 unspent perks, 15 unspent skill points and 2 feats left to customize the psychic character.

Overall the book is packed with all the crunch necessary to move your character from being simply heroic to the superhero of comics. The inclusion of four campaign models in the box help you to kick off your campaign quickly. Editing, layout, balance and bookmarking are all strong as seen in most RpgObjects releases.

Its so-so, reducing units into PC-esque terms, to include 'feats';.

The alternate fantasy history in this book makes great reading. In another words AD&D meets World War I. French Griffins dogfight with Fokker Eindeckers and Triplanes. Sea Elves combat the U-Boat menace while British spell casters control Golems from MK V Tanks. German Wyverns launch from their Zeppelin aircraft carrier. Historical figures are interwoven with fantasy creatures in alternate history settings. Real battles have new twists through magic items and spell casters. Their are never enough magic users or fantasy creatures so the convention military still has an important role. The Red Baraon, young George Patton, Kings, Kaisers, Czars and the pope all have a roll to play.

A great selection of creatures which can be used effectively in any d20 game and not just darwin's world! the artwork is also good.

LIKED: Everything about it, a worthy purchase at the reasonable price too.

DISLIKED: Nothing!

Modern Dispatch #125 is the 4th in a series of alternate history superhero supplements for the Supers20 system set during World War II. The first supplement is the free Modern Dispatch #122 – Small Arms of WWII (available here: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=56906), while the 2nd is Modern Dispatch #123 – The Eugenics Brigade (available here: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=57067). The 3rd is Modern Dispatch #124 – The Crown Guard (available here: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=57164)

This release is called “Pearl Harbour December” is 7 pages (5 content, 2 license) long and introduces the major characters Shinjuwan Juunigastu [Pearl Harbour December] who engages American forces in the Pacific Harbour. This release is crunchier than the other releases providing the rules for the martial supremacy, and two martial arts feats in addition to the character stats. The history section is only two paragraphs long, hopefully the American supplement will make up for it. The bulk of the product provides you with statistics, backgrounds, and quotes for each member of the Pearl Harbour December.

The characters presented include Banmin (savage human minions), Desumasuku (battlesuit warrior), Ikkitousen (bo staff wielder), Kaibustsu (red hulk), Katanamochi (magical katana – could probably cut through a tank), Kogoejini (cold powers) and Kojiki (psionics advisor to Japan). This product is noticeably shorter than the others in this series with fewer opponents and extremely limited timeline.

The product also contains one adventure hook. The average power level of the Pearl Harbour December is 6 and the average character level is 10. There is also a Modern Dispatch for England’s team “The Crown Guard” and Germany’s “Eugenics Brigade”. There will one for America’s “Vigilance Force” as well.

Modern Dispatch #124 is the 3rd in a series of alternate history superhero supplements for the Supers20 system set during World War II. The first supplement is the free Modern Dispatch #122 – Small Arms of WWII (available here: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=56906), while the 2nd is Modern Dispatch #123 – The Eugenics Brigade (available here: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=57067).

This release is called “The Crown Guard” is 8 pages (6 content, 2 license) long and introduces the major characters in Her Majesty’s Heroes team. This release provides you with an introduction to the first super-team to embarrass Hilter’s Eugenics Brigade. The bulk of the protect provides you with stastistics, backgrounds, and quotes for each member of the Crown Guard.

The characters presented include Big Ben (giant growth), Esprit (French ghost woman), Excalibur (knight in shining armour), Grizzly (bearlike Canadian – though I think Canada could have its own team), Illusttrious (infiltrator), Ironclad (sentiment robot), Repulse (energy projector, magnetism), Swordfish (Oceanic warrior) and Zbrojmistrz (the armourer). I like the coalition of countries represented on the Crown Guard.

The product also contains an additional superpower known as martial supremacy and another adventure hook. The average power level of the Crown Guard is 6 and the average character level is 10. There is also a modern Dispatch for German’s team “The Eugenics Brigade” and Japan’s “Pearl Harbour December”. There will one for America’s “Vigilance Force” as well.