Living Legends: The Superhero Roleplaying Game -Version 1.0- is a 162-page PDF (160 pages if you remove the cover and following blank page) containing the complete core rules written and illustrated by Jeff Dee and published by UNIgames.

The layout is a straightforward design, with a good full-color cover and 2-column layout in the interior organized in an old-fashioned section number, subsection number and so on, so the section on determining starting fame is 2.2. 7.8 for example. The (many) tables are clear and interior art is thematic though all black and white. The table of contents is very complete and there is an index as well, so finding what you are looking for should be easy.

Living Legends is a superhero game and begins with discussing roleplaying in general and superheroes in particular with for LL superhero is defined as “any larger than life character who regularly performs heroic deeds and is visually distinctive” which works.

Characters are built using a character point system but there are also a wide variety of random tables from everything to powers (in great detail) to place of origin (including lost regions of the Earth, other planets and other dimension!) to profession and even superheroic motivation. These tables include a fascinating implied setting from the supervillain ruled African nation of Malawi to the Cro-Magnons of the Lost World, Silicoids at the Earth’s core and the Psinax Empire threatening from space. Sadly, they are all implied with only a few sentences at best to describe them and maybe a racial package deal.

The system is both complex and simple, simple that it is roll a die or dice based on your statistic/skill/power either as a contested roll or against a static target number. So far, so good. But what die or dice used is figured through a complex (and unexplained) mathematical formula which is presented as a table form so a power with a score of 4 rolls a d3, while a score of 22 is worth a d10.

Skills are calculated off an attribute and come in two sorts: general and specific. The skill list is quite exhaustive with around sixty skills, many with sub-skills or variants, which seems a bit excessive for a supers game, but it does give you many options.

The available list of Powers is equally exhaustive and has a wide variety of enhancements and restrictions to allow customization and fine-tuning of power to simulate most powers from the comics. A few pages of weapons and equipment give some ideas about what can be designed with the power system.

Unfortunately, there is only minimal advice on how to actually organize and run a campaign (though there is a nifty random villain motivation table). This product provides, as promised, a superheroic RPG but only limited support for actually playing the game. It seems a solid enough system but making a campaign out of it will take considerable work.

What would be welcome in a Version 1.1: A one-page step-by-step guide to building a character. A complete walk through of the steps of character creation ending with a completed character for use. More advice on how to run superheroic campaigns. An introductory scenario incorporating use of the most important sub-systems, combat especially, with advice on how to do such. A variety of sample characters for use as templates or non-player characters or both. Mr. Dee has done all of this before for another superhero game system, so he is capable of such work and if he wishes to see Living Legends be more than a niche product for those who already know both the superheroic genre and roleplaying games it needs such a treatment.

Living Legends errata and FAQ can be found at: http://www.io.com/unigames/ll2.html While some further background information and characters can be found here: http://www.io.com/unigames/ll/universe.html

Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.

I haven't had time to even look at it, before I have to give it a review. Something is definitely screwy with this system of rating. Perhaps you guys should wait until I've gotten to check it out for a few days! From the feedback I've gotten from friends, this is supposed to be a really good game, and I loved V&V.

What a great fun game! Don't be confused, this really is Villains & Vigilantes 3rd edition, just don't tell the lawyers. Simple rules and character driven action adventures make it a great game for newcomers or ancient grognards like me who just need a break from the ridiculous mega-rules and 987 volume systems out there now. It's more complex than TWERPS, but just as fun. You'll like this one, I promise.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Fast, fun and easy to use. Realy captures the spirit of old time comic book adventures.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Support is a bit slow. I'd love to see some of the old V&V products translated to the new format. Heck, if the legal types won't sue me, I'll volunteer to do it. I have lots of the older modules already.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Loved the old V&V game and when I found out there was a new game I jumped to get it. Looks like a great game from fist look. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

A very disappointing update/heir to the Villains and Vigilantes legacy. V&V was a somewhat clunky but very charming game engine. It has now been modernized losing its charm but it is still clunky and what it does is often done better in many other games. A classic case of the old expression "You can never go home". <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Jeff Dee's art even if it is not his best.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Disappointing<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>

Living Legends is like a blast from the past with a new world twist. From the creator of Villains and Vigilantes, Living Legends is a fun, fast paced superhero action RPG. The character creation rules are flexible enough to allow you to create just about any type of hero you want. The rules in general are easy to understand, and can be tailored for whatever level of complexity you desire. All in all, a great revival of a classic game.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The flexible rules and easy to understand examples.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Some of the rules do require you to do a bit of math. Creating a character can take awhile, and will require a calculator.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

This ain't Mutants and Masterminds, and it ain't V&V either (I think it's better than V&V myself but YMMV). Having said that, it looks fun and playable and true to the spirit of V&V. I bought the print and PDF versions and the print versions was excellent quality. I am glad to own it and look forward to playing it.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: interesting character building rules, fairly simple game system all told, easy to convert V&V characters and modules and of course Jeff Dee art :)<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: nothing, I liked it pretty well<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

having played V&V long ago, i was of course very intrigued by this particular product. after all, the V&V random power tables stayed in use as our main "idea spark generator" even when we using other hero systems that followed. how does this stack up to my expectations, then? very, very well.

the rules are delivered in an old-school fashion, and some may find the universal table to be a bit arcane, but the overall execution of LL is almost how i would have predicted V&V to evolve if it had never "gone away."

jeff dee has really stepped up to the plate, here, and i for one think he did so in style.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: the random gen is just as much fun as it used to be. "going back to the point buy system" just helps prioritize your choices for the concept, in my opinion. the universal table could end up on either side, but i'm going to cite it here, as i just find it very unique and full of potential applications. and there is so much info about the V&V (ahem...LL) universe in here! <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: it could be organized better. also, i admit to being a little confused about using stat numbers when everything boils down to "effect dice." although that does gives you a way to break "ties" between forces of the same effect level. and, about all that info on the setting: i want more, and i want it in its own full-sized book with cool pictures!

there also could have been more example characters/archetypes, but i'm thinking of trying to see what we can do about that ourselves :)<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

What can I say? Sorry, Jeff, but this one was a MAJOR disappointment! First of all, yes, I like Jeff's artwork... but, after the cover, most of the artwork is 'recycled' art, copyrighted before 1990! Not good... Then, there's the new Game system. V&V, this isn't! You can't really roll up a random character without eventually going back to the 'point-buy' mechanics to flesh things out... The Point-Buy system doesn't use a 'doubling every level' mechanic, relying instead on the far more 'intuitive' exponent of 1.413 (or something like that!), to calculate advantages and limitations... The Skill purchase system is reminiscent of GURPS, where it rapidly becomes more cost effective to buy a larger attribute, than to buy Skill Levels... And the actual Game Mechanics, once you're ready to play, are very much like those of Earthdawn! The larger the die you roll, the less likely you are to 'fumble', yes... but the less likely, as well, that you will achieve any kind of 'critical' success! {And, what's a 'fumbel' mechanic doing in a Superhero RPG, anyways?} Finally, we get exactly ONE example character, and very little in the way of the kinds of charts and tables that made V&V such a great game! No 'Encounter Tables', for example... I wanted to like this game, but now, just the thought of opening it again makes me want to cringe! <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The cover art was nice, and the print job, by LULU, was quite professional.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: See 'Comments'...<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Poor<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Ripped Off<br>

A creative and colorful new addition to the superhero genre. Created by RPG veteran Jeff Dee, the game has an innovative new way of looking at dice and task resolution which provides a quick and streamlined experince in support of role-playing.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Jeff is easy to contact and has been phenominally supportive of the product and his fan base. Task resolution is quick. Character creation is flexible.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I admit that I have a certain affection for rolling a lot of dice. This new system uses very few dice, and very rarely more than one die at a time. A trivial issue, really :-)<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Ever since the earliest days of superhero rpgs, when Hero Games' Champions and FGU's Villains & Vigilantes were really the only major contenders out there, the two products have been hotly debated. Most gamers love one, and hate the other.

Now I see that same sort of love/hate response to Living Legends (a.k.a. V&V 3.0) continues here today

Why? It's a question of approach. How each major game approaches making superheroes "real" in an rpg sense.

Champions is very detail-oriented and mechanics-heavy. There is an ongoing effort to have a rule for every possible power variation, and for every gameplay situation. For those gamers who like incredibly fine-detail character building, mathematics in general, or just a sense of significant control -- Champions is for them, and they swear by it.

Living Legends takes a much looser, concept-based approach. It's about having a character idea, putting it together as quickly and easily as possible, and getting into the superheroic action. The rules exist to be helpful to players and GMs, not to cover every possible game-table development. Living Legends presumes an actively involved GM who will make judgement calls when necessary to keep play fast and fun for everyone.

Champions fans often hate Living Legends/V&V, and decry it for being "rules light" and "not comprehensive" like Champions -- fans of the V&V legacy love the games precisely for their loose, fun-centred approach, where rules are there to assist rather than to dictate play.

Players and GMs who like one game's approach, typically dislike the other game's method. The Champions versus V&V "war" has been waging thus since the beginning of the 1980s.

Some may wonder where a modern game like Green Ronin's Mutants & Masterminds fits into all this -- essentially, it's less rules-intensive than Champions, but it's still detail-heavy enough to fall in the "Champions" category; it's not as fast or as fluid to run as Living Legends.

Me, I have run both Champions campaigns and Villains & Vigilantes campaigns at length, and I personally prefer the V&V/Living Legends style. From a purely practical standpoint, V&V takes less preparation to run.

The paperwork difference in creating V&V style game sessions and Champions game sessions was about 3 to 1 for me -- I could write up three full V&V adventures by hand (villain stats, maps and all) in the time it took me to work up one fully-detailed Champions scenario. The Mutants and Masterminds versus V&V ratio was about 2 to 1, again in favor of V&V/Living Legends.

I definitely recommend Living Legends, but whether it's the superhero game for you will depend on what style of superhero rpg you require.

And thus, the war will continue ... :-) <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: It's fast and fun, making a real effort to capture the feel of being a superhero.

The game encourages gamers to play superheroic versions of themselves. You would not believe how powerful this "childhood wish fulfillment" angle can be, once players try it. I've found that players roleplay more readily, and can get very intensely involved in the game world, once it's "them" behind the mask.

The implied campaign background in the Living Legends book is superheroics on the grand scale. Alien worlds, Atlantis, Lost prehistoric islands -- players can link their origins to all these types of places, and more. The epic scale reminds me of the DC Universe, or of Marvel Comics back when it actually was the House of Ideas.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The rules will not necessarily cover every single power concept you or your players can dream up -- either that, or else the game will handle the power differently from the way you envision. Not a criticism, just a warning that GMs must be willing to adapt the power rules on the fly, if required.

Similarly, the rules don't scale up infinitely. You can certainly have a Superman-like character, for example, but building a character with precisely Superman's level of extreme power may prove difficult. Again, only a warning.

The layout and production values of the product seem a little low-end. The recent upgrade to version 1.0 of Living Legends helped a fair bit, but be advised that this is not an ultra-slick-looking product. Jeff Dee's art has a nice Silver/Bronze Age comic book feel to it, but again, this is not a PDF with production values like something you'd buy from Malhavoc, Green Ronin, or WotC.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

A Great PDF, but I am eagerly awaiting the print edition. Love the Jeff Dee artwork. Thanx.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: It the new V&V, what's not to like.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

I bought Living Legends out of nostalgia, I suppose. I had a lot of fun in the past playing Villians & Vigilantes, so when I saw a new superhero game by Jeff Dee, I happily plunked down my cash. However, upon giving it a good peruse, I doubt it will see much use in actual sessions. The rules don't seem very clear to me and I'm kind of suprised by the Jeff Dee art inside. I'm used to seeing much better work from him than some of these illustrations. Though I love Jeff Dee's work in V&V and still like that game a lot, LL seems to have very little for me to praise for other super-hero gamers.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Very well organized. I like the cover art a lot.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Too many charts and what not. This feels like a more complicated version of Villains & Vigilantes, which did not need more complexity.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Disappointing<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>

As a one time player of "Villains and Vigilantes," I was quite pleased to see a superhero RPG offering by designer Jeff Dee here. I was even happier to learn that "Living Legends" is considered to be a "Villains and Vigilantes" sequel. So after a brief bit of web research into the product I decided to give "Living Legends" a try.

"Living Legends" as a superhero RPG is something of an old style offering. The layout of the document is very much in keeping with the tradition of the original "Villains and Vigilantes" and I instantly felt as though I was in familiar territory. However, though "Living Legends" may feel like familiar ground, the game system itself is not "Villains and Vigilantes" at all but something completely different. "Living Legends" is an entirely new game set in the "Villains and Vigilantes" universe.

The 160 page document was a surprisingly quick and easy read. It is well organized and easy to understand. The casual browser may be daunted by the dozens of random tables that permeate the volume, but don't fear. Players will reference a table to see which die is needed when using a given power or skill, but this information is transferred to their character sheet and the table becomes superfluous instantly. No worry that you'll spend your entire time with your nose in the book. The new game mechanic is simple, elegant and easy to master.

The majority of tables are there to support an optional random hero generation method. I love this! I find creating a character for a superhero game to be daunting. Unless you know exactly what you want, it's like someone handed you a blank sheet of paper and said, "Okay, write a book." There's just too much. The random option is a perfect solution. Even if you don't use what you roll, the process will help spark new ideas, guide your development and prime your creative juices. Bravo!

Jeff Dee's art is as gorgeous as ever and the Living Legends cover is absolutely beautiful. I printed it out on a color laser printer and it's magnificent. All in all, I could not be happier. As a fan of superhero RPG's in general and "Villains and Vigilantes" in particular I find "Living Legends" to be a superb offering. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Random Hero Creation is a great option... no more floundering, wondering what kind of character to create. Roll up a few and pick what you like! Also, great Jeff Dee artwork! The cover is beautiful!<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing. Really! <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

I have been a long-time collector of super hero rpgs, and most have left me disappointed in one way or other. Living Legends comes the closest in my 20+ years of gaming of being the best, most user-friendly system. The game system has a 4-color feel to it which is especially appealing - it does not get too mired down in details or try to be "grim" or have an attitude. I really like the game mechanic - it is refreshing to see a non d20 system in a new game these days - and once you get the hang of it (which is very quick) it is very intuitive and easy to use.
Character creation is by way of the familiar point buy (with an optional random system), but is streamlined and does not get bogged down into minute detail. I think this is one of the game's great strengths - you no longer need to spend an hour just to create a minor villain or henchman, and creating a PC is less time consuming as well. Despite the streamlined approach, you still have a great number of options to choose from and a great many ways to customize your character. Overall, this game will appeal to those who find Champions too time-consuming and clunky, but may not appeal to those who want to calculate characters down to the tiniest detail or those who want a supers rpg to be "gritty".<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Just about everything. The game mechanic really works for me, and I really like the character creation system - it is easy to use and intuitive. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing substantive. The game could use the hand of an expert editor - there is no index, for example, and some of the rules are placed in sections that don't seem to fit at first. This is a minor point, however, and could be easily cleaned up in a revised edition.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>