Vigilance Force by Vigilance Press

World War II has always been my favorite setting for superheroes and this line of products from Vigilance Press reminds me why. Starting with an interview of Old Glory, which reveals how he got his name, and ending with the Atrocity, Vigilance Force provides a solid base for running a WWII game where the PCs have a major impact on historical battles. This particular offering introduces the American heroes of WWII.

What you'll find inside: Vigilance Force starts with an interview with Old Glory, who tells us a little of the backstory behind the team. Next is the Introduction where you get some information on the big picture of the setting and then you get right into the Heroes. They are:

• Captain Miracle - A teenage super-genius who is constantly in trouble with his superiors.
• Deuce - A gadgeteer who is driven by justice.
• Freight Train - An invulnerable speedster who is haunted by the innocents left broken in his path.
• Hornet - She is a world renowned scientist that can shrink and control insects, and is also the only female on the team.
• Marauder - A vicious bulldozer of a soldier who is nearly impervious and heightened senses.
• Minuteman (my personal favorite) - A mechanized suit of armor whose wearer can control time.
• Old Glory - A young boy who can manipulate fire.
• Agent Liberator - A super-soldier who is the only American ever to survive the transformation.
• Talon - Native American superhero who can control wolves and eagles.
• See Bee - Half Human/Half Merman, this hero can control water.

Next up is the adventure hook you can drop in anywhere called "The Atrocity Incident." I'm not going to get into the details of it but suffice to say that the players will probably need to use something other than pure muscle to take this guy out.

One thing I really appreciated from this supplement is that Vigilance Press does a good job of humanizing these larger-than-life heroes, giving the characters offered here their own distinct flavor complete with flaws, relationships and short-comings. Captain Miracle's backstory is missing for some reason, though. Vigilance Press also gets a tip of the hat for the adversaries they come up with which aren't easily taken out with a simple slugfest, requiring the heroes to think outside of the box to take them down. The Atrocity does not disappoint on that level.

Icons never really had me excited until I sat down to play with Vigilance Force in Operation: Bookbinder. Now I am eagerly awaiting the next time I'll get to run one of these.

Vigilance Press gets a 5/5 for Vigilance Force and from what I've seen of the other offerings by them, they're not slowing down. There are some flaws with this first book, such as Captain Miracle's backstory not making it in and the formatting. I'd much prefer having the characters on one single sheet for easy printing and handouts, but I am not going to dock them a star for these shortcomings on a five-point scale. My final scoring would be a 9/10 for Vigilance Force as I feel it is a good introduction to a WWII supers setting with likable characters and a good snapshot of why things are the way they are in the world.

Lots of cool characters. The layout really needs redone. Character write-ups are cut in half over two pages a LOT. I'd rather have a couple extra pages, with full character write-ups not split up. Still, it's a great supplement.

Vigilance Force: Heroes of WWII is the first supplement for ICONS by Vigilance Press.

Here's the thing about ICONS: I want to like it, I really do. The whole package looks very charming. The Marvel FASERIP influence is great. The writing is just...I feel like too much got glossed over with a "Hey, if you don't like a rule, change it, champ!" approach. And in actual play, I didn't really feel like it held up.

Why am I saying all of this? Because there is some cool third party stuff coming out for ICONS, like ION Guard. Vigilance Force is the first book establishing a World War II setting for ICONS, and it is not all happy, Silver Age fun like the ICONS core leans towards. Instead, it comes across fairly hard nosed, with some very lovely, gritty art by Jon Gibbons (supplemented by art by Dan Houser which is nice, but a sharp contrast).

For $2, you get 14 pages of setting and superheroes, designed to be used as PCs for a WWII game. They do provide the Team Qualities, Challenges and Resources for those who wish to use the team rules in the ICONS rulebook.

There are some very cool characters here, my favorite being Freight Train, a super speed brick (not a combo you usually see outside of Superman). Agent Liberator is a lot like an amalgam of Captain America and The Comedian (from the Watchman) and Marauder sure seems heavily inspired by (though far from ripped off of, don't get me wrong) Wolverine.

In fact, there are very cool influences all over Vigilance Force that are nice homages and not just "serial numbers filed off".

The downsides? Unless I am just missing it, Captain Miracle has no backstory. Dan Houser contributes one piece, and it's fine, but it sticks out like a sore thumb next to Jon Gibbons. Not calling either style better than the other, just saying they clash...bad. I would have liked individual pics, instead of trying to figure out who was who in the group shot, personally. Finally, I don't run games with pregens, so for a guy like me, a team of superHEROES isn't incredibly useful. Not useLESS, just not the most useful. That said, for $2, there is some great inspiration in here.

I'd jump all over a BASH version, personally.

It's worth mentioning that Vigilance Force is the first in a series of pdfs. On it's own, it's probably a 2 star product because, while it provides standard Golden Age heroic fare, the writeups reference villains and other heroes not given herein. But, if you're willing to invest the $2.00 a week to buy the chapters of "Amazing Adventures of World War II" as they come out, you'll have a solid product before too long.