Vibora Bay Reviews?

[Blue]

I see my game store got it in a couple days ago (I just haven't had time to go pick it up yet).

 

Any reviews? Comments? Raves? Taunts? Well, maybe not taunts.

[Blue]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

Picked it up yesterday. I'll try to give some lowdown on it soon. But that shouldn't stop anyone else from throwing in comments (hint hint).

[Hermit]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

I look forward to hearing your comments. My own purchasing plans have been delayed.

[MitchellS]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

Mine shipped on Monday so I'm expecting it sometime today or tomorrow.

[Blue]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

I'm not finished yet. Thoughts so far...

• Some of the art is not up to the typical Hero standards. It comes across exceedingly.... i don't know... "cartoony". Mind you there's still some good stuff (Such as the cover charcter, Black Mask X, and I liked Dr. Ka, but some of the other art just doesn't work for me. I'm not going to point to which because I personally hate that.
  
• Does Black Mask X have enought skills? She's harbinger-like in her array of skills, though probably not as high in any one of them. Mind you, it works for her and the type of character she is.
  
• I also like the general idea of the Black Mask legacy.
  
• I always wanted to run a game based somewhere like New Orleans. This actually has enough of the touches of bayou that I could easily go with this instead.
  
• I like the array of nicknames for the city that pop up in the book too. The Queen City. City of Shadows. Viper Bay (What, no viper base? j/k). Gives it some more flavor.
  
• I like the simple explanation of the local government with plenty of names and positions to give a sense of how things run.
  

I may have more to say, but knowing me I'll finish it and forget to come back here to embellish.

[Metaphysician]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

I just got it myself. I'll write up a review after I've read it, but my initial response is something along the lines of:

 

"700+ point superheroes, in canon, in the contemporary period?? MWAHAHAHAhAHA, EAT THAT 350 FANBOYS!!"

[MitchellS]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

I just got it myself. I'll write up a review after I've read it, but my initial response is something along the lines of:

 

"700+ point superheroes, in canon, in the contemporary period?? MWAHAHAHAhAHA, EAT THAT 350 FANBOYS!!"

I certainly hope it's just not characters with large Magic Pools. Those are the least interesting characters Hero Games produces. They general show a lack of imagination and desire to make interestingly-powered characters.

[Metaphysician]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

Nope, neither of them. Robert Caliburn has a magic VPP, but its a fairly small and limited one. He's more. . . like a highly skilled street-level type, except with magical tricks and objects instead of technological gadgetry.

 

And Dr Ka, he's got a mix of innate magic powers, items, and skills, with his main schtick being a fairly powerful astral form.

[MitchellS]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

That's cool then. I prefer to see more original and inspiring ideas than just characters with x point VPP, magic only written on their sheets.

[FenrisUlf]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

Any word on villains? How do they stack up?

 

And can you say anything on this 'big mystic plot' that was mentioned all the way back in Champs Universe?

 

Mind you, I'll get the book regardless, but I like having *some* idea what's coming.

[Metaphysician]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

Well, without spoiling too much of the actual plot ( which *is* detailed, though I haven't actually read it much yet ), there is a master villain included who is connected to the conflict destiny.

 

Other villains include the Cirque Sinister, a group of low level "weird" villains that switch between money crimes and supervandalism, a demonic entity that operates behind the scenes, and a duplicating shapeshifter.

[OddHat]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

You just know that Doctor Ka and Nighthawk are going to have to fight it out for the "Captain Duck Hat" title.

 

And Nighthawk, poor guy, will have to keep it.

[MitchellS]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

Any word on villains? How do they stack up?

 

And can you say anything on this 'big mystic plot' that was mentioned all the way back in Champs Universe?

 

Mind you, I'll get the book regardless, but I like having *some* idea what's coming.

There's not really a lot you can say about the "big mystic plot" without giving away too much detail. It's not too complicated of a plot but I doubt you will ever see the outcome of it as well.

 

The heroes in the book are the ones listed in the CU-Heroes pdf with a change to include Amphibian in Vibora Bay and remove him from the Georgia listing. The heroes range from 791 points (Dr. Ka) to 350 points (Juryrig). Most of the seem fairly straight forward.

 

The villains in the book are unusual. They all seem to be slightly twisted to the left of standard four-color; not that it's a bad thing. They just don't seem like the "Ultimates" type of villains and are definitely more suited to the seemingly darker atmosphere of Vibora Bay.

 

I still have a lot of reading to go. It looks fairly interesting as a campaign city, though I can't really grasp how I would use it just yet. It's very mystical and so seems very different from your standard superhero city. There seems to be a good amount of detail in the book and what I have read so far is good.

[OddHat]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

There's not really a lot you can say about the "big mystic plot" without giving away too much detail. It's not too complicated of a plot but I doubt you will ever see the outcome of it as well.

 

The heroes in the book are the ones listed in the CU-Heroes pdf with a change to include Amphibian in Vibora Bay and remove him from the Georgia listing. The heroes range from 791 points (Dr. Ka) to 350 points (Juryrig). Most of the seem fairly straight forward.

 

The villains in the book are unusual. They all seem to be slightly twisted to the left of standard four-color; not that it's a bad thing. They just don't seem like the "Ultimates" type of villains and are definitely more suited to the seemingly darker atmosphere of Vibora Bay.

 

I still have a lot of reading to go. It looks fairly interesting as a campaign city, though I can't really grasp how I would use it just yet. It's very mystical and so seems very different from your standard superhero city. There seems to be a good amount of detail in the book and what I have read so far is good.

 

Most of the Mystic World familly of villains have a dark twist to them, and the Vibora Bay villains follow that patern. I was a little surprised at the group that at first glance looks like classic GRAB style light hearted villains, and turns out to have one semi-vigilante murderess, one murderer for convenience, one psychotic disorganized murderess, and a cute little boy. Very Iron Agey.

[MitchellS]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

Most of the Mystic World familly of villains have a dark twist to them' date=' and the Vibora Bay villains follow that patern. I was a little surprised at the group that at first glance looks like classic GRAB style light hearted villains, and turns out to have one semi-vigilante murderess, one murderer for convenience, one psychotic disorganized murderess, and a cute little boy. Very Iron Agey.[/quote']

Yeah, I would say Vibora Bay straddles that edge between the Bronze and Iron age of comics. I guess I would put Vibora Bay somewhere between Millennium City and Hudson City in tone. All the mystic mumbo-jumbo definitely gives it a dark feel.

[Metaphysician]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

You just know that Doctor Ka and Nighthawk are going to have to fight it out for the "Captain Duck Hat" title.

 

And Nighthawk, poor guy, will have to keep it.

 

Thats not a duck, thats a hawk. More accurately, its a Horus headpiece from Egyptian myths.

 

And yes, Dr Ka would kick his ass. Flashes, Darkness, and Teleportation to keep from being attacked effectively, Ka Form ganks him with mental attacks ( or stuns him for a mace-to-the-head finisher ).

[OddHat]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

Thats not a duck' date=' thats a hawk. More accurately, its a Horus headpiece from Egyptian myths.[/quote']

 

Amazing how few of these Duck Hat Heroes will just come out and admit "Hello, my name is Frank, and I'm wearing a duck on my head."

[Eosin]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

I am about half way through the book and hope to have a review up before I go back on shift Wednesday. I like what I see so far.

[Starlord]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

Amazing how few of these Duck Hat Heroes will just come out and admit "Hello' date=' my name is Frank, and I'm wearing a duck on my head."[/quote']

Shhh. It's supposed to be a secret. To most of the regular minions, they just believe they're in a duckheaded cult. However, the inner circle of duck-headed superheroes knows the true goal. Operation: Quack Attack - To bring forth The Great Platypus From Beyond out of his home dimension to wreak web-footed destruction upon the Earth.

[OddHat]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

Shhh. It's supposed to be a secret. To most of the regular minions' date=' they just believe they're in a duckheaded cult. However, the inner circle of duck-headed superheroes knows the true goal. Operation: Quack Attack - To bring forth The Great Platypus From Beyond out of his home dimension to wreak web-footed destruction upon the Earth.[/quote']

 

Plot Seeds:

 

The Duckheaded League

 

Duck Hat Talks Back.

 

Thunderquack.

 

A Duck Hat for All Seasons.

 

The Cat in the Duck Hat.

[Guest WhammeWhamme]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

You just know that Doctor Ka and Nighthawk are going to have to fight it out for the "Captain Duck Hat" title.

 

And Nighthawk, poor guy, will have to keep it.

 

 

Beautiful... rep sadly not available.

[Eosin]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

Vibora Bay

Written by Darren Watts, Derek Hiemforth, Jason Walters, & Steven S. Long. A 160-pg trade paperback, perfect bound with black and white interior. This is a comp copy and was not playtested. Again, this is not a d20 book but is for use with the Hero System.

 

 

Vibora Bay is one of three fictional modern cities in the Hero System line up, Millennium City & Hudson City being the other two and it falls squarely between the tenor of those two cities. This book is a stand alone product that may be incorporated as desired into many modern campaigns – even those that do not cater to super-powered beings, but the closer your game is to real life the harder the task becomes. The book is both a GM & Player guide with a small section at the end, called the GMs vault, which details many of the secret plots.

 

Overview: Vibora Bay is a hefty read with a subtle theme that run throughout the book. The nature of the book moves it away from “section breaking†features such as charts or stat blocks artificially raising a rare “dry spot†but the read was still engaging. Overall, the tone of the book is very appealing – Vibora Bay is a cross between a modern city, like Huston and a mystical one, like New Orleans. The setting caters well to mystics, normals, vigilantes, low-powered super-agents, and low to medium powered superheroes who like a little dark side to their daring dos. A high point to the product is that Vibora Bay is a complete package featuring everything one might need to use it in a game. However, the most appealing factor to the book is that you can run several genres side by side.

 

Layout & Design: The cover illustration of the shapely Black Mask against the Vibora Bay skyline was done by Erich Von Hase. The interior art occasionally crosses into a detracting cartoon sketch but in general is passable.

 

Chapter by Chapter

History of Vibora Bay – There is a good bit of early American colonization history leading up to modern times. With all the recent news about hurricanes and Florida it was interesting to see this very issue addressed in the cities back story.

 

Lay of the Land – This chapter is a hodge-podge of sections designed to give GMs the tools necessary to run a coastal city in Florida. The first details weather, critters, & swamplife.

 

The section on the city struck me right off as feeling comfortable. The names all make sense, the layout of the city is logical, and it is broken down into 24 manageable wards. The same holds true for the city government. No small feat when designing a fictional city to mesh with the real world.

 

Life in Vibora Bay This section covers all the little facts needed to make a city come to life; newspapers, radio stations, colleges, and nightlife. The superhuman section covers two prominent citizens, Black Mask X and Dr Ka. Black Mask is a Punisher caliber vigilante who is not so angsty. She makes an excellent point of entry into Vibora Bay for players. Dr Ka also serves as an aid de camp to players within Vibora Bay since his powers make him an astounding source of information. These two set the pace for the rest of the book characters – powerful and competent but not so competent that they might not need some aid.

 

The section on the business world is where neatly done, providing players with clues but not spelling out any wrong doers nor whom they might be connected with. The Martial World introduces a new style of Martial Arts, Vibora Carmesi (crimson viper) indigenous to the area and a superheroic practitioner of the style called Redsnake.

 

I would be remiss to skip over the substantial section on the High Apostolic Church. A mix of Catholicism and Voodoo, the church naturally blends with and adds to the color of the city. The church also provides a font of semi-mystical characters.

 

Cops & Robbers – Covering the police, sheriff, UNTIL, & Primus this section provides an interesting mix of personalities – any one of whom can become an ally or a enemy depending on the actions within your game.

 

Superhuman Allies has a mix of characters:

Amphibian – A bitter superhero and would be eco-terrorist that despises violence.

Brother Thunder & Sister Rain – two mystic practitioners of voodoo who work closely with the disenfranchised within Vibora Bay. A colorful pair.

Juryrig – A technological genius who is too stupid to realize what tangling with VIPER really means.

 

The Underworld covers the two mundane criminal orginazations – one a descendant of the mafia and the other a modern street gang. The leaders are both convincing and all too reminiscent of real world crime figures but looks can be deceiving. This section finishes with sketchy notes on VIPER, DEMON, & ARGENT.

 

Hot Spots for Cool Heroes – Posh dining, big buildings, and occult book stores fill this section. A detailed discussion of eight interesting locations within Vibora Bay. This is another one of the sections that provides the small touches for your game.

 

Gamemastering Vibora Bay – This fifty page chapter forms the core of the book. Not one to hold off, the GMs chapter introduces one of the prime movers of Vibora Bay – Therakiel, the halfway angel. A being of demented divinity that plans on besting heaven and hell. This is followed by discussions of running Vibora in different genres before segueing into the vault.

 

The vault is a section that tells you about the lies you just read – Vibora Bay is intended for players. The vault extends on the information already provided FREX one of the companies is a front for VIPER, in the players section there might be a hint of that but here you get the good dirt, write ups on who is running the nest (a totally normal psychopath), what the goals are, how they use the company, and other odds and ends needed by the GM.

 

This section also houses many of the villains – discussed or not in the previous section. You will find a write up of the Mafioso Guy Sweetland, the previously mentioned VIPER Commander, a group of psychotic misfits called the Cirque Sinister, and others to round out the VB stable.

 

Summation

Vibora Bay is a good buy and an entertaining read. It provides enough of the fine touches to allow a GM to run with it but not enough to bog you down in detail. There is enough of a backstory in the characters presented that the GM has a trove of plots ready to hatch.

 

The Negative – Some of the art seemed out of place, more like a Sunday morning comic strip than RPG art. It is not bad – in that it is a popular style but for me it did not work. If this book was one of the “Animated†line it might have passed muster but the book is not an animated title.

 

The Neutral - Vibora is the tweener town. It can cater to both supers and heroic level games but has plot elements that might be out of place in either.

 

The Good – This is a combo meal. It has your locations, villains, plot ideas, and information that is useful to everyone at the table. The writing is generally good but more importantly the city comes off with a definitive “feel†to it. I had notions of running a low-powered Dark Champions game while reading the book and using VB instead of Hudson City – that is one heck of a compliment.

[death tribble]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

I have the book and have one query at the moment.

 

Why does Black Mask have a green mask and green body suit ?

 

Nice book.

[Eosin]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

Well, you see....The Green Dragon finally got over his thing about caucasians. After the booze and the uhmmm....well, it was hard to tell whose mask was whose in the dark.

 

[MitchellS]

Re: Vibora Bay Reviews?

 

I have the book and have one query at the moment.

 

Why does Black Mask have a green mask and green body suit ?

 

Nice book.

The mask was supposed to be black, hence the name, but the artist gave it some green, apparently to show the reflection from the bodysuit, which is supposed to be green. In another thread Darren Watts said it was just a slight snafu on the artist's part.