Lotta folks have been waiting a long time for this one: Villains and Vigilantes! This is the revised edition, from 1982, but the game originally came out in 1979. Both editions were published by Fantasy Games Unlimited.

V&V, I believe, is the second superhero RPG, but the first to make a big splash (Superhero 2044 came out in 1977, but its main contribution was inspiring the creation of Champions), though it never really took off the way Champions did, perhaps because of FGU’s initially spotty support. It’s got a lot of things going for it. For one, character generation starts with you, the player. You’re the superhero’s secret identity. You then roll for your secret origin and random powers and skills (the rules say the GM can opt to let players pick, or modify these often-bizarre combinations of powers, but that seems less fun, honestly, and more in the spirit of the super-noodly Champions and GURPS Supers). There are a selection of weaknesses, of course, and guidance for costumes; all told the power and character generation takes up 20 out of the 48 pages.

Another thing going for the game is Jeff Dee’s dynamic, comic-trained art (Dee co-designed the game with Jack Herman). This doesn’t entirely come through in the core box, but the supplements have a deep understanding of comics and how they work and what makes them entertaining (and funny — they’re called funny books, remember?).

There is some odd stuff, like the five-page summary of the penal code. And the game mechanics…were definitely designed in 1979. Much of the system feels very D&Dish. Roll a d20 to hit! What doesn’t feel like D&D, like the four steps of tables players need to check to find out the to-hit number they are looking to beat, is extremely cumbersome (though this likely influenced the Marvel universal table). Contemporary reviews had a habit of calling V&V an excellent beginner game, which makes me laugh, because it took me at least ten minutes to confirm the combat roll used a d20.

Still, a classic, and well-deserving of the status.