Pyramid Review
VIPER: Coils of the Serpent (for Champions)
Published by Hero Games
Written by Scott Bennie & Steven S. Long
192-page b&w softcover; $26.99
There's nothing quite as satisfying in a superhero game as walloping a horde of evil minion types. It's even better when they're all wearing the same color . . . usually green, for some reason. A serpent motif? Even better!
VIPER is Champions' default villain group, spawning dozens of villains over the game's history, and providing a steady stream of cannon fodder to plot everything from bank robberies to world domination. In 1993, Hero Games released a sourcebook for VIPER, outlining the members of that evil organization and a number of ways for them to be used in a game.
Of course, that was 10 years, three companies, and one edition ago. So now the reconstituted Hero Games has produced a new VIPER supplement for use with Hero System 5th Edition, with VIPER: Coils of the Serpent.
VIPER's history and leadership has been revamped for the new version. The origin of the organization is somewhat less silly this time around, but not significantly. Instead of VIPER being the minions of a slacker space probe, they serve an African snake god, which is a little better. Sure, it's not quite "ex-Nazis," but it'll do.
Excessively clever origin aside, VIPER evolves in a fairly straightforward manner. The book provides some info that would be helpful in using VIPER and its forebears in a historical context (Pulp-, WWII-, Silver-, and Disco-Age . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: April 23, 2004
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