Famous Funnies #17

This installment of Flight includes information about a flying boat (more like a flying yacht!) that would make an ideal trophy for mid-level Heroes.  The route for the French Trans-Atlantic Service could be handy for Heroes looking to make a quick getaway from Europe, too.

Hairbreadth Harry is shown here to have a Supporting Cast at least as large as seven, which means he must have a Charisma score of 18 (unless he is paying some of these Half-Pints, in which case they do not count against his SCM total).

Harry might have at least one less kid loyal to him after this stunt (interestingly, I once played a game of Dungeons & Dragons where the same thing was done with a halfling, but that was over a body of water instead of a canyon).  To throw the boy just across the canyon to the tree, I would ask for a roll to hit from Harry's player and make a save vs. science for the poor kid.  To throw him hard enough to wrap around both Rudolph and the tree is too fanciful for the kind of game I run, but maybe I would allow it if either of the above two rolls was a 20.

Tightrope walking is normally a skill reserved for Mysterymen (I would use their climb skill). However, in a game with no one playing a Mysteryman, I could see going easy on the players and allowing this after a successful save vs. science.

The serial Flying to Fame is usually too talky to warrant any Hideouts & Hoodlums discussion here, but with this installment the strip takes on some adventure genre elements. It's worth mentioning here because of their healthy respect (and avoidance) of crocodiles. Statted in Book II: Mobsters & Trophies as alligators, any 1st-level Heroes should know to avoid combat with these 4 Hit Die beasts.

Despite how common rattlesnakes are in comics, they have never been statted for H&H yet. I would give them 1-4 hit points and a mildly poisonous bite, but clearly with the ability to spook other animals and provoke morale saves.

I never thought Seaweed Sam would warrant another mention on this blog, but sure enough this seems to be the very first dragon ever created for the comic books. Metallic dragons were late arrivals to the game H&H was based on, but here we have a purple iron dragon. I would guess a dragon that size must have about 6 Hit Dice, have a bite attack that can do at least 3d4 points of damage (with maybe even a chance of swallowing whole!), plus a hot steam breath weapon.  It has a special vulnerability to pepper.

Note the goat isn't even phased by this.  I might have sold goats short when I statted them before!

Guards were statted in module FS1 Sons of the Feathered Serpent, but these could just as easily be some type of hoodlum (wimpy or cowardly, most likely).  Note how, because Dan's player is playing solo, he uses information learned about the hideout to avoid encounters in it as much as possible.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum at http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?dlid=23782)