Famous Funnies #7

We’re still in February 1935, this time looking at Famous Funnies #7! At this time, much of the content of this anthology book from Eastern was comedic comic strips, but Dixie Dugan offers us an interesting plot hook to borrow.

A jeweler is lying on the ground outside his store and two women are running past.  Did they rob the jeweler? Impulsive Heroes might chase after the women, while a quick inquiry with the jeweler reveals that he was simply knocked over as the women rushed past. The situation is also rife with variants -- what if they did rob the jeweler, and what would they have taken off of him without going into his store? Could the jeweler be crooked and implicate the women, to hide some crime of his own? Also note the presence of coppers -- not the capable beat cops who are level 1 Fighters, but the less competent coppers introduced as a mobster in The Trophy Case v. 2 no. 2.

Meanwhile, in Hairbreadth Harry, our Heroes sneak into the hideout of anarchists (first statted in Supplement I: National) using a cow costume!  They find plenty of trophies, bombs, fuses, and nitroglycerine (also statted in Supp I, under "Anti-Personnel Weapons"). The back end of the cow is an inspector; the Inspector character class was introduced in The Trophy Case v. 2 no. 6, but will likely not be in the next edition of H&H. Note that the mood of this campaign is set to light, as non-lethal as that explosion is (see Book III: Underworld and Metropolis Adventures for a discussion of campaign mood).

Disguise is a tricky thing. Normally the province of Spies or Villains (the character classes, introduced in The Trophy Case v. 2 no. 5 and Supplement II: All-American respectively, which have a percent chance of disguise) or Superheroes (who can disguise themselves automatically with their Change Self power), H&H makes no allowances for just anyone to wear a pig skin to get close to mobsters. In this case, an Editor would likely just roll for surprise normally, with a successful surprise being explained as being due to the disguise.

Jane Arden reveals that modern luxuries allow for easy traps! All these smugglers have to do is turn on the gas in the house and the unventilated rooms quickly become traps. Heroes moving through them must save vs. poison each turn or become too woozy to act for at least 1d4 turns.

 Jane has a resourceful player! Here she is, improvising a weapon out of a sapling. Most any improvised weapon does the base 1d6 damage. In the original rules, she’s as well off using the sapling as Tony’s gun! In optional weapon damage, her improvised weapon is more effective than if she had turned around and tried punching (for 1d4 damage).

(Scans courtesy of the Comic Book Plus website, at http://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=40401&b=i)