Popular Comics #11

There is a power called chick magnet for Superheroes (Hideouts & Hoodlums Supplement I: National), but should it be a stunt instead?  Then Harold Teen and his friends would have access to it...

This issue's Dick Tracy installment includes a favorite tactic of mine in modern RPGs -- using a car as a battering ram. This reminds us that cars give ordinary humans huge advantages in even as modern-day a role-playing game as Hideouts & Hoodlums. You get: a) cover from attacks, b) a much improved Movement rate, c) can do ramming damage, and d) can wreck things that it hits (though it wrecks the car too).  Of those four, a, b, and c are loosely covered by the rules, while d is left entirely to the Editor's discretion. It's a tricky situation; there are a lot of instances using vehicles that could get covered by the rules, but this isn't meant to be Car Wars, so I'm going to keep the rules rules-lite when it comes to vehicles, and hope the Editor has enough tools to wing it with whatever comes up.

Then there's also the issue of shooting at little old ladies.  There should still be some situations when even Fighters still have to save vs. plot to shoot at people.

Speaking of stunts...is 'thrill a crowd' a stunt?  Or just an encounter reaction roll for a mass encounter?

Tom Mix presents the interesting problem of gunfire indoors -- should small enough rooms fill up with smoke?  Is this something that should have its own mechanic, or be left as flavor text for the Editor to use when it suits him?  I favor the latter, but we'll see if this turns into a recurring trope.

This combat in Skull Valley (formerly Whiteboy in Skull Valley) is actually pretty complex, mechanically.  In turn 1, the sheriff tries to slap handcuffs onto the evil cowboy, but missed. It appears that one handcuff is actually on, but this is flavor text -- if the player's intention had been to handcuff both the cowboy's hands, then this was a failed roll.  During the same turn, the cowboy vaults onto the back of the sheriff's horse. I'm not sure if this should require some kind of a riding stunt, or perhaps a save vs. science (or plot?) for the cowboy. In turn 2, the cowboy goes first -- either by virtue of a roll-off for initiative, or having used the Quick Draw stunt. The blow to the back of the head I've brought up before.  If the sheriff is higher than 1st-level, as most sheriffs ought to be (given how level titles work in H&H), then head blows must do more than normal damage to take him out in one hit.  It is to ponder.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)