Detective Comics #1 - pt. 2

We pick up today discussing Slam Bradley and Siegel and Shuster's strong sense of hideout design.  On this page, we get a dark passage that doubles as a trap, because it leads to a room with a giant pit in it.  The room is doubly trapped, because there is a secret window that can open, allowing a hoodlum to attack the occupants.  And then there is hideout dressing.

A hideout with plain rooms can get dull no matter what mobsters the Heroes encounter inside them. It is the dressing of the rooms -- like giant luminous paintings of dragons, and a bucket of fresh paint next to it -- that make a generic dungeon look visually appealing in the mind's eye of your players.

It is important to think of a hideout in three dimensions. A simple corridor becomes more complex if it has a narrow mezzanine running above it. Will the Heroes think to use it?  Will the mobsters? 

Falling rocks is a trap. Not one you would normally expect indoors either!

Dressing up in a disguise to move around in a hideout -- that should work, unless the mobsters around you make save vs. plots. Coating yourself in luminescent paint and pretending to be a ghost?  Even a charitable Editor should give the mobsters a +2 bonus to those saves...

Again, three-dimensional space.  A balcony or solar overlooking the room from a higher level gives the Heroes somewhere else to go, attack from, or be attacked from.  Make sure to place ropes within reach of the bannister, because who doesn't want to swing off of balconies? 

Rescuing sexy women in bondage is important because, as a good deed, it's an easy 100 XP!

More hideout dressing -- stick a bucket of tar in a closet. Good for lots of uses by resourceful players!

There is actually an in-game explanation for why Slam might be saying good-bye to this lady and never speak to her again after one kiss -- he could be maxed out on his allotment of Supporting Cast Members because of a low Charisma score. He would then have to give up Shorty to take her as a SCM, and Shorty is too helpful in hideout crawls.

(Scans by Megan!)