Amazing Man Comics #11 - pt. 3

We're still on Minimidget, so today we're going to talk about the trouble with shrinking and game mechanics. I have proposed before on this blog the radical idea of using no new game mechanics at all -- that shrinking is entirely flavor text. The benefit is that you are -4 to be hit, the same as if your opponent couldn't see you (in this case, because you're so small).  But that ignored one critical issue with being small, and that's getting from point A to point B when any common sense ruling at normal size would say you could not pass through that opening.  You could hand wave the common sense ruling, but that could be granting more power through handwaving then I am generally comfortable with, particularly in a scenario like this where escaping from a locked room is critical. 

Where that leaves us is that the shrinking Hero must be a Magic-User with the Poof! spell. The flavor text of the spell has been replaced with shrinking, but the spell effect - of getting from point A to point B over a short distance - is still there.

Ugh, Google isn't letting me wrap text around the images today. Thanks so much, Google!

I shared this second page for more evidence of the importance of random initiative rolls for each combat turn. Even as I've turned away from random initiative rolls when running D&D and back towards Old School common sense order, it's clear that common sense has nothing to do with who gets to attack first in a comic book panel. Here, the hoodlum has three guns trained on him, yet he's still able to rush up and punch Minimidget before anyone can make a move to stop him.

What you just looked at was Zardi the Eternal Man, a brand new character, and an interesting spin on the Mandrake clone. You'll notice in the following pages that Zardi sometimes appears to be using real magic, like when he makes himself young again, and other times his wand seems to be more like a scientific tool akin to the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. The last panel even seems to allude to this when it refers to what Zardi does as "tricks," instead of spells.

Now the question is, do I need a spell that de-ages someone? I would say probably not, since there are no game mechanics attached to age in H&H (except between minors and adults, and even then just for mobsters). More on this shortly.

"Conquering gravity" is a Levitate spell. 

And, of course, it's ridiculousy racist to make your ethnic manservant dress in period clothing and not let him even wear a shirt.

For a magic cane, it sure looks like it's just a trick cane with a retractable silk line reeled up inside it. The only magic I'm seeing here is that Zardi is strong enough to lift Jeffry aloft with one hand - but then, we can chalk this up to flavor text, since Zardi isn't using his other hand for anything important.

Here we can see that Zardi's age actually does figure into the scenario, as a disguise. Since that is the only purpose it is serving, this could simply be a Change Self spell. 

He also casts Invisibility on Jeffrey.

There is no explanation for how Silky faked that photo, but Silky is a great nickname for a Slick Hoodlum. 

Zardi is either casting Knock, or his cane has some electronic door-opening feature -- which it looks more like. 

The magic cane "works" because he's using it as a whip and actively whipping them. No magic here.

Chaldean illusions are the Phantasmal Image spell. 

I think it's refreshing that Zardi seems to be no more than a 5th level magic-user. 

I'm jumping into the Shark story in progress. 

There's not really a good in-game rational for how Shark just happens to find this going on with his "magic" television just in the nick of time...except....the Shark's TV probably has a certain chance of finding bad guys per turn, which were measured in rest turns, until the moment a combat happened, and then his turns became melee turns. This explanation is a little dodgy because the Shark is not in her combat until after he already benefits from being slowed down to her turn speed.

Another example of a gun being disarmed with a thrown knife.

I don't recall if any other Shark stories feature this weakness, but it's a good idea and makes the last two panels of the previous page all the more heroic. 

I don't get how Fritz is able to tell just by looking at him that he's helpless, or manages so quickly to tie it to the thrown knife. 

I'm also surprised that belt buckles can do that kind of damage. Were belt buckles made sharper in 1940? I would think they would each do 1-3 points of damage, at best. 

Pretty good art, though! 

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)