Crackajack Funnies #19 - pt. 2

This is still Stratosphere Jim...

The trophy transportation section in the Hideouts & Hoodlums Basic book has a list of upgrades to vehicles that qualify them as trophy items, and one of them is being bulletproof.

Heroes at any level might think about setting up a hideout for themselves. Here's some sound advice on picking a location with a hard-to-reach entrance, concealing the entrance, and stocking the hideout.

At the rate I go through months' worth of comics now, it takes way too long for me to come back around to Wash Tubbs. Here, we learn that a swanky nightclub could clear $450 in profit in two nights.

You also have to get past the racist nickname of Lucifer for a black man.

And then there's the large-scale ride-on train -- my dad works on those! (true story)

Two things to point out here. Captain Easy could probably handle these racketeers a lot quicker than Wash is, but Wash chooses to do it on his own because combat is dangerous and innocent people could be hurt. That is a Lawful Hero.

Secondly, when Wash has an important decision to make, he gets five different opinions offered to him, four of them from clearly non-Hero characters under the Editor's control. The Editor has to be careful in situations like this not to appear to be guiding the player(s) by making one option sound much better than the other options on the table.

This is Clyde Beatty, who I've already learned was a real person who just happened to get his own comic strip. What I took away from this page is a) not even a cruise ship is too unlikely a location to run into a lion that needs taming, and b) if you spray big cats with water, they need to make morale saves.

Bolton's got a map! I wonder if they would consider opening the flood gates and broadening the Waterfall of Tahar, to wash away the climbing attacking forces...?  Let's see!

Woo, called that one!  But -- what? "My job is done"? You weren't even the one who opened the flood gates, Bolton, all you did was stand around and watch!

A new plane is a pretty sweet reward for him...but I guess it's like giving the player who's Hero was knocked down to 1 hp and couldn't do much all session a full share of treasure.

More evidence of how "bandit" almost always means Hispanic. Other than that, the scenario of rescuing a prisoner from the bandits is much more interesting to me than a "defeat the bandits" scenario.

That is one risky rescue plan; it apparently all came down to Jack beating the bandits at initiative. Otherwise, Whitey was going to have to survive a hail of bullets before that tear gas gun went off.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Crackajack Funnies #17

Today's adventure of Don Winslow of the Navy includes a naval battle between a battle cruiser and a submarine -- neither one of which is going to make it into the trophy section of the 2nd edition basic book. After much thought and research, I've decided to cap the section on water transport trophies to yachts.

Interestingly, it's a yacht that Don is on and not the two vessels actually fighting. The larger naval battle could be roll-played out, or just treated as background flavor text.

Trigger is "crazed" and staggers blindly from fatigue and thirst. Those are some harsh complications I don't expect any players will want to deal with. Trigger is a mobster, though, so the Editor can assign any complications to him he wants.

This is "Time Marches Back" with Looney Luke, Inventor of the "Time Machine."  It's a feature as bad as its title would suggest. Two things to note from it, though: a) Luke's time machine is his hat, which also lets him fly, and b) this is an actual ghost. Real ghosts are exceedingly rare in the early comics, as they're almost always fake undead. This ghost demonstrates its ability to pass through small holes here, as ectoplasm seems to be closer to a liquid than a solid state.

This is Clyde Beatty, Daredevil Lion & Tiger Trainer -- further proof of my new contention that the longer a title is the worse it is. At least Clyde is done messing around in the circus now and is exploring Africa.

Clyde doesn't bother with taming leopards, though -- he just wants to kill 'em!  I've spoken recently about Hit Dice intentionally not accurately reflecting the comics, and here this leopard would have to have 4 hit points for there to be any chance of that dagger killing it in one hit.

This is Buck Jones and the Canyon Rustler, and there's more going on here than you might think at a glance. Buck has defeated this outlaw (an evil cowboy) and now the outlaw is spilling the beans about the hideout Buck needs to head to next. Buck has already learned how the entrance to the hideout is concealed and the location of a lookout (another new mobster type) guarding the entrance.  But there's also a bandit lurking about and he's about to attack. Look out, Buck!

It's been awhile since we've checked in on Dann Dunn, Secret Operative 48. Here his poor dog Wolf is doing most of the work because Dan is low on hit points. At the end, when all the danger is past, Dan faints from low hp. Except, that's not a thing -- you can't somehow delay unconsciousness in the game through force of will. So, this must be the player's decision to make Dan faint -- self-imposed flavor text, if you will.

Also, an example of the usefulness of carrying handcuffs.

Wash Tubbs finds that the 1930s is a great time to buy things cheap, if you've got the money.

This reminds me of a recent issue I had in the 2nd edition trophy section -- how do you set $ values on hi-tech or magic trophy items so that Heroes don't become instantly rich? One answer is, if it's the pre-WWII years, not enough people are buying who have enough money to make you rich.

Speed Bolton Air Ace should be a lot more exciting than it usually is, but in this installment things really start to happen after a lot of issues of people standing around talking to each other.

I'm wondering, though, if a marksman's medal should be a trophy item. The wielder would get a +1 to hit with missiles?

This is Ed Tracer, G-Man X32. He's in an interesting hideout, and I call it interesting because there's plenty to explore here. Did he search all the cells in the dungeon? What's in that barrel and crate? What flows out of that long pipe sticking out of the wall -- water, or green slime?

The radio room is halfway between levels. It contains a safe - don't you want to know what's in it, Ed? Above that is, one could presume, the ground floor where the party is taking place.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Crackajack Funnies #9 - part 1

We haven't checked in on Dan Dunn in awhile. Here he reminds us that you should always check for clues at a crime scene. The metal tag is probably something all factory workers had to wear.

This is Speed Bolton, Air Ace.  He keeps a machine gun in his plane and shoots out the window because a) planes weren't pressurized so windows could all be opened, and b) because not every plane can hold a gun mounted behind the propeller, and not just anyone would be able to sync up the gun for synchronized fire.

Speed is nervous at the end because he doesn't seem to have the Improvised Landing stunt prepared...

Even a cowboy like Buck Jones can learn clues from a letter, like if the letter was written by a man or woman.

Rattlesnakes need to be statted in 2nd ed.

In a cowboy setting, there should probably be rules about spooked hosses -- that is, horses. If a horse is spooked, it's going to make morale saves in every encounter at a -2 penalty until an animal trainer spends time with it (or maybe a Cowboy with a Calm Hoss stunt).

You'd think an outfit like this guy's would make him stand out too much for a mask to do him much good, but that's not what masks are like in a comic book world. Put a little black around your eyes and anyone would have to save vs. plot to recognize him -- even if they should recognize him from the bright green pants.

Occupations are good for plot hooks, but it's important for Heroes to keep the people they work for happy. A superhero in one of my home campaigns got fired from his job not that long ago because he was supposed to be a photojournalist and never took pictures on adventures. If you do care about keeping your job, you've got to work at keeping those encounter reaction results high.

This page of Wash Tubbs explains how a magnetic boxing ring would work. It would be difficult to put a Hero in a situation where he would need to put on special shoes with a metal plate in it before a fight (and I would give the Hero a chance of noticing), but the big issue is that there is no game mechanic effect that staying motionless in combat has. I guess, if attacking while prone confers a -4 penalty, then attacking while you can't move one foot should give a -1 or even a -2 penalty.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)