Famous Funnies #58

Here's a good example of game play. There's three non-Heroes controlled by the Editor and one player-controlled Hero in the boat, with a gun under the seats. The Editor knows it's there, but has his characters stay quiet, so the player can solve the problem and remember about the gun.

Also worth discussing is the term "high-powered". In the basic rules, that could be code for a Gun +1. Or, if using the optional damage rules, it means the difference between 1-10 points of damage and 1-12 points of damage.

It's also worth pointing out that, unless that's one sickly shark, 12 points of damage is not going to kill it. More likely, the shark failed a morale save afer being injured.

Is it ever just an octopus? It's almost always a giant octopus, isn't it?

This is from the gag filler page Life's Like That. I think this one is pretty funny.

Oaky Doaks has nothing to contribute this month to Hideouts & Hoodlums, but I'm sure digging King Cedric's snappy patter.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Amazing Mystery Funnies v. 2 #5

It's kind of a given that the science in science fiction strips of the 1930s was going to be pretty weak, but I'm still surprised that Sari can hear the hum of the pursuit ships, from a long distance away, through the vacuum of space. One can either try to hide this in their Hideouts & Hoodlums games as if it were a bug, or treat it as a feature and go full-on gonzo the science. The H&H rules try to walk a middle road between the two, like making other planets inhospitable environments, but not as inhospitable as they really are in real life.

We also get some sense of the geography of Venus from this. There is Meteor Plains to go visit, or the Bendozi Spur, which can be reached through an underground tunnel.

Sari suffers complications from injuries, as she now can't use that arm. Paul overbears Skyrocket by making a successful attack roll, followed by Skyrocket failing his save vs. science. Since Skyrocket was already prone, he should save at -2.

This giant underground tunnel actually leads to Vendex Valley instead of Bendozi Spur. Why one would need to navigate underground, and why it wouldn't be easier to reach these locations flying above ground, has me a little perplexed.

This is clearly a Potion of Invisibility being given to Skyrocket, even though it's called a "chemical" and that makes it hi-tech. I'm thinking I made a mistake in separating trophy items into hi-tech and magical. They should all work the same, and the tech/magic distinction should be largely flavor text only.

I don't have anything really constructive to say about this page, but it reminds me of D&D games I've played (or ran!) where the DM prepares a consistent naming scheme for the campaign -- with NPCs like Batow, Redon, Morten, and Klawger -- and then someone introduces a character into the campaign called...Tim.

At least Tim gets a lightning gun!

And then there's these guys. They're batmen. The Batmen of Kordano. So this can be a thing in H&H now. They live to alternate between daggers and lightning guns, apparently.

Batmen don't stand much of a chance against giant flame guns that can create walls of fire.  Tim's dissolving gun can wreck like crazy too.

Daredevil Barry Finn encounters a distinctly different merman, one created with science instead of naturally.

I should have thought of this one a lot sooner -- a Potion of Explosives. This can't be the first time I've seen a vial of chemicals that can explode. It's clearly meant to be thrown...woe to the Hero who drinks it...

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Action Comics #12

Superman is one year old! To celebrate, Superman declares war on reckless drivers. This is the kind of proactive playing most game referees just dream about, though it is admittedly hard to prepare for if the players just start a campaign like this off the cuff.

Superman does a lot of wrecking in this story -- wrecking his way through a brick wall, wrecking cars and trucks, and the machines in a factory. He uses his alien abilities of leaping, running super-fast, and naturally nigh-invulnerable skin, and the powers Raise Car and Dig. He probably uses Feather Landing too.

Remarkably, Superman is shown capable of being knocked over by a speeding car when he's not braced for it, or perhaps just because he doesn't have the right powers buffing him.

Scoop Scanlon was seriously injured in last month's segment. A month passes in story time while he convalesces. That's a long, slow rate of hit point recovery!

When Pep Morgan is stuck in a South American country ("Latara" -- I can't even guess what that is code for), he does the smart thing my Monday night group did when they were in Cairo -- seek out help from an American consultate. In this case, Pep can wire home for money and get a few pesos to tide him over (the latter as the result of a high encounter reaction roll?).

Pep escapes from being tied up by exerting "super-human strength." Umm...I don't think that's really Pep's thing. Maybe the rope wasn't very strong?

Zatara is in an explorer's club in San Francisco -- he really gets around looking for plot hooks!  A scientist friend approaches Zatara, for the man has invented a portal to the fourth dimension and wants Zatara to explore through it.

The fourth dimension is a gonzo sandbox setting, with prehistoric flora and fauna, including a saber-tooth tiger (these were statted in Book II). It is also inhabited by green humans who live in nations called Thrule and Arren. The humans of Thrule are masters of biology and have learned how to recreate species from various times in Earth history, like the tiger. They are not good with weapons, though, as the leader of Thrule has nothing but throwing daggers to defend himself with. The people of Arren have weapons that can vaporize people, so it seems a decidedly lopsided war between them. One wonders how Thrule is not yet conquered...

Soon, Zatara is flying a winged horse, but it isn't clear if he made that, summoned that, or was given it for his use by the leader of Thrule. Zatara does cast a spell that reflects missile weapons back on the thrower (Missile Reflection? Maybe a new 4th level spell?), Polymorph himself into a vulture, turns Invisible, uses ventriloquism (a spell, or a skill?), and then Polymorph again to turn a woman into an ugly hag (for a change, all but the first of Zatara's spells were in Book I!).

(Superman read in Superman Action Comics Archives vol. 1, select pages were read at the Babbling about DC Comics blog, summaries of the rest read at DC Wikia)

Feature Funnies #20

This is from Espionage, featuring Black X!  Black X knows better than to pass up a plot hook, even if just casually shared over coffee. After that, his strategy of tricking the hiring manager into thinking they know each other was a good one, and must have only failed because the guy made his save vs. plot to see through it. Blackmail is clearly Black X's plan B, but the guy makes another save and isn't cowed by the threat.

What I really don't get is the leap in logic that the blackmailer could only be Black X. Way to use player knowledge, Editor!

Jane Arden is lucky to live in times when a man is willing to risk his livelihood for a $5 bribe. I seriously doubt she could have pulled off so much for so little today.

If you can get past that middle tier, I want you to look at the bottom left panel of Archie O'Toole here. That wicked layout is your proof that this is a Will Eisner job. I'm not sure how to map that castle, but I like how the uppermost level is on top of the middle level, sitting in a big box in the middle of the lower level.  Or at least, I think that's what I'm looking at!

The story makes it clear that these three brothers are ghosts. So what can they do? They have a chance of inducing fear, can turn invisible (I think), and can alter their form. They can also be quite reasonable (not all are Chaotic?).

Okay, Reynolds of the Mounted says that's a giant grizzly, but is that hyperbole or are we looking at needing to add giant bears to Hideouts & Hoodlums?  Are we going to need 10 Hit Die bears?  Yikes!

Okay...I'm not sure if I support this "Landslide!" trick having an effect on game mechanics, because I could see players over-exploiting this.  Still...it kinda makes sense to have it do something. Maybe, if your opponent misses a save vs. plot, he loses initiative for that turn (but can't be tricked again during that combat).

The Clock demonstrates the important of carrying around a flashlight, even if you're a mid-level Hero!

No, Dixie Dugan isn't a furry! I'm not sure how often Heroes are going to be buying Easter Bunny outfits, but maybe $50 is a good estimate for a low-end superhero costume?

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Crackajack Funnies #11

Take a look at this guy in the yellow suit. Would you guess he was a hoodlum? No, but Irwin somehow makes him right away? I'm more convinced than ever that Hideouts & Hoodlums needs a skill for identifying mobsters.

Car bombs are deadly in H&H -- maybe 5-30 points of damage, if there's a full tank of gas. It's deadly enough that I wouldn't even think of putting a 1st-level Hero in a scenario where he could encounter one.

Now this is a mistake I never make anymore, when running any RPG. No players act like Red Ryder here, and stay away from a rendezvous point until the time of the rendezvous. They always want to show up hours early to stake the place out. So this scenario would never work out in a real game.

The law always seems to crack down hardest on the Heroes in stories like this -- note the $1,000 reward for Red Ryder, an exorbitant amount for a Western setting.

This is Buck Jones, and this is clearly the 1st level Cowboy stunt, Summon Horse, on display here. There's really no other explanation I can think of for why his horse just happens to walk into the cabin.

This is also the only instance I can think of where I've ever read about keeping matchsticks in your hat band being a good thing.

I'm going to have to call shenanigans on this one, Buck. Okay, maybe you coaxed your horse into leaping off the cliff with a lot of spurring, but you'll have an even harder time convincing me you both just took a 90' plunge into the lake and took no damage. Minimal damage, I can believe, but here they just ride off as if they took a light rinse.

This is Don Winslow doing the rowing. The plot here is an especially intriguing one, looking back, as the Spanish Civil War is really the forgotten war that didn't figure into World War II. But that does beg the question -- is Red's theory really half-baked, or is the intervention of men like Don Winslow that ended the Spanish Civil War early before it could spill out into the larger War in Europe?

Giant piranha are statted for H&H right away in Book II, though, to be honest, I've yet to see a giant one in the comics. Maybe I should apply those stats to a piranha swarm instead.

I don't plan on using a precise encumbrance system anymore in 2nd ed., so I guess it won't really matter how much an automatic pistol weights. But I was still surprised that an automatic could fit in a handbag that small.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Wonder Comics - pt. 2

Shorty Shortcake is probably of the fighter class, but outsmarts his opponents instead of fighting them as much as possible. In Supplement II, I talked about awarding a big XP bonus for finishing a scenario without resorting to violence.

This is Shorty's...girlfriend? Suzy wants help finding Shorty, but instead of going to the police, she seeks out a wealthy philanthropist. Are you really looking to find Shorty, Suzy, or are you just looking to move up while Shorty is out of the picture?

There's nothing wrong with heroes asking for help from non-hero characters -- so long as it makes sense to do so -- and it provides opportunity to recruit supporting cast members.

Also, does kleptomaniac need to be a new mobster type? A Lawful thief with a pick pockets skill?

This is Patty O'Day. Her scenario is to get on a boat, take pictures, and get off the boat. I don't think her player needed to roll a single die for this scenario and the only reason I mention it at all is...that fellow on the boat looks suspiciously like Quality Comics' Black X. Could this be an unofficial crossover?

Dan Barrister is the fighter and Dr. Fung, although a "master sleuth", seems more like his scientist partner.

The locale is interesting -- a rock cliff surrounding a lost oasis in the Gobi Desert, the oasis filled with a petrified forest, and a crumbling fortress/monastery.

And then there's the dart rifle - a silent weapon with the range of a rifle (but probably reduced damage, maybe 1d6-1?).

More hideout. I like the dry moat, drawbridge, the really high wall walk (20'? More?), the "misshapen flagstones of the foliage-covered court", the narrow, barred windows, and the audience chamber with its 10' high throne dais and gong -- just sumptuous detail for a hideout crawl.

It's time to discuss -- no, not how tall Dan's head is in that third panel, but what the "half humans"/"monster men" are.  They talk, they only look like ugly people, but on the previous page Li Wang explained that he they had no minds of their own. I suspect these would be statted as zombies (hi-tech zombies).

Dr. Fung seems to have a new ability for the scientist class, though one I maybe should have thought of sooner myself -- the ability to wreck labs.

Li Wang creates an explosive twice as powerful as anything else...because mad scientists love having super-volatile stuff around them for kicks.

"Spark" Stevens of the Navy is another pre-Batman feature by Bob Kane. That a U.S. destroyer is captured by mobsters makes the heinous hideouts feature in The Trophy Case v. 2 #9 that much more believable.

I've tackled the subject of throwing a man into a group of other men to hurt them all before. I believe, last time, I said H&H would not support such unfair tactics. But did I remember the "combat machine" ability of fighters?  Maybe Chuck is really fifth level and attacking all five less-than-one-hit-die opponents all at once?

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Wonder Comics #1 - pt. 1

I've covered a lot of comic books chronologically on this blog already, but when a new company comes along it's few and far between. This post marks the earliest title from Fox Feature Syndicate.

This filler material looks similar to the aviation pages found in the early Centaur comics. It's interestingly specific about how fast these planes are -- which brings up the topic of speed and movement rate in Hideouts & Hoodlums.  How much faster than an ordinary person does something need to be before, game mechanic-wise, it doesn't make any practical difference not to treat movement as teleportation? I don't have an answer for that, though if I did, I suspect it would radically change how Movement works in H&H.

The infamous first Superman clone, first to disappear after threat of litigation. Too bad, too, because Wonderman seems more distinctly different from Superman than many of the superheroes to come later.

It does bring up another really good question, though one I've dealt with before for H&H. Is WonderMan just an ordinary fighter with a magic ring that makes him strong and invulnerable, or is he statted as a superhero and the magic ring folded into his class-based game mechanics? In many cases (like in writing Supplements IV and V), I have opted for some balance between the two (like how Green Lantern's ring grants some extra abilities, but is mainly the source of his magic-user spells).

Fred Carson is an inventor, something that usually only fits into the background of the hero, unless he's actively invented things during stories and then I might give him a level or two in the Scientist class (from Supplement III).

The idea of televisions being able to broadcast images without a camera is an old one, it sort of anticipates satellite images, but is really more like a Crystal Ball in practice.

Here we finally see Wonderman in action. It's unclear if he's just leaping normally or using a leap power. It's also unclear to me if he's using a power to catch the bomb. If a hero asked to do this in the game, I might say "Okay, you can if you roll to attack the bomb and hit AC 2"...or it could be some variant of the power Feather Landing I had never considered before. The one power we're for sure seeing is Extend Missile Range for throwing the bomb back. Only, since Extend Missile Range III only adds an extra 300', I might have to boost those powers a bit.

This time Wonderman is for sure using a Leap power. And he's using Raise Car on the truck, because he's only picking up half of it.

Wonderman calls his gadget a "special telephone", and the narration tells us it's a handheld radio transmitter. Either way, it is a wireless radio and, as such, was not invented until at least 1945. I wonder if I should call this trophy item a Radio +1...

Here we finally see some measure of how far Wonderman can leap. It looks like a standing high jump of maybe 200' to me -- easily possible with the Leap I power.

Here we first see Wonderman using wrecking things. Crashing through an exterior wall is equal to wrecking cars on the wrecking things table, so it's only possible for superheroes of level 2 or higher. Wrecking a rifle is as easy as wrecking a door -- the easiest category -- and is how I imagined superheroes winning fights when I created the class (in actual play, the superheroes are usually just as likely to be using guns).

Wonderman is using at least Nigh-Invulnerable Skin to keep from being "hit" by those bullets.

I would suggest Wonderman is using Extend Missile Weapon I to turn the soldier into a missile, but since they are about 13 stories up, Wonderman is clearly counting on the fall to kill the soldier and not the impact with the wall. That Wonderman is comfortable killing the soldier, but only "taps" the officer unconscious, shows how mercurial Golden Age Heroes could be when it comes to killing (and why I didn't go the Marvel Super Heroes RPG route of assigning a giant penalty to killing).

This page starts with an interesting example of Wonderman trying to hand off duties to a non-Hero character. Some times when something like this might come up in a game of H&H are when the heroes want someone else to lead prisoners out of the hideout (because they're not ready to leave themselves yet), or sending someone to get help (if the heroes are outmatched). Occasionally in low-level play, heroes will hang back and send the police in first to deal with a hideout, to "soften up" the encounters ahead of them.

I'm wondering if I need a new power called Cow by Roar -- I currently have no game mechanic for calming down people en masse.

Wonderman, charging towards a machine gun, makes me think he might be using the Invulnerability power already. That's a fourth level power -- could that be a bonus property of his magic ring, besides his usual powers?

Ripping through a heavy vault door would be like wrecking a machine, and the fact that Wonderman can do it "with no apparent effort" means he likely did not need to roll very high to wreck it. At 2nd level, his chance would be roughly 50/50, but a 3rd level superhero has a very good chance.

So what level is Wonderman? At least 1st level (with a super-powerful magic ring!) and possibly as high as 6th level!  If I was statting him right now for a sequel to Supplement IV: Captains, Magicians, and Incredible Men -- because of this being his one and only appearance -- I would go the former route and stat him as 1st level.

Bear in mind that Wonder Comics was another anthology book, so Wonderman isn't it for contents, despite how much space I've used on it. This is Shorty Shortcake and, despite the goofy art style, this is a semi-serious adventure strip. I include it here for two reasons. One is that the smugglers' house is a hideout (and is even referred to as such),

The second reason is because of the faint gag at the sight of a spider. I wanted to point out that H&H has no game mechanic for weaknesses except for the specific weaknesses of aliens, androids, and mermen. Players can choose to play with additional weaknesses -- like a fear of spiders -- if they want to, but this is a role-playing choice to flesh out their characters, and not something that will balance out with a bonus elsewhere in their stats.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)