Detective Picture Stories #5

Lots of stuff was cheap in the 1930s, but there were still things to spend your money on. The mortgage for a good home in NYC must have been about $74,000.

Before this, the Clock was just a two-fisted Fighter who sometimes carried a gun, but with this installment we see the beginning of the Mysteryman class, demonstrating non-combat skills. Here, the Clock (in disguise, sort of), demonstrates a "hear noise" skill.

We also get a trap -- a gun set to go off and shoot anyone who enters this room.

Here the Clock demonstrates "open locks".  Apparently he does not have "find/remove traps", or simply did not think to use it.

Here we see the Clock attack from behind. In another game, this might be called a "backstab".  In Hideouts & Hoodlums, it is called a "signature move".  This allows for more variety. Even punching on the jaw might be someone's signature move.

I can't decide if make-up artists should become a mobster type or not. I don't really want to give slick hoodlums another skill, because their charm ability already makes them really tough. Unless I swapped out disguise for charm. It's worth considering.

Though poorly drawn, this would actually make for a useful game aid. Some early RPG adventure modules came with illustration booklets drawn from the player-characters' perspective, much like this. It would also be useful just to have a random assortment of clues to find in a room, much like the "100 Random Clues" article I wrote for The Trophy Case v. 2 no. 1.

Though drawn in a silly, bigfoot style, this is actually a pretty good scenario for an H&H adventure. From a drunken hoodlum, the Heroes learn that a string of recent burglaries have been committed by a dozen huge, trained gorillas (maybe 5 HD?) who answer to Arachno the Spider Man, so named because he has spiders crawling on him. Arachno and his gang are holed up in Blimey Castle, the dungeons of which are accessible via a trap door.

 Here we see our first evil Mysteryman, the Wanderer, using a stunt called Disarming Shot (first assigned to the Cowboy class in Supplement III: Better Quality).

A generous Editor allows his Heroes a chance to save themselves from taking lots of falling damage. A save vs. plot to snag a tree before falling is not entirely unreasonable.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)