Popular Comics #31

Reckon I best mosey on back to Dell's Popular Comics and look at this page from another Western adventure.  The whips I've seen in comics so far have either been used for torture or, like this, disarming people. Still, I think I've seen more disarming shots from guns so far, so I don't think I'm going to give whips any special bonus.

A feature of Golden Age comics is that they often don't take themselves too seriously. El Voltago, the Vulture of Chihuahua, isn't going to terrify anyone. But he might give your players some laughs!

Don Dixon looks like he's at the end of the whole campaign in this installment. For a campaign with Lawful Heroes ignoring opportunities to take loot along the way, this is the moment when the big XP rush comes with the reward. The longer the Heroes have delayed collecting, the bigger the reward should be. Here, that requires dropping them down a secret elevator into a king's treasure chamber and hearing, "Take whatever you want!"  Of course, if the players don't want the campaign to end, the reward they ask for might be a new quest...

Right now, there are no complications, in Hideouts & Hoodlums, for recovering from zero hit points; you just let time pass.  I'm currently 50/50 on whether or not H&H needs complications -- like having a concussion and needing several days of bed rest -- at least for Heroes. For non-Heroes controlled by the Editor, the Editor can assign all the complications he wants/needs for the story.

If you're planning on having an adventure on a boat, like this Shark Egan adventure, then you should choose a type of ship and research it, working from a map if you're able. This scenario doesn't skimp on describing the layout, from Shark searching the aft master's cabin to the reinforcements coming from the fo'c'sle.

Toby seems to have picked up where Patsy left off (since the Adventures of Patsy are no longer in a magical fantasy land). Here we see a strange land inhabited by at least four giants, at least one of whom looks to have two pet lions. A dangerous place for exploring!

One way to make fantasy creatures -- ones you would expect to find in a swords & sorcery scenario -- "fit in" better is to dress them up in modern clothes.

One trick to allow low-level Heroes to survive encounters with powerful foes is to split the powerful foes into rival factions, so the Heroes only have to side with one and fight alongside them.

Note that Toby's magic couch predates the magic bed in The Magic Bed-Knob; or, How to Become a Witch in Ten Easy Lessons (the basis for the movie Bedknobs and Broom Sticks) by five years.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)