Amazing Mystery Funnies v. 2 #3 - pt. 1

This is from Carl Burgos' Air-Sub DX.  What can we learn here for "futuristic" Hideouts & Hoodlums scenarios?  Besides the fact that air force officers wear short shorts and have buns of steel in the future, we know that the availability of hi-tech makes life in the future very dangerous. Get on a ruler's bad side and he can sic tank planes on you!

Dissolving guns would likely use wrecking things as a mechanic.

60 knots is actually really fast for underwater travel; the fastest submarines today can go up to 44 knots per hour. That seems to be a good metric, though, for futuristic hi-tech. You improve performance by 30%, cross it with another similar invention (like an air-sub), and -- presto! -- instant future tech.

Or, combine something we have now, like bathyspheres, with features of an animal, and you get crab-subs!  I have to say, crab-subs look pretty cool. If I were to use them, I'd probably have a Captain Kwalish piloting one as an inside joke.

This is Bill Everett's Dirk the Demon, a half-pint fighter with the ability to pick pockets (another skill I plan to move into general applicability).

Dirk, the little scamp, trips one of the guards with a simple attack roll and a missed saving throw. Then, to knock him unconscious, he hits his head on the floor. How many hit points does the guard have?

The trip attack does no damage, but it set up Dirk for his next attack so he could use the floor as a club. That did 1-6 damage instead of the 1-4 Dirk would have done with his stolen dagger, or 1-3 from his bare fists. So the guard has 6 hit points or less.

That unassuming and, frankly, dorky-looking cowboy with the handkerchief on his face is Phantom o' the Hills, and he must be tougher than he looks because he's using the third level Cowboy stunt Raise Posse here. Though, in 2nd edition, I'll be using the term stunt differently, so if I ever get back to the cowboy class I might have to call these something different!

The detective here is Chic Farrel. Maybe brain transplants should be a skill all ultra-mad scientists should have?

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)