Popular Comics #42 - pt. 1

People have died from falling off horses in real life, but you don't expect to see that in a comic book and you don't expect that in most RPGs, where falling damage is assigned to specific distance thresholds (like 10' = 1-6 damage). Here, then, is an unusual example for two reasons -- a rare example of taking falling damage for falling less than 10', and a rare complication from an injury. Granted, this is a minor character and not a Hero, but I might still compile these injuries into a table that will be rolled on for non-Heroes.

Speaking of unusual -- here is a rare example of someone attempting to recruit a non-Hero character to, if not his supporting cast, at least to his cause, and failing; probably because of a failed initial encounter reaction roll.

The mobster type "cowardly hoodlum" comes from Bruce Wayne's famous remark "criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot." I had wanted there to be both cowardly hoodlums and superstitious hoodlums from the start, but I was stymied by how to make the superstitious hoodlum a unique set of stats. And I'm still not satisfied with how I did it.

Which brings us around, finally, to this page of Shark Egan. These are sailors, or sailor-hoodlums, but they are definitely superstitious. And I see now that the difference between a cowardly hoodlum and a superstitious hoodlum is that the superstitious hoodlum actually has good morale, until you spook him.

And then there's also a shark!

As of now, I have no plans to include any game mechanic about being blinded by your own blood to Hideouts & Hoodlums. Notice how the kid seems almost excited about it. Forget Batman -- I'd be scared to meet The Hurricane Kids in a dark alley!

And this vine climbing is a good example of why H&H has to move to a separate skill system instead of folding it into the saving throw mechanic. The kid isn't reactively avoiding anything, he's actively climbing. And I definitely wouldn't just hand wave the mechanics here, since there's a good chance of him falling and taking serious damage.

Now this is great example of concealing the entrance to a hideout. The only way in is to climb straight down a sheer vertical cliff face about 20' (with the risk of a drop much further) to a pterodactyl nest, with a crevice concealed behind it. Also note the small size of the tunnel -- not all hideouts need to be built on a 10' scale.

Mini-hideout map!

This is complicatedly named Mr. Wong, Detective, Featuring Boris Karloff. Sorry for the mystery spoilers, but the idea of glass balls filled with poison gas shattered by a remote siren seems like a good idea for a trap to me.

Funny! The page is called Hold Everything.

Really? An hour to extricate someone from a tree? That's six exploration turns. Either the Editor was making The Masked Pilot's player keep rolling skill checks and the player was really unlucky, or it's harder to extricate a person from a tree than I would have thought.

And what's this with The Masked Pilot's credentials? Is this the prototype for Dr. Who's psychic paper? Maybe credentials should be a trophy item that serves as a "gets the police to do whatever you want" card.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)