Mystery Men Comics #2 - pt. 2

Richard Kendall is getting his butt kicked by Chen Chang's men, in part, because they have a +1 height advantage bonus to hit while on horseback.

I thought it was refreshing to see a Dragon Lady-like villainess here, not falling for the Hero ala Terry and the Pirates.

 The narrator says Richard "missed", but it appears that he tried to grapple, Chen got the upper hand, and flipped Richard instead. I've finally worked out what I think is a fairly elegant, one-table grappling system that would allow for those results within 1 turn.

Again I have to question the narrator; there is no real reason for Chen to "stumble", either game mechanics-wise or even visually explained in the story. More likely, Richard grabs Chen successfully this time and throws him so hard that he lands without his coat!

It does seem odd that stopping to open secret doors never gives Richard a chance to catch up during this chase through a hideout, but maybe Chen is making better skill checks to pick up speed in the long stretches (this is a new game mechanic from 2nd ed.!).

Wing Turner, Air Detective, executes a power dive to give him an advantage in this aerial dogfight. This is actually a good example of a stunt from 1st ed. that isn't translating well into 2nd ed's skill system. Aerial combat will probably need more complex rules that will have to wait for the Advanced Hideouts & Hoodlums game.

Normally I like Zanzibar the Magician, but this story is just plain loopy. When a famous statue goes missing, instead of looking for it...Zanzibar goes back in time to get the statue from the past? Way to mess with all of time and space, Zanzibar!  Not to mention that a time travel spell that lets one go back over 2,000 years is super high-level.

"Hey, I'm in ancient Greece! I might as well visit the most powerful of the Greek gods while I'm here!"

What interests me is the serpent dragon guarding Zeus' house.

We don't get to see what it can do because Zanzibar blows it up with a single spell on the next page, but the serpent dragon looks huge and must have had a good chunk of Hit Dice.

And then thinks get even wackier! Hercules is polymorphed into a bird. Zanzibar takes on Zeus in a wrestling match, and is winning. I'm having a very hard time believing these are the actual gods of myth, and not some guys using the same names.

Zeus doesn't appear to have been petrified into stone, so I'm guessing this is Hold Person. Zanzibar releases the manacles with a Knock spell. But then he...takes Venus (actually Aphrodite, if this is Greece) into the future...to replace the missing statue? Is she going to turn into a statue as soon as she reaches the future, to close up the time paradox Zanzibar is creating? Way to be a total jerk, Zanzibar!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)