Wonderworld Comics #7 - pt. 3

There are a couple of incredulous factors here, from kicking the ball of yarn just right so that it would make the cat leap right at the syringe, to Dan's seemingly superhuman strength.

I have talked before about allowing players to request for something to happen and the Editor can choose whether or not to give them a save vs. plot for that to happen. This time, let's talk about negative modifiers to that. There's an awful lot of coincidence necessary in Wong's "daring plan" -- that the ball will roll over to him, that he can kick it just right, that the cat will chase it, that the ball will fly in the right direction, that the timing will be just right to prevent the syringe injection -- and each additional coincidence past the first should add a -1 modifier to the roll. Further, in addition to the save vs. plot at -4, it would not be unreasonable to require an attack roll from Wong's player, and maybe even an initiative roll to see if he can pull it off before the injection.

As for Dan's strength...Dan has clearly been a fighter in the past and I hesitate to switch him to superhero just because of this. Maybe Heroes should be able to break weak bonds as a skill check.

K-51 Spies at War, whether Will Eisner or Bob Powell was drawing it, always seemed to be their least important rush job. Here, K-51 has to thwart a Japanese attack on Hawaii!  There's some interesting differences from real history here, like the blimp launched to detect the approaching planes and the Japanese relying on a huge bomber instead of more little fighter planes. Unable to stop the bomber with artillery, K-51 parachutes onto it. Now, at this point, the bomber could have become a small hideout for K-51 to explore, but instead he stays put in the gun turret and just keeps attacking the bomber until he gets lucky.

$500,000 in diamonds is an awful lot of treasure to put out there for Heroes to find!

Mob Buster Robinson pumps a police captain for information. Here, either a) the police captain is one of Robinson's supporting cast members, so he freely shares information, b) the captain is a plot hook character put there by the Editor to get Robinson into the adventure, c) the captain is simply encountered, asked, and Robinson gets a good encounter reaction roll, or d) because Robinson is a D.A., and it makes sense that he would have contacts on the police force, the Editor simply lets the player have this encounter as a freebie.

For the bar scene, the bartender misses a save vs. plot to see through the disguise, then Robinson gets a favorable encounter reaction roll -- a very good roll, to get hired on the spot like that!

The diamond fencers have their own hideout. The entrance is in an unassuming shack on a pier, but inside is a trapdoor leading to a concealed walkway under the pier that leads to a concealed building. I'm sure I've seen this same layout in a comic book already. To it, this time, is added a large office and, connected to it somehow, a large workroom. It's possible to enter and exit the hideout and go to either of these rooms, but without needing to pass through both, so they may be side by side. There would, presumedly, be other rooms down here, like barracks, but we never see them.

Speaking of hastily-done rush jobs, here's a crudely drawn and ridiculous installment of "Spark" Stevens of the Navy. This is probably the only time you're ever going to see a hideout with an electrical outlet inside a prison cell. It's like the Editor was distracted, made a hasty call, and the players unfairly held him to it. Naturally, it's going to be awful easy to arrange an escape from here. In fact, I'm surprised they didn't try the simpler approach of just lighting a fire at the wall socket instead of this elaborate plan of electrifying the fence below the cell...

It would be an interesting complication for gunfights to account for ricochets. A cruel Editor could roll a random compass direction for the direction of ricochets, possibly exposing Heroes to a barrage of their own missed shots!

The armory here is generously loaded with hand grenades and machine guns that the spies have forgotten to use. More interesting is the jai-alai glove. Not only does it lend some authentic local flavor to the room dressing -- as jai-alai is apparently a popular Latin American sport and this is supposed to be Cuba -- but it appears using one also adds maybe 10-20' to thrown missile ranges.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)