Wonderworld Comics #9 - pt. 4

Years ago, I was running a superhero campaign online set in 1955 and was corrected by a player who pointed out that banks did not have security cameras in 1955. I learned a lot about historical accuracy in role-playing games since then. However -- this single page of Mob Buster Robinson shows me how 1940-era technology could replicate a security camera, at least by comic book logic (comically, because of some weird coloring, it looks like the camera is wearing a French beret).

This is "Spark" Stevens of the Navy (and his friend, Chuck). This might be the first adventure to take place on the Virgin Islands. The girl is a tour guide, giving boat tours for $1. It unlikely the madman is a descendant of Lafitte, Lafitte's only son having died about nine years after Jean Lafitte's death.

The situation here could have been an interesting roleplaying opportunity. One stranger offers the Heroes a drink, another stranger tells them it is poisoned. Who do they believe? Having the first one be a pirate and then having him crack his sword while killing the second stranger seems to make the answer too obvious.

Weapon breakage is something I would rather Hideouts & Hoodlums not adjudicate through game mechanics. Depending on where the weapon came from and what condition it was in, I might allow it to break under unusual circumstances, but tied to flavor text rather than dice rolls (it seems too much like a fumble mechanic, otherwise).

More evidence of even ordinary fighters being able to use wrecking things and climbing skill. Without multi-classing everyone, the solution was to make those mechanics open to everyone (as they became in 2nd edition).

Being soaking wet does not seem to inhibit their climbing ability at all.

Chuck sexually harasses the tour guide girl upon rescuing her. I like how she looks shocked, rather than happy, at the ambush kiss.

This is the first we see of the five "returning" thugs. Maybe they realized they forgot their rifles in the arsenal and were coming back for them.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)