Mystery Men Comics #8 - pt. 1

After a long spell we check in Fox Comics again and the first feature here is Blue Beetle.

Blue Beetle does what most of my players have always done, try to get to the location before the bad guys. But here the location works against him; with the wide open spaces, the mobsters are too far apart and the second one has an easy free shot at range.

Now, one bullet shouldn't be enough to stop BB; it usually isn't in comics. I have been wondering recently, though, if bullets should do exploding damage to account for instances like this...but on the other hand, firearms are already really deadly in Hideouts & Hoodlums and I hesitate to make them more so.

BB has a temporary Supporting Cast Member in this story; you won't see anymore of Tom.

BB has to take off his heavy mail costume; for the first time a comic book acknowledges that encumbrance can hamper skill checks.

BB must be using a power to keep up with a motorboat, that has a head start, while swimming. I hesitate to create a new swimming-related power, though, when activating Race the Train would accomplish this same thing.

It seems to me that the first mob to use an autogyro to escape from robberies is really smart, but after that people would always be on the lookout for it. The real mistake of this mob is to stay in the air so long that a plane that hadn't even taken off yet when they left the warehouse has time to catch them.

So, in addition to the autogyro, these bank robbers can afford three fighter planes. This reminds me of a lot of Silver Age stories where the super-gizmos the supervillains employ must have been so expensive that there's no way they'll come out ahead from robbing a bank. But that's not comic book logic for you!

It looks like Wing performs two Immelmann turns to get the height advantage on his pursuers, giving him a +1 bonus to hit after performing an expert skill check. As difficult as this seems to be for just a +1, it's more likely that aviators should be able to perform stunts as a free action before attacking.

Catching fire needs to be a common complication for dogfighting.

Panels 3-5 are what a fighting withdrawal looks like after a gunner fails his morale check aboard a plane.

There is currently no game mechanic for whether chutes open.

The atmosphere grows thinner, intensifying the sun's rays and causing terrific heat? Sounds like Dick Briefer predicted the ozone layer depletion! This is Rex Dexter of Mars!

What on Earth was it that exploded that took out two skyscrapers?

Ooo, I'm statting these monsters! Sadly, there is no name for these monsters given other than "new horror." The Tauromen that Reyni is referring to are actually human-like aliens controlling the new horrors, but Tauromen is a pretty cool name and I might keep it for these things instead.

They're pretty big floating heads with three long tentacles and Dumbo-like ears. Are they flapping their ears to fly, or levitating? It's not clear what those dots on the end of their tentacles are for, but I'm going to guess they are little mouths for sucking blood. And those big tusks in their mouths mean fierce bite damage. Let's assign them...6 Hit Dice? Blood drain for 1-8 damage per tentacle? Bites for 2-12? Given their scaly hides, I think we can give them an AC of at least 6, maybe 5 because they can use their tentacles as shields too.

Reyni is one great contact; not only does he hand out plot hooks, but he hands out space charts for how to get there, trophy weapons, and paints your ship!

There is no indication of how fast "zooming" is, but unless this trip takes years, "zooming" must involve folding space, warping space, accessing hyperspace, or creating a stargate.

Despite being called living chains, I'm real hesitant to stat them as mobsters; more likely, this is some technological trap, where the chains ensnare as if alive (attacking as a high HD mobster?). They might even be linked to some kind of computer intelligence that can sense enemies.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)