Smash Comics #7 - pt. 2

Moving on, this is Archie O'Toole. Reducing machines that make you shrink is a very old joke, and one that should be in the trophy section of Hideouts & Hoodlums.

Also worth pointing out is the joke concept in this story that all kings belong to a union to which they have to pay dues. There's an unusual concept for a campaign in that, I think.

This is Clip Chance at Cliffside, a very boring member of the sports genre that I almost never cite here, but today I share this page to point out three things. 1) If you ever see red clay, it's a clue as to where it came from. 2) Abandoned mines are perfect hideouts for gamblers. 3) Clip suspects the gamblers are in that dark mine, so he heads straight there without so much as a flashlight...

Don't play like Clip.

If Smash Comics didn't already have Will Eisner work in it, Vernon Henkel's Wings Wendall would look much more impressive. Here, as with Eisner's Espionage, Vernon did not shy away from making very clear anti-Nazi messages.

But what I'm more interested in is that the bad guys have the "more powerful car," and what the best way is to have a game mechanic reflect that. Honestly, I've been struggling with this since the very beginning. Is a Car +1 going to move faster? Provide a better AC to the driver/passengers? If I ever decide to assign hit points to cars (a notion I've toyed with in the past), does it get more hp? There are just too many variables to a car, or should a "+1" reflect a slight increase to all of them...?

This sort of thing happens in my H&H campaigns all the time. Okay, maybe not an Army Air Forces bomber, but my players will show up with crazy-heavy armament to face bad guys I just gave a pistol to defend themselves with.

This is Philpot Veep, another feature we don't visit often. This is a goofy feature with some goofy perspective problems going on here, but I share it because fake babies may be a mobstertype we need to consider adding. Or would this just be a half-pint? He's even shorter than most children, but he seems unusually tough for his size, but would that still make him 1/2 HD...?

Unless I've forgotten something, I don't think we ever had a home town for Invisible Hood before, but now we have Glenport. I wish I could find a real Glenport so we could pin down what state this takes place in. Is Glenport our first fictional city for a superhero?

There wasn't much suspense to this mystery about the disappearing safes, but we do get to see a group of bad guys all wearing asbestos suits.

"One week later"? That's a long time for a stakeout, particularly in a superhero story.

What kind of drug is IH giving to that driver??

Also, instead of acetylene torches, the bad guys have "fire-pistols." Which I'd stat the same anyway.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Smash Comics #6 - pt. 2

Bozo, the name of the robot, doesn't even appear in this story.

It's interesting that the New York port is not named. The Daily Mail was a long-running newspaper in the Catskills, so it's possible that New York City is actually not where this takes place.

The entry for large iron robots has, since the Basic book, included more specific references to the Iron Man (indeed, they will be called Iron Men in the Mobster Manual), including having pilots able to ride around inside the robot. It does make me think that Hugh might be a midget, and that any time we see him side-by-side another person, he's standing on top of something.

The telescopic eye is an example of the telescopic vision power from both 1st and 2nd edition Hideouts & Hoodlums. Bozo also lets Hugh use the Fly I power. Lastly, he wrecks his way through an outer wall, which is something superheroes don't even have a chance to smash through until 3rd level. So Bozo is at least a 3rd level superhero here.

Bizarrely, Hugh leaves his robot standing on his roof, concealed only by an awning. I find this remarkable enough to share because a) it shows how Golden Age heroes are not all obsessed with protecting secret identities, and b) it's a good reminder for players not to be so careless with where they leave their valuable trophy items.

But maybe the real issue highlighted here is -- can Hugh be a superhero if the robot can be stolen from him? Does the robot exist except as flavor text? 

Note how, on this page, the mobsters don't even try to take Bozo with them, but put Hugh right back into it. It's a bizarre decision -- even if they can't figure out how to work it, surely they could try and sell it -- that only makes sense if they can't take it away from him.

Now we return to some real artwork, with Eisner's Archie O'Toole. The map is not particularly useful, but it sure is pretty! Unlike most fictional countries that have obvious real world analogues, there's still nothing concrete we can hook Pyromania and Spatoonia to.

The issue here is, during the car chase, does slamming on the brakes make the thrown bomb miss? It actually is not just flavor text here, as relative speed differences present an Armor Class adjustment. By braking first, Cook's driver changes his car's AC. But since this isn't ordinary combat, how to determine if the braking comes before the throw? We don't need to introduce initiative rolls into chase scenes if we remember the order of play of combat -- with movement coming before missile attacks.

Cook was knocked out on the previous page. Here is an somewhat rare example of the Hero not being able to recover from unconsciousness until the next day.

This is not our first story where helium is seen as a valuable commodity worth stealing, and I suspect it will not be the last.

This is a page from Abdul the Arab. Abdul was framed because some men were attacked and heard the name "Abdul" being yelled -- which is lousy evidence to frame someone with, since there can't possibly be just one Abdul in the region.

So, sentenced to die on the flimsiest circumstantial evidence possible, Abdul is only freed after everyone hears a forced confession. Amazingly, Abdul still wants to be friends with the British after this.

But most importantly, that remarkable shot, from behind the cover of a wall, that splits the rope, was either a 1 in 20 lucky break, or a Mysteryman stunt. Even though a weapon was used, because it was not being used for combat, a stunt can still be burned for something like that.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Smash Comics #1 - pt. 2

This is Wings Wendall, and I can point out a few salient features from this page. One: more proof that seaplanes are incredibly common!  Two: the Pacific Ocean is not so big that you can't just fly around randomly and spot a bit of flotsam floating beneath you that will serve as the clue you need. Or, in other words, always leave your players a chance of finding something they need, even if you reduce their chance to just 1%. Three: fragments of powder, smoke, and slivers of steel are good clues of shellfire. Four: for the Editor, it's a good idea to have a sentry outside your hideout, concealed under camouflaged cover. And, with the benefit of modern technology, he can simply phone his boss inside and tell him who's coming!

Here, Wings and the villain only called "baldy" are engaged in tactics of opposing attack modifiers. Wings gains an early advantage, hiding behind hard cover and sniping mobsters as they approach him. But Baldy is willing to wait him out until dark, when everyone will have the same penalty to be hit as being behind hard cover -- or twice as good if it's pitch black out!

Now, Wings' modifiers are cumulative, so he'll be at -4 to be hit; -2 for the cover and -2 for being in dim light, while everyone else just gets the dim light bonus. But it's not the dim light modifier, per se, that has Wings worried, it's that with his lower chance to hit some mobsters might get past him, or outflank him, and he'd lose his cover bonus.

Also, it's worth pointing out that, personally, I think summoning the Air Corps and have them bomb the heck out of the bad guys is a cheating way to win a Hideouts & Hoodlums scenario.

Archie O'Toole has fun, thanks to a Potion of Invisibility. This page also sets a precedent for ingesting food soaked in hi-tech/magic potions to have the same effect as drinking the potion directly.

The Invisible Hood debuts. He's the third Mysteryman with a gas gun. Other than that, he does a lot of sneaking around here, relying on surprise rolls.

Your Hero is seldom going to be this lucky -- the Invisible Hood is captured and held prisoner, but underestimated (probably because his costume is a hooded pajama suit) to the extent where one of his two guards stops watching him and reads the paper! Your Editor is probably going to give you a break like that only once in a campaign, so enjoy it while you can!

The Invisible Hood's gas gun can down four hoodlums at once (if they all miss their saves vs. science).

This is Captain Cook of Scotland Yard. I've learned from Cook that you can pimp out your (circa 1939) planes with: wireless radios, parachutes (obviously), blinding headlights, train whistles, an engine silencer, and ...an "anti-aircraft detector"? I guess from the context that it detects aircraft, and not anti-aircraft weapons. It's likely they mean Radar (a term which wasn't coined until 1940). Radar stations were not miniaturized enough to fit in a plane circa 1939, so they're referring to Scotland Yard men working the Radar from the ground.

This is Abdul the Arab. Jumping down into a moving vehicle as it speeds past you...I've never tried it, but it seems like that would be difficult. I guess it would be an attack roll, but the Armor Class would have to be guessed by the Editor based on how fast the car is going. Perhaps -1 to AC per 10 MPH? (a simplified version of the vehicular combat rules in Book III).

I've previously talked about how little damage car crashes seem to do in comic books, which makes it seem odd that Abdul gets knocked out here. But he is still a 1st-level Fighter, so it doesn't take much damage to knock him out yet.

The girl is "stunned". In this case, that means she's out for the length of a sandstorm, so...1-6 exploration turns?

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Feature Comics #21

This is the first issue of Feature Funnies after a slight name change. These were good days for Feature Funnies/Comics, when Will Eisner's Espionage was right at the front of the book. This issue begins in New York City, which would soon be overrun with all kinds of heroes, but in 1939 was still not the default setting for comic book stories. I like not treating New York as the default setting for Hideouts & Hoodlums, but letting each Editor make that decision for his own campaign.

This is probably the first mention of the Holland Tunnel in comics. Using familiar landmarks is a good way to reinforce the idea that the Heroes are in a real place that exists.

The plot is an interesting one. Black X, as it turns out later, has already mailed the critical evidence to Washington, D.C., but still goes on a roundabout trip to D.C. himself in order to lure a whole bunch of agents out of hiding with himself as bait.

Although I was initially New York ignorant enough to think that Pennsylvania Station would be in Pennsylvania, I learned that this is still another NYC location. This "Washington Special", then, would have been the fastest way from New York  to Washington, D.C., short of taking a plane.

This is from Gallant Knight, a still-entertaining Prince Valiant rip-off. I'm still amused by the idea of someday running a medieval/fantasy campaign using H&H rather than D&D. I imagine it would be something like Gallant Knight. And it's good to know that princess ransom typically goes for 50,000 gp in the Gallant Knight's world.

Archie O'Toole, for a humor strip, has a lot of adventure elements and a Potion of Transformation is tempting to make an addition to H&H. It makes you so ugly that people of 1 HD or less have to make morale saves when they see you, and if you see your own reflection you have to save vs. spells or faint.

This will be neither the first nor the last story I'll be reading that takes place at the 1939 World's Fair. Like above, it serves as a location for adventures, but also a topical location.

Lala Palooza isn't normally a strip I would look at for inspiration. This might not change my mind...but half-pints, being able to stand on each other's shoulders, so they can all hit the same target...that's a little tempting.

Getting tired of using the same types of hoodlums in your campaign? Maybe shake up how the hoodlums try to get away, like you see here in Richard Manners, the Super Sleuth. This one has both a seaplane and a motorboat. Of course, your Heroes can always claim these transports when the battle's over, so don't be too generous right away.

The ol' loose tobacco in the face trick. Maybe save vs. missiles or be distracted for 1 turn?

Solo scenarios for 1st-level half-pint fighters -- like Toddy -- need to be not too challenging. So, a lone bat could be a distraction. Some falling plaster could be startling. A loose floorboard smacking you Chevy Chase-style might do 0-3 points of damage. A door falling on you might do 0-1 points of damage.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Feature Funnies #20

This is from Espionage, featuring Black X!  Black X knows better than to pass up a plot hook, even if just casually shared over coffee. After that, his strategy of tricking the hiring manager into thinking they know each other was a good one, and must have only failed because the guy made his save vs. plot to see through it. Blackmail is clearly Black X's plan B, but the guy makes another save and isn't cowed by the threat.

What I really don't get is the leap in logic that the blackmailer could only be Black X. Way to use player knowledge, Editor!

Jane Arden is lucky to live in times when a man is willing to risk his livelihood for a $5 bribe. I seriously doubt she could have pulled off so much for so little today.

If you can get past that middle tier, I want you to look at the bottom left panel of Archie O'Toole here. That wicked layout is your proof that this is a Will Eisner job. I'm not sure how to map that castle, but I like how the uppermost level is on top of the middle level, sitting in a big box in the middle of the lower level.  Or at least, I think that's what I'm looking at!

The story makes it clear that these three brothers are ghosts. So what can they do? They have a chance of inducing fear, can turn invisible (I think), and can alter their form. They can also be quite reasonable (not all are Chaotic?).

Okay, Reynolds of the Mounted says that's a giant grizzly, but is that hyperbole or are we looking at needing to add giant bears to Hideouts & Hoodlums?  Are we going to need 10 Hit Die bears?  Yikes!

Okay...I'm not sure if I support this "Landslide!" trick having an effect on game mechanics, because I could see players over-exploiting this.  Still...it kinda makes sense to have it do something. Maybe, if your opponent misses a save vs. plot, he loses initiative for that turn (but can't be tricked again during that combat).

The Clock demonstrates the important of carrying around a flashlight, even if you're a mid-level Hero!

No, Dixie Dugan isn't a furry! I'm not sure how often Heroes are going to be buying Easter Bunny outfits, but maybe $50 is a good estimate for a low-end superhero costume?

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Feature Funnies #19

Hideouts & Hoodlums' combat rules do need to take special maneuvers into some consideration, but I am very hesitant to allow a combat move like this neck twist (demonstrated in Joe Palooka), which bypasses the hit point mechanic and automatically* removes a combatant from play (*and, yes, I realize that it wouldn't really be automatic if a saving throw was allowed). It seems too much like the superhero power Sleeping Nerve Pinch to allow just anyone to use.

This next page serves as an example of why I don't want too realistic a combat system for H&H, but for a different reason. While super-neck twists could end a fight faster, complications incurred in addition to hit point loss -- like blurred vision -- would slow fights down and put combatants at an increased disadvantage the more they are already losing. It may be more realistic, but it does not make for epic fight scenes where the good guy, on the ropes, keeps fighting in peak form all the way up to the end. Further, such an additional penalty might scare players off from risking hit point loss during combat at all.

It turns out not to be a real banshee haunting Lena Pry and Daniel, so I won't be adding that mobster-type to H&H yet, but this story never does explain, over the following pages, how the "banshee" survived being shot in the head. Fake undead still needs to become a mobster-type (not sure if I'll call them "fake undead" though), and maybe they should have some measure of real undead's special defenses until unmasked?

Although comedic, Archie O'Toole is still an adventure strip and could serve as the basis of a light-hearted campaign. I definitely think Count Morris Hackula of Brooklyn would make for a fun encounter. Here we see the traditional vampire power of being able to turn into a bat (and could this be ghosted by Will Eisner? Countess Hackula looks an awful lot like one of his femme fatales...). Except, on the next page, we learn that the Countess isn't really a vampire, but a jitterbug. When she bites you, you go mad and don't want to do anything but dance. It's a ...somewhat intriguing notion, though I don't know if I'll be adding jitterbugs to the mobster section anytime soon.

You never know with these non-fiction pages how non-fiction-y they really are. This one is As Strange as It Seems, and while I'm not sure how representative that really is of West Indies fashion in the 1930s, it's the first panel I've seen set in the West Indies in modern times. I just recently ran two H&H scenarios in that part of the world and had to rely on real world research to guess at what it was like.

True or not, I like the idea of "living lanterns" being a regional thing there and, if one of those scenarios ever sees print, I might add this in for color.

I could also see an exciting story where the hero finds himself in a horse race with little or no rules...

This is Espionage, by Eisner. I normally feel I can trust Eisner to have done his homework, but I'm a little incredulous this time that you could get a working plane in the cargo hold of a ship and not be asked for an inspection (though I suppose the machine guns could have been hidden elsewhere during inspections?). I'm also a little ...surprised that Black X keeps something in his wallet that identifies him as spy.

Speaking of things that surprise me, if a lariat is really able to stop a tiger, as shown here in Big Top, then why even bother using other weapons? Special maneuvers with lassoing is going to need more thought.

Here's an idea for incorporating war tactics and strategy into a game without war -- stage it as two "armies" of half-pints having a snowball fight, so that no one gets hurt in the scenario (well, unless one side fights dirty and switches to ice balls...).

This is from Off the Record. The first gag I think is pretty funny -- and the second one is another goat joke! Am I going to have to go back to tracking how many goat jokes I've seen so far?

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)