More Fun Comics #30 - pt. 2

This debut page of Buzz Brown is particularly hard to read, but it's worth it to be told that a windjammer (a one-man crew sailboat) could be had for just $100, used.

This page from Pirate Gold is unclear on how the door is "sealed" that Captain Dennis bursts open simply by throwing his powerful shoulder into it. It could have been locked, or perhaps bolted from the other side. Perhaps it was literally sealed, with wax poured into the cracks. Regardless, even a non-Superhero has a mechanic for wrecking doors. Once found in Book II: Mobsters & Trophies, at the back, this rule has gravitated to Book III: Underworld & Metropolis Adventures in 1.5 edition and will surely return in some form in 2nd edition.

There are some things done in comic books, for the expediency of the story, that should probably not happen in a RPG scenario -- like this move, to wrap up a fight scene faster.  Normally, it should not be possible to tip over a giant vase, roll it towards a cluster of five hoodlums, and knock them down like bowling pins. It's not really fair to the other players who are playing by the rules and getting their 1-2 attacks per turn.

That said, a Fighter using combat machine might be able to get five attacks per turn, as could a Superhero using the Flurry of Blows power. Describing all those attacks as one attack is within the Editor's purview for describing the scene in flavor text.

Also, in a campaign with a really light mood, the Editor would have more latitude for allowing attacks with comic effect that are a bit outside the rules.

According to this page from Radio Squad, radio broadcasting apparatus was portable enough to fit in the trunk of your car back in 1938. Good for parties, or fooling the police with false broadcasts!

At a cursory glance, it might look like Bob Merritt here has turned completely bonkers. Charging in broad daylight a transport plane surrounded by hoodlums with guns, enjoying cover? Well, depending on his distance to the plane, it maybe wasn't such a bad plan. If Bob could have sprinted to the plane in the first phase of movement, he could have kept the plane between him and maybe half the hoodlums and cut the number he had to fight in half. Because he didn't make it in the first phase -- perhaps having misjudged the distance -- his opponents were able to get off their missile fire before the next movement phase.

Of course, the Editor could still have ruled that, even if Bob could technically have made it in the first movement phase, that his opponents were set up and ready for him and that at least some of them could get off their shots early while he was still moving.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

More Fun Comics #28

We'll start off discussing this issue with the Dr. Occult story, "Vampire Venom". Occult is the first man in comic books to deal with vampires (and this is his second outing against them!), so this strip should be seen as authoritative on the subject. We see that vampires can appear from out of nowhere (probably had been in gaseous form), and that they can have bat wings even when in human form. It turned within sight of their graves, they flee back to their graves rather than fleeing further.

In Pirate Gold, Dennis (there just aren't enough Heroes named Dennis) uses a whip to disarm. Given how common disarming is in comic books, I'm still inclined to say this is a combat maneuver that should be open to everyone and not a game mechanic specific to whips.

This page from Bob Merritt gives you a good idea of how large the scope of a war on crime could be in your H&H campaign. This isn't an enemy nation's air force in the sky -- this is a "gangster fleet". I'm counting at least 26 planes in that remarkable panel, each probably equipped with at least a machine gun. Looks like a battle for high-level Heroes...

This page of Johnnie Law supports an idea I've been having for an optional rule, where a head blow would have a chance of temporarily knocking out someone, This would have to be entirely different from the hit point mechanic, where being reduced to zero hp means a long recovery. Perhaps the attack roll would have to score 5 or more better than needed to hit, with the stated indication of going for a head blow, and the target would have to fail a save vs. science or be rendered unconscious for only 1-20 minutes?

This panel with "constant firing" is making me think of an optional rule for suppressive, or covering, fire. It would keep combatants from being able to move through an area, while not directly targeting any particular combatant.

A shot, like this one in Jack Woods, I would normally consider as evidence of the Trick Shot stunt for Cowboys.  However, it should be possible to make this shot even in a campaign without stunts or the Cowboy class. It might require a lucky hit roll vs. AC -1, however...

Brad Hardy's environment is a mix of the mundane and the fantastic. The intelligent races tend to be humans of a different color, like the grey people. Animals might be mundane, like pythons, or fantastic, like the bull-boar (which is itself just two animals combined). I would, at a guess, make the bull-board 3 HD, with a goring attack with that unicorn-like horn that would do 2-8 damage.


(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

More Fun Comics #24

Sometimes things don't go as planned in a Hideouts & Hoodlums scenario. Sandra of the Secret Service can attest to that. Here, she and her guy-friend have gotten themselves captured again and can't figure a way out of this. What is an Editor to do?  In unsubtle fashion, you let the Heroes find a sheet of paper with instructions on how to find a secret escape route. There's no official game term for this, but you can call it a freebie.

There are freebies, and there are things the Heroes are willing to pay for. Here, Wing Brady's player could have trusted to the luck of the dice on his encounter reaction roll, but he's decided to sweeten the deal and improve his chances with a $5 bribe. As the Editor of this scenario, I'd be willing to give him a +1 bonus to the roll for the bribe.

Roleplaying should matter, though, so I'd also be willing to give him a -1 penalty to the roll for being kind of a dick. "I gave you five bucks to drive the cat, not to ask questions" indeed!

This month, Brad Hardy learns that there is arm wrestling and there's ultimate arm wrestling. The first one to lose a save vs. science and fall off-balance from the bridge lands on the...well, what is that creature supposed to be, anyway?  Some sort of giant catfish with tentacles? It sort of reminds me of the AD&D monster called the aboleth...

One of the best things about reading these old comic books is when you see a cool idea for an encounter area that you've never seen in a game scenario before. Bat infested caverns might be pretty common place, but ones with "sentinel-like stalagmites" taller than the Heroes? Navigating a maze of stalagmites? Sounds intriguing!

We're still months away from the debut of Superman. We've already seen one prototype, in Dr. Occult. Is Bob Merritt another? Here, he topples boulders and collapses tunnels with just a sword (yes, a ridiculously huge sword!). These feats of strength seem more appropriate for the Superhero's wrecking things game mechanic than anything a Fighter should be able to do...

And, lastly, there's Jack Woods, modern-day cowboy. Low XP-value trophies should be items that are only slightly better than ordinary. So, taking a bad guy's car would not net you any Experience Points, but a high-powered car, that might be worth 100 XP?


(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

More Fun Comics #19

Sometimes, just entering the hideout is itself part of the challenge. In this case, Barry O'Neill has to fall down a pit to enter Fang Gow's concealed entrance. How everyone else got down there without having to jump and get hurt is not explained. Perhaps there was another secret entrance. Of course, if you do put a safer backdoor into the hideout, be prepared for your Heroes to find it!

Brad Hardy gives us a surprisingly detailed map of the lost world he explores. Less thought seems to have gone into the reptaboa, which just seems to be a funny-looking constrictor snake.

There were plenty of times that I "cheated" on mobster types for Hideouts & Hoodlums, making ones that I felt the game should have, but didn't actually have samples of from my readings. One was the anarchist, which I pictured as a crazy communists running around with round, lit bombs -- just like the guy in this gag picture!

Predicting the future is a curious game to play; you just never know when you're going to win and get it right. Here, we can only hope that the Interplanetary Police's clothes are not the fashions of the future.  But a telemirror? That looks a lot like a flatscreen TV to me.  And race change is possible today through plastic surgery.

Hideout rooms tend to be at a 10' scale, which tends to make for big rooms.  What I like about this page is that it shows spacious interiors, very appropriate for H&H. Giant bats are a threat for low-level Heroes, but a cavern full of ordinary bats is basically just flavor text, as it is here.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

More Fun Comics #17 - pt. 2

Mark Marson of the Inter-Planetary Police is new to me, but there are some familiar tropes here.  The "sun-ray cannon" sounds a lot like a Laser, but is probably meant to be a heatray (since Lasers hadn't been invented yet in the 1930s).  The electro-ray pistol is also already statted for H&H, as an electric raygun.  And pit traps!  Gotta have pit traps.

On this page you can see how the cliched tropes of the adventure genre can be used to make future scenarios feel retro.  The only thing different about this enclosing room trap is the "gripping ray" that acts like telekinesis on Gail.





I'm not sure what I'm reading about in Bob Merritt.  The snaky tentacles in the clouds -- are they going to have some natural explanation for that or not?  And the "bursting hand grenade" in the bottom panel -- I'm no expert on weapons, but I didn't think an exploding grenade normally made that much light.  If it was some sort of magnesium grenade that just gave off blinding light, that would be a pretty neat trophy for Heroes to have.

Speaking of trophies, Brad Hardy and his fellow escapees run into some new trophy weapons -- guns that shoot "poisonous shrapnel darts".  So, 1d6 damage + a save vs. poison.

There is a lot of flavor text in this page long struggle, but I think we can break it down into 3-4 turns of combat.  Turn 1:  grappling on both sides.  Turn 2:  Jack fails to grapple (described by the Editor as falling backwards), and Villa fails to hit with his knife.  Turn 3:  Unsuccessful grappling on both sides; Editor allows them both to get to their feet instead.  Turn 4:  Jack punches Villa, using a special maneuver to push him back.  The Editor may or may not choose to roll a saving throw for the window glass (since it's such a cinematic image, he might just choose to allow it to automatically break). 

Since the knife is ignored after turn 2, turns 3 and 4 could be compressed into 1 turn, since unarmed combat allows for two actions per turn.  They do not both have to be the same action.

Young Jeff is so good at hiding, sneaking, and attacking from behind, he might be a Mysteryman!

Sandy Kean runs afoul of a racketeer!  Should racketeers be their own mobster-type?  Perhaps ones with special connections to corrupt politicians?



(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

New Fun #5 - pt. 2

We pick up again on another strip that one would not, at first glance, think of as Hideouts & Hoodlums material.  And yet, there is an intriguing scenario here. The "Professor" seems like a a Scientist Hero to me (no doubt statted with the Scientist character class from Supplement III: Better Quality) hiring what he thinks are two detectives to guard him, but who turn out to be useless Drunken Hoodlums. Later, three Robbers (they're called burglars here, but I would stat them as Robbers) show up and would succeed in robbing the Professor, if they hadn't failed their morale check when the dog shows up.

I include this snippet of Bob Merritt for two reasons. One is a little history lesson: Bob is using an "electric eye" to look for planes in the sky instead of Radar because RADAR (an acronym for RAdio Detection And Ranging) was still being developed in 1935 and wouldn't be called RADAR until 1940! (or so says http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar)

The other point is about how much Mr. Campbell is planning to pay Bob -- $100,000.  By H&H rules, Bob would have earned that money and hence be eligible for 100,000 Experience Points, or enough to catapult him from a 1st-level Aviator all the way to 17th level!

Although the rules do not say anything about capping XP awards, the Editor should feel free to do so, usually to whatever amount would get the Hero to the next level (or, only 2,000 xp for $100,000 if Bob is still level 1).

Brad Hardy is included here, not because it's amazing storytelling, but because it seems to be a treasure trove for mobsters. Apparently, if I had New Fun #4, I would have seen a giant snake. Here, we have rat men who seem distinctly not wererats (indeed, without their nets they don't seem to be much tougher than Brad).  We don't get a lot of detail about the giant golden bats, but they are apparently intelligent enough to speak and their touch is deadly (poisonous fur?).

Further, Brad's adventures are firmly set in a subterranean world not unlike the dungeons of a certain other game. 

Lastly, we pay a visit to Midshipman Dewey, demonstrating the art of disarming an opponent. The first rules for disarming were optional and introduced in The Trophy Case v. 1 no. 5, but will be part of the core rules in the next edition.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)