The Funnies #35

According to The Crime Busters, it's possible to take the hinges off a vault door with a pocket knife, though it will take you hours to do it.

Ew, John Carter -- did you have to cut off his whole head? Cutting off heads is not so easily done in Hideouts & Hoodlums. Perhaps John has his hands on a magic vorpal sword. Or it's something about how strong John is in this environment that lets him do that. But would that make it possible for superheroes to decapitate on Earth, then? I'm not comfortable with this precedent...

A Hero capable of super-leaping, like a superhero on Earth or a fighter on Barsoom, can apparently leap long distances in a downward direction. Should that mean he can fall long distances safely? I had such a precedent for awhile in my Sundays at Home campaign, but I don't care for it. There should be a difference between a controlled fall and an uncontrolled fall. Could a super-leaper take less damage from falling, though?  I'm still thinking about that one...

Atomic cartridges? They were just called radium rifles in the original books. I wonder why they changed it here. "Atomic cartridges" seems like there should be a mushroom cloud with every shot, which is definitely not the case here. Maybe they do 2-12 points of damage per shot, though...?

Cerebus the Aardvaark??

Yeah, I didn't have anything else to say about this one. I'm not statting mosquito swarms...

Lost Temple of the Swinks should become a H&H adventure module somewhere down the line. But it does bring up for me, the issue of illumination.

Wash isn't carrying so much as a lit match to see by, but he seems to be able to see these spacious chambers quite clearly. Is it a mix of the outside light coming in through that small hole, combined with his eyes adjusting to the dark? Should dim light not be an issue in H&H?

I'm okay with the diamond eyes on the statues, but when there's a Fibber McGee closet-full of pearls, I think the Editor is being way too generous with treasure.

Wash seems to just happen to notice tracks on this page, but tracking in H&H is an active skill, not a passive skill.

But, yeah, I'm mainly just sharing these pages because it's Captain Easy...

This is from The Wonderland of Oz and I'm wondering...am I going to have to break down and finally put gnomes in H&H?

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

The Funnies #27

Captain Easy is on a new adventure. His plot hook came to him from a mystery lady who slipped it in his pocket. Was that the pilfer skill of a 3+ level Mysteryman, or a skill everyone should have? I could see femme fatales being statted as Mysterymen...

This strikes me as a fun trap to even use on Heroes. At a dead end the Heroes find a hatch they can open. They pull open the hatch and out pops a boxing glove to smack them in the face.   One person takes 1d6 damage, and everyone gets a good laugh.

I kind of like this idea for a twist on the cowboy vs. horse rustlers scenario -- horse rustlers transporting via river barges. I also like that it takes place on a real river, as opposed to some generic locale.

With such panoramic vistas it would pay to use photos as visual aids.

I don't really want to keep discussing this story in Ben Webster's Page, but I keep thinking of more things to say. "Snakes and centipedes and lizards and toads" is a wandering encounter chart for deserts -- which would be challenging if these were giant animals.

The missing link uses the magic word "Tamaruntch" to make Mary Jane not scared. A Remove Fear spell? Is the missing link a Magic-User?

Lost cities are a tricky business. How would planes not spot a brightly-colored city in the middle of a desert, even with cliffs around it. All I can say for certain is that the missing link is casting a Knock spell. He's at least 3rd level!

On this page the missing link even admits to using magic.

The gates cannot be magically opened from the inside -- an interesting bit of hideout dressing.

Shrapnel rifle?  I'm not sure what that is. A shotgun? Just a rifle shooting shrapnel bullets?

This gag filler is called Hold Everything.  I feel the same way about hockey.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

The Funnies #26

This poison dart comes from Four Aces and -- even using the abstract weapon damage rule, where all weapons do 1-6 points of damage -- I hesitate to have this apply to small darts. Maybe the 1d6 could take into account some damage from the poison (you make your save vs. death, but you still take 1d6 damage), but an un-poisoned dart should do 1-3 points of damage at most.

Goat joke #17!  And that bottom panel...both funny and a little disturbing...

Ben Webster is still getting to know a "missing link". As much as I loathe the execution here...the concept of highly intelligent, telepathic cavemen is pretty interesting...

10 cent parking.

This bridge encounter looks like it would be fun to play. How to determine, though, if the car can crash through the barricade of barrels? I would reverse the wrecking things table by figuring a car is equal to a 5th level Superhero (the same distance down the left side of the table and across the top). The strength of the barricade would vary, but I would not make it stronger than "robot" on the left hand column. So the car would either auto-wreck, or possibly need a 4+ or 7+ to wreck.

This is from Bob Baker.  Using a battering ram allows multiple people to pool their chance to wreck things. In this case, since none of the men holding the ram are Superheroes, I would use the non-Superhero wrecking things chart to figure out the door's saving throw, then assign it a -1 penalty per additional man holding the ram.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)