Detective Comics #27 - pt. 1

It had to happen!  I finally reached the first appearance of The Bat-Man. But, I'll get to that.

The first item in this issue is a new filler called Crime Never Pays. It includes a bunch of true facts about forensics, law trivia, and police history. The most interesting fact, that I'd never heard of before, was the "traveling crime headquarters" -- basically a mobile forensics lab in a trailer that can be hauled to a crime scene. I've never seen one of these show up in a story!

Now we get to The Bat-Man!  The first panel practically defines the Mysteryman class for us "a mysterious and adventurous figure....his identity remains unknown."  Any class can be adventurous or conceal their true identity, but the Mysteryman alone does so to create an air of mystery about himself. It's this air of mystery that allows him to intimidate.

Right away, we get introduced to one of the most important supporting cast members in comic book history, Commissioner Gordon. It is apparently very handy to make friends with your local police commissioner -- they take phone calls about murder investigations in front of you and then invite you to the crime scenes!

It's also worth pointing out that Gordon already knows about The Bat-Man, so even though this is the earliest case we see for many years, this is clearly not his debut outing. Now, in terms of a Hideouts & Hoodlums campaign, that could mean that the Editor has decided to start The Bat-Man out with some XP already under his belt, just so he won't have to wait so long to hit 2nd level.

We first encounter The Bat-Man in a rooftop battle with two robbers (robbers statted in Book II).  He sacrifices his surprise turn in order to try to intimidate the two robbers, but they must both make their morale saves. The Bat-Man still wins the initiative in the first melee turn and punches out a robber with one punch (if robbers are 1 Hit Die and punches all do 1 die of damage, then this is likely for anyone). If the other robber attacks The Bat-Man next, we don't get to see his attack (maybe he missed by a lot). On the following turn, The Bat-Man wins initiative again and grapples. There is no specific game mechanic for a headlock; if The Bat-Man's player wants a headlock he just rolls to attack and if the robber misses a save vs. science, he's in a headlock. And then, because The Bat-Man does what he wants, he just tosses the robber off the roof to take falling damage after that.

When police converge on the scene, orders them to "get" The Bat-Man. This adversarial relationship with the lawful authorities is an important part of the Mysteryman class.

The Bat-Man next turns up in Stryker's hideout. As a laboratory basement, the hideout has plenty of lab dressing -- tanks, chemical glassware, and machines of unknown contents and purpose. It also has a glass dome at least 6' in diameter that can be lowered from the ceiling to the floor and pumped full of lethal gas (an unusually large gas chamber for guinea pigs!). It certainly qualifies as a deathtrap.

Note that, before The Bat-Man races into the deathtrap to save Rogers, he snatches up a heavy wrench, but he doesn't grab the handkerchief he uses to plug up the gas from anywhere. And he isn't using Rogers' handkerchief, because that's still shown in his pocket in the drawing. That means The Bat-Man carries around his own handkerchief with him -- which actually makes a lot of sense. Apparently, handkerchiefs are very handy for foiling gas traps (I'd give a bonus on the saving throw, rather than letting it automatically foil the trap).

Breaking the glass dome with a heavy wrench just seems like a given to me; I probably wouldn't even require a roll for it (unless it was bulletproof glass, of course, and then it might take a wrecking things roll!).

The Bat-Man can "seclude himself in the shadows" (just a fancier way of saying hide in shadows) so as to go unseen. In 1st ed. H&H, "hide in shadows" is used differently, as a human skill for using dim light to their advantage during combat. This is more like the invisibility ability of Mysterymen.

Lastly, The Bat-Man punches out Stryker before Stryker can attack (The Bat-Man's player is very lucky at rolling for initiative!). There is nothing about that punch that should have knocked Stryker back through a metal railing and plunge into an acid tank -- that is all flavor text added by the Editor. What is telling is that The Bat-Man makes no effort to catch Stryker and keep him from falling. If this was my game, I would have given The Bat-Man a free attack roll to snatch Stryker -- if his player wanted one -- even if it wasn't technically a new melee turn yet.

(Bat-Man story in Batman Archives Vol. 1; filler page read at ReadComics.net.)

Detective Comics #24

In Spy, preserving the U.S. neutrality is crucial to the mission.   Bart and Sally get caught and wind up treading water in the middle of the ocean. How long they can tread water is not clear by the Hideouts & Hoodlums rules. Luckily it didn't come up, because a U.S. submarine just happens by and picks them up. But how? Is the submarine just a wandering encounter, a planned encounter, or did the Editor fudge and make it happen to save them?

Crime Never Pays is filler material. It talks about how dental work is nearly as reliable at identifying bodies as fingerprints by 1939.  There's a good tip about how hoodlums often keep the same nicknames even when they're using aliases. There's also a claim that the FBI convicts 98% of everyone they bring to trial.

In The Mysterious Doctor Fu Manchu, I learn that Fu Manchu-types have a paralyzing gaze!

Bruce Nelson gets in a shootout with a thug.

The only installment I plan to talk about from this issue is Slam Bradley, which still takes place in 2 billion AD. Jerry Siegel makes some remarkable predictions here. One is uplifted animals that can walk and talk like humans, a common science fiction staple today, and two is communicators sewn into shirts that you just press to activate, such as seen decades later in Star Trek: the Next Generation. Jerry also wisely predicts that our modern languages would be unintelligible that far into the future, but luckily people wear thought translators (I guess so they don't have to wear out their lips with talking?).

Another curious feature in the future, which could be a good trick to feature in a mad scientist's hideout, is a room that has to be entered from above. If you fall through the room, you fall slowly, as if through a "jelly-like substance". It isn't clear if there's really a column of jelly there, or if the anti-gravity effect just feels like moving through jelly, but it's an interesting detail regardless.

Slam fights a monster that seems to be ogre-sized, with metal claws. His opponent also seems to have the Super-Tough Skin power activated!

In the far distant future, death is reversible and Shorty is brought back to life as a routine matter. Heroes with access to a time machine could essentially be immortal, going into the far future whenever they need to be resurrected.

One of Siegel's misfires on future tech is motorized propeller shoes that let people walk on air. But - ow! -- what if one of your legs brushed against the other? Sounds like 1-6 points of damage to me, followed by falling damage.

(Issue read here)

Detective Comics #21

Speed Saunders can walk onto a crime scene, observe the body, and tell from the visual symptoms alone what poisons might have been administered to kill the person. He also just happens to know where to find a mobster's hideout, even though there were no clues in the story about where to find it. Detect Poison and/or Detect Hideout might need to be an abilities added to the Detective class -- if the Detective class ever makes it officially into Hideouts & Hoodlums (it's currently an optional class from The Trophy Case).

Cigarettes tainted with prussic acid is both a murder weapon and a death trap in this story.

The Crime Never Pays filler page talks about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. "Today, motor cars, fast patrol boats, airplanes, and motorcycles are used by the Mounties to aid the apprehending of criminals. There are more mounted police in automobiles than on horses." Funny, then, that whenever Mounties appear in the comic books, they usually are not using cars to get around...

Buck Marshall spends two days unconscious from going down to zero hit points.

In Spy, spies are shown to be better than average at picking locks.

In Crimson Avenger, grave robbing only warrants a $100 reward for information.

The Crimson's gas gun is shown affecting three beat cops at once.

In this story, Slam and Shorty burn quickly through $10,000 and find themselves needing to find fresh work. But that begs the question -- what did they spend it on? A dollar went a lot further in 1938, and 10,000 of them could buy quite a lot. If Slam was being played by a sensible player, he would be stocking up on healing pills with that money, but Slam seldom seems like he's being played by a smart player.

It reminds me of this one section of Dave Arneson's First Fantasy Campaign, "Special Interests".  It broke expenditures into seven categories: wine, women, song, wealth, fame, religion, and hobbies. In this system, experience points for treasure were only awarded after being spent on one or more of these categories.  Hideouts & Hoodlums doesn't have that rule, and maybe doesn't need that rule, but the categories themselves are worth thinking about.

Wine:  Likely only the recourse of hard-knuckle Fighters, making your Hero a raging alcoholic not only gives him some pathos, but an excuse to do nothing useful during downtime.

Women: This doesn't have to be anything sordid. It could be a Hero bribing people to keep tabs on a femme fatale adversary, or a Superhero who has to hire people to serve as his alibis to fool his girlfriend, who doesn't know about his dual identities yet.

Song: Or partying, is the best way to rub shoulders with other members of your social class. It can be a great way to bring plot hooks to you, instead of going out and pursuing plot hooks.

Wealth: Or the generation of wealth, by investing. If players were interested in tracking this, it could be an annual rate of return equal to the Hero's Wisdom score.

Fame: Heroes generally don't, but could pursue licensing deals, court the press, or even stage events to increase their popularity. Maybe for every $1,000 spent, the Hero gets one +1 bonus to use on a future encounter reaction roll?

Religion: I'm not sure how to put a game mechanic bonus to donating to one's own church, or if that would even be appropriate. Most comic book Heroes are a pretty irreligious bunch.

Hobbies: Again, maybe not so useful for game mechanics purposes, but could be handy for role-playing purposes.

I'm not sure which, if any of these ideas, merit adding into 2nd edition.

Also, there's a trap, where Slam is supposed to fall into a pit lined with spikes. I'd like to keep additional damage for falling simple. If there are not too many spikes, maybe an additional d6 of damage. For a moderate amount of spikes, it could be an additional 2d6, and for a large amount of spikes, it could be 3d6.

(Read at Read Comics)