Famous Funnies #24

Ah, Captain Easy, the gift that keeps on giving.  Here we are introduced to witches, a mobster-type so hideous that anyone seeing them must save vs. spells or fall prostrate in front of them!



Alley Oops's animal of the day is the glyptodon.  Never yet statted for Hideouts & Hoodlums, a glyptodon would be 11 Hit Dice, but using 12-siders because of their massive size and mass!

Hairbreadth Harry has me a little stumped this time. Catching something should normally be a simple act of hitting something in reverse, so I would use the same "to hit" mechanic -- but does catching in mid-air suggest something much tougher that should be a specific stunt?  I'm on the fence on this one...

You might not have guessed, at a glance, what I want to talk about from Flying to Fame this time. No, it's not the sub-machine gun, but you're close -- it's the use of cover by the sub-machine gunner, and how the girl in the fight turns the cover against him by slamming the door into him as a weapon.

Now, you might not think it on the face of it, but this has fairly large implications towards how cover works in combat. Should there ever be a chance of your cover being a liability?  Should Captain America have to worry about his opponent grabbing his shield and pushing it up in his face?

You may have guessed, based on my last example, but I feel this should not become a game mechanic. More likely, the gunner simply missed his to-hit roll and knocking him with the door was the flavor text for explaining how he managed to miss at point blank range.

This rare sighting of Nipper on this blog is for the glider, an excellent transport trophy for low-level Heroes, that solves the issue of how to make Heroes airborne, without giving them too big an advantage.

Can tapping a table really disrupt a dictagraph?  I don't know, but that's a pretty good tip for Heroes concerned that they're being recorded by a concealed one...

Ah, Seaweed Sam, you silly source of inspiration.  Here we have an unusual example, Pre-Clarke, of science being indistinguishable from magic. The "XYZ Ray" seems to be a sort of transmutation raygun that can change back anyone previously transformed into gold or stone, which does seem a handy thing to have around.

There is also a reminder here that helium tanks are on the minor trophies list.

This version of the sphinx is likely not a mobster, but some kind of trick -- but a good one, and one time-tested in that Other Game.  Just use a slightly harder riddle than this one.

I never thought I was going to have to refer to the extraordinarily bland Babe Bunting on this blog, but this page brings up the issue of, just who should be able to track?  Tracking started out in H&H just as a skill the Explorer class had.  Then Mysterymen picked up an urban version of that skill.  Then it became a stunt Cowboys could use.  But this page suggests that any Tom, Dick, or Harry can follow the faint tracks of  little girl through dense woods. Should tracking even still be a special skill, or should everyone get a chance to find tracks, like looking for secret doors?  It bears strong consideration.

Lastly, this section on forced landings would be educational for anyone playing an Aviator.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum at http://www.digitalcomicmuseum.org/index.php?dlid=21647)

Famous Funnies #23

We rejoin Captain Easy in the middle of his battle with a giant octopus -- armed with a saw!  And if you thought Roy Crane was going to shy away from that kind of violence...

Although this page made me laugh out loud, carefully guarding a baggage camp is a serious matter for hideout delving far from civilization.  The balance between a generous Editor and a tough Editor may hinge on matters like this.  How tough do you make it for your Heroes?



The Alley Oop animal of the day is platybelodon.

 Hairbreadth Harry gives us another example of a death trap.  This one is a soundproof, airtight room that has poison gas pumped into it.  The solution, here, is to light a match by the door because the gas happens to be flammable. If you survive the explosion damage, you just walk out past the busted door!

Note that poison gas canisters may be a trophy item lying around hideouts, but non-Chaotic Heroes should not be using poison.

Casual readers of Flying to Fame could be forgiven for thinking that they are here observing the Aviator stunt, Shoot Gas Tank. However, that stunt exists for the difficult task of shooting a plane, in flight, at a distance (though perhaps the original text was not clear enough on that...).  With three sub-machine guns, at this distance, the Editor would have to be one of those aforementioned tough Editors to let that plane get away unscathed.

This feature will introduce us to many animals that may or may not belong in Hideouts & Hoodlums.  A tapir, for example, is probably a 3 HD animal-mobster type with a bite attack -- but, really, how often is an Editor really going to stock a scenario with wild tapirs?

Jaguars -- now those are more likely.  They were statted in H&H Book III: Better Quality.

Seaweed Sam may have had a frenzied narrative and lousy art, but it's back again with another intriguing H&H idea. Midas Touch, as a Magic-User spell?  Maybe a 3rd level spell (if it's non-permanent)?

The more I study Jane Arden, the more convinced I am that she can only be statted as a Mysteryman!  Here she must be using the stunt of picking pockets to plant evidence. I doubt I would even allow a non-Mysteryman Hero to manage that without being noticed, even with a successful surprise roll.

She also made her saving throw vs. plot to see through the old glasses-disguise trick.

Jane Arden is sometimes required reading for any H&H players involved in an investigation.  There is a lot of publicly available information for Heroes to take advantage of.

 Lastly, Flight reads like a catalog of what flying hi-tech transport trophies you do NOT want your Heroes getting until high levels. A Boeing bomber could decimate an entire hideout without even dropping its whole payload! 

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum at http://digitalcomicmuseum.org/index.php?dlid=23800)

Famous Funnies #19

Several new features debut in Famous Funnies with this issue, including reprints of Alley Oop. Alley Oop is one of those features, like Dick Tracy, where some hosting sites are comfortably sure they are in the public domain.  I'm not so sure, so I'm just going to link to it and talk about it here.

One of the most useful things about Alley Oop is that V.T. Hamlin did some research on dinosaurs instead of just making them all up, and many pages of Alley Oop bear an informative non-fiction panel showing an example. The lead page here shows Tyrannosaurus -- so synonymous with dinosaurs in popular culture that it was statted for Hideouts & Hoodlums as soon as Supplement I: National.  The page also shows an interesting trap for caging large dinosaurs, with cut trees rigged to fall into a cage pattern.  Too bad mobsters as massively large as Tyrannosaurs are automatically given the ability of wrecking things, as if Superheroes.

And the other big addition to Famous Funnies this issue is Captain Easy. Now, granted, this inaugural page is crazy racist by today's standards. And maybe, as a game Editor, you might not want to have natives make their morale saves just because of hearing a radio. But it does illustrate the handiness of carrying a few smoke bombs on one's person.  Smoke bombs are not on the starting equipment list, but are considered minor hi-tech trophies, so they should be fairly common in hideouts.

Now, confession time.  As any long-time H&H follower might know, this roleplaying game began as a superhero role-playing game.  Sure, there were rules for making fighters and magic-users as well, but the first draft of the rules were written specifically for emulating the earliest adventures of Superman.  H&H has been expanding ever since, but for a long time the rule was, comic books only. I was tempted to write-up Joe Palooka, a character I enjoy reading, for Supplement IV: Captains, Magicians, and Incredible Men, but he was a comic strip character, so I considered him off-limits. And, for the longest time, I considered June 1938 (cover date for Action Comics #1) as the chronological starting point for H&H.

It was Captain Easy who changed my mind, and specifically pages like this one.  Capt. Easy, and a single Supporting Cast Member, exploring the ruins of a lost city.  Danger around every corner.  Tigers picking off their pack animals (tigers are unfortunately missing from the selection of mobster types statted so far; something that will be resolved in the next edition).  Not just crocodiles, but gigantic 22' long crocodiles (actually, that's just large for a crocodile; I would modify their Hit Dice only up to 5).  Now this is adventure!

Another "new" reprint is Boots.  Boots is normally a romantic comedy, not an adventure strip, but the arsenal is sure to make any H&H player drool!  Knives, swords, rifles, bombs, a machine gun, and a gas mask are all on display in the gun room (knives, swords, and rifles are all considered starting equipment; machine guns and gas masks are common hi-tech trophies, statted in Book II: Mobsters & Trophies; this type of bomb is statted under the Anarchist entry in the mobsters section of Supplement I).  And, in the adjoining hangar, four planes for the taking!



Secret doors are normally assumed to be the size of standard hideout doors, but this secret door is a full-sized hangar door! Note that the Heroes can here either roll 1d6 for a random chance to find the secret door, or choose to try the big, obvious lever in the middle of the room.  Also note how the hangar entrance is concealed to look like the side of a hill from the outside.  Hideout concealment helps with placing them closer to populated areas.

Flying to Fame -- also not normally an adventure strip -- again features some great ideas.  Note how all three Heroes wear flashlights mounted on headbands -- not an item specifically for sale as starting equipment, but still something too readily available to be considered a trophy item. Nice Editors might allow their starting Heroes to wear these, to leave both hands free.

Also, there's a nice trick here for Editors, describing a pair of "glowing eyes in the dark" to players, that only turn out to be valuable rubies upon inspection.  Of course, just lying xp-worthy valuables around unguarded is something that should only be done sparingly.

And this page of Dan Dunn is full of clues to look for at crime scenes. Also note that, in the pre-Internet days, if you wanted to find out all the dirt on a public figure quickly, you needed a contact at the newspaper who could get you their file on that figure.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum at  http://www.digitalcomicmuseum.org/index.php?dlid=23783)

Famous Funnies #18 - pt. 1

Connie is more of a talky sleuth than an action-adventure sleuth, but this installment shows the value of seeing through disguises.

There are two different game mechanics for disguises in Hideouts & Hoodlums.  The first was requiring a saving throw vs. plot to see through a disguise.  The second, introduced with the Villain Class in Supplement II: All-American, gave a percentage chance per level of fooling people.

The Villain Class will likely not carry over to the next edition.  Further, like with Connie, it should be incumbent on the viewer to see through the disguise, rather than incumbent on the disguised to fool the viewer.

This panel from the "Flight" feature is of particular interest to me, since in my previous H&H campaign, the Heroes had to travel by air to China and I had to research this route on my own.

 Ah, Seaweed Sam!  How did I ever ignore you before?  Here we're treated to a new spell, or is it a new magic trophy?  My guess is the latter, so here we have the Shawl of Temporal Relocation.  Each time it is used to cover a living thing, that being is transported back in time (the example here is 1,200 years, but let's say the Shawl sends people back a random 1d6+6 centuries instead).  There should also probably be a saving throw vs. spells to resist, though given how powerful the Shawl is, the save should probably come with a hefty penalty, say, -5 to the roll.

This snippet from Hairbreadth Harry features a trap (chloroform concealed in a bouquet of flowers) and a deathtrap (the cliche of being tied to the railroad tracks).  The distinction between a trap and a deathtrap is that the trap is passive, triggered by the victim interacting with it.  The deathtrap is actively put into motion by the villain.

This snippet from The Nebbs demonstrates why Half-Pints should be treated as combatants (and are statted as such in Book II: Mobsters and Trophies).

From Flying to Fame, here we have our first constrictor snake (also statted in Book II).

This installment of Hairbreadth Harry brings up an element left out of H&H to date -- the weather.  Extreme weather conditions are here shown to cause damage, like weapons, only perhaps more temporary.  The next edition may include some notes like this.

We also get a good idea for a using snow to replace a grappling hook.

Since Harry did not knowingly initiate a grappling attack on Rudolph, Rudolph is not technically pinned.  Rather, the fall probably did enough damage to Rudolph to subdue him.

The next edition should have a note in it about how cushioning a fall like this both lessens damage to the faller and transferring damage to the cushion.

Here we see even a domestic situation can turn into an action-adventure story, thanks to a hostile terrier. Although watchdogs are statted in Book II, that type of dog is likely a 150 lb. mastiff.  For a 30-40 lb. terrier, I would assign it only 1-2 hp, with the ability to bite for just 1 point of damage.

Terriers and mastiffs are likely to both become notes under one entry for Dogs in the next edition.

(Scans courtesy of the Digital Comic Museum at http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?dlid=23799)

Famous Funnies #17

This installment of Flight includes information about a flying boat (more like a flying yacht!) that would make an ideal trophy for mid-level Heroes.  The route for the French Trans-Atlantic Service could be handy for Heroes looking to make a quick getaway from Europe, too.

Hairbreadth Harry is shown here to have a Supporting Cast at least as large as seven, which means he must have a Charisma score of 18 (unless he is paying some of these Half-Pints, in which case they do not count against his SCM total).

Harry might have at least one less kid loyal to him after this stunt (interestingly, I once played a game of Dungeons & Dragons where the same thing was done with a halfling, but that was over a body of water instead of a canyon).  To throw the boy just across the canyon to the tree, I would ask for a roll to hit from Harry's player and make a save vs. science for the poor kid.  To throw him hard enough to wrap around both Rudolph and the tree is too fanciful for the kind of game I run, but maybe I would allow it if either of the above two rolls was a 20.

Tightrope walking is normally a skill reserved for Mysterymen (I would use their climb skill). However, in a game with no one playing a Mysteryman, I could see going easy on the players and allowing this after a successful save vs. science.

The serial Flying to Fame is usually too talky to warrant any Hideouts & Hoodlums discussion here, but with this installment the strip takes on some adventure genre elements. It's worth mentioning here because of their healthy respect (and avoidance) of crocodiles. Statted in Book II: Mobsters & Trophies as alligators, any 1st-level Heroes should know to avoid combat with these 4 Hit Die beasts.

Despite how common rattlesnakes are in comics, they have never been statted for H&H yet. I would give them 1-4 hit points and a mildly poisonous bite, but clearly with the ability to spook other animals and provoke morale saves.

I never thought Seaweed Sam would warrant another mention on this blog, but sure enough this seems to be the very first dragon ever created for the comic books. Metallic dragons were late arrivals to the game H&H was based on, but here we have a purple iron dragon. I would guess a dragon that size must have about 6 Hit Dice, have a bite attack that can do at least 3d4 points of damage (with maybe even a chance of swallowing whole!), plus a hot steam breath weapon.  It has a special vulnerability to pepper.

Note the goat isn't even phased by this.  I might have sold goats short when I statted them before!

Guards were statted in module FS1 Sons of the Feathered Serpent, but these could just as easily be some type of hoodlum (wimpy or cowardly, most likely).  Note how, because Dan's player is playing solo, he uses information learned about the hideout to avoid encounters in it as much as possible.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum at http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?dlid=23782)