Tip Top Comics #42, 46

We'll start again with Hawkshaw the Detective, not because I believe that you could really use a magnet to detect a concealed sword cane (or at least no ordinary-sized magnet), but because this is the first time I've ever seen "corporation" used as a slang term for a fat stomach (apparently that's a real thing).

 Is $15 reasonable for a watchdog in 1940, or is it a bargain?

I think I can relate to Phil Fumble. Maybe not literally, but I've had days that felt like this.

Anyway, it's interesting to see the number of threats you can encounter in a farm setting, from runaway pigs, biting geese, charging bulls, terrorizing hawks, swarming bees, racing dogs, and butting goats. Of them, pigs, bulls, dogs, and goats are statted for the game. I really don't think a goose, a hawk, or a bunch of bees is enough of a threat for Heroes.

This is the first new feature in Tip Top Comics since I started reading these! We know Hal Forrest from Tailspin Tommy, another aviator strip that wasn't very good. I suspect he got so much work in comics because his name was so close to Hal Foster, the legend behind the Prince Valiant comic strip.

Anyway, here we learn that the license number for planes (like VINs on cars) are hidden on the underside of wings and you can check with the Dept. of Commerce to find out who owns them (actually, I think we learned at least most of this from another strip before; I just don't remember the numbers being on the wings).

Two points here: one, if I'm really serious about making half-pints an official H&H Hero race, I need to think about setting more strict encumbrance restrictions on them than for full-grown adults. What's a good weight limit for a 10 year old? 50 lbs.?

And the other issue is the very real issue of child labor that I keep seeing in these strips (I almost brought this up earlier this week, with evidence from another strip). It seems like any unsavory character could get away with charging a kid just $1-2 a week.

I'm even more concerned about this short strip, and the cheap availability of poison in 1940. It might tempt players to go out and buy 50 cents worth of rat poison if it can make hoodlums sick, but this seems very un-Heroic behavior to me and should trigger a save vs. plot to carry out.

And, lastly, Ella Cinders teaches us that balcony seats are just 40 cents. And the robber shows us an uncommon stick-up method (I feel like I've seen that in a movie before, but I can't remember which!).

And that's it! I am done with Tip Top Comics for quite some time!  Woo! Next time, we go back to More Fun Comics and the debut of the Spectre!

(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)

The Funnies #22

Alley Oop uses pteranodons a lot. They are called pterodactyls in the strip, but the scale is off (pterodactyls were too small). Pteranodons are one of the few dinosaurs that can be domesticated and ridden in Alley Oop. Dropping rocks while flying overhead is also shown to be an effective tactic. Helmets are shown to protect wearers from attacks directly overhead, though (act as shields from overhead attacks?).

This is from Four Aces and the lesson here is that pilots flying mail planes were, apparently, authorized to carry a gun.

Goat joke #15!

Oz is a place you could send Heroes to in Hideouts & Hoodlums.  Maybe they need to recover some of this Magic Powder of Life?  It's hard to define, in game mechanics terms, what this powder does. Besides functioning as a Raise Dead spell, it also grants sentience and intelligence.  This stuff would be worth a ton of experience points!

Should a pumpkinhead be a mobster type? Maybe statted the same as a bugbear?

This is a, so far, faithful adaptation of The Marvelous Land of Oz, second book in the Oz series.

Mombi has a potion that will turn Tip into a marble statue. I should have a mobster type for witches, maybe with a random table of crazy potions or powders they might be carrying.

From a gag page called, appropriately enough, Hold Everything.


(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

The Funnies #18

The importance of communicating by telegram cannot be overstated. Telephones were not reliably private and depended on the operator, or a series of operators, being able to make the right connections. Important messages were still sent by telegram, which cost about 75 cents on average, according to this page of Dan Dunn.

Ten cents for a beer. Bear in mind that you could get a hot dog for only five cents.

A good playing tip from G-Men: dressing in a mail carrier's uniform is a good way to get close to a hideout, and also an excuse to check their mail. Also note the tropes of secret writing, and the secret marijuana trade.

The text here in Don Dixon doesn't specify what "Ogi" is, but given the name and his height, it seems a fair guess that Ogi is an ogre, possibly the first one in comic books.

Tad of the Tanbark is suddenly my source for new spells!  Smoke Image is like the spell Projected Image, except that it can only be projected through pre-existing smoke closest to where you want to project to. This has to be a 3rd or 4th level spell.

There are some good tips here from Captain Easy about always checking up on new people you meet, and what to look for in identifying a fake twin, but the real find here is what Spain was, allegedly, paying foreigners to come and man their air force during the Spanish Civil War. Any Heroes down on their luck might want to consider fighting in a war, even in a pre-WWII campaign.

Tailspin Tommy reminds us that pirates, even modern-day ones, can't resist acting out the tropes of their genre, and would have to save vs. plot to resist doing things like making their prisoners walk the plank.

The Four Aces remind us why some villains use deathtraps -- it's to hide the evidence of the murder from police. Of course, why they don't shoot them first and then burn the building down, isn't explained...

According to Scribbly (yay! I get to post Scribbly!), a newspaper's weekly payroll was only about $7,000.


(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

The Funnies #14

Sneaky Dan Dunn imparts some good playing tips here on how to...be sneaky!  If your Heroes need to arrange a secret rendezvous, it's best to use a public payphone, meet via taxi at a random location, take a roundabout trip via taxi, and then walk the rest of the way, all to watch for tails.  Remember, the longer the trip, the more rolls you should get for spotting someone shadowing you (the same chance as finding secret doors).

In this age of miniaturization, it's important to keep in mind how BIG a mad science machine should be in Hideouts & Hoodlums.  Towering structures, operated by levers, huge pistons, gears, noisy, mechanical contrivances -- these are the hallmarks of comic book science.

If your Heroes stumbled into a vault filled with barrels of diamonds, what would they do?  The fastest way to level up in H&H is by finding valuable treasure, but if the Heroes keep trying to sell all their found treasure to the same merchants in the same area, they'll soon find they've caused significant inflation, turning their home base into a "boom town", perhaps as bad as back during the Gold Rush.

Superheroes can wreck their way out of binding ropes, but should other Heroes be able to wriggle themselves free?  Perhaps. As the Editor, I would have to rule on how expert the tyer was with rope use, if the job had been hasty enough to have allowed for some slack, etc. I would then decide if I would allow a single attempt at a save vs. plot to determine if the Hero can wriggle free.

Should hornet stings cause points of damage? Unless there was something unusual about the hornets (like giant hornets!), I would say no, let's not put half-pint Heroes in that much danger. Instead, I would require a save vs. science, per sting, or the victim is too miserable from the pain to do anything for a full turn.


(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

The Funnies #8

We reach May 1937 today and this issue from Dell Comics gives us... goat joke #9!

We've already seen underwater entrances to hideouts, but this scenario has a twist on that -- the entrance is only visible for a few minutes while the tide is lower.

I'd say a horse throwing its body to the ground in an attempt to crush someone could do a lot of damage?  But how much?

A 180 lb. man falling on top of you might be uncomfortable, but I can't see it being able to knock anyone unconscious (not from weight alone, though you could factor in other possibilities, like an elbow strike while dropping).

But an obese man, let's say 210 lbs., maybe that alone could hurt you if that much bulk fell on you. Let's assume that a horse weighs 1,000 lbs.  If a 210-lb. man can do 1 point of damage, then a horse should only be able to do 1-4 (actually, it should probably be much higher, but recall that H&H game mechanics are incremental instead of exponential). Rounding up for other considerations (the continued movement of the horse, the length of time it crushes), 1-6 points of damage would not be unreasonable -- exactly the same as the default damage for weapons in H&H.

H&H allows for firing missile weapons into melee, though at the risk of hitting a random other target if the initial target is missed. In this case, the shark is certainly in melee range already, though because of the order of combat it will not get its melee attack until after being shot at. Both the shark and the damsel in distress have soft cover from swimming most under the surface of the water, so Tommy better be a lucky shooter...

Binding wounds does not figure into the early drafts of H&H rules, but two versions of house rules have entered the game since. One is that binding the wounds makes hp recovery happen twice as fast. The other gives you an immediate 1-3 hp back.  Each Editor can decide which, if either, rule to use.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Funnies #4 - pt. 1

Knock-out drops seem to be a surprisingly common trophy item, and surprisingly effective; in fact, they seem to get used so often that maybe they have a -1 penalty to save against?

But what to make of Easy's bait-and-switch stratagem?  Is this simply role-playing, bereft of game mechanics?  Compliance determined by an encounter reaction roll?  Or does resisting the trick require a save vs. plot?  Luckily, all three are valid solutions for a Hideouts & Hoodlums campaign.

Bandits continue to be a very common encounter in comic books.  So, the Captain Easy bandit eluder is a handy transport-trophy, at least on icy terrain.  Easy's claim that it can do 100 MPH is actually modest; on the next page it's clocked at going 120 MPH by the narrator!

Dan Dunn hasn't been on this blog for awhile, but here we have a hideout map -- not of the hideout itself, but of the terrain around one.

Hats cost $2 in the 1930s, or at least this guy's hat did.

Perhaps even more common than knock-out pills is chloroform.  New thought: perhaps instead of dealing with each of these individually in the trophies section, poisons and sedatives should be dealt with in their own section of one of the H&H rulebooks.

A note about concealed doors vs. secret doors. A concealed door is an ordinary door, concealed behind something else.  A secret door can be a door concealed to look like something else, like a stone.

I have considered before adding sleight of hand, as a skill, to the Magic-User class, but it only seems to be used for flavor text -- like here -- and never in adventure scenarios.  We'll see, though, if other trends develop...

Freckles' scientist friend is a little off his rocker, thinking he's going to be traveling at the speed of light in his moon rocket.  Or is he?  Should science just work the way comic book scientists think it does in a comic book campaign?  It boggles my mind to think how that would even work.

Mutt buys a used taxi cab for $20.



The Alley Oop featured creates are cave bears, moas, mastodons, and "Devonian fish", like holoptychius.  Cave bears are mentioned in Book II: Mobsters & Trophies as having more Hit Dice than regular bears. Actually, 7 HD for a brown bear might have been a bit high (5 HD would make more sense) and 7 HD should be reserved for the cave bears.  Moas would have been 10' tall 3 HD flightless birds.  Mastodons have not been statted for H&H, but woolly mammoths were and mastodons are basically less hairy and smaller mammoths -- still 10 HD, but of the d10 instead of d12 variety.  Holoptychius, a 3' long prehistoric fish, would barely have qualified for a hit point.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)