Back in 2009 I last wrote about Captain Marvel's second adventure on my oldest blog.You can read it here, here, and here.
Back so soon? Now let's talk about that story in terms of playing it out using Hideouts & Hoodlums.
Rushing into combat with Sivana's army, Captain Marvel is buffed by Imperviousness, if not Invulnerability, to be safe from heavy ordinance. He then is able to pick up tanks over his head because he is buffed by a level 4 Raise power. The tanks weigh too much for the Extend Missile Range powers, so that doesn't explain how CM is throwing tanks at each other. Instead, I would say he is using the Wreck at Range power for this. All he really needs the Raise power for is tipping them over, which really is just as effective at taking them out of the fight.
Taking out the tanks forces a morale save from the army. I would not normally roll once for the entire army, nor roll for each soldier, but maybe roll for each sub-commander on the field, and have him pull back his men if he fails.
It's always a conceit of the Captain Marvel stories that CM can't sneak around, but as Billy Batson he can. It certainly has nothing to do with bright colors, since they largely wear the same colors, but with size. I have long been tempted to make half-pints a race option because it seems like it should have its own special abilities, like a bonus for stealth.
CM later chases after an airplane and jumps up to catch it, but it's impossible to say from those panels how fast the plane is taxiing and how high it gets before he jumps, so it's possible he's not using buffing powers at all in those panels. If he is, then Race the Train and Leap I would be sufficient.
CM is rendered unconscious by a gas trap. Given how difficult it is to render CM unconscious, this must be super-potent gas, probably with a big penalty to the saving throw vs. poison.
There must be something special about the chains that Sivana thinks they will hold CM for five whole minutes, given what he knows CM can do. Maybe they get wrecked as if the generator category. Had he stayed there longer, it's possible the explosion would have killed him, but it was probably an explosion with highly variable damage, like 1-100 points, since Sivana survives it.
Golden Arrow's second adventure ever starts more low-key, with him shooting and killing a gila monster with an arrow. It's just an ordinary-sized gila monster, something I wouldn't normally grant a full hit point, but it's apparently venomous enough that it's bite can cause humans damage (1-4 points?).
A rancher hires GA to help find his missing cattle. Interestingly, it's the rancher who does most of the tracking on the journey, demonstrating how important it is to keep a supporting cast member with you in order to give you a second skill check.
When a sniper tries to kill GA, GA shoots an arrow into the man's rifle barrel, "wrecking it." Now, if GA was a superhero, this would merely be an instance of the Wreck at Range power, but I have not seen enough evidence yet that GA should be of the superhero class. If the rifle wasn't wrecked, this would be a simple disarming attack, which you may recall is easier than normal to do against firearm-wielders in H&H. The damage to the rifle could be flavor text if the "wrecking" isn't serious and the rifle is still usable. We never find out because the sniper/assassin misses his morale save and flees on the next turn.
Soon, GA is roped by a lasso and dragged from horseback, but he starts up a contest of Strength and pulls the horseman from his saddle. This is one of those situations I've talked about before that my own H&H rules don't cover, where you have to bring in ability score checks and opposed rolls.
GA summons his horse, White Wind, by calling it to. The cowboy class, if it's going to come into 2nd edition ever, needs to have special skills still that other classes don't have, like Summon Mount.
GA's bow skills prove difficult to explain by the rules again when he shoots an arrow hard enough to break the wooden bar across a pair of doors. At this point, I think I have enough evidence that GA is of the superhero class, just like the earlier archer hero, Arrow. That makes it much easier to explain how he wrecked the bar with the Wreck at Range power.
Moving on to Scoop Smith... the reporter is sent on a mission to look for a missing person in Antarctica. It's amazing that, in 1940, newspapers had bottomless resources to fund months' long expeditions for wild goose chases after stories. They have a freighter, a "snowboat" (it looks like a truck), and a biplane. It seems like it's going to be a realistic story -- until the Antarctic is shown to have natives. And polar bears. Oops! The writer seems to have the South Pole confused with the North Pole! Among the natives are pseudo-giants -- people who the narrator calls giants, but don't really look that much bigger than ordinary people. The natives are supposed to be primitive, but they have elaborate ice palaces. Somehow the palaces are heated so people can wear normal clothes inside, which makes no sense at all.
The Antarctic has some realistic hazards, at least -- mile-deep chasms and snowstorms seem possible. We never see much of either, but I'm guessing they involve falling damage and cold damage respectively.
That natives' deathtrap is a giant block of ice held between the walls by two icy struts, one of which is slowly melted by a lit torch.The weight of the ice would probably make it do a lot of damage, but it would only render the victims unconscious if they were not trapped underneath it (what makes it a deathtrap instead of just a trap).
Scoop is in no hurry for deadlines; after spending months getting to the Antarctic, he spends a whole month just hanging out with the missing man and the natives before heading back home to report his story.
(Captain Marvel story read from Shazam Archives vol. 1, the rest read at readcomiconline.to)
An exploration of the Golden Age of Comics, through the lens of Hideouts & Hoodlums, the comic book roleplaying game.
Showing posts with label Golden Arrow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Golden Arrow. Show all posts
Saturday, January 11, 2020
Whiz Comics #2(b) - pt. 1
Labels:
ability checks,
campaign time,
Captain Marvel,
Cowboy,
deathtraps,
disarming,
environments,
Golden Arrow,
morale,
new mobsters,
powers,
races,
SCMs,
Scoop Smith,
skills,
Superhero,
traps,
travel,
wrecking things
Thursday, December 20, 2018
Whiz Comics #2 - pt. 2
Ibis the Invincible is not acting like a 1st-level magic-user here. Create Underpass doesn't seem like a spell that needs to exist, but perhaps a 4th-level Dig spell would explain that.
We learn how much sailing from Manhattan to Cairo cost back then.
Again, I'm skeptical about the need for a Create Money spell (though maybe Fool's Gold could be modified for this). Also, since Ibis would not yet have encountered American money, it seems unlikely he would have known how to make the right kind of money, and makes for a pretty convincing case that this is another illusion that makes you see what you want to see (I had suggested last time that Ibis used an Improved Disguise spell that makes him appear to be wearing what others want to see him wearing).
Create Cottage does have some precedent, lying somewhere between Leomund's Tiny Hut and Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion, making this likely a 5th level spell -- but only if temporary. If permanent, this has to be a Wish, and a 9th level spell!
Create Bridge could actually be a spell with a lot of uses, and if it had a short enough duration I could see that maybe being only a 2nd level spell.
Here is a spell version of the power Turn Gun on Bad Guy - maybe called Missile Turning?
Excellent commentary on world affairs, circa 1940.
Wow, okay, this is Protection from Normal Missiles...but instead of 15' Radius, it's extended to 1 mile Radius. And then there's Restore City, a spell that has got to be Wish-level power.
I did have a conversation here in the comments section (an actual conversation with a reader!) recently about the issue of if Hideouts & Hoodlums emulated the power-level of golden age comic book characters well enough. I would use this page as a prime example for my answer: yes it does, as far as I would wish it to emulate those comic books. Because, really, stopping an enemy bombardment in one turn and then reversing all its damage in the next turn -- how do you build a challenging and entertaining scenario when they can all be resolved this quickly and easily?
Moving right along, this is the origin story of Golden Arrow. You only get part of it on this page, and it's interesting how often his story seems to go in a Mowgli-in-the-Wild-West direction and then surprise detours.
This page is still early in the origin story, so I'm not sure what to make of these last two panels, or if I should make anything out of them. Being able to wrestle a bear cub at the age of 5 or catch an antelope at age 7 seem relatively superhuman. It also suggests to me that half-pints be able to have classes like mysteryman or even superhero. I have toyed with the notion in the past of treating half-pints as a separate race.
I'm not entirely sure yet how I would make them a separate race (I mean, obviously they aren't ever going to literally be a separate race, but to separate them out from normal humans game mechanics-wise). It would make sense to take away the free Supporting Cast Member (unless the SCM was a parent). It seems like half-pints would do half damage, but others would have to save vs. plot to harm them. Anyway, it all needs more thought.
This would be a world record for a horse jump (it currently stands at 8'). So, if I did bring back the cowboy class (and I'm not saying I am yet), one thing that would distinguish them is that they could not only push themselves past normal limits with stunts, but they can push their mounts too.
That is one beautifully aimed arrow, but it does create a problem for me. When I revised the mysteryman class, I limited stunts to applying to out-of-combat situations, so as not to take away what makes fighters special. So this can't be a mysteryman-cowboy using an arrow for a stunt, if the result is a trip attack.
So then I have to decide if a trip attack should normally be allowable at range. I guess the answer to that should be yes, though it would make more sense when throwing something heavy at someone else's feet, or launching a lot of marbles across the floor.
And that brings us back to the perennial question: should Heroes get to attack more than one opponent per turn? There is ample evidence of this in comic books, yet I've shied away from this in terms of game mechanics because it's not fair in a group setting to have one Hero get to attack everyone before the others have had a turn. But...what if this was an optional rule for solo play only? I will consider putting that in the Heroes Handbook.
And, lastly, if I do bring back the cowboy class, it will have the ability to fall from any height, without damage, as long as there is a horse and saddle within 10' of where he would have landed.
And now on to Spy Smasher! I'm including this page because it gives my players a goal for how much money they have to save up to buy their own aircraft carrier.
Spy Smasher is a mysteryman, and the surest sign of that is a dramatic window entrance. In fact, my biggest regret with the class redesign is that it included no mechanic for dramatic entrances. I suppose they could use a stunt to ensure they have surprise, but that's not quite what is happening here; this is more like what mysterymen could do in 1st edition, with their intimidate ability, forcing a morale save before they've even done anything. Ah well...
(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)
We learn how much sailing from Manhattan to Cairo cost back then.
Again, I'm skeptical about the need for a Create Money spell (though maybe Fool's Gold could be modified for this). Also, since Ibis would not yet have encountered American money, it seems unlikely he would have known how to make the right kind of money, and makes for a pretty convincing case that this is another illusion that makes you see what you want to see (I had suggested last time that Ibis used an Improved Disguise spell that makes him appear to be wearing what others want to see him wearing).
Create Cottage does have some precedent, lying somewhere between Leomund's Tiny Hut and Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion, making this likely a 5th level spell -- but only if temporary. If permanent, this has to be a Wish, and a 9th level spell!
Create Bridge could actually be a spell with a lot of uses, and if it had a short enough duration I could see that maybe being only a 2nd level spell.
Here is a spell version of the power Turn Gun on Bad Guy - maybe called Missile Turning?
Excellent commentary on world affairs, circa 1940.
Wow, okay, this is Protection from Normal Missiles...but instead of 15' Radius, it's extended to 1 mile Radius. And then there's Restore City, a spell that has got to be Wish-level power.
I did have a conversation here in the comments section (an actual conversation with a reader!) recently about the issue of if Hideouts & Hoodlums emulated the power-level of golden age comic book characters well enough. I would use this page as a prime example for my answer: yes it does, as far as I would wish it to emulate those comic books. Because, really, stopping an enemy bombardment in one turn and then reversing all its damage in the next turn -- how do you build a challenging and entertaining scenario when they can all be resolved this quickly and easily?
Moving right along, this is the origin story of Golden Arrow. You only get part of it on this page, and it's interesting how often his story seems to go in a Mowgli-in-the-Wild-West direction and then surprise detours.
This page is still early in the origin story, so I'm not sure what to make of these last two panels, or if I should make anything out of them. Being able to wrestle a bear cub at the age of 5 or catch an antelope at age 7 seem relatively superhuman. It also suggests to me that half-pints be able to have classes like mysteryman or even superhero. I have toyed with the notion in the past of treating half-pints as a separate race.
I'm not entirely sure yet how I would make them a separate race (I mean, obviously they aren't ever going to literally be a separate race, but to separate them out from normal humans game mechanics-wise). It would make sense to take away the free Supporting Cast Member (unless the SCM was a parent). It seems like half-pints would do half damage, but others would have to save vs. plot to harm them. Anyway, it all needs more thought.
This would be a world record for a horse jump (it currently stands at 8'). So, if I did bring back the cowboy class (and I'm not saying I am yet), one thing that would distinguish them is that they could not only push themselves past normal limits with stunts, but they can push their mounts too.
That is one beautifully aimed arrow, but it does create a problem for me. When I revised the mysteryman class, I limited stunts to applying to out-of-combat situations, so as not to take away what makes fighters special. So this can't be a mysteryman-cowboy using an arrow for a stunt, if the result is a trip attack.
So then I have to decide if a trip attack should normally be allowable at range. I guess the answer to that should be yes, though it would make more sense when throwing something heavy at someone else's feet, or launching a lot of marbles across the floor.
And that brings us back to the perennial question: should Heroes get to attack more than one opponent per turn? There is ample evidence of this in comic books, yet I've shied away from this in terms of game mechanics because it's not fair in a group setting to have one Hero get to attack everyone before the others have had a turn. But...what if this was an optional rule for solo play only? I will consider putting that in the Heroes Handbook.
And, lastly, if I do bring back the cowboy class, it will have the ability to fall from any height, without damage, as long as there is a horse and saddle within 10' of where he would have landed.
And now on to Spy Smasher! I'm including this page because it gives my players a goal for how much money they have to save up to buy their own aircraft carrier.
Spy Smasher is a mysteryman, and the surest sign of that is a dramatic window entrance. In fact, my biggest regret with the class redesign is that it included no mechanic for dramatic entrances. I suppose they could use a stunt to ensure they have surprise, but that's not quite what is happening here; this is more like what mysterymen could do in 1st edition, with their intimidate ability, forcing a morale save before they've even done anything. Ah well...
(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)
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