Popular Comics #20

This month's issue from Dell Comics starts with some Dick Tracy, that you won't be seeing here, but these pages include a disreputable parson selling marriage certificates for just $2, and what appears to be surprise rolls used to determine if two cars can pass each other without spotting each other. There's also a nifty trap where stepping on a concealed buzzer by the far wall causes a pit trap to open up in the middle of the floor.

Now, onto the pages I can show you! Don Winslow is having a sci fi adventure here, involving an orbiting platform in the mesophere, 30 miles high. Now, the science seem really wonky here. We know, today, that the ultra-violet light at that altitude is not lethal. But we actually haven't seen that happen yet, we've only been told that by the villain. Players should treat information like that with caution when they receive it in-game because you never know when your Editor will use real world or comic book world science!

Behind this is the dilemma many RPGs face over the difference between character knowledge (what your Hero would know) and player knowledge (what the player knows). It is really up to the Editor who big an issue he feels this is. If playing just for fun, then it doesn't really matter, but if historical simulation is an important aspect of game play...then the Editor would be within his rights to make the Heroes save vs. plot in situations like this, with a failed save meaning the Heroes cannot benefit from player knowledge!

This page of The Gumps deals with a subject that's pretty important in hideout exploration -- opening locked doors. Anyone should be able to open a locked door with the right tools and enough time, as Andy Gump is shown trying here. Opening a locked door quickly, or without the benefit of specialized tools, can only be attempted by a Mysteryman -- or by other classes if stunts are allowed to other classes -- except if a hairpin is used. This is such an old cliche of fiction that anyone should be able to unlock a door with a hairpin if they save vs. plot.

Hard to believe Skull Valley started out as a cowboy strip!  Here, White is more like a masked vigilante, but the real surprise is seeing a repeating crossbow as an early weapon in comics!

Catching arrows in mid-flight is not an ability I'd like to put into the hands of ordinary fighters...but if it was just an ordinary miss, colored with some flavor text by the Editor, then there's nothing wrong with that.

The last issue here is the million dollar "opium princess". Should rescuing someone always be worth 100 xp, as a good deed, or should more valuable people be treated like trophies, and worth their value...?

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Popular Comics #6 - pt. 2

Popular Comics always seems to give me a lot to talk about!

Today we start off with a page of The Gumps. I'm not sure if anyone is ever going to run an arctic-based Hideouts & Hoodlums campaign, but it could happen, so I better talk real quick about movement through snow and dogsled speed.

Thick snow slows a man on foot down, from a Move of 60 ft./turn down to, most likely 30 ft./turn (depending on conditions).  A dogsled can, initially, haul at a speed of 65 ft./turn and keep this rate of speed up for 1d6 hours (with an "exploding die" -- on a 6, the dogs can be kept going another 1d6 hours at the same speed).  Eventually, a dogsled is going to slow down to a speed of 40 ft./turn.

But, the real advantage of the dogsled isn't speed; it's avoiding fatigue. A man on foot, walking at speed through heavy snow, is going to be constantly fatigued. A man riding on a dogsled is always fresh and vital.

Bear in mind that the revised version of H&H is going to have slightly different Movement rules and may or may not have a fatigue rule...

Long before Daredevil, Moon Mullins here introduces us to the first boomerang in comic books. The boomerang is going to be a standard equipment weapon in the next edition of H&H.

Don Winslow U.S.N. goes diving in this installment, wearing an antique diving suit (or, by the 1940s, is already an antique) and carrying an electric lamp. The flashlight is standard equipment in H&H, but how the electric light is carried should be mere flavor text.

No, the more interesting thing here is the natural trap of the undertow.  An Editor could go one of two ways here: either making the diver make a save vs. science each turn (exploration turns) underwater to avoid being swept off in the undertow, or make an item save vs. non-Superhero wrecking (as found in the back of Book II: Mobsters & Trophies) each turn until the line is broken.

Captain Nimbo is not a very impressive villain name, but that suit of diving armor Nimbo is wearing certainly is.  I would probably treat that as a flak jacket, or Armor Class 5.

Water moccasins are rare in comics, but one of the more dangerous snakes one is likely to run into in a realistic scenario. Although they only have 1 hit point (1/6 HD), their bite requires a save vs. poison or the victim will be stunned by pain for 1d6 turns.

A giant water moccasin, though, would be up to 24 ft. long, have 1+1 HD, and a potentially lethal bite. Wait to see if that makes it into the next edition!

And, lastly, in the horrendously named White Boy in Skull Valley, we see more environmental affects on characters in the game, this time in a dust storm. Each turn spent in a dust storm without adequate shelter or protection, a Hero should have to save vs. science for each of these conditions: blinded for 1d6 turns, deafened for 1d6 turns, or choking for 1d4 points of damage!

It is also worth pointing out that, under normal conditions, wind does not affect one's chance to hit with missile weapons at all.  Particularly strong gusts, however, like before a dust storm, may confer some penalty at the Editor's discretion.

Popular Comics #5

This issue leads off with Dick Tracy conducting a raid, with all the beat cops and detectives (1st and 2nd level Fighters) carrying axes!  We also get a neat trick where Tess Trueheart's kidnappers communicate with her only using a loudspeaker projected through a fan, so she won't be able to identify their voices. And lastly, we get to see the benefits of having a telephone lineman as a Supporting Cast Member (good for snooping on phone calls!).

Tom Mix demonstrates the Cowboy stunt Quick Draw.

And here demonstrates the Summon Horse stunt.

Should disguise and voice mimicry be stunts?  Disguise is a solid maybe.

The bears in Hideouts & Hoodlums Book II: Mobsters & Trophies are brown bears, but even that entry mentions polar bears as having slightly more Hit Dice (probably 8).

Lariats are going to be a common weapon in the next edition.

Don Winslow U.S.N. shares an interesting idea for a code. The zig-zag code works like this:  break the message in two, one line spaced alternatingly over the other, then read in order from left to right in both lines at once.

Lost worlds often are full of gold. The Experience Point value is enormous, but the challenge is getting it all back home.

Bandits normally have leaders no higher than 4th level, but if this leader is really a general, then that makes him at least 8th level.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum at http://www.digitalcomicmuseum.org/index.php?dlid=3349)