Tip Top Comics #32, 35, 42

Almost caught up and going to be done with Tip Top Comics soon!  Woo!

Pricing information: $2 gets you a boy's shirt. Not as high-quality a shirt as Frankie supposed, since it tears so easily, but this ties in with what I was talking about yesterday; keeping starting price points really low, but increasing the price along with quality.

We have recently seen a heroic black lifeguard in the pages of this comic book, but we have perhaps seen no black character as heroic as this racistly-drawn maid who risks her neck to protect Frankie and disciplines the villain in the end.

I included this story because a jewel that can share a preprogrammed phantasmal image showing why the jewel was given as a gift seems like a pretty neat magic item for the game.

I include this one because the Mobster Manual is going to have an entry for sphinxes and I was perplexed by this reference to sphinxes having to do with the number seven. I have done some cursory research and can find no evidence to back this one up -- unless it is an obscure reference to the theory once proposed that the answer to the Sphinx's Riddle ("What has four legs in the morning," etc.) is the philosopher's stone, and the philosopher's stone apparently has some numerical symbolism with seven.

Jumping ahead to March 1939 (vol. 3, no. 11), we rejoin Hawkshaw discovering a gas trap with an unusual -- and a bit unbelievable -- trigger. I would not think the balloons would be able to fall onto even the sharpest arrowheads hard enough to pop them, assuming the arrowheads stayed upright...although, maybe razor-sharp caltrops would work?

I was really expecting there to be something in that barrel before Pastey rolled it at the cops ... glue, oil, razor-sharp caltrops, maybe? I guess it didn't matter because, if a barrel is rolling fast enough and hits your wheel hard enough, maybe it could do this kind of damage...? This will need to be an obstacle in vehicular combat.

If you've ever wondered where monkey sidekicks in comic books come from, you could buy them in pet stores, according to Dick Moores.

For all your 1939 selfie needs, yes, cameras had timers back then.

And we return to Hawkshaw now a few months later (Oct. 1939, vol. 4, no. 6) because he's encountered some traps both mundane and hi-tech. A mundane trap is having trellises appear to be easy access to your hideouts' second story windows, but then rig the trellises so they are easy to push over, or to fall on their own. A hi-tech trap is to rig machinery to the window that passes current through it, shocking anyone who comes in for x amount of damage.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Tip Top Comics #30, 32

Today's entry might be mostly price examples, but we'll get to game mechanics later on.

First, in Fritzi Ritz, Nancy finds a wishing stone that doesn't work for her -- but this made me think about wishes, or just powerful magic in general, and the issue of how common these things should be in a Hideouts & Hoodlums campaign. Should a wishing stone be just randomly hidden in plain view in the urban setting, that the Heroes may or may not find? Or

should it be at the end of a long quest involving beating dragons and giants?

In the next page, Fritzi rents a canoe for $3, and that does seem like a lot, because Ella Cinders was able to rent both a boat and aquaplane for just $3 per 15 minutes three issues ago. Now, maybe Fritzi can keep the canoe much longer, but the point to remember here is that you can't separate Heroes from the money they've been accumulating with high starting price points,

because that's not how things worked in the '30s and '40s. You didn't just go up to a guy with a canoe and offer him $100 to buy it outright; he'd look at you funny like you were up to no good, or trying to pull one over on him.

Also, on the subject of pricing, Frankie Doodle buys baloney by the nickel and buns are two for a nickel at the grocery store.

I can never tell if the dates are legitimate or just made-up, but How It Began seems to be legit when it gives us things like a timeline for bullfighting -- which could be handy during a time travel adventure. You wouldn't want to plan a bullfighting scene in a 1350 scenario and have a smart player telling you that bullfighting wasn't happening then.

Electric toasters for just 69 cents. Granted, it's a special sale price, but still...

We're now jumping ahead to vol. 3, no. 8 (Dec. 1938).

We do have a game mechanics issue to discuss on this one. The grappling rules, as they currently stand, require both the attacker and defender to spend the whole combat turn making grappling attempts at each other; the only time a bonus action is inserted is when the victim wins initiative before the grappling combat starts. But here, the Professor is able to get "bonus actions" of slipping capsules out of his belt and rubbing them under noses during grappling. Or is he? He doesn't manage to when facing a Hero in battle, and I've already established that the Editor can hand-wave combat rules applying to non-Heroes.

As to the wrestling moves: the "aeroplane spin" is a simple throw. I don't have a good equivalent for the drop kick, but I don't think I would count that as a grappling move anyway; kicking is just another form of unarmed combat and I treat it no differently than punching.

I'm not going to bother showing you how Jim Hardy finds the clue that there's a secret door by the half-footprints right up against the wall, and I'm going to spare you how Dick Moores consistently spells clue as "clew", but I did want to show you this page because of the example of how the catch for opening a secret door can be hidden in plain sight. Also, the novelty diner as hideout was an idea I thought worth sharing.

Here we see that animal attacks can disarm as well as attacks from people (indeed, just a page earlier, a mountain lion swats Bill's rifle from his hands in almost identical fashion).

Large eagles might need to get statted at some point, as this one is strong enough to partially raise a young man into the air. It's tricky to do and stick to my formula of 1 hp = 30 lbs, since the largest eagles in real life are no more than 17 lbs.

And now we come full circle back to Fritzi Ritz, with an idea you can use in your hideouts -- a trophy room where all the animals are stuffed, except for one real one hiding among the others, that can really attack!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Tip Top Comics #29, 30

Moving on to vol. 3, no. 5 (Sept. 1938), we rejoin Broncho Bill as he's doing some trick shooting. But how we do make this work in game mechanics? How do we transfer the shooting attack to a deflect-hot-poker-into-face attack? A push attack against a non-living object? Yes, that's possible. A stunt? I've written at length about using the Mysteryman class to emulate cowboys (en lieu of needing a separate Cowboy class), but stunts are supposed to be separate from combat (so as not to eclipse the  

need for the Fighter class). But what if that was made different for Cowboys? What if Cowboys could use stunts in combat for trick shots, as long as the shots did not directly hit a living target? That might work, as long as the Cowboys gave up some other benefit of the Mysteryman class, for balance.

Now, on this strip, we learn that falling 175' means "certain death," which may seem strange to our eyes because we're used to thinking of 175' feet as 17d6 damage and, under normal  

circumstances, that only causes unconsciousness in Hideouts & Hoodlums. But this is a case that almost screams out for realism; perhaps a house rule that 60 points of damage all at once always causes death would not be unreasonable.

I don't get the joke in Benny (not unusual, I never find this one funny), but it does give us the prices for men's hats ($3-5), gum (1 cent), and haircuts (20 cents). It's also worth mentioning that this looks much closer to a gumball machine than the gum vending machine we saw in Chris Crusty just days ago.

Wow, this is one mean-spirited fun house. Is that clown zapping Phil with a cattle prod? There is some great fodder here that I wish I'd seen soon enough to send to Jo Kreil before module RT2 Adventures in Fun World got written!

 The amethyst story is somewhat interesting, but the true "gem" here is "The Enchanted Cave of Richmond Hill." Now, I don't believe that was really King Arthur in the cave, because why would Arthur have a diamond-encrusted sword with him when Excaliber was returned to the Lady of the Lake? But the idea of a spooky cave that looks trapped, but actually rewards you if you're brave enough to go up and touch stuff -- that idea I'm stealing.

Now we're moving on to vol. 3, no. 6 (Oct. 1938).

You've never seen Divot Diggers on this blog before, as it's a super-specific subject for a comic strip and doesn't lend itself to adventure. But, it does give us some pricing hints this issue,

starting with $20 for what I'm guessing is some kind of medicinal liniment, and then in the next one the remarkable sum of $500 for a rug (though we've talked before here about how, while many things were cheap in the 1930s, there was still plenty of high-priced stuff for the rich to blow their money on). The lesson here is, when

looting a hideout, check those rugs to see if they're valuable (and try not to get any blood on them!).

We haven't seen much of Joe Jinks on this blog, and certainly not since he started teaming up with Dynamite Dunn. I still don't care for either character, but I do like the snooty rich boxer they encounter here (stealing that character!). I also share this because this is the first I've ever heard of a boxer's license badge.

And lastly, while I get that this is just a stage magician and likely not a true Magic-User, I'm intrigued by some of the tricks he does and wonder if we need to discuss how they would work in H&H. Many of these stunts -- the rabbit out of the hat, the box sawed in half, the disappearing juggling balls, are just sleight of hand tricks and, hence, require expert skill checks. But, I can't say I've ever heard of a stage magician appearing to impale his assistant with a sword before. Could that be an actual spell -- and what spell would it be? Phantasmal Image of a sword, perhaps?

...I also don't get the "Rubber!" joke at the end.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Tip Top Comics #26, 27

Welcome back! Still going through back issues of Tip Top Comics, and we're still on v. 3, no. 2 (June 1938) from last time. I actually don't have a lot of game mechanics to discuss this time, so let's just jump in so I can talk about why I've chosen these pages to discuss.

This page is rather exciting because -- well, look at that lifeguard! At this same time, Centaur Comics was still publishing minstrel show-type strips of blacks eating watermelon, and here we have a normal-looking black man, acting in a heroic manner.

Less PC as far as devils are concerned, How It Began has a very interesting history of cider that makes me want to run a medieval campaign like this someday, where the Devil isn't evil so much as he's just lazy, and you never know where you might trip over him.

There is a lot of filler in this issue, which means more learning for me; I never knew this about envelopes.

We're now in vol. 3, no. 3 (July 1938).

I had never encountered the term "sky pilot" before being used to refer to a preacher. It certainly gives new meaning to the 1960s song for me.

I'm so amused by this page, probably more than I should be. Just the thought of running scared from a cow...

The polevaulting over a river that wide-looking would probably take a stunt, or at least an expert skill check (atheletes can clear 20').

Both a boat and aquaplane can be rented here for just $3 per 15 minutes. Of course, the operative word here is rented. Most businessmen will be disinclined to rent to vigilante heroes, as they tend to get things wrecked.

I'm really surprised this was ever published, teaching kids how to make firecracker bombs in people's cars and telling them it's a funny prank adults do too? Geez.

Well, this is how you set a bomb in a car with a firecracker and some spark plug wires, apparently. Knock yourselves out, future H&H Heroes needing a diversion.

In module RT 1 Palace of the Vamp Queen, I added a table that was really useful for me, a list of random things mobsters might have in their pockets. I'm pretty sure they are on it, but I'll have to go back and see if I thought of handkerchiefs, cigarettes, and a license. I'm really surprised a common mobster would be carrying $485 on him, unless he just came back from a job. Although...I'm thinking from my modern perspective of how little cash I need to carry around these days, thanks to debit cards. Maybe, back when we paid for everything in cash, this wasn't so extraordinary? If so, then I would need to rethink $1 = 1 xp if I was going to have wallets this full.

I'm hoping this filler was well-researched, because I'm certainly putting a lot of stock in it lately. This is a fascinating explanation of where the Jack and Jill story came from that I'd never heard before.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Tip Top Comics #23, 24, 26

Jim Hardy is really taking over Tip Top Comics around this time, as other features like Peter Pat get wrapped up. Further down this page you'll see one page where Jim Hardy is intentionally dressed like Dick Tracy -- and suddenly the inspiration for this strip is crystal clear, even why he picks up a Junior-like sidekick in this storyline. And it turns out that Dick Moores was once Chester Gould's assistant on Dick Tracy, confirming my guess.

This is from vol. 2, no. 11 (Mar. 1938)...

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Game notes: There are three ways that someone can be killed by hitting them with a vehicle in Hideouts & Hoodlums.  One, the Editor can simply change the mood
level of the campaign to be more lethal (this was discussed

more in 1st edition). Two, the Editor can rule that non-Heroes, or at least unnamed non-Hero characters, can be killed instantly. Three, the Editor could rule that hitting the victim knocks him unconscious, and then running him over is a separate attack that does additional, killing damage.

It seems unlikely that The Kid (I don't think he has a name yet) is tactically inclined enough to transfer damage into pushing attacks to try and knock the hoodlums off the train. There may be environmental factors in play, like the pitching and swaying of the train, that make the Editor declare that any damage necessitates a save vs. science or be thrown from the train, making combat as challenging for Jim as it is for the hoodlums.

In Little Mary Mixup, we see rabbits can be bought for $1 each. I'm not sure what good rabbits will do for the average Hero, though maybe a magic-user would like one for pulling out of his hat?

There are some tips here for keeping the challenge level not too high for solo play and low-level Heroes: keep hit points low on bad guys, even if they have more than 1 Hit Die. Be prepared to give away modifiers you would not normally give out, like maybe an Armor Class bonus for swinging on a rope while being attacked with missile weapons.

If running a game for half-pint Heroes, you could cut them some slack on skill checks like balancing on a beam, since that should be easy for them given their small size and low center of balance. But still reward them for coming up with grownup ideas, like juryrigging grappling hooks out of rocks.

How It Began proves useful filler again. I don't know where it got this idea about a charming dragon with emerald eyes from, but now I want to stat an emerald dragon for H&H really bad!

We come back around to Jim Hardy again in v. 2, no. 12 (Apr. 1938). The issue here is, would a steel door stop an explosion that can blow up an entire wooden building? It's almost an academic question, because it's not necessary that the steel door works; all we know is that the hoodlums think it will work. I don't think it would...

Now we're in vol. 3, no. 2 (June 1938) already, and this is that page I mentioned with the Dick Tracy outfit on Jim. We also learn here that a bouquet of roses cost $3.50.

Checking in on The Captain and the Kids again, I'm struck by the unusual situation of the mount turning around and biting its rider. I doubt that happens often, but it's worth bearing in mind that when trying out a new mount, the Editor should always make an encounter reaction roll for it to see how it reacts.

Curiously, the circus man says Blackie is going to get a two-bit (25-cent) ticket, but later he's sitting in the reserved seating where the seats cost $2.50. That's a really big range of pricing, like if I could go to the movies today and choose between $5 seating and $50 seating.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Tip Top Comics #6

Today we're going to go way, way back to catch something we missed before -- that comicbookplus.com actually has a pretty good collection of Tip Top Comics, from United Features.  Now we're going to be taking a detour backwards for a while and catch up.

And we'll be starting all the way back to Oct. 1936 for this blast from the past (if some of this gives you deja vu, it's because most of these features were also published in Comics on Parade). And first, I'm just going to show you this page of gag filler because I think half of it (all the left half too) is really funny.

In the middle of this silly page is some interesting problem-solving when it comes to crossing a chasm, or preventing others from crossing a chasm behind you.

I thought I should include this because it's so hard for people today to wrap their minds around how difficult cross-country communication used to be. "Six bits" is 75 cents -- almost the cost of a meal back then -- to make one long distance phone call.

I think I've written before about using "punk" as another name for wimpy hoodlums, the mobstertype at the absolute bottom of that particular hierarchy.

But I'm interested in this notion behind wedding feasts. A spell that would allow you to control someone once you have access to their table scraps? What would you even call that? Charm through Leftovers? But it does bear more thought...

Hideouts & Hoodlums players who come from a D&D tradition often know to listen at doors, but how many of them also sniff at doors? The chances of detecting something would be the same (= basic skill check), but the question here is, should it apply to a smell check coming from two rooms away? Depending on the strength of the odor, I might upgrade it to an expert skill check, or make it ineligible for a check at all.

Price check: $10 dresses.

This is an interesting point. Normally, there is no restriction on movement in combat, but should that always be true while grappling? As a general rule, I like encouraging movement in combat; it keeps things interesting to not be standing in one place the whole battle. So I would say that your opponent has to have at least a partial hold on you to curtail your movement.

We see a surprisingly few giant squids in comic books; most artists seemed to prefer making giant octopi instead.

I really like that design of a diving bell with mechanical arms. Half-robot maybe?

The mushroom is a Consumable of Diminution.

This also makes me want to run the classic D&D module Dungeonland, but for H&H...

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)