More Fun #12

As we roll into August 1936, we are reminded that the Planet Saro is an awfully dangerous place, and how eventful any Hideouts & Hoodlums campaign would be if creatures from Saro wound up in an Earth-based campaign.  Here is the latest monstrosity Don Drake has to fight, boringly called the Land Monster. What it appears to be is a cross between a rhinoceros and a dragon, with greenish gray hide, a double horn, double tusks, and fire breath that roars out of its nostrils. I would probably use red dragon stats for this monster, though next issue will tell us how tough it is (since Don has a disentegrator in his hands, I'm guessing not very).

Buckskin Jim presents an interesting problem for a H&H Editor. When the trapper shoots into a melee, he's breaking a combat rule. But how tightly do you want to enforce that rule when Buckskin Jim is about to get killed?  An Editor might be forgiven for treating "no shooting into melee" as a loose guideline, or coming up with a compromise mechanic. An unofficial suggestion would be making a second attack roll against a different melee combatant (determined at random, if more than two combatants) if the initial attack misses by half or more.

Brad Hardy meets a Magic-User with an interesting new spell here. Ball of Fire is a sphere 7' in diameter that surrounds the caster and moves with him. Any combustibles touching the sphere catch fire and anyone trying to melee the Magic-User within the sphere takes 1-10 points of damage.  Further, the Magic-User enjoys a +2 bonus to saving throws vs. missiles made of wood, like arrows. I see this as being a 2nd level spell.



In the Doctor Occult feature, we learn that werewolves cast a wolf reflection in mirrors, even when in human form.

Wing Brady graces this blog again for this deathtrap he's placed in.  After being weakened by whipping, he's dangled by weak rope over a pit of poisonous reptiles. If he struggles too much, the ropes are supposed to break and drop him into the pit.  Of course, taking damage doesn't actually make you weaker in H&H, but being low in hit points will make him more likely to be killed by either the fall or the reptile bites.

In the Wake of the Wander is just one of several stories I've read (or re-read) recently that have made me question my original assumption that languages don't matter in H&H.  Yes, everyone speaks English in comic books (even aliens!), but sometimes you do need to send a coded message that not everyone around you will understand, like Morse code. Expect to see some revision here in the next edition.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

More Fun #8 - pt. 1

This issue starts out with a doozy of a trap -- or a doozy of a name for a trap.  Welcome to the Dungeon Well and the Balcony of Doom!  The trap is actually very simple.  A one-way door opens onto a balcony overlooking a vertical shaft with water at the bottom.  However, the level of the water in the shaft can be controlled by a levers at the top of the shaft, and the water can be raised all the way to the top of the shaft.  Shortly, anyone on the balcony drowns, floats off, and is flushed out to sea when the water level is dropped back down. Of course, one-way doors are no match for a Superhero's wrecking things ability, but Sandra of the Secret Service and her pals don't have that luxury...

A goat again!  Yes, I'm glad I statted goats already.  For some reason (mabe because it's funny), goats seem to be treated as fearsome antagonists. Maybe I should make them 1-1 Hit Dice!  This page also illustrates how useful they are for goat milk.

Things look grim here for Captain Grim!  Natives are statted in Book II: Mobsters & Trophies and I've already talked about jumping and falling as game mechanics, but here we have the added danger of a roof on fire!  Should Capt. Grim be taking damage each turn?

The flames certainly seem to be crowding right around Capt. Grim, though perhaps that is just artistic license. If the fire was in the same 10' square as Grim, then yes, Grim should be taking some damage each turn, from heat and smoke inhalation, if not the flames themselves.  I would recommend 1d6 damage, though a generous Editor could allow a saving throw vs. science each turn to avoid the damage. Of course, perhaps Grim is taking damage every turn, but he's just got so many hit points that it isn't bothering him yet!

"Non-Superhero wrecking things" at work, a mechanic squirreled away at the back of Book II.  An Editor could easily give a penalty to the item saving throw if a battering ram is used.

Aw, the apparitions we encountered last time with Slim Pickens turned out to be men in disguise.  Shades of Scooby Doo!  This time, Slim surprises us again by solving an encounter with a dangerous ape (statted in Book II as having 3 Hit Dice), not with combat, but by recruiting it as a Supporting Cast Member!  The original SCM rules were unclear on this, but a later clarification in a Q&A column of The Trophy Case ruled that, yes, you could recruit animal Supporting Case Members.

Mountain lions were statted in Supplement III: Better Quality, only called cougars.

Aboard the yacht, Barry O'Neill and Legrand encounter a trap combined with a trophy -- the statuette not only contains a radio transmitter that allows Fang Gow to talk to them, but the statuette is also a disguised raygun that combines the effects of a paralysis ray with hypnotism!  To be fair, I would allow one saving throw for both effects, rather than force the player to make two successful ones.

Note that the secret door the Yellow Peril Hoodlums (statted in Book II) use is a simple sliding panel.  Secret doors do not need to be complicated.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus at  http://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=11622&b=i)