Prize Comics #2 - pt. 3

One last page of Jupiter to look at. It should surprise no one that microzoric isn't a real thing. The effect of the ray is impossibly fast, but consistent with how illogical comic book science works. 

Ganging up on the mad scientists, though, that seems like pretty sound psychology. I can also understand the mad scientist, overpowered by all that magic, committing suicide to regain some control.

We get a Mass Teleport spell again, suggesting Jupiter is actually 16th level. The spell he hints at in the end is a much simpler spell-version of Sense Friend in Need. 

That looks like it might actually be a map of the Congo, showing the lost city of Tsul in the southeast corner, in the Mitumba Mountains, which actually makes sense for hiding a city. 

But the real reason I took a close look at this page was the notion of a collapsible canoe. I wasn't sure that was a thing, but apparently it is, and that would be a handy thing to put on an expanded starting equipment list at some time.    

This is interesting to me, as it seems there was a good chance Laura would have drowned had Jaxon not saved her, as if Jaxon made a save vs. science to avoid drowning and Laura didn't, but him helping her convinced the Editor to give her another save?

"Who are those strange creatures?" "Whoa, Laura, that is uncalled for and horribly racist! Those are just black men, not strange creatures! Geez!" Laura might be racist, but the artist treats them pretty decently, with un-typically realistic depictions.

A jaguar is pretty cool for a boss monster's pet.

The start of this story was pretty solid, but it got downright weird by now. The story here is that she's leading them to the secret exit only she knows about to get of Laura, so her husband can't replace her with Laura...but killing Laura would do the same thing, and sending her to walk into fire would sure accomplish that. And yet, amazingly, there really is an exit behind the ever-burning cave mouth. There should be no save for this one, running through fire automatically does damage in Hideouts & Hoodlums.

It gets weirder to find the lost city's treasure is sitting in a cave halfway to the exit instead of, you know, somewhere in the lost city. 

And then there's the matter of how they're even seeing the treasure and the snakes...in a cave, in complete darkness. I think I count nine vipers in that last panel.

It keeps coming. The twist ending of the disguised professor comes out of nowhere and throws everyone off so much that they forget all about the fact that there is still another way into the city of Tsul, so dumping the dynamite into the hole and caving in the exit caves doesn't really hide anything. And that's not even bringing up the racist depiction marring the last panel, after blacks were treated fairly normal the rest of the story.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

  

 

 

 

Prize Comics #1 - pt. 4

We're back with Jaxon of the Jungle, just in time to see Jaxon go up against wild pigs! These boars look small enough to be juvenile boars, which makes it even more unseemly when he starts gutting one. There's got to be better ways to earn experience points, Jaxon!

Note how Tarpe doesn't, to her credit, draw blacks as caricatures, though we see plenty of stereotypical behavior, like being superstitious, cowardly, and on a later page, prone to alcoholism.

The constrictor snake is obviously a random encounter. But is the village? Editors who are not working from detailed maps sometimes randomly generate details as significant as village placement, or even just make it all up as they go. However, since this particular village figures into the plot, it seems more likely to have been premeditated.

This page, combined with the last, suggests that fatigue can be relieved by a short nap, or rest.

That poor native guard only wanted to come in and discuss the poems of Lewis Carroll with them, and look how they treat him!

I'm generally opposed to guns in both comic books and RPGs, even though I had to include them in Hideouts & Hoodlums to emulate their consistent usage, and the fact that my players love using them. Something I am okay with guns being used for in-game is holding your enemies at bay, by creating a line of fire that is dangerous for them to cross.

Any attack on a plane can cause a complication, even if it's a flaming spear.

"Scattering" isn't a game mechanic that guns can do, directly. Rather, they failed a morale save because they were being shot at by someone they could not attack back (not a situation covered in the rules, but a common sense reason to give a morale save).

Moving on, we'll join the debut of M-11. This page interests me for several reasons. One, "Empress of Auckland" feels like such a realistic name, I wondered if there really was a ship called this. Not that I found, but I did find a plane called The Empress of Auckland, a Douglas DC-6B, that would later fly, starting in 1961!

And that $200 million in gold is not that unrealistic either, as over 140 tons of gold were transported to the U.S. in the early days of WWII. The unlikely part is it all coming on just one ship.

A villain with no fingernails on one hand is a creepy detail to use in your games!

How do you pull off someone's glove, using game mechanics? I think it would be sleight of hand, practiced as a skill. If you're just forcefully yanking it off without any attempt to go unnoticed, I might call that a basic skill check with a -1 bonus modifier, but if you were trying to pull the glove off so that the wearer doesn't notice, that would be an expert skill check.

I've talked about extenuating circumstances to add saving throws for additional penalties in addition to taking damage (like if you're leaning over a railing), as well as rolling to hit to grab something, before, and won't go into detail about them again this time.

The H&H rules do talk about using fire to create boundaries that are damaging to cross, but this is a different scenario where the fire is being used to create a boundary a vehicle won't cross. And it does make sense, if crossing the line of fire triggers a complication check, which is the way I'm still leaning towards handling damage vs. vehicles.

And the last story we're going to look at today is K the Unknown, a mysteryman in uncommonly orange long underwear.

I share this page because a good tactic for the Editor is to have mobsters doing more than just attack the Heroes; it gives the players more to react to and make decisions about during encounters. Here, K has to stay and fight or head after Terry.

K uses a smart tactic to lure a mobster outside and question him alone, rather than beard them all in their lair and then try and get answers.

Judging by what's on the table on the last panel, we might be dealing with drunken hoodlums here.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Prize Comics #1 - pt. 3

Today we start with the third feature, Jupiter the Master Magician. He's our second alien magic-user after Magician from Mars (in fact, the inspiration should be obvious).

Is Jupiter using magic words, or just talking in his native tongue?

Since Jupiter is "sent" to Earth, we don't have to speculate about what spell he used to cover   628,743,036 km. Perhaps it is some super-teleporter that his people have back at home. 

That Jupiter is "in his visible form" means that people from Jupiter are naturally invisible. This does not conform to the alien race available to players...but then, we never see him invisible, so perhaps this is just flavor text.

It's hard to blame this passerby for being suspicious. For one thing, your name being the same as the planet you're from is just plain weird, like being an Earth magician called Earth. Weirder still are those antennae that look like tiny pencils on his forehead.

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Jupiter appears to be using a Telekinesis spell to move about 400 tons of railroad cars -- which is way, way beyond what the Telekinesis spell can currently move in Hideouts & Hoodlums. We might need some new variations of Telekinesis, like:

Telekinesis I (1st-level spell): Can move 30 lbs.

Telekinesis II: (2nd-level spell): Can move 300 lbs. 

Telekinesis III (3rd-level spell): Can move 1 ton.

Telekinesis IV: Can move 6 tons.

Telekinesis V: Can move 50 tons.

Telekinesis VI: Can move 400 tons.

This goes a long way towards balancing out spells to powers, with powers currently being much more powerful. However...I'm not comfortable enough with this yet to make it official.

Of course, this also means Jupiter has a whopping 11 brevet ranks.

The super-fast flying that takes place between panels 3 and 4 could just be Teleport.

Jupiter either has a Crystal Ball as a magic item, or this is flavor text accompanying the use of a Clairvoyance spell.

As uncomfortable as I am with Telekinesis being as powerful as I made it above, I'm about equally uncomfortable with the caster not needing line-of-sight with what he's mentally moving.

*Sigh* Am I going to need a new spell called Crack Mountain? Actually, the 7th level spell Earthquake might account for this geological behavior, but that still puts Jupiter in Stardust territory for being ridiculously overpowered.

It amazes me that a mob boss can hear that Jupiter split a mountain in half, and then is ballsy enough to think siccing three hit men on Jupiter is going to be sufficient to deal with him. I'm not saying Golden Age mobsters are all dumb, but they are incredibly naive about the risks they are dealing with.

How to determine when torture is effective? Jim Johnson could get a save vs. science to resist the pain of the foot toasting, but if he's supporting cast and no Hero is present, I would probably just wing the results.

This time, Jupiter seems to be scrying through a real Crystal Ball, as the Clairvoyance spell would not let him find a person far away like that.

There's so much wrong with this -- is Jupiter sure he has the right address? Is he sure no innocents live -- lived -- in that building?

Mechanics-wise, he's either cast Earthquake again, or...perhaps like Stardust, Jupiter needs to be statted as a Magic-User/Superhero and has used wrecking things on the building.

So, when someone says invisible in this story, what they really mean is intangible. This makes me think we should stat Jupiter as a ghost instead of an alien.








Wall of Steel isn't a far cry from the 5th level spell we already have, Wall of Iron.

That is one strange-looking emergency chute -- is it lined with copper wire? Also, where was it? Behind a secret door?


Jupiter makes some cryptic comments about Jim being able to learn magic someday. The H&H rules deal with sharing XP with your Supporting Cast when they have a Hero class, but what if they don't? The rules don't deal with how long it takes to become a classed character, and this is entirely left to the discretion of the Editor. Unless future issues actually show Jim learning magic, we don't even have an example of this yet to emulate with the rules. 





It's completely unclear what spell Jupiter casts that makes them lose control of their car. What is clear is that Jupiter can casts spells through the Crystal Ball, making that one very powerful Crystal Ball.

Lastly, for today, we're going to take a peek at the next story, Jaxon of the Jungle, by Tarpe Mills.

Let's discuss what a "portable wireless set" would be in 1940. It looks pretty clear from the picture that it is a wireless telegraph, and that tech has been around since 1830. Wireless radio has been around since 1900. 

It's interesting reverse psychology to have a non-Hero character try to stop your Heroes from pursuing the scenario at gunpoint. It might make them all the more determined to finish the scenario -- or they might just beat up this first guy and think they're done!

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)