Funny Pages #10

Let's open this post with one of those educational pages the old comic used to love padding their page count out with. Weasels have a reputation for being nasty - as this author seems to agree with -- but the average weasel is just too small to do much harm to someone, even if it would attack a person. I'd rate them, generously, as 1-2 hit points and able to do that much in damage by biting.  Otters are 1/2 HD animals, while arctic foxes would be 1-1 HD. Minks are too small to rate as dangerous.

Jimmy, of Jimmy and Jean, seems to be extraordinarily lucky here.  First he lucks out with a mobster who can't tie knots well, and then when he needs a weapon he finds floorboards that are easily pulled out.  Both might be instances of an overly generous Editor, but could just as easily be a combination of proactive playing and lucky dice rolls.  If one of my players asked me if his Hero could wriggle free from the ropes binding him, rather than just say no, I might allow a save vs. science or plot for success.  And if my player really wanted a floorboard for a weapon (though I don't know why e wouldn't just use the chair), then a save vs. plot might determine if he can find one rotten enough to dislodge.

In the Mythic West, starting a barroom brawl might only get you a $12 fine, as it does here for the Red Avenger.



(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Funny Pages #6

This is the Sapphire Eye of Sehkmet. You can tell the silver-tongued characters by the size of their word balloons.  Should "silver-tongued" be a stunt?  Cash it in and you get an auto success on a encounter reaction roll or SCM recruitment roll?  It bears consideration.

Every Editor/Dungeon Master/Game Referee runs into this problem sooner or later.  You want a dying messenger to deliver a cryptic, suspenseful clue to the Heroes, but what to do the players do?  Instead of saying "You're wounded!  Speak to me!" they say "Don't speak, just rest.  Here, I've got a first aid kit..." or they just cast a cure spell and fix the problem even sooner!  Now there's no shortage of information they can get out of your dying messenger.

Hideouts & Hoodlums, at least, gives the Editor the out of the save vs. plot mechanic.  You want to violate the tropes of adventure fiction and save a guy clearly meant to die to service the plot?  Roll for it!

Reading the craziness that is The Stone Age usually hurts my brain, but at least this time we get a possible gaming tip out of it.  I've previously discussed what to do with skunks in the game, but here we see skunks being used to trigger morale saves.

Loony Louie the Fire Chief buys a magic trophy, a -- what should we call that?  A Flute of Rope Tricks?  Playing it allows him to control the movement of rope or something shaped like a rope, like a fire hose, within 5' of him.  H&H players should not normally expect to be able to buy magic trophies on the street, though.

Now, you and I both know that there is no reason Jimmy and Jean could not have simply sat in their car and waited for the storm to pass.  It is simply a trope of fiction that, when it is stormy outside, you must seek shelter in a strange building, no matter how creepy and suspicious it is.  So, Heroes should have to save vs. plot to resist seeking shelter when storms come.



(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)