Silver Streak Comics #3 - pt. 2

Not many days left in December to work on the ol' blog, but let's try to get through Silver Streak Comics #3, if nothing else.

This is the last page of Bill Wayne, the Texas Terror. Here he consistently shoots twice per turn, but I already discussed ways of accounting for that in the Hideouts & Hoodlums rules last time. This time, I want to point out the neck sheathe for a concealed knife -- and what an insanely dangerous place to store a knife that seems to be, to me.

Panel 5 is a clear example of simultaneous initiative.

Now we're going to look in on Lance Hale again, comics' only loincloth-clad interplanetary warrior.

That is one incredibly durable spaceship, since it is traveling faster than light when it crash lands. No one inside is even harmed!

Traveling faster than time transports you, not into the past or future, but into spirit-land here, which is a highly unusual twist. Spirit-land is inhabited by beast men (long ago presented as a playable race for 1st ed H&H in...one of the Trophy Case issues; I forget which one...).

How kind of the artist not to burden us with having to view that ferocious battle!

Here is some unusual evolutionary science: spiritmen have no bodies, but are somehow able to interact with Lance and grapple him. Having no souls puts them just below mankind "in the cycle of evolution." How did they evolve to have no souls or bodies?

As a reminder, Lance wears an armband that lets him operate as a superhero, wrecking things like chains (the door category) with ease.

That is a highly untraditional Crystal Ball, giving bodies to body-less beings instead of scrying.

Or is the Crystal Ball only an illusion generator? King Loti is revealed as a beastman...or a kenku...or a type I demon?

Can spiritmen/beastmen turn invsible, or is King Loti a beastman magic-user?

And what manner of invisibility is this, that Lance can see him but Dr. Grey can't. This is not like the Invisibility spell, so it must be a special ability of spiritmen, one that gives a saving throw vs. spells to resist.

Here we have the age-old question that has always plagued D&D -- how to adjudicate disbelieving in illusions? It seems that Lance here gets a saving throw just by stating the intention to disbelieve, or to "use his own will power."

Here's a special rule that will keep players from attempting to disbelieve in illusions all willy-nilly: disbelieving in one is so draining that you are too weak too move -- essentially paralyzed -- for 1-4 turns afterwards.

A chair is soft cover, improving Lance's AC by 1 (which he desperately needs, since he's almost naked).

Dr. Grey is taking quite a chance on a scheme that doesn't make much sense. Why does he need a silver bowl to disbelieve in illusions? And what if the spiritmen weren't illusions? Or are spiritmen always illusions?

This is from the next feature, Ace Powers. Here we have a very rare complication from combat -- arm paralysis caused by taking damage. Now, we could make up a new rule that any head blow that doesn't cause unconscious has a chance of a different result, and we could even design a random table for that...but the paralyzed arm doesn't here really change the combat any, so it passes the smell test for flavor text to me.

Tying the Hero to a steam radiator seems a low-key deathtrap that I'm surprised we've never seen before. Since the steam has to build slowly, it could start as 1 point of heat damage in turn 1, 1-2 points in turn 2, and so on.

This is one of those strange instances in comic books where taking damage causes consciousness instead of unconsciousness. It runs counter-intuitive to how damage works in both H&H and, frankly, every game system I can think of.

Duplicate keys must be like a skeleton key.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Silver Streak Comics #2 - pt. 3

We're back with Red Reeves, Boy Magician.  We might need a mass fly spell, or a flying carpet spell, that explains how magic-users are able to transport others with them like this.

But then we get to the house and, well, this was a mighty complicated wish Tom made. The genie has allegedly created a house, teleported the wife and child there, and stocked it with "everything."  That's got to be a wish spell.  Although...perhaps the genie simply gave them someone else's abandoned house, or even removed the original occupants!

And then there's this curious exchange (or how it should have happened):

"Dad, can you find a place for Jordan?"

"I don't know...he did try to rob us; I'm not sure if I can trust him....Wait, why are you looking at me like that? Don't use your magic on me!  I'll do whatever you say!"

The elements of Spanish reveal that this jungle must be the Amazon Jungle in South America, for a change!

I haven't actually been running grappling rules as-written for some time. Instead of having the attacker and the defender make different kinds of rolls, I've been making them both make attack rolls. This way, no one is a defender in combat; both sides wind up being grappling attackers.

The other change I'm tempted to try is have multiple attackers add their attack scores together for comparison, but that's going to make it almost impossible for a single target to avoid being overwhelmed, which may be the best reason of all to treat one side as the defender. With different game mechanics, the defender saves to resist each attacker, eliminating much of the advantage that stacking combat scores would give one side.

I finally solved the problem of non-superheroes snapping all these bonds by giving everyone the wrecking things mechanic, but at one die less.

I don't think I've ever had a player who would fall for this "I had to kidnap you first to get you to accept this plot hook" story...

There may be something to this...I can't find evidence of anyone lifting more than 500 lbs. until 1970 (Vasily Alekseyev).

"I'm going to take you on a fantastic adventure...but first you have to step alone into this cave with me and strip down to your underwear..."  Yeah, I don't think I've had any players who would go along with this either!

The implication seems to be that the needle is inserting some sort of drug into the over-stressed muscles, making Lance the first weightlifter to get ahead via doping.

As for uprooting the tree, I could see a case for both wrecking things and the power Raise Car being used here.

This "done in one punch" approach to early comic book fights is something I normally ignore for Hideouts & Hoodlums...yet, here, I wonder if one could make a case for the Super Punch power being activated.

Leopards are statted as cougars in H&H and are found already in both editions.

I have never considered super-brachiation a necessary superpower...and still don't.  But I see where this feature is going now, turning Lance into Super-Tarzan!

Here's some an astronomy lesson for us. Our still-unnamed scientist has charted his way to a planet that he thinks won't be visible until they pass Saturn. Then how has he charted something he can't see? The answer is math! Indeed, Neptune was discovered the same way, before telescopes could spot it.

So what planet are they thinking they'll find? It can't be Pluto, because everyone knew about Pluto by 1930. But it was unknown that Pluto had moons until 1978. He may have miscalculated the mass of Pluto's five moons and thought it was enough mass to be a tenth planet.

The scientist is also injected with the super drug so he can withstand the pressure of escape velocity. Of course, astronauts will easily withstand that pressure in the future; maybe he was just looking for an excuse to shoot up...

Here we see thugs -- a very common mobster -- in action. 

NRC, very likely, intentionally looks like NBC, which had been on the radio since 1926. What throws me is the term "society deb singer." I can't find any evidence that this was a term used in radio, or would have any special meaning to the reader in 1940, other than to tell you that Doris Dare is young and well-bred. The name seems intentionally close to Doris Day, which is surprising because Doris Day had only begun her career in 1939 and would not become widely famous until 1945. This could be coincidental.

I'm not sure which of these facts speaks more poorly for sanitariums circa 1940 -- the fact that the attendant carries a big wooden club, or the fact that he seems fine with his patient going five days without eating. I don't know how much of this is true, but even half of it is true I sure am glad I'm not in 1940 and a sanitarium!

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)