Popular Comics #13

Nebbs reminds me that, when I statted half-pints for Hideouts & Hoodlums Book II: Mobsters & Trophies, I should have given them some natural climbing ability.

Maw Green's pearls of "wisdom" usually just annoy me, but this installment has some useful 1930s pricing information:  prunes – 10 cents a can, bananas – 15 cents a bunch, soup – 7 cents a can.

Dick Tracy runs into more "gangland trickery" -- a car with a concealed machine gun under the hood that shoots through the radiator grill. This is a good example of combining two hi-tech trophy items to create a new item.

Gasoline Alley features a map to a gold mine that you can read over Mr. Bat's shoulder and use in your home campaign.

This page of Tom Mix would take some explanation to fit H&H. First, he is hearing noise, as if at a door (with the same 2 in 6 chance of success).

The chance of the floor crumbling is a trap (perhaps a 2 in 6 chance of crumbling each turn 180+ lbs. remains on it).

Falling and landing on an opponent and damaging the opponent has been covered previously. Falling and landing on two opponents -- that's just a freebie from the Editor.

Here's another freebie -- apparently, the Editor rolled for surprise after Tom fell and gave him a free surprise turn to act. Normally, if the Editor felt the situation warranted a surprise roll, the mobsters could only be surprised long enough for Tom to get back on his feet, not to move as well.

The firefight in the dark is tricky too. Tom is in complete darkness, so the gunmen are at a -4 to hit penalty against him. But, the gunmen are in dim light -- a charitable assumption by muzzle flashes alone -- so Tom still has a -2 to hit them. That Tom hits them all with rocks before they shoot him is quite lucky.



I'm not sure, but remain skeptical that H&H needs a game mechanic to cover pinning someone's clothes to the wall. It seems more like flavor text to me...








Now, Don Winslow might be making sense -- I helped you against a rampaging jaguar, now you help me -- right? For a one-time favor, an Editor could easily hand-wave the encounter reaction roll and rule by common sense. However, if Don was looking to recruit those natives long-term, or to put them in mortal danger, then the Editor would still be right in rolling randomly for an encounter reaction.



Bos'n Hal learns that the U.S. Navy decided in the 1930s that dirigibles were obsolete, so they became available for sale (the police dirigibles on Batman: The Animated Series were probably Navy surplus dirigibles). However, given their limited availability and a presumedly high price, I still plan to keep them off the starting equipment list.

And, lastly, Skippy makes me think I may have underestimated how many hit points half-pints have. Or are these 3rd-level half-pint fighters?









(Scans courtesy Digital Comic Museum)

Popular Comics #7 - pt. 1

Another issue of Dell's Popular Comics has a lot to teach us!

Here, Gasoline Alley shows us that Fighters should be able to climb.  Well, actually, I think every class should have the ability to climb trees. Some games would just assign a big modifier to a skill check, but I think we can waive a mechanic entirely for tree climbing.

Ultra-obscure comic strip reprint A Strain on the Family Tie is going to illuminate some aspect of Hideouts & Hoodlums for us?   It does when it reminds us that fireworks are legally available for sale (though not on the starting equipment list, they should be easily picked up in game play), and make great diversions for Heroes to use.

Hatchet men would be another name -- and perhaps a less offensive name, for Yellow Peril Hoodlums.  I plan to retain this mobster type, though I'm seriously considering adding to them that they are adept at ambushes, with perhaps a 3 in 6 chance of surprise.



The Dick Tracy installment reminds us of more tools available to "modern day" Heroes of the '30s and '40s -- though not as available as fireworks -- the lie detector and the "trick mirror" that can be seen through from the other side.

Little Joe's bandit general pal here demonstrates two combat moves: disarming (which will have its own game mechanic in the next edition) and the technique that only seems to exist in comics -- picking up someone and using them as a club against another target (Batman will do this frequently in his early days).  After grappling the first target, the attacker can use this technique to do clubbing damage to both opponents at once.  Editors might want to limit this technique only to Heroes with a Strength of 15 or higher.

Reg'lar Fellers reminds us of two more potentially useful items for Heroes to acquire -- stilts and glue.  Glue is even going to be on the starting equipment list.

This panel of On the Range reminds us that bisons have not been statted for H&H yet, and perhaps they should be. Wikipedia tells me that bison at Yellowstone National Park are three times as likely to harm people than bears, and I've long since statted bears!  The American bison would have 6 HD, trample for 1-10+1 damage, and use 12-siders for Hit Dice because of their mass.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Popular Comics #5

This issue leads off with Dick Tracy conducting a raid, with all the beat cops and detectives (1st and 2nd level Fighters) carrying axes!  We also get a neat trick where Tess Trueheart's kidnappers communicate with her only using a loudspeaker projected through a fan, so she won't be able to identify their voices. And lastly, we get to see the benefits of having a telephone lineman as a Supporting Cast Member (good for snooping on phone calls!).

Tom Mix demonstrates the Cowboy stunt Quick Draw.

And here demonstrates the Summon Horse stunt.

Should disguise and voice mimicry be stunts?  Disguise is a solid maybe.

The bears in Hideouts & Hoodlums Book II: Mobsters & Trophies are brown bears, but even that entry mentions polar bears as having slightly more Hit Dice (probably 8).

Lariats are going to be a common weapon in the next edition.

Don Winslow U.S.N. shares an interesting idea for a code. The zig-zag code works like this:  break the message in two, one line spaced alternatingly over the other, then read in order from left to right in both lines at once.

Lost worlds often are full of gold. The Experience Point value is enormous, but the challenge is getting it all back home.

Bandits normally have leaders no higher than 4th level, but if this leader is really a general, then that makes him at least 8th level.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum at http://www.digitalcomicmuseum.org/index.php?dlid=3349)

Popular Comics #4 - pt. 2

Don Winslow U.S.N continues to fight "The Scorpion" -- actually just a colorful name for a South American dictator.  Two-seat fighter planes were statted in Hideouts & Hoodlums Book II: Mobsters & Trophies.  Heavy artillery was not statted until Supplement I: National, but the closest thing to these heavy cannons in that book is the howitzer (in a pinch, I would use those same stats).

Luckily, "the canon-fire has uncovered an ancient underground passage".  Now these Navy boys can do some hideout delving!

Bos'n Hal continues to learn about the lost world in the Arctic and what would, before modern times, be considered hi-tech trophies -- solar-powered motorboats and solar-powered cars!

Little Joe is going to grow up to think all Mexicans are bandits.  If the roles were reversed and the bandit was the Hero and Little Joe was just a half-pint, the bandit's $10 bill would have entitled him to a new encounter reaction roll, to see if he could get a better result.  Also note the reference to the Foil Tracking stunt in the second-to-last panel.

"Whiteboy" has got to be the worst name for a comic book character ever, though it probably comes from the "Paleface" name that Indians always used to use in the movies.  Here we get to see an elephant (never statted for H&H, but will be in the next book to come out).

We also get to see some trick riding, which might warrant a stunt to do. Should circus animal trainer be a mobster-type...?

Tiny Tim has an interesting encounter with Rip Van Winkle, though Rip is curiously not referred to by name.  Assuming the story is the same, then this is the first appearance of ghosts in a comic book story.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum at 

http://www.digitalcomicmuseum.org/index.php?dlid=3808)

Popular Comics #2 - pt. 2

Skunks are a tricky business.  Should something so small and relatively harmless even be statted as an animal-mobster type?  

The most fearsome ability of the skunk is, of course, its musk (as Bronc Peeler encounters here), but even that is difficult to assign game mechanics to. How much does it really hurt you to smell bad?  

I suggest treating the presence of a skunk as a trap rather than a mobster encounter. If the Hero fails a save vs. plot, he gets sprayed and suffers a -4 penalty to encounter reaction rolls until bathing.

Here, in Tailspin Tommy, we see the venerable cliche of always trying to take the Hero alive instead of killing him, usually because Heroes are believed to be fonts of information.

The aviation genre is more useful, though, for otherwise hard to come by information, like the legal altitudes for flying in the 1930s. This could come in very handy for an Editor to know, if running a campaign that includes the Aviator class or just Heroes with planes in general.

A wolf is a tough mobster for any Hero to deal with, like Little Joe does here. It's unclear why the wolf attacks Little Joe -- maybe just an unlucky encounter reaction roll?  Note that Little Joe does nothing himself to warrant a morale save from the wolf, it is the things accidentally falling on the wolf that does so.  In game play, this would be the work of a generous Editor who saw the Hero was clearly outmatched (perhaps the wolf was just a randomly rolled wandering encounter, or the Editor assumed Little Joe would arm himself with something in the shed).

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum at  http://www.digitalcomicmuseum.org/index.php?dlid=1631)

Popular Comics #1 - pt. 2

Look out, Connie!  Good thing that guy shooting at you is a lousy shot; the side of that plane is only going to serve as soft cover for you.  I'm guessing you don't have much of a Dexterity bonus to speak of, so that means that guy only has to hit an Armor Class of 8 to hit you!

Hard to say how to play Terry's move there, as it's somewhere in between a trip and a tackle.  If I had to choose, I'd call that a trip attack.  Then there would actually be one turn between panels where they grappled the guy while he was prone.

There's no real game mechanic to highlight here, but that's a pretty slick trick that Skull Man pulls on Pat there.  Try it in your hideouts!

Can you blame that "hoss" for missing its morale save?  Bears get a daunting 7 Hit Dice in Book II: Mobsters & Trophies, making them one of the toughest encounters a basic-level Hero is likely to encounter (good thing they're not always hostile!).  They might get toned down slightly for the next edition.

  I talked about game mechanics for tightrope walking before here.  Falling damage in Hideouts & Hoodlums is 1d6 per 10', with no official damage cap.  If Little Joe is right and that canyon is really a mile deep, he's looking at 528d6 damage! No Editor should feel guilty for just saying Little Joe went splat at this point and not even bother rolling dice.  Nor should the Editor feel guilty for having placed a mile-deep canyon there, since he gave Little Joe's player no reason to cross it, only the opportunity.

Toonerville Folks is not going to make it onto this blog often, but here the idea of Heroes just going out and randomly digging for treasure struck me as noteworthy.  Why not?  If the Editor fails to entice them with plot hooks worth nibbling on, then just grab a shovel, head outdoors, and enjoy...oh, maybe a 1% chance of finding something interesting buried there. Then you can wonder about how it got there.  Maybe that will turn out to be a plot hook!



(Scans courtesy of the Digital Comic Museum at http://www.digitalcomicmuseum.org/index.php?dlid=1630)