Keen Detective Funnies #18 - pt. 1

Ah, Masked Marvel, such an odd duck. This post might be more therapy rant than useful game content...

This installment starts with the beginning of what should be an epic quest to discover the lost city of gold. While everyone on Earth knows that El Dorado is the name for the mythical lost city of gold, this story insists on calling it Ora. I did a quick Internet search to see if there was any precedent for calling it Ora, but all my search results were for the upcoming movie Dora and the Lost City of Gold. Coincidence...?

Naturally, any human beings living along the Amazon River will be wild savages? What is your doctorate in, Lincoln, racism?

The trope of a highly civilized forgotten race is as old as pulp fiction. It's also a trifle racist.

Bear in mind, this is a Masked Marvel story.

I was expecting the Internet to be able to tell me what was 10 days upriver on the Amazon, but travel by water isn't so (ahem) cut and dried as that. Let's assume you made very good time over those 10 days and made it as far as the Colombian border. That would put you at or near the town of Leticia. I haven't found much information on Leticia in 1940, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't full of wild savages.

In fact, I found this video as the only evidence of what daily life looked like along the Amazon in the 1940s. Some workers did go around in nothing but shorts, but it is extremely unlikely that you would find a chieftain in a loincloth at this time.

Now, this is after the rubber boom, when native workers were first exploited and civilization was first brought to this region as resources were funneled away from them. Before 1920, yes, it might have been more likely to find natives in loincloths back then.

Remember how this was as Masked Marvel story?







Oh come on! The "natives can be bribed with booze" trope? I'm not putting that in my description of the mobstertype. I will have a note about sometimes using poisoned weapons, though.

Oh yeah -- the Masked Marvel! This is nine pages into the story and MM hasn't even got there yet. So here he is, speeding recklessly to make up for lost time. You'd think this was a timed tournament round by how quickly he's trying to get to the scenario.














At last, the City of Gold! Time for a climactic fight to the finish between the Masked Marvel and the diabolical -

Oh what the heck!? He snipered the villain from a distance? Who is the hero in this piece again? I'm betting it's the natives who were smart enough to leave the old abandoned city alone.

Okay, phew...got that out of my system. We've just enough space left to look at this month's Spark O'Leary, Radio Newshawk feature. Now, this scenario intrigues me, not so much for the spy tapping code over the radio, but the angle of it possibly being a traitor in Spark's supporting cast! This is a good story to throw at players who have amassed large supporting casts in long-term Hideouts & Hoodlums campaigns. Look at that -- brought it back to gaming right at the end!

"Of course I can!"

"Then why haven't you already done it?"

"I was waiting for a player-character to tell me to do it!"

It's a truism that's difficult to avoid...you want your game to be realistic, but you also want your players' characters to be the heroes and the planners, forcing non-Heroes to stand around and wait to be told what to do all too often. The reverse problem is when your Editor-controlled non-Heroes are too proactive and the players feel they have to go along with something the Editor is "telling" them to do. 

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Keen Detective Funnies v. 3 #1 - pt. 1

We return now to The Masked Marvel, from Centaur. Originally, we had to decide if The Masked Marvel was a mysteryman or a superhero, but by now his skills have grown so mundane that he appears to be just an aviator.

Although, he does display excellent investigation and math skills, which might suggest he is a mysteryman (with their advanced skill checks).

I don't know if I should be sad or glad that my players don't take the time to leave scenarios in progress to go home to their base and check the rifling on bullets recovered for clues. It doesn't even seem to wind up to be that important a clue in this plot.

 "Ach" is our clue that the unnamed saboteur is German.

The way the Masked Marvel really figures out where the killer came from is by tracing the angle of the bullet holes, and this is legitimate forensic science coupled with trigonometry. One could use skill checks for mathematics, but if time is not a big factor, you could just keep making checks until your numbers work out (i.e., you rolled well enough).

That's a big clue to leave behind on the roof (and apparently it never gets too windy up there!). Remember, if you want your players to be able to finish your scenarios, sometimes the clues have to be really big and obvious.

That's a pretty vague and unintimidating silhouette cast on the clouds. Mysterymen are supposed to trigger morale saves when they do stuff like that, but I might give a +1 bonus because I have trouble accepting that is "feared."

That stunt at the end...I would require a to hit roll first to snag the parachute, followed by burning a stunt to make the parachute wrap around the wing like that.

Modern day pirates need a chance to carry firearms as deadly as sub-machine guns.

I'm not a big Spark O'Leary fan, but I have to admit, that's a fairly clever scheme the pirates had to capture a patrol boat. It's also sort of like how H&H play works for players, always trading up one trophy item for a better, more useful one.

Spark's encounter with the half-pints could be a wandering encounter, or could be a fixed encounter planned by the Editor to make sure Spark gets that clue.

Spotting the concealed hinges on those piles was the result of a secret door check (expert skill check).

There is no reason for Spark, a radio news reporter, to be leading a police raid, except that he must be leveling as a fighter and his level title is higher than beat cops' levels.

There is no reason for Spark to have a cold just then, except to stretch out the story -- or to explain a botched surprise roll with flavor text.

A "high-powered car" is a trophy item, the equivalent of a Car +1.

The trap requires the Editor and the players to agree on interpreting the situation -- would a tripwire make a car crash, or would it just drive through it? The situation is somewhat similar to yesterday's post, where The Owl covered a windshield and made bad guys crash, though here I think the chances of a tripwire making a car skid are so low that the save vs. plot to avoid should be at +4.

The drunk is surely a wandering encounter (unless just a freebie from the Editor?).  If the player had wanted to contest the drunk driver getting ahead of him, they could have rolled driving skill checks (basic skill) until one of them failed to see who reached the curve first (or which one came closest to succeeding). It's a simple race and doesn't need a complex mechanical resolution.

Dan Dennis' "danger sense" is not a real thing, in the sense that he has to actively roll for something. If the assassin fails a surprise roll, then Dan's "danger sense" is what warned him of the attack.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Keen Detective Funnies v. 2 #12 - pt. 1

How sad if I wind up having to end out the year on such mediocre fare from Centaur!




Here we have the return of "The Masked Marvel." If some of this art looks familiar, it is because it was featured prominently in Books II and III of 1st edition Hideouts & Hoodlums. We see a master criminal at work with a high number of thugs working for him; I may have to up the "number appearing" range to 1-12 for thugs.




Note how most of them have Tommy guns, except for that one guy who only brought a pistol. Don't bring a pistol to a Tommy gun fight, Muggsy! In hoodlum descriptions, I tend to present a random range of likely weapons. If the Editor has time, he should determine weapons individually instead of having every mobster fight with the same thing.

Or are they all thugs? One or two of them may be gangsters instead, including the lone guy armed with a revolver. Gangsters are a new mobster type in 2nd edition H&H who have a skill for coercing people to get into cars, not unlike what we're seeing in that last panel.

Master criminals are 3+1 HD hoodlums, but I'm wondering if public enemy number one's need to be an even more powerful type of hoodlum. Maybe 4+1?

Here we see how high the bounty can get on a public enemy number one, at least in the comic books. The sum of $100,000 is rather incredible, considering that the bounty on John Dillinger was only $10,000.


I'm also amused by the phrase "that's a lot of sugar," instead of the more familiar to our ears phrase "that's a lot of dough." I wonder how interchangeable these terms were in common parlance of the time.

That Zr, Zy, and Zl can be put in charge of a squad of policemen each, despite having really goofy code names, tells me they must be at least third-level fighters, which makes them the equivalent of sergeants.

It's almost worth mentioning that this story is the first time a sidekick character dies in a comic book. But then, it's just Zl, so no one was ever shaken up over this.

This is Spark O'Leary, Radio Newshawk. The scenario is that he has to prove the Countess is a phony. Now, some players might just choose to beat her up and then frighten a confession out of her, but Spark goes out of his way to collect lots of evidence.

I point out the fingerprint collecting in particular because this is a go-to for my players, despite the limitations on it at the time. They have to remember that there is no national database of fingerprints they can scan for a match in; the local police station can try to match them against the ones they have on file. They can then try contacting other agencies, but it will be a slow process. At best, I would let you have a save vs. plot to try and get results back as fast as Spark gets them here.

What, I wonder, is the origin of the "organ that can create destructive sound"? It's not quite common enough to be a cliche, but it surely didn't originate in this obscure comic book and this Dan Dennis, FBI story. It's worth pointing out that the villain here is called The Fiend.

The organ sure seems versatile; it can not only wreck, but it can "paralize." My first thought that The Fiend was a mad scientist is giving way to a new theory that he is a magic-user and the organ serves as his wand (since he seems to be casting Hold Person here). Too bad The Fiend is such a poor speller...

Players finding trophies may often wish that they were all properly labeled with instructions, like potion bottles clearly (and honestly!) marked with their contents. At least the Editor, in this case, only gave the player a clue as to which button to press on the organ.

Of course, there goes my magic-user theory, as Dan would not be able to use a wand unless he was also a magic-user. It seems the organ is, instead, a powerful trophy item with a range of, at first, random effects Heroes could trigger -- sort of like a Wand of Wonder, until they figure out how to play it.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Keen Detective Funnies v. 2 #11

Back at Centaur, we rejoin the Masked Marvel as he climbs the side of a building and leaps from one building to another. They're pretty mild as superpowers go, not all that different from what a mysteryman could do with stunts.

Despite looking like an ordinary plane, the Masked Marvel's plane has VTOL capabilities.

Again, the Masked Marvel seems de-powered here, as he finishes a fantastic leap with a swing on a rope, as if he needed that to land safely (though maybe he just does it for a flourish to look cool).

His invention is an everlasting fire extinguisher (a handy trophy item, if not a tad bulky).

This is Dan Dennis, FBI.  Dan's plan is to shut off all power in the city -- including to hospitals -- on the off chance that his hunch is right and the mad scientist is using his own power source. Asking the power company to do something like that for you is one of those things that should require a very high encounter reaction roll -- maybe an 11 or 12 on 2 dice.

This is from Dean Masters, D.A. -- though he's not actually here right now, as this is a long flashback scene involving the bad guy, here called a mad man. I've wrestled with how to stat madmen in Hideouts & Hoodlums, giving them multiple attacks in Supplement V.  Here, madmen appear to just have better carrying capacity.

This is A Russell Granville Adventure, though it's not the adventure I'm interested in here, but that last panel and the discussion of air control in mines. Finally, I have an explanation for why multi-level hideouts will need pit traps, and furnaces and electric fans as well. These will need to be part of the dressing of large underground hideouts.

There's a surprising amount of interesting features on this page. There's the shaft to the surface with baskets of burning coal in them. There's the mystery of the odd crank piece and how it fits to a crane disguised in a chimney. There's the idle speculation about murderers using asbestos suits and gas masks -- well-equipped mobsters, as both have been trophy items on the lists since Book II.

There's a good amount of detection work in this story, and I'm not going to show you all of it, but I'm particularly impressed with Russell Granville here when the questions whether the reporters are real. Because, as a player, I might have suspected as well that this was a perfect opportunity for the Editor to introduce a twist in the story. Also, it's just a good idea for Heroes to fact check things they learn in-game -- not every character they meet is going to tell them honest information.

Pirates steal $15 million in gold from this ship -- pirates seem to be the most successful criminals in early comics.

The naval destroyer has a "sonic detector" on board -- another term that would have predated Radar.

This is Dean Denton, by the way.

Language, Dean!  But, really, did you fail to search your arch-nemesis upon capturing him? Did you let your Editor have his own characters do it, knowing that he could have fudged search dice rolls, or hand-waved rolling altogether?

And just how did the Conqueror have paralyzing gas concealed on his person? Concealed capsules? There's a paralyzing raygun in the trophy section, and sleeping gas capsules, but nothing yet that combines the two...

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Keen Detective Funnies v. 2 #10

The Masked Marvel seems to have forgotten he has superpowers in this installment. Instead he does things like creep on others with his "raudion-detector" -- yet another TV set that can see anything like a crystal ball.

I'm including this page because this ordinary mob boss has 500 lbs. of dynamite at his disposal. Sometimes, you can just go crazy outfitting the bad guys with resources. Plus, it makes for a more level playing field once the Heroes are higher level and still facing mobsters.

This is from Spy Hunters. I like to include any maps I find on this blog. This one is more of a tactical map than a terrain map, but maybe it would be useful for someone planning a battle scenario in India.

The guy rolling around shirtless is Gabby Flynn. I share this page because tripping attacks seem unusually potent at knocking people out in two different fights here. Could a trip do as much damage as a weapon?

I'm not sure what to make of this. Bellows with a red pepper attachment, as a stunning weapon? If it's that potent, I'm not sure why Heroes would ever rely on anything else. I could see maybe allowing this as a blinding weapon, but not incapacitating.

The reference to an "ogre" shouldn't be taken literal; Gabby's opponent barely qualified for a thug, let alone ogre stats.

This is from "Foggy Night", a serial with Officer O'Keefe as the hero. Somehow, O'Keefe is stunned by a bullet, is dropped from a height, and still manages to come around a little later (on the next page). If the bullet had knocked him unconscious, by H&H rules he should have been killed by the fall.

Dean Denton may be a scientific detective, but he can't seem to figure out a way around a smokescreen. H&H will have evasion rules for chase scenes...but maybe the real issue here is Dean being afraid of hitting pedestrians in the smokescreen. In that case, Dean's Alignment stops him, not the smokescreen itself.

Stunts have come a long way already since they were first introduced in 1st edition. Here we see Out of the Sun, a relic from the Aviator class and its stunt list. Though these are going to be absent from the 2nd ed. Basic Book, they will likely have a place in an Advanced Hideouts & Hoodlums Heroes Handbook, which should come out...someday.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Keen Detective Funnies v. 2 #9

The Masked Marvel is slumming on this adventure, tackling stamp counterfeiters. He apparently has a power that allows him to translate codes super fast. A Read Codes power?

As a superhero, MM should be able to rip open that wall safe with brute strength, but instead opts to play safecracker and hope for a lucky skill check.

Here we have a rare example of a disguise failing. A small printing press probably still weights just over a ton, meaning The Masked Marvel had to use Raise Car to lift that.

This is from Spy Hunters and it demonstrates some of the challenging solutions players have to come up with in a low-level campaign, or even a solo mid-level campaign. A more powerful group of Heroes would have just stormed in there and fought their way to the prisoners, not coordinate with the prisoners via thrown note and stage a diversion for them.

And I share this page because these continue to be good tactics. Again, bear in mind that these must be low-level fighters -- because mid-level Heroes can usually take out low-level/Hit Die opponents in large numbers -- so they are using sneakier tactics like hit-and-run raids to steal better weapons from the enemy. They also use the terrain to their advantage, not only using the height advantage of the hill, but seeking out a cave to bottleneck combatants into.

One good thing you can say about cultists -- they know to change their passwords often. There's now a stat entry for cultists in 2nd edition Hideouts & Hoodlums.

This interesting wrinkle turns out to be a good history lesson. 3-D film was first shown in 1915, but it either didn't work very well or just failed to catch the public's interest.  Most people wouldn't have even heard of 3-D film until 1936, when a 3-D short won an Oscar, and it would not be until 1939 when millions first witnessed 3-D at the New York World's Fair. Out here in California, though, it is conceivable that many of these cultists had not made the trip to New York yet and could be fooled by their first exposure to 3-D film.

It takes Dean Denton all day to invent something, and it's not even anything major (spoilers: it's a calcium chloride bomb with an external trigger).

What I really like here is the multi-tiered cave complex, where one can lower oneself from the ledge of one level down to a lower level, without having to look for stairs or sloping tunnels to get down.

From a filler page called Detectionotes! -- this note about the FBI not being able to arrest people before 1934 is another useful history lesson for any H&H campaign set pre-1934 (or a later campaign with a very detailed backstory, or a time travel adventure...).

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)