Feature Comics #26

I've talked before about how easy disguise needs to be in Hideouts & Hoodlums, and how easy it should be for Heroes to disguise themselves as mobsters. But here we see how easy it is for mobsters to disguise themselves as mobsters too!

Captain Fortune stops to woo a maiden in the street. Because he's such a lady's man? No, so she'll be moved to lie about seeing him! Given the conventions of the genre, it should only take a positive encounter reaction result to get a fair maiden to do that for you.

From Mickey Finn we learn that you could make up to $10 a day selling brushes door to door.

The Clock and this thug/robber tell us that this lone mobster managed to net $250,000 over three robberies. That's an awful lot of money to leave in a hideout as recoverable loot. I've tried before to deal with a solid demarcation between recoverable loot and claimable treasure, but the line remains frustratingly blurry, particularly with Heroes of different Alignments.

Back when I first read this story, I thought "Oh, how unusual -- a mysteryman knows hypnotism!" It was the first indication (there will be more) that The Clock doesn't fit just the mysteryman class. It was also an early example that the mysteryman class was varied enough and led to my adopting the concept of stunts for them instead of set skills.

By now, though, I've read every kind of character practice hypnotism and it's not so big a deal anymore...

This is Rance Kean's strip, but the real star of this page is the sharpshooting outlaw Dirk Purdue who managed to shoot half the mustache off a man through an open window.

Now, there is the fact that this only happened to a supporting cast member, was not crucial to a combat or a life-or-death situation, and so the Editor could choose to hand-wave game mechanics in instances like these and just say that happened. However, doing this sets a precedent for "impossible shots" being possible in your game and players will ask to try the same things eventually.

I would require a natural 20 on the attack roll for an impossible shot like that (giving a generous 5% chance of success).

This is from a filler page called Off-Side.  I include it mainly for the gag on the right, which is what I feel like whenever people around me are talking about sports.

This is a well-equipped Charlie Chan, with a miner's helmet and gas mask, but even those aren't enough to save him from a cave-in. Cave-ins are tricky, mechanics-wise. The damage from the falling weight alone should be enough to render Charlie unconscious, and then the continuing damage from having that weight on top of him should kill him. Perhaps a generous Editor would allow two saves here -- a save vs. missiles to avoid the initial falling damage and a save vs. science to avoid the continuing damage (assuming the rubble all became miraculously balanced over him).

Here, Charlie beats a dynamite stick in initiative and gets the chance to toss it away; dynamite sticks get thrown at the end of the turn, ignoring normal procedure for missiles, and don't go off until their opportunity in the next turn.

It's unclear what Kirk is doing, but it seems he's shooting the second dynamite stick in mid-air. While not an impossible shot, I'd be inclined to make a dynamite stick thrown in the dark to be AC 2 or even 1...

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Feature Funnies #15

Continuing through the last published titles cover dated December 1938, we come back around to the flagship title of Quality Comics and a page of Joe Palooka. Is this evidence that falling damage needs to round up to 10', instead of starting at 10'?  Unless that's a really deep pool?

The Jane Arden strip was a lot like the Federal Trade Commission, educating the public about scams.  Here, the scam is a slick hoodlum who appears to have a cashier's check he needs cashed offers someone a commission to cash it for him, but the check is a forgery he wants to trade for real money.

Here's a thought -- black cats as a mobster type? It seems a common enough trope to have black cats crossing people's paths and, indirectly or not, causing bad luck. The bad luck might be a -1 to all rolls for the next 1d4 hours, while the cat might have 1-2 hit points.

This is The Clock, and the trope here is that the Law always overreacts when a Hero is suspected of a crime and goes after the Hero harder than they ever seem to do to criminals. Of course, the real reason behind this is so the Hero can go up against Lawful opponents for a change of pace.

Malta is an example of a slick hoodlum. The charm ability of the slick hoodlum might be easily misunderstood; it's less like hypnosis or mind control and more like the ability to tempt the Hero -- either tempt him to take a bribe, simply let the hoodlum go, or go along with some plan. The Clock clearly made his saving throw.

Will Eisner seems to have had his hand on the pulse of American society, circa 1938, on where they stood on going to war. This will change later, of course.

Several things about this page of Espionage, starring Black X.  One -- should Heroes have an easier time seeing through disguises than others? Maybe only spies?

Two, that's a pretty cool encounter area -- a secret door in the back of an office that leads to outdoor steps that one can take down to a concealed dock.

Three, living shields -- how would that work? For one, I would require a non-Fighter to make a save vs. plot to use someone else as a living shield, the same as if they had tried to fire at the victim themselves. Then, I would treat the living shield as soft cover. Then, only if the attack missed by 1 or 2 would I treat it as a hit on the living shield. I would not encourage this by making it too effective.

This is from Mickey Finn and doesn't really have anything to do with Hideouts & Hoodlums -- but I have never liked escalators and always imagine something like that happening to me on them.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Feature Funnies #14

Jane Arden's advice to players: when checking a document to see if it's a forgery, make sure to check the feel of the paper as well.

This is "Off the Record" gag filler, some of the most consistently funny gag filler I've read in these early comic books. They're not all winners, but the upper left and lower right really amuse me.

This page of Archie O'Toole isn't really Hideouts & Hoodlums-pertinent -- but I think it's got a great message to it that bears sharing.

I can imagine a Halloween-themed scenario for first-level Heroes where they just have to get across town, a town filled with half-pints armed with improvised saps (socks filled with flour -- 1-2 points of damage?). If things escalate, they might start throwing rocks for 1-3 points of damage. Halloween was a much wilder night back then. Note the look of 1930s-era costumes.

This is from Will Eisner's Espionage. There is no game mechanic for fame in H&H. Unless they happen to be spies, it is entirely up to them how much credit and publicity they want to pursue for the good deeds they do. All of this should be handled through role-playing.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Feature Funnies #9

Hey, it's my blog to do with what I want -- so sometimes it's not all about Hideouts & Hoodlums.  This page of Joe Palooka I'm just sharing because it's so funny...and maybe I can relate a little...

This, on the other hand, is a bit of a sore subject for me. It's a proven fact that torture does not produce reliable information, yet it always seems to work when Heroes like The Clock want to use it. It's one of those areas, like racism, that is a tough call -- how far are you willing to go to emulate the comic books, even if it encourages non-heroic actions?

This cane with a spring-loaded trick head was mentioned in the Clock entry for Supplement IV: Captains, Magicans, & Incredible Men.

Will Eisner's Hawks of the Seas has been running for awhile now at this point and is starting its second story line, but I've never found an excuse to feature it until now. The new magic item is a Locket of Warning, that plays music whenever the owner is in danger (read: immunity to surprise).

It's often the non-adventurous strips, like Dixie Dugan, that give us the best idea of what life was like in the late 1930s. Note how Dixie's date balks at an 8-course meal for just $3 -- what sounds amazingly inexpensive to us now, wishes for the 50-cent dinner, but then lucks into a hot dog place selling everything for 5 cents each. Now, I'm not sure how many fancy hotels had to sell their in-house restaurants to hot dog vendors back then, but it does seem plausible to me that fancy eateries were going out of business often.

More subtle -- and more interesting -- is the fact that they are walking home from the beach, apparently having to cross the entire town to do so, and that's not even an issue either of them are worried about. The fact that her date can't afford better transportation doesn't even come up as part of the joke. This tells me that a lot more people were just used to walking to get to where they needed to go back then.

This is from Off the Record and, while funny, I think the interesting thing about it is that the girlfriend sitting on his lap in front of the parents is not part of the joke. Was it really socially acceptable in the 1930s to have your girlfriend sit on your lap?

Though lotteries were technically illegal in the 1930s, this "bank night" at the movie theater sounds an awful lot like a lottery...

This page of Mickey Finn seems to confirm a question I had last month about carnival rides in the 1930s. Apparently, an open spin-around ride was a real thing. I wonder how many people got hurt on those!

Lastly, from the back cover, this ad shows how available firecrackers were to anyone, for just $3. Firecrackers are, of course, excellent tools for diversions in any H&H scenario.



(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Feature Funnies #8 - pt. 1

Today marks our first story from May 1938 -- one month before Superman! -- as well as the first post in my next 200 posts. So, to mark the occasion, we're going to play a new game called Can It Do a Point of Damage?

No, Nippie, cat scratches may hurt, but an ordinary-sized cat's claws can't kill a human and you can't take a point of damage from it.  Man up, Nippie!

Yes, Nippie, falling can kill you -- but the game mechanic is abstracted to 1d6 damage per 10' fallen. But, since Nippie appears to be less than 10' off the ground, he's actually perfectly safe and hasn't taken a point of damage.

That looks painful, Uncle Phil -- but is it a point of damage? Although Phil appears to be falling sideways, and would take no damage from that normally, one could also make the case that he was clubbing himself in the head with stationary objects for comedic effect. If that's the case, then perhaps he could be taking 1d6 damage. Sadly, that poor black man will take 1d6 damage from an improvised thrown club weapon as well.

We also get a little history lesson here, reminding us that there was a time before bowling pins were reset by machines.

No, Nippie. A lobster's pincers may hurt, but not enough to do a point of damage. Maybe you should just stop being such a big baby!

Goat joke #11.  We've already established that goats can do 1d4 points of damage, Uncle Phil. You didn't have to go through that for us!

Sorry, Nippie, you can't take a point of damage from a clock face popping off and bonking you in the face. Now...had this been a trap, set up to spring the face out with lethal force against anyone messing with the clock, then yes, it could have done 1d6 point of damage.

No, you can't take a point of damage from a spanking -- at least not administered by anyone with normal human strength (a superhero or an ogre could probably spank you for damage, but even in the latter case I'd be inclined to limit it to 1-3 points). You might from the fall into the sewer, depending on how far down the bottom is.



(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Feature Funnies #4

The next offering from 1938 is this early issue from Quality. Jane Arden reprints were still as close as we got to action stories, but there's also...

The comedy of Mickey Finn is seldom suitable for Hideouts & Hoodlums lessons, but I thought the sergeant's admonishment "You never want to lose your temper when you're in uniform" is a lesson some police all the way here in the 21st century could benefit to remember.

I also thought it was an interesting idea for a H&H scenario sometime, if the Heroes got a bunch of police officers mad while they were on duty, and then had to confront them all at once later when they were off-duty...

As I sometimes will do, I shared this gag filler because I thought it was uncommonly funny.

Though not referred to by any kind of name, the bad guys on this page of Lala Palooza certainly seem to be anarchists, as statted in Supplement II: All-American.

I've talked several times already about the extreme devaluation of used cars in the 1930s, but the cheap auto you could get for $10 might be serviceable, but would not be in great shape. Here, Bungle has a shot at unloading his refurbished used car for up to $200.

And, lastly, we have an example of a Japanese warplane (the Kawasaki) and its top speed (143 MPH). Good to know for any future H&H campaigns in the Pacific Theater!


(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)