New Adventure Comics #23

The Adventures of Steve Conrad includes, if not the first, at least one of the first dives off a balcony to swing on a chandelier in comic books. As much as a staple as this is of the action genre in general, I almost hate to attach any game mechanics to it. A roll, perhaps a save vs. science, could tell you if the jump-and-swing was carried off with aplomb or not.

Nothing says "Run for your lives!" quite like having turtles chasing you. Granted, these "army-turtles" are large in size (and look more like tortoises, really). I might be generous and assign these 2+1 HD, a 9 Move, an AC 4, and have those beaks do 1-8 damage.

Bob (from Captain Jim of the Texas Rangers) here gives us a demonstration of what constitutes a concealed door vs. a secret door.  A trap door that is covered by something that can easily be moved is a concealed door. A door in the ceiling, made to look like a riveted metal plate, is a secret door. The fact that Bob has to search for a means of opening it clinches that it is a secret door.  Concealed doors should be easier to find than secret doors.

Here, from the serial Monastery of the Blue God, is a textbook example of Heroes beating up mobsters and then searching them for loot to keep as trophies. They are so clearly excited about a star sapphire on a gold chain because it is probably worth considerably more XP than the mobsters themselves were worth.

This is from Robin Hood.  Literary adaptations will rarely be the focus of this blog, but this page brings up the interesting question: can a single arrow that does 1d6 damage kill a stag? By combat rules, unlikely. A stag, as a combatant, would have about 3 HD, 10-11 hit points on average, and do about 2-8 points of damage in a charge -- stats that should give any archer pause. However, if the archer was firing from far enough away that the stag could not possibly reach the archer soon, or the stag immediately missed a morale save and would not be fighting, the Editor could rule the stag is a noncombatant, and so the killing can be described with flavor text.

Illumination can be tricky to referee as the Editor; when you're imagining the scene, you're trying to picture everything. Dim or no illumination at the scene then requires you to filter out detail from the scene as you're describing it to the players, creating an extra step for you to keep track of.

Another thing to keep track of is the number of things that shed light that can be seen at great distances away. Here, we're reminded that even cigarettes may give your opponents away at a half-mile range.

Sandor's player asks us, "Can I have Sandor pick up a guy, toss him into a group of other guys, and knock them all down?"

As a general rule of thumb, you should not allow Fighters to make any kind of special attacks that they would gripe about you using on them. Would they complain if one mobster could knock over all the Heroes with one well-placed attack?

Note that Superheroes could buff themselves with Multi-Attack or Flurry of Blows and pull off this stunt.

As common as leopards are becoming (this is the third time I've discussed them here), they really need an entry in the mobsters section of the next edition.

Lastly, we have Detective Sergeant Carey of the Chinatown Squad, who encounters an unusual trap. It's a tripwire trap that sets off explosives -- but it's not meant to harm the intruders; the explosives are set off further down the tunnel, destroying any evidence there before it can be found.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Archives)

New Adventure Comics #22

I'm doing New Adventure Comics twice in a row to catch up, so this is the December 1937 issue.

And we'll start with Steve Carson of Federal Men, who's helping out the local police on a case (because different levels of law enforcement cooperate perfectly in the comics) and is able to crack a safe, despite safe cracking being "not exactly" in his line. More evidence that skills like cracking safes (picking locks?) should be available to everyone, or at least as one-use stunts.

Further, here Steve Carson applies make-up to disguise himself like an expert.

Previously, I would have bet money that Steve Carson was a good example of the Fighter class...but with these new skills on display, maybe he's a better fit for the Detective class, which appeared in The Trophy Case v. 2 no. 6.

This page is from the Monastery of the Blue God serial. Our Heroes see tat old stone tower and think it would make a nice place to sleep. I see that old stone tower and think it calls out for exploration!  There could even be a multi-level hideout under a spooky old tower like that.

This page also gives us a mini-history lesson, revealing that inflatable air mattresses were around in the late '30s.

New feature star, G-Woman, is pretty lucky here to have a charitable Editor. There is no game mechanic reason why kicking someone in the knee should make them drop their gun.



(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Archives)

New Adventure Comics #20

I didn't realize when I covered the October 1937 stories that I had access to New Adventure Comics #20, so I'm covering it just a tad out of order...

This page of Captain Jim of the Texas Rangers doesn't give us much of a sense of scale for that "gigantic" rattlesnake, but this could be the first giant poisonous snake in comics that isn't from a "tall tale"-like story.

This probably won't ever become an official Hideouts & Hoodlums rule, but if you ever miss a cowboy with an attack roll that's only 1 number off -- it should shoot off his hat.

There's a lot of grappling attacks going on here on this page. In some game systems, the player of Ian Murray would have to pick a different, specific grappling move each turn, each with different game mechanics attached to it. In H&H, the Editor has more latitude and is expected to describe the fight based on the dice rolls.  This seems to be a particularly vicious fight, so both sides must be rolling very well to hit and for damage...

There might be some exceptions I would make to my above statement, like in the case of a flip/throw attack, since this attack is unusual in that it leaves the opponent prone instead of held.

It's difficult to have a realistic rate of fire for missile weapons -- even for comic book realism -- and have any kind of game balance that would make Heroes reasonably choose melee over missile weapons. Here Ian cracks off 2-3 shots per combat turn with a single-shot rifle. Two shots would be possible if he was 4th level or higher in H&H.

This issue's installment of Federal Men is dedicated to the demonstrating the value of having half-pints as your Supporting Cast Members. Heroes like Steve Carson can recruit half-pints via ham radio! Half-pints loyal to Heroes are ever-vigilant for signs of crimes, and may be willing to put themselves in danger flattening tires and tripping robbers.

A history/technology lesson here from Monastery of the Blue God for anyone who had trouble picturing what a wireless radio looked like in the 1930s. This is not as portable as an iphone...

A patient Hero is just two lucky rolls away from finding the average secret door -- one roll to find the door and the second roll to find the way to open it. The impatient Hero, though (like Nadir, Master of Magic) finds the door, and then wrecks his way through it with a pick axe (using the non-Superhero wrecking rules, unless a Superhero obviously).

If there was a contest for best feature in this issue, The Adventures of Steve Conrad just won it. Behold the glory of natives riding trained alligators.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Archives)

New Adventure Comics #16

Most WWII-era stories follow the familiar narrative of history -- we know who the bad guys and the good guys were from countless stories.  But what's really interesting is to see writers in 1937 trying to guess how things were going to play out in Europe and Asia. Here, in the Monastery of the Blue God serial, we get hints of Russian intrigue in China, and more interesting still is the casting of Poland and Sweden as bad guys!

The adaptation of Haggard's She continues. Here, She administers a Potion of Healing (though one with an apparent onset time of 12 hours), followed by casting what appears to be a new spell. Aging Touch would be a powerful spell -- perhaps a 5th level spell! -- that would cause 1 recipient touched to age 3-30 years permanently.

When Steve Conrad is done monkeying around, he has to tangle with a giant vulture. Giant vultures got statted for H&H in Supplement I: National.

Here's an early example of a whip being used as a weapon, albeit not a very useful one. It seems clear here that a whip should be treated as a melee weapon, despite its length.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

New Adventure Comics #15

Rooster jokes are almost as common as goat humor in these old comic books. This is a particularly weird one -- we apparently have a bulletproof rooster here, who can eat bullets as well.

This is from a serial called "Jungle Fever", though you'd never know it since it seems to all take place on a boat.

Red is a crazy effective fighter, and apparently third level, since he's using the 'combat machine' skill of the Fighter class to attack multiple low-HD opponents at once.

This is from "A Tale of Two Cities". I probably won't be commenting on literary adaptations too often, but this is almost surely the first spiked club, or morning star, that I've seen in comic books.

Likewise, Captain Quick is a historical adventure, which I often ignore -- but there is an excellent play-by-play description of a duel here.  To adapt this to Hideouts & Hoodlums, you need: a) parrying rules, b) a chance of tripping during melee,...

 ...c) the ability to get back up on your feet as a free action, d) a mechanic for breaking weapons, and e) a mechanic for morale. H&H currently has a and e. B is right out, in ordinary circumstances, because it adds too much difficulty to combat. The H&H rules are not clear, yet, on c, though I generally treat rising from a prone position as a whole-combat turn action.  H&H might get d in the next edition.

Included here because the cryptic note written in a cylinder of silk is a great plot hook for an adventure.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)