Action Comics #22 - pt. 1

It blows my mind that, 5 1/2 years into this project, I still haven't finished the first 2 years of Superman stories yet!

In Cleveland, the Daily Star wants its star reporters, Lois and Clark, to cover the War in Europe. Only this war is between Toran (Germany) and Galonia (France?). Rather than sending them to either country, they are shipped (literally, by steamship) to Luxor (Luxembourg), one would assume for the protection of Luxor's neutrality. That won't last much longer, as Luxembourg will be invaded in May 1940 -- but gets bombed already in this story!

Superman's telescopic vision makes him extra-observant/more alert, allowing him to spot a shadowy figure and foil his surprise. Superman, still dressed as Clark Kent, foils the would-be assassin with a thrown belaying pin. Since the panels don't give us a sense of the distances involved, it's impossible to say if Superman is using his powers here, or if he is throwing the pin as far as an ordinary person would be able to throw one.

When the bombs start dropping on Luxor/Luxembourg, Superman leaps up to engage the bomber. He is clearly still leaping at this point, since he has to hold onto the plane to keep from falling. A low-level bomber was probably flying at 15,000 feet, meaning Superman is using Leap III, a 3rd-level power. He wrecks the propeller using his wrecking things mechanic, but choosing to wreck it in such a way that it would normally hurt him, and it doesn't, means he's also already activated his Invulnerability power (level 4). We know he's impervious because he then plunges to the ground from that height and is unharmed. His invulnerability lasts three turns, meaning that Superman is 9th level. At this time, Superman has been around long enough to have enough XP to be 6th level, which means at some point his Editor has given him three brevet ranks to accelerate his power inflation. That...or I need to make the Invulnerability power last longer...

Later, when Superman stops a torpedo and throws it back at the submarine that fired it, that could be the power Turn Gun on Bad Guy in play, but the sequence lasts a whole seven panels, suggesting that other game mechanics might be involved. This might be because the torpedo is slow enough to give him a turn of action first before it strikes, and he grapples it to in order to make it miss, then throws it as an "ordinary" missile weapon.

Next, Superman's X-ray vision picks up a new danger, just as his telescopic vision had before. In this regard, his vision is just a "super-sense" that warns him of danger.

When a ship captain wants Superman to answer some questions, Superman makes a topical reference to "Professor Quiz." Professor Quiz was radio's first true quiz program, broadcast with many different sponsors from 1936 to 1948 on CBS and ABC.

In the end, Siegel naively assumes that German attacks on neutral nations must be the work of insubordinate underlings, and they are punished after Superman confronts them.

In Pep Morgan, we find out that Pep is a volunteer fireman and likes to play pinochle. Firefighting is much more exciting than sports, so I wish they'd stuck with this! When someone is unconscious in a burning building, Pep finds her by methodically searching, no doubt making search rolls each turn. He never seems to be in danger from fire or smoke damage, though.

The next day, having no investment in the storyline other than personal curiosity, Pep returns to the scene and searches for clues. He now finds a match and the smell of gasoline in the grass. A generous Editor could give him both clues with one successful search roll, particularly since he finds them together. Had he thought to search the night before he might have noticed the gasoline smell, but the Editor would likely make a common sense call that the match could not be found in the dark. Naturally, no non-Heroes notice the gasoline smell, to give the Hero a chance to find the clue first.

This is the second suspicious arson in town and Pep finds out all he can about his suspects by pumping non-Hero characters, like a bartender, and his own supporting cast, like his dad, for information. That Pep is getting a drink from a bartender is very interesting, since Pep always seems to be around 18. In 1940, there were 14 states where an 18 year old could legally drink, including New York, where Pep's stories most likely take place.

Pep and his friend Ted stake out the next house Pep thinks will be burnt down for six days before they get lucky and catch the arsonist in the act. All this time, they don't tell the owner, for fear the man will tell his wife -- the implication being that you can't trust women with gossip. While chasing after the arsonist, Pep slips in "wet grass" - very convenient, but likely just flavor text for having failed a skill check to catch up in the chase sequence, and not an indication of any kind of fumble mechanic for chases.

Pep is able to borrow the owner of the house's car to continue the chase, meaning Pep either stole the keys from the house earlier or Jack (the owner) leaves his keys in the car at night. The car chase ends with Pep sideswiping the other car with Jack's car and wrecking the arsonist's car. A fighter has no chance of wrecking things vs. cars -- by himself, but I could see giving him an additional d6 back (normal wrecking things chance, up to 4th level), if using a vehicle to wreck with.

In a sort of a plot twist, the arsonist turns out to be just who you expected all along, instead of going for someone surprising.

"Chuck" Dawson is tracking a killer and finds a clue on the ground -- the silver honcha Chuck shot off his hat band as the killer was riding away. If you're wondering what a honcha is, so was I...it's what looks like a little buckle on some hat bands. You don't call it a buckle because, in most cases, the honcha is merely decorative and doesn't work like a buckle.

I don't normally like "Chuck" Dawson, but he gets in some good dialog in this installment that makes him more enjoyable; my favorite line is, "You're going to feel about as comfortable as a sage-hen in a coyote party..."

(Superman story read in Action Comics Archives vol. 2, the rest read at readcomiconline.to)

Action Comics #21 - pt. 1

Superman is nearly a two-year old concept by this point. He still works for the Daily Star, so this is still taking place in Cleveland. Or is it? This is the first story in which the city is called Metropolis. Ultra-Humanite is still his main villain (now villainness). Clark Kent writes an article for the Daily Star about Terry Curtis and his atomic disintegrator, an article that Ultra reads, making Clark responsible for the danger Terry soon finds himself in. 

Although Clark gets a serious clue as to who Terry's new girlfriend is (she looks like the very actress Ultra's brain now inhabits? Hmm...), it takes him a surprising amount of time -- a week, in fact -- to guess at the truth (clearly he has not read much fiction and doesn't know how villains return from seemingly dying). Superman's player has to take the full blame for this, as there is no game mechanic for solving clues. It seems like the player was just tired of going after Ultra, feeling the Editor was forcing the same villain on him too often. Instead of being flexible, the Editor simply ups the ante, as Ultra is soon extorting $2 million from Metropolis over the threat of the disintegrator, forcing Superman to finally deal with this.

Ultra forces Terry's obedience with a "torture ray" that projects a blinding light into his eyes. It only takes several hours (1 rest turn) for the ray to break him. The new version of the disintegrator Terry makes is a raygun that can be mounted on the front of a plane. The narrator calls the plane a "fantastic air-vessel," but it clearly resembles a 1937 Boeing Flying Fortress. 

Ultra demonstrates the disintegrator on the Wentworth Tower. I can't find any evidence of anything like a Wentworth Tower in Cleveland, so that seems to be more evidence that we're in a fictional new city now.

Superman finally uses a power, Raise Building, to hold up the tower until all the bystanders are clear. It is very unclear if Superman is flying or leaping in this story. He manages to dodge the raygun in mid-air, but then has to descend to the ground. This is why I put into the power Leap III that the leaper can make a 45-degree turn in mid-air. 

That Superman is able to trigger an eruption in the volcano Ultra is using as his new hideout makes me suspect the location is Ecuadaor, since the last time a volcano erupted in the Americas was the Sangay Volcano there in 1934. Superman hitches a ride on an airplane -- on top of the airplane -- to get to Ecuador, so the only power we need concern ourselves with here is perhaps the use of Hold Breath when the plane rose too high in the atmosphere, or perhaps a Resist Cold/Endure Elements power to cope with the temperature at that altitude.

Ultra's hideout is a glass-sheathed "city" inside the volcano. It is the first, but not the last, time that Jerry Siegel would toy with the notion of hiding lost ruins of forgotten civilizations in Superman's world. 

Ultra sics "huge" robots on Superman, making it his first battle ever with robots. They appear to be man-sized, though.

Superman is stopped by a trap -- if he crosses a photoelectric beam in the room, a disintegrator raygun aimed at Metropolis will be turned on remotely. It's a diabolical trap, but it's got some issues. Could Ultra have really created an intercontinental remote control, or is he bluffing? And what if Superman just left the room, came around it, and broke through the opposite wall? Instead, Superman allows himself to be suckered into a false offer to trade Curtis' life for some "crown jewels" being stored in Metropolis. Perhaps Superman is just curious to see what Ultra's game is...

There is no explanation for why the crown jewels are in Metropolis, or what country they are from. It was long rumored, while war was raging in Europe, the UK shipped its crown jewels to the U.S. for safekeeping (and now it is rumored that they never left Windsor Castle). 

Superman returns to the U.S. by running up through the Americas. It is suggested by the narrator that he is only at outrunning train speeds, which means he might have taken days to get back. Race the Plane would have got him back home in 7 hours. 

Regardless, it is enough time for the National Guard and the city's police force to assemble to stop Superman (when Ultra phones ahead to tip them off).  They certainly don't come prepared; their one cannon is pre-WWI vintage. 

Superman makes a subtle use of wrecking things to wreck open a fire hydrant. A long time ago on this blog I talked about using the water pressure from a fire hose as a ranged push attack, but maybe it should be strong enough to do damage too?

Instead of just wrecking his way inside, Superman uses the power Wall-Climbing...I'm guessing because he expects to see the crown jewels through a window.

The National Guard get inventive with trying to stop Superman. They chop off the flagpoles so Superman can't use them to help climb (but he's using the power, so he doesn't need them). When that fails, they try to drop a safe on him from at least two stories higher up. The safe maybe weighs around 600 lbs (3 men can move it). So what damage would a 600 lb. safe cause falling two stories onto someone's head?  Someone weighing an average of 180 lbs. does 1-6 damage with a weapon. If we double that for each d6 of progression, we get 3-18 damage for the safe (rounded up). If the damage progresses at +1d6 per 180 lbs., we're still at 3-18 damage -- at this weight -- but that makes dinosaurs SUPER dangerous. It the safe falls 10' it takes/does 1-6 damage, +1d6 for each additional 10'. So we're up to a whopping 5-30 damage for the falling safe -- good call, National Guardsmen, this safe is about as dangerous as a cannon! Unfortunately, Superman comes up with an unusual use of the Raise Car power, negating damage when something is dropped on him (because he can lift it away). Indeed, Superman then buffs himself again with Extend Missile Range so he can toss the safe back up onto the roof (a harmless move, but one that might trigger morale saves at the Editor's discretion).

Superman takes the uncharacteristic action of holding the National Guard Commander over the side of the roof, to force the surrender of his men. It's unclear how he recognizes the man as the commander, since he's not wearing any special uniform. Presumedly, Superman was bluffing and did not really intend to drop the man to his death, but this early in his career no one knew that about him.

Superman is able to rip open a vault door as "tho' it were a toy," which is why all types of doors all wreck at the same category.

Superman is able to disregard tear gas because of the Different Physical Structure power and machine gun fire because of the Imperviousness power. 

The situation escalates when three Army fighter planes show up and bombard the floor Superman is on with gunfire -- presumedly killing all the National Guardsmen inside. Superman "outmaneuvers them" in a panel where he appears to be running on clouds. I'm not quite ready to introduce a Cloud Walking power yet, as I believe that was not the artist's intentions. Indeed, I believe Shuster intended that to be smoke from the gunfire around Superman, not clouds, but was changed by Siegel's narrative caption.

Superman returns to the volcano in Ecuador "shortly later," meaning that he definitely used a higher level Race the- power this time. Ultra immediately "double-crosses" Superman by trying to kill him in a death trap; it's unclear if Superman really planned to trade the crown jewels for Curtis until the double cross. The death trap is four panels that raise out of the floor around a 5' square and close in on a single target, each with two diamond-tipped drills set on the inside of the panel. One could presume this trap would do up to 8-48 damage, provided all eight drills hit. I would probably roll to hit for all eight (as 4 HD mobsters), accounting for the victim's ability to squirm in the available space and avoid them. Superman simply wrecks his way out of the trap. Not only does he wreck the drills, but he is shown to break the diamond bits in half with the force of his punch. It's difficult to assign a category to that, but I would go with battleships or dams. 

The atomic disintegrator also comes in rifle size, but this weapon is not a raygun; it shoots a thin beam (that looks like fire) that the attacker needs to roll to attack to use (spoiler: he misses Superman, so we don't find out if Superman is immune or not). 

Superman lets Ultra jump out of the room, assuming the volcano would kill him, feeling that wrecking the larger raygun is more important. Causing a volcano to erupt by wrecking things would be in the dam category.

Pep Morgan's feature follows; it's a standard vs. gamblers plot, but is marked by the meta-humor of Pep reading a copy of Action Comics.

(Superman story read in Action Comics Archives vol. 2, the rest read at fullcomic.pro)

 

  

Action Comics #20 - pt. 1

And we're back to Superman! This is the first Superman story of 1940 and the last Superman story in DC's Action Comics Archives vol. 1.

Superman starts it off with the Raise Bridge power, then becomes Clark Kent for the main plot. As Clark, he lassos an assassin and pulls him off a high ledge (for 1-6 falling damage). This is the plot hook to get Superman to meet actress Dolores Winters. When he next meets Dolores and she does not recognize him, there is no game mechanic involved in that -- it is a purely role-played situation.

Then something very unusual happens for Superman -- he misses a plot hook. When he sees that Dolores is having a big party on a yacht, he decides not to go. Most players would see that as a plot hook. By passing it up, Superman misses an easy chance to stop the Ultra-Humanite early.

When Superman says Ultra's request for $5 million is the "greatest mass kidnapping ever attempted," I can't find any evidence to prove him wrong.

Superman does a minor leap, wall-climbs up to a high window, and "X-ray visions" a piece of paper inside (though I'm not sure how he would read using X-rays, maybe he is actually using his telescopic vision, which would fall under the Super-Senses power in 2nd edition).

It was never explained how Ultra made the paper materialize in the room. Or why an invention that could do that would not itself be worth $5 million.

Superman is able to stay underwater for over 2 hours. This is the Hold Breath power.

Ultra has a submarine that can fire magnetic ray beams. This invention is also, apparently, not worth $5 million. When assigning $ values to trophy items in 2nd edition, I did hesitate to set them too low, but comics bear out that mad science is never as valuable as crime.

Superman stops Ultra by using the Wreck at Range power to smash a generator at a distance. Then he uses Gust of Wind to blow out Ultra's torch.

Ultra manages to elude Superman by simply jumping into the water. You would think that this would not be much of a stumbling block for someone who can move at super-speed, use telescopic vision, and hold his breath for hours, but clearly Superman's power durations had ended already and he was all out of prepared powers that would help.

And that's the Superman installment.

In Pep Morgan, Pep not only saves the life of racing pilot Jimmy Dee but, recognizing him as a plot hook character, invites him to stay at his house. Jimmy uses some slang, such as the common "crate" for plane, and the uncommon "cop" to mean win (as in "cop that race"). Pep has to climb out onto a plane in flight, later, and climb up to the pilot's seat. In 1st edition, this would have been an aviator stunt called Wing Walking. Now, it's an expert skill check. We know Pep is not a mysteryman (or at best a low-level mysteryman) because he does not have a stunt to burn for an automatic skill check at the end, and he has to wake up Jimmy to get him to land the plane.

Speaking of slang, "Chuck" Dawson uses the phrase "fade out" to refer to his horse not wanting to approach something (so "fade out" must mean "back off" or "back away"). Another cowboy refers to Chuck's gun as his "hardware."

Next is "Clip" Carson, Soldier-of-Fortune. Summarizing his recent adventures, we see he has dealt with a wild lioness, hostile natives, and a "gigantic" serpent (though it does not look like a particularly large constrictor snake). The narrator claims Carson keeps his native porters loyal through "iron will," but actually he threatens to shoot them like a cold-blooded killer any time they talk about deserting him. Carson somehow escapes the stabbing he kinda deserves by "luckily" rolling over in his sleep just in time. It seems like a generous Editor to even require an attack roll in such a situation; I would personally rule it as an automatic hit for maximum damage. Carson gets away with the "last request" stalling tactic when about to be killed by making a successful encounter reaction roll. Carson's trip during the final battle is dramatic, but unsupported by the rules, since it looks like he fumbled (and Hideouts & Hoodlums uses no fumble charts for combat).

(Superman read in Action Comics Archive v. 1; the rest read at fullcomic.pro.)





 

Action Comics #19

In the Superman feature, Superman demonstrates a "super-resistance to disease", but could have just been a successful saving throw vs. the "purple plague."

Professor Henry Travers is so worried about the plague killing people in... is this still Cleveland? The headline of The Daily Star says "Purple Plague Grips Metropolis," but that was probably not a proper name yet at this point. Anyway, Travers is so flustered that he accidentally says the plague that ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages was the purple plague, when of course it was the bubonic plague.

The "De Fauvier's study of the Purple Plague" sounded so specific that I wondered if De Fauvier was an actual scientist who had once studied diseases. It seems to be purely fictitious, though.

I don't think I ever made a trophy item out of this, but Ultra-Humanite fools Superman wearing a "false-face mask", despite the fact that rubber masks never would fool anyone in real life.

Superman does not always have the Quick Change power prepared. In this story, he knows Travers has been attacked after hearing it over a phone call, yet curiously takes the time to untie his shoes before removing them so he can go leap off to Travers' apartment.

Thugs are also called "muscle men" in this story, proving to me I was right to give thugs better than average Hit Dice.

Superman halting his fall by catching a ledge is cliche -- and can be supported by game mechanics in several different ways. The Editor could have conveniently put the ledge there and offered the chance to roll "to hit" the ledge (an attack roll). Or, Superman's player could have suggested there might be a ledge nearby to grab, and the Editor gave him a save vs. plot for there to be a ledge to grab. Or, the ledge is actually flavor text for the Feather Landing power being activated.

I'm curious about who Travers' "scientific society" was. The story is three years too early for it to be the Cleveland Technical Societies Council.

Superman is still not a Lawful hero at this point; he steals chemicals for Travers that Travers needs for his research into the plague cure. He does so by uprooting a massive skylight to break in and then walking through a wall to break out -- both examples of wrecking things.

For the second time, the Ultra-Humanite knocks Superman unconscious with electricity. It may be important that Superman is taken by surprise each time, so he is not able to activate any defensive powers first.

In addition to the electric raygun, Ultra uses a mind control helmet on Superman, but it comes with a saving throw vs. science that Superman easily makes. Ultra's "fantastic airship" is propeller-less, and almost surely an early jet plane.

The power 4th level power (in first edition Hideouts & Hoodlums) Turn Gun on Bad Guy comes from the final scene of this story, where Ultra shoots his electric gun at Superman, yet Superman is improbably able to pull Ultra in front of the blast first.

In the Pep Morgan feature, stopping to perform a good deed -- moving a loose rail off the railroad tracks -- leads to an encounter with gangster/robbers (perhaps a mixed group of both mobster types), and demonstrates how good deeds can become plot hooks or be tied to plot hooks.

Pep foils the efforts of the mobsters to jump off the train by reaching the engine and telling the crew to speed up too fast for them to risk jumping off. So how fast is too fast? If we assume 30 MPH = 1-6 points of falling sideways damage, and the train made it up to 90 MPH, that would equate to a brutal 3-18 points of damage -- more than most gangsters and robbers would be able to endure.

It also appears that Pep might have a brother in this story, though there is no text that corroborates this when he is seen with his family.

In the Chuck Dawson feature, Chuck is attacked by roughnecks.  I don't have a mobster type for "roughnecks", but outlaws are the evil version of cowboys and it sounds like these are just some of those, or maybe bandits. Chuck is defeated with lassos -- and in fact 2nd edition H&H now has entangling rules for just this situation. Luckily, he had trained his horse, Blacky, to untie knots, freeing Chuck, and showing just how complex the actions of animal Supporting Cast Members can be.

Later, catching up to the outlaw/bandits, Chuck jumps down off a ledge behind them to attack them. Now, there is little tactical advantage to taking falling damage, losing surprise, and then attacking your opponents. We have already seen lots of comic book characters fall on mobsters from a height, as an attack, which I suspect Chuck was trying to do here -- Chuck was just the first hero to miss!

In the Clip Carson feature, Clip is in "Kenye," which is surely an intentional misspelling of Kenya. In 1939, this would be the British colony of Kenya. The first thing Clip does is go to a bar and get in a fight with a drunken hoodlum...which reminds me of about half the D&D campaigns I've ever played in. The drunken hoodlum holds a grudge and hides a cobra in Clip's room. Later, Clip runs into cannibals -- which I've said before I plan to leave statted as "natives" and not stat them separately -- but chooses not to fight them and bribes them for safe passage instead.

In the Tex Thompson feature, Tex and his sidekick, Bob Daley, meet actor "John Barryless" -- har har -- obviously meant to be John Barrymore. Tex and his associates head to Egypt to find John's missing son, Bart (John Barrymore's son was also named John). One doesn't normally associate the savage native trope with Egypt, nor zombies, but Tex encounters both while there. We also learn that salt can counter the potion that turns living people into zombies.

Gargantua T. Potts, by the way, is a minstrel show-level racist caricature of a sidekick for Tex.

In the Three Aces feature, I learned (or maybe I knew this before and forgot) that the Three Aces ("Fog" Fortune, "Gunner" Bill, and "Whistler" Will) are members of the U.S. Naval Reserves -- which seems an odd choice, as I would have thought the Army had more fliers than the Navy at that time. They have to "solve" a murder mystery, and I use the term loosely because they overhear practically everything and then just have to prove who did it. It can be a useful reminder to Editors not to make mysteries too difficult to solve during game sessions.

In the Zatara feature, Zatara -- who usually throws around high level spells like they were nothing -- solves this scenario where a mad scientist in Mexico is creating an army of gorillas with transplanted human brains (and apparently is shipping the gorillas all the way into Mexico, since they are clearly not indigenous) using only two second-level spells, Invisibility and Hold Person. Of course, you could call the scenario only a partial success because Zatara only frees the scientist's prisoners who still have their brains, leaving all the transplant victims to be blown up along with the scientist after Zatara escapes.
 
(Superman story read in Action Comics Archives v. 1; select pages from the rest were read at the Babbling about DC ,o;Comics blog and the rest was read in summary at DC Wikia.)

Action Comics #16

Let's start with Superman.

Catching a falling man isn't really a big deal for Superman, and probably only needs a successful "attack" roll to scoop the man up.

The early Superman doesn't seem to care all that much if anyone figures out his secret identity. Not only does he wear no mask and conceals no fingerprints, but the windows on his apartment have sheer curtains. You'd think he'd at least use shades for more privacy!

This is the first story to call Superman's port of call "Metropolis", beginning the trend of fictional cities in the superhero genre.

The police commissioner in this story is a corrupt politician, despite the fact that most police are statted as fighters.

$5,000 was apparently a good night's haul for a casino-club.

The gamblers in this story don't seem to have any special abilities worth statting differently than slick hoodlums, other than to give them a better chance of rigging games.

Superman turns down the chance to collect XP for keeping the money in exchange for the good deed award for giving it all away to poor people.

Racketeers seem to have even less special abilities than gamblers.

Superman wrecks gambling establishments, both with a hammer and his bare hands. Since he's not wrecking the buildings themselves, I'd probably treat this as a wrecking doors roll (and at Superman's current level, he probably doesn't even need to roll for that anymore).

Superman picked up a fixed deck of cards to fool the gamblers, and then keeps it as a trophy.

Pep Morgan's adventure has an unusual angle -- Hero playing bodyguard. Can an Editor pull off a session where the Hero has to spend a week living with another character, waiting to see if any harm comes to him or her (her, in this case)? Only if the Editor creates an engaging character, and the player really likes to roleplay.  Otherwise, the scenario will quickly fast forward to the first whiff of danger. This is part 2 of a 4-part story arc where Pep is employed by a Mr. Smith, who keeps handing Pep plot hooks.

Pep, despite being just a college student, is already a pipe smoker and goes to bed early enough that he's asleep at 11:30 pm when mobsters try to abduct Mr. Smith's daughter, Mary. Something wakes Pep up in time, though (save vs. plot?) so he can come pummel the kidnappers with his fists until they surrender. One of the kidnappers falls over from being pummeled, which isn't supported by the game mechanics, although an Editor could rightly say the circumstances warranted it since the man was carrying Mary and would be unbalanced (maybe a save vs. science to avoid falling over).

Slings and arrows (of outrageous fortune!) are being hurled at Marco Polo in his adventure, but the more effective weapon seems to be the dropped rocks falling on the bandits in the ambush at the end. If the rocks are heavy enough that they have to be pushed over instead of thrown, it could be considered a trap and do more than normal missile weapon damage. Maybe 1-8 points?

Clip Carson deals with a fake mummy in an Egyptian tomb, but it's a trick -- the mummy is a "robot" (really, more like animatronics) and it's voice was from a concealed record player behind it. Clip is in the Pyramid of Cheops -- aka the Great Pyramid of Giza -- looking for a secret treasure room that was apparently missed by 9th century looters and 19th century archaeologists. Interestingly, a rival -- a corrupt sergeant from the occupying British Army -- found the treasure room before them and has convinced the natives to guard it by posing as Cheops in a rubber mask. Maybe those natives have been in the stale air of the pyramid too long...

For the Chuck Dawson summary I'm reading says Chuck is framed by thugs, which is an odd mobster type choice for a Western adventure. Maybe these are outlaws?

Tex Thompson's adventure has an interesting spin to it as well. Tex is asked by the French government to infiltrate a spy ring, to find out who their mole is in the French government. In eight more months, things would be getting a lot more exciting in France if Tex stuck around that long.

Zatara has his first encounter with aliens from another planet (he's already fought aliens from another dimension). He encounters them as if a random wandering encounter -- or at least he encounters the teleport beam that scoops up a random farmer while Zatara and Tong are out on an evening stroll together.

Zatara investigates at the local observatory, where the aliens somehow push him into a teleport beam and he winds up on Saturn. The Saturnians look an awful lot like the Martian Manhunter, 16 years before his debut! Despite having super technology that allows instantaneous interplanetary travel, the Saturnians fight with lassos. Zatara meets their warlord and convinces him to leave Earth alone by showing him a Phantasmal Image of the planet Earth attacking the planet Saturn. Saturnians are very impressionable.

(Superman adventure read in Superman: Action Comics Archive v. 1; select pages were read on the Babbling about DC Comics blog; the rest read in summary either at DC Wikia or Mike's Amazing World.)

Action Comics #15

And we come back around to Superman's home title, Action Comic, as we will periodically do, to see what new and exciting stuff Siegel and Shuster have cooked up for us. Here, we're treated to some delightful attention to continuity, as Superman reflects on having saved money earned months earlier in issue #11.

And raising money is the unusual scenario goal in this issue, as Superman has to raise $1 million to save "Kid-Town". For capturing bank robbers, he gets a $3,000 reward from the bank for returning their money, plus $2,000 from the police for capturing the robbers. He saves a rich man's life and gets $10,000 as his reward. Then he receives a plot hook that sends him after sunken treasure worth $1 million by itself.

All of these rewards can be dangled in front of Hideouts & Hoodlums Heroes, though the Editor is discouraged from awarding XP for money that has to be raised for a scenario. Trophy money should be earned on the side while pursuing other goals.

In the course of this adventure, Superman performs the powers Nigh-Invulnerable Skin (but while out of costume!), Raise Car (to lift a massive tree), Hold Breath (said to last for hours!), Get Even Tougher (I presume, since he's able to fight off a dozen sharks!), Hold Train reversed (so he can push a submarine), Super-Tough Skin, and -- of course -- wrecking things.

For some amount under $15,000, Clark Kent is able to rent a steamer ship for two weeks, complete with diving bell. He has to hire his own crew, though.

Another wrinkle in this surprisingly complex Superman tale is rival gangs competing to stop him. One becomes his ship crew, while the other steals a submarine to come after his ship. And Superman has fun with it too, dressing up in a skeleton's conquistador armor to spook the submarine crew.

In Pep Morgan's installment, Pep is given a plot hook by someone he rescued in the previous story -- the start of a series of plot hooks the same character will give him over what is actually a long story arc. He has to catch a combination of gangsters and robbers who are disguising themselves as police officers. Pep disguises himself too, posing as a night watchman and then a policeman himself, to capture the robbers who are using a tricked farmer's farm as their hideout.

Marco Polo shows himself to have some anti-hero leanings in this installment. He knocks out a guard to steal a horse, and then steals a sword from two soldiers (who probably only want to arrest him for horse theft!). I'm not sure how easy it is to snatch a sword from someone else's scabbard, but I'm guessing it's pretty hard and must be a difficult (1 in 6) skill, like picking pockets.

In Clip Carson's adventure, he and his SCM (archaeologist Jim Blake) have been fighting bandits in the Sahara when both sides have to seek shelter from a sandstorm (wandering weather encounter? Editorial fiat?). Jim points out that sandstorms can rip skin to shreds, meaning at least 2-8 points of damage I reckon. Luckily, tents make you automatically immune to the damage. Clip and Jim decide to brave the storm instead; since they emerge unscathed, there must be a save vs. science that lets you avoid the whole damage.

They find a guarded pyramid -- and rightly so, being a national monument. Clip and Jim have a map that will show them where a secret treasure room is inside, but instead of showing it to the Arab guards and offering to share it with them, Clip beats them all up so they can enter and steal the treasure for themselves. The pyramid is the "Pyramid of Cheoks," which clearly means Cheops. While inside, a guard recovers and trains a gun on them from a trapdoor in the ceiling, generously giving them a chance to surrender. But, again, this guy's an Arab, so Clip feels no remorse as he murders the guard. They find the secret door indicated on the map, but run into a mummy at the cliffhanger!

Tex Thompson is taking a break from globe-trotting and is back home in Texas for a change. We see he's an expert dart thrower. He also has an Arab servant named Achmed who never joins him on any adventures and we probably never see again. Tex is asked to find a missing diamond in this story, during which he runs into and adds his second SCM, Gargantua T. Potts. "Gargantua" must be a nickname because Potts is tall, drawn taller than Tex. Other than that, Potts has no special abilities other than being a  horribly drawn racial slur.

Well, well -- Fred Guardineer anticipated global warming! In his Zatara installment this month, "an evil scientist, Berhener, creates a heat ray and uses it to melt a lot of polar ice, causing the oceans to rise, and flooding New York City and many other coastal cities. Zatara is called in, and he figures out where the melting is happening, then tracks the heat ray's creator, Berhener, who turns out to have a mad scheme about extorting the world's governments and banks for a lot of money. Zatara freezes him inside an iceberg, and sinks the heat ray into the ocean." That summary doesn't give me a lot to go on, but apparently Zatara is starting to cast more combat-related spells like Ice Storm or Cone of Cold.

(Superman adventure read in Superman: The Action Comics Archives vol. 1, select pages read at the Babbling about DC Comics blog, summaries of the rest read at DC Wikia.)

Action Comics #13

Superman does the stuff you expect from Superman here -- leaping, lifting heavy stuff. Interestingly, he does not rely on super-senses much, leaping up to windows so he can peer right in at the people he needs to eavesdrop on (which is why there aren't many senses-related powers).

Again we see Super-Tough Skin breaking a knife (like in AC #1). Superman is leaping along with a hoodlum under his arm when he's thrown off-balance by the knife attack and reaches out for a window with one hand to catch himself, while dropping the hoodlum from his other arm. The hoodlum then falls to his death. Now, we know Superman could have just fallen to the ground with the hoodlum, land safely, and keep the hoodlum alive, but instead Superman says he got "exactly what he deserved". Golden Age Heroes are okay with bad guys dying, just like most of my players.

In an interesting twist, Superman forces the racketeers he's captured to wreck their own cars with mallets instead of wrecking them himself. Now, there are non-Superhero wrecking rules in the game -- but would you actually use them in this case? There's not any suspense to whether or not the racketeers succeed. When the game mechanics do not add to the suspense of the scene, you can feel free to skip over them.

And that just leads up to Superman's first confrontation with the Ultra-Humanite. Ultra is, of course, the inspiration for the ultra-mad scientist mobster type in Book II.

Superman succumbs to an electrical trap, not because it's early in the development of his character and his limits, or lack thereof, have not yet been firmly established, but because he hasn't prepared any powers that protect him from this much damage. In the future he'll be more prepared with defensive buffs.

The Scoop Scanlon story from this issue, from the summary I read, sounds like a Scooby Doo scenario. People get scared that an Indian curse on some jewels is turning people to stone, and one victim really does appear to be turned to stone. Scoop sets a trap for the bad guy -- a really silly trap, where Scoop makes his own fake statue and talks from behind it, which actually scares the bad guy into confessing. I feel sorry for the guy running a Hideouts & Hoodlums game who has to make it that easy to trick his own bad guys.

Also, for a "five star reporter," Scoop doesn't do any investigating to get involved in this case -- he just drives by and happens to see what appears to be a dead body laying outside a house.

Now, what makes this stand out from your average Scooby Doo episode is that the victim turned to stone isn't a trick -- the guy is really dead and petrified. The killer isn't even a mad scientist; he's just some guy who's found a "rare formula" for turning a body to stone. So, my thought is -- what's a rare formula, in terms of game mechanics? Is it like a spell scroll, only anyone can use it?

Pep Morgan is leaving the South American country of "Latona" -- and this time, I can't even try figuring out which real country that represents. A few more quick comments about the Pep Morgan adventure: one, stopping a mutiny is easy when the Editor lets the mutineers throw a party and get drunk, and two, villainous Captain Sindra sneaks on board Pep's ship, pretending to be a sailor named Johnson. I would never be able to get my players to play seriously if they encountered a character named Seaman Johnson. Lastly, Sindra isn't even defeated by Pep; the boat's captain does it for him.

In the Marco Polo feature, Marco's pet cheetah is captured with "snares" -- these are really lassos. Then the cheetah is dragged into a cage.

Marco isn't just tossed into a dungeon, he gets kicked down a flight of stairs into the dungeon. Falling down stairs can be lethal. Should it do as much damage as falling vertically? Maybe half-damage, rounded up? Fall down a 30' flight of steps and you take 2-12 points of damage.

But later, Marco produces a bag of money off his person. It's not uncommon for Heroes to be able to sneak things into prison cells, like knives or broken glass, but prison guards missing a bag of money? Should I even bother with having guards search prisoners at all?

Okay, now to Zatara's back of tricks...

First he casts a spell that turns him and Tong into gusts of wind for fast travel -- what is that? Gaseous form doesn't usually go with faster movement, which makes it an even more powerful spell. Or is this flavor text for a teleport spell? He also turns him and Tong into shadows later for sneaking around -- or is that flavor text for Invisibility?

Zatara can cast a shrinking spell that reduces a target 75% in size. He casts a hypnosis spell, but the information he gets from the man under hypnosis isn't anything he couldn't get through a Charm Person spell. Some of his other spells look familiar, like turning a gun into a snake (which I've previously decided must be an illusion).

He does seem to cast a new spell when he makes a safe path for someone through the Swamp of Satan. Safe Path apparently lets someone walk without encountering natural hazards, like quicksand.  Or -- is this a Find Traps spell at work?

Another possibly new spell: Zatara casts a Melting Curse. The victim has to save vs. spells or melt away into nothingness. But -- is this really all that different from Disintegrate?

This one is definitely a new spell, though. A Sleeping Hex is a spell you cast on someone who is already asleep, and then they can't be woken up by any means (short of a Dispel Magic spell) for ...I don't know, some unknown length of time.

(Superman adventure read in Superman: The Action Comics Archives Vol. 1; select pages were read at the Babbling about DC Comics blog; the rest read as summaries here.)

Action Comics #12

Superman is one year old! To celebrate, Superman declares war on reckless drivers. This is the kind of proactive playing most game referees just dream about, though it is admittedly hard to prepare for if the players just start a campaign like this off the cuff.

Superman does a lot of wrecking in this story -- wrecking his way through a brick wall, wrecking cars and trucks, and the machines in a factory. He uses his alien abilities of leaping, running super-fast, and naturally nigh-invulnerable skin, and the powers Raise Car and Dig. He probably uses Feather Landing too.

Remarkably, Superman is shown capable of being knocked over by a speeding car when he's not braced for it, or perhaps just because he doesn't have the right powers buffing him.

Scoop Scanlon was seriously injured in last month's segment. A month passes in story time while he convalesces. That's a long, slow rate of hit point recovery!

When Pep Morgan is stuck in a South American country ("Latara" -- I can't even guess what that is code for), he does the smart thing my Monday night group did when they were in Cairo -- seek out help from an American consultate. In this case, Pep can wire home for money and get a few pesos to tide him over (the latter as the result of a high encounter reaction roll?).

Pep escapes from being tied up by exerting "super-human strength." Umm...I don't think that's really Pep's thing. Maybe the rope wasn't very strong?

Zatara is in an explorer's club in San Francisco -- he really gets around looking for plot hooks!  A scientist friend approaches Zatara, for the man has invented a portal to the fourth dimension and wants Zatara to explore through it.

The fourth dimension is a gonzo sandbox setting, with prehistoric flora and fauna, including a saber-tooth tiger (these were statted in Book II). It is also inhabited by green humans who live in nations called Thrule and Arren. The humans of Thrule are masters of biology and have learned how to recreate species from various times in Earth history, like the tiger. They are not good with weapons, though, as the leader of Thrule has nothing but throwing daggers to defend himself with. The people of Arren have weapons that can vaporize people, so it seems a decidedly lopsided war between them. One wonders how Thrule is not yet conquered...

Soon, Zatara is flying a winged horse, but it isn't clear if he made that, summoned that, or was given it for his use by the leader of Thrule. Zatara does cast a spell that reflects missile weapons back on the thrower (Missile Reflection? Maybe a new 4th level spell?), Polymorph himself into a vulture, turns Invisible, uses ventriloquism (a spell, or a skill?), and then Polymorph again to turn a woman into an ugly hag (for a change, all but the first of Zatara's spells were in Book I!).

(Superman read in Superman Action Comics Archives vol. 1, select pages were read at the Babbling about DC Comics blog, summaries of the rest read at DC Wikia)

Action Comics #11

Superman's powers are starting to look very familiar at this point. We again see Leap I, Outrun Train, Wrecking Things, and probably even Invulnerability (because even Tough Skin might not save you from a sub-machine gun, depending on how you're rolling weapon damage). Story-wise, it is good to see consistency in what a superhero can or cannot do. Superman, for instance, uses a drill to dig for oil instead of the Dig power, and he uses an ordinary torch because he has no powers that generate heat or flame.

In most different superhero RPGs, the superhero would be limited to a specific set of powers. Here, the player is on his honor to only prepare the powers that best emulate his Hero each game session. But this gives the player great flexibility too. In this story, Superman's player decides to use X-Ray Vision and Super-Hearing for the first time. Had he decided to use Blast II and Chick Magnet instead, Superman would have turned out like a very different character!

In Scoop Scanlon's story, Scoop is undercover and, to pass himself off as a mobster, has to shoot his friend Rusty. To keep Rusty alive, Scoop shoots his metal belt buckle -- which seems to me an incredibly risky move. I'm not even sure how I would handle that with game mechanics. A big penalty to hit for a "called shot"?  Or I could treat the buckle as cover and move Rusty's AC from 9 to 8. If Scoop rolled just right to hit AC 9 or 8 it would hit the buckle, but if he rolled any higher than that, he would hit Rusty.

With this issue, Pep Morgan moves closer to being an adventure strip. Press ganged onto a gun smugglers' ship, Pep escapes by swimming to shore ahead of the ship, past some sharks that luckily choose to ignore him. It's easy for the Editor and players to fall into the trap of thinking that all encounters need to be adversarial encounters, but that's too limiting for a RPG -- which is why we have encounter reaction tables in the first place. The sharks should be just as likely to be uninterested in Pep (if they've eaten recently), and what a more memorable encounter it would be if the sharks turned out to be friendly!

The gun smuggling ship captain takes shots at Pep as he swims away, but luckily the water serves as cover.

How The Adventures of Marco Polo hails from different times! A leopard hunt is already over when Marco decides he wants a leopard cub to train. So he instigates a fight with a female leopard protecting her cubs, the poor mother is killed by others in his hunting party -- and Marco is commended for his bravery! You know, instead of everyone telling him what a Class A jerk he was. At least, from this scenario, we see trained cheetahs being used like hunting dogs (an interesting idea, though I doubt wild cats would do that unless being magically controlled), jackals being used as a clue during the hunt, and a pack of leopards.

I almost want to keep jackals out of H&H -- they're so small they would, at best, share stats with a giant rat. A cheetah I would give 2 Hit Dice, the same as I would give a leopard. There would be little reason to stat them differently, except to give the cheetah a faster movement rate.

Tex Thompson and a party of supporting cast members explore a lost island. Despite the H&H rules on languages, Tex can't speak to the local Malays and needs an interpreter. Supplement I: National suggested an optional rule for language barriers. Basically, instead of tracking how many languages your Hero can speak, you track the exceptions (this will be explained as such in 2nd ed.).

Tex has to pass three challenges on the Malay island. The first challenge drops him through a pit trap into a pool with a shark in it. The second challenge is to overcome a warrior in single combat. In each challenge, the Malays are generous and make sure Tex always has a weapon. The third challenge is to get through a wall of fire. Here, Tex plays it smart and goes through the previous two rooms to look for items that will help him get through the wall of fire. He settles on a flag from the warrior room that he soaks in water from the pool room. It is important for the Editor to allow for multiple solutions to a puzzle like this; don't penalize the players if they fail to come up with the single solution you had in mind (so long as their solutions also make sense!).

Chuck Dawson's adventure reminds us that it's important to give some thought, when you're constructing a trap for your players, as to how the trap would be reset. In this story, a trapdoor in a cabin has a concealed pull-string rigged up so you can pull the trapdoor closed from outside the cabin (though, in this case, I don't get why you would need something so elaborate).

Zatara has a travel adventure -- that is, an adventure that happens to him as he's traveling from place to place, rather than having to travel to the adventure. His cruise ship crossing the Pacific is haunted by a ghost that can't be harmed by magic. Zatara figures out (before I did!) that the ghost is an illusion spell. This story sets a precedent for people being "killed" by illusions -- the body is convinced it is dead and stops functioning, so the person is effectively killed -- but a person killed by an illusion can be revived if done quickly enough before all body functions cease.

For spells, Zatara throws around a powerful polymorph spell that can turn a man into a door (that's got to be pretty high level -- it not only affects the man, but a nearby wall as well!), a Polymorph spell on both himself and Tong -- to turn them into mice (setting a precedent for how small the new form can be with that spell), and Gaseous Form on himself (this lets him move through keyholes). He casts some kind of spell that creates a hole in the wall (like Stone Shape, but is not limited to stone -- maybe it's just a 3rd level spell called Create Hole?).  He casts a polymorph spell that turns one object into another (4th level?).  He casts a spell that conjures items (Minor Creation?), then Fly Sphere on the audience around him. He casts an "astral form" spell that seems to be linked to the spell Locate Object -- this reminds me of the Improved Locate Object spell I already planned to introduce. He uses Phantasmal Force/Silent Image, and Dispel Magic. Finally, he uses Flesh to Stone.

Zatara must be at least 12th level magic-user at this point, and probably more like 16th level.  In comparison, Superman is probably only a 5th or 6th level superhero at this point. Which is why I plan to flip the xp charts around and let magic-users advance much faster than superheroes.

(Superman adventure read in Superman: The Action Comics Archives vol. 1, select other pages read at the Babbling about DC Comics blog, while summaries of the rest were read at DC Wikia.)

Action Comics #9 - Part 1

We come back to Superman, who has an interesting antagonist this issue. No, not the Ultra-Humanite, he comes later -- but Captain Riley of the Chicago Police Department.

Though most of the Hideouts & Hoodlums games I run take place in 1941, when all Heroes are considered to be working closely with the authorities, many comic book heroes were rebels in 1939. Editors might want to play up this adversarial relationship with the police. 

Riley is himself an interesting character, probably inspired by Dick Tracy -- the then-already famous comic strip detective who's fictional city is never named, but was probably meant to be Chicago. Or Riley could be mocking the real life lawman Elliot Ness, who rose to prominence in Chicago, but came to Siegel & Shuster's town of Cleveland in disgrace by the late '30s. 

The mental patient Superman saves from suicide doesn't really figure into the main plot and is almost surely a random wandering encounter.

What happens next in the story is a fun bit of metafiction, considering what happens in a superhero story when the superhero's discarded clothes are discovered. This could be an issue where Editors will have to tread carefully -- how much do you hand-wave the challenges of hiding a secret identity, and how much do you challenge them with it? Superheroes in the comics often conceal their true identities for years and years just to maintain the status quo; in actual play, I suspect many players will quickly tire of maintaining their dual identities when it becomes too difficult.

Speaking of how much to challenge your players...Superman is completely flummoxed when Riley is about to search everyone and is about to find Superman's uniform under his clothes. Only a deus ex machina -- or a generous Editor -- allowed another non-Hero present to foil Riley's intentions. But this is the same danger inherent in avoiding conflict for your players. Just like, if you're too hard on them they may avoid conflicts, if they sense you'll always look out for them, they may play recklessly or foolishly.

But Action Comics isn't just Superman, so moving on to Scoop Scanlon...

Scoop encounters mobsters with a car that has rotating license plates. This should already be a trophy item in H&H.

Both the Scoop and the Pep Morgan stories have chases/races in them. From the description of both stories, it seems the chaser has a target number they have to reach, but an obstacle gets in their way and subtracts off their target number. The chasee seems to have a much more static role in these chases -- though I understand that this is not always so in chase scenes.  I'm considering, instead of a flat percentage chance of evasion, the chasee setting his own target number with an attack roll, and then the chaser having to hit that number. This would make high-level Fighters the best at car chases, which I have no problem with.

Hypothermia, or at least the threat of hypothermia, also plays a role in the Pep Morgan story. I think we can take care of this condition with cold damage without needing separate game mechanics for environmental harm.

In this installment of The Adventures of Marco Polo, Marco's hosts are playing a game like capture the flag, only on horseback and attacking each other with weapons.  I've talked before about unhorsing opponents, but it's worth talking about subdual damage with weapons. If weapons only render unconscious at zero hit points (which is recommended for all but very dark campaign moods), then there is no reason for a separate mechanic for subduing.


Tex Thomspon, in his adventure, makes a fire by rubbing two sticks together and, in the same issue, Chuck Dawson starts a fire using sunlight reflected off his pocket watch! It seems unlikely that this would come up often in a campaign setting where cigarette lighters are ubiquitous, and yet, with how often Heroes get captured....For a skill like this, rarely needed, with a low chance of success, I would just assign a blanket 1 in 6 chance to these.

Chuck Dawson lights his fire as a diversionary tactic. With diversions, to be fair, the Editor should use a save vs. plot (for the divertee, not the diverter) to avoid being diverted, rather than deciding arbitrarily.

If the summary I've read is to be believed, Chuck also disarms a gunman by throwing a pebble at him! I find it hard to believe the pebble could hit him hard enough to knock the gun out of his hands, but I also don't see a lot of evidence that surprise alone should have a chance of disarming the surprisee (as was an obscure rule in The Original Game).

(Superman adventure read in Superman: the Action Comics Archives vol. 1. Summaries of the rest read here.)

Action Comics #8

Superman vs. Zod, Superman vs. Doomsday...the age of sensationalism is still many decades away. This month we get...Superman vs. Gimpy! Gimpy might not be able to go toe-to-toe with even the toned-down Superman of the early days, but he's an evil villain through-and-through -- willing to shoot young boys in cold-blood who can testify against him.

Because of stories like this, that focus on the redemption of children, Hideouts & Hoodlums has a mobster type called half-pints.

This adventure is an early precedent for the Race the Bullet power, as well as the precedent for the Extend Missile Range powers being usable on living targets (as missiles).

Superman's confrontation with the National Guard at the end of this story is evidence that the early Superman stories show him best categorized as Chaotic, Alignment-wise.

In Chuck Dawson's adventure, he falls and takes no damage when he lands in a pile of leaves. Falling damage can be very dangerous to Heroes, but Editors should be prepared to hand-wave that damage on any easy excuse -- if the Heroes are going to need those hit points for the upcoming challenges. One of the challenges of refereeing a RPG is keeping hit points low enough to maintain suspense, but not so low that the Heroes are sure to lose.

The Pep Morgan feature focuses on a ski jump competition. If it doesn't really matter to the story who wins an in-game athletic contest, the Editor could judge by who has the higher ability scores, hand-waving any further game mechanics and describe who wins using flavor text. If it sort of matters, but not really, the Editor could resolve who wins with a save vs. plot (whoever makes it by the larger number wins, if they both make their saves). If it's really important, so that the story revolves around it, H&H doesn't really help you much. The Editor can pretty easily improvise a mechanic, though, if he can work out what a good minimum distance is, a suitable random range the Hero can roll for to add, and then add the number from a relevant ability score to get the distance.

Tex Thompson and Bob check into a hotel run by ape-men! There are plenty of ape-men in comics and many different explanations for how they would exist. In this case, they are brain transplants between men and apes. Although gibbon men have been in H&H since Supplement I: National, a larger and more powerful intelligent ape has been missing from the game so far. Mind transfer machines have been in the game since Book II: Mobsters & Trophies, however.

Scoop Scanlon and Rusty are given a hot tip by a G-Man -- even Rusty comments on how unusual that is. En route to investigate, they get a flat. Scoop can tell just by looking at the tire that the hole in it came from a bullet (skill check for that?). Someone is sniping at their car from concealment, at range, with a silenced rifle. Thank goodness the sniper's not aiming at them or it would be over for Scoop and Rusty! While searching for the sniper, they find a dying man who knows them. The story doesn't tell us, but we're left to assume it's the G-Man. He tells them where to go next in the story.

While trying to save two more people, Scoop and Rusty have to go into a burning house and Rusty passes out first from smoke inhalation. Was it from hit points of damage, though, or a missed saving throw vs. poison? Both account for the variable of Rusty going down while Scoop is still conscious, but Rusty is soon revived by a bucket of water. Is this more evidence of rapid recovery of the first hit point from being down to zero hit points, or of a short duration for unconsciousness after a botched save vs. poison?

Later, Scoop points a machine gun at some hoodlums farming marijuana. They don't surrender at first, but some do after Scoop mows down some of the others. Now, if I had someone pointing a machine gun at me, I'd probably surrender. But that's why we use morale saves instead of the Editor always making a judgement call on when bad guys would surrender -- because there are other factors, and points of view, that can be better accommodated by random chance.

Heroes in comics could be pretty stupid sometimes. Zatara knows the pilots he's rescued were acting suspicious, but he still lets the maharaja's son go up in their plane with them. Editors cannot assume that players will make mistakes that dumb, as most would see that plot development coming a mile away. So, for every major decision the Editor anticipates the Heroes having to make, he should be prepared for at least two contingencies of how they might respond to it.

Zatara, for his part, demonstrates his Spirit Form spell again, Phantasmal Force, Invisibility, Enlargement, and also a new spell that would be called Rain Bullets (maybe a 3rd level spell, a slightly weaker version of Ice Storm, that really does rain bullets down for 4-24 damage, but Heroes in the area of effect would get to save vs. missiles to dodge it entirely).

(Superman story read in Superman: the Action Comic Archives vol. 1; some pages of Scoop Scanlon read at the Babbling about DC Comics blog, summaries of the rest read here)

Action Comics #6

Though the covers still don't indicate it, this is the sixth comic book to feature Superman. It's also a special Superman story because it's the first story to look at the effects a real superhero would have on the world around him.  Specifically, in this case, how famous a superhero would be.

I had just this week talked about how there is no fame/popularity mechanic in Hideouts & Hoodlums, but that doesn't mean I haven't thought about it. The simplest such mechanic would be a 10% cumulative chance per level of the Hero being recognized. That would work for Heroes who travel broadly, but what about Heroes who choose to stay local -- how to modify that result for geographical distance outside the Heroes' campaign base? And how to modify it for Heroes trying to keep a low profile, versus those who were actively trying to court the press?  No, it makes more sense just to have the Editor wing this, based on the circumstances.

Back to the story...it amazingly anticipates the wealth of Superman merchandising that happened in the real world in the years following the character's debut. In the story, there's Superman Gasoline, the Superman Streamline Special (a car), Superman bathing suits -- all licensed products. If players want to pursue licensing deals for their Heroes in your game, you should probably use a simple encounter reaction roll to determine it. You could modify for level if you wanted to (+1 for levels 2-3, +2 for levels 4-6, +3 for levels 7+), or just leave it to the Hero's Charisma to modify.

Superman makes his saving throw vs. poison when Lois tries to drug him.

Superman snatching Lois out of mid-air is a simple attack roll.

Superman uses wrecking things to tear open the elevator doors, then uses the power Raise Car to raise the elevator (a quite pun-ish use of the power too, I might add).

"Chuck" Dawson loses his hat, or "sky-piece" as he calls it (the first time I've ever heard a hat called that). Even stranger is the line Chuck says next: "I'm sure glad those crooks didn't get a hold of this to use in their schemes".  Now, taken in the context of the fact that one bad guy had just stolen his horse, maybe Chuck is kidding, but taken literally, the idea has distinct possibilities. What if a bad cowboy can make himself appear to be a good cowboy by wearing a good cowboy's hat?

Pep Morgan goes on a hunting trip in this adventure and bags the biggest wildcat his guide has ever seen. Now, maybe the guide is prone to a little exaggeration, because the wildcat doesn't look proportionately larger than a cougar to my untrained eyes. Perhaps it's only slightly larger than normal because it has max or near-max hit points.

He also shoots a black bear, that goes down after two shots. I'm not keen on the idea of lowering bears to only 2 Hit Dice, so either this bear had unusually low hp, or this episode is a case for the optional expanded weapon damage for firearms (from Supplement I: National).

The Adventures of Marco Polo installment is remarkable for teaching me the word "caravansary", which is apparently an inn with a courtyard large enough to accommodate an entire caravan. How did I go so long without knowing this word for D&D?

In the scimitar duel Marco observes, parrying is clearly a combat option. Parrying has always been a feature (albeit a little-used one) in H&H's combat mechanics. But in Marco's follow-up sword fight, it seems dodging is a combat option as well. If players aren't using parry, will they be more inclined to use dodge?

The "Tex" Thompson adventure takes place in Europe. I've long disliked the use of fictional place names in comics and don't see much use in them, so it's a little frustrating when a place name comes along that I can't place to a real world analogy. In this case, Tex is flying over the "Trysolian" Mountains, and I cannot figure out what that's supposed to mean.

A big fighter plane forces Tex to land his biplane. I'm not sure if Force to Land should be an aviator stunt, or if it would just be a normal reaction to being shot at in the sky.

Last month, Black X ran into a villain who looked just like him in Feature Funnies and, this month, Tex runs into Captain Diablo who looks just like him. I might need a doppelganger mobster type for this, since the trope reoccurs so frequently.

In their aerial dogfight, Tex and Diablo keep circling each other, as if they both use the Find Blind Spot stunt, and cancel each other out.

My coverage of Zatara the Master Magician begins with a bit of a poser -- how does Zatara cast a spell with no verbal, somatic, or material components, while his hands are tied? He casts a spell on the Tigress that makes her look old and ugly. I'm not even sure what spell this would be -- Polymorph Other? Bestow Curse? A new spell called Uglify? Not for the first time, I wonder if H&H Magic-Users should have access to a combination of traditional spells and psionic disciplines...

Zatara uses a new spell that lets him, and Tong, assume gaseous form. His next spell is really tricky, though, when he transforms two dervishes (from Book II: Mobsters & Trophies) into mounds of sand, but mounds of sand that can still talk. So what's that? Clearly not a polymorph spell, since sand can't talk. Maybe an illusion, fooling them into thinking they are mounds of sand?

Zatara travels in his spirit form again in this issue, but the narrator calls it his "shadow" instead. He summons two pegasus-unicorns, which should be beyond all but the most powerful Mobster Summoning spells. Then he casts a spell he calls The Swords of Fire of Allah, which looks an awful lot like a Blade Barrier spell, except that it's really just another illusion; a dervish leader is able to disbelieve it.  He also casts a spell that buries the leader up this neck in sand and leaves two followers floating helplessly in the air (another variation of Hold Person?).

There isn't much elaboration on the contents of the pyramid of Cheops, but we know that Cheops is still there as an undead mummy, and guards a chest full of treasure but is really only interested in guarding one large emerald. If you win a friendly encounter reaction from Cheops (like Cheops did), he will loan you the Dead Armies of Cheops -- who are strangely dressed in medieval scale armor and riding horses, even though Egyptian troops did not have saddles. There are apparently thousands of soldiers, enough to sack a city defended with superior weaponry.

Lastly, Zatara seals the pyramid with a "curse", but he probably means a Wizard Lock spell.

(This issue can be read at Comic Book Archives)

Action Comics #4 - part 1

For the entire length of 2015, I tracked the build-up of the Golden Age, from as far back as 1935, to September 1938. I have taken what I've learned from reading these comic books and sharing them with you, what I've learned that can make the RPG Hideouts & Hoodlums emulate Golden Age comics even better.  Now, here we are, returning on New Year's Day, for Year 2 of this project and a return to Action Comics.

Superman uses the power Outrun Train to reach the stalled auto before the train hits it, but why is Superman concerned that the driver will "kill us both"? Why would an invulnerable superhero say that? Because Invulnerability is a buffing power that Superman has either not prepared for today, or is too low in level and doesn't have yet.  Then Superman leaps away. That could be the power Leap I, but since Superman leaped so much in the early days, I just gave aliens that as a free ability.

What's really weird is that Superman just happens to pop into the train in exactly the right passenger car to overhear a plot hook. As Editor, your job will be to create the plot hooks, but not to pre-plan where the Heroes encounter the plot hooks. It's best just to have them spring up wherever the Heroes happen to be.

Superman makes a rare use of the Change Self power (with the flavor text of grease paint make-up to explain it).  Superman also shows a willingness to drug and kidnap people he needs out of the way to make his plans work. Non-Lawful behavior? It shows that H&H needs a flexible Alignment system that does not punish for deviation.

When Superman is getting punched and doesn't feel it, that's because his opponent is actually "missing" to hit Superman's Armor Class. The rest is only flavor text.

But did I miss an opportunity to introduce a new power -- something like "Untackleable"?  When Superman has four football players hanging off of him and keeps running, was that just lucky dice rolls from the grappling attacks? Perhaps a creative use of the power No Encumbrance to carry the four men on him and keep moving?

The pocket knife, snapping on Superman's tough skin, was my inspiration for the Super-Tough Skin power.

"Chuck" Dawson, in his story, demonstrates the cowboy stunt Summon Horse, while his opponent demonstrates Jump into Saddle. I don't know what I'm going to do with the Cowboy stunts in 2nd edition. Somehow fold them in with how skills will work? Make them available to everyone when they go to the Mythic West?

Chuck uses rope to rappel down a cliff. Although this would be a tough thing for me to do, I imagine this would be pretty easy for a Hero-type, and I wouldn't require a roll for it. Now, without rope, or if the cliff was wet...

Pep Morgan, in his feature, does a lot of swimming (he seems to move from sport to sport, monthly). First he does a rescue stunt in calm water and then another one in rapids later. Now, like the rock climbing mentioned above, the rescue in calm water probably needed no dice rolls. But swimming in rapids, fighting the current -- should that be something level-based, like a saving throw vs. science, or an un-graduated skill that everyone would have a 1 in 6, or 2 in 6, chance to perform?  For 2nd ed., I'm leaning towards the latter.

I don't often mention Alger's funny squat-figure people strips, but I found Bad Bill: the Menace of the Hills particularly amusing.  When the old guy says "Ain't you sorta jumpin' t' conclusions?" and Bill says "I allus jump t' conclusions!" -- I can just imagine Yosemite Sam saying something like that. Incidentally, the old man's bulletproof vest shows that armor might be appropriate for even a Western setting.

In The Adventures of Marco Polo, Marco and Niku survive a sandstorm by finding shelter. but does the shelter shield them entirely from the storm, or only give them a bonus modifier to saving throws vs. science? At issue is, how important is shelter in avoiding environmental damage?

Later, Marco and his Uncle Mafflo engage in some holiday swimming racing. Since it's not important to the story, I'd just compare Strength scores, higher score wins. If it was more important -- like money or prestige was riding on it -- I might add a random element by comparing Strength +1d6.

Then the Polos see lions attacked by a python. It's a big python -- I don't know if I'd call it a giant constrictor snake, but it doesn't seem to be normal size. Huge? Lions were statted right away in Book II: Mobsters & Trophies. Regular constrictor snakes were statted in Book II, but I don't think I ever went the large/huge/giant routine with them.

(You can read this issue at the Comic Book Archives)