Pep Comics #2 - pt. 3

We're still watching Sergeant Boyle's one-man war against the Nazis -- not fictional stand-ins either, mind you, but real deal Nazis. By 1940, more and more comic book creators are going to take a more direct position on the War in Europe.

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Game mechanics discussion: I'm less interested in how black eyes are achieved (flavor text) or how Boyle rips down that telephone line pole (wrecking things), but by the double agent's sudden recovery from failing a morale save. I never addressed this before, but should morale results have a random duration? Or did he just get a new morale save when the circumstances changed?

That's a fairly impressive rendering of a battle scene, but it's all flavor text if the Hero is not involved in it. Or is it? Hideouts & Hoodlums does not emulate this sort of large-scale battle well -- I can't think of any RPGs that do -- but what if the game was set aside at this point and the referee and player switched to wargaming to resolve the scenario?

Boyle has until June 14, 1940 to enjoy tranquility in Paris.

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Wowee, look at that Mort Meskin half-splash page! You know, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby were still a year away from the iconic work they are best known for, so at this early stage it may be Mort who comes in second behind Eisner for most dynamic page layouts!

Although we aren't given an exact time frame, it seems clear that Press Guardian has been undercover with the bund for some time, possibly weeks.

"Moronia" is a great fictionalized name for Nazi Germany.

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Although this page superficially looks pretty good, the combat is confusing and hard to follow. Press Guardian was shot on the previous page but is fine now. Was he buffed with a defensive power? Wearing a bulletproof vest? Just took minimal damage and shrugged off the hit point loss?

When he's knocked down, is Press Guardian just playing possum until Von Leo turns around, or was PG really stunned?

PG's leap seems like something a normal person could attempt with a skill check.

Calling in the valet who also happens to be a pilot is an excellent use of Supporting Cast.

This is Manly Wade Wellman's Fu Chang. The art by Lin Streeter is amateurish and the story is not much better, though I am intrigued both by the summoning spell, which seems to require a magic potion...

...but more importantly, the tiger-devil. A tiger-devil has a gaze attack that paralyzes...

















...and I think we see here that it can also turn to gaseous form. I'm inclined to give tiger-devils 8 Hit Dice, making them on par with vampires.

Although this fight is said to take seconds in length, in H&H terms it is three turns long, or 90 seconds (in 2nd edition, 180 seconds in 1st edition).

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Pep Comics #1 - pt. 4

This is still Bentley of Scotland Yard, and I share it to point out something I had long thought was obvious, but perhaps should not have assumed it -- that facing is unimportant when considering if one side has surprise or not.

This is Press Guardian and he does not make the mistake of assuming the police already searched and found all the clues -- he wants in there to make his own search checks!

You would think a reporter would want more corroborating evidence before going to press, but okay...

In an unexpected twist, Flash Calvert seems to be the Hero of our story, but when a costumed mysteryman shows up, he's neither Flash nor seems to have any connection to him -- he's just a wandering encounter! 

A mix of gangsters and thugs are ready to teach Flash a lesson about not doing a better job on his skill checks while tying up bad guys.

Unusual for the comics, we see this adventure is dated -- it takes place on either December 1 or 7 (I'm having trouble reading that number), 1939.

This is The Midshipman.  Again, it makes me think that vehicles need hit points for combat, in case they are directly attacked during chases.

This also points out that fatigue rules, which have only been applied to combat so far, should apply to chases too.

Can strength stop heat damage? Since this is just conversation between two characters, and not hard evidence, I'm be fine with dismissing it.

But the propping up of the falling girder, that looks an awful lot like an ability score check (where you roll under your Strength score to succeed), definitely more than it looks like a skill check or a saving throw (mechanics actually used in Hideouts & Hoodlums).  Officially, H&H does not use ability score checks, but an Editor could use them anyway, if he feels the situation warrants it.

$250 seems like a pretty sweet pot for a first-time fight.

Although we are told that Hogan is using "tricks" and "dirty work," it doesn't appear to me he's doing anything other than throwing punches that would do normal damage.

In the Golden Age, not every story has to end with the bad guys being turned over to the police!

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)