Silver Streak Comics #2 - pt. 3

We're back with Red Reeves, Boy Magician.  We might need a mass fly spell, or a flying carpet spell, that explains how magic-users are able to transport others with them like this.

But then we get to the house and, well, this was a mighty complicated wish Tom made. The genie has allegedly created a house, teleported the wife and child there, and stocked it with "everything."  That's got to be a wish spell.  Although...perhaps the genie simply gave them someone else's abandoned house, or even removed the original occupants!

And then there's this curious exchange (or how it should have happened):

"Dad, can you find a place for Jordan?"

"I don't know...he did try to rob us; I'm not sure if I can trust him....Wait, why are you looking at me like that? Don't use your magic on me!  I'll do whatever you say!"

The elements of Spanish reveal that this jungle must be the Amazon Jungle in South America, for a change!

I haven't actually been running grappling rules as-written for some time. Instead of having the attacker and the defender make different kinds of rolls, I've been making them both make attack rolls. This way, no one is a defender in combat; both sides wind up being grappling attackers.

The other change I'm tempted to try is have multiple attackers add their attack scores together for comparison, but that's going to make it almost impossible for a single target to avoid being overwhelmed, which may be the best reason of all to treat one side as the defender. With different game mechanics, the defender saves to resist each attacker, eliminating much of the advantage that stacking combat scores would give one side.

I finally solved the problem of non-superheroes snapping all these bonds by giving everyone the wrecking things mechanic, but at one die less.

I don't think I've ever had a player who would fall for this "I had to kidnap you first to get you to accept this plot hook" story...

There may be something to this...I can't find evidence of anyone lifting more than 500 lbs. until 1970 (Vasily Alekseyev).

"I'm going to take you on a fantastic adventure...but first you have to step alone into this cave with me and strip down to your underwear..."  Yeah, I don't think I've had any players who would go along with this either!

The implication seems to be that the needle is inserting some sort of drug into the over-stressed muscles, making Lance the first weightlifter to get ahead via doping.

As for uprooting the tree, I could see a case for both wrecking things and the power Raise Car being used here.

This "done in one punch" approach to early comic book fights is something I normally ignore for Hideouts & Hoodlums...yet, here, I wonder if one could make a case for the Super Punch power being activated.

Leopards are statted as cougars in H&H and are found already in both editions.

I have never considered super-brachiation a necessary superpower...and still don't.  But I see where this feature is going now, turning Lance into Super-Tarzan!

Here's some an astronomy lesson for us. Our still-unnamed scientist has charted his way to a planet that he thinks won't be visible until they pass Saturn. Then how has he charted something he can't see? The answer is math! Indeed, Neptune was discovered the same way, before telescopes could spot it.

So what planet are they thinking they'll find? It can't be Pluto, because everyone knew about Pluto by 1930. But it was unknown that Pluto had moons until 1978. He may have miscalculated the mass of Pluto's five moons and thought it was enough mass to be a tenth planet.

The scientist is also injected with the super drug so he can withstand the pressure of escape velocity. Of course, astronauts will easily withstand that pressure in the future; maybe he was just looking for an excuse to shoot up...

Here we see thugs -- a very common mobster -- in action. 

NRC, very likely, intentionally looks like NBC, which had been on the radio since 1926. What throws me is the term "society deb singer." I can't find any evidence that this was a term used in radio, or would have any special meaning to the reader in 1940, other than to tell you that Doris Dare is young and well-bred. The name seems intentionally close to Doris Day, which is surprising because Doris Day had only begun her career in 1939 and would not become widely famous until 1945. This could be coincidental.

I'm not sure which of these facts speaks more poorly for sanitariums circa 1940 -- the fact that the attendant carries a big wooden club, or the fact that he seems fine with his patient going five days without eating. I don't know how much of this is true, but even half of it is true I sure am glad I'm not in 1940 and a sanitarium!

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Silver Streak Comics #2 - pt. 2

This strip is called Captain Fearless, but you won't see Capt. Fearless on this page. Dugan seems to be presented as a Supporting Cast Member, but he plays such a significant role in the story that he must be a played Hero.  

The hideout door closes behind Dugan, seemingly of its own accord. This is interesting to me because a staple of Old School D&D is that dungeon doors are resistant to opening, difficult to keep open. Could this be true of H&H hideouts too?

We get a told more than we're shown of Dugan's battle with six yellow peril hoodlums, so it's unclear if Dugan was able to start using the knife on the same turn he disarmed the hoodlum who had held it, or if he had to wait until the next turn. I would wager the latter is the case.

Ting Ling makes a good case for why more hoodlums should not be armed with guns in hideouts.  I'll have to recall it later, as the struggle is constant to downplay the importance of guns in an active Hideouts & Hoodlums campaign.

Dugan must be at least 2nd or 3rd level (a detective or sergeant, by level title), allowing him to come across three off-duty marines and easily recruit them to follow him into combat.

Did I say three?  Because now it seems Dugan has six marines fighting with him (maybe a wandering encounter of marines heard the fighting and joined in?).  This is one well-defended hideout; I count at least 15 yellow peril hoodlums in this fight, and possibly more.

I've not given this much thought yet, but I wonder if there is room for a hoodlum class?  The one on the left definitely seems to be a cowardly hoodlum, while the one on the right, with "more experience," seems to be a robber. I may work on this and see if I can produce an optional hoodlum class by next year's The Trophy Case issue.

Our cowardly hoodlum makes a surprisingly good case for turning to crime in 1940.  We also learn the value of a complete set of silverware in 1940.

Boy, that Aladdin movie sure would have turned out different if the Genie could have just kept his own lamp away from Jafar!  

Like the example in the basic book about how Johnny Thunder's Thunderbolt-genie is a living wand for his spell focus, I think we're seeing the same thing play out here. Tom is casting Minor Telekinesis (a 3rd level spell!) to acquire the gun, but the magic appears to be coming from the Genie.

Normally I go with the narrator when he's naming mobster archetypes, but I've already established this guy is a cowardly hoodlum, so no burglar for you!

I think there's more magic going on here than meets the eye.  Somehow, Tom winds up at the judge's bench right next to the judge.  It makes no sense that any judge would allow this...unless Tom has cast Charm Person on the judge?  

Some subtle legerdemain seems to have allowed Tom to keep the gun he confiscated!  He could have made a skill check for sleight of hand, or maybe he cast a spell and made it invisible.  

Phantasmal Image spells would normally not be permissible in court, but then anything goes once you have the judge charmed!

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Silver Streak Comics #1 - pt. 2

This is Mister Midnite and he's a strange duck. He looks like a Mysteryman, acts like a Mysteryman, but has a ridiculously powerful magic spell -- every night, during the final strokes of midnight, he can choose to stop time. In That Other Game, this would be the 9th level spell Time Stop, but with a very specific limitation. I, frankly, don't know how you would build this Hero with Hideouts & Hoodlums.  You would need a very flexible and accommodating Editor to let your Hero have such a potentially campaign-breaking ability, especially right away in the campaign.

Also note that, despite telling us through the story to this point that Chief Birey has it in for Mister Midnite, he's easily persuaded to cooperate with Mister Midnite on this case. Past encounter reaction failures do not weigh against you in present encounter reaction rolls.

Speaking of Heroes with campaign-unbalancing powers when just at first level -- Red Reeves is just a half-pint, an ordinary boy, until he finds a magic marble that releases a genie, or djinni, to serve him. That's a potent magic item -- unless the marble and the genie are all just flavor text, to explain Red's magic-user abilities.

As if having a genie serving you wasn't enough, the genie gives Red a "wand of power."  There's no wand of power in That Other Game, but there's a Staff of Power, and that's yet another potent magic item. Or, the wand is Red's normal magic wand for casting spells with, as a magic-user, and the genie is then more of a supporting cast member.

Red's first spell is Create Food & Water.

It seems that Red is casting Wish spells, but they can be explained other ways. He casts Enlarge on his dog and then Fly.

This is an odd one -- no spell really matches this one, but it does match the power Raise Building.

Plant Growth.

Teleport.  And then Fly again (unless the duration hadn't ended from the first casting).

Red has to be at least a 9th level magic-user, if he is the one casting all these spells.

A sloop is present in the transportation section of the 2nd ed. H&H rules. It's an expensive item, at $8,000, well beyond what most Heroes have for starting money. So, what is it? The exploding dice option for rolling starting money that I'm introducing makes it hypothetically possible for even a 1st level Hero to start with that much. Or, it could be a house rule where every Hero gets to start with a trophy item of some sort.

Captain Fearless has three sharks advancing on him when a seaplane comes down to save him. Is Lieutenant Dugan a Hero or a Supporting Cast Member? Is this a wandering encounter? And did Dugan roll to hit the shark with his plane? How much damage does hitting a shark with a plane do? I can come up with an easy mechanic for basing damage on speed, but it would get complex if it had to take the mass of the vehicle into account too.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)