Mystery Men Comics #8 - pt. 1

After a long spell we check in Fox Comics again and the first feature here is Blue Beetle.

Blue Beetle does what most of my players have always done, try to get to the location before the bad guys. But here the location works against him; with the wide open spaces, the mobsters are too far apart and the second one has an easy free shot at range.

Now, one bullet shouldn't be enough to stop BB; it usually isn't in comics. I have been wondering recently, though, if bullets should do exploding damage to account for instances like this...but on the other hand, firearms are already really deadly in Hideouts & Hoodlums and I hesitate to make them more so.

BB has a temporary Supporting Cast Member in this story; you won't see anymore of Tom.

BB has to take off his heavy mail costume; for the first time a comic book acknowledges that encumbrance can hamper skill checks.

BB must be using a power to keep up with a motorboat, that has a head start, while swimming. I hesitate to create a new swimming-related power, though, when activating Race the Train would accomplish this same thing.

It seems to me that the first mob to use an autogyro to escape from robberies is really smart, but after that people would always be on the lookout for it. The real mistake of this mob is to stay in the air so long that a plane that hadn't even taken off yet when they left the warehouse has time to catch them.

So, in addition to the autogyro, these bank robbers can afford three fighter planes. This reminds me of a lot of Silver Age stories where the super-gizmos the supervillains employ must have been so expensive that there's no way they'll come out ahead from robbing a bank. But that's not comic book logic for you!

It looks like Wing performs two Immelmann turns to get the height advantage on his pursuers, giving him a +1 bonus to hit after performing an expert skill check. As difficult as this seems to be for just a +1, it's more likely that aviators should be able to perform stunts as a free action before attacking.

Catching fire needs to be a common complication for dogfighting.

Panels 3-5 are what a fighting withdrawal looks like after a gunner fails his morale check aboard a plane.

There is currently no game mechanic for whether chutes open.

The atmosphere grows thinner, intensifying the sun's rays and causing terrific heat? Sounds like Dick Briefer predicted the ozone layer depletion! This is Rex Dexter of Mars!

What on Earth was it that exploded that took out two skyscrapers?

Ooo, I'm statting these monsters! Sadly, there is no name for these monsters given other than "new horror." The Tauromen that Reyni is referring to are actually human-like aliens controlling the new horrors, but Tauromen is a pretty cool name and I might keep it for these things instead.

They're pretty big floating heads with three long tentacles and Dumbo-like ears. Are they flapping their ears to fly, or levitating? It's not clear what those dots on the end of their tentacles are for, but I'm going to guess they are little mouths for sucking blood. And those big tusks in their mouths mean fierce bite damage. Let's assign them...6 Hit Dice? Blood drain for 1-8 damage per tentacle? Bites for 2-12? Given their scaly hides, I think we can give them an AC of at least 6, maybe 5 because they can use their tentacles as shields too.

Reyni is one great contact; not only does he hand out plot hooks, but he hands out space charts for how to get there, trophy weapons, and paints your ship!

There is no indication of how fast "zooming" is, but unless this trip takes years, "zooming" must involve folding space, warping space, accessing hyperspace, or creating a stargate.

Despite being called living chains, I'm real hesitant to stat them as mobsters; more likely, this is some technological trap, where the chains ensnare as if alive (attacking as a high HD mobster?). They might even be linked to some kind of computer intelligence that can sense enemies.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Mystery Men Comics #6 - pt. 2

Let's take a closer look at the blobs with faces we met last time in Rex Dexter of Mars.  Rex calls them protoplasmen. They are intelligent, or at least of average intelligence, and attack by engulfing and suffocating, rather than acid damage.

Slimes, oozes, and jellies traditionally have one weakness that can be exploited to kill them easier. Here, protoplasmen have to be within 3' of the ground or die. It's unclear if this is the only thing that will harm them, or simply the best way to harm them.  Since Rex might be doing grappling damage to the protoplasman, then perhaps all attack forms do damage when the being is 3'+ above the ground.

500 is a very specific number, and probably the on the high end of any no. appearing range I give to nomads.

I'm not how Kendall became in charge of marshaling an army for the British. Wouldn't that make him a general?  I'm pretty sure Richard Kendall is still only a private detective...

Proof that even with a tank you have to roll to attack (vehicular combat is not area-effecting).

This page touches on several game mechanics. First, it suggests that damage inflicted should have a chance of knocking an opponent prone; something the rules don't currently do. I've talked about making knockdown a combat condition that can be caused instead of damage, but this knockdown seems incidental to the explosion.

And then there's Richard "aiding his wounded soldiers."  What is he doing for them, exactly? Administering aid seems to be more about intent than specific actions, and this is already reflected in the H&H rules.

And that beheading scene -- yikes!

Man...I usually like these Richard Kendall/Chen Chang stories, but I have no idea what is happening at the end of this page.  Atrofistic (not a real thing, by the way) makes you lose motor control -- okay, that part makes sense...but it also makes you so rubbery that you can bounce? 

This seems like it could be historically true, but I can find no evidence that Americans were "ordered" to return home in 1939-1940.  Many Americans did return home, but American neutrality was recognized and events like this, thankfully, didn't happen.

That is some terrible camouflage for a ship at sea...

And you thought casting fireballs was dangerous!  The splash damage on that bomb going off has a really high radius; whenever I think I've set the blast radius for explosive weapons far enough, something like this comes along and makes me think we should have even higher blast radii.

When a Hero turns down a reward for patriotic reasons, does that make it a good deed worth 100 XP instead?  Or should this be a "patriotic exception", where the XP value of the good deed is equal to the $ value of the reward turned down?

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Mystery Men Comics #6 - pt. 1

I'm pretty sure this information was all made-up in this poor man's Believe It Or Not -- but I'll be darned if these wouldn't make good plot hooks anyway...

This is The Green Mask, and it shows that even cultists tended to be handled with a racist/bigoted air in comics; the cultists are called both cultists and Hindus. And then there's that obvious anagram of Taj Mahal -- ugh...

We do see The Green Mask using a fence as one-time Supporting Cast.

Mind you, the idea of a "skull crown which gives its holder control of a vast robber tribe" seems like a potent trophy item.

Are they cultists, Hindus, robbers, or thieves? Make up your mind, story!  The cult leader is a trickster. The current entry for cultist in the Mobster Manual states that cult leaders are high priests, but that might need updating.

One of the earliest assassins in comics, or is a thug?  Now we have the original meaning of the word thug being conflated with all these other words. The assassin is overcome quickly, so don't really see what he can do -- though surprise attacks seem to be an important part of it.

I wonder, if this was a RP scenario, if the chase scene back to Carmella's home would have to be acted out...

And, speaking of badly obvious anagrams, we have El Rakif, for the word fakir.

That looks more like a spike than a knife to me, but I suppose it hurts a lot either way, and is just as terrifying. Game mechanically, I suppose the victim would get a save vs. science each turn to take half-damage from falling on the knife/spike, and the torturers don't have to worry about rolling to attack.

It's unclear if the paralyzer gun works like the Hold Person spell and affects multiple targets at once, or if he's firing multiple times and burning five charges. I like to think it's a weapon with charges, which explains why he uses it so sparingly.

Um, no...for one thing, a meteorite could not strike the Earth at such an oblique angle that it would shave the planet smooth like that; it would always produce a messy impact crater. And, really, if that map is even remotely accurate about the size of the impact site, we're talking extinction-level event here. Rex Dexter of Mars must be taking place in a post-Gamma World campaign setting.

Wow. I haven't seen anything that racist in a comic book in a while. Thank goodness it came out of a character's mouth and not the narrator!

Statting these creatures shouldn't be too hard; we have lots of slimes, oozes, jellies, and puddings to base them off of.

50 million miles from Earth means that Rex and Cinde were almost to Mars, but had to turn around and come back.

It seems odd that spaceports would be on Earth instead of in orbit. I wonder when the first off-Earth spaceport was dreamed up; I was not able to research this one.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Mystery Men Comics #4 - pt. 2

Rex Dexter is lucky that this large robot (copper or brass?) has such a terrible failsafe in it -- all you have to do is speak to it in Martian and it overrides any programmed orders it already had.

Richard Kendall is after Chen Chang again, or will be after this quick ride in a rickshaw. When he's clubbed on the back of the head and knocked out, the hoodlums seem to think it's reasonable to expect him to be out for only 20 minutes. That doesn't match with Hideouts & Hoodlums' recovery rules, in any version, so far.

This poison has a 10-minute onset time -- exactly 10, apparently. You would think Constitution might play a part in resisting the poison, maybe make the onset time more variable...but, to be honest, I don't think we need the extra mechanics for that.

Oh sure, I could bring up that this page has a "look over there!" tactic on it, requiring the guard to save vs. plot to avoid falling for it -- or is it just flavor text to explain how Richard won initiative even when the gun was pointed right at him?

And sure, I could just point out how dynamic the art is here, with figures flying around the panels almost like a wuxia film.

But no, my main interest is in the obscure word "portiere", for a curtain that hangs over a door.

Wing Turner is in South America, "among the head-hunters." Wikipedia tells me that there used to be headhunters in both Brazil and Peru. Fancy that!

I've written before about my article "Planes in the Sky: Aerial Trophies for H&H" in The Trophy Case v. 2 #8. I had 20 entries on the plane mishap table in that article, but none of them were "the feed line's jammed!"

"Horde" seems to apply to just five natives here. Some of the natives are armed with bows and spears, but my money's on the dude with a six pack who plans to beat Wing Turner to a pulp with a wooden club.

Assuming that sixty smackers means 60 dollars, Jake Bossen is actually offering Lt. Drake of Naval Intelligence an annual salary about 2.4 times the national average. Drake has to be thinking about that one twice!

Yeah, I'm not statting black widow spiders as a mobster type. I would consider the spider a poisonous trap, in this instance. Realistically, there would be little chance of death from a black widow spider bite -- +5 to save, maybe? A success save would mean only swelling, pain, cramping, and sweating.

We finally see Blue Beetle the way we're used to seeing him. Giving people special whistles with a distinctive sound may be good strategy -- if you plan to always stick to one area, always less than a mile away...

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Mystery Men Comics #3 - pt. 1

I've talked before on this blog about feeling free -- as many Golden Age comic book writers did -- to mine classic literature for story ideas. Here, The Green Mask borrows heavily from Oliver Twist.

The Green Mask seems to "suddenly appear". It is likely that he merely achieved surprise when encountering them, though he might have used the move silently skill to sneak up on them, or even (in 2nd edition) burned a stunt to perform it extra well.

"Talk up!" seems to have been a common way of saying "Speak up!" back in 1939.

More evidence of 1) how easy it needs to be for Heroes to climb. If there's less than a 50% chance of scaling nine stories to that window, then Green Mask here -- who can't be higher than 2nd level, tops -- would find this a very dangerous fall. And 2) it's ridiculously easy to knock someone out from behind. I have added a combat rule about this for 2nd edition, but it's only good during a surprise attack, not during regular combat.

Okay, now that's just silly. Pushing their guns into their chins is just going to make them look at you funny, not knock them out. Sometimes players get bored with their normal combat options and try new things like this. Well, not exactly like this, but it reminds me of the old "Can I stab him with my arrow instead of shooting it?" question.

I've talked about this before on the blog too, weapons that aren't really weapons, and having them do 1-3 points of damage instead of a full die.

Where did that air pocket come from? A freebie from the Editor when the player seemed stuck? A random encounter? The player asking for something to happen, and using asking the Editor to allow the save vs. plot mechanic to determine if it happens?

Also note the handwritten letter from Green Mask, now in police custody. Golden Age Heroes don't have to worry about anyone being able to trace their identity from even fairly obvious clues.

It's amazing how prescient Dick Briefer was about watches being able to make phone calls, and then how goofy he was with the cone-shaped planet. Don't be afraid to mix stuff we know now makes sense with stuff that we know now is just plain crazy talk.

I'm sharing this page because I love that crazy ship design. Spaceships designed like giant shovels -- why not? It reminds me of TSR's Spelljammer setting. I wonder if H&H will ever have a supplement like that someday...

Although the last panel calls those things "creatures", the next page reveals them to be more spaceships. Perfect Spelljammer fodder.

Yeah, don't worry, players, I'm not including a 150' giant in the 2nd ed. basic book. The story only ever calls it a "beast" or a "monster".  I'd probably call it something like a "gargantuan" to distinguish it from a normal giant.

Chen Chang's men are consistently called bandits in this installment of Chen Chang, but stat-wise they seem more like nomads.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Mystery Men Comics #2 - pt. 1

We finally reached September 1939! And Mystery Men Comics #2!

We meet up with The Green Mask again, this time involved in a tong war. Tong wars apparently were real things, plaguing New York and Chicago into the 1930s, so they seem to be much on the mind of comic book writers even years later.

The Fu Manchu-like villain this time is called San Sin and, luckily, Green Mask seems to know exactly where San Sin is headquartered as if there was a sign out front. And, amazingly, the very first Chinaman Green Mask points a gun at just happens to know exactly where San Sin is and leads him there.

After that, things get a little more interesting. Sure, pit traps are old hat already, but San Sin doesn't try to flood it, or let in a crocodile, or have the walls close in -- he plans to just hold Green Mask there until he starves or gives up.

Green Mask playing along seems, at first, to be a cheap trick to stretch out the story, but the Green Mask has information we were lacking, that San Sin is a smuggler. Green Mask is playing along in order to be led to the people San Sin is getting his contraband from.

How long was Green Mask staking out this hideout before the adventure started? Somehow he knows even the hidden entrances to this place, even though no one ever showed him.

Hostage-taking can lead to some tough problem-solving situations for players to role-play through.

It's the futuristic year 2000!  Rex Dexter wants to go to the planet Capris -- Capris? Okay, I can buy that maybe people in the "future" would know of planets the rest of us didn't know about, but how does Rex from 1939 know about this radium-rich planet? Reading travel brochures?

The planet Capris looks an awful lot like Saturn there. Is it just the future name for Saturn? Then again, they're clearly walking on a planet with ground, so they're not visiting a gas giant like Saturn. Maybe Capris is one of Saturn's moons renamed then? Most likely I'm over-thinking this.

A planet so radioactive that it isn't safe to come within 1,000 miles of it -- that seems at least possible.

The Capris-Men (Caprisians?) are some freaky-looking aliens; I'm thinking I would give them 5 Hit Dice. Wilder yet is putting your Heroes in a scenario where they lose if they're stripped naked.

I like how, in the year 2000, we have magnetic ships that can make it from Earth to Saturn (maybe Saturn?) in four days, but men still wear top hats. It's true what they say, men's clothes never go out of fashion!

"I have a vision...of using interstellar tugboats to haul a planet-sized mass within the length of four of the Moon's orbits from Earth, and watch the gravitational pull tear Earth apart." What a Charisma score he must have to make the nations of the world go along with this!

This is from Billy Bounce, and it demonstrates what creative uses pepper and a fountain pen can be put to, so long as your Editor allows it. In some ways, this is no more ridiculous than pulling planets into Earth's orbit...

Chen Chang has thugs working for him. Given they have 2 Hit Dice, that might explain how they are able to pitch men over the railing so easily.

If I haven't said so before, I really like the artwork on Chen Chang...

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)