Famous Funnies #66 - pt. 2

A bubble genies is... an unusual, modern spin on a classic. The Bubble Pipe of Genie Summoning is not something your players would be expecting, that's for sure!

Sifting through the racism, we get to the bottom and the image of a man swinging a bull around by its horns -- gruesome, if it wasn't so cartoony. At issue here is, did Wahoo have to activate the Raise Car power to do this, and would he have to? What is going on is clearly combat, so whether the bull is airborne or not seems irrelevant and is merely flavor text. Two exceptions I can think of would require Wahoo to activate the power for this: 1) he plans on throwing the bull next, which does require him to be able to lift it into the air, and 2) he is doing this to intimidate the bull and force a morale save, without hurting it any further. Flavor text cannot activate morale saves, so a power would have to be used for that.

 

Scorchy is doing everything right to find the kidnapper -- using aerial reconnaissance, checking maps, watching escape routes, and contacting the authorities.

Krag, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be as smart at setting up traps as Scorchy is. Why would he step on the starter if he thinks the motor is busted? And wouldn't his chief priority still be finding the girl?

The Lone Rider's true identity is revealed in this story -- and soon thereafter he is easily subdued in combat once the mystique of his mask was removed. 1st edition Hideouts & Hoodlums had a rule for superheroes that they could only use their powers in costume...but I'm wondering if that rule was not misplaced and a better fit for the mysteryman class all along. Perhaps the mysteryman should be denied his signature move when not wearing some kind of mask.

It seems a small point, but I thought I would explain that saving a dog from a burning building is still a good deed, and worth just as much XP as saving a person.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Famous Funnies #65 - pt. 2

Morse code is a handy way to send messages to Heroes, but as a non-traditional language it is not necessarily something Editors will let all Heroes know. Translating Morse code could be a basic skill check.

The "sounds phony" clue is a tricky thing to impart in game play. Is my player going to know I know it's not the Navy Secret Service, is he going to assume I didn't know and just got it wrong, or is it going to go right over his head? I've talked about this before on the blog, and there's really no easy solution to this other than to talk to the player out-of-character and explain that this was a clue or hint.

This is the flipside of the issue I just talked about -- what to do if the player is the one testing your knowledge while in-character? Did he just trick the mobster into admitting he was a phony just because I didn't know that thing about West Point? Again, this will require out-of-character discussion about what the player is trying to find out.

The gunshot through the window is evidence of how difficult it is to shoot the correct target in melee, though I do suspect that it did not really matter for these bad guys' plans which one of them was shot.

Dickie Dare features a partial map of the interior of a steamer ship. Looks accurate enough to me!

This deathtrap sounds pretty brutal -- scalding water shot through a firehose seems like it would do 1-6 points of damage. It's not a lot, but because a hose has an area of effect (let's say it's a ray 10' wide at its base), the pirates don't have to roll to attack with it.

A "steam cock" is an actual thing, by the way; it's part of the boiler.

No one is dying too fast from this steam, but I have a couple of possible explanations for that. One, the Heroes in the room, at least, should get saves vs. missiles (or maybe science) for half-damage. Two, the pirates might have started their trap too early, before the water was hot enough to do more than a few points of damage.

That ape looks pretty intense. Note the value of a captive ape. They're almost too valuable to give Heroes a chance of capturing one!

All I'm going to say here is that is some pretty fancy shooting, to spray bullets from a sub-machine gun and only hit his hand, for a disarming shot.

Here's an interesting page! For starters, Dickie and friends have a problem that no players ever have because of player knowledge -- knowing which of them was shot in the dark. To do this in-game, the Editor would need to keep information from everyone -- even the player who was shot, in order to make sure the others do not know.

Being a non-Hero, Kit can bleed to death from being injured (strict hp rules only apply to Heroes).

There was recently a kerfuffle in my home campaign, where one of the Heroes gave a semi-automatic to his 12-year old sidekick. Here we have Dickie, arguably even younger, hauling a sub-machine gun.

I'm sharing this because I'm amused by the fact that Oaky has been sleeping under a tree, and his supporting cast has been out doing much more exciting stuff without him. When your players' SCMs come back after being away from the campaign for a bit, make sure they have interesting stories to tell.

Seaweed Sam surprises me again with more Hideouts & Hoodlums-relevant content. Here, in this land of giants, we see that giants (and, really, any mobster class we want) can also be magic-users. This giant magic-user is at least 7th level if that is a regular Polymorph Other spell. The Polymorph Other spell is not supposed to be able to turn you into any animal smaller than a bird, but bear in mind that the scale is way off in any panel with giants in it, and that butterfly is really quite large.

Not sure, but I probably won't be statting large butterflies, unless I find much bigger and more dangerous examples.

Big Chief Wahoo's feat here could have been accomplished with one of two powers -- either Improved Missile Weapon, with the heavy lifting hand-waved, or more likely Raise Car, since the distance thrown itself looks pretty normal and the lifting is the only really impressive part.

We also learn how much it cost to shoot that much of a movie.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Famous Funnies #57

Map!

More evidence of improvised weapons -- like coconuts -- being able to do real damage.

If you put yourself at risk to save your comrades, is that a good deed (worth 100 xp) or just you being a good teammate?  It's a decision each Editor will have to make, either as a blanket judgment or on a case by case basis.

Speaking of things the Editor will have to make decisions on....Should he bother rolling random encounter rolls for supporting cast members, or just assume that nothing interesting is happening to them except when a Hero is around?  It could be a good source for plot hooks; if you're out of ideas, have a SCM ask for help with some mobster they encountered...

After what I considered a weak start, Oaky Doaks has developed into a strong strip.

There has been a surprising dearth of wolves as bad guys in the comic books so far, but here we see a particularly menacing one.

Speaking of coconut weapons -- monkeys are apparently vicious with coconuts. Maybe they should be able to throw 2 per turn, for 1-4 damage?

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Famous Funnies #56 - pt. 2

Treasure is often a useful lure for getting players to do something or go somewhere -- the carrot by which the Editor leads them. But eventually the players catch up to the carrot and then they wind up with all that treasure and all its worth (both in terms of $ amount and xp value).

What happened in The Adventures of Patsy, here, is that they thought they were going to get treasure out of this cabin raid, but it turned out the villain was crazy and just thought he was collecting gold all this time.  It's a clever idea you can "trick" your players with once. Of course, you can't do this to your players too often, or they'll balk at being cheated.

The first Transformer?  Allowing robots to fly is not something I've put into stats for H&H yet.

Unlike the fool's gold in the previous example, the billion dollar bill is unlikely to fool any H&H player older than a kindergartner.

I've heard of Dungeon Masters who draw, or otherwise provide, a picture of a Sword +1, or maybe a note card with a short history of the weapon on it. Details make the trophy item seem more real and of value to the player than just telling him, in a general sense, what it does.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Famous Funnies #54

Here's a fun item to throw into a hideout -- a bucket with a glass bottom. What's it for? For seeing underwater, of course, as any eagle scout can apparently tell you.

This is from Skyroads, and I've done this too. Your players want to know exactly how many gold coins are in that sack, but you cut corners preparing for the game and only worked out what the dollar value of the whole contents are. Who has time to go check the price of gold in 1940, divide the total dollar sum by it, and get a number of coins? So you tell them, "it's a sack of 50,000 bucks in gold" and, if they ask for details, you add "don't worry about it..."

From the gag filler Life's Like That, here's something I thought was funny.

This is from War on Crime.  It seems that hoodlums always have a chance of identifying "dicks" -- or good guys in general, on sight. A 1 in 6 chance, perhaps?

I am not a fan of Jitter, a pretty humorless gag strip, but this page has some mini-history lessons for us -- specifically what a street-cleaning wagon looked like in the 1930s, and the fact that gas stations also had water hoses.

It's rare that the entire hideout turns out to be one big trap, but in this case the entrance is rigged so that, if someone pulls out some of the support stones, the entrance slides shut and traps you inside.

There's two interesting things to point out from this page of Dickie Dare.  One is the clue, mysterious words written on a piece of paper, meaningless without context, which turns out to be the last name of a villain to be met later (and will be recognized then as foreshadowing).  Two -- and this has come up before -- is that every hideout should have more than one entrance, even if you need a crowbar to break into the secondary entrance.

This is from The Adventures of Patsy.  Animals won't cross a line of fire unless they make a morale save. This might apply to ordinary hoodlums as well, since the line of fire could do 1-6 points of damage to the crosser.

Seaweed Sam is back because of the iron robot he encounters this month. It's far stronger than the version found in Book II: Mobsters & Trophies, though maybe it could use an upgrade -- give it the Raise Elephant power?

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Famous Funnies #44

For historical detail, remember that telephone numbers used to be a combination of a word and numbers.

I like how Eddie Gentz is called the "king of the bank robbers" here. I wonder if I should have a "king of--" mobster type -- a hoodlum who has 9 HD?

None of my research shows that microscopes could have been "priceless" in the 1930s; perhaps our villain simply puts great sentimental value to it (sentimental value does not translate into earned XP). The villain's name is Doctor Sting, continuing a string of great villain names in Dickie Dare.

This is also just a great page of storytelling, so I wanted to show it off.

I'm not a big fan of Oaky Doaks, but here he reminds us that wandering encounter tables are the reason why even Heroes should not all go to sleep at the same time outdoors without scheduling watch duty.

It's been awhile since we've checked in on Seaweed Sam. Here, he encounters a magic item called the Vanishing Vase, which could serve as a portal to a hidden land.


(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Famous Funnies #40

Skyroads was an aviator strip that enjoyed genre mash-ups and, here, is tackling the spy genre. The plot hook SCM here is the woman with the refreshingly unfeminine name Dagmar Collingway. Either that's her code name, or her parents were really bitter about having a daughter. 

Speaking of spy stuff, I'm tempted by this to, if I ever revisit the Spy class again, to give them a chance to know passwords -- a small percentage chance that goes up each level.

Hidden all the way down in the last panel of this page of War on Crime is a great idea that I've never seen tried before in 33 years of gaming. We all think to look for footprints on dusty floors, but why don't we think about the dust on the walls? There's the chance to leave notes written in dust on the walls, as seen here, plus looking for fingerprints.

Continuing Hairbreadth Harry's outer space adventure, we here see the trope of regressive culture in a technologically advanced setting. This way, the author/Editor can have his cake and eat it too -- hi-tech trophies like floating elevators and pneumatic cars lying around, but the people around them backwards and superstitious, and less challenging to overcome.

It's important to remember that robots in the Golden Age are purely mechanical, not electronic. You can't overload its circuits with electricity, but you can thump it on the head and knock some cogs and gears out of whack.

This huge robot is actually pretty fearsome, and a slight upgrade on the two huge robots statted in Book II: Mobsters & Trophies (the bronze and silver robots). Note the impaling spikes for hands, and the way it sprays fire out of its nose!

The Phantom Magician's new spell should be called Cold Shower. It causes a liquid to become so cold that, if spilled on a single target (living or non-living), that target will have to save vs. magic or become frozen and rendered brittle. The liquid and any container holding it are not frozen. The liquid can be splashed up to 10 ft. away. I suspect this would have to be a 3rd level spell.

Well before Bozo the Robot would debut in the comic books, this huge robot turns out to be hollow, with space for a live pilot!  In The Trophy Case v. 1 no. 2 was the only time I allowed for a robot with a living pilot (the vampiric robots of Mercury), but I think I should allow for this possibility from Earth robots too in the next edition.

Magical growth berries, just sitting on a bush waiting to be eaten? Sure, Seaweed Sam!  Remember, if you're stuck for what should happen next, just insert something random and crazy into the game and watch what happens next. You can always go back in and try to rationalize it later (or better yet, let your players come up with rationales for you!).

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Famous Funnies #31

Police stations are loaded with items that aren't on the starting equipment list, like sub-machine guns. Enterprising (and definitely non-Lawful) Heroes who can pull off a daring police station burglary will have a leg up on the bad guys when it comes time to raid hideouts!

Also, once Heroes do have money, they can commission Scientists to develop new weapons for them.

The lesson here is, if you can't stop the mobsters from getting away, shoot all the nearby tires, so they have to flee on foot.

There's a lot going on here in Skyroads, not all of it I can recommend for Hideouts & Hoodlums. Shooting throwing knives in mid-air?  Assuming that's even possible, I don't think we need a game mechanic for that; it can just be flavor text for the knife missing.

But Stephanich's trick of feigning death through breath control?  That definitely needs to be a stunt! 

Note the bulletproof vest, perhaps the earliest time in comic books one is actually shown and not just referred to.

There's some suspicious science here, with the explosion in the well, but the idea of throwing prisoners into a poisoned well is a pretty decent deathtrap.

The first Greek sphinx in comic books, curiously presented as if it was history. Does that make it fair game for H&H..? 

Modern-day Editors could be forgiven for forgetting that homes used to have laundry chutes. It would be a good thing to add to an above-ground hideout, for a different way for Heroes to get around.

Solo flying courses: $35-150
Private pilot's license: $400-$700
Flying time: $4-15/hour

Unexpected encounter on a deserted island: cavemen!


(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Famous Funnies #28

Scorchy Smith at last!  Here we have a new detail about the poison gas afflicting the locals; if victims miss their saves vs. poison, they are incapacitated for exactly 11 days.

Also worth mentioning is the sabotage sub-plot -- something that is going to affect Aviator Heroes more than perhaps any other Heroes.

Here we revisit the issue of hit points and healing. Swords & Wizardry: White Box Edition, the retro-clone H&H was originally built on, actually included a rule for bandaging wounds to recover 1d4 hit points, which I left out of H&H because it wasn't something that existed in That Other Game we all emulate. But bandaging wounds is definitely found in the comics, like here.  Should I bring the bandaging rule back in...?

Something else to reconsider is the "creasing the scalp" cliche with gunshots.  Currently, the save vs. missiles mechanic allows Heroes to take all or no damage from bullets, but that leaves out the scalp crease that only temporarily knocks a Hero unconscious. Perhaps "save for no damage" should be saved for higher level Heroes, or a save would crease your brow while saving at 5 higher than what you need dodges altogether?

On the subject of recovering from wounds, Dickie Dare is revived by "stimulants".  I'm not sure what that means in this context, whether he's been given drugs, smelling salts, or a nip of whiskey. None of this fits into the H&H game mechanics, where it takes 4 hours to wake up after being reduced to zero hit points, no matter how many nips of whiskey you've had. So what does this mean?  I'm not advocating that whiskey consumption should restore hp faster, but -- perhaps -- if someone else is trying to revive you for a specific purpose (like imparting information), you could make a save vs. plot to revive just to say a few important things.

Whale ho!  I was very hesitant to put whales in H&H because what purpose would they serve?  You can't really fight a whale; they're just too big. As a force of nature, whales are better served as a sort of natural trap: if you move through this section of ocean, you run into the risk of a whale knocking your boat over -- but it isn't there to really fight.

I keep thinking I'm not going to ever think of anything to say about Seaweed Sam ever again, but...here we get a sort of hidden land where the Fountain of Youth is, and the actually intriguing idea that the fountain turns people into babies, but one's who retain adult intelligence and coordination -- so that you've got babies shooting bows and arrows.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)