Terry and the Pirates (Large Feature Comics #2)

Like when I covered the first Large Features Comic, I did not have access to this particular issue. But I did have access to the daily strips it covered, from '35-'36, thanks to The Complete Terry and the Pirates vol. 1. Now I just have to think of some things to say about it.

Which was tricky. Although an action adventure strip -- if not considered the action adventure strip -- Pat and Terry spend a lot of there time in these early adventures getting captured, escaping as circumstances change around them, and then getting captured by the next villain.

One thing that strikes me as worth mentioning is that -- unless you want a higher mortality rate for Heroes than you see in the comic books -- villains are going to always choose to capture the Heroes when they can, even when it makes way more sense just to kill them out right. Even if the Heroes have already escaped from this villain before, he will nevertheless accept their surrender every future time it's offered. Maybe he wants to gloat. Maybe he is planning a fitting deathtrap for them. Maybe he just has to wait until after this important meeting he has to take (which Heroes then get to observe and glean plot information from!) before he can do justice to killing them.

Another thing is that Pat Ryan is the perfect example of a Hero who trades up on his supporting cast. Normandie is a cute, sweet romantic interest, but unarguably less than one hit dice. Pat can get more XP for forgetting her and moving on to a more dangerous femme fatale, like Burma, and then dump her for The Dragon Lady (obviously a higher-level Fighter) when she turns up. One thing about femme fatales I should clarify in the next edition rules -- even if they are in conflict with you, they still count as supporting cast.

I had been convinced by others that "hide in shadows" no longer belongs as a human trait, since the Mysteryman class essentially turns that into a class-based trait. Still, Pat, Terry, and Connie spent a lot of time hiding, and using darkness to their advantage. Now I'm not so sure again...

Popular Comics #18

Evidence that the best traps are the ones that are activated by your players' own curiosity -- "best" in that they don't appear arbitrary, or seems like the Editor is out to get them.

I've written before about cover, and soft cover vs. hard cover, but maybe that's too little to cover situations like this, when Pat is behind a window with most of his body shielded from harm. Should penalties to hit instead be based on percentage of cover, or is that not abstract enough? Things to ponder...

Like the importance of knowing the range on missile weapons, as evidenced here.

There is a long tradition stretching back to mythology of imagining ways to make man fly. It seems a little odd how often this keeps coming up after the invention of the airplane, but here we have an invented trophy item that makes people float in the air.

Killer whales -- 30 HD, with 10-sided dice? Not something you want to fight unless you're really high level.

Streaky is really observant. In some games, this would come from using the skill system to roll-play the situation, but another way to play this is just to ask smart questions, as the player, and have the Editor come up with smart answers.

Cars that can turn into airplanes are useful trophies. Tolls are terrible things and, apparently, could be as high as 50 cents back in the '30s!


(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Popular Comics #10

First up, the Dragon Lady shows us how useful sleeping poison is. Rules for poison are pretty much piecemeal in Hideouts & Hoodlums. Should they be more structured?

Moon Mullins teaches us that jockeys made as much as $25,000 a year in the 1930s -- a princely sum for that time.

Smilin' Jack teaches us about sideslip landing, good for landing a plane when there is not enough room for a proper landing strip. Maybe this should be a new stunt?



 Lovey Dovey asks the question: when to assign falling damage? Does face-first out a window into a rain barrel = 1d6 damage? I'd be inclined to say so, but in a campaign with a more light-hearted tone, maybe not.

Keeping up the falling theme, A Strain on the Family Tie asks, does falling down stairs = 1d6 damage?  Again, it's possible; people die from falling downstairs all the time. And yet, it's often just played for laughs in comic books, and is certainly never used in a deathtrap.  A compromise position might be to allow a save vs. science to avoid the falling damage, in cases where the fall is not directly vertical, or even in cases where objects might slow the Hero's fall (like conveniently-placed awnings).

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Popular Comics #8

This page of Little Orphan Annie actually illustrates two issues about how combat should work in Hideouts & Hoodlums. One, is that combats should be short. If a cane does 1-6 points of damage, and most people have 1-6 hit points, then a one-on-one combat could conceivably be wrapped up after just two dice rolls (the to hit and damage rolls of the first attacker).

But who should get to attack first? The man with the cane or the man with the knife? Originally, a random die roll determined this in H&H. Another option would be to have attacks go in descending order by the Dexterity of the combats; this was seriously considered for the next edition. But what is more likely going to happen is going by weapon length, with the reach of a cane giving him the advantage over a hoodlum with just a short knife.

In this page of Terry and the Pirates, I'm less interested in the combat than Terry's agility at shinnying up the pole. What is going on there, as a game mechanic? Some game referees might use an ability score check, having the player roll under his Dexterity score to succeed. Officially, H&H does not incorporate ability score checks.

Could this be a simple exercise of a climb mechanic instead? This brings us back to the same issue, already brought up on this blog, about whether Climb should be a Stunt that only Heroes can use, or if it should be a skill that anyone can accomplish.

But what mechanic could everyone use? Since Terry is using resistance to counter gravity, could this perhaps warrant a save vs. science?

Ah, the old blow-to-the-back-of-the-head trick. Later, even some superheroes would not be immune to this plot convenience!  But what is going on here, game mechanics-wise? Is Pat down to his last 6 hp or less (which is possible, considering how slow healing is in H&H) when he takes the clubbing blow? Is the Dragon Lady a Mysteryman using her signature move for additional damage? Or should there be a mechanic specifically for head blows? I'm actually leaning towards the latter!

Don Dixon and the Hidden Empire brings up several points. One is the usefulness of bringing a dog along on an adventure. It gives you an extra chance to find concealed things and -- horrible, but practical -- another target for bad guys to aim at.

Active volcanoes are not Hero-friendly environments for adventuring. As this page shows, the combination of the heat and poisonous fumes should require a save vs. science each turn from anyone in the volcano, or they will pass out for 1-4 turns.

But more importantly, by what game mechanic are the kids moving that boulder.  A save vs. science to overcome the inertia of the boulder? Or an ability score-like check vs. Strength? In the spirit of Old School arbitrariness, I'm actually leaning towards the latter for the next edition! This way, you could modify the number of dice rolled depending on how heavy the weight is.

First dinosaur in a modern day story!  But what dinosaur? It's a man-sized carnivore. Maybe meant to be a young Tyrannosaur? An associate of mine (hi Dan!) suggested to me that it could be a young Allosaur. Either way, at this size it probably doesn't have more than 4 Hit Dice.

Also the first mention of dwarfs in a comic book, though this dwarf seems to be a pygmy and, thus, statted as a Native rather than a fantasy humanoid.


        Yeah...don't go into a scenario involving a tiger, thinking that you can say "over" while waiving a stick and subdue the tiger; I think we're to assume this works because Sylvia has a history of working with this particular tiger.

More evidence of the importance of accounting for lassos as a weapon.

And $100 seems to be the going rate for returning a lost tiger to a circus.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Popular Comics #6 - pt. 1

Though I'm not a fan of the original Little Orphan Annie, here I do owe it a small debt of gratitude for showing me what a small group of slick hoodlums -- here called mountebanks -- could do to whip up a frenzied crowd against some Hideouts & Hoodlums Heroes. I did consider making mountebanks a new mobster type, but the charm ability of slick hoodlums seems like such a good match.

This page raises the issue of how to handle morale saves. Do you roll once for the whole group, or roll separately for each individual attacker? The rules do not specify, leaving this up to the preference of each Editor.



In Dick Tracy, we see trick shoes with concealed compartments in the bottom, and a miniature gun disguised as a fountain pen. Good additions to a minor hi-tech trophies list!

Believe it or not, but Believe It or Not will not turn up here often.  This time, though, the Bowl of Wisdom sounds so much like a magic trophy that I had to add it. Drinking from it should add +1 to the imbiber's Wisdom score!

Ah, the old "bucket of pitch falls on the head, then you step into a rope snare that pulls you off your feet" trick! It's a complicated trap: it must involve an attack roll for the bucket, then a saving throw to avoid stepping into the snare, which must be pretty easy to miss without the distraction of the bucket on the head (maybe a +4 to save without the bucket?).

Ah, the conundrum of being knocked unconscious!  In the game H&H emulates, recovering from being at 0 hit points requires a full day of rest. It sure doesn't seem like Pat has been out that long here.

In the next edition, there will be expanded rules for what may happen when a Hero reaches zero hp.  Some of the results are better than being out for a day -- but some will be much worse.

Smilin' Jack gets to ride in a hi-tech transport -- a stratosphere balloon, supporting a "gondola" that looks an awful lot like a bathysphere. Being able to ascend quietly to 60,000 feet might come in handy for Heroes some day.

That's quite a weight the grizzled prospector is pulling.  Grizzled prospectors do appear to be tough critters as a cliche, but I hesitate to stat them as Superheroes to get them that strong. Maybe they need to be a new mobster type?  Maybe one with the No Encumbrance power of Superheroes, but without all the rest?

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum at http://www.digitalcomicmuseum.org/index.php?dlid=2961)

Popular Comics #5

This issue leads off with Dick Tracy conducting a raid, with all the beat cops and detectives (1st and 2nd level Fighters) carrying axes!  We also get a neat trick where Tess Trueheart's kidnappers communicate with her only using a loudspeaker projected through a fan, so she won't be able to identify their voices. And lastly, we get to see the benefits of having a telephone lineman as a Supporting Cast Member (good for snooping on phone calls!).

Tom Mix demonstrates the Cowboy stunt Quick Draw.

And here demonstrates the Summon Horse stunt.

Should disguise and voice mimicry be stunts?  Disguise is a solid maybe.

The bears in Hideouts & Hoodlums Book II: Mobsters & Trophies are brown bears, but even that entry mentions polar bears as having slightly more Hit Dice (probably 8).

Lariats are going to be a common weapon in the next edition.

Don Winslow U.S.N. shares an interesting idea for a code. The zig-zag code works like this:  break the message in two, one line spaced alternatingly over the other, then read in order from left to right in both lines at once.

Lost worlds often are full of gold. The Experience Point value is enormous, but the challenge is getting it all back home.

Bandits normally have leaders no higher than 4th level, but if this leader is really a general, then that makes him at least 8th level.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum at http://www.digitalcomicmuseum.org/index.php?dlid=3349)

Popular Comics #4 - pt. 1

Besides Little Orphan Annie, Maw Green was another mouthpiece for Harold Gray's backwards libertarian spiel.  Here, Maw Green tells us it's okay to just grab some stranger's kid and start paddling them, if you think they need it.

Maw Green is also shown here to be a potent fighter.  Making a new mobster called the big maw, with a bonus to grapple and spank, might be called for.  Better yet, I could use it later for characters like Ma Hunkel...

Demonstrating that cowardly hoodlums can look like well-dressed gentlemen.

Also from Little Orphan Annie, Punjab walks through a hail of bullets completely unharmed and contributes it to a bulletproof vest.  A bulletproof vest is only AC 7 in H&H.  This must be a hi-tech bulletproof vest +3, or better!

Smilin' Jack is a catalog of flying trophies this time.  There's Jack's trademark flivver plane, the parasol plane, the autogyro, and something called the vacuum type plane, though I can't figure out what kind of plane that is.  It looks like it has hinged wings...?

In this installment of Terry and the Pirates, Terry, Pat, and Connie get a tour of a great hideout: an abandoned monastery taken over by pirates. Most of the strip details various forms of torture practiced in the hideout, but there is, near the end, a rather "delightful" trap detailed.  In a bedroom, the beds are rigged so that they will flip over and dump anyone in them into a crocodile-filled pit, if a lever is pulled in a separate room.

Tom Mix demonstrates two new stunts the Cowboy class should get: Cheat at Cards and Sense Cheating.

Ella and Her Fella reveals that a half-pint does not necessarily have to be a child, or even particularly young.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum at http://www.digitalcomicmuseum.org/index.php?dlid=3808)

Popular Comics #3

We're up to April 1936 now and this review of Popular Comics #3 starts out with Dick Tracy. This installment of the Boris Arson story has Boris holed up in an ingenious hideout. The bad guys enter through a cave with bars on either side, protecting them from wild bobcats. The bars are set on runners so that, when they get to the end of the tunnel, they can pull the bars back with them, blocking the back of the cave, while leaving the bobcats free to roam the entry cave.

But -- bobcats?  I wouldn't give a bobcat more than 1/2 a Hit Die, not making them much of a threat to anyone but 1st-level Heroes.

This installment also features some suspicious science, with Dick Tracy able to shoot through a stone wall with a machine gun, instead of the bullets just ricocheting...

I've previously showcased some traps here, but Tailspin Tommy this month is all about how to escape them. On display are the twin cliches of breaking glass to cut bonds and the more dangerous route of burning rope off your hands. In the latter case, I would require taking 1 point of damage in order to make sure the rope also took enough harm to burn through.

This page mentions something that should have been a stunt listed when the Aviator class debuted in The Trophy Case -- Loop Plane. This stunt would cause a passenger to save vs. science or fall out of the plane.

I've also talked about stunts a lot previously. Stunts were a mechanic to give Heroes a limited number of automatic successes at skills befitting their genre, but were limited at first to the Aviator and Cowboy classes. This installment of Winnie Winkle demonstates, though, that any kid could have access to stunts like Climb or Tightrope Walk.

But should they?  Stunts are not for comical displays to win over girls so much as to influence the results of combat.  I will stick, then, with my first thought, which was to limit access to stunts, though in the next edition everyone will get a chance to use them at higher levels.

Although Don Winslow and his pal seem to be using sails as weapons here, I would treat this as a normal grappling attack, ignoring the use of the sails in the equation until getting the results. If a successful grapple, then the victims can be assumed to be bound in canvas as well.

Bos n' Hal begins a long story here about a hidden land near the North Pole, a green tropical island surrounded by a curtain of steam clouds. Such hidden land locations are perfect for H&H Heroes to explore.

When to require a stunt is the question.  Does Terry, climbing hand-over-hand under a rope bridge, require some sort of climbing check?  I would be inclined to say no; climbing as a specialized skill would be knowing how to climb sheer surfaces normal people could not. What Terry is doing could be attempted by anyone strong enough. I might require a save vs. science, though, to inject a little suspense into the trip across, but also to determine if gravity or upper arm strength wins out here.

Connie here demonstrates the +1 modifier for attacking with height advantage, as if the machine gun and soft cover from the roof's edge didn't give him enough advantage.

Lastly, Texas Slim reminds us that not all encounters need to be hostile, as this encounter with a black bear could have gone much differently if it saw Slim as a threat!

Popular Comics #2 - pt. 1

A little Chicago blizzard slowed down my posting there for a few days, but we're now up to March 1936 and the second issue of Popular Comics!

In Little Orphan Annie, is Punjab casting some kind of Message spell by drumming on an old log, or is this some more plausibly scientific form of communication?  As with many things about Punjab, we're left unsure if it is magical or not.

Mutt and Jeff don't get into a lot of adventures, so we won't be seeing much of them here.  Bulls, however, are featured in comics at least as often as goats, and just as absent in the Hideouts & Hoodlums game so far.  Bulls are powerfully big animals; I would assign them a whopping 6 Hit Dice, a gore attack that does 1-10 points of damage, and a trample attack that does 1-12 damage, but the bull must be charging to use both and then suffers a -2 penalty to hit if the defender dodges from side to side. 

Mutt clearly survives here solely by very lucky damage dice rolls from the Editor...

It might be constructive to point out when something is not indicative of a game mechanic.  Here, in Terry and the Pirates, we see our Heroes forming a human pyramid to reach a high window. This does not necessitate any kind of climbing check. A particularly strict Editor might require a save vs. plot to climb a tree, as Terry does, but most people can climb a tree easily enough so -- unless there were no low branches -- such a roll could easily be waived.  And when Terry dons a dress, he's not attempting to disguise himself in the sense that he's trying to pass muster as a girl while interacting with the skull-faced villain; Terry is using it to try and get surprise at the beginning of the combat turn. If Terry succeeds at his surprise roll, then we can assume the disguise was successful; it would not need a second roll to determine if the surprise was a particularly good one.

Here we see an example of an old trick that any Editor can use. The Editor tells his players the mobsters shoot, rolls some dice -- and then ignores the results because the mobsters never intended to hit in the first place.  The rolling of the dice was just for unnerving the players.  This also works great with wandering encounter checks...

Just happening to find an old biplane in a barn, like Smilin' Jack does, could have been circumstance forced by a stunt used by the Aviator, but it is not so unlikely a plot point that the Editor did not place the plane there himself. Back in the 1930s, when airports were much less common, renting space in barns and taking off on their property was much more common.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum at  http://www.digitalcomicmuseum.org/index.php?dlid=1631)