Popular Comics #45 - pt. 2

So, this is the "father of all sharks" we saw yesterday, but a few shots with a repeating rifle and -- pfft! No more father of all sharks. Way to snuff out such a unique and amazing example of Nature's wonder, Hurricane Kids!

A repeating rifle would be treated as just a hunting rifle.

G-Men stay connected with current news thanks to teletype machines in their branch offices (at least according to this strip!).

A FBI teletype machine would be a pretty useful trophy item -- instant plot hooks!

"Battered but powerful" cars could be handy trophy items. Sure, it's more fun to drive a cool-looking car, but way more conspicuous.

Deserted farmhouses are natural hideouts -- this guy says so!

Tex Ritter discovers that creating a barbed wire barrier and herding opponents toward it is a sound tactic. Tex could take a turn cutting his way through the wire, but it would leave him vulnerable to a full turn of back attacks.

Compiling more things we know about spooks (weak ghosts), spooks can remain invisible after attacking and can fly at pretty fast speed.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

The Comics #10

Not a strong offering from Dell anymore, The Comics still has some material of interest to us -- well, me, anyway -- in it.

For one thing, Dell was still paying for good gag filler...

...and this one.

And Rod Rian was still inventive (if not particularly good).  Here we get a giant, dinosaur-like monster just called a "huge beast".  It's unusual in that it has grasping hands, and appears like it could rake with its hind legs. I am toying with calling it a chasm beast, since it appears in a chasm, though I'd have to take just a wild stab at Hit Dice.  Maybe 9 HD?

And then we get a living skeleton. What completely random wandering encounter charts!

We have a precedent for undead needing to make morale saves.

We also get a huge snake -- which must mean it has half as much Hit Dice as a giant snake (given the large/huge/giant classification scheme).

But the greatest idea is a cursed watering hole where anyone who drinks it has to save vs. spells or be turned into a living skeleton! Actually, I felt a big gypped by the next page, where it is revealed the water only makes the non-skeletal parts of the body invisible temporarily.

The lesson here is that, when your trap is too good for the Heroes, you can always place some dumb guard nearby who can be easily tricked into freeing the Heroes.

This is from The Enchanted Stone and sabre-toothed cats were first statted for Hideouts & Hoodlums in Book II: Mobsters & Trophies.

Bulls have, weirdly, never been statted for H&H.  I would probably make them 4 HD, but with 8-sided Hit Dice?

It's also handy to have a dog companion so they can run back and get help if something happens to your Hero.

I don't know how accurate this Aztec Lore is, but it could prove helpful for anyone running the classic module C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tomoachan adapted to H&H -- or even a H&H-Empire of the Petal Throne crossover!

I like the thought of this as a trap, even though it was not intentionally placed in this installment of Cap'n Cloud.  The Heroes have to get across a body of water coated in oil, and have a limited time to do it before burning driftwood floats down into the oil and sets the room ablaze.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

The Comics #8

Ted Strong, indirectly, made me think of an interesting question today. What do you call hoodlums in a Western campaign? This page makes me think "henchmen" would be a good substitute for hoodlums, in a Western or any non-urban setting.



Rod Rian introduced us to the devil-like aliens, the Mephisians, last issue. This time we meet their enemies and they are, refreshingly, not made to look like angels. Instead, we have the Unicor who, interestingly enough, are distinguishable from the Mephistians by virtue of having just one horn instead of two and hair (reminding me of Star Trek's "Let This Be Your Last Battlefield").

Projectile planes look like spaceships, but they don't appear to be able to enter orbit. They would more properly treated like jets.

The destructor-flame gun is an interesting weapon -- it seems to shoot a pencil-thin beam and only erupts into flames when it hits its target. In this sense, it's more like a heat ray than a flame thrower.

I would not normally turn to a humor strip like Salesman Sam for realism, but perhaps Sam makes a good case that not everyone should have a game mechanic available to them for climbing sheer walls. This will likely remain a Mysteryman skill, or a stunt that can be prepared.

This cowboy is Tex Ritter, and I include these panels for three quick points. One, those costumes, like poison-KKK mash-ups, are pretty impressive-looking designs. Second, "cracker box" was apparently slang for a jail cell. Third, poisoned whiskey bottles might make a good trap for your Heroes, depending on how likely they are to drink out of random bottles found in hideouts.

Tomorrow...Action Comics #1, at last!

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)