Crackajack Funnies #14

We haven't checked in on Dan Dunn in awhile. Here, I'm interested in the double protection of having a secret room, behind a secret door, and a second concealed door behind a painting in the secret room. But can we distinguish between secret and concealed doors here? We don't actually see the first secret door behind the bookcase; it's just described to us. If the bookcase is only blocking a normal door, then I would call that a concealed door. But if it looked like blank wall behind the bookcase until you pulled a lever disguised to look like a book on the shelf, causing it to slide open, then you have a secret door.

Slade missed his save vs. plot to see through Dan's act, but Fallon made his. It's worth pointing out that a disguise doesn't have to be a fake mustache or stage make-up; it can be trying to pass yourself off as someone else.

This reminds me of the Cowboy stunt Jump into Saddle (from Supplement III), and also reminds me that Jump into Saddle could have explained how Abdul the Arab could have leaped down into a moving car in the post I did on Smash Comics #1 two days ago.

Only a hoodlum who's never read Treasure Island would skip searching a crutch.

But I'm more interested here in Peggy's Mother's concern about her jewelry being all fakes. Granted, this is a non-Hero character, but if it was a Hero, how would I handle this? A successful appraisal check tells her they're fake, but a failed roll only tells her she doesn't know for sure yet.

In Hideouts & Hoodlums I don't tell you who should make the dice rolls, leaving that up to each Editor to decide. Often, I like to let players make their own encounter reaction rolls. I normally do let them make their own skill checks -- but I can see situations, like appraisal, where a secret check by the Editor might make more sense. Then the players have to react to what the Editor tells them, instead of what they know from the dice roll.

The nice thing about this escape plan is that there's no time crunch involved. If the cistern had been filling up with water, that would be another thing, but because the three of them can try the human pyramid trick as many times as they want, there's no reason not to just wave game mechanics, say it works, and reward Easy's player for his good idea.

From Myra North, Special Nurse, we learn that artificial respiration was much different in the 1930s! It makes you wonder how first aid ever worked back then. No wonder it doesn't give you immediate hit points back in H&H!

I just had to share this because it's pretty cool. Myra North must have at least one level in Fighter. Here she takes on a spy armed with a gun, using only a pair of scissors, and still wins!

Sound-proof doors in hideouts is something to consider. It would waste a lot of players' hear noise rolls during a hideout-clearing expedition. On the other hand, it would also keep mobsters from being able to hear combat in their neighbors' rooms and lend aid.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comics Museum)

Crackajack Funnies #12

The theme for today's post is stunts, a game mechanic from the Hideouts & Hoodlums supplements that is being radically overhauled for 2nd edition. In 1st edition, stunts had one-shot activations, like powers and spells, and then automatically worked so long as you made it into the duration before it expired. What will replace this are skills, that you always have a random chance of succeeding at. Mysterymen will still get a chance to use stunts -- a limited number of times per day they can auto-succeed at a skill, with extra panache.

So, despite how heavily the new rules will talk about Mysterymen, they apply equally to Cowboys. Cowboys are from Supplement III: Better Quality, will not make it into the 2nd edition Basic Rules book, but might make it into a later book expanding Hero creation options for different settings/genres.

Here, we see Tom Mix and another cowboy performing a stunt together. Leaping from one moving horse to another seems like a skill anyone might have a chance to accomplish -- though I would make it an expert skill with a lower chance. But leaping while your hands are tied behind your back? That's something extra, and has to be a stunt.

This is something that I had not considered a skill at first, probably because Heroes don't resort to it too often, but hiding is definitely a skill.

Captain Easy is often a good source of inspiration. Here, he teaches H&H players a thing about perseverance! Without any clues to go on where the pirates who kidnapped the girl he was responsible for are hiding, Easy and Tubbs start visiting every island where they could be hiding and checking every one. They have searched 17 islands so far at this point, and are about to finally strike pay dirt on the 18th...

This is a situation where a stunt, Increase Speed, that originally debuted for the Cowboy class, made so much sense that it was also given to the Aviator class (in The Trophy Case v. 1 #6-7), and then to Paladins in Supplement V: Big Bang.  Now it makes sense to just let everyone have a chance at it, which is why it will now be a skill.

I don't have a lot to say about this, and any wargamer worth their minis already knows this, but tactics are important even when your Hero is in a Naval battleship, or a bomb-dropping blimp.

The tropes of the genre work both ways. There's no way that mask should be able to conceal anyone's identity. But if it works for the heroes, it works for the villains (and everyone still has to save vs. plot to recognize him through the mask).




(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Crackajack Funnies #10

This is Red Ryder, and he's in some serious trouble. Rolling a barrel full of gunpowder with a lit fuse is not something I would throw lightly at my players' heroes. We're probably looking at, at least, 6-36 points of damage from that barrel, if not higher (thankfully there would be a save vs. missiles for half damage!).

This is Myra North, and her boyfriend Jack tells us that chartering a trans-Atlantic flight at short notice was not difficult in 1939 (this would almost surely not be the case any longer further into the war years).

This is Tom Mix, and his friend Tony "Lanky" Jones demonstrates the difference between an ordinary person using tracking and what a professional tracker like a Cowboy, Explorer, or a Mysteryman would find; anyone would be able to find the horseshoe prints at the campsite, but Lanky is able to identify the owner by the shape of the horseshoe.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Crackajack Funnies #8

Sure, it's fun to play an alien superhero who can leap tall buildings in a single bound, but the challenge of getting into an upper story window without any super-leaping ability can be fun too. This is one of the reasons the Fighter class is still relevant in a campaign with Magic-Users and Superheroes.

If a Fighter like Dan Dunn wants to cross over to that window, he's going to have to find a ladder long enough to bridge the street, push it over to the window sill, and then balance across the ladder until he reaches the window.

Dan is quite confident that he's hidden the dictaphone well. There's no game mechanic for hiding it well, though -- it all depends on the luck of the searchers.

One of the many balancing acts of the Editor is to make hideouts challenging, but not so challenging that the players just decide to flood the place and be done with it. It's also a good idea not to tempt them by placing large bodies of water so that they would drain into the hideout.

This will not be the last portable time machine in comics. I don't recommend time machines be this portable or easy to use -- time travel could be a campaign wrecker in all but the most capable Editors' hands.

That said, the idea of going back in time and finding talking, intelligent dinosaurs, is intriguing...

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Crackajack Funnies #6

These panels are from Capt. Frank Hawks, Air Ace, and shows the old "shoot the lock off" trick. The game mechanics for wrecking things don't distinguish between what tool you're using, so shooting the lock has the same non-Superhero wrecking chance as going at it with a crowbar.

You can definitely move around in combat, as shone here. You only have to be within 10' of your opponent to stay in melee range with them, so a combatant could move up 10' to engage, then pass and stand 10' on the far side of their opponent, without ever leaving melee.

I've never understood how diving underwater protects fictional characters from bullets so well, but maybe water should serve as hard cover?

And, of course, an amphibious plane is a trophy transport item.  Collect 'em all!

Myra North, Special Nurse, is not normally prone to flights of fancy, so maybe this is a real thing, injecting a capsule into a chicken so that it gets passed through into an egg. It seems a crazy way to pass a secret message to me, but maybe it'll really catch your players off-guard someday.

There's not a really good long shot of this hideout, but it seems to be a cluster of cabins located in a remote mountain pass. You can approach it from either end, and be observed by scouts, or you can climb up over the sides and lower yourself down 70' cliffs by rope. I suppose you could also just drop flaming debris onto the cabins, to the scenario had best call for making sure everyone isn't killed. Indeed, in this story, Buck Jones is going into the hideout to rescue someone.

I liked this idea from Don Winslow -- bad guys drain a lake to reveal a sunken Mayan city. Now the Heroes get to explore the ruins with a nice mix of dry and aquatic encounter areas.

Don's plan to re-take the stolen naval cruiser is to use a tin pan full of flaming oil in the powder magazine to make the crew think there's an out-of-control fire in with the explosives. It's a desperate gamble; I would leave some chance, if I was running this scenario, for the fire to get out of control.  I would also make morale saves for the crew, and some unlucky rolls might mean some of the crew are willing to play hero and go down to fight the fire.

This is Tom Mix, and the hideout here appears to be a cave with a giant secret door blocking the entrance that can only be turned by a crank from the inside. However, since the door is really only canvas on a frame, made to look like stone, it would actually be easy to wreck through. However, because it's only canvas, it's real easy for the defenders to shoot through at anyone trying to wreck through...

And lastly, there is the sanitarium hideout of Doctor Sabin in Tom Traylor. No single page of the story gives you a very good sense of the layout of the place, but it a spacious, well-furnished, house built on the shore of a sound, with a dock and a boat out back. Besides the dining room, sanitarium office, and operating room, there is a radio room, a dungeon (complete with prison cells), and an underground passage that extends from the dungeon up to the dock.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

The Comics #4

Dresses cost $11, or at least the flimsy dresses that rip while you're punching through fences in Wash Tubbs' strip do

It may seem unlikely that a gunman could shoot a moving rope, but six gunmen, minutes later, are shooting it out in the street and continually missing each other. There are a couple of possible in-game explanations. Perhaps Tom Mix just got lucky -- maybe his Editor gave him a 1 in 20 chance and he rolled well?  Or Tom's player used a stunt like Trick Shooting.

As for everyone missing each other in the street, that's not so unbelievable, given that the average shooter only has a 50-50 chance of hitting. And even then, the Heroes get a save vs. missiles to avoid being shot.

This is Dr. Doom, International Spy's henchman breaking in thanks to drugged wine. It's good that the henchman is doing it, because drugging people is a big no-no for Heroes. I would even make a Chaotic Hero save vs. plot to do this, though maybe at a bonus, with a Lawful Hero having to save at a penalty.

A wagon with a false bottom might not seem like much of a trophy item, but it depends on the setting. This would be a great trophy for a Western campaign just as much as this scenario, set in a poor European country.

Speedboats, like the one Tom Beatty is using, are probably more exciting trophies for Heroes to pick up, but they might come with more risks. There's no game mechanic for shooting at a boat and maybe hitting its gas tank, but an Editor can add complications like that to a scenario any time he feels like it.

This one is odd, as the effect of tear gas is so seldom shown as unconsciousness in comics. It's probably because of the confined space, but there's no game mechanic for that. Maybe G-Man Jim has been exposed to extra-strong tear gas.

Then this page of Myra North, Nurse deals with story pacing. An Editor would have to be very careful and know his players well before making them go a whole week without a clue. Many players would be tempted to ditch the whole scenario long before then.



In [Alley] Oop and Dinny, they go over a waterfall and survive. Of course, in fiction, everyone who goes over a waterfall survives!  An Editor could safely make the same assumption for his campaign, or be harsher and make everyone save vs. science to avoid drowning.

I really don't recommend this trick, seen in Lone Marshal, of allowing thrown knives to pin hands to walls or tables. For one thing, it's just gross. For another, it makes knives very dangerous in combat and players are not going to enjoy having this attack used against them.

At best...the Editor might consider a knife throwing mobster with this as a special ability...

...Okay, maybe I'd allow biting out a fuse to save a Hero from a deathtrap, but there's got to be some consequences from that, like maybe 1-2 points of burn damage?

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

The Comics #2 - pt. 1

Cowboy stunt, Disarming Shot.

Sometimes having a job is an impediment to being a full-time Hero. Other times, it's a good source for plot hooks.

I've never seen a comic this old as well-researched on asbestos to know that asbestos is only fire resistant, and can still get destroyed if it takes enough fire damage.

Gorgeous inking, by the way.

Failed open door check.

To thoroughly search a captured mobster, check their coat lining too.

Like yesterday's post, it's important to always make travel interesting. Storms help.

A great image showing the size of 1930s flashlights.

There are no rules, per se, for determining combat between vehicles. An Editor could assign a wrecking things level to bombs and roll for them but, really, if a bomb hits a submarine, the sub is going to sink or explode. It seems almost pointless to even roll past the attack roll.

Don't forget about the usefulness of windows. You can attack into a hideout before even entering it (and vice versa!).

A practical use for nightsticks you don't often see, but Heroes could use to good effect to let each other know where they are, if they split up.


(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

The Comics #1 - pt. 1

Before Captain Easy had his own strip, he was just an adult sidekick to Wash Tubbs.

Here, Wash tells us that silk shirts cost up to $10 in the 1930s -- a then expensive luxury!

Easy is also in a car with a ridiculous amount of nitroglycerin; I hate to estimate how much damage that explosion would have done to the poor guys had their car been hit by that TNT!

At present, there are not specific game mechanics for unarmed combat moves like flipping your handcuffed opponent over your head -- this would simply be a generic grappling attack.

This is from In the Name of the Law, a cheap knock-off of War on Crime.  In it we are reminded that, while a Hero's chance to hear noise might not work through hideout walls, it should work through ordinary interior walls in buildings.

Tom Mix learns, the hard way, how to burn down a wooden cabin (though most Heroes will avoid burning down a hideout, for fear of destroying valuable loot inside!).

Prairie Bill's feat of strength could be achieved a couple of different ways, both starting with successful grappling rolls (very successful; I plan to switch to a grappling system with more than one level of success).  The Editor could then allow the grappled victim to save vs. science to keep from being thrown in the drink.  Alternatively, if the Editor could leave the successful grappler in control of the next step, by having him roll to-hit the water -- AC 9, let's say.

Gambling, whether a friendly game or not, is beyond the purview of simulating with Hideouts & Hoodlums.  The easiest way of handling it, of course, would be to sit the H&H books aside for an hour or so and play some hands of poker yourselves.  Failing that, or if pressed for time, the players could simply roll d20s, highest score wins that hand.

G-Man Jim demonstrates the proper way to use a wireless radio to summon reinforcements.

Though drawn in a horribly unprofessional manner, G-Man Jim has all the earmarks of a classic H&H hideout crawl.  There is a definite goal to the scenario -- find the missing girl -- but lots of rooms to search, including a secret room to find. There's even a trap -- a button that will set off an explosion if pressed!

Again, we have a poorly drawn, but evocative scenario in The Arizona Kid. Just riding by and finding what appears to be a guarded well, but is actually a mine entrance, Arizona descends into a subterranean world that...well, it wouldn't be very H&H, but I wouldn't be surprised to see orcs or goblins show up down there.

I'm not sure how literal to take Myra North's description of this gas. Does she feel weak from the gas, or is she really, physically weakened by it? A weakness-inducing gas might be an interesting trap, though since there are not actually a lot of game mechanics tied to the Strength ability score, it might wind up only affecting flavor text...unless it was also tied to Movement rate.


(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)