Crackajack Funnies #7

That horrible Rico is using Jean as a living shield! Or is he? Jean is, interestingly, not in a direct line of fire between Rico and any of the shooters, yet they are hesitant to shoot at Rico. That's because of how dangerous it is to shoot into melee in Hideouts & Hoodlums; on a miss, there's always a chance of hitting a random other person.

If there's a ten to one shot of dropping from a fast-moving plane onto a fast-moving boat, then Hawks needs a 19 or 20 on his attack roll.

This is from Don Winslow. There's some implied violence here that's quite surprising -- the plane's propeller is being used to attack the sharks in the water. I guess this could be resolved as a simple attack, treating the plane as a weapon. The propeller might do...2-16 points of damage?

I don't think these are appropriate starting equipment items, but they could make for good low-powered trophies -- a flare gun and a collapsible rubber life raft (complete with bottle of pressured carbon dioxide).

I'm not sure how this torture device works. A light beam in the eyes apparently forces him to make a save vs. plot every 10-minute turn or tell a villain everything he wants to hear.

(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)

Crackajack Funnies #3

Let's see what Dell Comics has for me today. Captain Frank Hawks, Air Ace, is tied up and tossed down a well to die?  Seems like a standard day for a comic book hero. Granted, it's not much of a deathtrap, since the well is dry and not stocked with piranha fish or alligators. Though, since there is a long-term chance of starving to death, it is technically still a death trap.

If Heroes, or their Supporting Cast, should find themselves missing equipment, like rope, that they need to complete the scenario they are on, the Editor should feel free to introduce a mysterious stranger into the scene who shows up with just what they need. An explanation for the mysterious stranger can always be given later, when the Editor has had time to come up with one.

Following up on yesterday's discussion of organ grinder's monkeys, Myra North is dealing with two hoodlums with an ape trained to rob banks. But what kind of ape is this supposed to be? It's a bit small for a chimpanzee. A gibbon? As poorly drawn as it is, it might be either. A large chimpanzee could have up to 1 Hit Dice, while a gibbon would be hard-pressed to qualify for 1/2 HD.

I find it humorous that the doctor emerges from the secret room with a bottle of anesthetic -- and then uses it to bash the hoodlum over the head with it. Weirder is that the hoodlums are being made to drink it once they're subdued, since anesthetics are usually administered by inhalation or injection.

Our mystery ape -- which now is drawn more closely like a chimpanzee -- has more than one skill of a Mysteryman.

What an odd argument -- if it has human intelligence, it's better off dead!

"Human gland secretions" might serve as a hi-tech potion for increasing Intelligence in animals.

Giving your players more resources gives them more options. To keep things really simple, keep your Heroes poor. The pursuit of basic necessities is the most basic carrot you can dangle in front of your players. Want the Heroes to follow your plot hook? Or move on to the next town? Dangle the $2 they need to eat in front of them.

Of course, this is seldom going to work past the first or even second levels, so enjoy it while you can.

In the optional expanded weapon damage system for Hideouts & Hoodlums, punches do 1-3 points of damage, but wear brass knuckles and you do 1-6 points of damage. This is reflected in this page of Wash Tubbs, with boxing gloves containing plaster doing much more damage than ordinary punches.

Also note the salary of a boxer in a traveling carnival.

This is the first appearance of Don Winslow villain Dr. Centaur in the comic books. But Dr. Centaur has an older history with Hideouts & Hoodlums, going back to the original H&H campaign I ran on rpol.net and the third scenario I ran there (sometime in 2010-2011?).  So sad that rpol recently deleted that campaign!

Oh, and Dr. Centaur has an "ultra short sound wave generator" (ultrasonic soundwave raygun?) that can broadcast over a wide range and potentially stun large numbers of people (save vs. science to resist).

Note how different phone numbers worked back then. You didn't call a phone number, you called an exchange (or had your local exchange call a distant exchange, if long distance) and had the operator look up the person for you.


(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)