Famous Funnies #56 - pt. 1

This is Eagle Scout Roy Powers, though a fellow scout seems to be the star from this page.  

Players will often have to actively search the scene to find clues, but sometimes the Editor will just throw a clue into your lap -- or under your butt -- if you really need to have it.

This page also gives you some perspective between a schooner and a dinghy. It might help to know the difference between the two for a nautical adventure -- which I've surprisingly never done yet in any of my Hideouts & Hoodlums campaigns, despite how prevalent they were in the Golden Age.

We also learn that a schooner only needs a crew of five (six counting the cook), so if you're going to do a mutiny story for a really weak team of heroes (like maybe two or three 1st-level heroes), then a schooner might be the way to go.

Of course, depending on which weapon damage mechanic you use for H&H, automatic firearms might be too much for 1st-level heroes to handle if you plan to use the expanded weapon damage tables (from Supplement I or The Trophy Case).

Speaking of low-level scenarios, I like how the villains aren't interested in killing the heroes here, but maroon them on a deserted island instead (capturing heroes happens a lot more in low-level scenarios).  And I love how happy Roy is to be plunged into a non-combat scenario involving finding fresh water and foraging for food. Now that's the kind of flexibility I like in a player!

This is from SkyRoads.  I can't always follow what's going on in SkyRoads, as it seemed to try to juggle too large an ensemble cast without a strong lead character, but here it follows a G-Man wrongly imprisoned in a Mexican jail. I share it here for the ethical dilemma of the lawful hero given the option to choose to bust out of jail, or trust in the system. I did something similar in one of my H&H games just last night when a hero was offered a huge bribe by a rich corrupt politician. It's a fun way to force the player to think in character.

According to War on Crime, even a simple cottage can serve as a hideout.

The first mention of Browning automatic rifles in comics. First edition H&H names specific brands of guns, including Browning, on the starting equipment list for historical context, but I will probably move away from that in 2nd ed.  These would be lumped into a broader category of military rifles (which is more consistent, since I don't never broken down by types of other weapons, like swords).

Random chance is an excellent way to explain how Dickie Dare managed to spot a man dressed in bright colors, on a white horse, and the others missed him.  I also like the metafiction of the bandit describing how his own story is going...

(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 #52

One is not likely to encounter wandering mobsters as frequently as seen here in Hairbreadth Harry, but combining different mobster types is fair game so long as the combinations make sense in the context of the encounter, or the nonsense of fitting "wa-hoo birds", giant porcupine fish, alligators, and wildcats together matches the tone of the campaign.

This is from gag filler called Life's Like That, and -- like the page above -- I appreciate the absurdity of this.

This month's installment of War on Crime includes this tip: bent license plates are suspicious!

Dickie Dare returns home after a long adventure and immediately seeks out his family and friends. It seems a natural response, but it makes good game sense too. When touching home base after wide-ranging adventures, every Hero would do well to meet up with all their Supporting Cast, check to see if any of them have fresh plot hooks, or just collect the Experience Points from including their SCMs in the game session.

Also note that Dickie, like so many superheroes to follow, is from New York City.

This is from The Adventures of Patsy, and "Can I tell which direction the shot came from?" is a surprisingly tricky question to consider. There is a hear noise mechanic, but gun shots are notoriously echo-y and could well come with a penalty. Plus, there is forensic evidence on the scene to consider -- which side of the cat is the gunshot wound on? At worst, I would probably assign this a flat 50-50 chance for Patsy's friend to answer correctly, and at best I would just hand-wave it and say they can just tell.

Goat joke #18!

Oaky Doaks is going up against a giant! It's hard to say just how tall this stooped-over giant is. Twelve feet tall? That would make him too large for a hill giant. I wonder if I'll keep the distinction between sub-groups of giants...

This is from gag filler called Punky, but I could see a whole boys' adventure scenario built around them getting lost in the woods.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Famous Funnies #48

Skyroads shares an unusual crime problem -- gas rustling!  It could never happen at an urban gas station, but a rural gas station could have enough room for a plane to land, the aviator steals gas for his plane, and flies away. Something for Heroes to solve?

The middle panel reads like a wandering encounter chart for desert environs -- jack rabbits, horned toads, and gila monsters.

This page of War on Crime brings up something that was suggested in my last game session -- can you wreck things with bullets? Possibly...there is a wrecking things mechanic for non-Superheroes and applying it to guns could just be flavor text (particularly since, as this page shows, shooting off a doorknob is something you'd want to do at point blank range, so you wouldn't be giving your Heroes the benefit of added range).  I hesitate to say it could be used for wrecking robots or better, though, as that would be handled better by normal combat rules.

(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 #38

We all know how injuries work for Heroes in Hideouts & Hoodlums -- you lose hit points until, if you're not lucky, you run out -- and that's it, with no complications. But that doesn't mean that non-Heroes can't have complications, like broken legs that need special attention, as we see here in the new feature Roy Powers, Eagle Scout.

This one has nothing to do with H&H; I include it only because I think it's the funniest gag filler I've read in a long time.

It's worth noting here that "lottery joints" used to be a thing. That's right, instead of playing the lottery at your local gas station, you'd have to sneak into the dingy backroom of some disreputable saloon.

Speaking of disreputable...I find reading War on Crime particularly enjoyable because so much of it happened in Chicagoland. I know Chicagoland. In fact, I know where the Ontarioville used to be that is referred to here!

Here's a low-powered magic item: the magic torch. Touch the end of it and it bursts into flame on its own. It's easily blown out, but can be re-lit with just another touch, and is never hot to the touch when not lit.

And I included this page of Jane Arden because that's a pretty clever trick for avoiding being caught following someone in a taxi. That Jane is a quick thinker!

Goat joke!

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Famous Funnies #37

I've written before about using the environment to challenge the Heroes. Even a slushy sidewalk can change the dynamics of combat, as both sides might have to make a save vs. plot or science (whichever is better) to stay on their feet each turn.

Here we see bulletproof vests and automatic rifles in use, and more realistically than usual in comics. Note that the bulletproof vest seems to work just as it does, game mechanics-wise, in Hideouts & Hoodlums -- it reduces your chance of being hit and damaged, but doesn't actually absorb damage (as it is often erroneously shown doing in comics).

A large cache of weapons and armor is not unusual to find in a hideout.

Skyroads veers into mad science territory this month. A machine that can "send a person from place to place by radio" sounds like the power Teleport through Focus (found in Book I: Men & Supermen). This particular machine has drawbacks, though, as it tends to shock the subject (1d6 damage?) more often than it actually works.

Wandering encounters are usually more about keeping the Heroes on their toes than keeping them well-stocked in Experience Points, but if you happen to put $100,000 in stolen money on a hoodlum, you're handing out an awful big boatload of XP.

Working spaceships seem a bit much too, but if you really want to level up your Heroes quickly and push them into space adventures, who am I to judge?

The original Black Panther in comics!

Here we see lots of examples of missile fire, and cover, evidence that first aid does not immediately revive unconscious people, and the dangers of bringing your dog along on adventures.

Here we see an example of an untraditional "wand", as the witch's focus item is her black necklace.  If the Phantom Magician had cast Detect Magic, he could have discovered that.

The witch's trap utterly fails because the Editor has allowed a save vs. missiles for the falling debris, and everyone got lucky rolls.

Note the importance of bringing light into a hideout.

I've said it before, but I don't get to share pages of Joe Palooka nearly as often as I'd like. This time, we see that pottery sells for $7, unless you can scam someone into spending hundreds of dollars on it.


(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)