Mystery Men Comics #8 - pt. 1

After a long spell we check in Fox Comics again and the first feature here is Blue Beetle.

Blue Beetle does what most of my players have always done, try to get to the location before the bad guys. But here the location works against him; with the wide open spaces, the mobsters are too far apart and the second one has an easy free shot at range.

Now, one bullet shouldn't be enough to stop BB; it usually isn't in comics. I have been wondering recently, though, if bullets should do exploding damage to account for instances like this...but on the other hand, firearms are already really deadly in Hideouts & Hoodlums and I hesitate to make them more so.

BB has a temporary Supporting Cast Member in this story; you won't see anymore of Tom.

BB has to take off his heavy mail costume; for the first time a comic book acknowledges that encumbrance can hamper skill checks.

BB must be using a power to keep up with a motorboat, that has a head start, while swimming. I hesitate to create a new swimming-related power, though, when activating Race the Train would accomplish this same thing.

It seems to me that the first mob to use an autogyro to escape from robberies is really smart, but after that people would always be on the lookout for it. The real mistake of this mob is to stay in the air so long that a plane that hadn't even taken off yet when they left the warehouse has time to catch them.

So, in addition to the autogyro, these bank robbers can afford three fighter planes. This reminds me of a lot of Silver Age stories where the super-gizmos the supervillains employ must have been so expensive that there's no way they'll come out ahead from robbing a bank. But that's not comic book logic for you!

It looks like Wing performs two Immelmann turns to get the height advantage on his pursuers, giving him a +1 bonus to hit after performing an expert skill check. As difficult as this seems to be for just a +1, it's more likely that aviators should be able to perform stunts as a free action before attacking.

Catching fire needs to be a common complication for dogfighting.

Panels 3-5 are what a fighting withdrawal looks like after a gunner fails his morale check aboard a plane.

There is currently no game mechanic for whether chutes open.

The atmosphere grows thinner, intensifying the sun's rays and causing terrific heat? Sounds like Dick Briefer predicted the ozone layer depletion! This is Rex Dexter of Mars!

What on Earth was it that exploded that took out two skyscrapers?

Ooo, I'm statting these monsters! Sadly, there is no name for these monsters given other than "new horror." The Tauromen that Reyni is referring to are actually human-like aliens controlling the new horrors, but Tauromen is a pretty cool name and I might keep it for these things instead.

They're pretty big floating heads with three long tentacles and Dumbo-like ears. Are they flapping their ears to fly, or levitating? It's not clear what those dots on the end of their tentacles are for, but I'm going to guess they are little mouths for sucking blood. And those big tusks in their mouths mean fierce bite damage. Let's assign them...6 Hit Dice? Blood drain for 1-8 damage per tentacle? Bites for 2-12? Given their scaly hides, I think we can give them an AC of at least 6, maybe 5 because they can use their tentacles as shields too.

Reyni is one great contact; not only does he hand out plot hooks, but he hands out space charts for how to get there, trophy weapons, and paints your ship!

There is no indication of how fast "zooming" is, but unless this trip takes years, "zooming" must involve folding space, warping space, accessing hyperspace, or creating a stargate.

Despite being called living chains, I'm real hesitant to stat them as mobsters; more likely, this is some technological trap, where the chains ensnare as if alive (attacking as a high HD mobster?). They might even be linked to some kind of computer intelligence that can sense enemies.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Mystery Men Comics #7 - pt. 1

And we return to Fox's second title and a feature that had started out as a small back-up strip and now is lead feature in Mystery Men Comics.

We start with a rare example of a bad guy (the Blue Beetle impersonator) using tear gas as a weapon.

Mike Mannigan is the perfect example of the copper -- a police officer so incompetent that he stumbles when there is nothing to trip on -- he's not even close to a crack in the sidewalk.

The Blue Beetle imposter could count as a doppelganger, as they are now defined in 2nd edition rules.

Although we've seen million-dollar crimes so far in the comics, $50,000 is still a large amount in 1940 and one mobsters are willing to kill over.

This is one of the earliest instances -- if not the earliest -- of cussing in a superhero story.

 I'm not sure if the Blue Beetle qualifies for the new Avenger class that is going in the AH&H Heroes Handbook, but I'm giving this ability to that class. The ability is to trigger morale saves without even being present, but via the presence of the avenger's "calling card."

Letting a bad guy get away so you can follow him back to his lair is already a cliche by this point.

I've never considered Blue Beetle to be much of a source for inspiration, but now I want a tall chest disguised as a bookcase just like that.

This may be the first and last time Blue Beetle ever carries "trick make-up" with him.

BB is teetering right on the edge of switching from the mysteryman class to the superhero class, but we're not quite there yet. BB can get two punch attacks if his opponents are unarmed, so he's not necessarily buffed with any superpowers here.

 An avenger can trigger so much fear as to cause damage.

Wing Turner takes on a "costumed" foe, though one just wearing short shorts and fake horns. The Devil goes for a bigger pay-off than BB's villains had. 

I've written plenty before about how vehicular combat needs to be based on complications rather than hit points. Hitting the fuel tank is a particularly good complication, one that cuts down how much longer the vehicle can move, while giving it a chance each turn of exploding.

Lava pit? How did he get a lava pit under his castle, when there's no sign of an active volcano anywhere in the vicinity of that castle? You just never know where lava will turn up in a comic book story.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Mystery Men Comics #6 - pt. 2

Let's take a closer look at the blobs with faces we met last time in Rex Dexter of Mars.  Rex calls them protoplasmen. They are intelligent, or at least of average intelligence, and attack by engulfing and suffocating, rather than acid damage.

Slimes, oozes, and jellies traditionally have one weakness that can be exploited to kill them easier. Here, protoplasmen have to be within 3' of the ground or die. It's unclear if this is the only thing that will harm them, or simply the best way to harm them.  Since Rex might be doing grappling damage to the protoplasman, then perhaps all attack forms do damage when the being is 3'+ above the ground.

500 is a very specific number, and probably the on the high end of any no. appearing range I give to nomads.

I'm not how Kendall became in charge of marshaling an army for the British. Wouldn't that make him a general?  I'm pretty sure Richard Kendall is still only a private detective...

Proof that even with a tank you have to roll to attack (vehicular combat is not area-effecting).

This page touches on several game mechanics. First, it suggests that damage inflicted should have a chance of knocking an opponent prone; something the rules don't currently do. I've talked about making knockdown a combat condition that can be caused instead of damage, but this knockdown seems incidental to the explosion.

And then there's Richard "aiding his wounded soldiers."  What is he doing for them, exactly? Administering aid seems to be more about intent than specific actions, and this is already reflected in the H&H rules.

And that beheading scene -- yikes!

Man...I usually like these Richard Kendall/Chen Chang stories, but I have no idea what is happening at the end of this page.  Atrofistic (not a real thing, by the way) makes you lose motor control -- okay, that part makes sense...but it also makes you so rubbery that you can bounce? 

This seems like it could be historically true, but I can find no evidence that Americans were "ordered" to return home in 1939-1940.  Many Americans did return home, but American neutrality was recognized and events like this, thankfully, didn't happen.

That is some terrible camouflage for a ship at sea...

And you thought casting fireballs was dangerous!  The splash damage on that bomb going off has a really high radius; whenever I think I've set the blast radius for explosive weapons far enough, something like this comes along and makes me think we should have even higher blast radii.

When a Hero turns down a reward for patriotic reasons, does that make it a good deed worth 100 XP instead?  Or should this be a "patriotic exception", where the XP value of the good deed is equal to the $ value of the reward turned down?

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Mystery Men Comics #5 - pt. 2

Billy Bounce The Kid Detective is not a superhero, so when he exhibits superpowers here, it must be from the potion he drank and not simply flavor text for how he got his powers.

Billy wrecks the door as a door -- the fact that it is made of steel does not make it harder to wreck (though if there were two or more qualifiers -- like it was solid steel and extra-thick, then I might bump it up to the machines category). The fact that Billy is able to walk right through it means that he rolled really, really well for wrecking and this is reflected in the flavor text.

Having the strength of 50 men would let Billy lift 5,000-10,000 lbs. -- but it's telling that he determines this measure not by lifting things (relegated to temporary use Raise powers in H&H), but by his capacity for wrecking things.

The duration of the potion would have lasted longer in rest or exploration turns, but when Billy moves to combat turns switch to short combat turns (1 minute in 1st edition and 30 seconds in 2nd edition), which burns through turn-based durations quickly. It also affords for more dramatic scenes like this, when powers fade out in mid-combat.

Minya Konka is a real place, and gives us a better idea of where in China Richard Kendall fights Chen Chang.

The drug Chen Chang gives to the tigers seems an awful lot of like a Potion of Animal Control/Friendship.

If the villain recites the address to where he'll be hiding in front of witnesses, he's either trying to lure someone into a trap or he's really stupid.

Richard has a fickle Editor here, penalizing him one moment for not watching how River Lily opened the secret door she escaped through, and then gifting him with an easy escape from the tiger and a lucky run-in with Chen Chang. The Editor might have been justified about the secret door, for Richard was clearly distracted and should probably not get to automatically notice things under these circumstances.

If Richard's player asked for a save vs. plot to make the wardrobe fall on top of the tiger, then the Editor was just tossing in a bonus freebie for it shattering the window.

It seems unlikely in this instance that Chen Chang is a wandering encounter, as hardly any time has passed since the last encounter. It's more like they were getting close to the end of their playing session, so the Editor forced a showdown.

Unbelievably, Richard falls for a perspective trick and runs into a wall ala Wile E. Coyote. I can't believe that anyone would do that in a serious adventure story, unless there was actually some kind of illusion spell masking the wall.

This is the first story to use a race around the world as its plot. The first aerial circumnavigation of the globe was in 1924 and, true to this story, the route does require stops in Alaska, Russia, and London. Bear in mind that, though it's possible to make the trip in 23 days with today's planes, the first trip took over five months. So, for a 1939 campaign, the race might be the whole campaign.

The narrator calls these robbers, but by their weapon choice (knives), I wonder if they wouldn't be better statted as bandits...?

I'm not sure I get this -- because Wing was behind, he missed the polar head winds? But if the winds had slowed Basil down, then Wing would have caught up to him and been caught in the same winds...unless Wing had time to go around the winds? More likely, Wing pulled ahead thanks to one or more skill checks, and this was some of the flavor text that explained it.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Mystery Men Comics #4 - pt. 2

Rex Dexter is lucky that this large robot (copper or brass?) has such a terrible failsafe in it -- all you have to do is speak to it in Martian and it overrides any programmed orders it already had.

Richard Kendall is after Chen Chang again, or will be after this quick ride in a rickshaw. When he's clubbed on the back of the head and knocked out, the hoodlums seem to think it's reasonable to expect him to be out for only 20 minutes. That doesn't match with Hideouts & Hoodlums' recovery rules, in any version, so far.

This poison has a 10-minute onset time -- exactly 10, apparently. You would think Constitution might play a part in resisting the poison, maybe make the onset time more variable...but, to be honest, I don't think we need the extra mechanics for that.

Oh sure, I could bring up that this page has a "look over there!" tactic on it, requiring the guard to save vs. plot to avoid falling for it -- or is it just flavor text to explain how Richard won initiative even when the gun was pointed right at him?

And sure, I could just point out how dynamic the art is here, with figures flying around the panels almost like a wuxia film.

But no, my main interest is in the obscure word "portiere", for a curtain that hangs over a door.

Wing Turner is in South America, "among the head-hunters." Wikipedia tells me that there used to be headhunters in both Brazil and Peru. Fancy that!

I've written before about my article "Planes in the Sky: Aerial Trophies for H&H" in The Trophy Case v. 2 #8. I had 20 entries on the plane mishap table in that article, but none of them were "the feed line's jammed!"

"Horde" seems to apply to just five natives here. Some of the natives are armed with bows and spears, but my money's on the dude with a six pack who plans to beat Wing Turner to a pulp with a wooden club.

Assuming that sixty smackers means 60 dollars, Jake Bossen is actually offering Lt. Drake of Naval Intelligence an annual salary about 2.4 times the national average. Drake has to be thinking about that one twice!

Yeah, I'm not statting black widow spiders as a mobster type. I would consider the spider a poisonous trap, in this instance. Realistically, there would be little chance of death from a black widow spider bite -- +5 to save, maybe? A success save would mean only swelling, pain, cramping, and sweating.

We finally see Blue Beetle the way we're used to seeing him. Giving people special whistles with a distinctive sound may be good strategy -- if you plan to always stick to one area, always less than a mile away...

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Mystery Men Comics #3 - pt. 2

The figure floating around in near-background-less panels here is Wing Turner, Air Detective. And if I seem too flip about the art, know that I am earnestly appreciative of the story details here. The pulling of the parachute cord to defeat an opponent and the intention of using the net to tangle the propeller are both good ideas -- and ones unsupported by any game mechanic in Hideouts & Hoodlums. But that's okay; when your player comes up with a clever way to win a fight quickly, sometimes you should just let it work without any dice rolls.

Maybe it's less okay when the Editor does this for himself, of course. Rather than working out ensnaring rules for non-human targets in every instance, one could just use a blanket save vs. plot or science (for the pilot, in this case).

Dan Garrett is revealed to be The Blue Beetle in this story. Here, the mysteryman punches a guy and knocks him back about 15'. And this isn't even a superhero. I have rules for pushing in combat in 2nd edition, but over time I may find my rules are too conservative as combat scenes gradually push this envelope.

This is Inspector Bancroft of Scotland Yard and this is at least the second time I've seen the "he can't talk because his tongue is cut out" cliche in comic books. And...as gross as it is, and I hate to do it to even my own mobsters as Editor -- I have to admit, it's an awfully good way to keep the Heroes from being able to question your bad guys and find out too much.

Now, Bancroft could have easily gone back to Scotland Yard and tried to enlist 20-odd policemen armed with shotguns for this raid, but he decided to go back in, unarmed, with one beat cop with a billy club as back-up. The Editor here could have had a hideout prepared full of well-armed mobsters with flak jackets, sub-machine guns, grenades -- the works -- and just stuck to his guns and killed off Bancroft. It could have been a lesson in playing smart for the future, but it wouldn't have been very fun. So a smart Editor pairs down the occupants, and limits their weapons to swords and knives, just enough to keep it challenging.

 Secret Agent D-13 is a perfect example here of one of the special abilities of the spy class (found in TTC v. 2 no. 5) that doesn't port over well to any other classes -- the ability to requisition trophy items (the seaplanes, in this case).  I guess, though, that this could be the result of a really positive encounter reaction roll, when first being given a mission.

I don't know what's going on here. Why is the radio in the wireless room hooked up to a huge dynamo? It's a radio, not a mad scientist's lab. And why is this radio able to knock out power to the whole rest of the ship? Is there no fuse box? Sometimes an Editor can go too easy on the player(s).

One nice thing about having your Heroes under orders -- they can't just commandeer captured submarines and sail off in them, unless you want them to have the sub. In this case, D-13 has to chose between a motor launch and riding around in somebody else's destroyer.

Also, 12-inch cannons are hugely dangerous in the hands of a superhero with lifting powers, so be careful putting them out there.

This is Zanzibar the Magician. He found this opium den, not by spell, but by smell -- exploring rooftops until he detected the odor from the building below.

The bad guy looks too non-threatening to be a Fu Manchu villain and is probably a Master Criminal at best.

The spell Zanzibar uses on the blowgun dart -- Protection from Missiles, with the bubbles as flavor text?

Is the hatchet turned into a snake an illusion? The spell descriptions are not crystal clear on the subject, but I believe an illusion spell could kill. That, or this is some Polymorph Weapon spell (such as we've seen Zatara cast many times already). The spell on the sword is some time of Shatter spell. Sanchoo (an absolutely terrible attempt at a Chinese name) is polymorphed into something frightening, but I don't think it's the spell that terrifies the mobsters as much as a missed morale save after all these spells.

2nd edition will be talking about magic-users casting spells and how they can do it with their hands tied.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)