Zip Comics #1 - pt. 3

This is still Kalthar, and we've rejoined him just in time to find out where he hides his magic potions. Is invisible panther hair whiskers? I wonder why the grains even need to be tied to his ears, as weaving them into his hair (if it was longer) would have been much more sensible.

===

Being normal size means Kalthar isn't buffed by any powers. In such a state, five guards are easily enough to take him down.

===

Unlike many other strips, it is clear that not everyone is speaking English; Kalthar just happens to know all their languages. I honestly don't see much difference between that and having them all speak the same language, although we'll talk about this more on the next page...

===

It's interesting that throwing spears at a Hero when he can move around is combat, but if he's tied up, it becomes a deathtrap, with the separate rules that apply to deathtraps (zero hit points means death instead of unconsciousness).

It seems like Kalthar is using some kind of power to summon apes, but if the apes are considered his SCMs, and he's just shouting for them, and they're near enough to hear it, isn't there a good chance they would just come anyway...?

Here's where requiring Heroes to know different languages might actually be useful in the game -- because knowing the language can form a connection with someone, and give you a bonus (+1?) to your encounter reaction roll.

Kalthar can clearly speak with animals as well. I do not want to give this ability all Heroes, and in fact brought up on this blog a long time ago that the Explorer class should get the speak with animals ability. Maybe Kalthar is multi-classed?

And last on this page is a rare example of an elephant being able to wreck through a stone wall. Elephants sure are strong!

Here, for the first time, we learn that Kalthar grows 15' tall when he's activating his powers, which seems to include Nigh-Invulnerable Skin and Multi-Attack.

This feature is War Eagles. Six am seems awful early to start playing Dawn Patrol (TSR joke there).

One of the nice things about this strip is that it includes the name of each plane at the bottom. I don't have to compare the drawings to photos and guess anymore!

===

If I ever manage to write my own aerial combat rules, trying to gain control of the facing of your opponents will be a critical function in combat.

===

Always make sure there is some downtime in your campaign for role-playing. Friendly rivalries are a good role-playing opportunity. Romances are a little more challenging for most roleplayers.

It seems almost too good to be coincidence that the twins like a Helen Carter, like Captain America would later like a Sharon Carter.

Again, we get the name of a plane to help with research, though that is awfully hard to read...

===

A lot of the H&H rules still can apply to aerial combat, including using skills to move silently and gaining surprise before combat -- just occurring at much faster movement rates.

...and yet there still seems to be a need for specific aerial stunts that work more like they used to for the 1st edition Aviator class. Here we see the stunt Power Dive in use.

===

This is also a prime example of the amount of carnage that can go on in a war-themed campaign. The goal seems to be accruing the highest possible death toll -- which is perfect for racking up XP in a campaign where finding treasure and trophies is not the goal.

Here we have a villain turn up. You can identify villains by their ability to make return appearances; so, basically, anyone who survives going up against the Heroes could be a villain. The problem here is, the twins haven't actually met or interacted with Anton Schultz, so there's no fun in making him a villain.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Daring Mystery Comics #2 - pt. 2

We resume with discussing Trojak the Tiger Man, though the page I'm reading now is about the unnamed woman who has turned good from Trojak's presence and has decided to leave her companions to make her way back through the jungle alone. En route, she encounters a random encounter, a lion. Trojak rescues her by grappling the lion to death. I've commented before on how murderous the early golden age heroes were, but it's also worth pointing out that morale checks never seem to come into play; fights are always to the death with animals.

Trojak learns English from the woman in about a week.

There is no game mechanic for Trojak's "strange premonition that something is wrong." Rather, in game play it is more likely a case of the Editor doing a little unsubtle prodding. "So, what do you now? Maybe head back to the village and check up on it...?"

Trojak's tactic of grappling the chieftain and holding him hostage is a sound one.

Instead of summoning animals himself, like by some special cry, Trojak tells his pet tiger to go get help. How the tiger communicated with the lions and elephants who show up with him is unclear.

K-4 and His Sky Devils is the aviation feature in this issue. It is a step above many other aviation features in naming the planes it depicts; we see British Hawkers and American Grummans. Not only that, but we even get K-4's number of kills in war -- 11 in WWI (where he rose to the rank of lieutenant), 33 in the Spanish Civil War, and "dozens" in the "China-Japan conflict." If we award him 100 XP per battle, and assume dozens = 36, that's 8,000 XP, which happens to be exactly enough to make K-4 a lieutenant by the XP chart for fighters.

In an unusual twist, K-4 is only using his plane for transportation for most of this story; as the bulk of it involves him going undercover, masquerading as a German SS officer. K-4 has to get to Kurtzburg, Germany, which is not a real place but probably represents Kutzberg, which is. When K-4 is ID'ed as a spy, he snatches up as many grenades as he can carry from an armory and blows up his way out of an enemy base. Interestingly, of all the strips, this is the one that most seems to have been prepared for serial publication in a newspaper and was reformatted to the comic book page (with frequent recap narrations intact).

Mr. E is a mysteryman. When a rich man with a threatening note tosses it in his fireplace, Mr. E has to win initiative to get to the note before it's consumed by the fire. Of course, being a mysteryman, and not in combat yet, Mr. E can burn a stunt to win initiative. The stakes are high; this is a rare adventure where the bad guys want $1 million.

Mr. E is run off the road on his way back from the old man's mansion and -- here's the really interesting part -- it's an arch-enemy, The Vampire. Apparently, his nemesis has just been trailing him in his own car, waiting for a chance to get even. They have enough of a history that Mr. E recognizes him by voice. The notion of starting your hero with a nemesis baked into your backstory is an intriguing one. Hypothetically, a human Hero could make his nemesis his free supporting cast member, so every time the Editor uses him, the Hero automatically gets an extra 100 XP.


(Comic read at fullcomic.pro)

Pep Comics #1 - pt. 3

We return to Sergeant Boyle.  Charles Biro would soon go on to do great things in comics, but like Jack Cole he was still finding his bearings on this feature.

Boyle's ability to dodge bullets, normally not possible at human speed, demonstrates how all classes should get the save vs. missiles to dodge gunfire.

There are two unexpected occurrences on this page that could affect game mechanics. One is the notion that anti-personnel weapons could also create concealing smokescreens, making grenades extra desirable for Heroes.  The other is the notion that artillery weapons are so combustible that they can be shot and made to explode. I like that notion, and may cite this as an example the next time my players want to cart a machine gun around with them.

It's also worth noting how graphic the violence is on this page; even from the beginning Biro was pushing the envelope there.

Could deciphering code be as simple as an expert-level skill check? Yes, I think so...

And this is interesting -- I can't think of other examples of grenades being used as distractions before. I'm not sure if my players would ever toss away a grenade like that instead of just choosing to blow bad guys up.

Aha -- the reason he didn't blow them up was that he wanted to make them do his digging for him!

And no, I would not allow someone to make three grappling attacks at once. In fact, in my campaigns, you can only attack the same target with multiple melee attacks, though that is not an official H&H rule.

This feature is Queen of Diamonds. The author is, supposedly, novelist Manly Wade Wellman, who must have just been cashing in a paycheck here. Rocket is here in the Land of Diamonds to woo their queen, but immediately turns completely subservient to her, anticipating a sort of reverse Gor.

The lion is knocked out with two punches.  I made punches pretty weak in 2nd edition to go with realism, but I definitely erred in staying comic book-authentic.

In true RPG fashion, Rocket doesn't stick with his fists because it fits his character concept, but picks up new weapons and armor/cover from battle to battle.

In the end, he is rewarded with the queen as a Supporting Cast Member, and also a title. The SCM is already worth XP, because he can earn XP for including her in his future adventures. I would award a one-time XP award to go along with earning the title.

Apparently also written by Wellman, according to comics.org --  I would like to have had a conversation with Manly about how a Chinese magician managed to be a direct descendant of Aladdin. Sometimes, not a lot of thought went into these stories. In fact, to get a real Golden Age feel to your H&H scenarios, it might be better to plot them out as fast as possible and avoid overthinking anything.

So Fu Chang, through the aid of the ghost of an old wizard, is able to animated his magic chess set and send them out to spy on people. This could be elaborate flavor text for a Clairvoyance spell...but I think what we're actually seeing are the first Figurines of Wondrous Power in H&H.

This figurine grants the Find Evidence power to anyone holding it.

And such convenient evidence too, pinned to the wall behind a curtain (who pins envelopes to walls??).


(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)