Jumbo Comics #13 - pt. 3

This is Stuart Taylor's lab now? Interesting, because in the beginning, Stuart was just lab assistant to Dr. Hayward. Has Hayward died and left everything to Stuart?

Laura raises a good question about how sexist Stuart is, though Stuart could have countered with the more logical response, "I need you to work the controls that get me home!"

So, in the future, giant mosquitoes will be mankind's worst problem, just like in Minnesota today.

The numbers encountered in this story seem way off. Somehow, the city's defenders are just three guys with one cannon?

And then there's the convenience of Stuart being the only person in the room to think of picking up a hand weapon when the insect arrives. Yes, it makes sense to always give the Hero an opportunity to shine before any non-Hero characters in the room, but this would have made more sense if the soldiers were outnumbered.

So, in the 93rd century, there are very few people left, they have atomic-powered hand weapons, but don't wear pants.

We never learn how the atomo-gun is better than what Stuart last used; he appeared to disintegrate the giant insect in one hit before, so this gun is an improvement how...?

What kind of time machine is this that, that Stuart doesn't know what year he was sent to? Does it just randomly fling him to some year?

Are we to believe the City of the Insects was built by insects, or just taken over by them?









I had to laugh out loud when I read this page. What a terrible plan this was...

"I'm going to take on the insects in their lair! Stay behind men, I'll take this stranger with me!"

"Oops -- I forgot, their lair is outside my jurisdiction! I'm not a soldier, just an ordinary policeman. Here, why don't you take care of the insects for me? Bye!"

So...can only the leader talk, or are they all intelligent insects? We never learn!

This page is pretty comical too. The insect king keeps Stuart prisoner, but without any restraints, without any guards -- in fact, the insect king is now all alone! Where are his followers? Apparently either all killed by the invading army ("Just kidding -- it was actually in my jurisdiction after all!"), or like an ant queen the other insects lack direction without their leader.

Speaking of if things make sense...Stuart is the one who bumps into the generator, but is the only one in the room not hurt? I guess the electricity has an area of effect, with a saving throw for half-damage, and Stuart was the only one who made his save.

Moving on, this is ZX-5 Spies in Action. This story seems to take place in Ukraine or Russia, given the names, which makes it so weird when something like "Chester City" winds up in the mix. Is this supposed to be Chester, England?















I hadn't bothered including the first page of this story so you might not follow the twist here, but ZX-5's girlfriend was with him at the start of this story and, apparently didn't have the documents yet or this adventure would have been much, much shorter. This is a novel twist to pull on your players, having a supporting cast member turn out to be something other than she appeared to be, as long as you don't use this too often.

Completely ignored between panels 7 and 8 is how ZX-5 gets into enemy HQ and gets the general alone. That's probably not the sort of thing you would normally gloss over in a game scenario; in fact, that's likely more likely to be the main goal of the scenario, as there is exploration involved then.

ZX-5 has successfully grappled General Miaha, but does not need any kind of game mechanic to just point a gun at his head. Rather, the player stated the intention, the Editor adjudicated on the spot and determined that warranted a morale check, and the general failed. Or is that the general...?

...Because it seems really weird to capture the enemy's general, but then take Captain Vybral hostage instead. In fact, the whole scenario gets super-sidetracked at this point, with the mission becoming rescuing Manya from Vybral and nothing else really happening on the front. This is part of the charm of a roleplaying game that there is no winning or losing and goals can be highly flexible in a scenario...but as a story, it really doesn't make much sense.

In addition to guns, we see soldiers using knives and whips. These soldiers seem like they would need to be statted as something other than ordinary fighters, because they go into a berserk frenzy if their leader gets taken down first. I hesitate to stat Cossacks as a mobstertype because that's a little racist...maybe we should call them berserkers, or just add this special ability (+1 to hit if their leader is incapacitated) to bloodthirsty hoodlums.


Speaking of berserk, ZX-5 does the same, and I think we can safely say he would be statted as a Mysteryman now, because fighting after a woman has been struck seems like his signature move now.

Panel 6 sure makes it look like some passion is about to spark in the heat of the moment. And just how did his shirt get ripped off again...?

Lastly, why is ZX-5 being congratulated, when it seems like Manya did all the work? She delivered the papers herself and then summoned the English Army herself.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Jumbo Comics #12 - pt. 3

This is still Stuart Taylor (and Dr. Hayward), going up against the real Mephisto in 14th century England. We see Mephisto using a Wall of Flame and a Fireball, but it is unclear if he is an actual magic-user or just has magical abilities that duplicate these spells.

It's hard to say who Stuart is grappling in that final panel. Did he grapple Mephisto so hard that he knocked his robes off?

I had to read this page several times to try and figure out what's going on here. My explanation is a new spell: Cloud Elevator. It's a 3rd-level version of Levitate that can transport a certain number of people at a time up or down, but only outdoors, in an elevator made of clouds.

Look, the second hatchet this issue!

Our Heroes are knighted as their reward -- which should itself be worth an XP bonus -- in addition to whatever Mephisto was worth (several thousand, easy). Perhaps leveling is triggering their time jumps, ala Quantum Leap.

Good luck guessing where "North City" is! There was a revolution, everyone seems dressed vaguely Russian (these make me think this is St. Petersburg, seat of the Russian revolution), but there are also many Genghis Khan references and a character who is an obvious Hitler stand-in. So...St. Petersburg, Berlin, or Korakorum? You decide!

The dialog is very confusing between panels 5 and 6, as if there was a missing panel. Since these stories are reprinted from Wags magazine in the UK, it is possible that some panels were deleted.

Yum Ling is half-Mongolian, I'd wager.

Hideouts & Hoodlums players better not expect too many scenarios like this, where the country's leader offers to empty its coffers and run off with them.

Here's a map, though not a very revealing one. It's interesting how the treasury is in such an isolated, easily surrounded area; I wonder how often that really happens.

Rather than the literal daughter of Genghis Khan, Yum Ling is likely the direct descendant of Genghis Khan -- or else she's well over 700 years old.

Similarly, I wonder how often that really happens that fuses aren't stored in arsenals. The "stuff" that ZX-5 is going to start a fire with look an awful lot like a toaster and a coffeepot. This is a very unusual arsenal.

This story is Spencer Steel. "Goop" was slang for an ill-mannered, rude person.

The "bunch of" thugs seems to be three in number, but that's six Hit Dice combined; Spenser should be 3rd level by now, but his companion Joe McCarthy is likely 1st.

This is unlikely to be the famous Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, as in 1940 that Joe was just an unknown circuit court judge.

(Scans courtesy of the Digital Comic Museum.)

Jumbo Comics #11 - pt. 2

Well, that was a two week, unscheduled vacation from blogging!  Let's see where we left off...

Oh, that's right, in Jumbo Comics!  This is a page from Spencer Steel and, here, we see a car chase going on. I'm still in the early stages of formulating some car chase mechanics in my head which may or may not make it into the 2nd edition basic book, so it's worth saving this example of evasion during a chase. How do the hoodlums turn the corner so fast that Nora misses it? Is evasion a skill, or a chase-based mechanic that would have to be rolled for each turn?

It's also worth pointing out that Spencer and Nora marry before this story, making them the second married couple in comic books after Bart and Sally in Spy.

The driver has hard cover from the car. Because the car has not had time to get up to speed since turning around, there would be no penalty to hit for moving too fast. In a chase, there should always be a chance of a complication, like a crash. Though this is not a chase, as soon as the driver of a vehicle is incapacitated, the vehicle should move straight to crash complication.

The episodic nature of this installment leads me to think it was originally a UK comic strip, or was planned to be released that way.

The idea of placing a deadly gas inside glass vials, and then concealing the vials were they would be easily broken by accident, is a good trap.

Is Nora still a Supporting Cast Member? With her upgrade to married partner, I wonder if a player took over the SCM rather than roll up a new Hero. If Nora is still a SCM, then the Editor should not be using her to give away vital clues; that should fall to the players to find them.

For those not keeping track, Stuart Taylor was just the SCM in The Diary of Dr. Hayward, before being cast back in time and becoming a sort of "Yankee in King Arthur's Court"-type character, only in a generic fantasy version of medieval Europe. That's all the explanation you need to understand how Stuart has mini-grenades, or why he's the only character with a modern name.

Stuart doesn't feel so bold when it comes to five-to-one odds, but he also is Lawful enough not to murder them with a grenade just for doing their job.

The pit trap has the additional wrinkle of a stone slab sliding shut over the opening. Though it might be worse, depending on how thick the cover is, I would have that wreck as if a generator for superheroes trapped beneath it.

The pit trap is further complicated by apparently dropping them into an arena where a lion can be released to attack them. More portcullises block other exits from the arena, including one portcullis blocking a curiously small door.

100 xp for whoever can figure out the real life geographical analogues to this map. Chesterland sounds decidedly English, which would make the Island of Dono a substitute for Ireland. But none of that explains how Mongolia is right next to them.

That's actually not bad strategy -- enter the villains' hideout in disguise, slip them a fake map and plans, and watch them follow it into a trap.  Not bad, ZX-5!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Jumbo Comics #10

It finally happened!  Jumbo Comics is now in color!

Sheena benefits from color, but the lion benefits from a narrator describing his actions as if it had human-level intelligence. It's a tradition going back at least as far as Tarzan to ascribe animals with names, motives, and cognitive thought. But is that fair to your players? It's up to each Editor to decide how smart animals and mobsters are in their games; Hideouts & Hoodlums 2nd edition will not be including an Intelligence stat for mobster types.

That's a weird muzzle on that cat, but I suspect that's supposed to be a leopard. Leopards are statted as cougars in H&H.

This leopard's hide, incidentally, becomes the swimsuit-like outfit that Sheena wears for the rest of her run (it must be machine washable).

This is Stuart Taylor in Weird Stories of the Supernatural, and if that long title doesn't sound familiar, this was The Diary of Dr. Hayward. Dr. Hayward had long since become supporting cast to Stuart in the title. Unresolved is their imprisonment by Ali Pasha, who was forcing Stuart to test his time travel machine for him; now all the good guys seem to be free to time travel on their own without worries.

Here, they are 20,000 years in the past, where they are running afoul of ape-men. Ape-men will be statted in 2nd ed. Here we see ape-men can be good archers.

A tyrannosaurus rex? Really? That looks more like a diplodicus to me. But my real issue is the tiger-man. I already have ape-men and ant-men -- do I need a different entry for every animal-headed man variant that comes along? Or do I need to drag out the beast-man from 1st ed. (found only in one issue of The Trophy Case and pretty much abandoned after that) and fold all of these into that?

It's pretty cool how the tiger-men can control tigers like that. They also seem to prefer human queens. Or are there no female tiger-men? This could get weird...

Still, I like the detail here, of this prehistoric setting. Not sure if tiger-men will survive to the present day, but maybe I'll find out as the story progresses.

I think these are the first bolas I've seen in comics! I may have to include them in the 2nd ed. rules now, alongside lariats.

Hawk of the Seas has now been shortened to The Hawk. Here we get a map and a really good sense of place. But is that any surprise, coming from the Eisner shop?

ZX-5 is looking particularly good in an Eisner-like way this month. Here we have a lonely castle in the middle of a really big lake. We also can see some of the layout of the castle, and how big and empty the rooms are.

More trouble with distinguishing nobles from spies. And are female spies also vamps?

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Jumbo Comics #5

Welcome to 1939!  We start the year off returning to Fiction House already and their premier title, Jumbo Comics. What can we learn from this issue that we can apply to Hideouts & Hoodlums?

In Hawks of the Seas, Will Eisner was reinventing the pacing of comic book stories. Here we see one of, if not the, first use of a cutaway scene within a page to something else going on that the reader needs to see, but the main character has no knowledge of.

These intermissions are a useful narrative tool, but a H&H Editor will have to think hard about whether to use them in a campaign. Will the players benefit from understanding the Editor's story better, without using their player knowledge to their advantage? It takes a mature group of players to be able to play that way.

Further, this issue marks the first time we've really had a good sense of where Hawks of the Seas takes place. It always seemed to be the West Indies, but now we can narrow it down to the Bahamas.

Dr. Snyde here kills one of his own henchmen with a single blow, which should be impossible in H&H -- he would be unconscious and need a second blow to kill him. Of course, perhaps a second blow occurs between panels. Or maybe the "not yet dead at zero hp" rule needs to be amended so it does not apply to non-Heroes. Or, maybe this needs to be a special rule where master criminals can kill their own henchmen automatically.

It seems clear that Budah is meant to be a djinn, which means that djinn cannot be hit by normal weapons (or at least Budah can't).

It's interesting that the trap can be deactivated and escaped just by touching sections of the wall.  It seems particularly odd since people trapped in a flooding room would naturally be touching the walls, either trying to find a way out or try to climb out. I would allow two search rolls in this case, one for each spot (opening the door without turning off the water first could make for a very wet hideout!).

I've previously discussed what to call the type of thing that Zula is. He was called a bogeyman previously by another character, but in this issue the narrator specifically calls him a monsterman.

There is a lot of visual detail here for describing the dressing in a mad scientist's laboratory.

The robot here is said to be 30' tall, but it seems even the narrator is exaggerating, because it only appears to be twice as tall as Zula. Since the robot can shoot lightning, I would suggest it is a huge version of a copper robot, as detailed in Book II: Mobsters and Trophies).

Though scientists suspected the moon was barren and lifeless in 1939, it couldn't prove this was true yet. That left a lot of leeway for making the moon anything you wanted it to be. If you want there to be valleys filled with cream cheese and giant lettuce plants, or just wind, water, and trees like on Earth, then you can do that in a Golden Age campaign.

This is clearly not Will Eisner, but I wonder if it inspired his strip, Espionage, for Quality?  ZX-5 acts a lot like Black X here, and his exchange with the unnamed highness reminds me of the chemistry between Black X and Madam Doom.

For H&H purposes, I want to point out the battle of bluffs going on here. In certain editions of certain games, one would resolve this with rolling dice, higher bluff roll wins. I am glad H&H isn't like that. I am much more interested in seeing how a player responds to a bluff, and how well he or she can bluff back. I would probably still roll an encounter reaction roll, but try to factor that in to a reasonable response to the bluff in that situation.

Here we seem to have examples -- albeit racist ones -- of bloodthirsty hoodlums (which first appeared in The Trophy Case, but also snuck into one earlier printing of Book II).  Ali Pasha also seems to be demonstrating psionics; it looks a lot like Mass Domination.  Am I going to have to include psionics in 2nd edition?

 Lastly, this is from Wilton of the West, and we get to see that old chestnut -- the "shoot your own arrow" trick. Lucky dice rolling, or flavor text? This would be up to the Editor. Is it important to the story that Wilton split his arrow to impress the other guests? Then his player could be asked to roll to attack the target (with the same AC to hit the bulls-eye as it was the first time).  If not, then this is just something to do while waiting for the encounter at the end of the page and can be hand-waved as successful.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)