Zip Comics #3 - pt. 3

We're still looking at Nevada Jones, and there's a few interesting details here. One is the entrance to the hideout, only accessible from a narrow ledge. This would make for a challenging encounter area if the entrance was guarded.

The way the horse is saddled is an interesting and unusual clue that something is wrong in this scenario.

That's some Spider-Man-level agility Nevada Jones shows there -- he doesn't actually fall 100' into the saddle (the man and horse would both take 5-30 points of damage and Jones would have no testicles left), he appears to be doing something even more impossible. He falls 100' until he's next to the saddle, then grabs onto it and swings himself onto it.

The only way I would allow this to happen in Hideouts & Hoodlums is if he was using the mysteryman class, or the old cowboy class from 1st edition, had a lot of unused stunts (5+?), and offered to spend all of them on this stunt.

If you plan on introducing a non-Hero character earlier in the scenario so they can turn up later as the surprise villain, it probably is not a good idea to use an obvious name for them, like Doc Poser. 

 

We're going to jump into the next feature in progress, Kalthar the Giant Man, King of the Jungle. I've written before about Kalthar and how his height seems to be no more than flavor text explaining his powers, like in panel 4 when we learn Kalthar's flesh becomes like granite while he's bigger. So his density increases even faster than his size? Is that why he tops out at 15' tall, because if he grew larger he'd be too dense to move? It also tells us, from a game mechanics perspective, that he's activated his Nigh-Invulnerable Skin power.

White men and guns. Ugh! And what's up with how that gun's discharge is drawn in panel 8? It always looks like it's backfiring.

Taking weeks to recover from 1-6 points of damage doesn't track with how healing works in H&H, though it's possible Kalthar is just enjoying being nursed. 

Interestingly, Kate taught Kalthar the meaning of "golden" and "tablets," but failed to teach him when to use "I" vs. "me." 

Kybys is fictional, as you would expect from a lost city. 

The two lions are a wandering encounter, and it's interesting that only the male lion chooses to fight, as if random encounter reactions were rolled for each of them.

The good look we get at Kybys, with its domes and spires, begs the question - who built it, and when? It looks vaguely Islamic, and more medieval than prehistoric. A written language is more likely to have been composed later rather than earlier. Why gold tablets instead of paper or parchment, though? 

I might need a new power called Danger Sense for superheroes that stops them from being surprised -- though we don't get to see it in use here, as Kalthar is surprised before he can activate any new powers.

That stonework looks medieval to me, and the Romans used lots of domes. Could these be Roman ruins? 

"Science, ha ha! Gravity is hilarious!"

Panels 7 and 8 look pretty sexy -- until you think about how Kalthar lives in the jungle and probably has lice in that long hair of his. You better hope that's a grain you pulled out of his hair, Kate!

Game mechanics-wise, there is no reason why Kalthar should need the grain to activate his powers or wreck things, except that if he established that once then his Editor can demand consistency from him. 

Kalthar uses Improvised Missile Weapon to catch the dome and hurl it back, but either a very high level version of the power, or the tower was full of dynamite. Check out that explosion! 

We're going to end this post with one glance at the next story, War Eagles. I don't have much to say about this page except that I'm pleased that the activities of the two heroes have consequences, in this case, the Germans flying in larger numbers to defend their planes. I expect there to be a lot of this during the course of an H&H campaign, to the point where history itself could be changing. 

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Thrilling Comics #2 - pt. 5

We're going to look at just a few more pages of this issue before moving on, including two more from Tommy Dolan. As I mentioned last time, this feature is full of pulpish dialogue you'll need to master to get that noir-pulp feeling in your urban crime campaigns, like "wise guy," "two-timed," "where's the dough?", "lammed," and "smart guy."

Whiteface seems like a villain name Chester Gould rejected for Dick Tracy.

A good tip for Editors; make sure every exit from the hideout is guarded after the Heroes enter, so getting out is an extra challenge (they can no longer expend all their energy and then easily escape, but will need to leave some hit points for one more battle). 

"Hiding behind the bones of another Super...?" Tommy (here pretending to be Terry so convincingly that even the narrator is fooled) inspires a future scene in The Incredibles.

Although it looks like wood, the roadside barriers are apparently made from concrete, which must have already been pretty common back then.

This is one of two and a half pages adapting Pinocchio, interestingly coming out around the same time as the Disney version. This version stays much truer to the original book -- which is a crazy psychedelic nightmare, if you've never read it -- with just the curious addition of a female protagonist named Vicky. Yes, Geppetto really was going to throw his talking puppet into the fire.

The talking animal world of The Adventures of Pinocchio would make for a really bizarre, but interesting, campaign, for android half-pints.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Tip Top Comics #26, 27

Welcome back! Still going through back issues of Tip Top Comics, and we're still on v. 3, no. 2 (June 1938) from last time. I actually don't have a lot of game mechanics to discuss this time, so let's just jump in so I can talk about why I've chosen these pages to discuss.

This page is rather exciting because -- well, look at that lifeguard! At this same time, Centaur Comics was still publishing minstrel show-type strips of blacks eating watermelon, and here we have a normal-looking black man, acting in a heroic manner.

Less PC as far as devils are concerned, How It Began has a very interesting history of cider that makes me want to run a medieval campaign like this someday, where the Devil isn't evil so much as he's just lazy, and you never know where you might trip over him.

There is a lot of filler in this issue, which means more learning for me; I never knew this about envelopes.

We're now in vol. 3, no. 3 (July 1938).

I had never encountered the term "sky pilot" before being used to refer to a preacher. It certainly gives new meaning to the 1960s song for me.

I'm so amused by this page, probably more than I should be. Just the thought of running scared from a cow...

The polevaulting over a river that wide-looking would probably take a stunt, or at least an expert skill check (atheletes can clear 20').

Both a boat and aquaplane can be rented here for just $3 per 15 minutes. Of course, the operative word here is rented. Most businessmen will be disinclined to rent to vigilante heroes, as they tend to get things wrecked.

I'm really surprised this was ever published, teaching kids how to make firecracker bombs in people's cars and telling them it's a funny prank adults do too? Geez.

Well, this is how you set a bomb in a car with a firecracker and some spark plug wires, apparently. Knock yourselves out, future H&H Heroes needing a diversion.

In module RT 1 Palace of the Vamp Queen, I added a table that was really useful for me, a list of random things mobsters might have in their pockets. I'm pretty sure they are on it, but I'll have to go back and see if I thought of handkerchiefs, cigarettes, and a license. I'm really surprised a common mobster would be carrying $485 on him, unless he just came back from a job. Although...I'm thinking from my modern perspective of how little cash I need to carry around these days, thanks to debit cards. Maybe, back when we paid for everything in cash, this wasn't so extraordinary? If so, then I would need to rethink $1 = 1 xp if I was going to have wallets this full.

I'm hoping this filler was well-researched, because I'm certainly putting a lot of stock in it lately. This is a fascinating explanation of where the Jack and Jill story came from that I'd never heard before.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Amazing Mystery Funnies v. 3 #1 - pt. 2

And we're back to The Inner Circle, where we see the players have figured out that, if they pool all their supporting cast members together, they can form a military force of 30 men -- or more (depending on how high their Charisma scores are)!

But then this page shows us the disadvantage of having too large a fighting force on your side, as they easily take the "Mafio" island without any challenge or suspense. The Editor could always up the challenge level they encounter to match -- maybe give the Mafio some heavy artillery of their own -- while other Editors might feel that is cheating and run their scenarios as-is.

This is the first I've ever seen of Tippy Taylor, which is odd because it seems so tailor-made for Hideouts & Hoodlums conversion.

First we get a lot of establishing of a real world setting, with references to place (Metropolis, California, Mt. Arrowhead) and time (topical reference to Amelia Earhart's disappearance).  This is the first mention of a city named Metropolis in comic books and, while Mt. Arrowhead is fictional, there is a Lake Arrowhead in California.

The scenario really starts when Tippy and Hunk wash up on the island -- everything before it could be backstory read to the player at the start of the game. The dinosaur gains surprise on them, but has a neutral encounter reaction to them and does not attack.

Here we see more sauropods, apparently of different species, all socializing together. The dinosaur chasing Tippy seems to be more curious about him than hostile -- which is very good since Tippy is probably no more than a 1st-level fighter!  We also see that dinosaurs -- or at least sauropods -- do not run faster than humans (but not slower either).

This is interesting because we don't often see Heroes failing skill checks. It's so necessary for the plot that he fall in that pit, though, that it makes me wonder if the Editor did not fudge the results against him -- bad form, I say, favoring story over the dice. Or perhaps there are multiple ways to reach the underground lair, and Tippy just fell into the first one.

Wax statues of guardians seems like a good trick to put in your hideouts.

Well, it turns out they aren't just wax dummies after all, but androids waiting to be turned on!

The old man's recipe for activating androids is a quest worthy of an entire mini-campaign.

Tippy gets a free ride to the next destination on his quest on the back of a gryphon! I'll have to include a note that there's a chance they can talk.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Planet Comics #1 - pt. 4

So much to talk about Planet Comics! I really think someone could run a great, if campy, sci fi campaign using Hideouts & Hoodlums, and I hope someone does someday and tells me about it.

A couple of things about this page: one, making heroes wait for a reward at the end of the adventure not only gives them more XP, but it motivates the players to play out the return trip home, rather than just wind up a scenario right after the battles are over.

And another thing -- one of many that bugged me about this story -- who is that woman? She's been standing around Zan the entire story, and even in jail she's forced to keep the same gown on, but she never says a word. What's her story?

Ah, Spurt Hammond, the most awkward comic book character name of all time!  Spoilers abound here, as we learn that Spurt is going to run afoul of Amazons on the Moon (so, Lunerzons). This is sometime in the future after Mars has been colonized, so in the Amazon entry in the AH&H Mobster Manual, I'll just add a mention about them having a moon colony in the future.

Now this is kind of a cool cultural tidbit -- despite being armed with scimitars, the Lunerzons only beat Spurt into submission with their fists. This could be a code of honor like is found in the Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter books, where no one on Mars attacks with a weapon better than their opponent is using.

Those are some funky-looking plants for making explosives.

Speaking of funky-looking, the droopy-nosed Mooniacs are said to be "powerful," which should translate into at least 5 Hit Dice. But how powerful? Hopefully we'll see clues soon.

All we learn here is that the "dullwitted" Mooniacs are still smart enough to use tools (or at least can throw weapons), and that they can walk on two or four legs like a bear.

I guess mooniacs aren't so powerful after all, as Spurt can not only defeat them with his bare fists, but he beats a bunch of them. Oddly, despite the fact that I can clearly see four mooniacs in that lower left hand corner, they only attack him one at a time (maybe they are dullwitted after all).

Spurt clearly has no code of honor, threatening women with a gun that refused, twice, to use weapons on him.

Oh come on!  I guess the Amazons are attracted to douche-nozzles with no code of honor. I can honestly say I've never read a Golden Age story until now where I wanted the hero to get beat up by a moon monster.

I can tell getting through Planet Comics is going to be tough; here's another interchangeable space hero. Maybe this story will have more to offer us, though, as we already get the concept of plastic armor (AC 6 maybe?) and a mention of Neptunian Shark-Men.

Okaayy...I don't know what those shark-men are supposed to look like, but it sure isn't sharks.

Despite the fact that Buzz seems to be a fighter, Buzz appears to be using the Sleeping Nerve Pinch power of a superhero on the control room shark-man.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Famous Funnies #59

After a string of DC titles we're back to Eastern's one title.

Map!  It's not much more than a map of Cuba, but it stands out for me because a) this is in (or near) Guantanamo Bay, and b) my home campaign was just there at the beginning of this summer.

Is $100 a day reasonably representative of how much bit players made in movies?

The amphibious plane, or seaplane, is so commonly featured in these early comics that I'm half-wondering if it shouldn't be on the starting equipment list instead of as a trophy. But it also begs the question: do some planes need to be on the starting equipment list?

Also -- what does this storyline have to do with aviation??

This joke's kind of clever; I had to think about it for a moment.

It takes Pooch a week to heal back to normal after being critically injured. What's unusual about that is, I can't imagine a dog that size having more than 3 hit points.

I don't plan on introducing negative hit points into Hideouts & Hoodlums, but I could track how far into negative hit points someone goes after losing consciousness and come up with a chart that increases length of healing time for how deep into negative numbers you go. Like:
-1 to -3 hp: 4 hours to heal back 1 hp
-4 to -6 hp: 8 hours to heal back 1 hp
and so on...

More great King Cedric banter in Oaky Doaks.

Ugh -- another goat joke!

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Keen Detective Funnies v. 2 #2

And we're back!

Meet Dean Denton. He's a scientist-ventriloquist -- yeah, I'm still wrapping my head around that -- who turns his talents towards fighting crime. Not too surprisingly, Dean never once relies on ventriloquism in this adventure, but he is clearly a scientist.

When I developed the Scientist class for Supplement III: Better Quality, my focus was solely on making a class specialized in inventing things. But Dean, perhaps the first scientist-adventure hero original to comics, never invents anything in this story. Instead, he's good at gathering information, short-circuiting power to sections of the hideout, and finding secret doors.

Speaking of secret doors, this page made me think about secret doors in hideouts and -- how do the mobsters who need to use the doors know how to find them? It makes sense that there would be a secret marker over secret doors that, if you knew what to look for, you would spot right away -- like the sun emblem that appears to be over this secret door. Of course, if you use that in your hideout, then once Heroes figure out the secret marker once, they'll know where all the secret doors are. But maybe that's not such a bad thing.

This is Ben "Little Dynamite" Trumpson. I could point out that this car chase is resolved with evasion instead of combat, and Hideouts & Hoodlums' car chase mechanics need to account for both. I could point out that smokescreen ejectors have been on the H&H trophy list since Book II: Mobsters & Trophies.  I could point out that playing a Fighter who is really a beat cop makes it real easy for the Editor to dole out plot hooks to you, but could also give the campaign a "railroad-y" feel, since you would be under orders to take up quests in the order given to you. But I'm mainly pointing this out because it might be the first published work by Jack Cole.

"We've invented a secret compartment in the back of a car! We call it...a trunk!"

I can also point out the pacing of this scenario. I think my players would balk if I had them spend six days in the trunk of a car waiting for a wandering encounter. But then, I don't like to hand-wave time passing too quickly.

And then there's the interesting idea of making a parking garage into a hideout.

Proof that you get more than one chance at open doors rolls.

I also had an idea today for a new rule about playing possum. It will become such a cliche in comics, that playing possum should afford some game mechanic advantage. Maybe allowing for a new surprise roll if your opponent fails a save vs. plot?

I need vehicular combat rules with something about ramming damage.

It's also really interesting how it takes Trumpson "two weeks" to heal from "a few cuts and bruises". Of course, the police chief could be exaggerating -- or, this could be proof that, outside of getting some hit points back after a "short rest", that healing should be a slow and laborious process in H&H.

This is Stoney Dawson, who takes a flesh wound to the head from a gunshot and is just "dazed".  We don't have rules for dazing in H&H.  It was possible Stoney was knocked out, but recovered after a short rest. Another possibility is to have a low chance after any damage of being temporarily stunned.

Also note the medieval castle -- you can still have those in H&H!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)