Wonderworld Comics #6 - pt. 2

We rejoin Yarko today in the lair of vampires!  It's never clear how many vampires are in this lair, but this page shows there are at least four.

That clever Yarko cast Resist Fire and Protection from Missiles on himself before entering the room.

The clearest evidence yet of the "contest of wills" game mechanic. At first I was leery of including this in the official rules, but even considered putting it in an optional appendix to the 2nd edition basic book. But, as of now, it's right in the combat section.

I'm not sure what spell is being cast here. Stone Shape? Earthquake?

It's also worth noting that the true appearance of vampires is that of a gruesome monster, and they can only make themselves appear to be handsome men or beautiful women.

This is Dr. Fung and Dan, the full-grown sidekick who doesn't get title billing.  Here, Dan is in unarmed combat with a Genghis Khan-type. Genghis Khans were a mobster type in 1st ed., though I'm really not seeing anything too special about these characters, upon closer reading. Dan is really kicking this guy's butt, or just literally kicking him (the first kick is actually a trip attack and is treated as grappling).

I've posted many times about fighters using combat machine for multiple attacks, even when it doesn't appear that they are.

I think I've already covered the tactic of using stairs to one's advantage in a past post. For a heavy weight like this barrel, I might allow it to roll over the first opponent and possibly knock down others; it's not multiple attacks so much as setting up a trap on the stairs. The first target would get to save vs. science to resist, with each subsequent target getting a +2 bonus, and whoever makes the save stops the barrel.

You can't recognize K-51 in that diving suit, but that's him getting his butt kicked by an octopus, and apparently not even of the giant variety. I'll have to remember to add a note to the giant octopus entry about what Hit Dice ordinary ones would have.

This is also a rare instance of a hammer being used as a weapon, without the wielder being named Thor.

This is Mob Buster Robinson, also getting his butt kicked -- though we've already established that head blows should do more damage in a surprise attack.

Robinson observes the man in the mirror because of an unlucky set of surprise rolls for the hoodlum.

This is lousy hideout design. Who puts trapdoors in prison cells? Especially trap doors that lead to underground streams that lead out of the hideout?

This is the first time we've ever seen a gun not work because it was wet.

Rocking the boat caused the thug to save vs. science or fall out.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Wonder Comics #2 - pt. 1

The Winged Wonders filler includes tidbits like how fast the planes can go, their mileage, and even how much they sell for -- though never all three details for the same plane. Those are good stats to have for all transports in the game, though that information can be hard to come across.

Yarko the Great is another Will Eisner classic, one I enjoy so much that I used him in one of my fiction pieces in The Trophy Case.

And what a good setting to debut on! Hex House is just begging for Heroes to come explore it. It even reminds me a little of Tegel Manor...

And here we see Yarko cast his first spell. It seems to pretty obviously be Hold Person, but then it also sets a precedent for the caster being able to un-hold portions of the victim, like his mouth. And what happens next? Did Yarko then cast Charm Person to get information out of his prisoner? Or is Yarko hoping the father will talk just to get out of the spell?

I'm not sure how to deal with Shaddiba's first spell here. Is this some higher-level Charm spell that can deflect weaker Charm spells? The spell at the end is clearly a Sleep spell.

Yarko casts Polymorph on himself to become a swallow. So we know he's at least 7th level already!  Magic-Users often seem to have a level advantage over the other Hero classes; which is why I'm flipping the XP progression charts and making M-U's advance in level the fastest.

The wording and imagery are entirely different around this next spell, which seems to be the image of a prisoner superimposed over Yarko. This has to be Phantasmal Force/Silent Image. I would even hazard a guess that the last spell, that transforms a whip into a snake is actually more illusion magic, as being able to transform a non-living thing into a living thing should have to be some awfully high-level magic.

Yarko's first stunt here could have been accomplished so much easier just by levitating the guard straight up and letting him fall straight down, but the horizontal movement betrays that Yarko is using Telekinesis, a spell twice as high in level. Now we know Yarko is at least 8th level by the number of 4th level spells he's cast.

Now, what's happening in the second part of this page is a little less clear. It looks like it could be just physical combat, with a little extra flavor text around it. Or is it the rule for Magic-Users engaging in a combat of wills, that was first proposed in The Trophy Case and added to the class in Supplement V?

Since this combat is unseen, it could very well be a contest of wills. The chasms might be...I don't know, mental chasms? The space between neurons firing in the brain? If this is not a contest of wills, but an actual combination of physical brawling and tossing Lightning Bolt spells at each other, then where did the Chasm of Oblivion come from? Because then, this looks an awful lot like the 9th level spell Imprisonment at the end, and then Yarko would have to be at least 18th level!

Nope, it was all a contest of wills after all!  The nice thing about the mechanics I came up with for contests of wills is that there is no level requirement, so Yarko doesn't have to be "the most powerful magician in the world" to have won this battle.

Although I was long leaning against it, I've decided that contests of wills need to be kept in 2nd edition Hideouts & Hoodlums.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Action Comics #9 - Part 2

Globe-trotter Zatara is on his way to China for some reason. Meanwhile, the mad Tibetan lama, Jerbel, wants to conquer the world. You'd think a Tibetan would keep to easier goals, like keeping his country's autonomy from China, but we are told Jerbel is mad. Humorously, Zatara is reading an issue of Action Comics on the plane.

The plane crashes -- I'm not sure if it's just an accident or Jerbel is somehow responsible. Zatara and Tong, of course, emerge unscathed (Zatara's top hat wasn't even bent!). The scenario really begins here, with Zatara and Tong on a wilderness survival scenario. Zatara solves it easily, though, thanks to some version of Clairvoyance that lets him view the terrain from an bird's eye view (Bird's Eye View could be a 2nd level spell). He spots a monastery they can use for shelter and then casts either a Mass Fly spell or Fly twice on him and Tong.

It's Jerbel's monastery, of course. Also, the Tigress is there! Zatara spots her first (surprise roll?) and casts a spell a spell that makes both him and Tong unrecognizable (Unrecognizable could also be a 2nd level spell).

Rather cleverly, instead of trying to defeat Jerbel's lieutenants, Zatara tries to take away their motivation by tricking the Tigress into showing him where Jerbel's treasure chamber is, and then turning all the treasure into cinders (though, if he's only polymorphed the treasure, it seems all Jerbel would have to do is dispel the magic and it would turn back).

But, oddly, that's not enough of a win for Zatara, so he goes after Jerbel in a contest of wills (as was originally detailed in The Trophy Case, but a revised version appeared in Supplement V: Big Bang). Contest of wills is now an optional combat rule in 2nd edition Hideouts & Hoodlums.

(Select pages read at the Babbling about DC Comics blog.)

Funny Picture Stories v. 2 #1

Centaur was right to start a volume 2 here, as they must have been infused with enough cash to pay Chesler for more, better material. We're still not talking about a lot of quality here (I suspect we've seen the last of Will Eisner from Centaur already), but some that was better.

Case in point, the first of what was promised to be a continuing serial of Jack Strand. Here, we get a good story set-up, with a dying man handing off a valuable item to the Hero of the story, and his Supporting Cast Member.

Here, poor Jack's player just can't roll well enough to find secret doors, no matter how long he searches that closet. Time to switch dice, Jack!

The item, a magic pin, can transform into a gem that serves as a Crystal Ball.

And here's where things start to get Eisner-/Ditko-esque funky.

Possession of the mystic pin seems to make Jack Strand a Magic-User. He engages in a contest of wills, which was already given game mechanical form in The Trophy Case v. 2 #3.  Only a contest of wills can, apparently, open the magic gate through which Diana fled. The gate opens onto some sort of magic realm/dimension with a giant, echo-filled forest and, on following pages, fantasy trappings like a castle with a moat and drawbridge. These are the places Editors will rely on more and more as Heroes advance in level, and fighting ordinary hoodlums just isn't challenging anymore.

I include this page from the Shore Club Window Mystery, not because I expect Editors to run full-blown murder mysteries as scenarios (every player I've ever had would balk at the challenge of this), but because the detail of a sniper replacing a pane of glass with cellophane in advance is remarkably clever and worth re-using.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)