Mystic Comics #1 - pt. 2

When we last left Zephyr Jones and Corky on the surface of the sun Cygni 61 the Mad Astronomer had a machine that sprays his secret formula on Zephyr and Corky. He tells them that this will protect them from the heat on the surface of the star, and apparently the blinding light and the crushing gravitational pull as well). Our boys are so gullible, or so smitten with his daughter, that they immediately go outside to see if it worked. Instead of walking on super-heated plasma, this seems to be a rocky place, inhabited by dwarfs that live in caves.

They find that at least nine star-dwarfs had captured the astronomer and his daughter from their ship. Most of them chase after Zephyr and Corky. The dwarves have super-tough skin (like the power, because the heat of the sun has hardened them), but are vulnerable to fire extinguishers because...ah, let's stop pretending any of this makes sense! These aliens remind me of the game Awful Green Things from Outer Space, where you're supposed to try everything on your ship on the aliens, because only one random item will kill them.

To top it off, Zephyr and Corky go back below ground to save the prisoners from eight more dwarfs. They defeat the dwarfs by throwing rope around a group of them and then pulling the rope off the cliff the dwarfs are on. Not sure why none of the dwarfs think to grab onto the rope and pull Zephyr and Corky down first, or with them. If the star-dwarfs are just too dumb, then a fair Editor would make some kind of intelligence check for them (trying to roll under a low INT score) before letting them fight too cleverly. They are very primitive, fighting only with clubs and darts from blowguns.

We've seen Heroes start avalanches to bury or block adversaries before, but Zephyr takes the cake by knowing just where to throw a rock to start an avalanche. That would take some kind of expert skill level in geology, I would think, followed by a successful attack roll vs. a low Armor Class.

The next feature is the 3Xs. The three "Xs" are private detectives, all working anonymously (although they wear no masks to conceal their identities, so it should take too long for people to figure them out), but go by 1X, 2X, and 3X. Each has an area of specialization; 1X does the detective work (high Wisdom score), 2X is a "walking encyclopedia" (high Intelligence score), and 3X is the strong-arm (high Strength score). A later caption explains that 1X is in charge and the other two are his aides (Supporting Cast Members). The 3Xs are good scrapers, but not great, as 13 hoodlums break into 1X's home to retrieve the glove and the hoodlums only fail a morale save and leave after beating all three of our good guys almost to unconscious. None of them use weapons other than blackjack/saps, during this battle. Later, 2X has a disintegrating pistol, a trophy weapon that does extra damage.

A taxi driver tells the 3Xs that his taxi cannot go over 70 MPH.

The Green Terror is a mob responsible for a rash of brazenly public kidnappings, covering their escapes with a smokescreen of green smoke. A clue left behind at the scene of their latest kidnapping yields a clue that requires an expert skill check in botany to identify -- a lost glove on the scene was permeated with the pollen of a rare orchid. Because the orchid is imported, they use freight records to figure out that when the mob came into the country, and when it plans on leaving. Of course, there are some holes in that theory -- what if only one member of the mob worked with orchids? What if the mobsters were on the ship coming, but not on the next boat going? What if an unregistered grower has the same orchids in their greenhouse and they weren't imported at all?

Their leader is also known as The Green Terror. One of the earliest supervillains in comics, The Green Terror is a green-skinned African with the vampiric power to live forever so long as he keeps drinking human blood. However, he's a real pushover in a fight and folds after getting punched by 3X once.

Next up is "Deep Sea Demon," but if you want my impressions on that story you can read here, because this is a barely modified reprint of Fred Guardineer's "Devil of the Deep" from Funny Pages v. 2 #1.

Dakor the Magician is the next feature, and like some other magicians we've seen he's light on actual magic and more of a detective. We also see, like in the 3Xs story, that travel out of the country seems to be public information, as Dakor's assistant Williams is quickly able to learn that their prime suspect in a murder is leaving the country for France.

(Read at readcomiconline.to)

Jumbo Comics #13 - pt. 2

We return to Hawk of the Seas and the treasure hunt already in progress. The treasure is concealed by a boulder that looks to be the size of two men, and that's going to be a really heavy boulder.

Since we imagine these stories as scenarios of Hideouts & Hoodlums on this blog, I'm guessing nobody present is a superhero with the Raise Car power. So let's consider our alternatives.

The easiest solution is that the boulder is fake and mostly hollow inside. The next best solution is for the Editor to assign a target number of combined Strength, say 40, and if the party has at least that high a combined Strength they can all make Strength checks. If all succeed, they move the boulder. This is any official use of the H&H rules, as written, but not a great departure either, with precedent in that Original Game.

Another example of healing, when the Hero isn't simply stunned, taking a long period of time. This one even suggests that healing would not take place without the first aid skill being used first, which seems a tad excessive to me.

This seems a clever strategy, both to make your opponents think they've killed you (stated here) and to make them use up their ammunition (implied?). Perhaps rumor of this strategy would later inspire Sherlock Holmes in "The Adventure of the Empty House."

Order of combat needs to be determined by random initiative roll, to account for how Hawk was able to close the distance to this musketeer before the shot goes off.

Snyde has reason to feel confident; all but Chaotic Heroes are going to need to save vs. plot or be held by the Editor to whatever agreement they make during this parlay. 

Hawk is sometimes too good a man, to the point of naivety, like accepting Snyde's surrender without searching him first for concealed weapons. 

You'll just have to trust me that everything works out for Hawk in the end, as we jump into the next feature Spencer Steel. Artist George Tuska's inking seems unusual crisp, but maybe that's from skimping on the background art so much.

The backstory of the "famous Rembrandt that was brought over from Italy" seemed so precise that I did some quick research to see if that was a thing, but couldn't turn up any news stories about Rembrandt paintings coming to the U.S. during the late '30s.

Noticing that a rug has recently been tacked down might require a basic skill check/find concealed doors check.

Sometimes I'm just baffled by what Golden Age Heroes will do in comics. Spencer has two really good suspects to question or follow as soon as he remembers they are ex-cons -- and instead he goes back to the empty room to look for more clues.

It's like the Editor tossed him a bone, having that missing key turn up there, but then got tired of Spencer's player's poor attempt at detective work and tossed a wandering encounter into the room to shake things up.

The last game mechanic issue we'll look at today is combining grappling with pushing. Can grappling damage be substituted for distance pushed? I don't see why not, after reading this page. But would Spencer really want to? The falling damage on the stairs must be affecting both of them. Perhaps Spencer's player hopes he has the higher hit point total and will come out on top (which he does)...or, maybe Spencer's player was hoping that crashing him into the door would do enough damage, but forgot to ask if the door was closed...

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Blue Ribbon Comics #2 - pt. 2

Before I get into any comic book talk -- this is my 500th post. Yay me! It took me exactly two and a half years to get to this point. I've discussed every comic book I can get my hands (real or virtual) on from 1935 up through December 1939, and discussed them in terms of what I can glean from them to add to my comic book role-playing game Hideouts & Hoodlums.

I really thought I would have the 2nd edition of these rules done long before now. I know this blog has been slowing me down. But I have learned so much from writing this blog that is informing my game and my new rulebook. So even though I have slacked off on the blog in recent months to step up production of the rulebook, I am not giving up this blog.

With all that said...I have sadly little left to say about Blue Ribbon Comics #2 to mark this auspicious post. We left off with Bob Phantom...

I wrote yesterday about about how Bob Phantom was acting like a low-level superhero. I see that in game play from certain players, that they play very conservative and try to play it safe no matter what level their Hero is. I think that is the case here, because Bob shows off some pretty frighteningly high-level powers when he feels like it. Here he demonstrates Teleport through Focus (the focus being this gas that seems to follow him around -- ate a lot of beans lately, Bob?) and then tosses in a quick example of wrecking things to boot. But he uses none of these abilities against the hoodlums so far.

Finally, Bob decides to take personal action against the hoodlums, only when he's concerned Butch will escape the dragnet if he doesn't get involved. It was not concern for his own safety that kept Bob out of the fight, since he has some serious defensive buffing power on display, perhaps even Imperviousness.

Maybe it was not concern for his own safety that kept Bob out of fighting all this time...but respect for law and order? He delayed to give the system a chance? I guess I understand that from a character perspective...but in game play, it seems like it would make for boring game sessions. The game is much more fun when Heroes just jump into trouble.

Now, I had just mentioned yesterday some justification for a low chance to hit in H&H. But here we have Corporal Collins shooting, not one, but two pilots right out of their planes as they pass overhead. I was all prepared to write something here about how a higher chance to hit balances the Fighter class, but there may be more at play here...

Because what's going on, on this page? Collins has a "sixth sense?" His "fabri-steel flexible repeller" makes him harder to hit? He can leap high in the air...like a baseball player? (??)

The second two of those abilities seem an awful lot like what an alien can do in H&H, and "sixth sense" is starting to look like some new power. Even those amazing shots Collins got off before might benefit from a buffing power like Bulls-Eye. Could Collins be an alien superhero, but with all the trappings of a human fighter? His military uniform serves as his costume? It would certainly be possible to build the character that way.

(Read at Comic Book Plus.)