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.)

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.)

Planet Comics #2 - pt. 4

Last post on this issue! We're still looking at Captain Nelson Cole of the Solar Force. On this page, their tiny fleet encounters floating radium asteroids. Instant destruction within 1,000 miles? I don't know about that...how about giving them a saving throw vs. poison at least? Saving throws don't work like that for inanimate objects like spaceships, but if the crew all dies, that's effectively the same as destruction, right...?

Skipping ahead...Nelson is the sole survivor of his entire fleet and when he arrives on the planet they were heading for, he gets upgraded with magic trophies. How awkward it would have been had more crew survived than there was magic trophies to go around to!

So, one, it's a pretty weird shift to go from a science fiction story into a magic-fantasy story. Weirder, he's given a fake mustache and told he has to pretend to be this world's Zorro now. What a mid-campaign shift!

Two-headed giants are already planned to be in the Mobster Manual, but this one at 40' tall might mean revising the entry to be tougher.

In Hideouts & Hoodlums terms, it's possible that Nelson/Torro hasn't been given actual trophy items at all, but has been allowed to switch classes to Superhero. Or maybe one or more of the items gives him levels in Superhero. Because the first thing he does seems very much like the 1st-level power Feather Landing. And then he wrecks things on the tree with his magic whip.

Wrecking things in front of mobsters provokes a morale save, as we see here.

"Boy, let me tell ya all about what my magic clothes can do! And don't get me started on what my socks and underwear are capable of..."

This makes me even more strongly suspect that "Torro" is a superhero now using flavor text to describe how his powers work -- because it seems a lot like he's describing Nigh-Invulnerable Skin, Leap I (well, technically, a much higher level Leap power, but maybe he's exaggerating), and wrecking things to me. Or maybe the clothes give him 1 level in Superhero, and the whip gives him another.

And lastly, we're going to jump ahead to the final feature, Auro, Lord of Jupiter. Again, there's a lot of John Carter of Mars influence here, right down to how common apes are just wandering around.

Auro is likely another superhero, buffed with one of the Get Tough powers, to be able to beat a gorilla bare-handed like that.

It's going to take weeks for that bite wound to heal? Does Auro have an immune system deficiency, or is he just making that up to score pity points from Ava?

Actually, if he was statted as an alien, and needed to have a racial weakness, I would allow slow healing to be his -- though I can't imagine a player choosing such an agregious handicap.

So the game mechanic question here is, is there a combat penalty for fighting with one hand behind your back? Technically, no, and judging by this page, there shouldn't be. However, I think an Editor would be well within his rights to assign a -1 penalty to attacks, and maybe a -2 penalty to grappling, while one-armed.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Adventure Comics #47 - pt. 1

It's been nine months since I've last covered the early adventures of the Sandman! This is what happens when I cover so many titles, in such detail...

This story opens with a newspaper article detailing a murder the Sandman is about to investigate. The article is signed by Ogden Whitney, who's been drawing this feature since last issue. Ogden is good, but Bert Christman and Craig Flessel were just that much better...

I'm not surprised that Wesley Dodds was friends with the dead man, as Wesley has one of the richest backstories of early comic book heroes and knows practically everyone. Gardner Fox is starting to tinker with that backstory, though, changing Dodds from a billionaire to a millionaire. And this is the issue where he gives Wesley is his first partner. Being big on strong, equal female partners, it is hardly surprise that Dian Ware is an expert safecracker and resourceful enough to have learned or deduced the Sandman's secret identity (though it's never revealed how). Known as "The Lady in Evening Clothes," Dian even sounds like a mysteryman (or a Victorian one).

The murder weapon is a Corson repeater. I can't find any evidence that's a real thing, but I'm fine with that. I was way too specific about firearms in 1st edition Hideouts & Hoodlums and pulled back from that in 2nd ed.

Sandman still shows some willingness to act in a Chaotic manner, gassing the District Attorney when he won't cooperate and give the evidence back that Sandman already gave to him.

In a firefight with two mobsters armed with sub-machine guns, we see simultaneous initiative, with Sandman gassing them just as one of them shoots Sandman in the shoulder. We also see that Sandman has no control over who is knocked out within the area of effect of the gas, as Dian goes down too. Sandman is weakened by his injury, gradually losing consciousness, which is not a condition covered by the rules, and it takes him a week to recover (players can thank me ignoring this in the rules later!).

Trigger, the killer, is held on $1,000 bond, but for breaking and entering (the police haven't nailed him on murder yet). 

When Sandman confronts Black Bill, Trigger's boss, he mentions Bill isn't as fast as he used to be (more of that backstory I enjoy so much).

Sandman is still not widely recognized on sight; District Attorney Belmont's butler doesn't recognize Sandman by costume until Dian introduces him.

Belmont has three detectives on guard duty in his house, all armed with sub-machine guns. Surely they are not there full-time, but I don't know how Belmont anticipated Sandman coming.

In a nice twist, Dian turns out to be D.A. Belmont's daughter. Unfortunately, as soon as this happens she is "domesticated" and never shows her safecracking skills again. That Wesley falls for her is evident in that he lets her take off his mask and kiss him where her father might see.

Moving on to Barry O'Neill...I'm not sure when Barry went from assisting the French police to working with French espionage, but it seems to have been a gradual transition.  Of course it starts in Paris, because all adventures in France feature Paris. The Village of Vereux is misspelled as Veraux (intentionally?), while Polmere seems entirely fictional.

Barry is able to win initiative against the fake Inspector Le Grand, despite the fact that the doppelganger has a gun trained on Barry's back already; more proof that facing is of little importance for Hideouts & Hoodlums. The doppelganger must have had only a superficial resemblance to Le Grand, as he had to wear a partial face mask to conceal the rest. That the doppelganger is known as Number 37 by his fellow spies suggest that there are at least 37 spies in this spy ring.

Barry scores a direct hit with a grenade and blows up a building. Area of effect damage does not normally need a direct hit, and certainly doesn't for damaging structures. This may be only flavor text, describing how Barry rolled really well for damage.

The spies' car has a concealed radio transmitter in it, which is something good to add to the add-ons list for transport trophies.

(Sandman story read in Golden Age Sandman Archives vol. 1, the rest read at readcomiconline.to.)

Zip Comics #1 - pt. 2

I went into my last post on Zip Comics having already read and knowing that I liked its flagship character, Steel Sterling, but now we'll dive back in and look at some features I never read before.

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Mugsy is gag filler, and I don't always take the prices listed in gag filler seriously, but charging per pound for pet dogs sounds logical and a good rule of thumb for finding the price of animals in the future.

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This is our next serious character, a pulp-/serial-influenced Hero called the Scarlet Avenger. Steel Sterling was well-thought out, Scarlet Avenger not so much -- the opening caption explains how his face is paralyzed and he can't smile, and he smiles on panel 3.


SA is one of many inventors of paralyzing rayguns, as well as the webcam chat, by 1940.

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We don't know how many operatives SA has, but it's at least 12. That's more Supporting Cast Members than most Heroes can have, but this is why 2nd edition distinguished between SCM and hirelings/employees.

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I'll say this -- Sledge Hammer and Joe Dragon are pretty good villain names. That's even a pretty good villain throne -- oh, I'm sorry, that's Scarlet Avenger's chair!

I believe this is the first, but certainly not the last, bulletproof cape in comics. I'm not sure which is more unrealistic, that weaving steel into a cloth cape will deflect bullets, or that a cape with steel woven into it would billow like that.

===

Regardless, we have our traditional options for how SA's gear works -- this is either a trophy item that can be taken off and shared or it's flavor text describing how SA's powers work (if he were statted as a superhero, though I'm hesitant to do so). It could even be flavor text just describing why the bullets didn't hit when the player made his save vs. missiles to dodge gunfire.

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And, because golden age comic books were seldom consistent, the player doesn't even need to use the same explanation next time it happens!

SA has a webcam and an electric car!  It's like he was born in 1980!

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The hypnosis machine seems fanciful in design but, again, could just be flavor text describing how SA uses his hypnotism skill. 

Now, here's where it starts getting tough to just explain away SA's abilities as flavor text. That magnetic ray duplicates the power Raise Car -- again, making SA seem very superhero-y.

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Man, SA is really brutal at murdering bad guys. He throws a car on top of them?

SA uses either the disguise skill or the Change Self power.

The paralysis raygun affects up to four targets at a time (slightly better than the Hold Person spell). This is most likely an actual trophy item, since we saw him inventing it during his downtime before the scenario began.

But then we go back to flavor text; game mechanically, I think SA is just searching for secret doors and saying he's using the magnetic ray to do it.


That's all the pages of Scarlet Avenger I'm sharing. It's weird; thematically, he seems so much like a mysteryman, but this story is practically begging me to stat him as a superhero (much like Centaur's Masked Marvel).

===

This is Nevada Jones, Cattle Detective. It's exceedingly violent, with Nevada being shot and nearly killed, on another page his horse is shot and killed, and then later Nevada is knocked out. This time, it will take Nevada a whole week to recover from being reduced to zero hit points. Perhaps because of his injuries we can overlook him calling Irene an idiot, though he's verbally abusive to the villains too and later calls the Mexican bad guys "greasers."

===

Here's an interesting twist; Kalthar is a "king of the jungle" character, but he's got magic grains that make him a superhero. Well, maybe they do...so far, they just make him taller, and that's not enough to be a superhero; he could still be statted as a fighter with the great height just being flavor text.

===

So where does it take place? The Arabs would be concentrated in North Africa, but jungle adventures don't make a lot of sense in North Africa. Maybe we'll get more clues as we go...next time!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

More Fun Comics #49 - pt. 2

The Buccaneer picks up with a sword duel about to begin between Dennis and Dr. Killmen -- which would be a pretty good name for a supervillain! Instead, Killmen lasts about one melee turn before getting run through. Such are the vagaries of randomly generated combat results!  Dennis is trying to get the crown prince of Natria back on the throne, Natria being a fictional country on some island near Mexico, despite it looking an awful lot like Europe.

In Radio Squad (another feature ruined by lackluster post-Shuster art), Sandy and Larry are called to the scene of a stabbing, but can't reach the fleeing suspect because of people in the way. This would be an example of a "slowing obstacle," as defined on page 113 of the Basic rulebook, in the chase section. Outside, Sandy and Larry "take aim," and unload their pistols in the suspect's direction as he climbs a fire escape to the roof. Granted, the fire escape probably gives him cover and hence an Armor Class bonus, but this illustrates how there is a good chance of missing even for fourth level fighters (by my page count conversion, Sandy is just shy of 10,000 XP now and is a "lieutenant" for level title).

Sandy, Larry, and the guy they are pursuing all jump down through a skylight and seemingly land unharmed in the apartment below, demonstrating that a jump/controlled fall maybe should not cause damage. Sandy and Larry, twice, enter the apartment without a search warrant. Larry is shot in the arm and takes a week to heal from his injury.

Lieut. Bob Neal of Sub 662 is sent from Panama to Honolulu for maneuvers, but the scenario quickly becomes fighting ruffian/kidnappers in an alley hand-to-hand. They fail their surprise attempt on Bob and one of them gets thrown (grappling result), then punched out. The scientist he rescues lives on "Kolawura" Island, which could just be a typo for Kolavara Island.  "Mt. Palolo" erupts while they're there; Palolo Valley is where Ka'au Crater is. An interesting twist to the scenario (which seems to have no connection to the kidnapping attempt) is the volcanic eruption, forcing the submarine off its maneuvers to evacuate people from the island. Sadly, the native Hawaiians are treated like primitives.

Bob takes precautions like pouring water on himself and wearing a wet handkerchief over his face before approaching a fire. I'm not sure that should have any affect on if he takes damage. It could translate into a saving throw bonus, but there's not a save vs. fire damage under normal circumstances, only against magical fire. Bob takes "a few days" to recover from smoke inhalation.

The Flying Fox tangles with two "rough hombres," but I hesitate to stat them as anything other than fighters. The hombres/ruffians work for air pirates, some of whom are armed with sub-machine guns.

Detective Sergeant Carey is needed on a murder investigation because Captain Dart, who looks pretty long in the tooth, might be getting a little senile. Dart has his suspects -- dancing girls at a nightclub -- reenact their dance to pinpoint the killer, without even considering that the killer could guess the purpose of this and switch places with another dancer. Carey seems a little loopy too, he seems to not be able to resist saying the word "voodoo" every other panel, just because it's the theme of the nightclub.

Luckily, Carey just happens to know the bartender. Maybe he really did meet the bartender and add him to his SCM list during downtime between scenarios, but something that recently came up in our message board game was the possibility of switching out a SCM you already have after a successful save vs. plot. This is not an official Hideouts & Hoodlums rule, but it does not run counter to the spirit of the rules.

(Read at fullcomic.pro)
 









  

Smash Comics #6 - pt. 3

Long-time readers would know that I've been a fan of John Law, Scientective, since I first discovered him. This installment has a great opening scene with a challenge Heroes seldom have to face -- get someone to the other side of an angry mob, without hurting anyone. Luckily, John has useful contacts all over, including an autogyro owner at the local airport.

It's interesting that June's jitters isn't a character trait, but a valuable clue.

By "cyclatron," John means a cyclotron, a type of particle accelerator invented in 1932. I'm not sure if a cyclotron big enough to fit in your room would be strong enough to stop your watch...but it's just the sort of plausible science that this feature was so good at.

That the murder weapon is a phonograph is a great idea, no matter how shaky the science behind it is.

Sure, John could have just hopped over to the clock and knocked it over to break it, but taking the bigger risk of relying on the cyclotron to stop it is more science-y!

Lastly, before being critical of how lame The Avenger looks with a white hood over his face, just think of what other bad guys wear white hoods...

Another Hero rendered unconscious overnight, and perhaps the first one ever knocked out by a self-inflicted head blow.

Like I said, the science may be iffy, but it's a situation created by science that can be solved with science.

Too bad we get such an abrupt cliffhanger!

Because next thing we know, we're already in the Invisible Hood feature. IH is just tagging along on top of the truck and watching all this, but I wonder what players would do when confronted with the cliche of the fallen man in the road -- just drive over him and go faster?

And it's stolen helium again!

It's worth being reminded how primitive communication technology still was compared to today. Public telephone conversations could be overheard, radio signals could be intercepted, so carrier pigeon is actually still a reasonable alternative circa 1940.

This is Wun Cloo, and while a racial caricature, it's not making up the $1,000 bill -- they were really printed until 1934.

Here's a rare early appearance of FDR and the "conquest-mad dictator" looks more like Hitler than even Eisner has been drawing him so far. Vernon Henkel is on the cutting edge of how the war will soon be treated in all comic books.

Wings seems to have bitten off more than he can chew when he flies over a shipload of smugglers. He stays out of range of their autocannon by staying near the aft end of the ship, but there's a machine gun there and his plane goes down after complications from all those bullets.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Smash Comics #6 - pt. 2

Bozo, the name of the robot, doesn't even appear in this story.

It's interesting that the New York port is not named. The Daily Mail was a long-running newspaper in the Catskills, so it's possible that New York City is actually not where this takes place.

The entry for large iron robots has, since the Basic book, included more specific references to the Iron Man (indeed, they will be called Iron Men in the Mobster Manual), including having pilots able to ride around inside the robot. It does make me think that Hugh might be a midget, and that any time we see him side-by-side another person, he's standing on top of something.

The telescopic eye is an example of the telescopic vision power from both 1st and 2nd edition Hideouts & Hoodlums. Bozo also lets Hugh use the Fly I power. Lastly, he wrecks his way through an outer wall, which is something superheroes don't even have a chance to smash through until 3rd level. So Bozo is at least a 3rd level superhero here.

Bizarrely, Hugh leaves his robot standing on his roof, concealed only by an awning. I find this remarkable enough to share because a) it shows how Golden Age heroes are not all obsessed with protecting secret identities, and b) it's a good reminder for players not to be so careless with where they leave their valuable trophy items.

But maybe the real issue highlighted here is -- can Hugh be a superhero if the robot can be stolen from him? Does the robot exist except as flavor text? 

Note how, on this page, the mobsters don't even try to take Bozo with them, but put Hugh right back into it. It's a bizarre decision -- even if they can't figure out how to work it, surely they could try and sell it -- that only makes sense if they can't take it away from him.

Now we return to some real artwork, with Eisner's Archie O'Toole. The map is not particularly useful, but it sure is pretty! Unlike most fictional countries that have obvious real world analogues, there's still nothing concrete we can hook Pyromania and Spatoonia to.

The issue here is, during the car chase, does slamming on the brakes make the thrown bomb miss? It actually is not just flavor text here, as relative speed differences present an Armor Class adjustment. By braking first, Cook's driver changes his car's AC. But since this isn't ordinary combat, how to determine if the braking comes before the throw? We don't need to introduce initiative rolls into chase scenes if we remember the order of play of combat -- with movement coming before missile attacks.

Cook was knocked out on the previous page. Here is an somewhat rare example of the Hero not being able to recover from unconsciousness until the next day.

This is not our first story where helium is seen as a valuable commodity worth stealing, and I suspect it will not be the last.

This is a page from Abdul the Arab. Abdul was framed because some men were attacked and heard the name "Abdul" being yelled -- which is lousy evidence to frame someone with, since there can't possibly be just one Abdul in the region.

So, sentenced to die on the flimsiest circumstantial evidence possible, Abdul is only freed after everyone hears a forced confession. Amazingly, Abdul still wants to be friends with the British after this.

But most importantly, that remarkable shot, from behind the cover of a wall, that splits the rope, was either a 1 in 20 lucky break, or a Mysteryman stunt. Even though a weapon was used, because it was not being used for combat, a stunt can still be burned for something like that.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)