Popular Comics #49 - pt. 2

I believe I had given the Power Dive stunt a bonus to hit when I made the Aviator class, but I've since learned in playing Dawn Patrol that power dives are for gaining speed, as done here. I don't presently have a rule to cover this, other than how a piloting skill check allows you to go a little faster than normal.

Once again, we're given a teasing clue that the Masked Pilot is either someone very famous or very influential, or both. Or he's carrying Doctor Who's psychic papers.

Penguin Pete, which is really a better adventure strip than it has any business being, reminds us that a "miss" in combat doesn't necessarily mean you missed your target, it's just that you caused no damage. Although I could have arrows do less damage to alligators...?

Don't forget that mobsters can wreck things, just like any non-superhero Heroes, with just two dice instead of three. That should be enough to smash a rowboat...though I could give them a +1 bonus when wrecking with their tails, or just mention that alligators can wreck things behind them with their tails.

We're going to spend the rest of this blog post spending more time looking at Captain Tornado than it probably deserves, but maybe we'll learn something about creating fictional civilizations.

Rule #1: Dress the natives exotically. Don't be afraid to make your Heroes confront a male guide wearing a thong-backed banana hammock.

Rule #2:  Rather than try to imagine new technologies, you can recreate modern conveniences through different means and still make a society look advanced. Here is a mechanical elevator. Also note the locals live in a place that resembles the courtyard of a fancy hotel.

Phosphorescence is a real thing, of course, but some unknown process must amplify it so it operates as sunlight. Of course, it's also possible that all the grass in this cave is astroturf, and the trees are fake sculptures, just to give them the feel of being aboveground. 

That the door "mysteriously opens" feels somewhat laughable today when every store has automatic sliding doors, but while the concept of automatic sliding doors is very old, the way to make this work electronically was not invented until 1954 -- so this is actually "futuristic" tech in 1940!

Note the trope of how visitors always get to visit rulers directly, instead of being made to interact with some underling who reports back to the ruler (which seems like it would keep the ruler much safer).  

Holy cow, this page is pretty terrible. "I'm free, white, and 18 and he can't boss me"? Really Jane? 

And while that's pretty overtly racist, that's nothing to how terrible this alien caste system is, with its two slave castes who either get their tongues cut out or aren't allowed to ever see light. 

If I didn't already hate this evil alien race enough, now we find out that they rip the wings off of giant butterflies and wear them. I guess we also find out from this that these aliens are hollow-boned, allowing them to fly.

The concept of species degenerating to the point where they no longer understand their ancestors' technology can be traced at least as far back as H.G. Well's Morlocks.

And we learn from this page that water pressure, instead of electricity, is how they work their technology. I wonder if water pressure could run a plane...?

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Popular Comics #47 - pt. 2

This is the end of Between Two Fires. Last time I was talking about how hard a scenario would be if the goal was not to get in a fight in a war zone, but here we see the secret is to carry a white flag around with you.

It also helps when the Editor throws you a bone and lets you come across an unguarded motorcyle and sidecar.

Here's a new look for The Masked Pilot, and I'm liking the black domino mask more than the white handkerchief that his nose is clearly visible through.

Here's a map! It looks like a pretty believable map of an airplane factory to me, though it would be nice to see it closer.

The Masked Pilot lands his plane on the road, but you'll note how he lands at an angle to the road, drastically shortening his runway. That's an expert-level skill check -- or a burned stunt -- for sure.

It's somewhat remarkable that we're only up to January 1940, and rayguns that can stop planes from working are already a worn-out cliche.

I'm more interested in Tom, so generic a sidekick that he doesn't even seem to have a last name, but seems to be really good in a fight. Or is he? Although it appears that he's kicking that guy right into the gunman so the gun will go off in his back, the more rules-focused explanation for this is that the gunman tried shooting into a melee, which gave him a chance of hitting a random target.

This is a sound use of tactics, baiting the bad guys out into the open. And, sounder yet, The Masked Pilot uses their own weapons on them. What usually doesn't happen -- and I suspect we'll see the same this time -- is the raygun ever turning up again in future installments. Maybe it had a set number of charges and (conveniently) runs out after this adventure.

This is from Gangbusters, and it's interesting evidence that grappling damage maybe cannot cause unconsciousness, but only stuns. I had not thought of this before, but I can't actually think of examples of grappling causing long-term unconsciousness in comics I've read, and if I continue to not see examples of this, this aspect of the grappling rules might need to be changed.

The more difficult issue is, do we need game mechanics to determine when and how cars can push each other off their trajectories? We sort of already do -- the 2nd edition Basic book includes lots of examples of ramming damage for various vehicles -- and if we apply the same rule for pushing to vehicular combat -- that points of damage can be transferred 1:1 into feet moved -- then a car can push another car pretty far off its path.

This page is troubling, in that the cliche about cover is that any old object between you and a shooter can stop a bullet. I mean, if even walls serve no protection from bullets, then you might as well throw Armor Class out the window when firearms are in play. I am not prepared to make guns even more attractive to my players, so I'm going to be ignoring the evidence on this page.


Also, this story supposedly takes place in Cleveland, Ohio. You'd think Superman would show up! ;)

It's interesting to see someone shot in the hand and be told that took "all the fight out of him." Essentially, Carlson had so few hit points that one hit took him out of the fight and it didn't matter where the shot hit him to do that.

Herky sure hasn't graced this blog in a long time! The toddler with the strength of Hercules tries to wreck through a brick wall and hurts himself trying. I have actually long toyed with the notion of having failed wrecking things attempts hurt the person trying them and, while it remains not an official rule, I have used this in my personal games on occasion when a Hero keeps trying and gets four or more failures in a row.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Blue Ribbon Comics #3 - pt. 3

And we continue with Scoop Cody, what could have been a dry and boring crime reporter strip, but is livened by the energetic artwork of Charles Biro.

Here, we get to see a jewel case being used as a throwing weapon (improvised weapons do the same damage as fists, 1-3) with another example of disarming. Scoop follows up with a grappling move, a throw that would leave the Count prone for the following turn. But there seems to be a turn of fighting missing between panels, because the Count is back up on his feet to get punched already in panel 4. Now the Count is prone again in panel 5 (as if they were out of order...), but is still able to kick at a -1 penalty to hit. We may have missed another turn of action between panels 5 and 6, or maybe the Count got to draw his knife at the beginning of the turn, but has to wait until the end of the turn to use it. It does seem strange to grapple a prone opponent to make him lose his knife instead of just kicking it out of his hand, though.

I guess chewing gum sticking to a dress could happen, but I'm skeptical he could slip it around her back like that without anyone noticing. A sleight of hand skill check, as an expert skill?

The Marvel is Biro's first "superhero." His power might be levitation...as I'm wondering what he's standing on while looking through that porthole from the outside...

The first time we met Corporal Collins was during our landmark 500th post. I had conjectured that Collins was statted as an alien superhero because of what all he could do, so let's take another look and see if that bears up.

Initially, I wrote off the fabri-steel flexible repeller as flavor text for some Armor Class-buffing power like Nigh-Invulnerable Skin, but an awful lot is made of the "science" behind the repeller, and maybe it really is a trophy item (one that gives the wielder the Turn Guns on Bad Guys power, no less!).

It's also worth noting that, since the U.S. is still not at war with anyone, Collins has to be fighting with the French.

I almost have nightmares about this happening in one of my games. "Oh look, guys, we just captured an enemy fighter plane! Let's be unstoppable for awhile!"

That said, I'm REALLY skeptical that you could take off in a plane like that. Maybe that's an expert skill check, with a penalty of having to take a higher die (so 1 in 8 instead of 1 in 6).

I'm sure that munitions dump was worth a lot of XP!

Now, here's where the story differs from what players would really do. Instead of ditching the plane to stay in the combat, players would look at the longterm benefits of keeping the plane, bail from the fight, and go refuel.  You could put every fuel depot under heavy guard, but that's not too big a deterrent when you can strafe the depots with machine gun fire from above.

Now, Collins landing on the balloon would be an attack roll, but against AC 9 since it's a big target. I would require a basic skill check for climbing around the balloon like that.

There is absolutely no explanation for the corkscrew tank that Collins steals after he reaches the ground. What purpose does it serve? Does it wreck through walls faster? I would think that tanks wreck through walls pretty well already. Maybe it opens giant champagne bottles.

That is one super-powerful grenade. I might give one a chance to wreck a tank or a bridge, but a grenade that can wreck both at once? I do have a high-level power called Mass Wrecking. Is Collins a superhero of that high a level?

This is a new series called Devils in the Deep. I really want to stat that monster, but I don't know what to call it -- killer lobster-tiger shark-barracuda-man? 

And how big was that barracuda to have a heart that size?

The monster is pretty smart, since it understands what dynamite is. It's also cagey enough to pretend to kill Dr. Carbo, even though it must know it can't.

Later, the killer lobster-tiger shark-barracuda-man kills a giant octopus, so we know it's at least that strong.

This is from a series called Secret Assignments. Jack only has to overpower two guards to free the prisoners. You might think they would have bum-rushed the guards themselves, having superior numbers. Perhaps even stranger is that Jack leaps all that way down to reach the guard -- maybe sustaining 1-6 points of damage from the fall? -- and then punches the guard. Of course, what happened was that Jack rolled poorly and missed falling on the guard!

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)