Thrilling Comics #3 - pt. 4

We're back (after a LONG time away!), still with the Three Comrades, though you'll only see two of them on this page. 

Max should be statted as a guard, or maybe a beat cop. 

Note that our two Heroes intentionally surrender to Von Sneer, no doubt to learn what he's up to. If they'd wanted to, they could have rushed him, even from across the room, and still gone before him if they'd won initiative (which I see happen in comics a lot!).

It's worth noting that Heroes shouldn't have to worry about what languages they know, but you're encouraged to take this benefit away from non-Hero characters. This is a good way to give Heroes another advantage over normal people (and here, greatly assists the plot!).

This page brings up an interesting point, because a lot of the time Heroes are tied up for deathtraps, but are almost never gagged. And they almost never yell for help either. Now, we don't expect them to because it doesn't come off as very heroic, but it is certainly the most natural reaction to being tied up. 

I am skeptical about allowing a filing cabinet tipping over on someone to knock them out - though it will famously be super-effective against Iron Man years later - and would probably allow this to do no more than 1 point of damage. Of course, it's possible for mobsters to only have 1 hit point!

That's a really good guess as to what the oil drums are for. I probably would have guessed they were smugglers myself, but this makes for a better story with higher stakes.

It's weird how physics work in comic books to feed the narrative. A filing cabinet tipping over knocks out a guard, but Lucky bounces down a flight of stairs, caught halfway in a barrel, and seems virtually unharmed. Two thoughts: 1) this proves that damage ranges are a thing, and 2) it makes me wonder if objects should be able to soak damage. I have ruled before if you fall on a person, you can half your damage and transfer the other half to the person you're landing on. But if we applied that to inanimate objects...then armor has to work much differently game mechanics-wise. I think we'll skip this for now.

"Attaboy, Lucky, keep 'em busy killing you!" Seriously, how is Lucky not dead, as the mobsters shoot down at him at short range and he's only moving as fast as a motorboat attempting to match to their vessel? Luckily, in the hands of a 1 HD mobster, even sub-machine guns only get 1 attack per turn. 

I am as unconvinced by that wooden beam being able to do that as I was by the filing cabinet. This is a very generous Editor these boys' players have.

Using the oil seemed an ingenious move at first, but wouldn't starting a fire with it have been more effective?

We're done with those crazy kids and moving onto the next feature, The Woman in Red. The violence level is pretty extreme in this feature, with a man being shown (granted, in silhouette) hanging from the rope that you see on this page on the previous page, and on this page you get a knife thrown into someone's neck (again, granted, not the first time I've seen that in a golden age comic book; it even features into Amazing Man's origin story). 

I mainly include this page for two points. One, American mansions have a tendency to be castles or have many castle-like features in golden age comic books -- and that is a good thing, because you can freely borrow castle maps from That Other Game and use them here and they fit this game. And secondly, telling the handedness of someone from how they tied a knot sounds like a basic skill check to me.

Okay, one more observation - other than having very pronounced cheekbones, there doesn't seem to be anything too terrifying about The Terror.

 

Since The Woman in Red and The Terror are both unencumbered and, hence, moving at the same movement rate, it's only natural that WiR fails to catch up. 

 

Here, we learn that you can open a secret door and still get a surprise turn after. 

 

A 200' drop is a very tall castle, unless this also accounts for a dry moat at the base of the castle wall too? 

 

It's not clear where the mysteriously handy rope is hanging from. Depending on how far down she is when she passes it would help me determine how fast she's falling and, from that, the AC to reach out and "hit" the rope -- AC 9 in the first second, AC 7 in the second second, AC 4 in the third second - by then she's fallen more than halfway. I might also require a Strength or a Dexterity check (whichever is better on the 1st second; whichever is worse on the 3rd second) to determine if she can keep a hold on the rope after catching it, or if her downward momentum pulls her past it. 

 

I'm puzzled by what that shape is in front of the window, as I'm not aware of that being a castle feature. I mean, it makes sense, as it makes it harder for anyone to smash through the window and fit inside, but I just don't know what that pole would be called.  

 

I wish I had enough detail to map this castle, because we keep getting tantalizing glimpses of how elaborate it is. So far we have a rooftop access door from a tower, multiple staircases, rooms that are only accessible by secret doors and outside windows (or by digging your way into them), and a literal dungeon with cell doors (double-barred no less) on the same floor with a library.
 

 

More interesting points - the Woman in Red gives away her real name in order to gain someone's trust, a rare instance of a gun being used to disarm a knife, and in the Scooby Doo-esque climax we learn that the butler - that is, someone named Butler - did it.

 

 

 

 

Here's a quick look at the next feature, which gives us two novel twists - one, a new location to rescue a damsel in distress from, and two, a new "Macguffin" - a military code book (thank goodness it's not yet another new invention!).

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)
 

 

  

Silver Streak Comics #3 - pt. 1

With this issue, Silver Streak Comics finally gets its own feature called Silver Streak! Doubly important, this serves as a long origin story for the superhero Silver Streak, so long that we never see him in costume yet in this installment -- making this the longest origin story for a superhero published so far.

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Okay, Hideouts & Hoodlums hat on...it's hard to take this giant fly seriously. Besides looking seriously cartoony, I prefer to cap my giant animals at 8x normal size, which would put a giant fly at less than 1 hit point. Further weirdness comes in this fly's special features, like a ...breakaway proboscis that can impale people...?

What the swami does is the equivalent of a D&D campaign where a powerful wizard puts a Geas spell on the entire party and makes them go on his quest for him. Nobody likes that. Still, in this instance, it also explains how Silver Streak gets his powers.

Speaking of weird features on this giant fly...tentacles? Where? Aren't those just legs?

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Oh dear...swamis are Hindus, not Muslims, so it seems unlikely this one would be invoking Allah by name. It's also pretty unclear how being hypnotized kept our Hero from dying in the car crash.

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Back to gaming talk; can a target hurl away two men trying to grapple him at the same time? Here we have to consider the impact of this on the combat. If combat is being affected, then we should be careful not to invoke "flavor text" on this, and it does appear that, since the two men are knocked prone, this allows Silver Streak to leave the area without them getting free back attacks on him as he flees.

On the other hand, this could be appropriate flavor text if SS is buffed with the Untackleable power.

It's hard to imagine the police are baffled without a clue, when a fly the size of a car must keep flying away from the scene of each crime. How hard can that be to follow?

This may be the earliest example in a comic of the main villain not even being mentioned until the second half of the story. Of course, because this is a golden age comic, the villain is a mad scientist, but a mad zoologist is a new twist.

$20 million dollars is one of the steeper ransoms we've found in these early comics.

Silver Streak has not really demonstrated any traditional superpowers yet (though Feign Death appears to be one of them earlier), but here he clearly uses the Leap I power to reach the giant fly and grapple it.

I'm going to include giant flies now in the Mobster Manual...but am going to cap them at 3 Hit Dice.

No, he's not Bruce Wayne or even John Wayne, but Bill Wayne, and this is one of the earliest cowboys to have a vigilante name not itself a blatant rip-off of The Lone Ranger.

Mesa Bluff seems like there should be a real Mesa Bluff out there somewhere, but while I could find examples of streets and neighborhoods called that, I couldn't find that there is any real town called Mesa Bluff anywhere. 

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Bill is clearly getting two attacks in the same turn with his guns here. I've previously ruled out getting a bonus attack by carrying a second weapon, which means Bill must be at least a level 3 cowboy/fighter to get that many shots with single-shot firearms. Since Bill Wayne is debuting in this story and should not be third level yet, this could be our first confirmed instance of a fighter class getting (two) brevet ranks.

Lastly, let's revisit the curious intersection of physics and game mechanics. If you throw yourself down a flight of stairs at a group of people all bunched up together, can you defy the "one attack per turn" guideline for H&H combat? I would still be inclined to say no...and yet...I have previously encouraged Editors to go easy on their players in solo play and make more allowances than the rulebooks suggest. And, in this case, the Editor could offset the bonus with some serious repercussions. For example, the player might get only one chance to hit the whole group, and a miss means taking 1 point of damage on the stairs, plus lying prone for that turn, plus losing initiative on the following turn. A player would have to think about how lucky he was feeling before making that call...

Or, this could just be an example of a third-level fighter getting to use the combat machine special ability, giving him three attacks in combat against non-classed opponents.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Prize Comics #1 - pt. 1

Today we're going to be looking at just the first feature from Prize Comics' flagship title.

Power Nelson is Superman transposed to Buck Rogers' setting -- the sort of mash-up one normally expects to see in fanfiction, but was quite common in the Golden Age of Comics, when creators routinely stole from each other.

So, according to this, we've already had WWIII by 1982. That doesn't seem so far-fetched, as far as the Cold War had escalated by 1980-1982. What's far-fetched is that the "Mongols" (long since subsumed into Chinese, so it would really be China invading us) were in any position to do this by 1982. Now, by 2020...

Remember when New York looked like this in 1982?

Did I saw Superman crossed with Buck Rogers? Well, this origin story also anticipates Captain America, though with Cap we were told why there would only be one man endowed with his abilities. Here, we're told "only one" can be given these powers, with no further explanation. Did they run out of ingredients for super-soldier serum...?

I love the last panel on this page. The Mongol Army is supposedly this all-powerful world-conquering force, but they make their soldiers pay for their own weapons. First chink in the armor revealed!

The author of this story remains unknown, but he is well-versed in pulp literature, including John Carter. From A Princess of Mars we learned the code of the futuristic soldier, always using the sword first before the rocket pistol.

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We don't get to see the rocket pistol in action, but if it can really blast someone to atoms then that would be a "save or die" situation, most likely, rather than dealing points of damage.

Power uses the power Extend Missile Range here, to throw the soldier so high in the air.

Power is going to slowly go through the Superman catalog of powers, as all the initial superheroes in comic books did...though, while others will try to show Superman up, Power under-performs. Instead of Raise Car, he only hefts a motorcycle -- I mean, a rocket cycle over his head. Now, I can't tell how heavy these cycles are supposed to be, but I suspect they might fall within the generous encumbrance rules for Hideouts & Hoodlums, and not require an actual power expenditure.

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I also like that first panel, and how it looks like a Shriner parade!

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Let's start our discussion of this page with the number of attackers who can surround you in melee. There are eight positions for man-sized attackers around a target. If the target's back is to a wall, that number drops to five. So, sure, seven members of the famous Death's Head Division can stand around Nelson and try to block him from moving, but they can't all attack him at once.

So, how does "blocking him from moving" work, as a game mechanic? If five of them were pressed into melee range around him, they would all get free bonus attacks on him as he tried to move out of that position. However, since they are outside of melee, he can move towards a corner of their semi-circle where no more than four would be within sword reach.

Complicating matters is that some of the soldiers have guns instead of swords. Guns give them the advantage that they don't have to be within melee range to attack, but they lose the advantage of the free bonus attack if he tries to move past a missile weapon.

On the other hand, it gives them the advantage after moving past them that they can simply turn and shoot once he's outside of melee again without having to chase after him.

And before moving on to this next page, I want to talk about the cool rocket-roller tank. We don't know much about it, but I'm guessing that's a forward-mounted raygun, since the barrel is too narrow for any kind of significant missile. Since it's rocket-powered, it must move much faster than a real tank (maybe a 75 Move?) And that roller is probably a little more effective than normal treads for running people over (+1 to hit?), and clearly has an intimidation factor to it, but since most of the weight of the tank isn't resting directly above it, I would say damage might be as low as 4-24 points.

I'll keep it brief about this page: nobody in 1940 seemed to have a clue how powerful atomic weapons would be. Here it takes three to damage a city block.

In any campaign based on 1940-era science,atomic weapons will be just powerful explosives, maybe doing twice the damage of a grenade.

"What a man!" Some of these panels are just unintentionally hilarious.

Let's talk about why Power doesn't just bust out of those chains and attack the emperor on the spot. Can he? By H&H rules, when you recover from being stunned, your wrecking things ability returns to you at full-strength. Is that not the case here, or is Power simply biding his time? It might make sense to do so if he is out of defensive buffing powers (or simply had none prepared for the day) and down to 6 hp or less.

In a futuristic setting, it's fun to take familiar landmarks and turn them into something else; and Yankee Stadium as a gladiatorial arena is quite brilliant, I think.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Keen Detective Funnies #18 - pt. 2

This is still Spark O'Leary, that famous Irish newshawk who doesn't look remotely Irish. In fact, doesn't he look Asian to you? I wonder if he was drawn with the intention of him being Asian, and the publisher decided to paste an Irish name onto him instead, thinking no one would notice or care.

Spark has such an easy time following these clues that it's amazing the feds asked him to pursue this instead of just figuring it out themselves. In fact, there was so much evidence immediately pointing to Kurt that I immediately suspected a red herring; maybe the FBI did too!

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It's rare to see ordinary mobsters with a really cool trophy weapon, but this unnamed spy has a tear gas gun! I would imagine it has the range and area of effect of a sleep gas gun, but is less effective (temporarily stunning anyone who fails their save vs. poison?).

It's remarkable that as dramatic an escape to a deathtrap as we get on this page is all recapped in panel 4 alone. I'm not sure how you could dodge out of the way fast enough to make someone pushing you fall out of a plane...but it does create a precedent for fumbles being allowed on push attacks!

But panel 5, with him knocking himself out, Scotty in Star Trek V style?

There's no way to emulate that in game rules; I'm not going to make people roll for movement, with a chance of fumbles and hurting themselves. The only way that makes sense is if there was a lot of turbulence on the plane and the Editor required saves vs. science to keep from falling sideways.

Seditious pamphlets is minor loot you can find with certain types of mobsters.

Setting fire to the ship you're standing on is a ballsy move!

Speaking of ballsy playing, I think we all know the real reason Spark wants to find the hideout -- he burnt up all the trophy items on the ship and he needs more loot to level up!

Rigging an entire hideout to blow up is not a recommended tactic, unless you didn't have time to design anything before the next session and you really don't want the players going in there.

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I'm never sure how much faith to have in these "fact" filler pages, but there's some interesting stuff here, including number of teens arrested in a year (I suppose I could verify that in the FBI's Crime in the U.S. serial, but I'd have to find a depository library to get paper copy of the 1940 issue; I can't find it that early online), where the term "gumshoe" comes from, and which states had no capital punishment circa 1940.

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C-Man shows the value of questioning, not just one witness at the scene of a crime (and expect the Editor to feed all the information you need through one character -- that's lazy game-mastering!), but up to seven witnesses. Actually, if the Editor assigned a 1 in 6 chance for each witness to have valuable clues, there would be a good statistical chance of getting the information in just 6 witnesses.

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Cigars with distinctive wrappers, fresh car tracks, footprints, broken twigs, and heel marks are all good examples of clues to use when Heroes are tracking.

Going to jump ahead now to Dudley Dance, a feature about "the greatest crime chaser of all time" and not, as one would expect, a dancer. Here, Dudley tackles -- or rather is tackled by -- one of the earliest werewolves in comics. Or is it another case of a fake werewolf?

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"Leather hardness of Dance's cheek"? What does the man do to develop such thick cheek calluses that they count as armor? Seems like an Editor that had trouble coming up with believable flavor text on the spot.

Hmm...six shots in rapid succession is possible in Hideouts & Hoodlums, but not for low-level Heroes. I hate giving firearms any advantage, actually, as my personal preference is for two-fisted fighter types, but there is plenty of gun-toting Heroes in these early comic books the H&H game has to emulate.

The story ends with a lot of attempting to explain away the werewolf as something non-supernatural, but it just sounds like he's just describing a tribe of werewolves that live in India to me...and that sounds like a pretty good adventure location for high-level Heroes!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Adventure Comics #47 - pt. 3

Rusty and His Pals is worth mentioning for its setting; the old mansion with suits of armor, the graveyard, and the old-style inn back in the village all feel like they could have stepped out of a D&D module.

Anchors Aweigh still pleases sometimes, even though Fred Guardineer hasn't worked on it in eight months. In this installment, Lt. Commander Kerry is captured by Capt. Skinner. Skinner isn't your typical villain; he'd rather bribe Kerry than kill him and is willing to offer a cool million. I'm not sure how many players I've ever had who would turn that down as quickly as Kerry does.

In an unexpected twist, Skinner explains how modern day zombies are made, with witch doctors using drugs that leaves someone "mentally dead."In typical racist fashion, the Caribbean natives are not shown wearing normal clothes, but wear shorts and fight with spiked clubs. The witch doctor gives Kerry an antidote to get Skinner back for trying to get out of paying him.

Cotton Carver disarms a group of spear-wielding natives (The First Ones - this is stolen right out of Warlords of Mars and the Black Martians) by flying low and hitting their spears with his one-man flyer. As long-time blog readers know, I'm not comfortable with allowing multiple attacks in the same turn as often as it happens in the comics for the sake of brevity.

Oddly, although the flyer clearly has a wheel on it, it's turned around by use of a lever.

Cotton is knocked out from behind by a head blow.

The First Ones live in caves high up on cliffs that can only be reached by tall ladders, or by being pulled up on what look like swings. The First Ones put Cotton in the worst deathtrap ever; they leave him sitting out with his hands tied, waiting for vultures to eat him, though the vultures won't touch him until he dies of starvation several days from now. In retaliation for being minorly inconvenienced by this "death"trap, Cotton throws their leader off the cliff, and shoots two of his guards.

(Read at readcomiconline.to.)

Whiz Comics #2 - pt. 2

Ibis the Invincible is not acting like a 1st-level magic-user here. Create Underpass doesn't seem like a spell that needs to exist, but perhaps a 4th-level Dig spell would explain that.

We learn how much sailing from Manhattan to Cairo cost back then.

Again, I'm skeptical about the need for a Create Money spell (though maybe Fool's Gold could be modified for this). Also, since Ibis would not yet have encountered American money, it seems unlikely he would have known how to make the right kind of money, and makes for a pretty convincing case that this is another illusion that makes you see what you want to see (I had suggested last time that Ibis used an Improved Disguise spell that makes him appear to be wearing what others want to see him wearing).

Create Cottage does have some precedent, lying somewhere between Leomund's Tiny Hut and Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion, making this likely a 5th level spell -- but only if temporary. If permanent, this has to be a Wish, and a 9th level spell!

Create Bridge could actually be a spell with a lot of uses, and if it had a short enough duration I could see that maybe being only a 2nd level spell.

Here is a spell version of the power Turn Gun on Bad Guy - maybe called Missile Turning?

Excellent commentary on world affairs, circa 1940.

Wow, okay, this is Protection from Normal Missiles...but instead of 15' Radius, it's extended to 1 mile Radius. And then there's Restore City, a spell that has got to be Wish-level power.

I did have a conversation here in the comments section (an actual conversation with a reader!) recently about the issue of if Hideouts & Hoodlums emulated the power-level of golden age comic book characters well enough. I would use this page as a prime example for my answer: yes it does, as far as I would wish it to emulate those comic books. Because, really, stopping an enemy bombardment in one turn and then reversing all its damage in the next turn -- how do you build a challenging and entertaining scenario when they can all be resolved this quickly and easily?

Moving right along, this is the origin story of Golden Arrow. You only get part of it on this page, and it's interesting how often his story seems to go in a Mowgli-in-the-Wild-West direction and then surprise detours.

This page is still early in the origin story, so I'm not sure what to make of these last two panels, or if I should make anything out of them. Being able to wrestle a bear cub at the age of 5 or catch an antelope at age 7 seem relatively superhuman. It also suggests to me that half-pints be able to have classes like mysteryman or even superhero. I have toyed with the notion in the past of treating half-pints as a separate race.

I'm not entirely sure yet how I would make them a separate race (I mean, obviously they aren't ever going to literally be a separate race, but to separate them out from normal humans game mechanics-wise). It would make sense to take away the free Supporting Cast Member (unless the SCM was a parent). It seems like half-pints would do half damage, but others would have to save vs. plot to harm them. Anyway, it all needs more thought.

This would be a world record for a horse jump (it currently stands at 8'). So, if I did bring back the cowboy class (and I'm not saying I am yet), one thing that would distinguish them is that they could not only push themselves past normal limits with stunts, but they can push their mounts too.

That is one beautifully aimed arrow, but it does create a problem for me. When I revised the mysteryman class, I limited stunts to applying to out-of-combat situations, so as not to take away what makes fighters special. So this can't be a mysteryman-cowboy using an arrow for a stunt, if the result is a trip attack.

So then I have to decide if a trip attack should normally be allowable at range. I guess the answer to that should be yes, though it would make more sense when throwing something heavy at someone else's feet, or launching a lot of marbles across the floor.

And that brings us back to the perennial question: should Heroes get to attack more than one opponent per turn? There is ample evidence of this in comic books, yet I've shied away from this in terms of game mechanics because it's not fair in a group setting to have one Hero get to attack everyone before the others have had a turn. But...what if this was an optional rule for solo play only? I will consider putting that in the Heroes Handbook.

And, lastly, if I do bring back the cowboy class, it will have the ability to fall from any height, without damage, as long as there is a horse and saddle within 10' of where he would have landed.

And now on to Spy Smasher! I'm including this page because it gives my players a goal for how much money they have to save up to buy their own aircraft carrier.

Spy Smasher is a mysteryman, and the surest sign of that is a dramatic window entrance. In fact, my biggest regret with the class redesign is that it included no mechanic for dramatic entrances. I suppose they could use a stunt to ensure they have surprise, but that's not quite what is happening here; this is more like what mysterymen could do in 1st edition, with their intimidate ability, forcing a morale save before they've even done anything. Ah well...

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Speed Comics #5 - pt. 2

The pay-off: first superhero vs. dinosaurs adventure!

Right away, we've got a duck-billed dinosaur, some kind of hadrosaur, and...although it looks more like a fat sloth, I think that's supposed to be an ankylosaurus? And, ooo, that pterodactyl drawing looks so terrifying, I think I'll have to use it in the Mobster Manual!

Hmm, saber-tooth tigers coexisting with dinosaurs? Well, okay, it is a lost world, not a time travel adventure, so we can overlook it.

The huge boulder, at that size, must weigh over 1,000 lbs., which makes what he does with it next difficult to describe...

How much damage should the huge boulder do? A rock that heavy cannot be thrown with even the Extend Missile Range III power alone. But if it was combined with Raise Car, could damage be increased? It must be possible, if it can crush a saber-tooth tiger in one hit. But how much? Extend Missile Range III does 3d6 damage and is a third level power. If we stacked it with a first-level Raise power, that could up damage to 4d6, while the power Raise Elephant would then stack it up to 5d6. The rules, as I wrote them, don't specify any of this, but it seems like a simple extrapolation.

I'm not happy with the tiger getting killed.

Pterodactyls are nowhere near this big; it is a pteranodon instead. I'll have to include a note in its stats that it can lift up man-sized prey it catches in its claw attack.

Shock, stop murdering endangered animals! I'm starting to think grappling attacks need to be able to do lethal damage; not that I think necks can really twist like that.

Piloting a dead pteranodon can't be easy, maybe a skill check to maneuver it in the right direction, and then an attack roll to reach the sauropod with it.

This page seems all kinds of unlikely, but maybe appropriate for a campaign as light in tone as Shock's adventures are (minus the racism and rampant animal murdering).

So how do you handle taming a bucking dinosaur? I think it would be, for each successful expert skill check, you get a chance at a friendly encounter reaction roll. If the result is hostile, or the skill check fails, you have to save vs. science or be bucked off for 2-8 points of damage. Once you get a friendly reaction result, the dinosaur lets you ride it.

Cavemen! It's interesting that the cavemen are not so primitive that they can't learn English or build ladders.

To fill you in from the small gap, Shock has challenged the caveman witch doctor to a contest of powers, in exchange for their hostage. But what is the witch doctor? Hypnotism, we have established, is an expert skill in 2nd edition, but it works against one target, not four at once. A Sleep spell would work, which means the witch doctor is an actual Magic-User.

Raise Car should be powerful enough to uproot a tree. A generous Editor might allow wrecking things to do this too.

H&H doesn't have any fire-starting powers yet for Superheroes, but fire-starting is an advanced skill and, once started, he could make it spread quickly with the Control Fire power.

Again, evidence of a Raise power being stacked with an Extend Missile Range power.

And we'll just skip ahead real quick into our next feature, Crash, Cork, and the Baron. They are marooned in the colony of Ceylon, nowadays known as Sri Lanka. In typically racist fashion, the natives run around in loin clothes and use primitive spears.

But that's not why I'm showing this to you. I'm showing it to you for that crazy panel of Cork (I think that's Cork) grappling two opponents at once while still kicking a third. This keeps coming up because, to truly emulate these comic books, combat can't be limited to one attack per turn, but for fair game balance, it really has to have one attack per turn be the norm (there are already exceptions, but we don't have to get into those).

Or does it? I've long resisted adding critical hits for natural 20's into H&H...but what if a natural 20 gave you an extra attack? And you could keep getting attacks for every natural 20 you rolled? In theory, a string of lucky rolls could then account for every panel where we see stuff like this happening. Something to think about.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)