Action Comics #18

Before Superman even shows up in this month's story, we're treated to the a sleeping gas attack and the notion that holding a handkerchief over your nose and mouth is going to spare you from gas potent enough to fill an entire car and knock out its occupant/s. I would be inclined to give a bonus to save for taking a precaution like that -- +1 or +2 at most, but that still leaves a lot of room for a plan to go wrong.

From the blackmailed politician we learn that $10,000 is enough to corrupt a politician.

We see Superman's X-ray vision (the 3rd level power) in use for the first time.

Superman gets shot at with a bow and arrow for a change of pace this issue, and snatches the arrow out of mid-air. I don't have a power for that, because the important thing is that the arrow missed, and him catching it is really just flavor text.

Superman then decides to show off with the bow and arrow. Now, maybe Superman practiced with a bow and arrow in his youth, but it's pretty clear that he pulls off a spectacular hit on a small target. This was the impetus for the Bulls-Eye (2nd-level) power.

It's still unclear if Superman can fly at this point. He trails a car in the sky; one would presume that if he was jumping and landing behind the car, that someone might notice.

He also demonstrates Leap (at least Leap I), Nigh-Invulnerable Skin, Raise Elephant (because he raises trucks, heavier than cars), and wrecks a printing press (as if a generator).

A rival paper to the Daily Star is the Morning Herald. There actually was a Morning Cleveland Herald until 1868, though it's unclear if Jerry Siegel would have ever seen it.

Chuck Dawson, in his story, gives us a valuable lesson for players -- when a posse thinks you've killed the sheriff and is closing in on you, don't be afraid to run!

Clip Carson's story is an interesting lesson in hideout scale. Here, he finds himself in a cavernous hideout so large that, when reinforcements arrive, they show up riding elephants!

Tex Thompson's arch-nemesis, The Gorrah, returns, this time in Turkey, where Tex and friends are working for the Turkish Prime Minister (it was Refik Saydam in real life). The Gorrah has cyborg-like creatures working for him this time. It's difficult to imagine how to stat them; they look like they're half-robot, half-skeleton, probably with human brains controlling them, but lose all scariness because they're all wearing fezzes. The Gorrah tries hypnotism on Tex. It fails, but The Gorrah can't tell and Tex uses this to trick him. Hero magic-users will have the same problem when their victims make their saves. The Gorrah takes a poison pill, seemingly killing himself, at story's end.

The Three Aces may not be the bravest Heroes to ever headline a story in an anthology title. When threatened by hijackers, their solution is to stall for time until help arrives! Players may be interested in similar tactics, especially players who favor keeping their Heroes alive over having them do anything heroic. We learn some backstory about the Three Aces, that they had flown in the Spanish Civil War together back in 1937.

Zatara becomes the first Hero to visit Atlantis. He gains possession of a map to Atlantis when a former rival, Queen Setap of Ophir, shows up and wants his help with following it. We learn that the map starts them off in the Sargasso Sea (northern Atlantic) and that Atlantis is somewhere in the Atlantic, which does match up with where Marvel Comics would later put Atlantis in their comics (but is distinctly different from the Golden Age Sub-Mariner's Antarctic kingdom).

En route, Barnacle Will and some pirates attempt a mutiny, thinking the map leads to gold. Where it actually leads is a little confusing...from the page I've seen, it looks like Atlantis is at least partially un-sunken still, or perhaps they just land on a nearby island as a staging area. Whatever it is, the surface island is protected by "under-earth creatures" that look like goblins with tentacle arms. I'm unsure how to stat these creatures...but their use of nets as weapons reminds me of ratmen (a new mobster type from 2nd edition).

In the story, Zatara appears to use a spell called Create Bridge, but is perhaps just flavor text for the first level 2nd edition spell Poof!, which allows him to cross over short distances of water. He casts a spell on the under-earth creatures that ties their tentacles into knots...but I'm not clear what purpose that serves other than a distraction. If they really can't use their tentacles then, maybe this counts as Mass Paralysis (a 1st edition power, though, not a spell).

Lastly, Atlantis is guarded by Roor, a giant octopus. Here we meet our first mobster with magic resistance. Apparently, any mobster can have magic resistance, and this is very high resistance -- either 80% or more, or perhaps total immunity to damaging spells. The only spell that works is Phantasmal Image, tricking Roor into thinking sponges are people to eat.

(Superman story read in Action Comics Archives v. 1, select other pages were read at the Babbling About DC Comics blog, and the rest was read in summary at DC Wikia and Mike's Amazing World)

Mystery Men Comics #2 - pt. 1

We finally reached September 1939! And Mystery Men Comics #2!

We meet up with The Green Mask again, this time involved in a tong war. Tong wars apparently were real things, plaguing New York and Chicago into the 1930s, so they seem to be much on the mind of comic book writers even years later.

The Fu Manchu-like villain this time is called San Sin and, luckily, Green Mask seems to know exactly where San Sin is headquartered as if there was a sign out front. And, amazingly, the very first Chinaman Green Mask points a gun at just happens to know exactly where San Sin is and leads him there.

After that, things get a little more interesting. Sure, pit traps are old hat already, but San Sin doesn't try to flood it, or let in a crocodile, or have the walls close in -- he plans to just hold Green Mask there until he starves or gives up.

Green Mask playing along seems, at first, to be a cheap trick to stretch out the story, but the Green Mask has information we were lacking, that San Sin is a smuggler. Green Mask is playing along in order to be led to the people San Sin is getting his contraband from.

How long was Green Mask staking out this hideout before the adventure started? Somehow he knows even the hidden entrances to this place, even though no one ever showed him.

Hostage-taking can lead to some tough problem-solving situations for players to role-play through.

It's the futuristic year 2000!  Rex Dexter wants to go to the planet Capris -- Capris? Okay, I can buy that maybe people in the "future" would know of planets the rest of us didn't know about, but how does Rex from 1939 know about this radium-rich planet? Reading travel brochures?

The planet Capris looks an awful lot like Saturn there. Is it just the future name for Saturn? Then again, they're clearly walking on a planet with ground, so they're not visiting a gas giant like Saturn. Maybe Capris is one of Saturn's moons renamed then? Most likely I'm over-thinking this.

A planet so radioactive that it isn't safe to come within 1,000 miles of it -- that seems at least possible.

The Capris-Men (Caprisians?) are some freaky-looking aliens; I'm thinking I would give them 5 Hit Dice. Wilder yet is putting your Heroes in a scenario where they lose if they're stripped naked.

I like how, in the year 2000, we have magnetic ships that can make it from Earth to Saturn (maybe Saturn?) in four days, but men still wear top hats. It's true what they say, men's clothes never go out of fashion!

"I have a vision...of using interstellar tugboats to haul a planet-sized mass within the length of four of the Moon's orbits from Earth, and watch the gravitational pull tear Earth apart." What a Charisma score he must have to make the nations of the world go along with this!

This is from Billy Bounce, and it demonstrates what creative uses pepper and a fountain pen can be put to, so long as your Editor allows it. In some ways, this is no more ridiculous than pulling planets into Earth's orbit...

Chen Chang has thugs working for him. Given they have 2 Hit Dice, that might explain how they are able to pitch men over the railing so easily.

If I haven't said so before, I really like the artwork on Chen Chang...

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Detective Comics #25

This one is woefully out of order. I had skipped over it because the summary I'd read seemed so uninteresting. Now that I've read it myself, though, I found plenty worthy of comment.

Nailing down where the early Heroes are from isn't easy most of the time, but here Speed Saunders tells us he's from New York. He also tells us some useful tips for checking corpses: check the wrists to see if they had show signs of having been tied up, and -- of course -- check the ground to see if there's enough blood, or if the body was moved. And, of course, play every hunch. Even though the body seems to have been killed by a hammer blow to the head, Speed still asks for the stomach to be pumped -- just for, you know, whatev's -- and then by amazing coincidence finds the true source of death. It makes me curious about how a skill in Hideouts & Hoodlums shouldn't be "get sudden hunch" -- which would let the Editor feed clues to his players...

In Spy, Bart and Sally are the first Heroes to be given a plot hook by FDR himself! Speaking of amazing coincidences, Sally reaches into a spy's desk drawer, pulls out random papers, and they just happen to be detailed invasion plans. Now, maybe the Editor assigned something like a 1 in 6 (or even a 1 in 8!) chance of stumbling on just the right papers and Sally's player got lucky, or the Editor fudged events to ratchet up the stakes in the scenario.

In The Mysterious Doctor Fu Manchu, slime-covered walls prevent climbing from a trap. It's your standard flooding room trap with one extra twist -- there are beams just high enough for the Heroes to grab and try to pull themselves up, but concealed on the top of the beams are sword-blades. Although the characters believe they could sever fingers, we deal with more abstract injury in H&H; they probably do only 1-6 damage.

The Crimson Avenger carries two trophy items: a lineman's phone that he can plug into someone's else's phone jack and use, and the first gas gun used by a Hero in comics!

Bruce Nelson is said to have a curious ability: he can shoot "accurately while on the dead run".  Now, normally, one can make two moves in combat in H&H, or one move and an attack. This seems to be implying that Bruce can make a full move and still get an attack. So what's going on there? Should this be a skill everyone has, like a 1 in 6 chance to shoot while on a dead run? But skills don't affect combat, class and level (and to a limited extent, ability scores) affect combat. For running combats consistently, I'm inclined to ignore what Bruce just did, but I'll watch for more evidence...

Crooks often do dumb things in comic books that make them easy to find. Bruce homes in on a gang of robbers because all of their robberies are roughly equidistant from the same town the bad guys use as their base. Heroes should always remember to check maps and look for patterns -- though it should not fall to the Editor to spell out what the patterns are.

Slam Bradley & Shorty Morgan (really, Shorty) are attacked by a rattlesnake when they try attending college to better themselves. That Slam can't spell, but in another issue is revealed to be a self-taught magic-user, either shows that the strip had no sense of continuity, or that an education-related stat would be unnecessary in H&H.

Slam is good at division of labor; when a rock is thrown through their dorm window with a note tied to it, Slam leaves Shorty to read the notes, while Slam crashes through the window to chase the thrower. Smart players will make quick decisions like this, so that all the Heroes aren't trying to accomplish the same thing.

(Read at ReadComics.net)

Keen Detective Funnies v. 2 #6 - pt. 1

I don't really want to like scientist/ventriloquist/adventurer Dean Denton as much as I do, but he's just such a good RPG gamer. In last night's Hideouts & Hoodlums campaign, triangulating to find the source of a radio signal came up. We just winged the science of it, but this what you'd have to do in order to triangulate a signal over a large area.

Dean knows where to go, but like a smart gamer, he stops along the way and talks to characters he meets to pick up rumors (no doubt "Ain't nothin' on it but a bunch of old Indian ruins" came right off the Editor's random rumor table).

This is from Spy Hunters.  One of the biggest challenges to running H&H is the perennial question -- could technology do that, circa 1940? In this instance, I now have confirmation that you could hook up a mechanical alarm system to a desk drawer.

I also like the Cinderella motif here. If the sandal fits, you've found your intruder!

I like how this army captain, instead of delegating the reconnaissance task to an underling, puts himself at risk by checking out the west hill. He knows you can't delegate and still earn XP!

I also appreciate that this page not only shows me what a helio-graph set looks like, but gives me a good sense of scale as well.

You know your Editor is going easy on you when there's breakable bottles and big wooden clubs just lying around your jail cell, plus a conveniently labeled box of TNT just outside your cell.

Hillmen could be statted as nomads (see Book II).

As new hero Dan Dennis learns, smart mobsters use more than one secret password in their hideouts.

Comic book writers, always prone to exaggeration, may be too quick sometimes to use the word "giant". This is clearly more of a thug than a giant Dan is about to fight.

This strip is Crane of Scotland Yard, but it's the trap I want you to look at. The victim is tied to a tree, a lion is chained up nearby. It's hungry so it lunges and lunges, always pulling the stake on its chain a little more loose until...

For a lower level version, you can replace the lion with a dog. For a higher level version, you could replace the lion with a dinosaur...

As common a tool as dictaphones are in comic books, it's rare to see a good picture of one. This might be the clearest visual of one I've seen yet, in this Dan Dix story.

Although...after seeing this bus, I'm concerned that maybe Dan Dix might not be a good source for historical accuracy. Did buses ever look like that?

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Keen Detective Funnies v. 2 #1

This is from Thurston Hunt and, as unlikely as it seems from how everyone's just standing around here (or as unlikely as an action hero named Thurston), something exciting just happened. His captured informant opened a phony wristwatch that contained a poison pill. Poison pills are already in Book II: Mobsters & Trophies, but a phone wristwatch would be a new trophy item.

As if Thurston Hunt wasn't an odd enough name, this is Geo Poe (or Powell, as he's called in the last panel).

How experience point distribution originally worked in Hideouts & Hoodlums was that everyone involved in a fight got the same XP award. I later changed this to a total that has to be shared between all participants just to avoid scenes like this, where the Hero cowardly charges in with 20 supporting cast members in tow!

No, Geo didn't shoot the house with really explosive bullets; he was targeting a box of TNT inside. What this panel does is serve as a reminder, to Editors, that hideouts had better have more than one way in or out, because you never know when your players will want to bury the way in under rubble.

(Deja vu -- I already shared this page here!)

This is from a complete story called "Snatch-Racket" and this page contains some good advice for H&H players. Asking the Editor questions about what suspects are wearing, or how they are dressed, might net you some clues. Also, when approaching a hideout that consists of a modern-style house, remember that there are many ways of getting inside other than the front door.

From the same story, more evidence that hit point recovery should only take "minutes" -- or at least the first hit point after being at zero.

This is Rocky Baird, who we haven't seen in awhile.  Rocky just got lucky -- his chance of a wandering encounter on this joy ride was probably 1 in 6, unless the biker patrol happened to be a set encounter.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Feature Funnies #14

Jane Arden's advice to players: when checking a document to see if it's a forgery, make sure to check the feel of the paper as well.

This is "Off the Record" gag filler, some of the most consistently funny gag filler I've read in these early comic books. They're not all winners, but the upper left and lower right really amuse me.

This page of Archie O'Toole isn't really Hideouts & Hoodlums-pertinent -- but I think it's got a great message to it that bears sharing.

I can imagine a Halloween-themed scenario for first-level Heroes where they just have to get across town, a town filled with half-pints armed with improvised saps (socks filled with flour -- 1-2 points of damage?). If things escalate, they might start throwing rocks for 1-3 points of damage. Halloween was a much wilder night back then. Note the look of 1930s-era costumes.

This is from Will Eisner's Espionage. There is no game mechanic for fame in H&H. Unless they happen to be spies, it is entirely up to them how much credit and publicity they want to pursue for the good deeds they do. All of this should be handled through role-playing.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Crackajack Funnies #5

The difference between role-playing and roll-playing is exemplified, to me, by this page of Dan Dunn.  Note how Dan's plan doesn't involve sneaking or fighting -- just talking. He's going to talk his way into the villain's hideout. The Editor could still add an element of randomness with encounter reaction rolls, but the players can just keep talking, come at it from a different angle, and try to change the dynamics.

This is Captain Frank Hawks, Air Ace.  Flying Blind should probably be a 1st or 2nd level Aviator stunt, allowing the Aviator to fly safely with zero visibility.

Still in the same adventure, Frank has locked himself into a ship's cabin and the mobsters after him try to break through with an axe. It seems a logical choice in real life, but there is currently no game mechanic bonus to wreck through a door. Maybe axes should have some kind of bonus, like a -1 penalty for the door to save vs. non-Superhero wrecking?

This is Myra North, Special Nurse, and she has a playing tip -- if you think someone has done something and you want to prove it, bribe them to stop and see how they react.

Canisters of anesthetic gas should be a trophy item. It only works in tandem with a grappling attack.

Clyde Beatty, Daredevil Lion Tamer reminds us that you should always keep poison antidotes handy. A lot of my players have all learned to stock up on anti-venom.

In Wash Tubbs, the circus manager (I don't think he was revealed to be an inventor until the story needed him to be) has a spray that makes claws too rubbery to do damage. I think a lot of players would want their Heroes to have this stuff.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Famous Funnies #50

Hard to believe we're up to issue 50 of any title already. I'm thinking, of course, from today's perspective and how few titles reach 50 issues these days!

Let's start examining this issue with Hairbreadth Harry.  Now, Harry's adventures are usually pretty dubious, and this one is no exception -- but, there are two useful points to take away from this. One, it doesn't hurt to cut open the occasional dead animal to see if it swallowed anything useful. Two, hunting dogs can be particularly useful to bring along with your Hero -- not so much for attacking, but for spotting things for the Heroes. Of course, bringing hunting dogs into a hideout puts them at risk, so weigh the pros and cons accordingly.

I've prefaced things with "I never thought I'd need to" before, but I never thought I'd need to show Big Chief Wahoo in these pages until now. Big Chief Wahoo is the Indian version of Popeye, needing to swig some moonshine (or whatever that is) to get super-strong. As such, he's one of the prototypes for the Superhero class.


I've been grappling recently with the 1st ed. rule that Superheroes need to be in costume to earn XP as Superheroes, and whether or not this needs to exist in 2nd edition Hideouts & Hoodlums. In most cases (Superman, Captain Marvel, etc.), it makes a lot of sense, but then there are obvious exceptions like Popeye and Big Chief Wahoo. And if you had any doubts (like I did) that Big Chief Wahoo was a superhero -- in that last panel he's either using the 1st-level power Raise Car or No Encumbrance (which I might wind up merging into just one power).

Smashing through a locked door is a surprisingly complex game mechanic. If Tubby was a Superhero, he would make a wrecking things roll. Because Tubby is a Fighter, though, the door makes a special kind of saving throw vs. non-Superhero wrecking. At least that's where things stand now.


I'm wondering, though, if bashing open locked doors shouldn't just be a skill that all non-Superheroes get a 1 in 6 chance to do.

"Two shots ring out almost at once" is the most telling evidence so far that, when two parties roll the same number for initiative, it should be treated as simultaneous initiative instead of re-rolling.

This is Oaky Doaks. I'm not a fan, but it does seem to demonstrate that anyone, even people not very bright, should have a chance at tracking.  I may have to make that a general skill for all classes to use too.

Scorch Smith here demonstrates the Aviator stunt, Improved Take-Off/Landing.

As I move away, in 2nd ed., from one-use stunts to skills that always have a chance of success, it begs the question of what to do with the Cowboy- and Aviator-specific stunts. The solution I'm considering is to keep the Cowboy and Aviator as sub-classes that anyone can switch to when in those environments. For instance, when a 3rd-level Magic-User gets in the pilot's seat of a plane, he transfers his XP to the Aviator class temporarily and picks out his aviator stunts accordingly. There won't be room for this in the 2nd ed. Basic book, though.

Examples of the Aviator stunts Coast on Fumes and Deadstick (all Aviator stunts from The Trophy Case vol. 1 nos. 6-7).

Goat joke #16!

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Jumbo Comics #1 - part 2

I still haven't seen any spies in action, but there's some interesting aviator action here. Why does one plane simply go down and the other burst into flames? Recently, I suggested assigning hit points to cars for car chases and the same can apply to planes. But what happens when a car or plane reaches zero hit points? Is it enough to say the vehicle is wrecked? Is everything else flavor text?

I found on a fishing guide website that a 9' gar weighs about 360 lbs. -- or would be 2 HD. I would consider this a large gar, with huge gar being 4 HD, and giant gar being 8 HD!

This is Inspector Dayton in the lower right hand corner. His Editor handed him a really easy clue to follow the bad guys. But I shared this for the really good advice for novice players in the two panels preceding that one -- always cover the back exits, and always go in with flashlights.

This is Wilton of the West. I've talked plenty about disarming shots, with missile weapons, and disarming with a "called shot" type attack, but here Wilton's opponent just seems to be accidentally disarmed while they grapple. Maybe I've been going about this all wrong. Maybe all hits in combat should have the same random chance of disarming the opponent? It might help make unarmed combat more appealing...

I wonder if there should be some sort of game mechanic for drawing fire. I've already toyed with how to shield an opponent when you want to take a hit for someone else, but drawing fire is slightly different. It seems a requirement is to be behind cover, and try to trick your opponent into shooting at your cover instead of a better target. Maybe, if you spend your whole turn drawing fire, one opponent will have to save vs. plot or shoot at you, with a slight bonus to your cover adjustment (like -3 to be hit behind hard cover)?

And, lastly, I really like this pun. Bob Kane had a knack for humor strips.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)