Flash Comics #3 - pt. 1

The Flash's hometown is New York City, at least for this story, and the city's newspaper is the Town Cackle, a paper that sells for 2 cents. When his fiance Joan's father is framed as a spy, the Flash's first suspect is the newspaper that reported it (to be fair, it was Joan's idea, and who wants to say no to their fiance?). At the office, Flash just happens to hear the city editor implicate himself to a subordinate.

In Hideouts & Hoodlums, there can either be a random chance of coming into the room at the right moment, or the Editor can simply force the encounter to happen that way if the entire plot hinges on it. Of course, it is not a good idea to make scenarios hinge on a single choice of the player(s). Suppose no one had thought to go to the newspaper office?

Flash uses the powers Invisibly Fast and Race the Train (provided the first power's duration had ended).

Major Williams' science project is the "neutronic bombardment of uranium," which suggests that with minimal research you could learn some reasonably accurate atomic research talk at the beginning of 1940.

Flash is smart to interview Williams to find out what he knows and who he suspects (indeed, it might have made more sense to do this before starting to investigate the Town Cackle), but his timing works against him when Williams' house is robbed at the same time Flash is in jail interviewing Williams. When super-speed is available (or Teleport, for high-level magic-users), plots will need to hinge on this sort of lucky timing.

Not sure what the average temperature was in March 1940, but if Flash strips you down to just your dress shirt and leaves you on the top of the Empire State Building, you'll take a point or two of cold damage.

Rather than use his powers to coerce confessions out of the editor, Flash goes incognito and uses a concealed dictaphone to record his confession. And then the same trick works again when he talks to the spy above him. It's like, if you try to trick a mobster into confessing, the mobster has to save vs. plot to resist the urge to monolog about everything.

When Major Williams is cleared and released from the county jail, he blurts out to the warden that the Flash's real last name is Garrick.

Flash spends a considerable amount of time running out of costume, putting to bed the conceit in 1st ed H&H that superheroes would not be able to use their powers out of costume.

Is that Flash is using some sort of spinning power against the boss spy when he spins him around by his heels (he's pretty strong to lift a man up by his heels!), but the end result is the mobster simply being prone on the ground, so this could have been a simple trip attack with a lot of flavor text added to it.

Further analysis of this issue can be found in The Trophy Case #1.

Next up is Cliff Cornwall, Special Agent. In Panama, Cliff is apparently seduced by a vamp working for spies in the employ of a fictional country called Bortola. Bortola is an Italian female name, meaning that "Bortola" is likely a stand-in for Italy. The naval plans spies are after this month are for a new design of battle cruiser. There's a wrinkle to this one, as the plans currently contain a fatal flaw known to Cliff and the inventor. Instead of keeping it away from the spies, Cliff needs to get these faulty plans to them without making them suspicious -- a good scenario for players who enjoy role-playing over combat, I suppose.

There are a few flaws in the execution. Keeping Cliff's girlfriend in the dark about the seduction was stupid and should have lost him a girlfriend before the end. The Bortolan navy spends "$1 million" on their new fleet of faulty cruisers. Why are they spending American currency?

In this issue, Hawkman is spelled "Hawk-Man," and the narrator also refers to him as "The Phantom of the Night," which doesn't really make much sense. Hawk-Man isn't too concerned about his secret identity (neither was Flash, really), as he sees an old friend of his out for a stroll and calls out to him, "I'm Carter Hall!" He's wearing a completely different design of helmet in this adventure too, one that rests on top of his head and leaves his whole face exposed.

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

Thrilling Comics #2 - pt. 3

Saving the Wayne Girl is worth 100 XP for the good deed. Capturing the Mask is worth $25,000 and almost guarantees a level up.

And yet...letting the villain slip away once he's underwater is a staple of the genre, so he would have had to make a save vs. plot to dive for the Mask.

Now we'll jump into Tom Niles, Undersea Raider. This strip is even harder to read, with smaller font and gray captions. I could read enough for this part to jump out at me, about Berlin being a seaport. That can't be right, can it? I thought. Apparently, Berlin is linked to the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, and the Rhine River by a network of rivers, lakes, and canals.

There are a lot of ways this encounter at the bottom could have gone without violence. I mean, don't be so jumpy, Tom! They probably just wanted to check your papers. But in fairness, the soldiers seem to jump the gun too for no reason. It's a good idea to always come up with an idea for your encounter and a motive for the mobsters to work for.

The ol' impersonate-an-officer trick backfires because the commanding officer makes his save vs. plot. The guards at the door fail their saves and fall for such an obvious bluff.

I'm not sure how you would use a bayonet to bend iron bars, but apparently it was easy enough for Tom that it happened off-panel.

I honestly don't know how difficult a zip line is to ride, and if it should be treated as a skill or not.

I wonder if there is really a single lever on a submarine that would let water in. That doesn't seem like good design to me.

I really wanted to share this page because the U-boat is the U-46, and that was the name of my school district!

Tom's strategy seems sound, but I'm not sure how those tactics would play out mechanically in Hideouts & Hoodlums. I'm not liking the idea of fast-moving opponents being able to move into range, attack, and move out without counter-attack, as it seems grossly unfair the way the combat system is set up now. I may have to come back to thinking about that, particularly later when we start looking at more speedster superheroes.

Mobsters can punch women without a save vs. plot!

Despite only being halfway ready for second level, Tom is already given a captaincy at the end, as a special reward for his mission. Special rewards and titles can be worth XP as well.














There's trouble at the hospital and the police are called in. Naturally, a policewoman is put on the case and...immediately dresses up like a vigilante? Does she not think being a policewoman would give her enough pull with the hospital to let her talk to the staff? Or is this some subtle social commentary, that as a woman she feels unsupported by the establishment and has to go outside the boundaries to do what needs doing?

She lucks onto that mobster way too easily in the hospital, like a really lucky wandering encounter roll, or maybe a set encounter.

The assassin is a good one, offing the mobster before he can get out any clue.

The Woman in Red also loses the fight quickly, as a 1st-level Hero most likely would.

Typical of the mysteryman convention, everyone who sees her thinks she's one of the bad guys. You'd think she would just give up and show them her badge...

There's no such thing as an automatic hit in H&H, even when you're firing with a gun and your target is standing less than 10' away from you.

Implied in panel 3 is that the Woman in Red killed those mobsters, or else she could have questioned them when they woke up.

The caption in panel 5 tells us that the assassin we saw earlier is also classed as a mysteryman. Probably at least 2nd level, since he worked over WiR so quickly.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Tip Top Comics #29, 30

Moving on to vol. 3, no. 5 (Sept. 1938), we rejoin Broncho Bill as he's doing some trick shooting. But how we do make this work in game mechanics? How do we transfer the shooting attack to a deflect-hot-poker-into-face attack? A push attack against a non-living object? Yes, that's possible. A stunt? I've written at length about using the Mysteryman class to emulate cowboys (en lieu of needing a separate Cowboy class), but stunts are supposed to be separate from combat (so as not to eclipse the  

need for the Fighter class). But what if that was made different for Cowboys? What if Cowboys could use stunts in combat for trick shots, as long as the shots did not directly hit a living target? That might work, as long as the Cowboys gave up some other benefit of the Mysteryman class, for balance.

Now, on this strip, we learn that falling 175' means "certain death," which may seem strange to our eyes because we're used to thinking of 175' feet as 17d6 damage and, under normal  

circumstances, that only causes unconsciousness in Hideouts & Hoodlums. But this is a case that almost screams out for realism; perhaps a house rule that 60 points of damage all at once always causes death would not be unreasonable.

I don't get the joke in Benny (not unusual, I never find this one funny), but it does give us the prices for men's hats ($3-5), gum (1 cent), and haircuts (20 cents). It's also worth mentioning that this looks much closer to a gumball machine than the gum vending machine we saw in Chris Crusty just days ago.

Wow, this is one mean-spirited fun house. Is that clown zapping Phil with a cattle prod? There is some great fodder here that I wish I'd seen soon enough to send to Jo Kreil before module RT2 Adventures in Fun World got written!

 The amethyst story is somewhat interesting, but the true "gem" here is "The Enchanted Cave of Richmond Hill." Now, I don't believe that was really King Arthur in the cave, because why would Arthur have a diamond-encrusted sword with him when Excaliber was returned to the Lady of the Lake? But the idea of a spooky cave that looks trapped, but actually rewards you if you're brave enough to go up and touch stuff -- that idea I'm stealing.

Now we're moving on to vol. 3, no. 6 (Oct. 1938).

You've never seen Divot Diggers on this blog before, as it's a super-specific subject for a comic strip and doesn't lend itself to adventure. But, it does give us some pricing hints this issue,

starting with $20 for what I'm guessing is some kind of medicinal liniment, and then in the next one the remarkable sum of $500 for a rug (though we've talked before here about how, while many things were cheap in the 1930s, there was still plenty of high-priced stuff for the rich to blow their money on). The lesson here is, when

looting a hideout, check those rugs to see if they're valuable (and try not to get any blood on them!).

We haven't seen much of Joe Jinks on this blog, and certainly not since he started teaming up with Dynamite Dunn. I still don't care for either character, but I do like the snooty rich boxer they encounter here (stealing that character!). I also share this because this is the first I've ever heard of a boxer's license badge.

And lastly, while I get that this is just a stage magician and likely not a true Magic-User, I'm intrigued by some of the tricks he does and wonder if we need to discuss how they would work in H&H. Many of these stunts -- the rabbit out of the hat, the box sawed in half, the disappearing juggling balls, are just sleight of hand tricks and, hence, require expert skill checks. But, I can't say I've ever heard of a stage magician appearing to impale his assistant with a sword before. Could that be an actual spell -- and what spell would it be? Phantasmal Image of a sword, perhaps?

...I also don't get the "Rubber!" joke at the end.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Feature Comics #29 - pt. 2

I sure hope those cows are okay!

Rance Keane goes over the evidence and finds the hard-to-miss one -- the railroad spike has been removed -- and one that feels a bit like overreach -- because he only finds the print from a right shoe, he presumes that there was only a right shoe. Odd that he isn't suspicious about not seeing the marks from a cane or crutch at the scene. Did he think the saboteur just hopped around?

Rance not only thinks he has the right to go snooping under the beds of people he suspects, but if he finds two matching shoes he thinks he has irrefutable evidence. This reminds me of a school of thought when it comes to game refereeing which advocates having no planned solution to a problem, but just go along with whatever solution the players come up with.

A rare instance of a hatchet being used as a missile weapon, and of a male supporting cast member fainting (failed morale save, not a failed loyalty save).

This is Captain Fortune climbing around, finding that even on cliffs there can be encounter areas. The skeleton with the warning pinned to it is great hideout dressing.

Slim and Tubby encounter bad guys with an unusual strategy -- they lose on purpose, to make the good guys look bad. In certain circumstances (like this boxing ring) it could work.

And we'll wrap up with Spin Shaw, who's in an aerial dogfight with unidentified, but possibly Japanese, planes. The fighting maneuver most used in this fight appears to be a wingover, though it is never named by the narrator. I just found this Wikipedia entry, which I will definitely have to incorporate in the Heroes Handbook.

Forcing a pilot to crash is, interestingly, not listed among the basic fighting maneuvers I linked to above.

I'm not sure a parachute would just pop open and spread out like that...in fact, I'm inclined to doubt it (save vs. science to make it happen?). I'm also not sure how swinging overhead keeps Spin from getting shot at; more likely he just won initiative that turn.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Thrilling Comics #1 - pt. 2

Returning to Dr. Strange's debut adventure (already in progress), we find Strange has activated either the Imperviousness or the Invulnerability power. He grapples two men at once, which he could do if he has activated Multi-Attack.

Here, we also get a great example of how the power Raise Car can be used offensively, by tossing it and its occupants over a cliff.

It really looks like the "mysterious figure" is also grappling two opponents at the same time, even though there is no further evidence that this guy is a superhero.

What appears to have happened is that a wandering good man (1st level superhero) just happened to come by and see a chance to do a good deed. Of course, what makes this much more interesting is that Togo is a third-party agent, ingratiating himself into the supporting cast in order to spy on them.

Which reminds me that, non-Heroes should have the option of waving the Supporting Cast recruitment roll and volunteering to become SCMs, if it makes sense for them to do so.

Strange says the address and stamp are on the letter, but I suspect what he meant is that they are on the envelope. A stamped envelope is a great clue to find at the scene of a crime.

Not to put too big a spoiler out there, but Strange should be suspicious that a police commissioner has enough free time for long ocean voyages...

Not buffed with Different Physical Structure (to boost his saves), Strange easily falls victim to the sleeping poison in his food.

The shark could be a random wandering encounter, but as often as sharks seem to show up every time in this situation, I think we have to assume that the Editor just likes to have this happen.

Superheroes shouldn't be able to "tear apart" living things (that sounds like wrecking things), but it is also possible that the shark just ran out of hit points while being grappled.

The plane swooping down at just that moment, immediately after a shark encounter, is unlikely a wandering encounter. One does not normally roll for wandering encounters during combat turns unless there are lots of mobsters in that area. This event just screams Editor intervention. Perhaps Strange legitimately made his SCM roll for Parker, at least.

By now, Strange's player should be expecting that everyone he encounters was planned out by the Editor -- and some Editors do prefer to work that way.

Strange fails an encounter reaction check, but a bribe gets him a new encounter reaction check from one of them.

Okay, punching planes out of the sky does look pretty cool...but it is pretty hard to believe that any pilot would intentionally fly that close to another plane. Maybe we need a new power called Extend Melee Range? Or, this could be the power Wreck at Range (since he is wrecking the planes), and the punching is only flavor text.

Stationary rayguns have enormous range, as is demonstrated in entries of the 2nd edition Basic book.

Being hit by a vehicle normally does (ahem) a boatload of damage, see the Basic book for examples of ramming damage.

Although the encounter with the huge constrictor snake seems to come directly after landing, Strange's Invulnerability power might still be active then, which would negate any suspense from this encounter.

Strange uses Flurry of Blows vs. the giant crocodiles. It seems like Strange has an awful lot of power slots available to him, but there may be some time compression in the telling of this story, as I hinted at about the previous page. He may be swimming towards the island on the say after fighting the serpent.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Blue Ribbon Comics #3 - pt. 2

Stuart Logan not only knows to look for clues, but knows that how a trail of blood moves around furniture can itself be a clue.

I'm not convinced this is a good way to murder someone, but it would make a good trap for injuring someone.

This filler page explains what most comic book robots of the time are based on, Elektro being the real life robot from the World's Fair.

This is Silver Fox, another detective. He wisely points out a problem with fingerprinting -- having one set of fingerprints does  you no good without another set of fingerprints to compare it too (which is why he's pretending he wants to buy the vase).

Personally, I feel like this is a bit of a cheat in an investigation scenario, but sometimes, if your player just isn't picking up on the right clues, you have to let his Hero overhear a confession. Or you can prearrange for there to be a confession, but the Hero has to be in the right place at the right time to hear it.

I'm pretty sure the police can't do this now, and probably not then either.

I have never been a fan of this guy, who's art graced all the early Centaur comics. Dick Ryan's "The Master Plan of Billy Wolf" ends in Billy being placed in a deathtrap and hurled off a cliff -- so, that's right, kids -- Billy is lying there dead at the end.

Note how quickly the reporter is deputized, just for being a played character who shows up at the crime scene.

Classic -- this is the 20th century version of hiding a gem in the head of a cane. Players often don't think of the versatile uses of chewing gum. Now that I think of it, I think I'll buy a pack for my own Hero!

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Feature Comics #23 - pt. 2

It's little uses like this -- ventriloquism for a non-serious diversion - that led me to rethink one-use stunts and expand it to include a skill system.

Used cigarettes, an empty matchbook, and broken glasses are all good clues to leave behind at a crime scene.

This seems pretty clever -- trick kidnappers into coming out of hiding by pretending you're trying to undercut them.

I also think more good guys should call the bad guys "suckers".

The first mobster clearly fails his morale save upon seeing The Clock. But later, when circumstances change, the same mobster is given a second morale save and gets a different result.

This is Rance Keane. It's unlikely that the rattlesnake is just a wandering encounter; more likely, the Editor has set encounter areas around the waterhole, like an open-air hideout, and the rattlesnake is just in one of them and the bandits in another. It's certainly unusual to set up encounter areas like this that are within line of sight with each other, but would make for a challenging scenario.

A pretty funny Off the Record panel.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)