Prize Comics #1 - pt. 2

We rejoin Power Nelson in the "future" of 1982. Here he faces a rhino in the arena and defeats it in one blow -- because pacing is really tight in these early stories and nobody spent a lot of time on depicting combats. The Hideouts & Hoodlums do not emulate this, because playing out combats is too integral to the nature of a RPG -- even if it is not the sole focus of H&H as it is so many other games.

There are three ways we can explain this, in-game. One, we could say this rhino simply had low hit points, perhaps due to age or illness, or random rolling without any rationalizing. Two, we could reduce the Hit Dice of big animal mobstertypes, if we wanted to, to make combats against them go quicker like we see here. Three, Power might be using Super Punch, though that is a high level power, and means that Power is not a 1st-level superhero, but one with at least five brevet ranks.

To sum up the tiger fight, Nelson uses Raise Car to lift the rhino, combined with Extend Missile Range to turn the rhino into a missile weapon.

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Platoons must be smaller in the future; this platoon appears to consist of just seven men.

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It's bizarre that the Mongols were so sporting as to give Nelson a net so large that it could ensnare seven men at once, a net at least 30' x 30'. If explained by powers instead, Nelson has expended three Hold Person powers, which seems almost as unlikely.

Now we're in the middle of the second feature, Ted O'Neil the Barnstormer. There is some crazy aerial acrobatics in this feature, most of which I have trouble believing would be possible

One, there's holding on to the edge of a plane's wing by your knees. I would make the aviator burn a stunt for doing this at normal altitude, and then two more to hold on during the dive! I wouldn't even allow skill checks for something this crazy.

And that handkerchief snatch? I'd make Ted roll to hit AC 0, or maybe even lower, to hit the handkerchief wile passing at that speed, plus a save vs. science to avoid taking ramming damage if he connects with the ground.

Climbing a shaking rope to climb up to a plane might be an expert skill, or could be another stunt. Holding onto Ogden in mid-air is a grappling attack, so no stunts can be used on that.

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Aviator's helmets and bags of silver are more clues to add to murder scenes, and the next time I put together a random table of clues (I did one in The Trophy Case years ago).

Who keeps bags of silver around their home?

A plane's cowling is the removable hood over its engine.

Ogden may be the first villain in comics so cheap that he has to hitchhike to get around.

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Normally I say that stunts cannot be used in combat, but here the gripping the wing of the plane is mostly independent of the grappling attack, and I might begrudgingly allow it.

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Mobs in 1940 are awfully trusting of confessions that are beaten out of someone. Doesn't it occur to them that Ogden might be lying now to make the beating stop?



(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Keen Detective Funnies #18 - pt. 3

We're getting to the back of the book now and this month's semi-colored installment of Spy Hunters.

There is a village in Punjab, India called Abdal, but I don't know if that already existed in 1940, or would be a place an American author then would know about. There is an Abdal people in India, Urdu-speaking Muslims, that might be where the author learned the name from.

It's also worth reminding players that this was a time before portable radios, so communication by flashing light off of mirrors was a thing your Heroes might have to employ.

I'm including this page because it's important to note that not everyone everywhere had a radio by 1940. This whole village has no radio, and it's not just natives in the village.

You don't see "Unlimber your machine gun" every day, so I thought I'd include this page, and then look up what "unlimber" means. Apparently, it's a real word that means "detach (a gun) from its limber so that it can be used."

Okay...then I had to look up what a "limber" is. It's 
"a two-wheeled cart designed to support the trail of an artillery piece, or the stock of a field carriage such as a caisson or traveling forge, allowing it to be towed." Huh, who knew?

I'm interested in this page for the map, and wondering how authentic it is. Again, series creator Lochlan Field (according to comics.org) has done his research; Chitral is a real place, both a state and a city that serves as the capital of that state. The Mahi River flows past Chitral at the same angle as that road in the drawing. 

Chitral is significant for the British because of the
Chitral Expedition. It was, according to Wikipedia, "a military expedition in 1895 sent by the British authorities to relieve the fort at Chitral which was under siege after a local coup. After the death of the old ruler power changed hands several times. An intervening British force of about 400 men was besieged in the fort until it was relieved by two expeditions, a small one from Gilgit and a larger one from Peshawar." In other words, a major wargaming scenario.

And this page I'm sharing because it's a rare time when we see first aid being administered (rare, despite how common it is in all Hideouts & Hoodlums scenarios).

Moving on, we have another adventure of the inspiration for the floating eye mobstertype in H&H -- The Eye. We see here that there is a peculiar feature to its invisibility, as one of the workers is able to see it. Does everyone in line of sight need to save vs. spells to see through its special invisibility (the spell does not act this way)?

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The other reason to share this page is to speculate as to which real country "Osthania" represents. Remember that, this early in 1940, Germany has hardly invaded any countries yet. Further, "bombarded on all sides" seems to only apply to Poland, uniquely caught between Russian and German advances.

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The Eye can talk! Or is it telepathy, like I had floating eyes use? It's hard to tell because the "science" of word balloons is still in its infancy; there's not even a uniform balloon shape for thought balloons yet, let alone ones that denote telepathy.

Here the Eye demonstrates telekinesis, and not particularly strong telekinesis either, just like the spell. Though maybe he's just being very careful at not setting off the explosives.















"Alfonsky" even seems to confirm this is Poland. But there wouldn't be a Pole in charge of Poland past September 1939, meaning this story had to have taken place earlier than that. The President then was Ignacy Moscicki, which doesn't even rhyme with Alfonsky. Our ambassador to Poland at the time was Anthony J. Drexel Biddle Jr. -- and we know what date he left Poland, September 5, 1939, so we can date this story to the specific day thanks to this page. Anthony even had two daughters, though they were named Mary and Margaret, neither being Sandra.

Further, applying Polish history to this scene explains why the bombers are coming; this would be Day 5 of the German Invasion of Poland.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Funny Pages v. 4 #1 - pt. 1

We return to Centaur's Funny Pages with a new lead feature. Though signed "Richard Bruce," this is believed to be more early work by Plastic Man's Jack Cole.

Here we see a rare origin story for a magic-user. We get a sense that becoming a magic-user is itself dangerous, perhaps even requiring a save vs. poison!  In Supplement I: National, I used the snake bite panel to illustrate the Snark Charm spell. The snake may have been charmed into biting Mantoka, although snakes don't always need provocation to bite.

Here, seemingly soon thereafter, Mantoka has the ability to Polymorph Self, marking him as at least 7th level.  That a 7th-level magic-user would have to run from four dogs seems unlikely, unless Mantoka simply did not want to engage them and possibly see them hurt.

The electric eye trap is our first indication that this is modern day.

This is a really nice page, with a surprisingly P.C. representation of an Indian as an intelligent, modern man, who doesn't need magic to embarrass a racist.

Then Mantoka seems to use the spell Stoneskin on himself, unless it's a magical variant of the Super-Tough Skin power.

Straining your arm is not linked to any game mechanic, but is flavor text.

Mantoka uses a Gaseous Form spell to escape, then uses Burning Hands (even more literal than the D&D version) on the mine guard.

Mantoka gets felled by a head blow.

Mantoka was only stunned, because no one recovers from full unconsciousness that quickly in Hideouts & Hoodlums.

Being tied up does not hinder his spell-casting, since he seems to have cast Enlargement on himself. Unless, maybe he actually used the wrecking things mechanic on the ropes and enlarging was flavor text.

Mantoka then uses either some new intangibility spell, or maybe an illusion to fool the guards, and then casts a Mass Polymorph spell that turns three men into rats. That's got to be a 6th level spell, meaning Mantoka has ten brevet ranks to cast it! In Supplement I, I used that panel to illustrate the Reincarnate spell, though it does not really match it well.


 

Freezing the flood was either the work of a Control Water spell or maybe a Cone of Cold spell. In Supplement I, I used that panel to illustrate the spell Ice Storm.

Now we move on to The Arrow.

As illustrated here, movement takes place before combat actions.

We should not be surprised that The Arrow can kill motors and smash guns to bits with his arrows; we have already seen evidence that he should be statted as a superhero, and is using the Wreck at Range power here.

What's puzzling here is the first panel -- what is going on when they hit the blank wall? Did The Arrow teleport out of the way? Project an illusion of himself being in front of that wall? Or is this skill-based, and he hid in shadows?

That the Arrow is able to take out a thug (generally 2 HD in H&H) in one punch suggests that he is buffed with the Get Tough power. Hitting four men in one turn suggests he is also buffed with the Flurry of Blows power.

This is Mad Ming, though you won't see any evidence of Mad Ming on this page. Gene is a G-Man, Jinny is his ...girlfriend? The old man is a plot hook character, possibly also a supporting cast member (we'll have to see if we see more of him after this). The old man fails his loyalty check and refuses to go down into the hideout/haunted cave.

Jinny's response includes the unusual phrase "Not much!" when she means "No way!"

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus.)

Crackajack Funnies #19 - pt. 1

Back to public domain stories I can show!

Here we rejoin Don Winslow of the Navy, explaining a bit of problem solving he did. We also are reminded of a definition of "dope" that we might often forget these days.

Someone's been pranking this poor ship captain, replacing his maps with fakes. The Balkans do not border the Mediterranean Sea; they border the Adriatic.

What a "paravane" is is explained here.

The idea that Indians were secretly hoarding gold has enticed white men since arriving in North America.

If I ever succeed in making the Cowboy class (debuted in Supplement III: Better Quality) viable in 2nd edition, it will surely keep the ability to summon mount.

This is Ed Tracer, G-Man X32.

Dapper Danz is very excited about narcotics.

The secret hideout is an old moonshiner's cave with a secret front door.

This page is a nice twist. When we met "Deacon" Slade a few pages earlier, he just seemed like a harmless wandering encounter, maybe a red herring. But it turns out he's a rival with a different agenda vs. Dapper Danz.

Man, that sure is a nice looking Donald Duck pocket watch. It's going to cost a lot more than $1 today!

Stratosphere Jim has an interesting alternative explanation for how VTOL planes would work. A pressurized cabin was also a rare novelty circa 1940.

It would be 1953 before any plane officially matched this airspeed record.  A simple system for keeping track of trophy items would be to say that a plane 13 years ahead of its time is a Plane +1, 26 years ahead of its time would be a Plane +2, 39 years ahead of its time would be a Plane +3, and so on.

The notion that secrets need to be kept, even from your own government, were a comic book staple before WWII, but would quickly seem unpatriotic. Yet, I wonder how many superheroes quietly shared their weapons' secrets with the War Department...

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Detective Comics #34

And we're back to The Batman! I've read elsewhere some people guessing that is the Crimson Avenger featured more prominently on the cover, but it doesn't really look like something he'd wear and I think that's meant to be just a random mysteryman.

This issue is a flashback to when The Batman was still in Paris (from 2-3 issues ago). Bruce runs into a faceless man and, because he didn't read Dick Tracy when he fought The Blank, is really shocked. I wonder if I should stat a mobster type called Faceless Men who have a Scare Good Guy power...?

To a modern reader, "Duc D'Orterre, Master of the Apaches" might need translation. The first half is French for "Duke of Orterre," while the second half is (obviously) English, and is referring to (according to Wikipedia) "a Parisian Belle Époque violent criminal underworld subculture of early 20th-century hooligans, night muggers, street gangs and other criminals," and not American Indians. Orterre is a fictional duchy in France and is closest to Orléans of real French duchy names.

Throwing a missile weapon, like a throwing dagger, through the open window of a taxi car can't be easy, so it's no wonder the Apache tossing at Karel misses. Karel would normally just have soft cover from the car door, but given the odd angle the dagger seems to have come from into the vehicle (almost from in front of the taxi!), I might give a steeper bonus of 2 or 3 points. Sometimes, facing really does matter in combat, but it has to be the Editor's call when circumstances would call for this.

Le Duc D'Orterre has a face-burning ray that can erase the features of your face, while still allowing you to see, breathe, and talk.  It doesn't make much sense -- unless the ray only affects the ability of others to perceive your face.

Bruce Wayne steps out of a room and then The Batman steps back in to talk to Charles and Karel Maire. Because this is a comic book, there's still a chance that Charles and Karel don't immediately make the connection that Bruce Wayne is The Batman, but I would give them a save vs. plot at a +2 bonus to figure it out.

The Batman's plan for finding the Duke is to wander the Parisian sewers until he runs into a wandering encounter of two Apaches -- who I guess I would stat as bloodthirsty hoodlums, since I don't have stats for hooligans or muggers yet, and my version of the gangster is decidedly different from these knife-wielding cutthroats. Before the battle is over, a second wandering encounter check brings back up -- a third hoodlum and the Duke himself.

The Duke is armed with a light-emitting cane which somehow stuns The Batman.

The Duke's death trap for The Batman is a mechanical wheel that spins anyone strapped to its outer edge, with a chance each minute of slamming him into the stone wall of the cell for...let's say 1-8 damage? Enough slams and it could definitely kill someone.

The Batman simply snaps his bonds, as if he was a superhero, in this story. This happens often enough in stories that I allow heroes to escape bonds as a skill check, but I would only give them one check, without changing the circumstances somehow.

A trap door in the ceiling of the wheel-trap room leads to what appears to be a garden where flowers grow with human faces. The Batman sees them and uncharacteristically sits down with his face buried in his hands. It's a disturbing scene -- possibly the result of some hallucinogenic gas in the room that effectively stuns The Batman. If taken literally, though, then the Duke has somehow grafted human heads to flowers in a way that keeps them alive, and seeing them is a trap that causes temporary insanity.

Despite having entered the garden room from underneath it, The Batman is lead by a talking flower to a "glass door" (which doesn't look like glass at all) that leads back into the room he'd just left. The garden room must be a split-level room.

Charles, captured separately, tells The Batman that the Duke has fled to Champagne. Champagne is a province, the west side of which might have overlapped the historic duchy of Orleans, so that bit works out -- though with such a large geography to search, it's rather remarkable how quickly The Batman spots the Duke's fleeing automobile.

Gardner Fox's word of the day is tonneau. A tonneau is the cover used to protect the passenger seats in a convertible.

The next story is Spy. Bart Regan's stories always seem to presuppose that there was some intelligence agency in the US besides the FBI -- which made sense in that Steve Carson worked for the FBI, and Steve and Bart never crossed paths. In this story, we see Bart heading into to work and it clearly looks like the entrance to the Capital Building, not the Department of Justice building the FBI worked out of in Washington, DC.

Bart is walking up the front steps with another man when they are shot at in a drive-by shooting. Bart immediately assumes the other man was the target even though Bart surely has a great many enemies by now. It seems an odd sort of hunch, and I suspect it would either be a wild guess on the player's part, or the Editor was feeding extra information to the player to lead to that assumption.

The ambassador is from "Bolaria," which sounds like it should be Bolivia, but it's not; Bolaria and Luxor are two warring European nations. Luxor is Germany, so Bolaria is...France?

Bart takes the ambassador's place, thanks to an on-staff make-up artist (a SCM who would be even better than the heroes at disguises, so maybe a save vs. plot to see through it at a penalty?). He heads to Europe via a trans-Atlantic clipper plane. The plane is shot down by two fighter planes from Luxor, but are either disguised to look like pirate planes or Luxor's flag looks exactly like a pirate flag.

(Batman story read in Batman Archives vol. 1, Spy story read at readcomiconline.to.)

Smash Comics #5 - pt. 2

Wow, it's been so long, I finished and published the HIDEOUTS & HOODLUMS Basic Book 2nd Edition between posts!

I love how the Scientective uses science for problem-solving. Here, he realizes that something in the room with him can dissolve the material binding his wrists. Of course, a smart Editor anticipates things like this and stocks his hideouts accordingly.

"Rheostat" is a word that's fallen out of common usage. It means an adjustable resistor so constructed that its resistance may be changed without opening the circuit in which it is connected, thereby controlling the current in the circuit.  Of course, John could have just said "This switch ought to shut off the power," but that wouldn't sound very Science-y!

With little time to spare, John Law has to start playing hunches. His first hunch is that the brand new power plant right by the tracks can't be a coincidence, just like every reader was probably thinking on the first page.

John is able to smash the generator easily despite not being a superhero (and wouldn't he be in trouble if his hunch had been wrong!). I did include a note in the scientist entry in the mobsters section of the H&H 2nd ed. basic rulebook that scientists can all wreck labs -- but John is a Hero, not a mobster. For now, this will just have to fall outside the game mechanics...until the scientist class comes back in the Advanced Hideouts & Hoodlums Heroes Handbook someday...

There's a very curious editor's note about a giant induction field displayed at the New York World's Fair. I have not been able to find evidence of this, unless the editor is referring to the automated highway system demonstrated in the Futurama exhibit. I can find no evidence that Russian scientists were ever working on a "floating railroad." Could the author have read something about the electrification of the Russian railway system and misunderstood...?

This is from Wings Wendall and what makes me stop and pause is...what did that officer look up commercial airplane listings in?  Trade journals? Records of the Civil Aeronautics Authority? If Wings is flying with the U.S. Army Air Corps, how do they have these civilian records close at hand?

I like to think these hoodlums are just sitting there in warehouse drinking and planning because they're drunken hoodlums.

I've waffled for a long time now on how vehicular combat should go in Hideouts & Hoodlums. Do weapons trigger a chance of complications, like crashing? Or should it, like man-to-man combat, be a incremental process of hit point loss? The wording of "guns take their toll" suggests to me the latter, as the abstract, cumulative damage -- not any one hit on any one part -- is what causes the crash. But I've so far seen evidence in the comics that support both ways.

The idea that the Boss left such a simple note for Agent M-29 on a scrap of paper, rather than expecting him to commit a single sentence to memory, is an obviously planted clue. But planted for a trap, or by an Editor who really wants his player to get to that warehouse?

It's also worth noting that Wings doesn't head straight to the warehouse, but reports his intention to his superior officer first. That's a very Lawful way to play.

Why is one window locked and another window left open? It could be saves vs. plot, or it could be a simple 1-3 yes/4-6 no roll. The first option makes Heroes luckier as they advance in level, while the second option keeps circumstances at an even random chance.

We also see Wings being surprised. Fresh arrivals to an ongoing combat still get a chance at surprise.

Wings is attacked here by gangsters, a new mobster type with a special ability of getting victims into cars.

Although players should have some control over their supporting cast, they cannot just arbitrarily declare that their SCMs show up when the Hero is in trouble. The players can suggest that SCMs show up, and the Editor can decide if he should say yes or no, or give them a save vs. plot to see if it happens.

This sequence reminded me, while preparing the chase rules for 2nd edition, that I needed to include a missile combat phase during the chase turn!

I think I missed this, though -- when I compiled a list of abstract complications that could happen during a chase, I may have missed the slowing complication, like a flat tire. I'll have to double check...

Wings recovers quickly because of the new rule in 2nd ed. that allows unconscious Heroes a save vs. plot to recover in 1-6 turns. Because he's still in danger, turns are still being counted in half minutes.

The "boss" is either a master criminal or, if the spy class was in use, a higher level spy.

This is Invisible Justice. Thurston is driven off the road during a car chase (the complication is crash, but because there's water nearby to crash into, Thurston only loses the car and takes no damage).

Here's a precedent for invisibility, at least granted by trophy items, not turning items touched invisible.

Old mansions, on the only estates for miles around, make great hideouts (plus, its fairly easy to find a map of a generic mansion you can use for your game on short notice).

Large patio doors without closed drapes make a great way to spy on the hideouts' occupants before going in.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

Detective Comics #33 - pt. 1

This is the issue that gave us Batman's famous, two-page origin story. This story is also the origin of both the "cowardly" and "superstitious" hoodlums, from Bruce's famous speech about "criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot."

When the real adventure begins, Bruce Wayne observes scarlet rays. These rays have multiple effects -- they can blind people and wreck buildings (probably at least as well as a 6th level superhero). Since thousands are killed in a single attack, we can assume they have a large range and a wide area of effect.

Prof. Carl Kruger is at least our 2nd Napoleon mobster in comics -- though I'm still not seeing a lot of justification for statting it differently like I did before in 1st edition. Maybe Napoleons are just master criminals or master criminal/scientists.

Batman hurls his Baterang as a missile weapon for the first time here, but Kruger is protected by a glass wall he keeps in his office between his desk and the window (perhaps wary of snipers?). Batman is overcome with a surprise head blow from behind (already going in 2nd edition).

Kruger's death trap is to leave Batman tied up with rope on the floor with a bomb set to go off in five minutes. Why Kruger wants to blow up his own house isn't clear, other than that he's obviously crazy. Batman cuts his bonds with a blade concealed in his boot and escapes in time. Luckily, Kruger never checked his boots -- or even peeked under his mask! (Save vs. plot to make sure villains don't do anything that obvious to you when you're captured.)

Batman doesn't escape entirely, though. His bleeding lip seems to indicate he took some of the blast, just not enough to kill him. An explosion would normally require a save vs. science for half damage, but with a deathtrap maybe it should be a save vs. plot for half damage, with a failed save meaning death instead of twice the damage.

Batman's not a great fighter yet in these early stories, but he's smart. He doesn't know where Kruger fled to, but Kruger unwisely told him the names of his lieutenants and one, apparently, has a publicly known address. Batman confronts him, tells him to take a message to Kruger, and then follows him in his Batplane (still the auto-gyro).  Of course, Batman would have been sunk had the lieutenant simply called Kruger on the phone...

Batman has a glass vial that, when it breaks, surrounds the Batplane in a thick smokescreen that clings to the plane. How this doesn't blind Batman isn't clear.

Guards can be really stupid. They see a smokescreen hovering in the sky and mistake it for a raincloud. I think even Winnie-the-Pooh would have seen through this.

Smaller (I presume weaker) versions of the scarlet death-rayguns can be mounted on trucks. They're delicate though -- one shot and they all blow up. Kruger explains soon thereafter that the death ray is a combination of ozone and gamma rays.

This is the first story in which Batman's life is saved by a bulletproof vest. This time, the bullets still knock him out and make him bleed (superficially).  On later occasions, bullets will just bounce off him because of the vest (maybe he has a Vest +1 by then).

Then Bruce Wayne whips up -- and I'm not making this up -- an anti-death-ray chemical spray to coat his Batplane with. This was the story that made me decide Batman had to be dual-statted as a mysteryman/scientist for Supplement IV.

The first Batplane is destroyed when Batman crashes it into Kruger's blimp, from which the scarlet death-rays are being fired.

Kruger apparently had an army of 2,000 mercenaries, though we never saw more than him, his three lieutenants, and two guards. After Kruger dies, Batman seems to sit back and let the authorities round up the army.

The next installment of Spy has to do with the country of "Luxen" -- a very poorly disguised Luxembourg suffering a bloodless annexation from "Thoria" (Germany). The story is interestingly prophetic, as this was 1939 and Luxembourg wasn't invaded until the following year -- and it was largely bloodless! The government did flee the country, but to the UK, not the US.  Past that, details seem strangely altered; Luxen has a male president instead of a female duchess. Also, in real life, the duchess fled with her family, which makes more sense than what the president does -- leaving his family behind so they can be threatened as hostages.

Bart Regan seems more observant than normal; he spots a wire hanging down behind a painting and immediately recognizes that it's a dictaphone wire.

The Luxen president's speech is interrupted by what appear to be mountebanks -- or so I call them in a new stat block for 2nd edition. Mountebanks, or rabble rousers, are able to get a growing number of innocent bystanders to start fighting.

And I learned a vocabulary word in this story -- plebiscite. Though it is consistently misspelled "plebecite."

Buck Marshall, Range Detective plays for high stakes when he has a defend a played out mine suddenly valued at $500,000. I learned the term "salting a mine", a con where you add extra gold to the random samples to make the mine seem more valuable.

Buck slips into a shack through a window because the front door is padlocked. It's important to keep in mind that, in modern times, we have multiple ways of locking doors. A padlock is relatively easy for Heroes to foil -- they might be able to wreck it with bolt cutters (though at a -4 penalty, if a non-superhero), or it can be shot off with a bullet if the bullet hits AC 7. Buck didn't want to make that much noise...

Buck didn't bring his own light source, though, so the Editor was gracious and left a lamp sitting out in the dark interior.

(Batman stories read in Batman Archives vol. 1; the rest read at Readcomics.net