Famous Funnies #27

I am not, generally, a big fan of Fighters having special abilities; I find that Fighters are what most people choose to play when they don't want to deal with special abilities.  Still, if I had to look for Fighter-specific skills, I would not have to look farther than the first two pages of War on Crime, reprinted here. Toonopedia claims that this strip was written using research from actual FBI files and the attention to detail here would seem to prove it. 

For future consideration, then, the Fighter skills shown here are: legal training (higher percent chance of a conviction), disarming, ballistics (identify firearms), and forensics (knowledge of how to work X-Ray machines and microscopes, and how to make plaster casts of shoe prints).

Sleight of hand is accomplished by Mysterymen using their pick pockets skill.

Ah, Joe Palooka. I love the big guy, but I can hardly use him here for examples, since he doesn't go on adventures ever. Orangutans are small apes, only 1+1 HD, so Joe here gets beat up by one probably only because he's too nice a guy to fight back against it.

"Moth lure" could be a useful trophy item, since it seems to be able to attract a huge swarm of moths in a short amount of time.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

New Comics #9

Steve Carson of Federal Men enters the hideout of the Invisible Empire this time -- an artificial island that can rise and sink beneath the surface. And is super-roomy!

Hideouts & Hoodlums has giant robots (giant gold and silver robots are in Book II: Mobsters & Trophies), but none as large as this monster (gargantuan?) robot, which has to be at least 50' tall. I've talked before about things sometimes being too unfeasibly big in the comics for Heroes to realistically deal with in a roleplaying game, and this would seem to be another example. Still...maybe the giant robots could have been a little taller in my game...

And now there's Steve Conrad on Dolorosa Isle to consider, but...what are those?  Mermen?  Aquatic ghouls? I may need to see more to puzzle this one out.

(Scans courtesy of Babblings about DC Comics and Days of Adventure blogs.)

Funnies #1 - pt. 2

Freckles and His Friends reminds us that a hidden land can be placed anywhere so long as the entrance is inaccessible; here, you have to swim 10' deep and under a ledge to reach this mini-hidden land where cougars nuzzle with lambs (cougars being statted in Supplement III: Better Quality).

This also illustrates the importance of everyone in the party carrying a flashlight, like if you fall into deep, murky water and the others need to see how far down you sank.



Yeah, okay, Ben Webster.  It is left up to the Editor's discretion if Indians should ride around topless on horseback in the 20th century (and be statted as Natives, from Book II: Mobsters & Trophies). 

If nothing else, this page illustrates the importance of carrying binoculars -- it might give you a head start when someone is chasing you!

Don Dixon and company encounter a constrictor snake -- with a twist!  Considered sacred by the local natives, killing the snake brings their wrath.

Tad of the Tanbark illustrates the usefulness of having an elephant Supporting Cast Member.

This half page of This Curious World shows the water buffalo, an animal that was on every continent but North America and Antarctica by 1940. Water buffalo fighting (like bull fighting) is practiced in some Asian countries. I would stat them as 4+1 Hit Dice, using d12 dice.

Mutt and Jeff put the value of a fur coat at $60 or less (oops, I had made them far more valuable on the starting equipment list!).

Most every comic book for 45 years had a page like this in it. Pocket telescopes, microscopes, high-powered air pistols, luminous paint, whoopee cushions -- smart players should find ways to use all this stuff!

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

 

Funnies #1 - pt. 1

A new title from Dell Comics joins our revue this time, and it was full of good stuff!

First up is Tailspin Tommy, which illustrates several useful points for us Hideouts & Hoodlums players.  One, Betty grabs hold of the passing plane with a "simple" roll to hit. I put simple in quotation marks because determining an Armor Class for a moving plane is not so simple. A good rule of thumb can be found, though, in the vehicular combat section of Book III: Underworld and Metropolis Adventures, which recommends penalties to hit based on the speed of your target.

But once Betty has grabbed on, what is the chance of her slipping? An Editor, looking to squeeze a little more drama out of the scene, could ask of her a saving throw vs. science to resist the wind resistance pulling her loose.

And lastly, this is the origin of the Wing Walking stunt for the Aviator class!

Myra North, Special Nurse gets her comic book debut here, with the dramatic introduction of being shot down by an anti-aircraft gun!  I would use the autocannon, statted in Supplement I: National for anti-aircraft guns. A ruthless Editor might use the wrecking things table to determine the effect on the plane, but a gentler alternative is to roll on the plane mishap table found in The Trophy Case v. 2 no. 8.

Captain Easy goes to war!  Given H&H's recommended time frame of 1935-1941, it's likely that Heroes in the game will eventually find themselves involved in a war somewhere.  Panel 4 here serves as a great reminder that the front lines are very dangerous for low-level Heroes!

Though it makes for a dramatic page to have Easy abscond a bomber plane so easily, I would be hesitant to allow this in a H&H game. More realistically, a captain -- in other words, a 5th level Fighter -- would have to go up the chain of command level by level, aiming for friendly encounter reactions until such a roll from a general (9+ level Fighter) grants him permission to take the plane.

The number of followers a Hero can have is currently tied to that Hero's Charisma score and not the fame coming from the Hero's exploits. As written, then, there is no accounting for how Easy here becomes the idol of hundreds, if not thousands, of people. It's something that needs work...

A vamp and a drunken hoodlum?  You decide!



The Alley Oop dinosaurs of the day are Gorgosaurus and Polacanthus. Gorgosaurus would have been a giant 15 Hit Dice monster, using d12 for its Hit Dice. Polacanthus, a smaller armored herbivore, would have been only 5+1 HD, but also with d12 dice.

Ah, the old chestnut of the thorn in the paw. This makes me want to run a scenario with an evil bear who lures kids in close by pretending to have a thorn in its paw.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Popular Comics #9

A rare slow issue of Popular Comics, today I'll only point out this page of Don Winslow U.S.N. and the unusually multi-classed Explorer/Scientist villain, Doctor Q. How do I know he's two classes? Sometimes all we have to work with on statting a comic character is certain tells; certain tropes associated with character type. Here, just the way he's dressed tells me Dr. Q is an Explorer, while previous installments had amply demonstrated that he was a Mad Scientist-type.

Dr. Q here refers to a drug he calls Voodox, which is likely a Potion of Human Control.

(Scan courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Comics Magazine #5

This is a page of Age of Stone and as highly improbable as this combat is, a more realistic combat in Hideouts & Hoodlums likely would have ended with this cavewoman crushed to death by this cave bear! Cave bears are mentioned in Book II: Mobsters & Trophies, as having more Hit Dice than brown bears.

No, that price in the window isn't a joke. I reviewed old menus from the 1940s (like on sites like this one) and found that there were diners circa 1940 where you could get a nice dinner for a dollar.

This page of Natural History meshes well with H&H, in that Book II featured a fair assortment of prehistoric mammals for the game (and dinosaurs were largely left for the supplements). Though informative, I still don't particularly feel that prehistoric horses need to be statted for the game.



(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Famous Funnies #26

The ol' crawlspace entrance that leads to a greased chute that slides down into an alligator-infested pit of water trick!  Oh, Rudolph, you scamp, you! (Alligators were, of course, statted in Hideouts & Hoodlums Book II: Mobsters & Trophies.)

Here, Ned Brant of Carter briefly toys with becoming an adventure strip during a kidnapping plot. What they call here a "windmill plane" is an autogyro, one of several flying transports statted in Book II.  Note, besides transportation, having eyes in the air allows Heroes to try to spot concealed things over a broader area than they can see on foot.

In this installment of Flight, we get information about bombing warships that could become relevant and handy for Editors to know.


(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)