Comics on Parade #12

And we're back to the "present" of March 1939!

We pick up with the Captain and the Kids (and their mother) tumbling down a chute into a crocodile pit under a pyramid. Luckily the Editor allowed for them to do falling damage to the crocodiles!

It's an interesting complication to have rival bad guys waiting outside the pyramid -- but a really challenging encounter if the Heroes (can I call them heroes in this case?) come out injured or weak.

I like the trap of the spring-loaded mummy.

That King Tut would have a secret cache of magic potions -- including a Potion of Invisibility -- seems comic book plausible, minus the perfume bottles. On the other hand, loading magic potions into a perfume bottle so they can be sprayed on does seem an...intriguing notion. It would be up to the Editor to decide if potions need to be ingested or not.

This adaptation makes me want to run the classic D&D module Dungeonland, but for Hideouts & Hoodlums sooo bad.

This is from a gag filler page called Grin and Bear It, but I think this is pretty funny.

And this one too.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Comics on Parade #4

When I started this project, 16 months ago, I didn't think I would have any access to the early comic books by United Features. But it turns out a rare few of them are online.  So today, I'm going to jump back in time to July 1938, and this early issue of Comics on Parade.
One of the remarkable things I've found is that The Captain and the Kids was at one time an adventure strip!  The plot is the already-old cliche of a tattooed treasure map, the villain is the cliche of a masked man in a top hat -- but check out that cool skull-shaped radio he uses! I don't know if I would treat that as hideout dressing or a trophy item.

This is Broncho (that's right, not Bronco) Bill, but the real issue here is the daughter of Don Carlos, the fortune teller. Fortune tellers are so often fakes or villains in comics that it's rare to see a good one like this. Letting Heroes find a good fortune teller (both good in alignment and good in talent) is a bit of a cheat and you'd have to be very careful how many clues you're willing to give out. Players are bound to exploit this resource as often as possible.

This is Little Mary Mix-Up, and she's got a map! It seems an adventure is underfoot; I wonder if Little Mary is a Little Orphan Annie clone.

That last panel is pretty dang dark. Golden Age comic book campaigns don't need to be all light and fun.

Hags should probably be a mobster-type. Hags at least have the ability to change their appearance.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

The Comics #11

This is from Man Hunt, and at issue here is women in Hideouts & Hoodlums.  I had suggested some time ago about statting women as a separate race in H&H -- not because women are a separate race, but because they are treated differently in comic books, in ways that could impact game mechanics. This ability to be constantly underestimated could be a real advantage for players needing to, say, sneak guns into a jail.

This is from Rod Rian of the Sky Police.  I share it because that temple shaped like a giant skull is just begging to be the entrance to a hideout.

Saber-tooth dogs -- because if they were saber-tooth cats this would seem to much like Earth!  They look tough; I would probably give them...oh, let's say 3+2 Hit Dice (one pip per saber).

This is a well-choreographed fight scene, but remember that feints and aiming for the solar plexus are all just flavor text -- this battle is being resolved by slow hit point loss.

Here's an example of a brigand (explained in Book II as Chaotic bandits).

When grappling, you can either maintain the pin automatically each turn until your opponent succeeds at a save vs. science to escape the hold or you can do damage (like by strangling), but then have to roll to hit again the following turn. As long the grappling hold remains unbroken (no made saves or no missed attack rolls), then I guess there's no reason the attacker could not switch back and forth between the two.

Of course, the head clubbing is done at +4 to hit because the brigand is prone. Attacking the prone brigand from behind does not stack additional pluses.

I think these two are pretty funny.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Keen Detective Funnies v. 2 #3 - pt. 2

Okay, bear with me on this one. I know the art is awful, the coloring is that cheap two-tone effect some of the publishers used to save money, it's really creepy to see babies holding guns, and the black baby is grotesquely racist -- BUT, if you get past all that, the idea of an all-baby characters scenario seems strangely compelling to me. Not that this story would be a good model for one, as these babies only look like babies, but seem to be able to do everything a grown adult can do. Maybe Little Lulu: the RPG would be a better idea.

I also like that they have an underground hideout, accessible via a chute concealed in a fake garbage can. I could see a superhero team called The Garbage Men having a lair like this.

Oh, and there's another goat joke in the background!

And, lastly, I like that they go adventuring with a bulldog sidekick. I haven't ran Hideouts & Hoodlums for a hero with a dog sidekick since Omega Archer was 1st level, but it was fun and different.

I don't know if I should reward the players who try this or be annoyed with them, but the idea of breaking into a zoo, subduing the more ferocious animals there, and then dragging them along to the nearest hideout to sic on the inhabitants is...pretty twisted. I think any Hero who even tried that would undergo an immediate shift to Chaotic Alignment.

This is Pat O'Day at the top of the page. He clearly has surprise conditions against the two people in the room. If he had chosen to combat them, Pat would have chance for one action. But since he listens instead, the surprise turn can last however long the overheard villains keep monologing.

This is from Capt. Forsyth and Sgt. McLean, (kilt-wearing) Spy Hunters. I share it because stopping a war is something one would normally imagine as a high-level scenario, but in this case just stopping a single messenger stops a war, and can be accomplished by a single 1st-level Fighter who manages to get himself in the right place at the right time.






This is a Mike Moran Mystery. Note how Mike solves the mystery by sensing that the district attorney "never did look straight". No, it's not gaydar -- as a Detective, Mike apparently has a chance of detecting crooked politicians on sight. This would be a good addition to the Detective class (which debuted in The Trophy Case e-zine) -- though the Detective class will likely not be a feature in the 2nd edition basic book.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Keen Detective Funnies v. 2 #3 - Part 1

There are a couple of things I can point out from this page of Corporal Merrill of the Northwest Mounted.

One, I love a Hideouts & Hoodlums scenario with some mystery to it, because that can challenge a player no matter what level their Hero is. Coming up with a good mystery can be as simple as coming up with a provocative question -- like, why would an old man walk 50 miles if he has three horses?" -- then coming up with an answer, and plot out two or more routes by which the players could arrive at that conclusion (with appropriate clues on each route). Your players may stump you by coming up with additional routes you hadn't considered (my players were coming up with all kinds of ways to track down a business owner I hadn't considered last Monday night), but the more routes you planned, the more you might be able to cobble together something from parts of those other routes.

Two, don't make it too hard to figure out what a clue is. Unless the Heroes have ready access to a forensics lab, just let them guess those are bone shards mixed in with the tree needles, don't make them wait to have them analyzed if that's going to just needlessly slow down the story.

And my third point would be that I'm thinking again about making snipers a mobster-type. They don't seem to be any better than ordinary mobsters at hitting Heroes, but they are extra good at remaining in hiding while shooting at range, and (in other stories, not here) seem to have a really good chance of shooting their own allies just before they can talk to the Heroes.

I always like when players try to use strategy in a fight instead of just going in punching or shooting and trusting to luck. But strategies should usually make sense. Rolling a boulder at an enemy camp as a diversion could be a good strategy, if you were then to engage the enemy from a different direction.  Or maybe Merrill meant the boulder roll to be his surprise attack, but missed, and chose to charge into melee on the first regular turn of combat.

That Dean Denton is one smart cookie, figuring out who The Conqueror is by what seems like a slip of the tongue (or an Editor who simply hadn't thought the implications through of who knew about The Conqueror). But be careful -- sometimes the Editor will simply slip up and say something that reveals something he hadn't meant to. Fair players should always give the Editor a chance to redact something said in character that doesn't fit the scenario.

It's awful handy that this robber (robbers are statted in Book II) happened to be a wandering encounter showing up just when he did -- or the Editor placed him there because everyone was low level and he was afraid they would all blow their saving throws.

Being able to identify poisons makes a case for the Scientist class (found in Supplement III) being kept around. Though, as of now, it's looking like it will not be in the 2nd ed. basic book.

Taking antidotes before going into a hideout does seem like a really good precaution. If my players ever think of that, I'll probably give them a +4 bonus to saving throws vs. poison while in the hideout.

I like this trap, of having a room filled with poisonous gas that you have to pass through to get to the rest of the hideout.  If you think too hard about how the gas stays in one room and never gets out...then you might be thinking too hard for a comic book RPG.

I'm heavily favoring giving all Heroes a chance at ventriloquism (maybe a 1 in 6 chance). So, take that, Dean Denton -- you're not so special now, are ya?

I like this -- the old "disguise yourself as the bad guys" trick actually failed this time!  Must have been the Hero missed his save vs. plot.

If Dean's player was trying to get me to "monolog" for the henchmen to give stuff away -- unless I did want him to know what those things that look suspiciously like voting booths are -- I might make him roll his own encounter reaction check to see if they feel like telling him.

And lastly, I'm wondering what that mirror trap is going to be...

 ...but now I'm decidedly underwhelmed. Is there a point to it, other than to try and confuse Dean?  It seems like The Conqueror could just as easily have been bulletproof glass between himself and Dean and been sitting in front of the same room, instead of a neighboring room.

This is TNT Todd, Ace G-Man. Yes, he's climbing a wall. Maybe he's more of a Mysteryman than a Fighter and that's not an issue. No, want I want to call your attention to is that he loses his gun while climbing. Why? It wasn't in his hand. It got somehow knocked loose from its holster while he was climbing, I guess. Should there just be a random chance per turn of losing your weapon in hand?

Here, Pedro is knocked unconscious and won't recover for hours. Maybe everyone should get a save vs. plot and, if they succeed, recover 1-6 hit points in 1-6 minutes. If they fail, then they heal 1 hit point back per 4 hours of rest...

Funny Pages v. 3 #2

It's 1939, so when you read a title called "Funny Pages" there's sure to be a scene of a girl strangling a man with a lasso!

I'm disinclined from giving lassos special abilities, especially ones that circumvent the hit point mechanic via strangulation. Lassos will probably just do 1-4 points of damage in 2nd ed., and if that's enough damage to render someone unconscious, then maybe it went around the neck after all.

This is an awfully goofy page of filler, but I think it has a strong moral for Hideouts & Hoodlums players:  don't get too goofy because you think your Hero can soak up any damage he takes; the Editor always has a way to kill off your Hero if you start playing him stupid.

And maybe there's a lesson for players in this page too. If your Hero uses ruthless tactics, the Editor is going to be more inclined to use ruthless tactics back at you.

We have a true Magic-User in this gag filler story. Is this a new spell called Spirit Money, or a clever use of Phantasmal Force? Because the money disappears after Keeno stops concentrating, it's likely Phantasmal Force.

Should riot cars be trophy items? It seems like this car has a better than average change of wrecking through doors (as if a 1st level Superhero?).

The new riot car is also the "fastest thing on four wheels" -- that might be guilty of hyperbole. 

More importantly, we may have learned that The Arrow is from Newark, New Jersey!

Gas station attendants have nerves of steel -- they should have fantastic morale saves! 

The Arrow uses the Improved Take-Off/Landing stunt.

Is lightning speed narrative hyperbole, or the Outrun Train power?

Breaking through a window should not require a wrecking things roll.

The Arrow either shoots the arrow during a surprise turn and grapples first because he won initiative on the first normal turn of combat, or is using Multi-Attack to get multiple attacks in the same turn -- and then can apparently split them between different attack forms, which the power description does not specify about.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum).

Crackajack Funnies - part 2

This page gives you some idea of just how many hit points Easy has.

I don't really see how Lulu Belle jumps over his head and lands outside the ring. Unless she's an alien or a superhero using her leaping ability...

Don Winslow's lesson this month is, if your cell starts to fill with water -- look for fish! It could be a clue that there's a way to swim out.

This is from Clyde Beatty, Dare Devil Lion Tamer, and it's a complication from being reduced to zero hit points we haven't seen before -- temporary partial paralysis!

More evidence of long recovery times for lost hit points.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)