Fantastic Comics #1 - pt. 3

This is still The Golden Knight.  I like the underground castle, as it's so That Other Game. Note how jumping and climbing are not hindered by the knight's armor at all.

The woman is referred to as both a hag and a witch. I'm already adding a hag to 2nd edition Hideouts & Hoodlums; I may have to give it the ability to use Change Self 1/day.

I already have Martian green men represented in 2nd ed. H&H, but now here's Martian imp men. Transmitting yourself on sound waves sounds cool, though I'm not sure how that works. Maybe they "surf" on the sound waves to travel as fast as sound, which would be equal to the 3rd level power Race the Bullet.

The Martian imp men are somehow hitting Space Smith and Dianna with radium rays, but the imp men aren't carrying any weapons we can see, so maybe it's a natural ability? The radium rays just put people to sleep.

Transmitting belts teleport the wearer to a preset location.

This page makes it clear that the imp men are only about 3' tall.

As fearsome as the imp men look, they don't seem to do much damage with their claws -- maybe 1-4 points? And this begs the question -- how many Hit Dice should imp men have? Maybe as little as 2-3 HD.

Behold, the huge, man-eating Martian mosquito. And that's "huge" -- not even giant!  This has got to be at least 4 Hit Dice. Note that it doesn't have a proboscis to feed through like a mosquito, it has a mouth and the proboscis-like appendage is actually a stinger, I presume capable of delivering poison.

This is the first indication I've seen in comics that the working of rayguns is not immediately obvious -- and this is in the future!  I could use a flowchart for figuring out alien technology (the Other Game used that mechanic on occasion) or a simple save vs. plot to immediately understand something of an alien nature.

Even in the future, guards are easily overcome!

Amazingly, I have an easier time believing that Space Smith story with Martian mosquitoes than I do this story about the Eskimongolian Empire in the Arctic Circle being strong enough to challenge the U.S. This has got to be the most ridiculous alternate history I've ever read and I'm just on the first page!

Mind you -- if this was done gonzo-style, waving all logic, you could have polar bear-riding soldiers.  Hmm...

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Fantastic Comics #1 - pt. 2

When you need to stock a laboratory, you don't need to put too much thought into it; just put little items you know -- like light bulbs and switches -- and make them even bigger.

There is no use of a power implied here; Samson just steals a bomb and drops it off a cliff.  Conveniently, opposition troops are massing at the bottom of the cliff.  The entire army then loses their morale save at once, or so it seems. If this was a scenario, I would roll for separately by unit, so long as their sub-leaders were intact.

Samson has no qualms with killing, if you haven't figured that out already.

Oh boy -- Fletcher Hanks' Stardust!  Things aren't too crazy yet, but don't worry -- it's coming.

I'm not going to comment on the broadcaster's list of powers, as that's all hearsay. The weapons, though...

I have not given much thought to assigning game mechanics to diseases yet, but typhoid germs is a legitimately scary biological weapon that could be a good challenge for mid-level play.

Hot-X fusing liquid sounds like the "Adhesive X" that would figure so prominently in Marvel Comics later. Maybe melting/fusing liquids should have a wrecking things chance.

Atom-smashers are pretty dangerous, but not normally too portable. You never know in comic books, though.

Shredding guns is an oddity. Could that be like a needlegun, before there were needleguns?

Expanding bullets would be...exploding bullets? Or do they really just get bigger? I do tend to overthink things, but I suspect that would widen the surface area of the bullet and give it less penetration power.

This is also the first of many comic books to come where the President of the United States is targeted for assassination.

Stardust finally appears -- but is he superhero or magic-user? First he uses some kind of mass-weakening power/spell -- or is it Hold Person?  And then he teleports into the room, flies out, and turns invisible for no really good reason. There's power versions of most of those abilities, but as used here they look more like the magic-user spells.

Now, this is where Stardust starts to get really crazy. If this was a power, Anti-Gravity Ray would be able to affect up to 20 objects and alter their course "at dazzling speed", like Mass Telekinesis with a speed boost.  If this is a power, it's got to be a 7th level power. If it's a spell, this could be duplicated with the 9th level spell Wish.

Okay, here we've got a "boomerang ray" that seems a lot like the Turn Gun on Bad Guy/Turn Missiles power, a "magnetic ray" and a "suspending ray" that...well, both could be duplicated with the Anti-Gravity Ray power.

This "secret ray" seems like Phantasmal Image could duplicate it. Mass Teleport -- able to transport eight G-Men all at once -- is much more powerful and has to be an 8th level spell.

So, to stat Stardust -- for just his first appearance -- he has to be a 16th level magic-user/16th level superhero. That's a LOT of brevet ranks!

This is The Golden Knight. Normally, you have to search to find things; in H&H, you can't just be near a secret door and get a chance to find it. So this was a freebie from the Editor.

This is really interesting -- our Golden Knight encounters what looks like a dragon -- but it's called a firebat. So, it must be dragon-shaped, but too small to be considered a true dragon. And, I assume, it can breathe fire, though we don't get to see it do that.  I'm thinking of statting this with 4 HD (half a green dragon's stats, plus breathes fire instead of poison gas). 

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Fantastic Comics #1 - pt.1

The debut of Samson starts out with a bit of creative alternate history. "Peace reigned in Europe" either means this takes place before 1939, or this is an alternate world. The army of huns marching on Europe from the East makes it seem even more like an alternate history. Indeed, it bears some similarity to the future of Buck Rogers.

Like, how old is Samson? Is he out of the mist of history or descendant of ancient forbears? They seem contradictory, unless it just means his ancestry goes back into the mist of history, but then so does everybody's.

It seems comical today that anyone would have ever thought a threat to Europe would be coming out of Tibet, instead of, oh, say Germany or Italy. Tibetans are rarely portrayed as villains, and it's more likely that Thorga's army is just passing through Tibet from China or Mongolia -- with Mongolia often being perceived as a threat in pulp fiction and early comic books, despite having not been a threat to anyone for about 500 years.

More and more powerful explosives is a comic book cliche, and I've done my part for Hideouts & Hoodlums by upping the damage that explosives do.

High frequency thought transmitters may seem like super-powerful trophy items, given the range implied here...but are they really any more than telephones with flavor text enhancement, if they are limited to transmitting surface thoughts?

That wide screen TV, though...that looks like it would make many a person with a home entertainment center today envious.
Mad scientists must have the lowest wisdom scores; Thorga could have become a billionaire had he marketed that widescreen television with telepathic transmitter. Even the super-explosive could have made him a tidy sum.

A battallion is 300-800 soldiers, making Samson one of the most powerful superheroes. His buffing powers must have remarkably long durations, as this battle would take at least 57 turns, unless morale saves failed and ended the battle sooner.

Samson's first fight is remarkable both for his results -- he apparently defeats an entire battalion bare-handed, but how he does it, with no obvious use of powers. He fights soldiers two at a time with punches, apparently with Multi-Attack since in H&H you don't normally get two attacks per turn with fists if your opponent is armed. He might have some other power buffs in place, like Get Tough or Nigh-Invulnerable Skin (since he is just in furry underpants).

Thorganians? Did Thorga name his country after himself?

That three-tiered aerodrome is a pretty impressive image, though I don't think there's a real precedent for one. The tanks, on the other hand, have the giant treads look of late WWI British tanks. Each has four light cannons instead of one heavy tank gun.

If that's a British Mark V tank, like it looks like, it weighs 29 tons, which means Samson needs a 4th level Raise power to hoist it in the air. That means Samson has at least five brevet ranks -- though I'm already assuming he has more because of that batallion he took out.

A possible weakness in the various Raise powers is that they increase incrementally at first, so that Raise Car can lift 2 tons, Raise Elephant can raise 5 tons, and Raise Trolley Car can lift 8 tons. That leaves a huge gap for Raise Bridge to cover, that would include hefting tanks and chucking them around.

If I had increased the Raise powers so that they went 2 tons, 20 tons, 200 tons, then the 3rd level Raise power would handle tanks, but would also handle small bridges too. So...

A better question here is, if Samson is as powerful as he appears to be, why dodge the bullets? He's going to be bulletproof, like most Superman clones, right? Well, maybe he's not. Or, his defensive buffs were up for so long in the giant battle that they've expired now and he's vulnerable now.

There are two things unusual about this page. One, there's absolutely no reason for that bomber to come down so low that Samson can grab its wing as it flies past. But the other is even more interesting -- Samson doesn't leap. As much like Superman as most early superheroes were, Samson does not seem to be a leaper.

This page is peculiar in terms of just what is going on here. First of all, the narrator says Samson leaps up to the plane, even though we clearly see his foot still on the ground. Then he pulls the plane out of the sky -- how do we handle that game mechanics-wise? Is he making a grappling attack on the plane, and we're treating the plane as an enemy combatant? Is he somehow reversing one of the Raise powers?



It might not be as clear, since throwing and exploding are in the description, but this is flavor text added to Samson using his wrecking things power. He's not turning the plane into a missile weapon, since the pilot is inside it and not being aimed at with the plane. And yet...the Editor would be within his rights to say the explosion still causes damage to Samson, for being so close to it, unless he threw it further away than it appears here. And in that case he is using the Wreck at Range power.

That the pilot emerged unharmed is perfectly in keeping with how the wrecking things mechanic works, since wrecking only affects inorganic objects.



How fast can Samson run? If the "Thorganians" reached a European country, and assuming Samson is even just running as far as Tibet, that is at least 2,000 miles. If he ran that distance from noon to dusk, and assuming that was 6 hours, then he ran 333 MPH. That means he is using the 4th level buffing power, Invisibly Fast.

Samson is such a good sneaker that he can take a guard by surprise while sneaking up on his right flank!

Samson seems to be displaying unusual and unnecessary stealth if he is as invincible as he was in the battle against an entire battalion. The best explanation I have for this is that he can't be at full power all the time -- and powers work just like that in Hideouts & Hoodlums.


The combat is a little off, unless Samson is using Multi-Attack again. The power doesn't specify this (yet), but I guess you could use different attack forms in the same turn and split them between your available attacks with Multi-Attack. Otherwise, you should not be able to maintain a hold and kick a new opponent in the same turn.

I wonder if those hood antennae are the high frequency thought transmitters we've heard about...

Yes, it's an impressive-sized door -- with a big padlock, no less -- but still wrecks as if an ordinary door. Only the largest of bank vaults should wreck as anything higher, and then at the category of machines.

Samson seems extremely vicious here, cold-blooded murdering an underling just for getting in his way. And yet...in H&H, to confront a main villain before dealing with underlings first requires a save vs. plot. Samson could have failed his save, yet already activated a damage-buffing power (like one of the Get Tough variants), and it was too late to stop himself before unleashing all that damage on the underling.

Despite the fact that Samson is attacking bare-handed, he's dealing "death-dealing blows". Now, technically, any attack on an unconscious person in H&H is a death-dealing blow, but the pacing on this page does not suggest that he's taking the time to murder the guards and let Thorga run further. Maybe there needs to be a power called Death-Dealing Blows, that let's attacks do lethal damage if they drop an opponent to zero hit points. I would reserve something that dangerous for at least a fourth level power, though.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Champion Comics #2

This is The Champ.  It's squarely in the sports genre and reads like Ned Bryant, but with better art. What amuses me on this page, though, is the commercial-like description of the Champ's tonic. If it is responsible for his top physical condition, then maybe it is a potion that bestows a +1 bonus to all physical skills.

This is from Neptina, Queen of the Deep.  As often as sharks get defeated with knives in comic books, I wonder if knives should do +1 damage against them...

These fish-men might be another variation of mermen...but they do look an awful lot like kuo-toa from That Other Game. There are at least seven of them.  One of them seems to have a paralysis raygun. And if that encounter wasn't dangerous enough, there's a giant eel too!

There is apparently an entire city of fish-men down here, so...10,000+ of them? They have advanced science, capable of producing trophy items like a bubble helmet that allows underwater breathing and a paste that makes his skin waterproof and resistant to water pressure. That last part is odd because pressure never seems to be a problem in underwater comic book adventures, or all these underwater encounters occur within 1,000' of the surface.

We learn the fish-men are telepathic too -- something neither mermen nor kuo-toa can do!

This is from The Blazing Scarab.  Yes, a Rochester-like manservant called Snowball is blatantly racist -- but, what I'd like to know is, what's that weapon he's holding? It looks like he's attacking that other man with a shaving razor. As an improvised weapon it would do 1-3 points of damage -- maybe 1-4, since I think getting sliced by a shaving razor sounds pretty nasty.

Okay, if you can choke your way past the racism on this page, there's a really neat teleport trap here, with a glowing scarab being the lure.

This is Jungleman.  The text calls that a huge viper, but it looks like an ordinary-sized poisonous snake to me. What's unusual about this Tarzan rip-off is that it takes place in Cambodia (full of ruins -- good for hideouts!), and Jungleman's animal companion is an albino tiger.

Here we see mobsters burying their treasure under the ruins -- a perfect explanation for where there is so much treasure and trophy items hidden in hideouts.

Not only does Jungleman have a tiger companion, but he has an elephant companion as well. That's a lot of cumulative Hit Dice for a 1st level fighter or explorer to have with him. I would probably not allow either, myself.

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum)

Speed Comics #3 - pt. 3

We return to Crash, Cork, and the Baron in time to see the Baron snag his rope ladder on a sapling -- which is an odd occurrence in Hideouts & Hoodlums, since there are no fumble mechanics here.  There seems to be no reason for the ladder to get snagged other than Editor's fiat, especially given how empty the terrain seems to be around it. Yet, if the terrain was covered in more features, the Editor would be fair in declaring that the Baron's player would have to save vs. plot to avoid his ladder getting snagged on something as he flew past.

*ahem* African "white ants" are actually termites. I think the writer meant "red" ants here.

Crash thinks it's easy to escape those bonds, but it's up to the Editor (in 2nd ed.) to decide if this is a basic or expert skill, and then assigns the die roll to you to determine success (based on race and level).

This is from Ted Parrish, the Man of 1000 Faces.  The mobster he's punching folds after one punch. It's reasonable to roll for morale every turn of combat, unless the bad guys have an obvious advantage.

It's also interesting that the mobsters at the hideout have a special warning knock they can signal each other with.

This is Biff Bannon of the U.S. Marines, looking particularly cartoony today.  I've written before about how a convenience leading to a trap escape (termites here) could be either Editor's discretion or the player requesting it and winning it with a save vs. plot.

No, what strikes me here is that a sea plane is just sitting there in the water, right next to some type of naval ship, unmanned and seemingly abandoned there. It's odd -- but it's exactly like the "summon aircraft" ability of the Aviator class, from The Trophy Case #6.

A submarine of this size seems awfully ..well, overkill for what appears to be a mob of six hoodlums. And yet, this raises a good point that trophy tables are random and you never know who or what will wind up with something really good!

This is Smoke Carter.  I like the scenario I see here -- Smoke simply has to get from point A to point B (point B being a boat that's on fire) without being stopped, and mobsters along the way want to stop him. So there's a falling bridge to overcome (beat it in initiative to go under it in time), and mobsters in boats you pass taking potshots at you.

I don't understand how the mobsters are fooled by a thrown coat, though...

This has got to be a first -- Smoke throws a grenade at someone, to save them, and it works.  What this writer would have you believe is that you can choose between damaging opponents or wrecking things with explosive weapons. I'm not comfortable with that distinction for H&H, as it makes them too easy to use.

Also worth noting, all story long, they've been called "bombs", but this reference to one being a "pineapple" leads me to believe "bomb" was being used for "grenade".

Well, I'll be!  When I introduced giant mosquitoes in Supplement I, I thought I was just giving the game its own version of stirges. Imagine my surprise when it turned out there actually was a giant mosquito in a comic book -- and the same size too!

Giant mosquitoes are good enough fliers to carry away a full-grown woman. They're also smart enough to follow orders like a dog. Who knew?

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)

Speed Comics #3 - pt. 2

Shock is using Imperviousness, if not Invulnerability, here to keep himself immune to heavy artillery. He's also using an Extend Missile Range power to turn a rock into a dangerous weapon -- though I don't much care of that name anymore. The power is more broad than just extending range; I'm going to change it to Improved Missile.

Turn Gun on Bad Guy -- or Turn Missiles, as I'm going to call it in 2nd ed.

It takes the 4th level power Raise Bridge to lift enough tonnage to flip a heavy tank.

Shock must have at least two 4th level powers, which would make him at least an 8th level superhero (7th in 2nd edition). That's a lot of brevet ranks for someone only on his third adventure.

There won't be any tank-sized trophy weapons in the 2nd ed. basic book -- but if there were, flame-thrower tanks would be too cool to leave out.  There are three flame-thrower tanks in total, to which Shock is immune. So, is that the Resist Fire power, or does his Invulnerability power have an impossibly long (by 1st ed.) duration?

Either Shock was still taking partial damage from the liquid fire, or the duration ended on his defensive buffing power(s).

Shock seems fully recovered by the time he wakes up, but he'd be at 2 hit points after an 8-hour rest in 1st ed. and no more than 6 hit points in 2nd edition.

He also uses wrecking things and a Leap power.

It can't be easy snapping a small lead coin in half between your fingers, as you wouldn't be able to get much leverage on it. This might wreck as a machine.

Note that there's no reason for Shock to suspect these are fake coins. His snapping it in half, then, would seem to be a symbolic gesture that just got really lucky.

It's never clear if the aggressor nation is Germany or Italy.

There's a category for wrecking tanks, so a tank gun should probably be right under that (trucks category).

Once again Shock uses Turn Missiles -- but today is a new day, so he has his powers prepared fresh again.

This is Crash, Cork, and the Baron again, and an example of some poor planning. The plot hook is that they've spotted a known wanted criminal with a $4,000 price on his head and go after him. They do it in three separate planes, each with a good chance of getting damaged in the course of the scenario. Their odds of coming out ahead in this scenario seem pretty low -- though they are probably hoping to pick up additional treasure while looting his hideout.

Crash runs into a constrictor snake, but successfully evades the encounter by running away. The hyena cub poses no serious threat, except for alerting the guard -- sort of like the purpose of shriekers in That Other Game!

I was not familiar with the word "kraal", so I had to look it up.

(Scans courtesy of Comic Book Plus)