Announcing a NEW Hideouts & Hoodlums RPG supplement, plus H&H stats for Hawkman

I’m pretty excited to announce the release of a new supplement for the Hideouts & Hoodlums tabletop roleplaying game, especially because I had a moderately influential hand in writing it. The new book, Captains, Magicians, and Incredible Men, Part 2: Harvey-Timely completes the two-volume set of Hideouts & Hoodlums character stats and write-ups for various Golden Age comic superheroes. Equipped with both booklets, an Editor (H&H’s term for “Gamemaster”) can add literally scores of actual 1940’s comic characters to his or her H&H campaign, including more than a few characters who are still active in comics today.

Hideouts & Hoodlums Roleplaying Game – The Raven

As mentioned often in this blog, I’m an occasional contributor to the Hideouts & Hoodlums roleplaying game. H&H is based on Golden Age comic books; while the game encourages players to create and play their own characters, it’s certainly possible to adapt actual Golden Age comic heroes for use in the game (either as player characters or NPCs). That’s exactly what H&H designer Scott Casper has done in the game’s latest supplement booklet entitled Captain, Magicians, and Incredible Men, Pt. 1 (a publication which was recently featured in this blog’s virtual pages).

While Captain, Magicians, and Incredible Men, Pt. 1 is packed full of 1930’s and 1940’s comic characters, the author’s just one guy – which is why some characters aren’t fully statted out and many other cool, deserving characters regrettably had to be omitted from its pages. While flipping through the Keltner Index, I noticed a character who absolutely should have been in the supplement but had to be excluded due to time constraints: Ace Magazines’ character The Raven.

Captains, Magicians, and Incredible Men

First: a disclaimer. This is not a review – it’s a preview. Although I derive no direct commercial benefit from the book in question, I am connected with the company which produces Hideouts & Hoodlums, and I’ve written a published adventure module for the game (see sidebar on the right of this page).

As I’ve mentioned many times before, Hideouts & Hoodlums is a tabletop roleplaying game based on superhero comics of the Golden Age (1938 to the early 1950’s) with a secondary, rather unique, conceit. Back in the 1970’s, when Gygax and Arneson created the First Fantasy Roleplaying Game Which Was Totally New, Unique, Awesome, And Changed The Gaming Universe Forever™ (I hope that satisfies the trademark lawyers), what if they’d been fans of old school comics instead of fantasy literature? What would their trailblazer roleplaying game have looked like?

Hideouts and Hoodlums: The Trophy Case Vol. 2 No. 1 has arrived!

It’s that time again! The Trophy Case, the quarterly magazine supporting the Hideouts and Hoodlums roleplaying game, hit the virtual racks at RPGNow earlier this week, so head over there right now to pick up your free copy! The new issue is the biggest one yet and is chock full of goodies, including articles which can be read and enjoyed by non-gamers as well as an item or three which can be used in any comic-based superhero RPG.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Back when I was about nine years old, Channel 5 out of Washington DC used to run The Outer Limits (the original black and white 1960’s version, not that crappy remake stuff) every weekday afternoon at 5 PM. Most of my friends weren’t allowed to watch it; “It will give you nightmares,” their moms would say. On the other hand, my mom encouraged me to watch it, and to think about the stories (many episodes were literate little morality plays; Alan Moore even flat stole the plot from an Outer Limits episode as his core plot point for Watchmen).

Hideouts & Hoodlums roleplaying game: Sons of the Feathered Serpent is finally here!

Finally – my much-ballyhooed first Hideouts & Hoodlums RPG adventure module, Sons of the Feathered Serpent, is now available for purchase! Crammed within its 47 action-packed pages, written by yours truly, you’ll find all kinds of pulpy Golden Age comic goodness, like gangsters, femme fatales, zoot suited pachucos, dangerous robots, weird science, flying snakes, ray guns, poison gas, newsies with slingshots, a generous helping of sex and violence, an alligator or two, a mad scientist, and even some flaming poultry. Yes, that’s right — flaming poultry!

Nazi soldier stats for the Hideouts & Hoodlums roleplaying game

The Hideouts & Hoodlums roleplaying game contains plenty of material for Golden Age comics fun; there are all kinds of villains, animals, robots, and mythological creatures to choose from when populating a hideout. But I’m surprised that there are no specific stats for Axis soldiers, especially considering the game’s setting and time period. Comic book heroes of the Golden Age are often seen giving German soldiers a well-deserved drubbing.

New! Trophy Case #7! And it’s FREE!

The new issue of The Trophy Case just hit RPGNow! It’s free and it’s fun!

In this latest issue, you’ll find the newest tweaks and rules for the Hideouts & Hoodlums 1940’s adventure roleplaying game — including the new (and complete!) Aviator class, plus improvements to Scientists and Mystery Men. There’s also an interview with yours truly about the forthcoming H&H module Sons of the Feathered Serpent.

Even if you’re not an H&H player, there’s still some good reading in its pages. Scott Casper includes some nice capsule descriptions of a lot of 1940’s comic book characters, plus a writeup of a recent adventure in the legendary Reuter Mansion, and Scott provides some comic book news and previews!

Best of all, The Trophy Case is FREE! FREE, I say! Go download your very own FREE PDF of The Trophy Case at RPGNow!

Have fun! — Steve

Hideouts & Hoodlums RPG: The Trophy Case #6 is out now!

Great Scott Games has released the latest quarterly issue of the official Hideouts & Hoodlums magazine: The Trophy Case #6 is available now, and it’s free for download!

Suspension of disbelief

You start with a blank sheet of graph paper, a pencil, and a few ideas.

Anyone who’s run a roleplaying game (at least those who did so before the days of computers and pre-printed cardstock “terrain tiles”) has been here. You begin by staring at the blank sheet for a few moments, then you start to fill in walls, rooms, and passages. It doesn’t matter whether you’re creating a subterranean dungeon for a sword-and-sorcery game, a secret missile complex for an espionage campaign, or a science-fiction space station, the basic process remains essentially the same. You’re playing at being an architect, taking a stab at designing a believable physical structure. That’s the easy part.

NEW Hideouts & Hoodlums Supplement!

Great Scott Games has just released the new supplementary rulebook for the Hideouts & Hoodlums roleplaying game. While the title Better Quality is derived from the title of a 1940’s comic book, the supplement’s contents remains true to that title.

Speaking for the record

I’ve been doing Google searches on “Hideouts & Hoodlums” to see what people are saying about my favorite retro-clone pulp/superhero RPG, and for some silly-assed reason I’m getting listed on RPG sites as one of the authors of the game.

For the record, Hideouts & Hoodlums is Scott Casper’s baby, and I am NOT one of its authors. I am, however, Hideouts & Hoodlums’ Head Cheerleader.

“The Vindicators” chapter index

For my visitors who want to read my 1930’s pulp/”mystery men” serial The Vindicators, but don’t know where to find the previous chapters, I’ve indexed them in this post.

The Green Dusenberg

For those who came in late…

The time is the 1930s. A string of lethal tenement fires is plaguing the town of St. Nicholas, Maryland. A vigilante team of costumed “mystery men” known as The Vindicators investigating the suspected arsons discover an old subterranean bootleggers’ hideout which is now being used for some other unknown purpose. One of the team, Jed Singletary (a.k.a. The Twilight Phantom) has just made another interesting discovery at the county records office…

The Paper Trail

For those who came in late….

The time is the 1930s. The city of St. Nicholas, Maryland is being plagued by a series of lethal tenement fires; arson is suspected, but no arrests have been made. Meanwhile, business has been slow for private investigator Doug Davis, giving him a lot of free time on his hands. One afternoon while bending a bar rail at a local tavern, Davis is attacked by a drunk whose clothes smell like gasoline. Suspecting an involvement with the tenement fires, Davis searches the man’s pockets after the fight and discovers an address for a building in the warehouse district of town. [Part One]

Meet Junior Justice (I) – Nightfang

Before we launch into the final character profile for the first iteration of Junior Justice, I’d first like to relate a story about how real life can be more weird and cool than any fictitious game event. The real-life player of today’s featured character is a third-generation role playing gamer. I know because I’ve played RPGs with three generations of his family.

Meet Junior Justice (I) – Lightning Lama

From soccer player to superhero in the blink of an eye…

Meet Junior Justice (I) – The Wraith

When a secret society of mystics imbued an ornate vase with a portion of their power, they had no way to know with whom that power would eventually reside – only that the higher being the mystics served would ensure that the owner would be worthy to wield it…

Meet Junior Justice (I): Deep Freeze

Continuing with the stats for our Silver City V&V campaign, we now present our player characters. First up, yours truly, with some yah-dah yah-dah backstory added at no extra charge.

Adding breadth to a superhero RPG campaign’s world

When I began running a Villains & Vigilantes RPG campaign for my twins I had the happy idea of linking it to my solo V&V campaign from the early 1980’s. This allowed me to give instant depth to our campaign – our world immediately gained a history which stretched back a quarter century (later expanded still farther back into the past by the introduction of Golden Age hero Jack Victory).

But after an adventure or two, I decided that my world needed breadth as well as depth. I wasn’t happy with Silver City being the entirety of our campaign universe; after all, our hometown isn’t even the second largest city in Maryland, much less a major metropolis. It stands to reason that Baltimore (called Calvert in our game universe) would have its own superhero team, which I decided to make THE pre-eminent group of supers on Earth-1.

Meet the Justice Federation: Ruby

Last, but certainly far from least, in our series about the Calvert MD superhero team the Justice Federation, we bring you a profile of everyone’s favorite queen of magic (and pop culture): Ruby!!!

Meet the Justice Federation: Revenant

When computer programmer Ronald Fredericks left his home to drive downtown with his wife and infant daughter, he had no idea that his life was about to be altered forever…

And a whole lot more “GI Jive”

This site looks to have everything that archive.org has, and then some:

Background music for WWII-era superhero campaigns

We interrupt our regularly scheduled Villains & Vigilantes character profiles for this news flash:

Meet the Justice Federation: Crimson Guardian

When forest ranger Rick Allyn went out on call to investigate a reported woodland fire, he had no idea that his life was about to change forever…