McCoy

School Days

Like his father and grandfather before him, David went to Harvard.  He joined the Hasty Pudding Club, along with his friend Robert Roosevelt, youngest son of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  By all accounts David enjoyed the Hasty Pudding theatricals, and became adept at portraying female characters.  One of his mentors in this was Wallace Beery, already a veteran Hollywood Screen Actor.

David was invited to both the White House and the Roosevelt home in Hyde Park during school breaks.  The President seemed to have a high opinion of him.

After graduation, David tried to join the Army Air Corps as a pilot.  He underwent a few months training in Randolph, Texas, before being discharged for unspecified health problems.  in the mid 30's that could have meant just about anything, from chronic sinus infections that kept him from flying to a "social disease."  It is unlikely this was due to his sexual orientation, that would have been a psychological discharge.  (On the other hand, rules could be bent for someone who had the President on the Depression Ear equivalent of speed-dial.)

The next few years he tried to break into legitimate theater in New York, but summered at his family's Cape Cod home.  He joined the University Players in Fallmouth, Mass, a company which already contained Henry Fonda and James Stewart.  Both Fonda and Stewart gave David a place to stay when he first came to Hollywood. 

In 1939 he decided to try his luck in Hollywood.

Sort of Family

Another actor in the Masked Marvel serial was Roddick "Rod" Bacon (June 6, 1914 to February 28, 1948).  Born the same year as David, but in Colorado.  I have been unable to find a connection between the Colorado Bacons and the Massachusetts Bacons.  Rod died in Los Angeles five years after David, at the age of 33.  One entry on IMDB says he was murdered, but IMDB isn't perfect. I have been unable to find out anything else about Rod's murder.  What are the odds that two actors in a serial would be murdered 5 years apart?

The Family

David's grandfather, Robert Bacon (July 5,1860 to May 29, 1919) was the Secretary of State under Teddy Roosevelt, and got the Panama Canal treaty with Columbia and Panama ratified by the Senate.  He was later Ambassador to France 1909 to 1912.  He had tickets on the Titanic, but had to delay his return to the United States because his replacement, Myron Timothy Herrick, had not arrived on time.

David's father, Gaspar Griswold Bacon, Sr. (March 7, 1886 – December 25, 1947) served on the Board of Overseers of Harvard University, he was the President of the Massachusetts Senate from 1929 to 1932, and the 51st Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts from 1933 to 1935.  During WWII he was serving with the rank of Lt. Col. on the staff of General Patton.

This was a Boston Brahmin family, and a detective might have assumed they would prefer their scion's murder remained unsolved if it looked like he may have been stabbed after making a pass at a former high school letterman. 

[Game use:  Lt Col Bacon could have met the PC's at a War Bond drive, and asked to speak privately with them for a few minutes.  He could then tell them that his murdered son was the Masked Marvel, and would they please investigate from that angle.]

The Millionaire Industrialist

David Bacon was not under contract to Republic Pictures when he made The Masked Marvel, he was on loan to the studio.  His Moving Picture career had taken off when he met Howard Hughes.  Hughes wanted Bacon to play Billy the Kid in The Outlaw, and signed him to a personal contract.  But Bacon did not test well, and Hughes finally cast Jack Buetel instead.  Hughes arranged for Bacon to get parts to get him seasoned, practiced in the nuances between acting on stage and acting before the camera. 

Despite The Outlaw being released in February 1943. it actually wrapped production in February 1941.  After Pearl Harbor Hughes was less interested in motion pictures and spent most of his time working on experimental aircraft and electronics.

I can't say where Howard Hughes was in September of 1943, but as far as I know he was never a person of interest in David Bacon's murder.

[speculation: Hedy Lamar, another Austrian-American actress, invented frequency hopping, which she presented to the government as an unjamable way to control torpedoes by remote control.  Can't find any indication that she and Greta Keller were friends, but is it likely that the Hollywood Austrian expat community all knew each other, would hang out on occasion?  Did Howard Hughes have anything to do with frequency hopping?  Could that be the secret the Masked Marvel lost his life protecting?]

[edit: I came across an item where Hedda Hopper mentioned Hedy Lamar and Greta Keller did frequently socialize.]

The Wife

It's a sad comment on our species that when someone is murdered, the person the police want to talk to first is their Significant Other.  Often with good reason.

Margaretha "Greta" Keller was born in Vienna, Austria, on February 8, 1903.  A Singer, dancer and actress with a style similar to Marlene Dietrich.  (In fact some claim that she inspired Dietrich to copy her style when the two appeared in the play Broadway in Vienna in 1928.)  She was popular on both sides of the Atlantic before WWII (and after), but seldomly left America during the war.

By the end of WWII Keller was a naturalized American citizen, but I have not been able to put a date on that.  I don't know if she had applied for refugee status, or applied for her citizenship before the war started, or had to register as an enemy alien after Germany declared war on the United States.  

But September 14, 1942 she married David Bacon, 11 years her junior.  Was this a Green Card marriage?  Maybe.

The day Bacon died they had planned to go swimming, but in a phone consultation her doctor advised five month pregnant Keller to take it easy instead.  That they phoned her doctor on a Sunday to check if she should take light exercise such as swimming indicates it was a high risk pregnancy, but if this was anything other than being pregnant for the first time at the age of 40 I haven't found it.  She did later miscarry.

After lunch she wrote some letters and took a nap, David was gone when she woke up.  He had not taken their three dogs, as he often did when going swimming, so she assumed his plans had changed.

The police found her at home within minutes of identifying Bacon's body.  Detectives were convinced she could not have murdered him and then returned home in the brief window of time between when he was stabbed and when they talked to her, she was never a suspect.

Later she did say her marriage to Bacon had been "lavender," she was Lesbian and he was Gay and an open marriage gave both of them respectability for their careers. 

Clearly he was naked because he'd ditched his costume before seeking medical help and totally not because he was stabbed in some woman's bedroom.  

The shorts could have been swimming trunks.  There was sand on them but they were dry, investigators assumed he had been to the beach but not gone swimming.

Little blood on the outside of the car, lot on the inside, led investigators to conclude he was stabbed while in the car.  This was a British import with the steering wheel on the right, so could have been stabbed by someone sitting to his left,

There was a camera in the car.  when the film was developed there was a single exposure, Bacon on the beach, fully nude, smiling.  It was speculated the killer had taken the photo, but no proof it was taken the same day.

There was also a blue knit sweater, "at least 4 sizes too small" for Bacon, "consistent with" sweaters given to Venice High School athletes six years earlier.

Many people would have preferred "some woman's bedroom,"

On Sunday, September 12, 1943, just after 5 PM, actor David G. G. Bacon was observed driving his wife's car erratically on Washington Boulevard in a rural part of Los Angeles.  Finally he ran the car over the curb and into a bean field.  He emerged from the car wearing only denim shorts, and bleeding from a single stab wound in his back.  Witnesses attemped to render aid, but he died saying no more than "Please help me." 

Weeks before, on August 18, 1943, Bacon had wrapped a serial for Republic Pictures, The Masked Marvel.  Bacon had played Bob Barton, the secret ID of the title character.  (In fact except for the final scene where The Masked Marvel's identity was reveled, The Masked Marvel was played by uncredited stuntman Tom Steele.)  The connectio to the film caused someone in the press to dub this "The Masked Marvel Murder."

Autopsy by Dr. Frank R. Webb reveled a single stab wound 5 1/2 to 6 inches deep and 3/4 inch wide, possibly made by a Commando-style knife, that had pierced the left lung and struck the pericardium.  Dr Webb offered the opinion that Bacon could not have lived more than 20 minutes with that wound. 

To this day the murder remains unsolved.

That's the world we know as Real Life.

But in the Golden Age Universe, where Mystery Man in masks and capes walked about, what if The Masked Marvel was the first Mystery Man to have died in the line of duty, albeit while in his civilian ID? 

Might the player characters be informed of the Masked Marvel's demise, and discretely investigate?

Anyone ever run anything like this?

Long Pig

"Wildcrafted?  Perish the thought!  Certified vat grown!  Are you a cop?"

Best advice I ever gave (which of course was ignored by my foster son):  "If you don't like to be stared at, don't get the freaking tattoo!"

“Be not the first by whom the new are tried,

Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.”

― Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism

I don't quite think so, because...

 

 

To meet the Conditional, "Death is Immanent" the Cursor has to be in the "Oh Gods I'm gonna die!" state - maybe deep negative BOD, maybe about to get hit for massive damage that won't likely be survivable, but one way or another, likely to die barring the faint hope of some Deus ex Machina.

 

Actually uttering the curse is giving up that faint hope; death is now certain. The Deus can stay in His Machina unless He brought along a Resurrection.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Deus ex Palindromedaria?

I would say an additional +0 limitation, Dying Curse negates any possibility of regeneration, resurrection, raise dead or reincarnation.  "Last Breath" means LAST breath.  Perhaps the curse consumes the caster's soul for power.

 

Actually uttering the curse is giving up that faint hope; death is now certain.

 

Exactly!  Character has chosen Revenge over the possibility of survival, afterlife, or rebirth. 

Humbaba's Last Curse: (Total: 100 Active Cost, 8 Real Cost) Killing Attack - Ranged 2d6-1, Attack Versus Alternate Defense (CON; +0), Area Of Effect Accurate (4m Radius; +1/2), Line Of Sight (+1/2), Does BODY (+1), Invisible Power Effects (Fully Invisible; +1) (100 Active Points); 1 Charge which Never Recovers (-4), Damage Over Time, Target's defenses only apply once, Lock out (cannot be applied multiple times) (17-32 damage increments, damage occurs every 1 Month, -3), Side Effects, Side Effect occurs automatically whenever Power is used (Death; -2), Conditional Power Death is Immanent (-1 1/2), -2 Decreased STUN Multiplier (-1/2), Incantations (-1/4) (Real Cost: 8)

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary says you get stuff like this when Lucius Alexander has insomnia

Thank you very much!

In a different power, I might say that "Side Effect: Death" and "Condition: Already Dying" are duplicative. But in these circumstances, both are severe enough that it's probably not worth arguing over. Tho this build does assume the dying character has time to take an Attack Action before expiring, which is why I like the Trigger idea.

 

That does beg an interesting question: what constitutes "dying" for these purposes? Technically any character at BODY <0 is "dying", but there's usually still the possibility of saving them, with Healing or just a Medic roll. Death itself, when it comes, is mechanically a binary state: above negative 2xBODY and you're alive, drop 1 point below that and you're dead. Narratively a lot of GMs will give dying characters a chance to utter some final words, but mechanically that typically happens retroactively after the character has actually been killed in game terms. (ie: "OK, Badman takes another 5 BODY, that's enough to finish him off. With his dying breath, he says...")

 

Normally that's not a big distinction, and letting major characters get in some good last words is always in genre. But if those last words can have major game impacts, then we'll probably need some sort of guidelines for when characters do or don't have time to utter a curse. In books/shows/movies, sometimes a character dies suddenly or in such a way that they don't have time to say anything: they get their heads cut off, or they're completely squished by something heavy, or whatever. But in Hero, like most RPGs, damage descriptions like that are largely subjective. And of course as soon as the PCs learn that the Bad Guy(s) can utter dying curses, you can bet they're going to do everything they can to prevent them from doing so. ("OK, Badman is finished. With his dying breath, he..." "Screw that - I chop off his head before he can say anything!")

 

Maybe if the killing blow is an Impairing or Disabling wound to the Head (and/or torso & vitals) is enough to prevent a dying curse; otherwise, they have enough time to mutter a few words before expiring?

I'm thinking they would have to be at positive BODY, at least one pip left somewhere, and they would have to deliver the curse on their own action, instead of in reaction to the fatal attack.

I see.  I was talking about using the F word.

Was speaking of a specific curse, not generalized cussin'.

People in our group curse a lot.  Why would their dying words be any different than their regular ones?

Specifically I had in mind when Humbaba cursed Gilgamesh and Enkidu, but Marduk decreed that as Gilgamesh was a demigod the curse would fall on Enkidu alone.  But the dying curse seems to have been found in a variety of cultures. 

How would you build an NPC ability to curse someone with their dying breath?

Finished D. Rus' AlterWorld and The Clan. I bought them both on the strength of the reviews and most regret that the return time expired before I had begun the second. I will not read the next. I left 1-star reviews on Amazon for the interested. To put it simply: there is no struggle in the books. The Main Character gets things handed to him and just ascends through the ranks. His love interest has more struggles than he does. I did read the Look Inside of book 3 because book 2 ended in a cliffhanged. Knowing that Rus will not leave Max in danger, I estimated resolution quickly. I was right!

 

On the other hand, One Bright Star to Guide Them rocked!

I've just become aware of these.  Polished prose it's not, but in all fairness I'm pretty sure I'm reading it in translation.  The worldbuilding is good, and the premise would appeal to most gamers.  Yes, the protagonist is a bit of a Marty Stu,lucky beyond belief 'cause god loves him best [spioiler] (literally, as it turns out)

,  But there was just a sense of fun I haven't seen in new stuff for a while. I binged on the first four and now am looking forward to the other three.

I thought the finale was pretty meh. Most of it didn't really make any sense.

 

 

 

Naturally Alex miraculously knew how to fly Kara's pod, how to navigate it out of the atmosphere and lock it into a synchronized orbit on a perfect vector to collect Supergirl. Sure, it is possible that the pod had an auto-retrieve mode, but I don't recall a user manual lying around anywhere

 

 

Broadway star is surprised by fan from the audience invited onstage to sing

For Good - Kristin Chenoweth & Sarah Horn - Hollywood Bowl

I added Persistent since none fo the rest of the cast has tried to murder him in his sleep.

On screen.  Remember when Leonard moved in there was "Die Sheldon Die!" graffittied on the wall of his room ("You may want to repaint.") and the others, especially Howard, have discussed it.

If I ever get the chance to run the Percy Jackson inspired campagin. one of the disadvantages of being immortal is that the gods and immortal monsters cannot change quickly.  Thousands of years of life experience creats an "intelectual inertia," which is why the have a good chance of falling for the same trick they did thousands of years ago.  Think of a battleship vs a swiftboat, one vastly more powerful, the other far, far more maneauverable.  Demigods and other heroes can quickly get in and out in less time than a situation can get a god's full attention.

I think this article makes a good case that he's a liberal.

 

The larger point here is that unlike other patriotic superheroes (like Superman, for example), Captain America is meant to represent the America of the Four Freedoms, the Atlantic Charter, and the Second Bill of Rights – a particular progressive ideal.

 

 

Thank you!  What I was trying to say, but said better than I could have!

Captain America?

He's more of a conservative of the American Dream.

Respectfully disagree.  Except for a brief period in the 50's, which have now been retconed to have been someone other than Steve Rogers, he's always been a champion of civil rights.

Captain America?

Noon eastern daylight is when we start posting?

Truth...I had simply reposted the headline from the source. I'll see if I can edit it, so it would at least be accurate here.

-Carl-

My apologies, I should have said the nitpick was not directed at you but the original article.