------------- BRIKWARS 2001 ------------- Copyright (c)1995-2002 Mike Rayhawk -------------------------------------------------------- Note: Due to the limitations of this format, the text version of the BrikWars Manual is necessarily less complete than versions in more advanced formats. Specifically, hyperlinks, illustrations, sidebar commentaries, and some clarifying and explanatory comments have been omitted. For proper formatting, you must view this document in a monotype font such as Courier. -------------------------------------------------------- BOOK TWO: BATTLE Chapter Three: Advanced Combat -------------------------------- 3.1 Ranged Combat 3.1.1 Ranged Attack Modifiers Optional Rule: Friends in High Places Optional Rule: Long Range 3.1.2 NearMiss Rules Optional Rule: Geometric NearMisses 3.2 Close Combat 3.3 More Ways to Attack 3.3.1 Attacking on an Opponent's Turn 3.3.2 Responding to an Opponent's Actions 3.3.3 Cumulative Damage / Combined Fire Optional Rule: Organized Attacks 3.3.4 Automatic Fire 3.3.5 Rasslin' 3.4 More Ways to Die 3.4.1 Overkill Optional Rule: Ricochets 3.4.2 Explosions 3.4.3 Fire 3.4.4 Getting Stunned Optional Rule: Extra Effort 3.4.5 Poison Chapter Four: Interacting With the Environment -------------------------------- 4.1 Moving Around Movement Modifier Chart Optional Rule: Heavy Loads Ground Vehicle Flight Chart 4.2 Non-Combat Action 4.3 Brik Physix 4.3.1 Determining Mass 4.3.2 Acceleration Optional Rule: Gravity 4.3.3 Carrying and Throwing Objects 4.3.4 Shoving and Dragging Objects 4.3.5 Falling Objects 4.3.6 Collisions Chapter Five: Large Targets -------------------------------- 5.1 Building Platforms Complex Interiors 5.1.1 Size 5.1.2 Armor Platform Armor Value Chart Optional Rule: Subterranean Chambers 5.2 Platform Components 5.2.1 Power Sources Power Components Chart Power Lines 5.2.2 Controls 5.2.3 Propulsion Ground Propulsion Flyer Propulsion Boat/Train Propulsion 5.3 Destroying Large Structures 5.3.1 Component Damage 5.3.2 Generalized Damage Heads-Up Displays The Statistic Ker-Pow! Table The Platform Ker-Pow! Table Chapter Six: Vehicles -------------------------------- Optional Rule: Quick and Dirty Vehicles 6.1 The Pilot Specialty: Piloting 6.2 Vehicle Performance Optional Rule: Vehicle Performance Modification 6.2.1 Acceleration, Deceleration, and Turning Optional Rule: G-Force Optional Rule: Exceeding Performance Limits 6.2.2 Propulsion Types Optional Rule: Altitude Chapter Seven: Siege Weapons -------------------------------- 7.1 Mounting Siege Weapons 7.2 Using Siege Weapons 7.3 Siege Ranged Weapons 7.3.1 Ammo-Free Guns 7.3.2 Ammo-Dependent Guns 7.3.3 Ammo 7.3.4 Siege Close Combat 7.3.5 Siege Equipment and Armor The Heisenberg Ker-Pow! Table ----- BOOK TWO: BATTLE ----- ---------------------------------- CHAPTER THREE: Advanced Combat ---------------------------------- "If your strength is ten times theirs, surround them; if five, then attack them; if double, then divide your forces. If you are equal in strength to the enemy, you can engage him. If fewer, you can circumvent him. If outmatched, you can avoid him. A small army that acts inflexibly will become the captives of a large army." - Sun-Tzu, "The Art of War" Under the Advanced Combat rules, things become a little more complex. An attacking unit still makes a Skill Roll versus the Usage Rating of his weapon, and if he hits, the target still makes an Armor Roll against the Damage. But in certain situations, the Skill Roll will receive Skill Modifiers making it more or less difficult to hit, and there are many different ways a target can take damage. 3.1 Ranged Combat -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "You can go a long way with a smile. You can go a lot farther with a smile and a gun." - Al Capone 3.1.1 Ranged Attack Modifiers ------------------------- There are a number of situations that affect the difficulty of hitting a target with a ranged attack. These situations are given Skill Modifiers, which are added to or subtracted from a soldier's Skill when firing. A positive Skill Modifier means the soldier is firing under advantageous conditions, and a negative modifier means the shot is more difficult than normal. First of all, a soldier who wants to improve his chances of hitting a target can put some extra effort into aiming. If a unit stands still and aims for a full turn, he fires at +2 Skill. A soldier gets no bonus for aiming at a target he can't see. A fast-moving or distant target is more difficult to hit, and stationary objects are easier to hit. A unit or object that has not moved for a Round or more is targeted at +1 to Skill. A unit that is moving quickly is targeted at -1 to Skill for every full 6" it moved on its last turn. If a unit is moving quickly when it makes its attack, it fires at -1 to Skill for every 6" that it moves during its turn. A unit firing at a target 15" away or more has -1 to Skill, and an additional -1 for every additional 5" of distance beyond 15". If a unit attacks a target that is both distant and fast-moving, only the larger of the two Skill Penalties applies. If an attacker cannot see a target (because he is blind, the target is behind cover, the target is invisible or cloaked, etc.), but knows or can guess where the target is, he can still try to shoot the target. If he knows *precisely* where an unseen target is, he fires at -2 to Skill. If he knows where the target is within half an inch, he fires at -5 to Skill. If the target is behind cover, the damage from the attack must first punch through the cover, and then the remaining damage can be applied to the target. Typical targets are assumed to be about the size of a minifig. If a target is very small, if it is behind enough cover that only a very small target area is exposed to attack, or if the attacker is aiming for a specific small area on a larger object, then it is harder to hit. If the target area is half the size of a minifig or smaller, it is attacked at -1 to Skill. If it is the size of a minifig's head or smaller, it is attacked at -2 to Skill. If it is the size of a minifig's hand or smaller, it is attacked at -3 to Skill. When calculating NearMisses, Skill Penalties from small target areas do not increase the MissedBy number. If the Skill Penalty from a small target area make the difference between a successful attack and a miss, the attack has a MissedBy number of 1. +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Optional Rule: Friends in High Places :) | | --------------------------------------- | | Units attacking from an elevated position have a couple of big | | advantages over their lowly targets. First of all, whatever they | | are standing on is usually enough to offer them some kind of | | cover, while the targets below are left exposed. In fact, if the | | elevated units are lucky enough to have a Scout who can Target the | | units below, they can launch attacks over the edge without | | exposing themselves at all (8.2.2: Scouts). | | | | Secondly, height gives many units a significant range advantage. | | Thrown weapons, archery weapons, Ballistix, and Mass Drivers all | | fire farther from an elevated position. When firing one of these | | weapons from a high point to a low point, only the horizontal | | range needs to be taken into account (ignoring the added vertical | | distance). What's more, for every full Story of height | | difference, two inches are added to the range of the attack. | | | | When one of these weapons is used to fire at a target of the same | | height or higher, range is calculated as normal. | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Optional Rule: Long Range :| | | --------------------------------------- | | Some players find it hard to accept that a weapon's effectiveness | | drops so abruptly from one hundred percent to zero at the weapon's | | Range limit. For this reason, players may decide to let damage | | and accuracy 'taper off' when a weapon's maximum Range is | | exceeded. | | | | When firing at a target outside a weapon's maximum range, for | | every one inch past maximum range, the Damage rating is reduced by | | one die (if there are multiple dice left in the damage rating), or | | by one point (if there is only one die left in the damage rating). | | The attacker also takes a cumulative -1 Skill Penalty for every | | extra inch. | | | | Players may choose a different number of inches for the tapering | | effect if it better suits the game style. | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ 3.1.2 NearMiss Rules ------------------------- In Basic Combat, when you fire a ranged weapon and miss, standard practice is to feel momentarily disappointed and then move on to the next attack. In Advanced Combat, there are a number of situations in which you'll want to know exactly where the missed shot went. If you fire a missile, it might miss by a few inches but still catch the target in the blast radius; if you throw a knife, you'll want to see where it lands so you can pick it up later. If you fire a laser at a base wall, you might miss the section you were aiming for but still hit another part of the base a few inches away. If you fire an assault rifle at a Trooper hiding in a crowd of bystanders, you'll want to see who the innocent victims are. Any time you make a ranged attack (throwing, firing, or launching a weapon) and you fail the Attack Roll, you or any other player may demand that the NearMiss rules be used to determine where the shot landed. (If no one makes such a demand, it would be a waste of time to use the NearMiss rules; the shot disappears without a trace and you can move on to the next attack.) Figure out exactly how much you missed your Attack Roll by - this is your MissedBy number. In other words, your MissedBy number is whatever number you needed to roll to hit, minus the roll you actually made. The MissedBy number determines the maximum number of inches your shot may have missed by, depending on what kind of ranged attack you were making. +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | Where Did It Go? | |-----------------------------------------------------------| | Type of Attack | Maximum Distance | Firing Arc | |-----------------------+----------------------+------------| | Thrown Object | one half (MissedBy)" | no limit | | Fired Minifig Weapon | 1 x (MissedBy)" | 45° | | Siege Weapon | 2 x (MissedBy)" | 45° | | Super Siege Weapon | 4 x (MissedBy)" | no limit | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ (Fired Minifig Weapons include all minifig ranged weapons that can be fired, or minifig-scale projectiles that are launched by any means other than throwing them, as with a spearthrower, baseball bat, golf club, slingshot, etc.) Referring to the Where Did It Go? chart, you can quickly determine the area where the shot potentially landed (limited also by the maximum range of the weapon). Where the Firing Arc says '45°' this means that the shot might have traveled in any direction up to 45° away from the direction the weapon barrel was actually pointing. How do you decide where in this target area the shot lands? The bad news is, you don't - your opponent does. (If you have more than one opponent, this will be whichever opponent controls or has the most vested interest in the target at which you were shooting.) Your opponent may choose any target within this area, including the original intended target or a different part of the intended target, but most often he will choose a neutral target like trees, the ground, or the sky. He may also target another unit that is controlled by you, him, or an ally of either you or him. He may not target units that are controlled by players that are not allied to either of you, although such units may be caught in the BlastRadius of an attack. Your opponent may not choose difficult or impossible shots. Shots cannot travel around corners or boomerang around to strike an object from the far side (unless you were throwing a boomerang). Missed shots cannot be so 'coincidentally' precise that the objects they strike or the openings they pass through are smaller than half a Blok or so, unless the Attack Roll was a Critical Failure. If you run the NearMiss calculations and there are no interesting alternate targets in the potential strike zone, assume that the shot flew off into the sky and hit nothing of any importance. If a weapon was thrown, drop the weapon on the ground in the vague area of the target. Move on to the next attack. +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Optional Rule: Geometric NearMisses :P | | --------------------------------------- | | If you wish NearMiss rules were a little more consistent, you may | | want to use a geometric system instead of figuring inches after | | every shot. Your shot now misses by up to (MissedBy x 7.5) | | degrees, within the maximum range of the weapon, regardless of | | what kind of ranged attack you're making (except for Super Siege | | attacks, which can't really be handled geometrically since they | | are fired from outside the field of battle). | | | | Most of you are already groaning at the thought of the protractors | | and straightedges involved, and that's why this rule is strictly | | optional. However, with a standard clear plastic thirty-sixty | | triangle (you'll want a pretty large one) and a little | | preparation, this is much easier than it may first seem and can | | actually be much quicker than the normal NearMiss system. | | | | Once you have your plastic triangle, grab a permanent marker and a | | straightedge and prepare to deface your precision drafting tool. | | From each corner of the hypotenuse, draw long radiating lines in | | 7.5-degree intervals. By marking each line with its corresponding | | MissedBy number, you will be able to quickly place any shot with a | | MissedBy number up to 8. (If this explanation is unclear, please | | see the illustration in the corresponding section of the HTML | | rules at www.brikwars.com.) | | | | If you don't have a 30-60 triangle, you can find angles with PBB | | slopes. The angle of a 1x2 sloped Brik is just about 45°, a 1x3 | | sloped Brik is slanted at about 30°, and a regular rectangular | | Brik has perfect 90° corners. Using these slopes as guidelines | | (singly or in combination), you can estimate any angle you might | | want. However, using this method is almost certainly more trouble | | than it is worth, and should be avoided except in emergency | | situations. | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ 3.2 Close Combat -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft!" - Theodore Roosevelt There are a couple of situations that affect the difficulty of close combat as well. Except for those Skill Penalties having to do with speed, most of the modifiers for ranged attacks do not apply; there's little point in standing around aiming Close Combat weapons, and NearMiss rules do not apply (unless you're feeling ridiculous, in which case Close Combat attacks miss by up to MissedBy/4 inches). The biggest difference between ranged combat and close combat is that every turn minifigs are locked in close combat, both of them get to try and whack the arms, legs, heads, and torsos off of each other. Every time one minifig attacks another with a close combat weapon, if the other one survives and has a close combat weapon of his own, he has the chance to counterattack. A minifig with two close combat weapons can attack with both of them in a single turn; if his target also has a second close combat weapon, he gets a second counterattack. Even if a defending minifig has more close combat weapons than the attacking minifig, he only gets as many counterattacks as the number of times he is attacked. If a minifig has both hands free, he can use his fists as a single close combat weapon (not as two separate weapons, unless he is a Ninja). In a pinch, most ranged weapons or pieces of equipment can be used as bludgeoning weapons, using the statistics for shovels and hammers. A minifig wielding a long-hafted weapon (such as a spear, polearm, or battleaxe) cannot use it to attack anything closer to himself than half the length of the weapon. He may still use the shaft of the weapon to parry attacks. Units using Close Combat weapons automatically hit when attacking inanimate targets like trees, mailboxes, dead horses, etc. If a unit is standing in or on a moving vehicle, he may attack the vehicle as if it were an inanimate object, unless he attacks a part that is moving relative to the part of the vehicle on which he is standing. If there's one really tough guy on the field who's causing you trouble, you can send a bunch of your guys to gang up on him. The defender gets a separate set of counterattacks against each attacker, but every successive attacker incurs a cumulative -2 penalty to the defender's Skill and Armor Rolls. No more than four minifigs can gang up on a single enemy minifig at one time, otherwise it gets so crowded that they start hacking off each other's limbs by accident. If a unit tries to break out of close combat, his opponents each get one free attack on him with one weapon, and he gets no counterattack. Some special units have a Close Combat Bonus. This bonus is added to the unit's Skill whenever the unit attacks with or throws a Close Combat weapon, and it is added to their Damage Roll if they hit. It is also added to their Armor or Skill Roll when defending against a Close Combat attack, or against a thrown weapon. A unit who is especially strong will do more damage with Close Combat weapons. If the unit's Power rating is more than one, multiply the damage from the Close Combat Weapon by the unit's Power rating. Remember that the weapon may break if it does more than its own Armor Value in a single attack (2.1.1: Breaking Stuff). 3.3 More Ways to Attack -------------------------------------------------------------------------- We've given the Troopers a whole slew of weapons and toys with which they can blow each other to pieces, and yet they still beg for more ways to kill each other. You can't fault their dedication. 3.3.1 Attacking on an Opponent's Turn ------------------------- "When the opponent expands, I contract, when he contracts, I expand, and when there is an opportunity, I do not hit - it hits all by itself." - Bruce Lee If a soldier or unit did not make any attacks on his previous turn and is holding his weapon in a ready position, he can make an Opportunity Attack during his opponent's Movement Phase, when an enemy unit moves into his field of fire (becoming a Target of Opportunity). He fires at -2 to Skill, and cannot take any bonuses from aiming. A soldier can avoid this -2 Skill Penalty if he specifically prepares to attack Targets of Opportunity at the end of his turn. This is useful when a player wants to have one squad provide cover for another when advancing through open terrain, or when he orders the troops manning the base guns to fire at anything that moves (outside the base, that is). You can tell a soldier is prepared to attack Targets of Opportunity because he is kneeling or lying down. Changing to a kneeling or prone position, or getting back up from one, takes 1" of Movement. To make a minifig kneel properly, turn his legs backwards. In some cases, soldiers cannot kneel or lie down and still have a good shot at the area they want to cover; in this case, you must announce that your soldier is readying himself to attack Targets of Opportunity and put him in some kind of a ready position. Even if he is already in the correct position, getting ready for Opportunity Fire still takes 1" of Movement, and he must spend 1" of Movement returning to normal on the following turn before he can move normally. Soldiers with Close Combat weapons may also attack Targets of Opportunity if they did not make an attack on their previous turn, although this is more rare. This attack is made at -1 Skill. If the Target of Opportunity then turns and attacks the soldier, the soldier may not counterattack with the weapon he used in the Opportunity Attack. If an enemy unit moves to make a Close Combat attack on one of your soldiers, your soldier may take an Opportunity Attack on the enemy unit first, if your soldier's Close Combat weapon is significantly longer than the enemy's (e.g., a halberd versus a saber, a spear versus a hatchet, etc.). If the enemy comes within range of your soldier's Close Combat weapon but does not attempt to engage your soldier in Close Combat, your soldier may also make an Opportunity Attack. Close Combat troops who spend 1" of Movement preparing to attack Targets of Opportunity hold their weapons over their heads rather than kneeling. Pilots driving vehicles may prepare themselves for Opportunity Fire if their vehicle is not moving. Gunners who have been at their posts for a full turn or more are always prepared for Opportunity Fire, unless for some reason they are at less than full alert. Computer-controlled guns can never prepare for Opportunity Fire, because even in the future, computers made of ABS plastic have slow reflexes and poor target-anticipation algorithms. A soldier's legal field of Opportunity Fire includes whatever he can see, within the range of his weapon. A soldier's field of vision extends to 45° on either side of whichever direction his face is pointing. A Siege Weapon on a turret or hinge can fire at anything within the field of vision of the soldier controlling it, within the range of the Siege Weapon, within the range of how far the turret or hinge can turn to point at the target. A 'fixed' Siege Weapon (one not on a turret or a hinge) is limited to a 45° cone of fire, 22.5° to either side of the direction the fixed weapon barrel is pointing. 3.3.2 Responding to an Opponent's Actions ------------------------- "The army's disposition of force evades strength and strikes weakness. Water arranges its flow in accord with the terrain; the army arranges its victory in accord with the enemy. Thus the army does not maintain any fixed strategic configuration, as water has no constant shape. One who is able to change and transform in accord with the enemy and wrest victory is called spiritual." - Sun-Tzu, "The Art of War" During your opponent's turn, you should be thinking of ways to frustrate his plans and thwart his success beyond mere Opportunity Fire. If one of his trucks tries to run you over, jump out of the way. If his star frigate is about to fire turbodisruptors, raise the shields. If his boogieman is about to spot you, duck under the covers. Actions taken on an opponent's turn are called Opportunity Actions, and are most often taken to respond to an attack. To respond to enemy actions, a unit must notice and recognize the action in time to take the proper response. If he sees an enemy point a rifle at him, he may have time to jump for cover; if he only hears the sound of the gunshot, it's already too late. It is up to the players to determine on a case-by-case basis whether the reacting unit would conceivably be able to respond in time. If this becomes a source of arguments that can't be resolved with a What I Say Goes Roll, disallow Opportunity Actions until you are ready to stop being a bunch of Anoraks. To notice an enemy action in time to counteract it, it must occur within the unit's field of vision (determined by the direction his face is pointing). The exception is a unit on sentry duty, who will turn to investigate any unexpected noise. Soldiers attempting to move stealthily move at half speed; to hear them, sentries must make a Skill Roll versus a UR equal to how many inches away the soldier is. Units with the Stealth specialty, such as Ninjas, never make any sound and cannot be detected in this manner. Once your unit has detected the enemy in motion, he must try and respond before the enemy can complete his action. This is resolved as a contest of Skill. If the enemy action requires a Skill Roll, then the enemy rolls his Skill versus the usage rating of the action he is attempting to take; otherwise, he makes a Skill Roll against a UR of zero. The reacting unit does the same, making a Skill Roll against the UR of the action he is taking in response, or against a UR of zero if his response does not require a Skill Roll. However, the reacting unit has a -2 Skill Penalty on this roll. Whichever unit's Skill Roll exceeds his UR by more, acts first (or more skillfully, if success depends on skill rather than speed, as it does when you are trying to dodge a car whose driver is trying to hit you). If both units' Skill Rolls exceed their URs by the same amount, their actions occur at precisely the same time. A reacting unit can avoid the -2 Skill Penalty if he is properly prepared. He may specifically prepare himself to take a certain action at a moment's notice (much like a soldier preparing for Opportunity Fire), costing 1" of Movement to prepare and 1" to return to normal afterwards. He may also Focus on a single enemy unit or small group of enemy units, so that he may react instantly to their actions. This state also costs 1" to enter or leave. A minifig who is engaged in Close Combat or who is the recipient of a Close Combat attack or a Collision automatically Focuses on his attacker with no Movement Penalty, unless he was Focusing on someone else when he was attacked! The most common Opportunity Action is to attempt to dodge an attack. The reacting unit rolls against a UR of zero; if he succeeds, he must jump a short distance away - one inch if he remains on his feet, or two inches away if he is willing to land in a prone position. This may allow a knife fighter to jump inside past the effective range of a halberdier, an outmatched fighter to escape from Close Combat, or an unpopular politician to dodge a sniper bullet. A unit attempting to dodge Automatic Fire must either jump out of the cone of fire or behind some kind of cover or his dodging will have no effect at all on his chances of getting hit. A second common reaction, when there is no room to dodge, is to parry an attack with a weapon or piece of equipment. In this case, the parrying unit rolls against the UR of the weapon he is using to parry with. Ranged weapons can be used to parry as if they were Hammers or Shovels (depending on their size), although Bows will be ruined if used in this manner and Pistols are relatively useless for parrying. A very light weapon (such as a knife or a saber) cannot be used to parry a very heavy weapon (such as a battleaxe or a mace), and no unit may parry the attack of a unit with a higher Power rating. If one weapon is much more powerful than the other, it may do enough damage to break the weaker weapon (2.1.1: Breaking Stuff). A weapon used to parry a blow cannot then be used to counterattack; however, if the minifig has a second weapon he may counterattack with that one. In this way, a minifig with two close combat weapons can gain the advantage when he is attacked by a minifig with only one. 3.3.3 Cumulative Damage / Combined Fire ------------------------- If you have many units making attacks on a single target, you can decide that they are engaging in Combined Fire. After figuring out how many of the units' attacks hit the target, add all the damage together and roll it all at once. If this is not enough to destroy the target, you may have another unit or group of units fire on the target. The damage from this second group is not added to the Combined Fire damage of the first group, but it may be combined into a new set of Combined Fire damage. If the target to which you are attempting to do Combined Fire damage is larger than a minifig, like a building or a Giant Agdern Monster, then all units participating in the Combined Fire attack must be attacking the same minifig-sized area of the target. If one or more of the units taking part in the attack miss the target area but come close enough to hit some other part of the target, the damage from their attacks are handled separately and are not included in any Combined Fire damage. If your target has a high Armor Value, like a concrete embankment or a steamroller, it might be impossible for you to do enough damage in one turn to destroy it. Instead, you can choose to do Cumulative Damage over a series of turns. Every time that you do Cumulative Damage to a specific area on the target without destroying it, half of that damage (round down) is added to that area's Structural Damage. (Put red Pips next to the affected area to signify how much Structural Damage it has taken.) Different parts of the target may have different amounts of Structural Damage. Structural Damage is subtracted from the target's Armor Roll whenever that area of the target takes damage. This will allow (for example) Troopers to bash down doors with battering rams or to chop down trees with hatchets. +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Optional Rule: Organized Attacks :P | | --------------------------------------- | | You may decide that units may only participate in a Combined Fire | | attack if someone organizes the operation - combined assaults | | can't happen at random. In this case, a minifig may only order a | | combined attack if: | | | | 1. he is a Squad's communications officer (he has a radio), in | | which case any member of the squad within shouting distance | | (8") may take part in the combined attack. | | | | 2. he is piloting a vehicle and has some means of signaling other | | vehicles (radio, a battle flag, a bugle), in which case any | | vehicle in communications range may join him in a combined | | attack. | | | | 3. he is a hero, a champion, or some other sort of authority | | figure, in which case he can order any lesser units within | | communication range to join in the combined attack. If he has | | no communication equipment himself, hopefully he is within | | shouting distance of a unit who does. This unit may then relay | | the order and achieve the desired effect. | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ 3.3.4 Automatic Fire ------------------------- "...the visual imagery of two Uzi-looking dark guns being held, clips extending out the side, and sweeping across an area ... well, that just tickles my American violence-craving funny bone." - Shaun Sullivan, NELUG Member As history progresses, new kinds of weapons are developed which have an extremely high rate of fire, significantly changing the tactics of battle. Rather than sighting a target and taking a shot, a soldier with an automatic weapon has the option of just spraying a whole area with gunfire and hoping he hits something important. A typical automatic weapon has three fire settings: one-shot, three-round burst, and full-auto. Any Trooper can switch instantly between fire settings; Civilians unfamiliar with automatic weapons have to take -1MP" each time they switch settings, if they can figure it out at all. An automatic weapon has two UR statistics. One-shot attacks use the first UR, and are handled as a normal ranged attack. Three-round bursts and full-auto shots are considered Automatic Fire, which uses the second 'Auto' UR listing in parentheses. Auto UR is higher than a weapon's standard UR, because a high rate of fire multiplies the effect of the weapon's recoil. A three-round burst is used to attack a single target three times. Each round is rolled separately against the weapon's Auto UR, doing normal damage. If multiple shots hit the target, they do combined damage. Full-Auto fire is used to attack an area rather than a single target. The area is determined by the range of the weapon and the arc through which the attacker swings the barrel. For every fifteen degrees of firing arc, there is a -1 Skill penalty to hit anything. (This is one more reason why it's nice to have a modified 30-60 triangle as described above in the Geometric NearMiss rules.) The attacker may attack as wide an area as he wishes, even to the extent of spinning all the way around, but keep in mind that the more area he covers, the less likely he is to hit anything important. When a unit makes a full-auto attack, the player must make an Attack Roll for every destructible target in the attack area. He rolls against the weapon's Auto UR, minus the Skill Penalty for the size of the firing arc. Penalties for the size of target area and distance still apply; modifiers for speed and aiming do not. The attacker takes no Skill Penalty for firing at targets he can't see (this is a good way to take out snipers and stealth units). Friendly and neutral targets in the attack area are just as likely to take fire as the enemy units, so be careful! If a troop weapon is used in full-auto fire, its clip is emptied and a minifig must spend a full turn replacing the clip before the weapon can be fired again. Fortunately, any minifig that carries an automatic weapon will always seem to have extra clips handy. Automatic Siege Weapons are fed with ammunition belts or high-capacity energy magazines and so can be used in full-auto fire every turn. Using Full-Auto fire to attack an area is one of the few ways in which a unit is allowed to attack more than one target in a single turn. A unit may use multiple automatic weapons to attack the same area. It may not combine one Full-Auto attack with another Full-Auto attack targeting a different area, or with any non-Full-Auto attack. 3.3.5 Rasslin' ------------------------- Units with arms and hands, or other grabbing appendages like robo-claws or crocodile mouths, can grab other units. If the target unit would prefer not to be grabbed, then both units must make a Skill Roll, plus any Close Combat bonuses they may have. If the defender is carrying or wearing any equipment that gives bonuses to his Armor (e.g. from a Shield or PlateArmor), those bonuses are added to his Skill Roll; if either combatant is carrying equipment that incurs a Movement Penalty, that penalty is subtracted from his Skill Roll. If the attacker's roll is higher, then he has successfully grabbed the defender. If the defender's roll is higher, not only has the attacker failed to grab him, but if the defender wishes then he has grabbed the attacker instead. If the roll is a tie, then neither combatant has grabbed the other. Once a unit has grabbed another unit, he may do with him as he pleases! If the unit is strong enough, he can pick up the other unit and throw him or use whatever pro-wrestling move he fancies. If he is not strong enough to lift the other unit, he can hold it in place (if he is as strong or stronger than the grabbed unit) or at least slow it down (since the grabbed unit is now forced to drag it around). If a unit has been grabbed and is not happy with the situation, it may try to break free (unless it obviously has no ability to do so). The grabber and grabbee each roll as many d6es as they have points in their respective Power ratings. If the grabbed unit rolls higher than the unit grabbing it, then it has broken the grabbing unit's grip and can escape. 3.4 More Ways to Die -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "All say, 'How hard it is that we have to die' - a strange complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live." - Mark Twain Besides the basic Attack Roll / Damage Roll sequence, there are a whole bunch of exciting ways for the eager general to get his soldiers killed, if he's willing to put up with a few extra rules. 3.4.1 Overkill ------------------------- There is a certain elegance in treating a battle like a surgical procedure, prudently allotting forces in measured proportions to precisely eliminate each opponent and objective. Fortunately, elegance is a temptation that is easily resisted, and you will find a much deeper satisfaction in hitting your opponents with many times as much firepower as the situation really calls for. A given target can only absorb so much damage before allowing the rest (called Surplus Damage) to continue unimpeded. If an object (or the part of the object in the path of the attack) is destroyed by an attack, count the number of dice in the object's Armor Value and subtract that many dice from the attack's Damage Rating, regardless of the relative sizes of the dice. If there is more than one type of die in the Damage Rating, start by removing the largest dice. The attack continues along the same path (based on a straight line drawn from the attacking unit to the center of the target) until its Range is exhausted or until the extent of its Surplus Damage has been spent on successive targets. If the damage is the result of several units acting together in a Combined Attack, then you may have to compare several of these lines together to see how many of them hit any given target. There will be cases in which it will be ambiguous whether a target will or will not be struck by Surplus Damage; determine these cases with a What I Say Goes Roll. +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Optional Rule: Ricochets :P | | --------------------------------------- | | When Surplus Damage spills over after overwhelming a target, the | | controller of the victimized target may decide that the attack was | | deflected in a new direction. How far the attack can potentially | | be deflected depends on how much of its damage was absorbed. | | | | If the number of dice absorbed is fewer than the number of dice of | | Surplus, then the attack continues in a straight line. | | | | If the number of dice absorbed is equal to or greater than the | | number of dice remaining as Surplus, then the attack may be | | deflected by as much as 15°. | | | | If the number of dice absorbed is equal to or greater than twice | | the number of dice remaining as Surplus, then the attack may be | | deflected by as much as 30°. At three times as much, deflection | | may be 45°, and that is the limit for attack deflection resulting | | from impact on a single target. The player may choose any new | | target within these limits as if choosing a NearMiss target. | | | | A successive ricochet is handled in the same manner, comparing the | | secondary Surplus Damage to the initial Surplus Damage rather than | | to the damage of the initial attack. | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ Although Surplus Damage will most usually apply to ranged attacks, it is also possible to do Surplus Damage with a Close Combat weapon, if a unit is strong enough and can swing a weapon through a large enough arc to hit multiple targets. The larger the arc of the swing, the more inaccurate it becomes. The attacker makes attack rolls as normal for the first 30 degrees of the swing, with a -1 Skill Penalty for the next 30 degrees, with a -2 Skill Penalty for the 30 degrees after that, and so forth. If the Surplus Damage is caused by a large bludgeon or a collision, then living targets will take at most one level of Stun Damage before being knocked away a number of inches equal to the number of dice remaining in the Damage Rating of the attack. If the target cannot be knocked away because it is smashed into something like a wall or downward into the ground, then it takes the full damage without limitation. 3.4.2 Explosions ------------------------- "The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives." - Admiral William Leahy, US Atomic Bomb Project Units standing too close to an explosion may be caught in the blast radius. Any weapon with damage measured in d10's (regular explosives) or d20's (radioactive, plasma, or concussion explosives) does Explosion Damage. When an explosion goes off, it does full damage to everything within 2", damage minus one die (d10s or d20s; d6es do not affect explosion radius) to everything within the next two inches, damage minus two dice to everything within two inches past that, and so on until there are no more dice. If multiple explosions occur in the same place, the ranges of the explosions are determined individually; their combined damage does not increase their area of effect. Anything that is not nailed down when the explosion hits, regardless of whether or not it survives the explosion, will be knocked 1" away from the center of the explosion for every die of damage that it takes. Things that are nailed down, like trees and walls, will only be knocked back if they do not survive the damage. Heavy projectiles such as CannonBalls or boulders launched from Catapults can hit hard enough to create explosions from concussion alone, but most explosions will be caused by some sort of chemical or energy reaction. The intense heat created in these types of explosions tends to set everything in the blast radius on fire. In such an explosion, for every die that comes up as an 8 or greater (on either 1d10s or 1d20s) in a target object's Explosion Damage Roll, the affected object's Burn Level gains 1d6. In this manner, the object's Burn Level may be raised higher than would normally be possible for the object. (When a Burn Level is raised to a bizarrely high level in this manner, it is customary to declare the object vaporized and remove it from play entirely.) If a unit takes cover behind a wall of sandbags or a big truck or some other large object, it can avoid taking damage from the explosion. However, if the cover object is destroyed, or if it is knocked back far enough that it strikes the unit using it for cover, the unit will take regular explosion damage minus the Armor Value of the object he was using for cover. 3.4.3 Fire ------------------------- "There are five types of incendiary attack: The first is to incinerate soldiers in their camp, the second to incinerate provisions, the third to incinerate supply trains, the fourth to incinerate arsenals and magazines, and the fifth to disrupt formations." - Sun-Tzu, "The Art of War" All good BrikWars players will admit to being pyromaniacs. You can't love destruction and not enjoy setting things on fire. Sadly, including fires in a BrikWars game can become a complex and time-consuming task and you will have to decide for yourself whether or not the benefits will outweigh the extra effort involved. Regular Fires come in three Burn Levels: 1d6, 2d6, and 3d6. When an object catches on fire, pile a bunch of fire-colored brix around it so it is clear to everyone that it is on fire. For a 1d6 fire, a pile of yellow brix will do; for a 2d6 fire, yellow and red brix; for a 3d6 fire, use white, yellow, and red brix together. This way you'll have no problem telling how hot a fire is. (If you prefer, you may also stack pips or some kind of fire counters next to the burning object.) In explosions, or when flammable fuels are present, hotter fires are possible and may appear in unusual colors. In these cases you will be obligated to use pips to keep track of objects' Burn Levels. Anyone or anything that is on fire takes Fire Damage equal to its Burn Level (i.e. a 2d6 fire would do 2d6 of Fire Damage to its victim) at the beginning of each turn. If this damage is enough to destroy the target, it is burned down (if it is something like a tree or a grass hut) or burned to death (if it is something like a Trooper or a SpaceMonkey). Any die that comes up a one on the Fire Damage Roll means that the fire died down one level (it loses 1d6 from its Burn Level for every die that comes up one). If the burning victim spends a turn rolling around on the ground or getting sprayed with a fire extinguisher, the fire rating also goes down by 1d6. If the Burn Level is reduced to zero, the fire has gone out. If the burning victim jumps in a lake or is in airless space or is otherwise submerged in some liquid (excepting liquids like molten lava or gasoline), the fire goes out. Any die that comes up a five or a six on the Fire Damage Roll means that the fire blazed up one level (its Burn Level gains 1d6), limited to the object's maximum Burn Level. How hot a fire can burn is determined by the size of the object burning. An equipment-sized object, like a book or a chair, burns at a maximum of 1d6. A minifig-sized object, such as a Trooper or a whole pile of books, burns at a maximum of 2d6. Large objects, such as trees, libraries, and FireTruks, burn at a maximum heat of 3d6. For any object whose Burn Level has somehow been raised higher than its maximum Burn Level (usually resulting from involvement in an explosion), the object's Burn Level automatically loses 1d6 at the beginning of the object's turn, after the Fire Damage Roll has been made. Objects soaked in gasoline burn at 4d6 as soon as they are exposed to heat. Jet and rocket fuels burn at 5d6, nuclear and plasma fuels at 6d6. The fuel quickly burns off, and the object's Burn Level automatically loses 1d6 per turn as above, until it reaches its normal maximum. Anytime an object that is on fire touches or is touched by a flammable object, roll the first object's Burn Level. For every die that comes up six, the second object catches fire and gains 1d6 of Burn Level. (The second object's Burn Level cannot be raised higher than the first object's in this manner, nor can it be raised higher than its own maximum Burn Level.) Some things do not burn, like concrete or dirt or oceans. Some things explode when they burn, like dynamite, gunpowder kegs, combustion engines, and Hindenbergs. If a fire is started on a large flammable object like a forest or a Roman slave galley, the whole thing doesn't go up all at once - the fire takes a little while to spread. On large flammable surfaces, a fire spreads horizontally by as many inches per turn as it has d6es in its Burn Level. It spreads twice this fast upward and half this fast downward. It is not a good idea to get too close to a fire - the flames extend for one half inch around the object at full strength; they lose 1d6 of Burn Level for every half-inch further from the object. A living unit who is on fire is unable to focus on anything except the fact that it is on fire, and so may not make any type of attack, defend itself, operate heavy machinery, or see where it is going. Well-trained units will stop, drop, and roll; units with less presence of mind will run around in little circles while making that hilarious breathless shrieking noise that is unique to people who are being hideously burned to death. A unit with the Stealth specialty can resist this urge to shriek like a little girl; a Heroic unit may use a Stupendous Feat to ignore being on fire for a turn in order to take normal actions. 3.4.4 Getting Stunned ------------------------- Certain conditions wear down a unit slowly rather than killing it outright. Effects from concussions, fatigue, poison, disease, hunger, and low morale are all lumped under the single heading of Stun Damage. Most Stun attacks only work on certain types of targets - living beings and electrical systems being the most commonly affected (although clever attacks may produce Stun effects in other targets - a MonkeyWrench in a giant Robot's gears, for instance). If a unit takes more Stun Damage than its Armor, or a combination of Stun Damage and regular Damage that is more than its Armor, then the unit is Stunned or Exhausted. A Stunned unit has half Power (round down, minimum 1) and takes a -50% Movement Penalty. If a unit takes enough Stun Damage to Stun it when it is already Stunned, it is Disabled (in the case of machines) or Unconscious (in the case of living beings). If a Disabled or Unconscious unit is Stunned a third time, then it is killed or destroyed. A Stunned minifig generally crawls around on its stomach; an Unconscious minifig lies on its back. This makes it easy to tell which minifigs are Stunned or Unconscious. If for some reason you need your Stunned minifig to stagger around in an upright position, put one gray Pip next to it so that you don't forget that it's Stunned. To recover from Stun Damage, roll a 1d6 at the end of the unit's turn. On a roll of 6, an Unconscious or Disabled unit becomes merely Stunned, and a Stunned unit returns to normal. If the unit rests for a full turn (this is automatic for Unconscious units), a roll of 5 will also be sufficient. Electrical systems recover from Stun damage normally. Purely mechanical systems cannot recover from Stun damage by themselves. A minifig with the Mechanikal Ability specialty can repair one level of mechanical Stun damage if it works on the affected component for one full turn. +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Optional Rule: Extra Effort :) | | --------------------------------------- | | In a desperate situation, a unit can put forth Extra Effort, | | giving itself either an additional 5" of Movement or 1 point of | | Power. Even vehicles can be forced to put forth Extra Effort if | | forced to do so by a minifig with either the Piloting or | | Mechanikal Ability specialties. At the end of the turn, the unit | | must roll 1d6 - if it rolls a 4 or lower, then the unit is Stunned | | from exhaustion. if a Stunned unit puts forth Extra Effort, it | | can behave as if it were not Stunned, but at the end of the turn | | it must roll a 6 on 1d6 or it falls Unconscious. | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ 3.4.5 Poison ------------------------- Many units are susceptible to some form of poison. Minifigs and animals may be bitten by venomous snakes or struck with poisoned blowdarts. Computers and androids may become infected with ComputerViruses. Undead creatures may get spritzed with HolyWater. Sleeping princesses may wake up to find a Dimmy kissing them. In each case, the poison does no damage on the turn it is received. The affected unit receives a number of Poison Points, indicated by green Pips stacked next to it. From that point on, every time the unit begins a new turn, it takes 1d6 Stun Damage for each point in its Poison Rating. For every die that comes up '1' in the Poison Roll, remove one point from the unit's Poison Rating - the poison has run its course. If a Medik (or whatever type of specialist is appropriate to the type of Poison in use) gives Medikal treatment to a Poisoned unit, he can remove 1d6-3 points per turn from the unit's Poison Rating. If a player wishes to create a poisoned weapon, it costs 1 CP per Poison Point. Whenever the weapon does damage to a vulnerable target, the target receives Poison Points instead of taking regular damage. Any unit that bites or eats a unit that has been Poisoned or is Poisonous runs the risk of being Poisoned itself. Roll dice as if the biting unit had been struck by a poisoned weapon with as many Poison Points as are in the bitten unit's Poison Rating. Some Poisons do not kill their targets but have other dangerous effects. These Poisons render their victims Exhausted and Unconscious in the normal manner but have a final stage other than death. These include paralytic and mind-control Poisons. Many supernatural creatures, such as zombies, werewolves, vampires, and Dimmies, have poisonous bites that eventually turn victims into zombies, werewolves, vampires, and Dimmies. -------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER FOUR: Interacting With The Environment -------------------------------------------------- "If we want to engage in battle in the countryside we must rely upon the strategic configuration of power. Utilize ravines to establish ambushes. Lacking ravines, we must conceal ourselves in the weather, darkness, dusk, and fog, going forth where they will not expect it, suddenly striking their indolent forces. Then we will achieve results." - Sun Wu, from the T'ung Tien There's more to battle than a bunch of guys standing around shooting at one another. There are foxholes to dig, minefields to lay, traps to disarm, alarms to circumvent, beachheads to establish, provisions to secure, ambushes to set, leaflets to distribute, and big red buttons to push. No action that gives your army the slightest edge should be overlooked; no battlefield condition that may offer an opportunity should escape consideration. 4.1 Moving Around -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "When it is advantageous, move; when not advantageous, stop. Anger can revert to happiness, annoyance can revert to joy, but a vanquished state cannot be revived, the dead ruler cannot be brought back to life." - Sun-Tzu, "The Art of War" Generals have little interest in staging battles on bare asphalt plains. Without trees, innocent bystanders, and small furry animals to take stray bullets and get caught in explosions, troop morale becomes almost impossible to maintain. As such, the thoughtful commander will send the troops into locations where they will have the opportunity to contend with rough terrain. +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Movement Modifier Chart | |------------------------------------------------------------------| | Posture (minifigs) | Slick Patches (wheeled vehicles) | |-------------------------------+----------------------------------| | Crouching | -25% MP | Gravel, bumpy turf | -25% A/D, | | On All Fours | -50% MP | | +25% Turn | | Commando Crawl | -75% MP | Mud, standing water | -50% A/D, | | Swimming | -50% MP | | +50% Turn | |-------------------------------| Oilslicks, ice | -90% A/D, | | Terrain quality (all units) | | +100% Turn | |-------------------------------+----------------------------------| | Paved Road | +25% MB | Obstacles (minifigs) | | Water or wetlands | -50% MP |----------------------------------| |-------------------------------| < 2" high | no penalty | | Sloped terrain (all units) | 2-5" high | -2" MP | |-------------------------------| > 5" high | impassible | | 30° Uphill | -25% MP |----------------------------------| | 45° Uphill | -50% MP | Obstacles (vehicles) | | 30° Downhill | +25% MB |----------------------------------| | 45° Downhill | +50% MB | <= 1/4 wheel height | full speed | | | | <= 1/2 wheel height | -50% MP | | | | > 1/2 wheel height | impassible | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ Minifigs are not required to maintain strict military posture on the battlefield; depending on the circumstances, it may be necessary to run in a crouched position, commando crawl, or swim to reach an objective. Changing from a standing to a crawling position or vice versa takes -1" of Movement. Running in a crouch incurs a -25% MP. Crawling on all fours takes -50% MP. Commando crawling takes -75% MP. Swimming takes -50% MP, and swimming units may not rise or fall more than one Story (six Brix) underwater per turn. Movement Penalties from posture are not cumulative with Movement Modifiers from terrain; use only the more restrictive of the two penalties. Minifig and vehicle movement rates are modified depending on the type of terrain over which they're moving. Moving up a moderate slope (30°, or 1 Brik per 3 Dots) incurs a -25% Movement Penalty, while moving up a steep slope (45°, or 1 Brik per Dot) gives a -50% Movement Penalty. Units moving down a moderate slope receive a +50% Movement Bonus, and a steep slope grants a +100% Movement Bonus. Anything much steeper than 45° must be climbed over or fallen off of. Falling off a cliff takes no time at all. +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Optional Rule: Heavy Loads :P | | --------------------------------------- | | If you don't mind a little extra paperwork, you can add realism by | | adjusting units' Cargo Capacity as they travel up and down slopes. | | Units can carry heavier loads if they are going downhill, but must | | lighten their packs to go uphill again. | | | | -CMP" is reduced by one quarter when traveling down a moderate | | slope, or by one half when traveling down a steep slope. -CMP" is | | increased by one half for units traveling up a moderate slope, and | | doubled for units traveling up a steep slope. Units falling off | | cliffs may carry as much as they like. | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ Units traveling along a well-paved road or path receive a +25% Movement Bonus and +1 to any Piloting roll. Moving in, into, or out of liquid or swampy terrain (e.g. water, mud, quicksand, chocolate pudding) is done with a -50% Movement Penalty. Ground vehicles on wheels or tires are especially vulnerable to traction loss on poor terrain. On gravel roads or while off-roading on especially bumpy terrain, these vehicles' Acceleration/Deceleration rating is reduced by 25%, and their Turn Radius is increased by 25%. In large patches of mud or standing water, A/D is decreased by half, while the Turn Radius is increased by half. On an extremely slippery surface, such as an oilslick, ice, or a spilled crate of marbles, A/D is reduced by 90%, and the Turn Radius is doubled. The Pilot of the vehicle must make a Piloting Roll every turn; on a Critical Failure the vehicle loses traction and is Out Of Control. Minifigs walking on such a slippery surface must make a Skill Roll every turn. If they roll a Critical Failure, they fall over, regardless of how fast they were going. It takes a full turn to stand back up again. Minifigs can jump half their height vertically and half their Movement in length. This is part of normal movement, and costs just as much as walking or running the same distance. Minifigs can hop onto or over any obstacle two Brix high or less at no penalty. Obstacles more than two Brix tall must be climbed over, which costs 2" of movement. Objects more than five Brix tall are impassible. Walk around them. A vehicle's ability to drive over obstacles depends on so many factors that there's only one way to test it: run the vehicle into the obstacle. If the front bumper doesn't clear the obstacle, then it's a collision. If the obstacle hits the tires or treads of the vehicle (or the legs of the robot), then you may be able to drive over it. A vehicle can drive over objects up to one quarter the height of its tires, treads, or legs at full speed; objects up to one half this height can be driven over with a -50% MP. Once you've gotten the front tires over the obstacle, check to make sure the chassis between the front and back tires has enough ground clearance - if your vehicle 'bottoms out,' you're stuck there! A Ground vehicle will 'catch air' if it moves quickly over the transition between an uphill slope and level ground. If v is the velocity of the vehicle and r is the angle of the slope, then the vehicle will be in the air for (v sin(r)/4) turns, the horizontal distance the vehicle will travel during that time is equal to (v˛sin(2r))"/8, and the vehicle's highest altitude will reach (v sin(r))˛"/8. But who wants to do all that math? Just make estimates based on this handy chart. +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | Ground Vehicle Flight Chart | |---------------------------------------------------------------| | Slope | Vehicle Speed | | Angle | 5" 10" 15" 20" | |---------------------------------------------------------------| | 15° | 1" away, | 6" away, | 14" away, | 25" away, | | | 0.2" high | 0.8" high | 1.8" high | 3.3" high | | | 0.3 turns | 0.6 turns | 0.9 turns | 1.2 turns | |-------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------| | 30° | 2" away, | 10" away, | 24" away, | 43" away, | | | 0.7" high | 3.1" high | 7.0" high | 12" high | | | 0.6 turns | 1.2 turns | 1.8 turns | 2.5 turns | |-------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------| | 45° | 3" away, | 12" away, | 28" away, | 50" away, | | | 1.5" high | 6.2" high | 14" high | 25" high | | | .8 turns | 1.7 turns | 2.6 turns | 3.5 turns | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Jumping in Ground vehicles is an inexact science at best, and so a rough estimate is good enough when figuring out where they land. Vehicles jumping between two surfaces of different vertical heights will fly farther or shorter distances than indicated on this chart; you will have to make a judgment call for each specific case. You may have to make a Piloting Roll and use NearMiss calculations to decide where the vehicle lands on very difficult jumps. A ground vehicle cannot turn, accelerate, or decelerate while in midair. If the vehicle was turning when it left the ground, it will continue rotating while in the air; this will also depend on the judgment of the players. 4.2 Non-Combat Action -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Besides keeping his armies well ordered and exercised, the prince should always be out hunting, and through this accustom the body to hardships; and meanwhile he should learn the nature of terrain, and recognize how mountains rise, how valleys open up, how plains lie, and understand the nature of rivers and marshes - and in this invest the greatest care." - Niccolo Machiavelli, "The Prince" Strictly speaking, there is no action that can truly be considered non-combat action, and if there were then it would have no place in BrikWars except to serve as a cautionary example. Every type of action can be made to further the victory of one side or another. However, some actions are less overtly aggressive than others. Moving and attacking are sufficient for the contentment of any Trooper, and any actions that take time away from these two behaviors are liable to make them unhappy. Sadly, the needs of victory often take precedence over the concerns of morale, and Troopers must sometimes act against their better instincts and take a Non-Combat Action. Almost anything that a normal person can do, a Trooper can do. Usually a Trooper can perform a Non-Combat Action without any trouble. If for some reason you want to try something that seems especially difficult, you and your opponents will have to decide on a difficulty rating for it (on a case-by-case basis) and then roll a Skill Roll against it. There are all kinds of Non-Combat actions. Civilians go around making small talk and attending to their dreary, casualty-free careers. Slaves traipse about picking up the debris of battle. Medix attend to the vivisection of the dying. Soldiers try to disarm the MkIII Explosives that inevitably get glommed to their heads. Most Non-Combat Actions cost 1" of movement. That is to say, taking that action took a little bit of time, and now the soldier has a little less time to spend on moving around. Things like pulling a lever, opening a door, standing up or sitting down, and picking up or setting down objects fall into this category. Other actions may take a whole movement phase and possibly prevent a unit from making any attacks that turn, such as operating a computer, taking off a pair of pants, or chewing out a soldier when you bust him back down to private. If the action is something that a soldier could still do at a dead run, then it doesn't slow him down any. Actions like this include shouting orders, dropping an object already in hand, sneezing, slapping oneself about the face, etc. Troopers driving vehicles don't usually take a lot of Non-Combat Actions, because they're busy driving vehicles. In the event that a driver needs to take a Non-Combat Action while driving, the rules are a little different. Any action that would normally take a -1" movement penalty now doubles the vehicle's TurnRate. Any action that takes a whole turn prevents the driver from turning, accelerating, decelerating, or firing weapons. 4.3 Brik Physix -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him." - David Brink Wargaming is fun, and building with plastic bricks is fun. What if you could do both at the same time? Now you can! There's no reason the building has to stop when the fighting begins. Plastic bricks offer the enterprising commander a chance to modify the terrain in far more constructive ways than just blasting craters in it and littering it with smoking debris. Slaves can be sent out to collect loose Blox and pile them into walls for fortification or stairs for overcoming obstacles. Mechanix can scavenge the debris from crashed vehicles to build "like-new" machines. Medix can gather up the body parts of their deceased comrades and sew up some temporary vivisect zombies. What other wargame offers that kind of interactivity? Here are the rules that tell you how to get those bits where you want them to go. 4.3.1 Determining Mass ------------------------- "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality." - Albert Einstein To know what you can do with an object, first you have to know how heavy it is. A Blok (a 2x4 Brik) is BrikWars' standard unit of weight. All normal minifigs weigh one Blok. Hand tools and weapons have no appreciable weight (zero Blox). Vehicles, buildings, and other large objects weigh as much as their Size" rating times their ArmorX (see the Platform Armor Value Chart under 5.1.2: Armor). If an object has no defined Armor Value, figure out about how many Blox big it is, and that's how many Blox it weighs. Objects that are "nailed down," like trees, walls, and mountains, have to be knocked down before they can be moved. 4.3.2 Acceleration ------------------------- "Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there." -Will Rogers Most players will feel no need to keep track of acceleration in BrikWars, and that is as it should be. Their minifigs and vehicles can accelerate or decelerate instantly to any speed up to their respective Movement Ratings, unrestricted by the laws of physix and undamaged by massive acceleration trauma. Some players will be happy to ignore acceleration except at critical points in the middle of a battle, such as when two opposing squads are trying to push the same boulder in different directions or when the outcome of a stock car race will determine the fate of the Empire. A few players really get into vehicle performance and decide to keep track of the acceleration of some or all of the vehicles and robots in the game. A fringe minority of players get so excited about vectors and moments of inertia that they try to track the trajectories of every object on the field. (Hopefully these last few will be able to curb their enthusiasm while playing with normal humans or will be willing to limit themselves to zero-gravity astromek battles with like-minded physix geex.) For any object that is going to be accelerated or decelerated, players must keep track of the object's current Velocity at all times. The easiest way to do this is to create a Velocity Stack. Stack together a number of Pips equal to the number of inches per turn that the object is currently moving. Lay this stack next to the object, pointing in the direction of the object's motion. When the object feels acceleration or deceleration, alter the Velocity Stack accordingly. If the addition of acceleration and velocity vectors becomes complex, you may want to create one or more Acceleration Stacks of the proper magnitude and direction and lay them end-to-end with the Velocity Stack in order to aid in visualization. There are three basic situations in which acceleration comes into play. The first occurs when a vehicle or large animal with an Accel/Decel rating (A/D) accelerates or decelerates itself. Acceleration or deceleration up to the unit's max A/D may be added to or subtracted from the unit's Velocity at the beginning of the unit's turn, limited by the unit's maximum Move". The unit then moves as far as its Velocity indicates. It may take several turns for the unit to accelerate to maximum speed or to come to a stop. The second situation occurs when an object is being accelerated (pushed, pulled, lifted, blasted, etc.) by a unit or group of units controlled by a single player. First, have all the participating units move up and get whatever kind of grip on the object as is appropriate. When all the units are in place, add their combined powers of acceleration together (the acceleration provided by each unit is equal to its Power rating times five inches, divided by the Mass of the object in Blox; see 4.3.4: Shoving and Dragging Objects). The object is moved as soon as its new Velocity has been calculated, during the turn of the player who accelerates it. The third situation occurs when an object is accelerated by units belonging to two or more players, or when no players are involved but the object is accelerated by a force independent of any player (such as gravity). In such cases the acceleration and movement of the object cannot be handled during any one player's turn. Units intending to participate in the acceleration must move up and get a grip on the object during their own turns, but determining the acceleration and movement of the object is delayed until the beginning of the following round, before any players take their turns. At this time, all competing acceleration vectors are added together and added to the object's Velocity, and the object is moved. Participating units may then move along with the object if their Move" permits, but may take no other action. On their following turn they are considered to have already moved and must wait until the next round to move again. +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Optional Rule: Gravity :( | | --------------------------------------- | | Mankind did just fine for thousands of years without having any | | concept of gravity or how it worked, and BrikWars is the same way. | | Except in very specialized games between players who take a | | bizarre and unhealthy interest in acceleration vectors, keeping | | track of gravity will only make you crazy. When an object falls, | | it shoots straight down and strikes the ground instantly without | | any further calculations. | | | | If you insist on making things difficult for yourself, then you | | may choose whatever value for gravity seems best. Most of the | | basic physics of BrikWars are developed around a gravity with a | | downward acceleration of four inches per turn per round (4"/t˛). | | 'Realistic' gravity, based on minifig height, would be closer to | | 8"/t˛, and this value was used for some of the Ground vehicle | | physix to keep them from flying into the air every time they turn | | a corner. Higher or lower values may be appropriate in unusual | | circumstances, such as near a black hole or on the moon. | | | | The best compromise may be to use a simple gravity model in which | | all objects fall four inches per turn without accelerating. This | | does a surprisingly adequate job and requires much less work than | | any acceleration-based model. | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ 4.3.3 Carrying and Throwing Objects ------------------------- "I didn't have time to pick up a rock." - Eric Joslin, NELUG member, explaining his giant's decision to throw a sheep at an enemy wizard Once you know the weight of the object you're going to move, you have to know the Power of the unit attempting to move it. Troopers, and most other minifigs, have a Power rating of 1. Draft horses have a Power rating of 4. Vehicle's Power ratings depend on the size of their Power Source. Units working together (minifigs, vehicles, or both) can "team up," combining their Power for the purpose of lifting, carrying, pushing, or dragging objects, or preventing enemy units from doing any of the above. Normal minifigs with a Power rating of 1 can pick up, set down, or carry most normal objects with no Movement Penalty. Picking up or setting down an object weighing one-half Blok object costs 1" of movement; a one-Blok object costs 2". Carrying a one-half Blok object incurs -25% Cargo MP; a one-Blok object incurs -50% CMP. Objects weighing more than one Blok have to be shoved or dragged around. As a more general rule, if a unit or group of units has the ability to pick things up (with arms, cranes, tractor beams, telekinesis, etc.), it can pick up objects weighing fewer Blox than one half of its Power rating with no Movement Penalty. Picking up or setting down objects weighing half as many Blox as the unit's or group's Power costs 1" of Movement, and the object incurs -25% CMP while it is being carried. Picking up or setting down objects weighing precisely as many Blox as the unit's or group's Power costs 2" of Movement, and the object incurs -50% CMP while it is being carried. Objects weighing more than the Power rating cannot be picked up or carried. The movement of vehicles is not as heavily impaired when carrying normal cargo. For every (Power) passengers, or every (Power) Blox of other cargo, the vehicle takes -1CMP". A unit can throw any object it is carrying. This counts as an attack - a unit that throws an object can make no other attacks that turn. The range of a thrown object depends on the unit's Skill and Power, and the object's Mass in Blox (round up to 1 Blok for smaller items). The range of a thrown object is (Skill x Power / Mass). For a regular minifig this will almost always be (Skill)". If multiple units are working together to throw an object, use the lowest of their Skill ratings. Close Combat bonuses do not add to the range of a thrown object. A thrown object does as much damage as if it had been used as a Close Combat weapon (including extra damage from a Close Combat bonus). The target of a thrown object may try to catch the object if he has both hands free and has not made an attack (if the target unit is on another team, the attempt to catch must be taken as an Opportunity Action). The target makes a Skill Roll against the UR of the object (or the object's nearest equivalent Close Combat weapon). If the Roll succeeds, the unit catches the object; otherwise, he is struck by it, even if the throwing unit missed its Attack Roll. A unit cannot catch an object thrown with more Power than the unit's own Power rating. 4.3.4 Shoving and Dragging Objects ------------------------- In order to push or drag an object, a number of factors must be taken into consideration. First, the strength of the units attempting to move it. Second, the inertia of the object, if it is already moving. Third, the effects of gravity, if the object is resting on a slope. Finally, the effects of friction, resisting the object's motion. These four types of vectors are added together at the beginning of each turn to determine the object's velocity during the turn. +------------------------------------------------+ | Shoving and Dragging Objects | |------------------------------------------------| | Unit Force | | Unit Power x 5 / Mass of Object | |------------------------------------------------| | Object Inertia | | Original Velocity of Object | |------------------------------------------------| | Gravity | | Level ground: no effect | | 30° slope: 2" downhill | | 45° slope: 3" downhill | | 60°+ slope: 4" downhill | |------------------------------------------------| | Friction | | -1" for every four dots contacting ground | | x0 if on vacuum, air, ice, or hydroplaning | | x.1 if floating on water | x.5 if on paved surface | | x.5 if rolling or on wheels | | xAV if attached to the ground | +------------------------------------------------+ UNIT FORCE. For every point of Power a unit has, it can generate a force equal to five Blok-inches per turn per round (5b"). That is to say, it could accelerate or decelerate a 1-Blok object by 5" per turn, a 5-Blok object by 1" per turn, or a 2-Blok object by 2.5" per turn, in a single round. Acceleration is calculated by dividing the total number of Blok-inches in play by the number of Blox in the object's Mass. If units attempt to push or drag an object that is already being pushed or dragged by another player, they must wait in order to avoid moving the same object multiple times in the round. At the beginning of the next round, before any of the players take their turns, all of the units involved in the pushing and dragging act at the same time, and the object is moved accordingly. Neither the object nor any of the involved units may move again during that round. OBJECT INERTIA. However fast and in whatever direction the object is already moving will directly determine the second acceleration vector without any further calculation. GRAVITY. If the object is resting on level ground, then it feels no acceleration from gravity. If it is resting on a moderate slope (30°), then it is accelerated 2" in the downhill direction. If it is on a steep slope (45°), then it is accelerated 3" downhill. If the slope is very steep (60°+), then the object is accelerated 4" downward. FRICTION. Once you have added the first three vectors together, you have determined the direction the object travels and its 'frictionless' speed. The amount of slowing due to friction will depend on the type of object and the surface over which it is being moved. If the amount of friction is greater than the amount of acceleration generated, then the object doesn't budge. Objects suffer -1" of friction for every four dots of contact with the ground. This assumes that the ground is soft dirt or turf. Friction can be ignored if the object is moving on air, vacuum, ice, or hydroplaning on water. Friction is divided by ten if the object is floating in water or some other liquid. Friction is halved if the surface is flat and hard like asphalt, granite, or cobblestones. Friction is halved again if the object rolls or is on wheels. If the object is actually attached to the ground when the pushing begins, then friction is multiplied by the Armor Value of either the object or the ground (1d10 for soft earth, 2d10 for stone or concrete), whichever is less. Although this system seems complex, pushing and dragging objects is extremely infrequent and in most cases you will not have to take more than one or two of the above factors into consideration. If even that seems like too much, you may ignore the system entirely and rule that any unit or group of units may push or drag on object of its own size or smaller with a -1" MP. 4.3.5 Falling Objects ------------------------- If an object is too big to throw, you might try dropping it from a great height to get similar results. Rolling boulders off high cliffs or driving burning jeeps off the roofs of parking garages into enemy encampments is sure to fill your Troopers with glee. A drop's height is measured in Stories (one Story is equal to the height of six Brix). For the most part, a dropped object falls straight down, but you can aim it a little bit. For every story that it drops, the object can move one inch horizontally (aim it with a UR of 3). Whatever it hits, the object does as much damage as its Mass times the number of full stories that it dropped times 1d6. If the object has no appreciable weight, it does as much damage as if it had been thrown. The object itself takes as much damage as whatever it hits. Rather than rolling dice, many players prefer to take a minifig in hand and use it to physically shove the object off of a precipice, allowing the object to fall where it may. 4.3.6 Collisions ------------------------- The final way to move objects is by smashing into them. Whether this involves one Trooper tackling another off his SkateBoard, a heavy tank smashing down the doors of a Base, or a supersonic jet flying into the side of an office building, collisions are the spice of life. When one object collides with another object, the first thing to determine is the Collision Speed, or how fast the two objects were traveling relative to one another. Find out how fast each object was going on its most recent turn. (The colliding object is usually considered to be going at full speed, even if the collision occurs within the first couple inches of its movement.) If the objects were traveling in about the same direction, the Collision Speed will be the difference between the two objects' speeds. If they were traveling at right angles, the faster object's speed will be the Collision Speed. If they were traveling straight at each other, add their two speeds together. If one object is stationary, only he speed of the moving object needs to be considered. If both objects are stationary, then someone has some explaining to do. The heavier the objects, and the faster they are moving, the more damage is going to be inflicted. Once you have determined the Collision Speed, divide it by five inches and round down. This number is the Damage Multiplier. (If the two objects collide at a speed of less than 5" per turn, any resulting damage is purely cosmetic.) Objects do their own Armor Value in damage, times the Damage Multiplier. Against living targets, this damage is counted as Stun Damage. For every die of collision damage an object receives, it is accelerated one inch directly away from the point of impact, regardless of whether it survives the damage. Objects that are 'nailed down' are exceptions to this rule; if they survive the damage they remain stationary. In the case of a glancing blow, in which the collision is not dead-on but where the two objects just clip each other at the edges, the objects only do as many dice of collision damage as will be necessary to move them out of each other's paths. If one object in the Collision is a 'soft body,' such as a minifig, animal, or shrubbery, it only causes half damage to the other object in the Collision. If both objects are soft bodies, then they cause only half damage to each other. However, they still get knocked back the full amount. In collisions with landscape features, bodies of water have an AV of 1. Bushes and shrubs have an AV of 1d6. Soft ground and trees have an AV of 1d10. Concrete, stone, and asphalt have an AV of 2d10. ------------------------------- CHAPTER FIVE: Large Targets ------------------------------- For the first few thousand years after the end of the last ice age, the height of military genius was to send a bunch of guys to kill another bunch of guys. The balance of power was shifted by improving the construction of hand weapons and the ways in which sacrifices were offered to a variety of gods. Eventually, technological advances in other areas threw the whole system out of balance - farmers learned to construct bridges and walls, and hunters discovered the advantages of chariots and canoes. Before long civilizations were building frigates, fortresses, ziggurats, catapults, tanks, stealth bombers, and starships. Making war was suddenly a lot more complicated, and every aspiring general competed to build the biggest toys. In BrikWars, larger constructions built to carry, support, and operate heavy weapons and high-powered devices are built as Platforms. A Platform may be any type of vehicle, from bicycles to Panzer tanks, rafts to supertankers, hang gliders to starfleet carriers, submarines to death satellites, or simple exosuits to planet eating robots. It can be any type of building, from a Quik-E-Mart to the Empire State Building, from a shallow mountain cavern to NORAD, from Baba Yaga's walking hut to flying castles, from the domes of Atlantis to an orbital space fortress. Simpler Platforms can form vital infrastructure, including highways and railroad tracks, bridges and tunnels, fortified walls and barbed-wire fences, dikes and river dams, stargates and irrigation canals, landing strips, minefields, nebulae, black holes, and high-tension power lines. The only limits on the types of Platforms that can be built, and the uses to which they can be put, are the imagination of the player building them and the TekLevel of the civilization to which they belong. 5.1 Building Platforms -------------------------------------------------------------------------- " ... the tendency is to build whatever one wants to make first, and then try to define it the way you envisioned using the available rules. Instead of flipping through an equipment section and looking for the gun that does the most damage (ala any RPG), people are making something that looks cool to them and reflects their own style (big and powerful, small and fast, lightly armed but heavily armored, etc.). People have the exciting ideas in their head first, and then the rules are available to place them in the same context as everybody else's creation." - Shaun Sullivan, commenting on NELUG's BrikWars games When building a Platform, there are a number of steps to be followed to determine its costs and abilities. The first step is to build the model. (The point costs and statistics will be based on the model's construction, and not the other way around!) The size of the model's main body and the TekLevel of its civilization will determine the object's basic statistics and cost. Later, weapons, devices, and propulsion systems are added to give the object the ability to perform useful functions. +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Complex Interiors | | --------------------------------------- | | If you build a Platform whose interior has multiple levels or is | | especially complicated, such as a nuclear battleship or the Notre | | Dame cathedral, it will be difficult to move units around inside | | them unless you take special care in the construction of the | | models. There are a number of construction methods that will give | | you easy access to Platform interiors. | | | | The easiest method is to design all platforms so their interiors | | are 'open-air,' with no spaces fully enclosed. This is more | | appropriate to something like a dune buggy or a tropical shrine | | than, for instance, a lunar lander or a submarine. | | | | Failing that, walls and roofs may be made removable or carefully | | hinged in order to give access to Platform interiors. They may | | also be left off of the model entirely, while still 'existing' as | | far as units in the game are concerned. Remember that leaving | | them out creates a danger of confusion over exactly where they | | begin and end, and may make it difficult to keep track of specific | | points of damage the missing walls and roofs may sustain. | | | | Each level of a model may be removable, allowing access to the | | level underneath. Alternatively, a player may choose to place | | only the ground level on the battlefield, and build all upper and | | lower levels separately and place them off to one side. | | | | Finally, a player may choose to build multiple models for a single | | Platform - one model of the Platform's exterior, which will be | | placed on the battlefield, and one or more models of the | | Platform's interior, which will be held off to one side. | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ 5.1.1 Size ------------------------- Once the model is complete, the first thing to determine is the Size" rating of the main body of the Platform. When measuring a Platform's Size", ignore any weapons, devices (including limbs or other manipulators), or propulsion systems (including wings, wheels, helicopter blades, etc.) that extend beyond the main body. The shape of the Platform will determine how the Size" is calculated. CLASS I PLATFORMS are long and narrow enough to be safely defined by a single dimension: length. Examples include wires used to carry electricity, poles used to hoist flags, radio towers, and flying broomsticks used for witch delivery. Measure the length of the model in inches; this number divided by 10 is the Platform's Size" rating. In general, the length of a Class I Platform is limited to five inches times its civilization's TekLevel. CLASS II PLATFORMS are essentially flat surfaces, with only two significant dimensions. Examples include paved roads, freestanding walls and fences, dams, rafts, snowboards, drift nets, and flying carpets. In most cases the model will be roughly rectangular; twisting roads and walls can be treated as radically curved rectangles. Measure the width and length of the rectangle and multiply them together; this number divided by 5 is the Platform's Size" rating. Surfaces that rest flat on the ground may be of any size; a wall that stands upright is limited to a height of one Story (six Brix) times its civilization's TekLevel, squared. CLASS III PLATFORMS, the most common by far, are fully three- dimensional. Any structure that has an 'inside' is a Class III Platform, regardless of how flat or narrow it may appear to be. Examples include dumpsters, tunnels, surface-to-air missile batteries, office buildings, Stonehenge, lighthouses, aircraft carriers, and flying saucers. Find the two most distant points on opposite sides of the model and measure the number of inches between them (this may require some rough estimation). This number times two is the Platform's Size" rating. A Class III Platform can cover any amount of horizontal area, but its height above ground and depth below ground are limited to one Story times its civilization's TekLevel, squared. 5.1.2 Armor ------------------------- The base CP cost of a Platform is determined by its Armor and Size" ratings. +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Platform Armor Value Chart | |--------------------------------------------------------------------| | AV | ArmorX | Min. TL | Equivalent to | |------+---------+---------+-----------------------------------------| | 1d6 | x.5 | 0 | rope, drywall, plastic, flesh | | 1d10 | x1 | 1 | plywood, sheet metal, steel cables | | 2d10 | x2 | 1 | unmortared stone, log walls, sandbags | | 3d10 | x4 | 2 | concrete, mortared stone, armor plating | | 4d10 | x8 | 4 | heavy steel, reinforced concrete | | 5d10 | x12 | 5 | strongcrete, force fields | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ This chart should make it fairly clear which Armor Value is most appropriate for any given Platform, based on the materials used in its construction and its TekLevel. To calculate the Platform's Mass and base cost, multiply its Size" by the multiplier listed in the ArmorX column of this chart. This is the number of Blox in the Platform's Mass, and the number of Construction Points it will cost to build the main body of the Platform. Mass = Size" x ArmorX CP Cost = Size" x ArmorX The Armor Value of the Platform applies only to the exterior wall of the Platform. Interior structures (wall partitions, end-tables, sofas, poison gas vents), external devices (weapons, tools, propulsion units), and some types of constructions on the outer surface (doors, windows, any type of exposed hinge or axle) have the Armor Value Platform minus 2d10 (minimum armor 1d6). If you would like to strengthen the Armor Value of some or all of these objects, you must buy them as if they were separate Platforms (usually with a Size" rating of 1). Their new Armor Value cannot exceed the main Platform's Armor Value. +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Optional Rule: Subterranean Chambers :| | | --------------------------------------- | | There are many cases in which it is advantageous to build | | Platforms or parts of platforms underground, underwater, in the | | sides of mountain cliffs, or in the vacuum of outer space. | | Unfortunately, the same factors that make such a Platform less | | accessible to enemies also make the Platform more difficult (and | | expensive) to build. | | | | A Platform that goes underwater (submarines, habitation domes, | | bridge supports) or in outer space (starbases, space shuttles) has | | its base cost doubled. Any damage that breaches the hull will | | cause a dangerous leak, so consider building a series of interior | | pressure locks. | | | | A Platform that is underground or built into a cliffside has its | | base cost tripled. If the structural integrity of the outer wall | | is compromised there should be some kind of cave-in. | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ 5.2 Platform Components -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once the main structure has been built and paid for, it will need a series of specialized components if it's going to function as anything more than a storage shed. Most of the sub-structures inside your Platform (walls, doors, ladders, furniture, wiring, plumbing, etc.) and exterior doors, windows, and airlocks are provided free of charge. Build whatever you like. There are only a few categories of Platform components that have to be bought separately. First, any minifigs (and their equipment) or other units required to operate, inhabit, or defend the Platform must be bought separately. Information on purchasing these items can be found elsewhere throughout the rulebook. Second, if the Platform has any powered components then it will require some kind of Power Source. Power Sources are covered in 5.2.1: Power Sources. All Platforms get their first set of computers or controls for free. After that it'll cost you. These are covered in 5.2.2: Controls. If the Platform is a vehicle of some kind then it will need some form of Propulsion to move it around. This is covered in 5.2.3: Propulsion. Rules for handling vehicles are covered in Chapter Six: Vehicles. Finally, weapons and other special devices can be attached to the Platform. These are covered in Chapter Seven: Siege Weapons. For all of these component types, the component must be represented on the physical model by specific plastic bricks. In order to damage or destroy those components, attacks must be directed at those pieces. 5.2.1 Power Sources ------------------------- A Platform's Power Source will determine what weapons and devices can be mounted on it, as well as a vehicle's acceleration and top speed. +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Power Components Chart | |--------------------------------------------------------------------| | TL | Power Source | Max Power | CP Cost | |------+--------------------------------+------------------+---------| | TL0 | Rocks, gravity, feet | (none) | * | | TL1 | Horses, men | (manual labor) | * | | TL2 | Elephants, magic, slave teams | 10 Power | * | | TL3 | Wind, steam engines | 15 Power, BD/3 | 3xPower | | TL4 | Fossil fuels, nuclear fission | 20 Power, BD/2 | 2xPower | | TL5 | Cold hydrogen fusion | 30 Power, BD | Power | | TL6 | Antimatter reaction | 40 Power, 2xBD | Power/2 | | TL7 | Hypermatter | no limit | Power/5 | |--------------------------------------------------------------------| | * - A Platform with no Power Source has its base CP cost halved. | | Any devices or Siege Weapons mounted on the Platform must be | | loaded and fired by manual labor; these also have their CP | | costs halved. | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ The Power Source of a Platform includes any parts of the model that are considered to be part of the engine or fuel tanks (at earlier TLs, sails, waterwheels, and windmill blades can be Power Source components). If pieces of the main Power Source are damaged or destroyed, the Power rating of the Platform will be damaged. Pieces that transfer power from an engine to the rest of the Platform, such as pressure hoses, electric cable, drive shafts, gears and axles, etc. are not considered to be part of the Power Source. If these pieces are damaged or destroyed, their ability to carry Power to specific parts of the Platform will be impaired. When you have built your Power Source (the modeling does not have to be detailed or complex - a pair of Blox on the underside of a sedan can represent a finely-tuned V6), its type and size will determine its statistics. The type can be determined by finding a rough equivalent in the Power Source column. The size of a Power Source is measured by its Blok-Displacement (BD). This is the number of 2x4 Brix it would take to occupy the same amount of space as the Power Source (a rough estimate will be fine here). The TekLevel and Blok-Displacement of a Power Source will determine the maximum Power rating of a Power Source, as listed in the Max Power column, although players may choose a lower output than the maximum rating in order to save CP. Higher TekLevels can use Power Sources from earlier TekLevels; the Power of these components will be limited as if they were in the earlier TekLevel but their CP costs will as cheap as the current TekLevel would indicate. A Platform's Power rating is equal to the Power rating of its largest Power Source. Power from multiple sources is not cumulative. Power cannot be 'used up' by weapons and devices; a Platform with 2 Power can operate as many 2-Power devices as can be fit on the Platform, but cannot operate a single 3-Power device. Power Sources that run on combustible fuels can be quite volatile. Whenever such a Power Source is destroyed, it explodes, doing a number of d10s of Explosion Damage equal to its Power Rating. Prior to TL3, all Power must be supplied mechanically by the manual labor of minifigs and animals, which are bought separately. At TL4 and above, all buildings in civilized areas are connected to a power grid, and should include a fuse box somewhere on the premises. This gives all buildings a free Power rating of 2, which can only be interrupted by switching off the fuse box or damaging the power station somehow. If 2 Power is not enough to satisfy the building's inhabitants, then a separate Power Source must be constructed. +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Power Lines | | --------------------------------------- | | Normally, power lines are considered to be far underground and out | | of reach of marauding Troopers. If you would like to take the | | extra effort to construct electric poles, wires, and transformers | | to your various buildings, this is free and adds entertaining | | strategic possibilities. | | | | A building only loses Power when all electrical wires leading to | | the building have been severed. | | | | High-tension electrical wires carry 4 points of Power and will | | shock any grounded unit that touches them for 4d6 Damage. Wires | | leading from a transformer to a building carry 2 points of Power | | and will do 2d6 Damage. Electricity from a severed wire can arc | | for as many inches as there are points in the wire's Power rating, | | so even flying units may be considered 'grounded' if they are too | | close to a grounded object. | | | | Players who enjoy this level of detail may also want to consider | | the joys of plumbing. Sewer pipes, water mains, wet walls and | | drainage systems all offer interesting tactical possibilities and | | may provide additional routes for electrical wiring. Plus, the | | potential combination of water and electricity is too entertaining | | to be overlooked. | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ 5.2.2 Controls ------------------------- "Man is the best computer we can put aboard a spacecraft... and the only one that can be mass produced with unskilled labor." - Wernher von Braun Any Platform with weapons or powered devices must have some kind of control system, represented by specific PBBs on the physical model. Examples of Platform controls include steering wheels, flight sticks, switches, levers, buttons, and consoles. Vehicles without controls cannot accelerate, decelerate, or turn. Siege Weapons mounted on a Platform without controls cannot be aimed or fired. Most other types of devices will also need controls. A minifig unit will have to be present at the controls for them to be of any use. All controls must somehow be physically accessible to minifigs. Controls come in two types: Main Controls, which are placed in some central location and control some or all of a Platform's systems, and Manual Controls, which are mounted directly on the device they control. Every Platform gets one free set of Main Controls; this will usually be able to control all devices and systems on the Platform, although players may choose to place limits on which systems the Main Controls control at the time of construction. Additional sets of Main Controls cost as many CP as the Platform's Power rating. Backup sets of Main Controls can come in handy if the first set is destroyed or falls under enemy control, or if the Platform has gunners or other systems specialists who need separate sets of controls. Every Siege Weapon and device mounted on the Platform can be equipped with a set of Manual Controls, attached directly to the weapon or device, at no additional cost. Manual Controls will almost always override Main Controls. At TL4 and higher, it is possible to build Manual Controls that are not mounted directly on a device. These Remote Controls cost as many CP as the Power Requirement of the device. If a Remote Control unit controls more than one device, it costs as many CP as the devices' combined Power Requirements. After mid-TL4, most control systems are computerized. Main Controls become ComputerBanx and Manual Controls become ComputerConsoles. Computer security is very loose, since Troopers aren't particularly bright and tend to get killed faster than they can memorize new passwords. It takes one full turn for a Trooper to take control of a ComputerBank or ComputerConsole that he has gained access to. If enemy agents gain control of all of a Platform's ComputerBanx, the Platform belongs to them. If they miss even one, the Platform is still under control of the original owner. If enemy agents take control of a ComputerConsole, the associated device belongs to them for as long as they remain at the controls. If they leave the ComputerConsole and the device is still attached to a main ComputerBank, the ComputerBank can be used to reassume control of the device for the original owners. At TL5 and higher, a minifig at a ComputerBank has the ability to cut Power to any device that has fallen into enemy hands. Only the side with computer control can use powered Platform devices like automatic doors, motorized weapon emplacements, internal communication systems, and so forth. If all of a Platform's ComputerBanx have been destroyed, then all of the Platform's powered weapons fire at -3 Skill, all the powered doors open, the lights go out, the TVs are stuck on the Weather Channel, and the showers only run cold water. 5.2.3 Propulsion ------------------------- Platforms with Propulsion systems are called vehicles. Each Propulsion system on a vehicle must be well-represented by at least one PBB (wheels, propellers, jets, etc.) Different types of Propulsion systems cost different amounts, and vary in performance. In general it is best to build Propulsion systems whose Power requirement is equal to the Power rating of the vehicle on which they are mounted. However, players may choose any Power requirement for their Propulsion systems at the time of construction; during the game, if the Power requirement of the Propulsion system exceeds the Power rating of the vehicle, the stats and abilities of the Propulsion system are reduced to match the lower Power rating. Propulsion systems have a number of statistics, based on their TekLevel and Power requirement. CP COST. The CP Cost of a Propulsion system is the amount of CP that must be spent to build and mount the system on a vehicle. If the system is to be powered entirely by manual labor, its cost is halved. CARGO CAPACITY" (C"). Propulsion systems can carry a certain amount of weight before their Move" and Accel/Decel stats are affected. For every inch in the C" rating, one inch of Cargo Movement Penalty (-CMP") can be ignored. Cargo, weapons, and devices can be loaded onto vehicles until their Move" is reduced to a minimum of 4" per turn, or 10" per turn for Flyers. A vehicle's Accel/Decel rating should always be at least 1". ACCEL/DECEL (A/D). When using the acceleration rules (4.3.2: Acceleration), the A/D rating determines how quickly a vehicle can accelerate or decelerate. The A/D rating is negatively affected by Cargo Movement Penalties. If a Propulsion system has the ability to Turn in Place, the A/D rating will be marked with a TP. MAX MOVE". The Movement Rate for any Propulsion system is determined by Power and Mass (to calculate Mass, see 5.1.2: Armor): Movement Rate, in inches: (4 x Power˛) / Mass For vehicles of low Mass: (4 x Power˛) / (Size" x ArmorX) If this Movement Rate is higher than the Max Move" rating as determined by the vehicle's TekLevel, the vehicle's Movement Rate is reduced to the Max Move" rating. When the Movement Rate is reduced in this manner, the vehicle's A/D rating is not affected; it will reflect the original Movement Rate and is not limited by TekLevel. +----------------------------------------------------+ | Ground Propulsion | |----------------------------------------------------| | | Ground | Treaded (or Legs) | |-----------------+--------------+-------------------| | CP Cost | (Power/4) CP | (Power/2) CP | | Cargo Capacity" | Power" | Power x 1.5" | | Accel/Decel | 1/2 Move" | 1/3 Move" (TP) | | Max Move" | TL x 4" | TL x 3" | +----------------------------------------------------+ Ground Propulsion covers any type of Propulsion that limits a vehicle to traveling over solid ground. A Ground vehicle most often has tires or wheels, but can also ride on things like runners and skis. Any type of Ground Propulsion that allows a vehicle to turn in place, such as treads, repulsor lifts, or hovercraft propellers, falls under the category of Treaded Propulsion. (If you would like to build a vehicle with treads but don't have any tread PBBs, you can arrange long rows of tires on the model and pretend that they have treads on them.) A robot that walks on legs can be treated as a Treaded vehicle, as long as the robot uses the legs for walking only. If you want to use the robot's legs for jumping, kicking, dancing, picking things up, etc., you will have to buy them as Limbs using the Robotic Vehicles Supplement. Larger tires and treads can overcome larger obstacles - for every two full Brix of tire/tread height, add 1 CP to the cost of the propulsion system. (Use the height of the largest tire - there's no need to buy the height of each tire separately.) +----------------------------------------------------+ | Flyer Propulsion | |----------------------------------------------------| | | Flyers | HoverFlyers | |-----------------+-----------------+----------------| | CP Cost | (3 x Power) CP | (4 x Power) CP | | Cargo Capacity" | 1/2 Power" | 1/2 Power" | | Accel/Decel | 1/4 Move" | 1/3 Move" (TP) | | Max Move" | TL x 6" | TL x 5" | +----------------------------------------------------+ "Thank God men cannot as yet fly and lay waste the sky as well as the earth!" - Henry David Thoreau Flyers are any type of vehicles that travel in the air or in outer space. A HoverFlyer is any Flyer that can hover and turn in place. Flyer propulsion can be represented by wings, propellers, jets, rocket thrusters, or repulsor pods. Flyers should be supported above the surface of the playing field by some kind of stand. This stand doesn't represent anything on the battlefield except the shadow if the Flier, which has no more effect than you would expect a shadow to have. A non-Hovering Flier must travel at least (Size")+5" per turn in order to stay in the air. For specific details on Flyers making landings and takeoffs and on keeping track of altitude, see 6.1.2: Propulsion Types. +--------------------------------------------------------+ | Boat/Train Propulsion | |--------------------------------------------------------| | | Boats & Trains | Submarines & Blimps | |-----------------+----------------+---------------------| | CP Cost | (Power/2) CP | (Power/2) CP | | Cargo Capacity" | Power x 2" | Power" | | Accel/Decel | 1/4 Move" * | 1/4 Move" * | | Max Move" | TL x 4" | TL x 3" ** | |--------------------------------------------------------| | * - Rowed Boats and some Submarines and Blimps can | | Turn in Place (TP). | | ** - Submarines and Blimps can rise or dive a maximum | | of one Story per turn. | +--------------------------------------------------------+ "Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash." - Sir Winston Churchill Boat Propulsion can be represented by sails and masts, outboard motors, sternwheels, or underwater propeller drives. Train Propulsion is represented by train wheels or maglev bars on the TrainTrax. Submarine and Blimp propulsion is represented by propellers or jets. Large, slow fantasy and sci-fi vehicles like sky barges, sand frieghters, solar galleons, etc. can also use the stats of Boats or Blimps. For a Rowed Boat, the oars can be manned with Galley Slaves (see 8.2.4: Slaves). Each Slave costs (TekLevel) CP and provides 2 Power. The control system for Galley Slaves generally consists of one Slave with a drum to beat and one or more Troopers with whips. Any Boat rowed by minifigs, even the largest quadrireme, can Turn in Place. 5.3 Destroying Large Structures -------------------------------------------------------------------------- BrikWars players come in all shapes and sizes and they all have different attitudes regarding exactly how destructive they wish to be. Some players put weeks of effort into individual models and have no interest in seeing their hard work destroyed. Some just want to smash everything into the tiniest possible bits. Some want to be able to draw distinctions between the performance of each system that can be damaged, disabled, or destroyed; others have no inclination to keep track of details at that level. The most important thing to decide is whether to allow the tearing apart of physical models. A model that can be torn apart is Destructible; a model that can't is Non-Destructible. Players can effect a rule making all models on the field either Destructible or Non-Destructible, or they may make a separate decision for each model, depending on the wishes of the model's creator. In general it is best to allow destruction wherever possible, but allowances have to be made for the players who have grown attached to their models and for the players who worry about losing track of whose PBBs are whose after the models have been ripped apart. Because Platform Armor can be extremely tough, units attacking it will often want to take advantage of Cumulative Damage and Combined Fire in order to penetrate it (3.3.3: Cumulative Damage/Combined Fire). Often, units will find it easier to penetrate a large Platform's Armor through subterfuge than with brute force. 5.3.1 Component Damage ------------------------- In the Component Damage system, units attacking a Platform attempt to damage and destroy individual PBBs within the Platform structure. This system is best when the attacking unit is smaller or weaker than the target Platform, or when the attacker wants to limit damage to a specific area. Platform designers are careful enough to hide the most important systems on the Platforms' interiors where they're hard to reach. As such, the attackers will have to find or create chinks in the exterior Armor. The advantage of Component Damage is that it can allow an attacker to bypass a Platform's tough exterior shell and gain direct access to the soft juicy innards. Most PBBs on the exterior surface of a Platform are considered to be Armored. The exceptions are any moving part (a hinge, swivel, gear, axle, etc.) or device (weapons, propulsion, control systems, or other special-purpose devices), unless the builder has paid extra CP to armor these PBBs (5.1.2: Armor). Armored PBBs have the full Armor Rating of the Platform; all other PBBs have the Platform's Armor Rating minus 2d10 (minimum armor 1d6). When a component is attacked, for every point by which the Damage Roll exceeds the Armor Roll, the component takes one point of Functional Damage (indicated by stacking gray Pips on or next to the affected PBB). If the level of Functional Damage is as much or greater than the Platform's Power Rating, then the component is Disabled (indicated by placing a black Pip on or next to the affected PBB). Except for attacks doing Stun Damage, if the Damage Roll is at least twice the Armor Roll, the component is destroyed. On a Non-Destructible model, place two black Pips to indicate the PBB has been Disabled and Damaged Beyond Repair. On a Destructible model, remove the PBB from the model and either set it on the ground with two black Pips next to the model, or remove the PBB from play entirely. When a component is destroyed, Surplus Damage (3.4.1: Overkill) and Explosion Damage (3.4.2: Explosions) can then carry over to damage or destroy other components in their paths. If a combustible Power Source is destroyed, it explodes, doing as many d10s of Explosion Damage as were in its original Power Rating. All Platform components are suffused with special conduit systems. Power from Power Sources and control from control systems must travel along chains of adjacent components in order to reach Platform devices. Normally there will be at least one possible chain in which none of the components have been damaged. When there is not, for every point of Functional Damage on components in the chain between the Power Supply and the device, the Power provided to the device is diminished by one. For every point of Functional Damage between the control system and the device, there is a cumulative -1 Skill Penalty for any use of the device. Devices receiving insufficient Power will not function, except for Propulsion systems whose statistics are decreased to reflect the change in Power supply (5.2.3: Propulsion). Devices with no specific Power Requirements (automatic doors, turret mounts, computers, blenders, etc.) will continue to operate until their Power supply has been reduced to zero. 5.3.2 Generalized Damage ------------------------- In the Generalized Damage system, units attacking a Platform attempt to do damage to the entire Platform in general rather than to any part or system specifically. This system is best when the attacking unit is larger or more powerful than the defending unit, or when the attack is not localized to a specific area of the target (e.g. earthquake damage to a skyscraper or shockwave damage to a starship). Attacks doing Generalized Damage must first exceed the target Platform's Armor Rating. The effect is then determined by the amount of leftover Damage and the Size" rating of the Platform. The Platform may simply suffer an assortment of penalties to its attributes and abilities, in which case the attacker rolls on the Statistic Ker-Pow! Table, or it may suffer a single traumatic effect, in which case the Platform Ker-Pow! Table is used. Which table players choose to employ is a matter of personal taste. Damage sustained by a Platform that cannot be easily represented on the physical model should be indicated on the paper on which the Platform's basic stats are recorded. If there are multiple identical Platforms using the same statistic sheet, it is best to create a PBB 'stand' for the Platform and to place on the stand stacks or rows of colored Pips representing the various amounts and types of damage the Platform has sustained. +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Heads-Up Displays | | ----------------- | | A quick way to keep track of Platforms' varying Statistical Damage | | is to attach a Heads-Up Display (HUD) built out of flat plates. | | The HUD has no existence in the game reality, but serves as a | | visual aid for players. | | | | Flat plates of varying colors are chosen, one dot in width, their | | length determined by the stat they represent (a Move" of 15" would | | be represented by a plate 15 dots long). Dice are represented by | | thicker plates: two layers of plates indicate d6s, three layers | | indicate d10s. If the stat is impaired, a number of black Pips | | are laid along the length of the plate, incrementally obscuring | | it. When damage is repaired, the black Pips are accordingly | | removed. | | | | Any colors may be chosen for the statistic indicators and for the | | background plate on which they are mounted, according to the | | colored pieces available to the players; statistics that do not | | apply to the HUD's Platform are of course omitted (e.g., buildings | | do not have propulsion statistics). These colors are only | | suggestions: | | | | Background: Black. | | Movement: Blue. If a Platform has more than one type of | | propulsion, each will require a separate row. | | Accel/Decel: Green. | | Power: Yellow. | | Armor: Red. | | Controls: None. A blank row is left to accomodate black Pips | | which will indicate Skill Penalty points. | | Skill: Gray. Most Platforms don't have their own Skill | | ratings however. | | Cargo Cap.: White. Cargo Capacity inches that are used up by | | -CMP" are covered with gray Pips. If the -CMP" | | exceeds the Cargo Capacity, gray Pips are then | | placed on the Movement and Accel/Decel rows. | | | | Heads-Up Displays are mostly used for Platforms if at all, but | | many special characters and supernatural creatures can also | | bene