Chapter Ten: Creatures
|Wild animals never kill
for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture
and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in
|- James Anthony Froude
all Creations are designed for active roles. Objects like trees, warehouses,
and bridges perform their duties perfectly well by just sitting there
and not wandering off at critical moments. If a Creation is intended
for more proactive tasks, such as moving around, carrying loads, or vaporizing
civilians, it needs either a mind of its own, or
intelligent operators at the controls.
The difference between a Creature and a Vehicle is that Creatures are capable of independent thought and action, whether their brain is
composed of meat, circuitry, or magic. A mech piloted by a minifig is a robotic Vehicle; a mech operating independently to destroy all minifigs is a robotic Creature.
Life is cheap in the BrikVerse, and intelligence is valued even less. BrikWars passes those savings on to you! For a CP cost (minimum 1CP) equal to its
Size, a Creation can be given a Mind, becoming a full-fledged Creature with a Skill of 1d6. Players can pay the Creature's Size in CP again to give it a Skill Boost, increasing its Skill by one die size each time, to a maximum Skill of 1d12.
|In BrikWars, a unit's Skill Rating is always represented by a single die with no modifiers. Skill Ratings like "1d6+2" or "2d4" are disallowed, because they reduce the element of chance for Actions with lower Use Ratings, and unbalance the odds for Critical Failures and Bonus Dice. If you don't have any dice other than d6es, you should try to stick to the d6-only units and equipment as much as possible, rather than having to resort to d6es plus modifiers.
||(see Half Minds, below)
||specialists, officers, veterans
* - Incompetent creatures never get Bonus Dice on their Skill rolls.
A d4, d6, d8, d10, and d12, respectively.
If you've read this far, you almost certainly already have some of these.
|Elements shown: dice
Creatures with Minds have the same mental abilities as regular minifigs.
As long as they have the proper appendages, they can use equipment,
open doors, and toss items around as normal. Common sense should be
an adequate guide for whether a Creature has the proper body shape
to work a stick shift or the fine manipulators to type on a keyboard.
In the occasional instances in which players aren't sure, a What I
Say Goes roll can quickly resolve the issue (for instance, an intelligent cockroach can type on
a keyboard by jumping real hard, but it takes him twice as long as
normal, and he can't use the shift key without the help of a friendly
Like Weapons, Propulsion systems, and Controls, a Creature's Mind should have a specific location within the Creature, with a physical component to represent it (typically the head, for most organic Creatures). If that component is destroyed, the Mind is also destroyed, and it ceases to be a living Creature unless it has at least one backup Mind still functioning.
|“To lead untrained people to war is to throw them away.”
Creatures with Minds are fully independent, able to form their own
strategies and wage effective warfare without supervision. If this
doesnt fit your vision for the Creature, you may elect instead
to give it a Half Mind, at one half the cost of a regular Mind.
Skill Boosts can still be purchased at the full regular price.
||while executing program
|| can be reprogrammed
|| robots, mind-control victims
||when directed by master
|| accepts new masters when free
|| horses, fanboys
||while restrained by master
||never controlled by owner when free
Half-Minded Creatures operate no differently than full-Minded Creatures as long as their requirements for Usefulness are met. A Horse is Useful when a rider directs it, a computer is Useful while it has a program to execute, a slave is Useful while under the lash, and a regular civilian can be Useful when he's not being an idiot.
When the requirements for Usefulness aren't met, a Half-Minded Creature becomes more dangerous. The player controlling the Creature must immediately hand control to one of his Enemies. On that Enemy's turn, he may direct the Creature to take either a Movement or an Action (but not both). At the end of the turn, if the Creature has not been returned to Usefulness, then he must hand control of the Creature to an Enemy of his own. The cycle continues until the Creature has been made Useful again or until it is killed or otherwise removed from battle.
- An Incompetent Creature is similar to other full-Minded
Creatures, but due to a lack of training, motor skills, or intelligence,
it is prevented it from being an effective combatant.
An Incompetent Creatures Skill is set at 1d4 and
cannot be raised any further with Skill boosts or Bonus Dice.
Incompetent units suffer from Stupidity. As long as a player controls more than one unit with Stupidity, then at the beginning of their turn, before the player takes any other action, one Enemy of the player's choice may choose any one of the Stupid units and control it as if it were his own for that turn. It's nice if he can also come up with a good story for why the unit is engaging in such Stupid behavior, but not required.
Examples: Zombies, civilians,
zombified civilians, Republicans, corporate middle managers,
clone-brand minifigs, ogres, mutants, Democrats
A Programmed Creature is limited in its ability to
make complex strategic decisions, and instead follows
a simple set of behaviors. Simple Creatures are given
a list of behaviors at the beginning of the battle, and
may only behave in accordance with those instructions.
A Simple behavior must be fairly specific: Move
to the nearest wounded allies and attempt to heal them
or Stay close to the nearest allied troops and fire at enemy
combatants are fine Simple behaviors; Defeat
all enemies and Win the battle are not. Random animals and wildlife are often made Simple for efficiencys
sake, with short behaviors like flee from any nearby
threat or if it's nearby and looks edible,
try to eat it.
While not technically Creatures,
traps and mechanized defense systems are often given Simple behaviors as well, such as
"fire at anything in range and moving" or "if
intelligent life is detected, release deadly neurotoxin gas."
A Programmed Creature is Useful as long as it has a Program to execute. Deleting the program or tricking it into a paradox can cause the Creature to go haywire.
Examples: Kill-bots, golems,
summoned elementals, guard dogs, mind-control victims,
- A Submissive Creature may have a limited ability
to think on its own, but prefers to obey the commands
of a master. Under an intelligent minifigs direction,
the Creature may act as intelligently as if it had a full
Mind, but if abandoned, the Creature reverts to whatever
animal-like behavior seems appropriate: milling around
aimlessly, running and hiding, or attacking everything
A Submissive Creature loses its Usefulness if its master is killed or wanders off. If another intelligent minifig can catch a masterless
Creature, regardless of whether hes on the same
team, the Creature accepts him as its new master.
Examples: Steeds, androids,
grad students, interns, work animals, targeting
computers, football players, talk radio listeners, fetishists, cultists
- Subjugated Creatures are restrained or harnessed
and forced to cooperate against their will. They
may be completely intelligent, but have Half a
Mind to break free and run amuck. As long as they are
kept in their restraints, they must follow the orders
of their captors, but if they can be released, they will do
whatever they can to prevent being enslaved again. This
usually means attacking their captors or fleeing the battlefield,
but can also be as simple as just attacking everything
in sight, regardless of allegiance.
A Subjugated Creature must be kept in chains or under the whips of an overseer in order to be kept Useful. If it breaks free, control of the Creature is handed from Enemy to Enemy as usual, but can never be handed back to the original player. If the original player is the only Enemy at the table, control does not transfer.
Examples: galley slaves,
schoolchildren, chain gangs, draft oxen, conscripts,
berserkers, retail employees
Example: The Horse
|Example: Horses (Chapter H: The Horse) are Submissive Creatures with the following stats:
||(Structure Level ½) x (Size 2")
||(Move 2") x 5
||(Size 2") x Half Mind
||Kick or Bite
CC Use:2 Damage:1d6
|Size 1 Melee
This WarHorse's Horse Heavy Armor costs +4CP, grants it a Shielded bonus, and reduces it to Half Speed.
As with minifigs, a Creature with a standard Mind has one Action
per turn and can attack with one ranged weapon or two melee weapons.
If that's not enough for the species you have in mind, you can purchase
additional levels of capacity for the cost of the Creature's original
Mind, including Skill Boosts. There are two types of extra mental capacity:
Appropriate for Creatures with multiple arms or several
natural weapons, Multidexterity increases the number
of weapons the Creature can use in a single attack, provided
it has enough hands to use them. In a given turn, Multidexterity allows the Creature to attack
and Counter with up to two additional weapons in Close Combat,
to use one additional weapon in a Ranged attack, or to use one
additional set of tools when taking other types of special Actions. The
Creature is still limited to taking a single Action against a single target
during its turn, unless it has also purchased the Multitasking
Appropriate for Creatures with multiple heads or an advanced
multiprocessing brain, Multitasking (or "Extra
Action") allows a Creature to focus on one additional
target during its turn. A Creature with multiple Ranged
or Close Combat attacks may divide them between multiple
targets in the same turn. A multi-brained or superintelligent
Creature can even take two or more completely dissimilar
Actions in the same turn (e.g., playing the piano while
laying down sniper fire); however, it may not use the
same weapon, hand, or equipment item for more than one
Action during the turn. It may not use more than two hands
or weapons for Actions unless it has also purchased Multidexterity.
|Enhanced Abilities Example: Professor Monkeyhead
|Example: A pioneer in the field of self-bioengineering, the six-armed Professor Monkeyhead is brilliant but insane.
Once a normal minifig (4CP), the Professor has spent a further +2CP to raise his Skill to 1d10, +2CP on Multitasking to engage in three Actions at once, and +1CP on Multidexterity to use any four of his six hands at the same time. His total worth is now 9CP, enough to apply for tenure in his university department.
LEGO, Little Armory
10.2 The Medik
|Chemikal analysis shows that Ablogikal Binding Substance was in use as early as Retkon 1,963. It is believed that the interdimensional disruptions caused by mishandled ABS may have had mutagenic effects on an earlier species; records of earlier humanoids are difficult to verify but seem to sport a variety of disfiguring mutations, from stunted and limbless homonculi to strange noodle-limbed giants. Theories abound as to whether the earlier civilizations were aware of the effects of uncontrolled ABS and continued using it anyway, bringing about their own destruction. Too little is currently known about these early eras to draw any conclusions.
Hospital 555 is first known to have appeared in the timeline of Retkon 1,976. It was staffed by faceless and limbless proto-figs, who captured unsuspecting citizens and performed horrible genetik experiments on them.
The proto-figs' operations culminated in the engineering of the first true minifig. Their ABS gene-splicing madness successfully gave this new fig arms, hands, legs, and even a face. Consumed with rage and bloodlust after having been submitted to experiments more gruesome than previously thought possible, the first minifig who survived broke free from his restraints, killed the proto-figs who gave him his new body, and he escaped into the world; a deadly killer genetically engineered for destruction. This first minifig was the Deadly Spaceman.
This is also how babies are made.
Creatures are as susceptible to Damage as any other Creation - Size Damage, Component Damage, and all the other special Damage types work exactly the same way (7.2: Taking Damage).
When doing Damage to a living Creature, it's important to remember that its head and body are treated as the central Structure, while any limbs, wings, tails, or tentacles are Surface Elements with a Structure Level one level lower (7.1: Structure). This cannot reduce them beyond Structure Level ½ (Armor 1d6), however.
Creatures have an extra vulnerability in that their Minds are devices with a physical location, and they can be targeted like any other device. Destroying or severing a Creature's head is usually enough to end its adventures in a single stroke. If the location of a Mind isn't obvious from a Creature's anatomy, its owner should point it out to the other players.
Another disadvantage of wounded Creatures is that the biological ones (like minifigs) can't be conveniently patched up or reassembled by any passing Mechanik. A Mechanik's abilities only work for mechanical devices, not living flesh.
| There are settings in which this rule becomes fuzzy - biomechanical alien species, Lovecraftian abominators, and mad-geneticist vivisectors may occasionally pop up with attendant Mechaniks for whom biological parts are interchangeable with mechanical ones. This is entirely setting-specific, but should be discussed by players beforehand.
Fortunately, there are minifigs who specialize in meat-based repairs just like Mechaniks specialize in reconfiguring machinery. The Medik is a unit specially trained to perform impromptu surgeries in the field, reviving fallen soldiers over and over again so that each one can experience repeated gruesome deaths in the greatest agonizing variety.
Lacking fancy operating facilities or any time for second opinions, the Medik uses the tried-and-true methods of Ker-Triage!, allowing him to quickly discern how many limbs need to be Amputated in order to bring fallen minifigs and Creatures back up to combat readiness.
A Medik carrying proper medikal Tools (3.4: Desperate Measures) can attempt to revive any fallen minifig or Creature of Size 1" or greater if it has at least one head still attached. To do so, he spends a full-round Action to perform field surgery, and rolls 1d8 on the Ker-Triage! Table above. Additional Medix at the scene can assist in Ker-Triage!, each increasing the die rolled by one die size, to a maximum of 1d12.
| A Medik without his Tools can attempt impromptu Ker-Triage! with any bladed weapon instead, but he rolls 1d6 rather than 1d8.
Assisting Medix require no special equipment.
If the Medik rolls a five or greater, congratulations! The Creature is revived with no ill effects. It may immediately stand up and re-equip itself as needed (so that players don't forget it's alive), and it can take Action and continue fighting as normal starting on its following turn. (On a Critical Success, the revived minifig can jump up and take a turn immediately.) Creatures larger than Size 1" are revived with an Effective Size of 1", along with the limitations that entails - a maximum Structure Level of 1 and Armor of 1d10, in particular (7.2: Taking Damage).
If the Medik rolls less than five, then the problem is more serious
and he'll have to perform one or more Amputations in order to save the patient. The Amputations succeed automatically; the Medik doesn't need to make any Skill or Damage rolls or spend any more Actions to remove the number of limbs indicated by the Ker-Triage! result.
Each limb removed (or otherwise disabled, for Creatures whose limbs can't be removed) counts as one Amputation. Arms and legs are the most common limbs chosen; wings and tentacles will also do. Tails don't count.
If there are not enough regular limbs to satisfy the Amputation requirements, the Medik has no choice but to Amputate the head. This may still save a Creature that has extra heads in reserve, but a normal one-headed Creature will now be dead beyond any hope of Medikal revival.
Effects of Amputation
The complete loss of an arm or leg is a massive trauma that causes all surrounding tissue to swell and adrenaline to course through the body, cutting off blood loss and allowing the Creature to ignore the pain, at least until the end of the battle. Creatures who lose one or more limbs are still capable of continuing to fight. They're just differently capable.
|Effects of Amputation
|one leg/wing lost
||-1" Move each
|legs reduced by half
||Half Speed, on top of other Move penalties
|wings reduced by half
or all legs lost
| Move reduced to 0";
may use Action
to drag self the length of remaining arms
|reduced to one arm
||may not use two-handed equipment
|all arms lost
||may not hold items or use devices
|1 head lost
|all heads lost
The loss of legs, wings, or other limbs the Creature uses to move around is treated as Propulsion Damage (9.1: Standard Propulsion). Each Propulsion limb removed reduces the Creature's Move by 1" (to a minimum of 1", if it still has other Propulsion limbs remaining). For regular Propulsion types, if half of the Creature's Propulsion limbs are lost, it moves at Half Speed after applying all other penalties. For flight Propulsion, the loss of half of the Propulsion limbs means the Creature is grounded and cannot move.
If all of the Propulsion limbs are lost, the Creature is limited to dragging itself along by the length of any arms it still has attached. (For minifigs, whose arms are each 1/2" long, this means that a minifig with both arms and no legs can drag itself one inch per turn.) This uses up the Creature's Action for the turn; it may not use its arms for anything else. Even if it's still able to drag itself around, a Creature with no Propulsion limbs is treated as one that has no Move ability - it may not Sprint, Bail, or use Angry Inches, and all Close Combat attacks against it automatically hit.
Regardless of the state of its Propulsion limbs, a Creature who loses one or more hands or arms is limited in other obvious ways. A Creature with only one hand can't use a Two-Handed or Long-Ranged Weapon. A Creature with no hands can't use any tools or weapons at all. Less common objects have to be considered on a case-by-case basis; it may take a What I Say Goes Roll to decide whether a given armless minifig can successfully operate a door latch with his teeth or mash a self-destruct button with his face.
In basic BrikWars battles, the treatment of corpses is a matter of taste. Whether they slump over uneventfully or their bodies are blown into discrete plastic bits depends only on how excited the players are about the quality of the attack.
In a battle that includes Mediks, injuries can make a big difference between easily-revived minifigs and hopeless cases. A minifig with both legs blown off is two points closer to failure on a Ker-Triage! Roll than his anatomically intact buddy, and it's important to track who's just mostly dead and who's really, really, no-fooling dead.
If players decide to allow Dismemberment, then minifigs and other Size 1" Creatures are no longer unaffected by Damage that exactly matches their Armor. Instead, one limb of the defending player's choice is Amputated - whether severed, crushed, blown off, or burnt beyond recognition.
If a minifig is killed by Damage equal to double its Armor or greater, then the minifig is Decapitated. Its head is removed, along with any extra heads and whichever other body parts seem appropriate, and there is no chance of revival by Mediks on the battlefield.
10.3 SuperNatural Abilities
In every age, there are those gifted with abilities that defy natural explanation, allowing them to grab the laws of Physix and twist them into pretzels. Some gain these through to arcane knowledge, psychik ability, divine favor, other-dimensional influence, or affinity with the Farce. Others attribute their powers to martial-arts mastery, genetik mutation, or an unforeseen reaction to the rays of a yellow sun. Many have no explanation other than complete Koincidence and dumb luck.
It would be impossible to list every super power, spell, psychik ability, and avenue of divine intervention that might occur to the imaginations of players. Instead, SuperNatural Powers in BrikWars are based on a system of SuperNatural Clichés and powered by SuperNatural Dice.
The SuperNatural Cliché
In the same way that minifigs become Heroes through the development of an Action-Hero Cliché; others become SuperNatural by pursuing a SuperNatural Cliché. (Some few develop both types and become SuperHeroes, but this is largely redundant and is not considered the most efficient use of their efforts.) SuperPowered minifigs draw their stereotypes from the same video games and cartoons as Heroic ones, but their powers are inspired by the supporting cast as often as by the main protagonists and villains.
||Necromancer, Pyromancer, Plantomancer, Iceomancer, Pantsomancer
||Super Strong Guy, Super Fast Guy, Super Spider Guy, Super Wonder Female Guy
||Mystik Ninja, Pedi Knight, Sword Saint, Wandering Monk, Playtrix Hacker
||BrikThulhian Kultist, Holy Clerik, Rules Lawyer
||Pyrotechnik, Telekinetik, Mindcontrolnik
||Nega-Daemon, Baalvillain, Vampire, Ghost
| When choosing a SuperNatural Cliché, it's best to have a specific character in mind - three units with the "Vampire" Cliché might have completely different powers if one is based on Bram Stoker's Dracula, one is pulled from a generic monster manual, and the third is the sparkly kind.
Where Heroes develop ridiculous accents as an involuntary side-effect of Heroism, SuperNatural units develop funny voices as well - but they do it on purpose, in response to years of persecution from jaded skeptics and jealous MerelyNatural units. The more SuperNatural power a unit collects, the greater the SuperNatural chip on his shoulder grows, and the more likely he is to limit himself to speaking only in booming echoes, testosterone growls, or mysterious whispers. Before long, he's put together a ludicrous outfit and accessories to match, not realizing that these affectations only result in being taken even less seriously than before.
In most cases, SuperNatural abilities are given to minifigs. However, machines, animals, and even inanimate objects can occasionally have SuperNatural powers, through enchantment, possession, alien teknology, or the misunderstanding that results when a minifig doesn't realize the power was within him all along. The powers of these objects are controlled by whichever minifig possesses them, often making them the subject of deadly conflict.
|All action within the BrikVerse originates in the Farce, and the Farce expresses Itself through the five archetypal Dice. These Dice shower down continuously throughout the lives of all minifigs, determining the success or failure of their every venture in an uncaring downpour, but the perception of normal minifigs is not expanded enough to detect them without magikal or pharmeceutikal aid. Few minifigs are granted the vision to see the Dice, and those who do are often driven permanently and horrifyingly sane.
The powers of Dice are guarded jealously by the mysterious Human gods who hold them, far removed from the reach of minifig-kind, but centuries of okkult practice have allowed covens of minifig Mystix to gain glimpses into their nature. From the Elemental Dice of the early Alkemists to the Polyhedrik Qwintinuum of the Qwintum Mechanix, esoteric methods of reading the Dice and manipulating their results have resurfaced throughout history. The greatest wizards, geniuses, and savants among these groups have been able to capture stray Dice mid-flight and claim them for their own.
A SuperNaturally-powered unit measures the strength of its abilities by the SuperNatural Dice under its control. The unit uses these Dice, singly or in combination, to produce SuperNatural Effects appropriate to its Cliché. Each die may be used once per turn to add to (or occasionally subtract from) one of the possible Aspects of an Effect, described further below. Like Actions, the spent SuperNatural Dice return to the unit at the beginning of its turn and become available to spend again.
SuperNatural Effects can be used to create or modify the Actions, Movement, or attributes of units, vehicles, and equipment, or to affect the results of die rolls as they happen.
A unit who creates an Effect that affects only himself or an object he's holding (including a Grabbed opponent), or is an area Effect centered on himself or an object he's holding, doesn't need to spend an Action to create the Effect. A SuperNatural Effect only costs an Action if it needs to be "aimed" at a target or area away from the unit creating it.
For every SuperNatural Die a unit has spent, it suffers a cumulative -1 Skill Penalty until that Die is returned. The more Dice it spends, the more difficult normal Actions become. SuperNatural units can counteract this by spending a Die or two to grant themselves Skill bonuses to compensate, or they can focus on using their powers to buff allied units to handle all the Actions for them.
When used for SuperNatural purposes, each of the five Dice has its own particular flavor.
||SuperNatural d4s can earn Bonus Dice
|| Range d8 may also add +1 Firing Arc
||alters Structure Level if used for Armor;
can be used to add +2" radius to any Effect
||Damage d12s bypass Armored status
||Only available to BrikThulhu
- The SuperNatural d4
The SuperNatural d4 is the Die of Fire. Unlike regular d4s, a SuperNatural d4 can earn Bonus Dice, although they're just additional lowly d4s.
- The SuperNatural d6
The SuperNatural d6 is the Die of Earth, and has no special twists to consider.
- The SuperNatural d8
The SuperNatural d8 is the Die of Air. Any time a SuperNatural d8 is used to add Range, the player has the option to add +1 Firing Arc to the Effect if it's appropriate to do so.
- The SuperNatural d10
The SuperNatural d10 is the Die of Explosions. It can be used to add an Explosion-like radius to the target area of an Effect.
| What happens if a unit uses a d8 and a d10 in the same Effect? Can he create an Arc of Explosions? SuperNatural Effects are based on a unit's SuperNatural Cliché, not on which dice it happens to be using. If a wizard is casting Spray of Fireballs, then you already know what those d8s and d10s mean. If the wizard is rolling d8s and d10s and trying to make up an Effect after the fact, then you're doing it wrong.
- The SuperNatural d12
The SuperNatural d12 is the unpredictable Die of Magik. It's available only to the most divine or esoteric of SuperNatural Clichés, since it represents SuperNatural energy disconnected from any "natural" element. Damage d12s are not affected by a target's Armored status.
- The SuperNatural d20
The elements of Water and Chaos also have an associated SuperNatural Die, but minifig Mystiks have yet to encounter the mysterious d20 without suffering immediate Ensanity. Along with non-Euklidean dice like the Dodekube of Non-Consensual Enlightenment, this ultimate die is available only to BrikThulhu.
|“This only is denied to God: the power to undo the past.”
SuperNatural units don't need to make decisions in advance about how many SuperNatural Dice they're going to spend, if any. SuperNatural Dice are spent and rolled one by one as needed. However, SuperNatural Dice can only affect events as they occur - they can't change what's already taken place, even if it was only a moment before.
It's important to know exactly when and where an Effect is targeted. If a BattleMage has his hand on the shoulder of an allied bowman firing an arrow, the BattleMage can spend a Skill Die (see below) to boost the bowman's Attack Roll directly. Because he's touching the bowman and not the weapon, he would have to buy Range and spend an Action to have an Effect that reached the bow itself - turning the arrows into Explosive or Fire Arrows, for instance. If the attack hits, but the Damage Roll isn't high enough, then it's too late to boost the attributes of the bow - the arrow has already struck the target. The BattleMage must now buy Range all the way out to where the arrow is striking if he wants to add additional Damage Dice.
Under normal circumstances, spent SuperNatural Dice are returned to their owner at the beginning of his next turn, and the -1 Skill Penalty for each spent Die comes to an end. In some cases, however, he may wish to leave one or more of the Dice on their targets as a Lasting Effect. The Die is kept next to the affected target and its Effect continues for as long as it remains - an extra Armor d6 for a soldier, a Mind d4 for an animated skeleton, or a Curse d10 on an enemy Hero can all extend indefinitely, no matter how far away the target wanders, until the SuperNatural Unit is incapacitated or decides to cancel the Effect on his own.
Lasting Effects are limited by the SuperNatural Dice left behind. For example, a unit may spend 1d8 Arc Range + 1d6 Skill to Bless multiple units in an Arc during his turn, but since he only has the single 1d6 to leave behind, only one of the targets can keep the Blessing as a Lasting Effect on the following turn.
A SuperNatural Unit can cancel any of its Lasting Effects at any time, including during opponents' turns, but it only gets its SuperNatural Dice back (and ends the Skill Penalties for having spent them) at the beginning of its turn. It may even cancel a Lasting Effect at the beginning of the turn and get the dice back immediately.
SuperNatural Bonus Dice
Like regular dice, a SuperNatural Die can earn Bonus Dice whenever it lands on its highest-numbered face - but the SuperNatural Bonus Dice behave differently, due to the Khaotic nature of the Farce that powers them.
SuperNatural Bonus Dice are always the same type as the SuperNatural Die that spawned them. A roll of 8 on a SuperNatural d8 earns a SuperNatural Bonus d8, for instance. Even the lowly SuperNatural d4s, which are barred from earning Bonus Dice in their natural form, can earn SuperNatural Bonus d4s. And these SuperNatural Bonus Dice can earn SuperNatural Bonus Dice of their own.
Unlike regular Bonus Dice, players who earn SuperNatural Bonus Dice don't get to decide
how or whether to spend them. A SuperNatural Bonus Die automatically adds to the same Aspect as the SuperNatural Die that spawned it. These supercharged Aspects are normally beneficial, but occasionally disastrous - a couple extra inches of Explosion Radius, for instance, can lead to all kinds of unintended consequences if the player wasn't planning for them.
Whenever a SuperNatural Die rolls a "1," it does not add anything to its Aspect. Instead, it turns into a traitorous Fumble Die, and is handed over to an opponent of the player's choice to use in sabotaging the Effect.
The enemy may use the Fumble Die for any Aspect, adding or subtracting in whatever way seems best designed to turn the Effect in his favor - for instance, sending the Effect in the wrong direction, or causing it to strengthen a target rather than harm it. The only limitation is that the opposing player must come up with a story to explain why the Effect Fumbled in that particular way.
A Fumble Die that rolls its highest-numbered face can spawn SuperNatural Bonus Fumble Dice for the enemy player. A Fumble Die that rolls a "1" is double-Fumbled right back to the original SuperNatural unit's control.
The Fumble Die returns to the SuperNatural unit's control at the beginning of the next turn as usual, often feeling deeply sorry for its momentary transgression.
Size Dependent Effects
Most Effects cost the same number of SuperNatural Dice regardless of how large their targets are, but there are exceptions to this rule. Some Effect types are Size Dependent, and the SuperNatural unit must spend a number of Dice equal to the target's Size to get a single Die's worth of Effect.
For example, Armor is a Size Dependent Effect - it takes a number of Armor Dice equal to the target's Size to raise or lower its Armor by one Die. Four Armor d6es could raise the Armor of a Size 1" minifig by +4d6, a Size 2" Horse by +2d6, or a 4" section of a Size 20" castle by +1d6. If the Armor Dice are of different sizes, the final Effect is determined by the smallest-sized Die. Three Armor d6es and an Armor d8 would raise the minifig's Armor by +3d6+1d8, but the Horse's by only +2d6.
When a SuperNatural d10 is used to increase the radius of an Effect by 2", it decreases the number of dice needed for a of Size Dependent Effects as if the target were four inches smaller, to a minimum effective Size of 1".
SuperNatural Effect Aspects
Each SuperNatural Die may be spent on one of six Aspects, which are then combined to create a SuperNatural Effect that fits into the unit's SuperNatural Cliché.
Increase/Decrease Range: +/- (Die)" Range to SuperNatural Effect or ranged weapon stats
d8: d8s of Range add an optional +1 Firing Arc to SuperNatural Effect or ranged weapon stats
d10: d10s can be spent to add +2" Effect Radius to SuperNatural Effect
For any Effect, the first order of business is making sure the Effect can reach the target. Depending on the nature of his Cliché, the SuperNatural unit may have to center all Effects on himself, he may be able to transmit Effects through physical contact (by touching an ally or inanimate object directly, or making a successful Grab on an enemy target), or he may be able to channel Effects through a weapon or tool (by touching an ally or object with the weapon, or making a successful Close Combat or Ranged attack on an enemy target).
If the SuperNatural unit isn't able to touch or hit the target directly, then he'll have to spend SuperNatural Range Dice to reach it. Each Range Die is rolled to add inches of Range (spending a Range d6 adds +1d6" of Range, for example), either measured directly from the unit's hands or added to the existing Range of a weapon. Hitting targets with Ranged Effects automatically costs an Action, but doesn't require a Skill roll.
When rolling Range Dice, the Dice are rolled one at a time and placed on the table in the position where the Effect has been moved to. This is done in case a Fumble Die is rolled before the Effect reaches its target, and the players need to know the Effect's current position to Fumble from.
|If a unit is trying to create an Effect on himself, but an opponent uses a Fumble Die of Range (described further below) to move the target of the Effect elsewhere, it doesn't cost an Action because the unit wasn't purposely aiming in order to put it there. However, if he then uses another Range Die of his own to re-target the Effect back to himself, then this does count as aiming and does indeed cost an Action. This is a rare case in which an Effect on oneself can still require aiming.
When d8s are used as Range Dice, each Range d8 gives the option to add +1 Firing Arc to the Effect or to an affected weapon or device, if applicable.
SuperNatural d10s can be used to buy inches of Range like other dice, but they can also be used to increase an Effect's radius instead. Each d10 spent this
way increases the radius by two inches, similar to the radius of an Explosion.
Increase/Decrease Damage: +/- (Die)" Damage to SuperNatural Effect or weapon stats
d4: Fire Damage (or equivalent)
d8: Blast Damage, +1 Firing Arc
d10: Explosion Damage
d12: ignores Armored
The most common usage of SuperNatural powers is to deal Damage Dice . Each type of SuperNatural Die delivers a specific Damage type:
- Damage d4s deliver Fire Damage, or other Fire-like corrosive Damage types like poison or acid (8.3: Automatic Weapons).
- Damage d6es deliver standard Damage.
- Damage d8s deliver Blast Damage, automatically increasing the Firing Arc by 1 and losing -1 Damage for every inch between the source of the attack and the target (8.3: Automatic Weapons). Unlike with Range d8s, the additional Firing Arc from Damage d8s is mandatory.
- Damage d10s deliver Explosion Damage (8.4: Heavy Explosives). An Explosion Damage d10 adds +2" to the radius of an Effect exactly as if it had been spent on radius alone.
- Damage d12s deliver SuperNatural Damage which ignores a target's Armored status.
When used to subtract Damage, the SuperNatural Die type must match the Damage die it's subtracting (for instance, a player would use a SuperNatural d6 to subtract a Hand Weapon's Damage rating of 1d6). There is no rolling involved; a SuperNatural Die simply nullifies an identical regular Damage die.
Increase/Decrease Armor: +/- (Die) Armor to target object; Size Dependent
d10: +/- Structure Level (max SL:5, min SL:½); Size Dependent
Rather than dealing or nullifying Damage directly, it can be more advantageous to SuperNaturally weaken or strengthen a target's Armor instead. All Armor Effects are Size Dependent.
Armor Dice are kept with the affected unit for as long as the Effect persists, and are rolled again every time the Armor stat is called for. Most types of dice are added to or subtracted from the Armor stat directly: adding an Armor d6 to a Minifig's Armor of 4 gives it an Armor of 4+1d6, and subtracting an Armor d8 from a Hero's Armor of 1d10 gives it 1d10-1d8, for as long as the Effect lasts.
Adding or subtracting an Armor d10, on the other hand, affects the target's Structure Level directly. The Structure Level changes to match the new number of d10s in the target's Armor rating, up to a maximum Structure Level of 5 at 5d10 or down to a minimum Structure Level of ½ at 0d10 (7.1: Structure), even if it raises an object's Structure Level past the limits determined by its Effective Size. The new SuperNatural Structure Level is used in the place of the regular Structure Level for any rules that require it, affecting such things as the object's Momentum, resistance to Fire, and ease of Repairs.
Subtracted Armor Dice can never lower a target's Armor below zero, and can never damage or destroy a target outright.
Increase/Decrease Move: +/- (Die)" non-flying Move to target object or +/- 1/2(Die)" flying Move to target object
Direct Movement: Move target loose object (Die)"; Size Dependent
Thrust: Apply (Die)" Thrust to object
Movement Dice can be used to affect the Move rating of mobile units, objects, and Vehicles, or to move targets directly.
Increasing or decreasing a target's Move rating is the simplest use of a Movement Die - the Die roll is added to or subtracted from its Move rating, to a minimum of 0" and a maximum of 16".
Flying Move is decreased as easily as regular Move, but adding Flying Move costs twice as much. Each extra die of added Flying Move costs two Movement Dice rather than one. (If the Movement Dice are of different sizes, the smaller die is used.) Flying Move can be increased to a maximum of 24".
In most cases these Effects are used to enhance or impede the mobility of units that are already moving around, but they can also be used to give movement to inanimate objects. This is best limited to objects with a clear movement style already in place - stone statues and end tables can start walking around, shopping carts and boulders can start rolling, but trying to animate a suspension bridge or a shipping crate might just result in confusion for everyone involved. An object animated in this fashion won't be able to use its Move unless it has a set of Controls (allowing it to be used as a Vehicle) or it's given a Mind (turning it into an Animated Creature).
SuperNatural Units can also use Movement Dice to move an object directly, for as many inches as are rolled on the Movement Dice. This can be used for Effects ranging from hurling rocks, pulling levers, raising skirts, or tossing enemies over a cliff. Move inches can't be used to separate objects from their moorings - a door can be opened and closed, but not removed from its hinges; an enemy soldier can only be tossed around until he manages to grab hold of something and stabilize himself. Effects that directly move objects are Size Dependent.
If a SuperNatural Unit doesn't have enough dice to move a large object directly, or if it doesn't fit into his Cliché, he can use Movement Dice to create inches of Thrust to push things around instead (9.3: Thrust Vectors). Like other forms of direct movement, Thrust cannot be used to separate an object from its moorings, but Thrust Effects are not Size Dependent and can be effective against even very large targets.
Skill Modifier: +/- (Die) Skill to target object's Skill Roll
Blessing or Curse: +/- adds re-roll to target's Skill Rolls; Skill Die must be larger than target's Skill; Size Dependent
The most basic use of a Skill Die is to enhance or impair a Skill Roll on a single Action, simply adding to or subtracting from the result of the roll. This can be especially useful for more powerful SuperNatural units to use on themselves, since they can suffer heavy Skill penalties after spending several SuperNatural Dice.
| Subtracted Skill Dice don't affect whether or not a particular Skill Roll results in a Critical Failure, even if they reduce the result of the Skill Roll to zero or less. A Critical Failure only occurs when all the positive dice roll results of "1," regardless of the rolls on the subtracting Dice.
Negative Dice are perfectly capable of earning negative Bonus Dice, much to the dismay of their victims (1.2: Numbers).
While Skill Dice can be used to modify an individual Skill Roll, they can't be added to or subtracted from a unit's Skill rating directly. A unit's intrinsic Skill Rating must always be a single die with no modifiers (1d4 or 1d8 are legal Skill ratings; 1d6-1 or 1d8+1d4 are not).
Instead, Skill Dice can be applied as a Blessing or a Curse, with the potential to replace the results of the target's regular Skill Roll. In order to Bless or Curse a unit, the Skill Die must be at least as large as the affected unit's existing Skill Rating. (A 1d10 Skill Die can be added as a Blessing on a Skill Rating of 1d6 or 1d10, for example, but a 1d4 can't be used to Curse a Skill of 1d6.) Whenever the Blessed or Cursed unit makes a Skill Roll, it rolls the dice for both its own Skill Rating and the SuperNatural Skill Die (or Dice). If the unit is Blessed, it can use the highest-rolling die as the result of its Skill Roll; if Cursed, it is forced to use the lowest-rolling die instead.
Blessings and Curses are Size Dependent, so for larger units it's sometimes cheaper to simply Bless or Curse their equipment or weapons instead. It would cost 5 Skill Dice to Bless an allied Size 5" Block Giant, for example, but only 3 Skill Dice to Bless its Size 3" sledgehammer. The sledgehammer's Blessing or Curse only works if the die is as large or larger than the Skill of the Giant wielding it, of course; otherwise it is ignored.
| Blessing and Curse Dice suppress each other. A unit that is both Blessed and Cursed ignores one Blessing Die (starting with the largest) for every Curse, and one Curse Die (starting with the smallest) for every Blessing.
Add/Suppress Action: +/- one Action with (Die) Skill; Size Dependent
A Mind Die can be used to grant an Action to an inanimate object, or to give an extra Action to an existing unit, as though it were an additional Mind with a Skill rating equal to the size of the Mind Die. The target keeps its existing stats (such as Armor and Move) and physical abilities (such as number of attacks); a Death Tank with three Minds can still only fire its main cannon once per turn, but the two extra Minds mean it can also pilot itself and fill out questionnaires on Death Tank dating sites at the same time.
If a SuperNatural unit uses a Mind Die to animate an enemy Vehicle while one or more enemies are still piloting it, it's treated the same as a Vehicle with opposing Operators at the controls (9.4: Piloting). The animated Mind and the enemy Operator can each use their Action on whichever systems they have access to in order to prevent the other from Operating them at all.
A Mind Die can also be used to suppress an Action in a unit or animated object. The Mind Die must be at least as large as the die of the Skill Rating of the Action. The suppressing unit rolls the Mind Die against the Skill die; if the Mind Die rolls higher, the Action is suppressed, otherwise nothing happens.
An animated object with all of its Actions suppressed turns into a regular inanimate object again, while a living unit with its Actions suppressed will fall into a comatose stupor. In either case, the SuperNatural unit that suppressed the Actions can then spend another Mind Die to Mind Control the target, giving the target a new Mind under the SuperNatural unit's control. The Mind Control is broken if anything interrupts the suppression of the victim's own Actions, or any time the victim Critically Fails a Skill Roll.
|Among all the interdimensional abominations and ABS-mutated monstrosities in the BrikVerse, there is one Creature that stands above all others in its ability to terrify even the bravest of minifig men. Few indeed are those who can hold their ground in the face of Girls.
Due to their rarity in minifig civilization, it's possible for minifigs to go their entire short lives without ever seeing a Girl, much less talking to one, and many strange and horrible myths have arisen concerning their uncanny powers. In an effort to protect the comfort of the soldiers, minifig civilizations command their Girls to limit themselves to one of two non-threatening stereotypes: either the Damsel-in-Distress, helplessly waiting for a man to save her, or the Fighting FuckToy, who's allowed to participate in combat as long as it's primarily used as an excuse to wear skimpy chainmail bikinis.
In the field, however, a Girl's interest in adhering to stereotypes rarely survives the first round of combat. The Damsels-in-Distress refuse to miss out on killing stuff, and the Fighting FuckToys forget to pretend that the opinions of spectators have any meaning for them. This is incredibly upsetting to minifig men, who are unable to accept the idea that not everything revolves around them.
The playthemes of the construction toy world offer any number of pre-built monsters, and there's no limit to the custom species players might come up with on their own. Most of these Creatures are easily handled by the standard rules - a dragon, for instance, is statted as a Flying Horse with a FlameThrower in its mouth (Chapter H: The Horse), while a telekinetic alien is just a regular Minifig with a couple of SuperNatural Dice. Nonetheless, there are some Monsters whose abilities truly set them apart.
|Girl units have a special type of Mind known as a Girl Mind, which is handled differently than a regular boy Mind (10.1: Minds). The Skill rating of a Girl unit is called Girl Skill, and is calculated by taking the Skill rating of a boy unit and subtracting zero from it.
The exception is when a Hero unit is a Girl, making him a Girl Hero (Chapter 6: Minifig Heroes). In this case, take the Skill rating of a boy Hero and add zero to it. A Girl unit is worth the same number of Construction Points, but only gets paid half as much.
Vermin: Skill:1d6 Move: 4" (Spidering) Armor: 0 Cost: 2CP Bite: Use:2 Damage: 1
Venomous Vermin: Skill:1d6 Move: 4" (Spidering) Armor: 0 Cost: 3CP Bite: Use:2 Damage: 1d4 Poison
Flying Vermin: Skill:1d6 Move: 4" Flying Armor: 0 Cost: 3CP Bite: Use:2 Damage: 1
|MunchFigs are a magikally created race of half-figs, spawned from the mixed genetik material of ancient ProtoFigs, living minifigs, and fried chicken legs. Cheap and easily summoned, they serve in wizards' laboratories as diminutive servants and, occasionally, snacks.
Supposedly named for their bite-sized stature and curious magikal properties when eaten, MunchFigs are just as likely to rise up and devour the unsuspecting novice wizard who doesn't realize he's summoned a number larger than he can control.
|(BrikWiki entry: MunchFig)
Elements shown: LEGO, Mega Bloks
Creatures that are so small that their Size is rounded straight down to 0" are called Vermin . The most common Vermin are the simple one-piece pre-molded animals included as props in adventure sets: snakes, bats, spiders, and parrots, for instance, depending on the genre. The small Size of Vermin makes them ineffective as individuals, but their inexpensive price means that they can be purchased in swarms, making them effective for disrupting unarmored foes and supporting the attacks of larger allies.
Tiny objects like Vermin are so small that they're treated as if they have no Size or mass at all. Being effectively weightless, they can be carried like equipment items, or even swung or thrown as Random Objects for Bite Damage. Zero weight automatically gives them the Spidering ability: they can climb on any vertical or inverted surface at no penalty (although they must end their turn in a stable position for practicality's sake), and they are immune to Falling Damage (7.6: Creation Combat).
If they have the proper appendages, a Vermin is strong enough to carry a one-handed item of minifig equipment or weaponry at no penalty, or two such items (or one two-handed item) at Half Speed. It isn't strong enough to throw them or use them in combat, however, or to operate mounted weapons or other devices. Vermin have zero Momentum and offer zero Physical Opposition, and cannot perform Shoves.
Vermin have a Structure Level of zero and zero Armor. Any attack that hits a Vermin kills it automatically, without having to make a Damage Roll. Tightly-packed groups of Vermin are especially vulnerable to Explosions and Fire.
If Vermin are Disrupted, units and objects of Size 1" or greater can crush any number of them underfoot with Trample Damage (9.5: Collisions). If the Vermin aren't Disrupted, a unit can choose one of them to try to stomp on, but must treat this as an Attack with Use:0. The Vermin can attempt to Bail out of the way if it wishes, or hope that the stomper Critically Fails his Attack Roll.
Vermin are not able to wield or operate weapons of any size; they must rely on their natural stings or Bites.
A Vermin's Bite is painful but not particularly dangerous - the bite is only effective against unarmored Creatures of Structure Level 1 or less, and even then it only does 1 point of Damage (or 1d4 Poison Damage if it has Venom). Creatures that have a higher Structure Level or are Armored can ignore Vermin almost completely - the Vermin cannot engage such a target in Close Combat at all, although they can still climb around on it and be struck by its Close Combat Attacks in return.
1 point of Damage isn't enough to threaten most enemies, although the Cumulative Damage of several Vermin attacking together can bring down a minifig if they all make successful Bites at the same time. Vermin are more useful for tying up opponents in Close Combat in high enough numbers to inflict Skill Penalties, and to absorb attacks to protect higher-value allies.
When attacking in cooperation with non-Vermin allies, Vermin are subject to the usual Close Combat limit of three attackers for every inch in the target's Size, or else they risk being struck by their own allies' attacks. When a group of Vermin attacks by itself, it can ignore these limits, forming a Swarm that can pile as many attacks onto an unarmored Creature as there are Vermin able to reach it.
Dimmy: Skill:1d4 (Incompetent) Move: 4" Armor: 4 Cost: 5CP Contagious Bite: Use:2 Damage:1d4 Poison (Monstrous Contagion)
|Minifig Dimmies, uniformed in the T-shirts and baseball caps of the human fratboys they seek to emulate, destroy quality construction wherever they find it. They gradually turn their sections of the BrikVerse into endless wastes of shoddy assembly and piles of random elements.
This Mystikal Juniorism is viewed by some as an ultimate escape from the standards and expectations of Brik society, especially by minifigs who have become depressed by their own Critical Failure during a crucial opportunity for righteous destruction.
One of the more admirable aspects of monstrous species is their minifig conversion rate - with nothing more than a bite from the right inhuman monster, anyone can become a vampire, zombie, werewolf, alien breeding husk, or religionist zealot. For a species with Monstrous Contagion, the only thing limiting its spread throughout a population is the number of Monstrous minifig heads the players have to swap in.
Contagious Bite: Cost:+2CP Use:2 Range:CC Damage:1d4 Poison (Monstrous Contagion)
Monstrous Contagion is a Poison (8.3: Automatic Weapons) that takes over the Mind and transforms the body of its victims. Creatures with Monstrous Contagion have a Contagious Bite that does 1d4 Poison Damage and only affects minifigs.
(Depending on the type of monster involved, players may agree to modify this default - allowing zombies to spread their Poison through claw attacks, for instance, or to make a ComputerVirus that corrupts robots rather than minifigs.)
Unlike regular types of Poison, Monstrous Contagion attacks the Mind rather than the body, so the Poison damage is rolled against the target's Skill instead of Armor. If the Poison Damage Roll is higher than the victim's Skill Roll, then its Mind is destroyed, leaving it helpless and comatose. At the beginning of the Contagious Biter's next turn, the victim's body undergoes whatever horrifying transformation is appropriate to his type, and he rises up to join the Monstrous ranks.
| Creatures with multiple Minds may end up with only some of them converted, acting like a Creation with opposing Operators (8.6: Manning Guns), and delaying any physical transformation that may accompany the full conversion.
If players decide that larger Creatures are also vulnerable to the Contagious Bite, treat the Poison as if it were doing points of mental Size Damage in addition to any regular Size Damage the Creature might have taken (7.2: Taking Damage). The Creature's Mind is converted only when the sum of the two types of Damage matches or exceeds the Creature's Size.
Even if their masters are evil geniuses, the converted victims of Monstrous Contagion tend to be mindless and confused. The victims' Skill and Specialties prior to transformation are forgotten, and they are reborn with an Incompetent Skill of 1d4 and all the Stupidity that goes with it (10.1: Minds).
|Since before the first stirrings of minifig life, the BrikVerse has been the target of jealous invaders from knockoff dimensions. Luckily, despite their cheap and disposable hordes, the invading forces were too crappy to make any inroads against the ever-vigilant Legit-Eye Knights - until the rise of the Nega-BlokTrix.
In BR 2,002, BrikVerse civilization was ripped apart by the nightmare of the Gray Shift, never to fully recover, when a small minority of standard brick colors underwent very slight changes to become nearly-identical versions of the exact same colors. Naturally, Humans and minifigs alike lost their minds, and the Legit-Eye Council turned its attention to purging color impurities rather than watching for invaders.
It was in this moment of weakness that the Nega-BlokTrix struck, uniting the substandard outer dimensions under the CLOan brand, and leading the invasion at the head of a legion of single-purpose-molded POOP Dragons.
The BrikVerse was defeated utterly and laid to waste, and when the Deadly Spacemen arrived to destroy the BR 2,002 timeline, they found only
the corruption and waste of the counterfeit dimensions. Subsequent BrikVerses remain infected with the Nega stain, as the once-pure race of Yellow minifigs discover growing populations of disgusting Peaches.
Cynics will try to tell you that battles are made up of finite quantities of troops and equipment. Fans of video games, war movies, and comics know better. No matter how many oppoinents you slay, there are always more entering one-by-one from the right side of the screen, ready to turn upside-down and disappear in an orderly fashion as soon as they're defeated.
Cannon Fodder: Skill:1d6 Move: 5" Armor: 0 Cost: 2CP Mook Weapon: Use:3 Range:CC or 5" Damage: 1
Certain minifigs exist only to inflate the kill count and scatter their own corpses around as set decoration. If these Cannon Fodder make any contribution at all during the course of getting themselves slaughtered, it's to serve as distractions and draw fire away from their allies who actually matter.
Cannon Fodder come equipped with a single melee or ranged hand weapon at no cost. This Mook Weapon (along with any other weapon carried or operated by a Cannon Fodder unit) does only one point of Damage and is mostly useless. This is enough to kill other Cannon Fodder, thanks to their zero Armor - even a minor hit kills a Cannon Fodder unit automatically, without even bothering to roll Damage. Otherwise, Cannon Fodder must rely on Combined Fire with real units or other Cannon Fodder in order for their single point to make any difference.
Like Vermin, Cannon Fodder (along with Vehicles or devices operated by Cannon Fodder) have zero Momentum Dice, zero Physical Opposition, zero throwing ability, and can Shove for a grand total of zero inches. Cannon Fodder can lift, carry, and construct objects as normal.
Spawner: Cost:WSx2CP Spawn Capacity:WS"
Although Cannon Fodder are mostly useless, the nice thing about them is that there's an endless supply. They may emerge from an interdimensional portal, cave entrance, or guardhouse, or they might be summoned in by a magik amulet or the powers of an otherworldly Fiend. The physical objects used as Spawners are treated as a type of weapon, subject to the usual Weapon Size limitations, but they function automatically - no Skill Roll or Action is required.
The Size of a Spawner (or Effective Size, for a damaged Spawner) determines the maximum Size of the group of units it can Spawn every turn. This Spawn Capacity can be a simple number of inches or a dice equivalent, depending on the variability of the Spawner's output - a Spawn Capacity of 4" is equivalent to a Spawn Capacity of 1d6". Each turn, the Spawner can produce this many Size inches' worth of units, either respawned from fallen Cannon Fodder corpses (which conveniently disappear from the field and reappear at the Spawner, along with their Mook Weapon), or from units which were purchased before the battle but held in reserve rather than placed on the field immediately.
Spawned units appear as close to the Spawner as reasonably possible - either in, on, or touching the Spawner itself. Spawning uses up a spawned unit's Action for the turn, so unless they have extra ones (from Multitasking or a Heroic Feat, for instance), most units will appear with their full Movement but no Action.
Masters and Thralls
|In the Fedoranuker's latest scheme to deprive the BrikVerse of moms and drive Warhead crazy, he has recruited legions of Mommy-Reliant Adolescents into his fraternal order of Fedophiles. This hat-based faction seeks to repel female minifigs from the BrikVerse by crying about misandry and pooping in their diapers. Not necessarily in that order.
Despite the superheroic efforts of Gamma Rabbit and the rainbowist-themed Social Justice Warriors, the Fedophiles have been almost entirely successful, erasing all but the most stubborn of women from history or driving them into the ranks of the diabaalvillain Fiends. In many sets and themes, minifigs have never seen a woman at all, and would be terrified to encounter one.
Some monsters are born leaders, holding sway over a horde of minions through mind control, charisma, or fear. The best among these enjoy the finest perks of monster leadership: the ability to permanently Sacrifice their devoted followers' life force for a fleeting minor bonus. Vampires have delicious slaves, BrikThulhuite kult leaders have kultists, and middle managers have interns. Any units may enjoy the special power exchange of Master and Thrall; the only requirement is that the Masters are complete jerks who view Thralls as an expendable resource.
Masters and Thralls
Specialty: Master (+1CP), may Sacrifice Thralls
Specialty: Thrall (+1CP), may die or RedShirt to Sacrifice themselves to a Master
As far as a Master is concerned, Thralls are walking poker chips waiting to be cashed in. The details vary - a nekromancer de-animates his skeletons, a Fiend swallows the souls of the possessed, and a secret agent makes out with femme fatales. In the process, the Thrall is incapacitated - it may be disintegrated, killed outright, or merely rendered catatonic. Regardless of the method and its effect, the Sacrifice is instantaneous and permanent; Sacrificed Thralls can't be Medikally revived, respawned from Spawners, or brought back by any other means.
On the bright side, the Master receives an immediate Instant Benny equal to the Sacrificed Thrall's Skill die. Like all Instant Bennies, the Master must use the Benny before the end of his turn (or the end of his following turn, if the Sacrifice occurs on someone else's turn) or it will disappear.
Sacrifices do not cost an Action or take any time, even if logic would suggest otherwise. The special bond between Master and Thrall is such that all other action stops while they consummate their exchange. Masters can reap the benefits of Sacrifice even in the middle of other Actions or while distracted or unconscious.
There are three ways for a Sacrifice to occur. The most direct is for the Master to Sacrifice one or more Thralls himself. He must be able to touch each Thrall; the Sacrifice occurs automatically and cannot be prevented or interrupted except by a Heroic Feat. A Master may also inspire a Thrall to RedShirt as if he were a Hero; any Thrall killed in the process of RedShirting is automatically Sacrificed. Finally, a Thrall who is killed by any other means may be counted as a Sacrifice if its Master is within 1d6". (Thralls who are killed but not counted as a Sacrifice may be revived by the usual means.)
Depending on the type of Master and its SuperNatural abilities, some Masters are able to use Mind Dice to convert enemy minifigs into usable Sacrifices, either by rendering them unconscious and helpless to resist, or by using Mind Control to turn them into new temporary Thralls (10.3: SuperNatural Abilities). In either case, the Benny gained is based on the minifig's original Skill Rating, not on the value of the Mind Dice.
Not all monsters are living Creatures. Robots, zombies, and animated piles of bricks can be just as dangerous. With no need for air, friends, or retirement benefits packages, Non-Living Constructs can be an ideal addition to any force.
Non-Living and Undead
Unliving / Undead: (+0CP)
Most objects in BrikWars are not alive, and even the ones that are tend to remain alive only briefly. When a unit is Non-Living, it's just as vulnerable to standard Damage as any other object, but many kinds of environmental and biological damage have no effect. Suffocation, drowning, Poison, disease, and psychological manipulation are irrelevant to things that aren't alive. (These effects are up to the players, and can be decided by a What I Say Goes Roll whenever they're not obvious.)
The Undead have all the immunities of non-living objects, but their Anti-LifeForce means that many effects are reversed. Healing effects damage them, and death magik heals them. Blessings are treated as Curses, and vice versa. Different types of Undead traditionally have additional specific vulnerabilities, but sunlight, garlic, and holy crosses rarely appear in a BrikWars battle, and so they're largely ignored unless the players make a special point of incorporating them. Very few Masters receive any benefit from Sacrificing an Undead, unless they are specifically attuned to benefit from Anti-LifeForce rather than LifeForce.
Construct: (+1CP per Connection Strength)
Usually (but not always) Non-Lliving, Constructs are Creatures made of Modular Parts that can be disassembled and put back together again with no lasting penalty, even if the Parts get mixed up in the process. This usually occurs when they take enough Damage to knock bits off, but they can also disassemble a Part from themselves (or allow others to disassemble a Part) as easily as picking up an unattached item of the same size. A dismembered arm can be swung as a makeshift bludgeon, heads can be thrown as projectiles, and any other random Parts can be swapped endlessly between Constructs for tactical or fashion advantages.
Even if a Construct is built from a large number of building elements, its Modular Parts are basic and discrete: heads, bodies, limbs, and any other useful appendages like wings or tentacles. (Tails only count as a Modular Part if they're mounted with a weapon or other device; otherwise they're considered part of the body.) Removing a Modular limb causes the same penalties as if the limb were Amputated (10.2: The Medik).
Constructs are defeated by knocking apart their Modular Parts rather than by killing them. To this end, Constructs have a Connection Strength rating rather than an Armor rating, up to the Size of the Construct. Any Damage equal to or greater than the Connection Strength breaks off a Modular Part of the defender's choice, within reach of the attacker. The detached Part is knocked one inch away for every die in the Damage roll. A Damage total that is multiple times the size of the Connection Strength will break off the corresponding number of multiple Modular Parts (for example, if an attacker dealt 7 Damage to a Creature with Connection Strength 2, the Creature would lose 3 Modular Parts).
Individual Modular Parts are rendered lifeless and inert if detached from a Construct. Units can build with these loose Construct parts just like any other building element (7.3: Field Construction). They return to full functionality if attached to other Construct parts, or if attached to compatible teknology by an appropriately-themed Mechanik (e.g., a sci-fi Mechanik attaching cyborg parts to a spaceship, a fantasy Mechanik attaching golem parts to an animated walking castle, etc.).
| There's no reason a Construct has to be reassembled "correctly," if the physical elements allow nonsensical alternate combinations. Sometimes you'll want to swap out a tail for an extra arm, or replace a missing leg with a stack of heads. The effects of these non-standard constructions should be decided by quick negotiations between the players, settled by a What I Say Goes Roll if necessary.
Unlike other Modular Parts, a Construct's detached head may remain alert and even capable of conversation if the players think it's funny enough.