ABU's House Rules, Etc.

[All-Bricks United]

I thought I'd finally lay out the mechanics behind a lot of my equipment, as I run a lot of it differently from how other folks run the same concepts. I'll try to add some pictures and illustrations in at some later point... maybe. Most of these are full rule write-ups - I use (much) shortened versions for cards, or really just the keyword by itself in most cases.

SPECIALTIES


Engineering (+?cp):
Can lay out Supplies, placing a single 1x1 brick within reach. As an action, can make a Skill roll to transform a supply pile into a weapon, vehicle, or structure that costs CP equal to or less than double the number of supply bricks in the pile (if the structure has no CP cost, or if not playing with CP, then something with a size less than... ?). Alternatively, he can lay out 2x2 bricks, and then transmute them into something that either costs CP less than double the number of bricks or something that occupies a space smaller than the space occupied by the bricks (if it has no cost, or if playing without cost).

NOTE: This specialty is technically incomplete, and hasn't been tested or played out in any way at all. Still a work in progress, until further notice.

Marksmanship (+2cp):
The marksman is the best shot in the land, capable of exceptionally lethal ranged attacks. If the marksman holds still to Aim (no movement on his turn) he deals +1d6 damage with a successful ranged attack against a target who is more than 6” away.

The marksman's One Shot, One Kill mindset means that he will never use a weapon with Autofire. He is treated as Incompetent (Skill 1d6-2 or 1d4) when making a Skill roll to use a weapon with Autofire (even when he's not actually making an Autofire attack with it).

Medic! (+2cp):
The medic is unrestrained by the normal rules of life and death, killing and un-killing on a whim. As an action, he can attempt to revive a dead minifig (or un-revive a living minifig) that he can reach. Doing so is a Feat with a Use of 8 (yes, it is beyond difficult – most standard medics will need a critical success to pull it off). If the medic succeeds, he rebuilds the target, and the target is alive, but prone. (If the target was alive to begin with, it's not anymore.) If the medic fails, the target is permanently dead (even if he was only a little dead before) – mark the target in some way. It can no longer be revived by any medic. (If the target was alive to begin with, then nothing happens if the medic fails.)

All medics suffer from an illness known as Damn It Jim!-itis. They are treated as Incompetent (Skill 1d6-2 or 1d4) when making a Skill roll for anything not directly tied to this specialty, and are encouraged to shout “Damn it Jim! I'm a doctor, not a-” followed by whatever is most appropriate to the situation.

Psychic (+10CP): NOTE: Work In Progress
The psychic has supernatural mental talents which allow him to manipulate his friends and foes with his thoughts. As an action, he can attempt to control a minifig (or other living creature) within 6”. He makes a skill roll, and the target makes an opposed Skill roll. If the psychic's roll is higher, he can choose one of the following: 1.) Act – You can give the target an action of your choosing, making all choices for the unit as if it were yours (including targets for attacks), but using your skill if the action requires a skill roll; 2.) Ignore – Pick another creature or object – the target cannot see the chosen thing until your next turn, though he might still be able to Fire Blind to attack it; 3.) Move – You make the target move up to his speed, or a number of inches equal to your skill roll result, whichever is lower.

The psychic can extend his will beyond the norm, though doing so weakens his influence. He can attempt to control a minifig further than 6” away, but he takes a -1 penalty on his opposed skill roll for every extra 6” (or part thereof) beyond the first.

The psychic only has so much power to draw upon before he wears out. If the psychic used a power on his last turn, his opposed skill roll takes a -2 penalty.

The psychic has a harder time forcing the target to do something that would obviously kill it. If he chooses to give the target an action that would potentially kill it (such as attacking itself, or moving off of a cliff), the target can re-roll his opposed skill roll immediately, and gets an extra 1d6 on the new roll.

Stealth (+2CP):
With stealth, a unit is is able to avoid detection, allowing him to reach even better positions for instigating mayhem. He gains +1/3 cover if he moves half his speed or less, or +2/3 cover if he doesn't move at all. These bonuses add to existing cover, and can hide him completely from attackers (forcing them to Fire Blind, if they can find him at all). These bonuses are negated if the sneak calls attention to himself, such as by attacking or making a baby cry.

Spotter (+1CP or +2CP with Binoculars):
The spotter is able to locate targets for his friends to mutilate. A spotter can take an action to Spot for an ally within 3” (or to whom he has direct radio contact). He picks a target within 12” that he can see, and his ally gains a +1 bonus to Skill rolls to hit the target with ranged attacks. If the spotter has binoculars, he picks a target any distance away that he can see.


EQUIPMENT FEATURES

Autofire
If one bullet (or laser, or whatever) is good, hundreds – or even thousands – must be better! With autofire, a weapon can be used to spray large numbers of bullets at multiple targets.

You must choose whether or not you are making an autofire attack before you roll the skill check.

Tracking an autofire attack works like tracking missed shots. When making an autofire attack, check to see how many points the Attack Roll hit by. (For example, if the attacker rolled a 5 when he needed a 3, then the Attack Roll hit by 2.) The attacker picks a second target within this many inches of the first target (and within the weapon's range), and makes an attack against that target. He may choose whether the attack is an autofire attack or not. If it is an autofire attack, this process repeats.

There are three restrictions on an autofire attack. 1.) You can never choose a target more than once during a single action; 2.) You can only make a total number of attacks equal to your weapon's use rating or less; and 3.) Once you choose to make an autofire attack you must choose a target if one is available in range (no matter who owns the target).

Autofire and Squads
Autofire is devastating to squads of troops. When the attacker targets a squad with an autofire attack, so long as he hits by at least one (and thus has 1” reach on the autofire) he can choose to target the squad again. The attacker can only make a maximum number of attacks on any given squad equal to the number of units in that squad. Once he chooses a different target for an autofire attack, he can no longer re-target the squad.

NOTE: Though it hasn't yet come up in my home games, I'm considering applying this rule, or a similar rule, when it comes to Autofire vs. Larger Constructions/Creatures.

Autofire Cost
A weapon with Autofire costs double what it would without Autofire. (For example, if you have a rifle that costs 5 and you add Autofire to it, it now costs 10cp instead.)

Spread
Sometimes you just need to hit. Other times, you just need to hit something really hard. A spread weapon gives you the best of both worlds.

A weapon with spread works like a normal ranged weapon in nearly all regards. However, when the weapon gets a critical success on a damage roll against a target within half of the weapon's range, the weapon's owner rolls +2d6 (instead of just one) to that roll as Bonus Dice. For ease of reference, most spread weapons will list their half-range in {brackets}.

While this property itself does not make the weapon more accurate, most weapon with Spread also have reduced Use (+1cp per -1 Use).

Spread Cost
A weapon with Spread costs +1cp more than the base weapon for every 6” (or portion thereof) of the weapon's range. (For example, if you have a rifle with 12” range and a cost of 5, it costs +2cp – one for every 6” of its range – for a total of 7cp.)


NOTE: I've several examples to illustrate some of these things - I'll post them in a second post, to keep things cleaner.

[All-Bricks United]

EXAMPLES

Autofire Example: Minigunner vs. The Enemy
Example: The elite minigunner (Skill 1d8), armed with a powerful automatic weapon, finds himself in the perfect position to mow down a group of foes who are menacing his friend the cowboy. He could just shoot one of them, but that's no fun – he decides to make an autofire attack instead.

The minigunner's minigun has Use 5, Range 12”, and Damage 2d6. He picks his first target – the man – and declares that he is making an autofire attack. He rolls his skill, needing a 5 or better to hit, and gets a 7.

The minigunner rolls damage, and gets a total of 4 – not enough to kill the man, but certainly enough to scare him a bit. The minigunner hit by a margin of 2 (7 - 5), so he picks a second target within 2” of the man. He picks his second target – the woman – and declares he's still making an autofire attack. He rolls again, and gets a 7 again.

He again rolls damage, this time getting a total of 8. The woman is easily killed by the spray of bullets. He hit by a margin of 2 (7 – 5), so he can choose a third target, this time within 2” of the woman with the red hair. He can't pick the man, because he's already attacked him this turn, and he can't pick the ninja because he's outside of the 2” reach of the autofire. He still must choose a target though, and is forced to attack his ally the cowboy. The minigunner decides that this attack with be just a normal attack (not an autofire attack). Luckily for the cowboy, he only rolls a 3 on the skill check. His attack misses the cowboy.

The minigunner surveys the carnage. While he's glad he didn't waste his cowboy buddy, he's sad that he wasn't able to splatter all of the others.

Autofire Example: Steampunk Cowboy vs. Pikemen
Example: The steampunk cowboy finds himself within shooting distance of a squad of pikemen. He decides to show off his newfangled “auto-revolver.”

The cowboy's steampunk “auto-revolver” has Use 3, Range 6”, and Damage 1d6. He targets the squad, and declares an autofire attack. He rolls his skill (1d6), and gets a 4. He rolls damage.

The cowboy's autofire attack hit by a margin of 1 (4 – 3), so he has 1” of autofire. Because his target was a squad, he chooses to just target the same squad again. He makes another autofire attack, and rolls a 5. He rolls damage again.

The cowboy's second autofire attack hit by a margin of 2 (5-3), so he has 2” of autofire this time. Again though, he decides to just target the same squad. He makes another autofire attack, and rolls a 6. He rolls damage again.

At this point, the cowboy would love to keep on going, and potentially wipe out the squad in one lucky round. Unfortunately, he has already made a number of attacks equal to his weapon's Use rating (3), so he cannot make any more this turn.

The steampunk cowboy is content knowing that he's proven the worth of superior technology.

Psychic (Brief) Example: Psychic vs. Dimmy
Example: Psychic picks a Dimmy within 6”, and they make their Skill rolls. Psychic rolls a 5, and Dimmy rolls a 3. Psychic wins, and chooses to give Dimmy an action. He decides to have the Dimmy attack with his short-ranged weapon, and target a nearby Soldier. Psychic rolls his own Skill (instead of the Dimmy's) against the short-ranged weapon's use of 3, and gets a 4. He hits and rolls a 5 for damage, killing the Soldier with the Dimmy's attack.

The next round Psychic tries to control the same Dimmy again. They make their Skill rolls, and Psychic takes a -2 penalty because he used his power last round. Psychic rolls a 5 again, for a total of 3, and Dimmy rolls a 2. Psychic wins, barely, and decides to have the Dimmy attack himself this time. Before he rolls for the attack, the Dimmy re-rolls his Skill, now with an extra 1d6. He rolls a 1 and a 3, for a total of 4 – more now than Psychic's skill roll. The control ends, and Psychic's turn is over.

[Olothontor]

Ah, cool. I may have to steal some of these the next time I play BrikWars with kidko.

These are pretty extensive house rules, how long have you been a BrikWarrior?

[All-Bricks United]

Ah, cool. I may have to steal some of these the next time I play BrikWars with kidko.

These are pretty extensive house rules, how long have you been a BrikWarrior?

Uh... a few months?

They're not really responses to things that came up in play, merely manifestations of my need for more varied units while having uniform rules. A lot of them also stemmed from lurking discussions on these forums, and deciding that I really did not like the direction a lot of people were taking on some things (specifically, the way I saw a few people treating Medics, or the way I saw people going with Snipers, and autofire).

[Strana]

yeah i just don't have auto fire, havnt needed it in truth, since so far sides ave been equal and of more concern have been nocking out enemy vehicles, generally if i need to kill a large group of somethings i use explosives. generaly gets the job done, but good ideas none the less.

the only thing i would change is under the spotter heading +1cp for spotter ability and +2 if he has a radio.

[Greenkey15]

You might want to try IVhorseman's Auto-Fire rules. I'll dig them up so you can read them, they are a ton simpler.

EDIT: Here you are

[Olothontor]

You might want to try IVhorseman's Auto-Fire rules. I'll dig them up so you can read them, they are a ton simpler.

EDIT: Here you are

As I recall there was a massive, half-the-forums debate over these rules. Or were they someone else's?

[Elmagnifico]

I think that was over the Medik rules.

[Olothontor]

No, I remember it was over somebody's auto-fire rules. Everybody had different rules.

[All-Bricks United]

I think it was both (Medic and Autofire). I also remember reading similar things for shotgun rules (why I formulated my Spread quality), and to a lesser extent, the Sniper specialty.

My reasons for going a different direction with Autofire than IVhorseman were pretty simple. First, I wanted Autofire to be an "extra hits" ability, not an "extra damage" ability. And second, I didn't want to go with a "cone" or "area" effect - I'd rather leave that for explosives alone.

[muffinman42]

i tend to lean towards the fudgey and who gives a dame rules are there to be broken.
so much of this takes place mid battle instead of long house rules.

[All-Bricks United]

I tend to lean towards the fudgey and who gives a dame rules are there to be broken.
so much of this takes place mid battle instead of long house rules.

This is my "replace a wargame," so I tend to treat it as such. Which, yes, requires disregarding a lot of the "fudge" rules... in theory. In practice, The Rule of Cool and the Rule of Fun rule the day - I've just got more baseline rules for distinct units.

[muffinman42]

rule of fun and rule of cool beat any roll.
the rule of discussing whats cool beats a massive -100 to evey roll that benefited the person who started it.

[Jaeman]

rule of fun and rule of cool beat any roll.

Quite true, The rule of fudge is only useful when it is not in opposition to the rule of cool. That is to say, Cool trumps fudge. Fortunately, fudge and cool are usually one and the same.

Originally Brikwars was my replace a war-game as well, but it's since developed into a crazy way to spend an afternoon, where the focus is on carnage over victory. I've been thinking about using something similar to your marksman rules, though my system would add a minor range bonus. (2-4 inches)

Good rules!

[All-Bricks United]

I've added the Psychic specialty to the first post (and an example of it applied, in the second post), as I prepare to implement my Psi-Ops division.

Psychic is partially the result of my first attempt to push through all of the 2001 Supernatural Abilities rules. It is (at least in my mind), greatly simplified and streamlined - but at its heart it's an application of those rules, rather than a whole new creation.

Anyways, it's obviously (to me, at least) a work in progress, so feedback is really welcome.