BrikSystem - Build Your Ability

[LZBrickMan42]

Movement is not written up "ridiculously complicated," it is just written in a way more in line with the rest of the system.  It still works fine with the costs the stock way.

The idea is not to duplicate perfectly the costs of the rulebook (though they are benchmarks) or provide anything new rule-wise except for more flexible AOE and the ability to equip ammo.  The idea is to make an internally consistent set of rules that are extensible and more customizable without ad-hoc balancing.

The costs aren't wrong, they are put together differently than a more familiar "one thing costs x points regardless."  I build examples at the end of stock equipment: hand-held weapons come out 1 CP more expensive for the same stats, armor and ranged weapons come out to the same stats and costs.  Heroes work exactly the same, Heroic Ego taken as a package of the two component Abilities still costs 3 CP, and they cost only one point more.  Default Minis cost 4 CP for the same rules.  Hand-held Explosives come out differently because AOE has changed in the way it is priced.  I haven't gotten to incorporating the Weapon Size rules to this, but it would just be a multiplier anyway.  My experimental builds are on size 1 things at the moment.

The non-standard weapons at the end are examples of cool weapons you can build in a straight-forward way without needing to guesstimate point costs.  So if you want more examples, let's try making some rules analogous to popular army trope that are out there:

Hive Mind: Movement becomes unpredictable when designated Psy Conduit units are out of 6" proximity of owning unit
(ability added to all underling units)
Movement: 8" (4)
Circumstance:
  Uncommon: Psy Conduit within 6" (-1/4)
  Allies Only (-1)
  Flat to Random (+1/4)
  Limitation: -1(1/4)
Cost: 4/2 = 2 CP (1 CP for Size 1 unit)

Wounds: Unit has only a set number of hits it can take (in this case, 3 expendable Armor dice)
Armor: 1d6 (4)
Charges: 3@Never (-1)
Cost: 4/2 = 2 CP (1 CP for size 1 units)

Anti-Tank Rifle: High powered shot with armor piercing to take out tanks...or anything else, really
Attack: 2d6 (8 )
Armor Piercing: +1/2
Hard to Use: +1 to Use (-1/2)
Focus: Big-ass gun pieces (-1/2)
Encumbrance: -1" to movement (-1/2)
(Them suckers is hard to move)
Cost: (8 x 1.5)/2.5 = 5 CP

Seeing Red: The color red makes these super-soldier Mini-Bull hybrids froth into a murderous frenzy and gain super mini abilities.
Packaged Deal
  Roll Mod: +1 to Attack (1), Movement (1), and Skill (2) (4)
  Circumstance:
    Very Common: The Color Red (+0)
    Within Line of Sight (-1/2)
  Awesome Fluff (-1/4)
  Cost: 4/1.75 = 2 CP (1 for Minis)
  Feat (20)
  Circumstance:
    Very Common: The Color Red (+0)
    Within Line of Sight (-1/2)
  Awesome Fluff (-1/4)
  Cost: 20/1.75 = 11 CP (6 for Minis)
Package Cost: 12 CP (7 for Minis)

Now, I am not saying the rules are done or balanced yet, and there are issues with price modification due to size and structure level which I must cogitate on further as I experiment, but I hope you see the point.  The way this is put together is meant to allow someone to build their own abilities and keep some sense of balance without having to write brand new rules.  Assuming they don't mind doing a little more math than estimating.

[Ross_Varn]

Ok. The entire point we just came up with wasn't to do with the relative cost of your units- it's to do with the anorak complexity of your ruleset. All the rules for creation are in there, go look for them. If you want to customize your units this anally- go play Warhammer or something, Brikwars ain't for you.

[OneEye589]

If they're an addition to the rules, the costs should end up the same. If they're already included, they don't need to be included again with more complexity.

I know for a fact that your range cost is too low, and there are several places where your math doesn't make any sense, either (like under the minifig section where you multiply 1 by .5 and get 1, and your movement ends up with 5" of movement being 2 instead of 2.5).

We aren't attacking you for this, so stop being so hurt. You put it on here for critique and we're critiquing it.

[Gungnir]

Also, the font that code is in is just plain ugly.

And did it have to be green? Green makes me sick. It even sounds gross.

[LZBrickMan42]

That is quite a bit better, OneEye.   Thank you.

The green text is not under my control, BTW.  That is a browser/forum setting that has to do with the code tag which functions exactly like the HTML code tag.

It uses a monospace serifed font like a type writer (or more accurate historically, a Teletype machine).  That is why its hideous.  If you don't like it, set your browser to use Consolas (for Windows) for monospace, though there is a possibility that the CSS for the page will override that.  I'm am using that because I don't have to fiddle with formatting tables in plain text; the characters always line up.  When I am satisfied with them, I was planning on writing them up in LaTeX for PDF export.

And can we dispense with the "it's too complex" thing, please?  Yeah, it is more complex than what is in the rulebook as written.  So what?  I like my rules a little more complex because it is fun to engineer and I have to deal with power gamers a lot; leaving big old empty areas labeled FUDGE doesn't exactly yield fun with them in the mix, especially when other players aren't aware of the actual statistics behind dice rolls.

Anyway, the math issue was a rounding one: I hadn't given thought as to when to round points, which should have been only at the end of building an ability.  Fixed that, and a few points shifted around here and there.

I was basing costs off of estimations and experiments with minifig stock weapons and rules, not the Creation rules per-se.  Some better analysis showed that the culprit was three things:

-Focus was something you could actually buy.  The assumption of the rules is that an ability can only be in the game if it is associated with a physical part of the creation.  I had included this option because it made sense that you could make an ability that there could be no item to associate with, like, say, telekinesis.  Turns out that was a bad idea, and it was inflating all the base costs of abilities because everything I built had Focus.

-The balance of Explosion in the rulebook is geared towards mayhem: it is generally under-priced for the damage it does, but the difficulty of its use increases at twice the rate of standard weapons.  Also, their damage is very unpredictable.  That was something I was not counting on, though it fits nicely with the structure of the game.  I shifting things around to facilitate this.

-The way I was using Size and Structure level was woefully broken.

So, fixed those things (and consequently repriced most things to be twice as cheap or twice as expensive to counteract the loss of Focus) and it all works much better now, and convenient the more mundane Ability Mods all cost +/-1/2.  Costs for stock things so far have come out exactly right, though I haven't built any Launcher weapons yet and no matter how I cut it the Heroic Ego package never wants to be 3 CP.  Pending some more edits I'll put it up soon.

Not that anyone seems to care, but meh, whatever.

[Gungnir]

You sound just like my ex.

[Tzan]

Also, the font that code is in is just plain ugly.

Its a monospaced font and they are mostly plain looking but get the job done.

[LZBrickMan42]

I think it is almost there.  Just a few more tweaks, and it is ready for play-testing...whenever I get around to doing that.  Latest changes allow things like inducing roll penalties on enemies and the example for building a new ability adds Telekinesis (inspired by Halflife gravity gun rules over in experimental weapons).

Fun note: if you used Telekinesis with AOE, you could quite easily create this:

Brickomancey:

Telekinesis: 1d6 (4)
AOE: Circle (+2)
Duration: Quick (-1") (+1/2)
Circumstance: Common: Only To Build (-1/4)
Cost: 11.2 ~ 11 CP

The Brickomancers can summon archane forces of Ther-Moset, the god of Palastics, to assemble raw bricks into walls and light constructions in only a turn.

[Gungnir]

I think it is almost there.  Just a few more tweaks, and it is ready for play-testing...whenever I get around to doing that.  Latest changes allow things like inducing roll penalties on enemies and the example for building a new ability adds Telekinesis (inspired by Halflife gravity gun rules over in experimental weapons).

Fun note: if you used Telekinesis with AOE, you could quite easily create this:

Brikomancy:

Telekinesis: 1d6 (4)
AOE: Circle (+2)
Duration: Quick (-1") (+1/2)
Circumstance: Common: Only To Build (-1/4)
Cost: 11.2 ~ 11 CP

The Brikomancers can summon arkane forces of Ther-Moset, the god of Palastiks, to assemble raw briks into walls and light constructions in only a turn.

Fix'd

[LZBrickMan42]

Indeed it is.

Charges isn't a point sink now.  It may need an adjustment, but it theoretically works out well.  That leaves Circumstance, Specify Target, and AOE with the only multi-sub-cost pricing schemes, and those aren't going to change.

I'm going to try to build something new and different every time I post to see what it can do and track down any balance issues that I can spot (like tweaking Variable Ability's price, changing it to multiply the attack you purchased instead of changing its levels, and switching the die increments to 1/2d6; for the next update).

Packaged Deal: Suicide Bomber

Suicide Bomb:

Attack: 1/2d6 (1)
AOE: Circle, 4" PAE (+4)
Specify Target: Includes Self (-1/4)
(Winging that one for now)
Variable Ability: 1d6, for the Game (+2)
Armor Piercing (+1)
Cost: 6.4 ~ 6 CP

Improvised Armor:

Armor: 1/2d6 (0.5)
Variable Ability: 1d6, for the Game (+2)
Cost: 1.5 ~ 2 CP

Package Cost: 8 CP

[Sloopofwar]

My mind is melting trying to figure all this out. I can't even attempt to imagine how long a game using these figures would take. AGES. The perfect brikwars game is one you never have to look of stats or rules a single time. I never did in an entire forum battle. Something comes up just fudge it!

[Gungnir]

My mind is melting trying to figure all this out. I can't even attempt to imagine how long a game using these figures would take. AGES. The perfect brikwars game is one you never have to look of stats or rules a single time. I never did in an entire forum battle. Something comes up just fudge it!

Wee keep the book handy to check weapon stats and stuff like that. But other than that, we rarely, if ever, look at the rules.

[LZBrickMan42]

No time to build something now, but I want to stress:

Abilties represent a core rule of action for a creation.  They are atomic
rules with no frills or anything terribly interesting in and of themselves.
They are purchased in levels of power, which are either 1/2d6 or a flat 2
units of effect.  For instance, if you buy 1d6 of Attack, you bought 2
levels of Attack (1/2d6 collapse into full d6 and a remainder).  There are
ways of switching Abilities between 1/2d6 and flat 2, but that is discussed
elsewhere.

Abiltiy Mods are the flavor and spice you add to base Abilities.  They either
make them more powerful (Advantages, which have a positive cost) or less powerful
(Limitations, which have a negative cost).  The sign of the cost is there to
indicate whether or not an Ability Mod is a Limitation or Advantage; not how
to use them to modify a base Abilty's cost.

That is all that changed about pricing, and that Abilities are not obligated to be priced in terms of Weapon Size, but still can be and basically come out the same.

No really.  That's it.  All the rules that are in the stock rules were simply sifted out into atomic pieces, Charges and Variable Ability was added, AOE and Circumstance were expanded from what was already there, and all dice were put on the same scale.  Save Charges and Variable Ability, there isn't a rule in there that you don't already know in some form.

[aoffan23]

there isn't a rule in there that you don't already know in some form.

What's the point of putting an existing rule in with an add-on rules set?

[LZBrickMan42]

Step 1: Assemble a BrikWars army however you usually do, using standard rules
Step 2: "Hmmm, I really want my Hero to have an aura that boosts surrounding soldiers morale" or "Hmmm, I want there to be a three mini squad equipped with heavy laser cannons"
Step 3: Use BrikSystem to build that one or those three special things for your army and know how much they cost
Step 4: Have fun

Only if you bother with point costs, of course.  Making sure the standard rules work as close as possible in BrikSystem keeps it (theoretically) balanced.  So, you equip that one cool squad in your army with something crazy or build an army-wide special rule, and it should work with the stock rules and cost about what it should.  Also, I think it is a better framework for adding special abilities, like Telekinesis, Teleportation, or Mind Control.