Chapter Four: The Player Turn
During a player’s turn, each of his or her units may engage in whatever Movement is allowed by its Move statistic, and may take one major Action (preferably an attack). Meanwhile,
other players' units can use unspent Actions in Response to the active player's offensive behavior.
4.1: Movement
 During Movement, a minifig's Move rating of 5" allows him to
move five inches in any direction - he can run across five inches
of level ground, climb five inches’ worth of stairs or ladders,
or leap over five inches of chasm.
His Movement is limited in a couple of ways. He can’t pass through
solid obstacles or leap higher than 1” (three bricks) in a single
jump. Difficult types of Movement might slow the minifig to Half Speed. Movement that requires the use of one or both arms (swimming, crawling, climbing ladders, or swinging on ropes, for example) will prevent the minifig from using those arms to make attacks or perform other manual Actions.
If a minifig moves within Close Combat striking distance of an opposing minifig who still has an Action to spend, the opponent automatically attacks him,
unless the opposing player says otherwise. If the minifig decides
to Parry the attack, they are both entered into Close Combat (5.2:
Close Combat) and the minifig’s Movement is over for
the turn. If he declines to Parry and survives, he can ignore the attack and continue moving normally.
Impaired Movement
A minifig is not always able to run around at full speed. Difficult conditions or activities can slow him to Half Speed or Stop his Movement entirely for that turn. If he's taken violently off his feet, whether by a Shove, an Explosion, or from desperately Bailing out of the way of impending destruction, it will cause him to become Disrupted and defenseless until his next turn.
| Impaired Movement Examples |
| Activity |
Effect |
| Activities |
| Sneezing |
(no effect) |
| Talking, delivering pithy one-liners |
(no effect) |
| Operating a latch, lever, button, or door |
(no effect) |
| Operating a computer or Vehicle Controls |
Stopped
(uses Action) |
| Stopping to Aim an attack |
Stopped |
| Dying |
Stopped
(dead) |
| Disruption |
| Knocked over by a Shove, Explosion, or Collision |
Disrupted |
| Bailing out of the way |
Disrupted
(uses Action) |
| Recovering after being Disrupted |
Half Speed
(1 turn) |
|
| Activity |
Effect |
| Movement |
| Leaping across chasms |
(no effect) |
| Easy climbs:
stairs, ramps, or ladders |
(no effect) |
| Difficult climbs:
ropes, trees, or cliffs |
Half Speed |
| Swimming |
Half Speed |
| Moving in mud or thick vegetation |
Half Speed |
| Crawling or dragging along the ground |
Half Speed |
| Hopping or hobbling on one leg |
Half Speed |
|
| Activity |
Effect |
| Using Equipment |
| Drawing or holstering a weapon |
(no effect) |
| Picking up or dropping items |
(no effect) |
| Carrying or dragging a heavy item |
Half Speed |
| Swimming with a heavy item |
Stopped
(drowning) |
| Wearing Armor |
| Putting on Body Armor |
Stopped
(uses Action) |
| Taking off Body Armor |
(no effect) |
| Walking in Light Armor |
(no effect) |
| Walking in Heavy Armor |
Half Speed |
| Swimming in Body Armor |
Stopped
(drowning) |
|
|
Minor Activities
Although a minifig can only take one major Action per turn, there
are lesser activities that are too minor to count
against this limit. Activities that require no particular attention,
aiming, or dice rolls are either free or treated as an impairment to Movement rather than spending the minifig's Action.
Simple acts, like picking up or
dropping objects, holding conversations, or sneezing don't slow a minifig down at all. More strenuous activities may reduce a minifig's Movement to Half Speed, Stop them completely, or leave them Disrupted.
Half Speed
Actions or conditions that actively burden a minifig, such as wearing Heavy Armor, carrying or dragging a heavy object (the size of a minifig or 2x4 brick), or engaging in difficult movement requiring the use of both arms (swimming, crawling, climbing ropes, etc.) will reduce a minifig's Movement to Half Speed.
While moving at Half Speed, all Movement costs twice the usual number of Move inches - that is to say, moving two inches of distance across the battlefield costs four inches of the minifig's Move ability instead of two. If he can jump, he can only jump half as far and half as high. If he can fly, he can only fly half as fast.
If a minifig is already reduced to Half Speed, additional Half Speed conditions have no effect - he's still at Half Speed. The important exception is while swimming: minifigs who try to swim while wearing Body Armor or carrying heavy objects are Stopped and will drown if they don't dispose of their burdens before the end of their following turn.
Stopped
If a minifig is Stopped, his Movement is over for the turn, regardless of whether he had five inches of Move left or zero. He regains his full Movement on the following turn, unless something is still Stopping him.
Even when reduced to Half Speed or Stopped, a minifig may still perform regular Actions and minor activities if it makes sense to do so. He may be immobilized with his face caught in a bear trap, but that doesn't prevent him from opening an emergency panel and mashing a self-destruct button if it's within arm's reach.
Disruption
Events that knock a minifig violently off his feet, whether voluntarily or otherwise, cause him to become Disrupted. This most often happens when a minifig is knocked over by the effects of a Shove, Explosion, or Collision, or when he's forced to Bail out of the way of oncoming damage.
A Disrupted minifig is helpless, and may not attempt any further Movement or Action until his following turn, not even to Counter a Close Combat attack. Until then, he is considered an inanimate object, granting +1 to hit with Ranged Attacks, and granting Automatic Hits for attackers standing close enough to touch him directly with their weapons.
| Heroes can attempt Heroic Feats even while they're Disrupted, sometimes allowing them to move or act when they normally shouldn't be able to. |
On the following turn, minifigs recover from Disruption, getting up and moving at Half Speed for the full turn but otherwise acting as normal.
Sprinting
When speed is critical, a minifig (or any mobile unit) can spend his Action to Sprint,
rolling his Action die and giving himself that many extra inches of Move.The minifig's entire Movement for the turn (including the Sprint) must be in a straight line forward. His path may go up or down and over any obstacles that he can leap over without having to stop and climb, but it may not turn to the right or left by even a tiny amount.
Sprinting minifigs may not engage in any activity that would break their run, like opening doors or typing in security codes. Minifigs moving at Half Speed can put in the extra effort to Sprint, but the extra Sprint inches are also at Half Speed.
Sprinting can be combined with a Charge attack (5.4: Charge!) as part of the same Action, spending only the single Action Die.
Minifigs Sprinting in a group can roll a single Action die for the entire group's Sprint distance, for the sake of convenience.
| The die roll for Sprinting can benefit from Bonus Dice like any other roll (1.2: Numbers) - the extra dice keep adding more inches to the Sprint, allowing truly ridiculous straight-line speed. By tradition, if a series of Critical Successes in a Sprint roll suddenly ends with a roll of one, it's a special kind of Critical Failure: the unit is unable to stop itself, and must run the full distance allowed by the extra Bonus Dice, even if he runs into a wall or off the table. |
4.2: Action
 Any
act that requires a minifig’s focused attention or concentrated
physical effort is an Action. Due to the limitations of time and plastic brainpower, a normal minifig is limited to one Action per turn. He can use this single Action
before, after, or in the middle of his Movement, but he only gets
one, so he should spend it wisely (which is to say, as unwisely as possible). His spent Action returns at the beginning of his next turn.
In ideal circumstances, a minifig will almost always use his Action to make an attack (5.1:
Making Attacks). But even the most belligerent minifigs
will concede that less violent Actions are sometimes called
for in order to set up better attacks later.
Use Ratings
Minifigs are clumsy
and easily distracted, and Actions are rarely automatic successes. Each Action is given a Use rating describing its relative difficulty. Except for the most trivial types of Action, a minifig attempting an Action must
make an Action Roll, rolling his Action die to see if his attempt succeeds. If his Action
Roll is equal to or higher than the Action's Use rating, then the Action is a success.
If it's lower, the Action fails, and the minifig suffers whatever
consequences logically result.
| Use: |
Difficulty |
Weapon Example |
Action Examples |
| - |
trivial (no roll required) |
Bare Hands |
taking off pants;
stacking bricks |
| 2 |
easy: almost
always succeeds |
shortsword |
jumping to grab a rope;
hacking a U.S. election machine |
| 3 |
normal: might take
more than one try |
spear |
kicking open a regular
locked door;
mixing complex drinks |
| 4 |
tricky: even
odds of success |
halberd |
rock-climbing a brick wall;
reassembling an unfamiliar rifle |
| 5 |
difficult |
battering ram |
disarming a bomb;
winning at Vegas |
| 6 |
very difficult |
catapult |
walking a tightrope;
performing minor surgery |
| 8 |
heroic |
wrecking ball |
Olympic-level gymnastics;
catching a crossbow
bolt in flight |
| 10 |
legendary |
deck artillery |
hacking into a military satellite;
dodging concentrated machine-gun fire |
| 12 |
godlike |
orbital laser |
injuring a Human;
performing a judo throw on a T-rex |
|
Weapons and other equipment items have standard Use numbers in their descriptions (Chapter 3: Minifig Weapons). Minifigs attacking with or utilizing these items roll against those ratings.
Otherwise, there are all kinds of unusual tasks that minifigs
might attempt, from the trivial to the impossible. Most will have
a default Use rating of 3; players may agree on a higher or lower
difficulty as seems appropriate. For truly exceptional Actions, the Use rating can be so high that minifigs have to pin their hopes on adding one or more Bonus Dice to the roll to have any chance of matching it.
Over the Top Action
No matter how minor or Herculean an Action may be, a minifig of unusual skill or luck can find ways to execute it with extra flair. An Action Roll doesn't score Critical Successes the same way as other die rolls (1.2: Numbers). Instead, any time a minifig rolls a six or higher on his Action die (before adding or subtracting any modifiers) to perform an Action, he can take the Action Over the Top.
Over the Top is only earned by the Action die itself. Other dice added to an Action Roll as Bonus Dice score regular Critical Successes instead, as do Action dice rolled as Damage for Close Combat weapons.
While a six is the highest number a normal minifig can naturally roll on his d6 Action die, other unit types may have larger or smaller dice. Heroes, introduced in Chapter Six: Minifig Heroes, have a d10 Action die, and can go Over the Top on a natural roll of six, seven, eight, nine, or ten.
Incompetent units with an Action Die of d4, introduced in Chapter Ten: Creatures, can never roll high enough to go Over the Top. As consolation, they are allowed to earn Critical Successes on their Action Rolls, gaining a Bonus d4 on a natural roll of 4. |
When a minifig goes Over the Top with an Action, he receives a special Bonus Die, called a Benny, to amplify that Action. An Over the Top Benny can be spent to add +1d6 to the Action Roll or to any of the Action's existing stats (+1d6 inches to the distance of a Sprint, for instance, but not +1d6 inches to the Range of a Close Combat attack, which has no existing Range stat).
If the Over the Top Benny is used to add Damage to an attack, it adds one more of the attack's existing Damage dice. A 1d6+1 Rifle gets an Over the Top bonus of +1d6, while a 1d10 (Exp) Grenade gets an Over the Top bonus of +1d10 (Exp), making the Explosion twice as large (8.4: Heavy Explosives).
| Regardless of Action or Damage type, rolling a Critical Success on an Over the Top Benny die adds a +1d6 as normal. |
In some cases, rather than adding a die to a stat, the Over the Top Benny can be spent to avoid a negative consequence of an Action, such as allowing a Bailing minifig to land acrobatically and avoid being Disrupted (4.3: Enemy Response). An Over the Top Benny can also be used to make an attack more precise: a minifig might spend it to change "I was shooting at the dragon" to "I was shooting at the dragon's left eye," if his original Action Roll was high enough to hit the eye despite the penalties for small target size.
| Over the Top Example: The Hangman's Gallows |
Example: In the excitement surrounding the public execution in Dottingham Square, Thieven Hood has managed to sneak his way onto the town palisade overlooking the plaza. He's too late! The hangman is already pulling the release lever, and one of Thieven's Merry Minifigs is about to take the long drop. Although well aware of the involuntary pants-pooping that accompanies a successful hanging, Thieven is still determined to try to save his minion. He only has one chance: to shoot the rope before it snaps the victim's neck.
This is a difficult shot. Thieven's longbow has a Use of 3 and a Range of 10", but the rope is very small, giving a -2 Attack Penalty for Target Size, and it's a full fifteen inches away, giving additional Attack and Damage penalties of -5 for being five inches Out of Range (5.1: Making Attacks). With a Use of 3 and an Attack Penalty of -7, he needs to roll a 10 just to hit the rope. It's a long shot by any interpretation.
Thieven Hood rolls his d10 Action die. An eight! Because it's a six or greater, it gives him an Over the Top Benny to spend on the shot.
He uses the Benny to add +1d6 inches to the longbow's Range for this attack. He rolls a 2, increasing the Range to 12". The rope is still Out of Range, but now only by three inches, reducing the Out Of Range penalties to -3. His Skill Roll of eight is now exactly enough to overcome the combined -2 Target Size penalty and -3 Out of Range penalty; the arrow hits the rope.
The longbow's Damage rating is 1d6+1, but the Damage is also subject to the -3 Out of Range penalty. Thieven Hood rolls a 2 on the d6, resulting in zero total Damage.
He's already spent the Over the Top Benny on adding Range, so there's nothing more he can do. The arrow strikes the rope with perfect precision and bounces off without effect. The condemned Merry Minifig drops through the trapdoor, the noose snaps around his neck, and the pants-pooping follows moments later. Thieven Hood, along with the handful of other Merry Minifigs attending incognito, joins the crowd of onlookers in merry laughter at the defecatory spectacle. |
Long Actions
Some Actions are so involved or time-consuming
that they take up a minifig’s entire turn, even if they aren’t
difficult enough to require an Action Roll. These are called Full-Round
Actions. Examples include piloting a vehicle, operating a computer,
putting on a suit of plate mail, rowing a rowboat, or reading a wargaming
rulebook. Once engaged in a Full-Round Action, a minifig is Stopped and can't engage in any other type of Action or Movement for the rest of the turn, although he may still be moved around by vehicles or other units (for instance, if he's using a Full-Round Action to ride a Horse).
A Full-Round Action that extends over multiple turns is an Extended Action. The most common Extended Action for minifigs, often extending over
a very large number of turns, is "Being Dead."
4.3: Enemy Response
 If
a minifig doesn't spend his Action on his own turn, he can save it to
use in response to other units' activity. A minifig can use a Response Action to fire at scouts as they
pop out from behind cover, to whack soldiers that stray into range
of his melee weapon, or to pull the self-destruct lever at the exact moment when the final invitees have boarded the cruise liner for his birthday party.
Of course, his enemies are just as free to use saved Actions during
his turn as well, so he should tread carefully.
To take a Response Action, a minifig must have an unspent Action
from his previous turn. He can move up to one free inch (known as an Angry Inch (5.2: Close Combat)), if necessary, in order to press, grab,
or otherwise operate a critical object (to pull a lever or slam
a door, for instance), or to position themselves in range of a target for a Close Combat or Ranged Attack. Angry Inches don't cost any Move inches.
Cone of Vision
A Responding minifig must be aware of the specific action or movement
he's reacting to, and in a timely enough fashion to make a proper
Response. In most cases, this means he has to be able to see
it. If he sees an enemy soldier raise a rifle and take aim, he may
have time to dive for cover. If all he knows is that he heard a gunshot,
it's too late.
A minifig's Cone of Vision points in whichever direction his
head is facing, and forty-five degrees to either side, making a complete
cone of ninety degrees. If an object or event is within that field
of view, the minifig can see it; if not, he can't. Whenever it's hard
to tell whether or not an object falls within that cone, a quick What
I Say Goes roll resolves the issue.
Who Acts First
Even if a minifig can see disaster about to strike, he won't
always be fast enough to respond in time.
In some cases, a minifig will have plenty of time to make a Response Action. If an enemy's running up with a knife while the minifig's swinging a polearm, or if the enemy's running up with a polearm while the minifig's aiming a pistol, or if the enemy's running up with a pistol while the minifig's hiding in an underground bunker with a hand on the magma release lever, the minifig is going to have plenty of time to act before the enemy gets close enough to do anything about it.
As a rule of thumb, if a minifig is able to take his Response Action while his target is still an inch away from taking its own Action or more, then the Response Action happens first, and vice versa. Otherwise, both Actions occur simultaneously if possible, and with the higher Action Roll going first otherwise.
| Response Action Example: High Noon Shootout |
Example: Two gunfighters meet outside the saloon for a duel at high noon. They eye each other warily, each prepared to draw and fire the moment their opponent so much as twitches.
On Hairtrigger Wayne's turn, he decides he's going to fire first, and declares his attack on Shoot-Em-in-the-Back Shaun. Shaun declares a similar attack on Wayne as a Response Action. The minifigs fire simultaneously, and both players roll their d6 Action dice against their pistols' Use ratings of 3. No doubt due to heavy drinking, Wayne rolls a 1 and Shaun rolls a 2; both miss their shots.
Shaun's missed shot flies harmlessly into the distance, but Wayne's shot was a Critical Failure, and the gun goes off before he even gets it out of the holster. Wayne collapses in agony after shooting himself in the foot, and a great cheer goes up from the crowd of spectators who mistakenly assume that Shaun's shot hit its mark. |
Bailing
While the recommended Response to any enemy behavior is to
attack with every available weapon, there are times when a minifig's best
bet is to make a desperate leap for safety. He may be dodging an oncoming
truck, jumping out of an exploding helicopter,
or diving behind cover when an enemy gun turret opens fire.
Minifigs are not able to Sprint as a Response Action. Instead, assuming
their movement type would logically allow it, they have the option
to Bail. A Bailing minifig rolls his Action die and can dive to any spot within that many inches
of his current position, ending up lying prone on the ground and Disrupted.
A minifig who's reduced to Half Speed also Bails at Half Speed, diving only one real inch for every two Bail inches. If a minifig is at Half Speed because he's carrying a heavy burden, he can drop it before he Bails and leap the full distance.
|
A minifig who rolls Over the Top on a Bailing roll can spend it to land on his feet and avoid Disruption. |
A low Action Roll can sometimes mean
that a minifig doesn't Bail far as he needs to, and a Critical Failure means he just slips and
falls on his face right where he's standing. If a Bailing minifig doesn't
jump far enough to escape the path of an oncoming train, he still
gets hit by the train; if he's Bailing to avoid a rifle volley and
doesn't reach cover, the riflemen just fire at him in his new
position instead of his old one.
| Rekonstruktion and Retkonstruktion Numbers |
ABS plastic, whether used as a construction material or as fuel, has the side effect of warping time and space into knots, and SpaceMen's compulsion to kick the ass of reality itself inevitably shreds the history of each new universe into a nonlinear tangled mess.
Time in the BrikWars universe is inconsistent and poorly-defined. One might leave in the morning on a brisk walk and find oneself arriving home 300 years in the past. Two sides of the same street can find themselves on separate planets one day, and interdimensionally superimposed on one another the next. How does one organize a timeline when such extreme distortions are a basic fact of life?
BrikWars historians order their khronologies by BrikVerse Rekonstruktions, numbering each reality according to the number of previously destroyed universes from which it inherits recycled elements.
The timeline in which SpaceMen first arose is assigned the number 1,978, after Brik science determined that the destruction of the SpaceMen's universe retroactively created 1,977 previous generations of reality leading up to their own. None of these previous Retkonstruktions (or "Retkons") contain minifigs, but as they get closer to BrikVerse #1,978, devolved forms of pre-minifig life begin to appear. These proto-life forms occasionally surface in later Rekonstruktions, and may paradoxically be the progenitors of the protofig bioengineers responsible for creating the SpaceMen in the first place, who would then go on to catastrophically bring about the existence of the preceding universes in which the protofigs evolved.
Brik symmetricians theorize that, because the effects of the SpaceMan's Exploding Kanon Ball created 1,977 previous generations of reality, it must have created exactly 1,977 generations to follow, and the universe will finally run out of ABS in BrikVerse #3,955.
Naturally, the great powers of history don't simply disappear at the end of their Rekonstruktion. As pieces of previous realities shatter forward into new ones, remnants and echoes of earlier minifig civilizations linger on in the garage sales and discount shelves of history. Some are forgotten and fade away, absorbing into new, more popular factions, while others regroup and persist through multiple Rekonstruktions in evolving forms.
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