F.1 Hazard Dice

Field Hazards
Hazard	Dice Options	Notes
Smoke	-	100% visual cover
Exposure Damage	Damage Fire	target size modifiers affect Damage
Difficult Terrain	" Move	Spiked Obstacles may cause Damage instead of affecting movement
Concealed Hazard	Damage Fire Exp " Move	Action Roll vs. inches moved to avoid Concealed Hazard target size modifiers affect difficulty
Energy Shield	Any die of Deflection	Deflection dice protect against same Damage die type only

The effects of a Field Hazard are built up from Hazard dice that fall into a short list of basic categories.

• Smoke is the simplest Hazard, with no Hazard dice. Smoke provides complete visual obscurement.
• Exposure Damage dice damage their victims by simple exposure, like a burning fire or a poison gas cloud.
• Difficult Terrain dice hamper units' movement, possibly damaging them in the process, like barbed wire obstacles or a field of slippery ice.
• Concealed Hazard dice are inert until a unit steps in the wrong place, like a minefield or on an unstable magma crust.
• A final type, Energy Shield dice, are used to create special Field defenses rather than being true Hazards in themselves.

Like the s in a creation's Armor rating (7.1: Structure), a Field Hazard can never have more Hazard dice than its inches of Size, and should be generally limited to a maximum of three Hazard dice except in exceptional cases. If the Size of a Field Hazard is reduced below its number of Hazard dice by any means (for instance, heroic firefighters fighting a house Fire by smothering it with stacks of politicians), Hazard dice must be removed to match the new limited Field Size.

If a Field Hazard works passively as part of the landscape, there's no limit to the number of times its dice can be rolled in a turn, as one victim after another wanders into it. A river current sweeps away a dozen minifigs as easily as one, and a volcano melts a hundred ill-advised submarine tours as reliably as a scuba enthusiast diving solo.

If a Field Hazard is a type that's activated and powered by a creation, then its Hazard dice can only activate once per turn, and each Hazard die uses an inch of Power when it activates. Powered Field Hazards can be designed to activate automatically on contact or manually by the creation's operator.

Smoke

Smoke is the simplest Hazard, with no dice of its own. It sometimes appears as a side effect of other Hazards. Smoke blocks vision completely for anyone looking into, out of, or through its Field, but has no other effect.

Depending on the type of Smoke involved, a Smoke Field might barely cover the ground (e.g., dry ice fog) or it might billow up endlessly with no loss of opacity (e.g., a tire fire). By default, Smoke Fields are effective up to a height of five inches.

Exposure Damage

Damage
or Fire Damage

This is fine.

Photo: Sahasrahla
From "Demons at Dauerdale!"
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Many Hazards damage victims through exposure alone. The Damage from environmental Hazards like acid, radiation, electrified surfaces, hailstorms, and political advertisements only increases with the victim's exposure.

Whenever a unit or object encounters a Field that causes Exposure Damage, it takes the Hazard dice as direct damage. As with damage from Arc attacks, the damage total is modified by the target size modifier for whichever part of the victim is exposed to the Field (a victim large enough to have a +2 target size modifier, for example, takes +2 Damage from an Exposure Damage Field (5.1: Making Attacks)).

Objects of Size zero simply take a single point of Damage per Exposure Damage die. This doesn't consume any of the Hazard's Power.

In addition to dealing regular damage, Exposure Damage also Overloads a target, briefly disrupting its ability to Power its own weapons and devices. Every die of Exposure Damage costs its victim one inch of Power as if it had fired an inch worth of weapons.

Fire

Lord Friedrich von Gutenberg makes a trip to the facilities on Edelheim, an M-Throne industrial planet of molten metal.

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From "Planet of Molten Metal"
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Flames shooting through cracks in the lava crust inspire BFenix's Metal Warriors to rock out for several turns in a row before remembering they're still in the middle of a battle.

Photo: Stubby
From "Assault on Goatse Bunker"
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Hoping to discourage a charge from the Dragon King's cavalry, the forces of the Deposed set a ground fire. Cederic the Blacksmith's house is unintended collateral damage.

Photo: Dienekes22
From "Violence Finale"
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Heroic firefighters rush to suppress this civilian's backyard barbecue.

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From "Mystery on Combine"
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Permanent Fire Hazards
Fire Hazard Dice	Type	Examples
1Fire	Regular Fire	campfires, signal pyres
2Fire	Fuel Fire	furnaces, napalm, gasoline fires, burning oil
3Fire	Molten Fire	hot lava, smelters, molten metal, Hell
4Fire	Atomic Fire	nuclear plasma, Nega-matter reactors, Maniac hot sauce

Wild Fire Hazards
Fire Hazard Dice	Type	Examples
1Fire	Burning Objects	house fires, book burnings, witch stakes

Fire is a special kind of Hazard. When minifigs set up a permanent fire, like a lava cauldron, nuclear reactor core, or bonfire, it functions as a normal Exposure Damage Field Hazard, and stays the same size and strength unless deliberately extinguished.

Like any Fire Damage, these permanent fires can set fire to other objects, and the new non-permanent fires are much more dynamic. Burning objects make a Burning Roll each turn that lets their fire grow, spread, and change shape all by itself.

Catching Fire

Any time an object takes Fire Damage, there's a chance it will catch fire. For each individual die of Fire Damage that rolls higher than the object's Weight class, the object catches more fire. If the object wasn't on fire already, a Fire Field Hazard with one inch of Size and 1 Fire Damage is created where the Damage struck. If the object was already on fire, then the Size of the fire increases by +1", up to the full Size of the object. Place flame elements (or, in a pinch, red and yellow bricks) on the surface of the object to indicate the size and shape of the fire.

Out of Range penalties affect a Fire Damage weapon's ability to set targets on fire, since they modify each 's results for secondary effects.

Units and objects that are on fire, or that are trying to use objects that are on fire, or both, take a -1 penalty to their Action and Armor Rolls (unless it's a unit or object specifically designed to use while burning, like a torch or a flaming sword).

On the bright side, any target struck by a burning object or unit takes +1 Fire Damage in addition to whatever normal damage is dealt by the attack or Collision.

Like all types of Exposure Damage, fire Overloads affected units and disrupts their ability to Power their weapons and devices for the turn. A unit on fire has its Power limit reduced by one inch for every inch of the fire's Size (for example, a four inch wooden golem burning with a three inch fire would have its Power limit reduced from eight weapon inches to five).

Burning

At the beginning of its turn (or, for objects with no turns of their own, the turn of the player who set the fire), a unit or object on fire makes a Burning Roll, rolling 1 for every inch of its fire's Size.

For every that rolls a 1, or rolls the object's Weight class or lower, the fire dies down, reducing the fire Size by one inch. For every that rolls higher than the object's Weight class, the fire spreads, inflicting a point of Grinding Damage (7.2: Taking Damage) and either adding one inch to the fire Size (up to the Size of the object) or starting a new 1" fire on a nearby flammable object (within 1") if there's no more room. The Burning continues every turn until the fire's Size is reduced to zero inches, extinguishing it, or until the object is destroyed.

Fires can be extinguished with water or by rolling around on the ground. If the burning object can be submerged in water or vacuum completely, the fire is put out instantly. Otherwise, units fighting a fire can reduce its Size by by one inch per turn for every inch of firefighting apparatus they're using. (Three minifigs dumping water buckets could reduce a fire by three inches; a Size 5" fire Hose could reduce a fire's Size by five inches).

Every time the fire Size changes, the player in charge of the burning object (or the player who set the fire, for unaligned objects) must adjust the physical patch of fire to match the new fire Size, adding appropriate inches of flames or yellow bricks when the fire grows, and removing inches when the fire shrinks. They can choose to adjust any side of the existing patch when adding or removing bricks, but they cannot otherwise control the fire, and the fire can't spread through physical obstacles without burning around them or destroying them first.

Fire Example: The Von Bragstein Boiler-Mech

Elements shown: LEGO own photo Example: The von Bragstein family is known for its impractical battle inventions, and Reichart von Bragstein is no exception. His prototype boiler-mech enjoys much greater success than many of his earlier infamous creations, until he tries to push it too hard with a failed Heroic Feat and blows up one of the coal-fired boilers in a 1Exp + 1Fire Explosion. Turn One: 5 3 Exp Fire 6 9 Armor The mech has a Size of 4" and a Weight class of 2. The explosion rolls a 5 on the 1 and a 3 on the 1. It's not enough to dent the mech's Armor roll of 12, but the 3 is enough to exceed the Weight class and set the boiler on fire. With a single boiler remaining, von Bragstein ignores the flames and fights bravely on. Turn Two: 3 Burning On the next turn, the fire rolls a 3 on its 1 Burning Roll, beating the mech's Weight class of 2 again. The mech takes one point of Grinding Damage and the Fire spreads one inch onto the cockpit roof. The fire now has a Size of 2". Turn Three: 1 3 Burning On the third turn, the Burning Roll is now 2, and the fire rolls a 1 and a 3. The fire dies down one inch from the roll of 1 on the first 1, letting the ruined boiler go out, but the second roll of 3 does another point of Grinding Damage and allows the fire to spread another inch, setting the shoulder of the cannon arm on fire and bringing the fire back up to fire Size 2". Turn Four: 3 4 Burning On the fourth turn, the Burning Roll is 2 again, and this time the fire rolls a 3 and a 4, bringing the total Grinding Damage up to four. The fire spreads another two inches, fully engulfing the cockpit and reaching the Size 4" mech's maximum fire Size of 4". The mech is completely engulfed in flames. The cockpit is now included in the Fire Hazard, dealing 1 Fire Damage to von Bragstein on each turn in which he fails to abandon ship.

Alternate Fire Types

With Ragnablok looming, BrikThulhu releases a control virus into every computer and robot in the BrikVerse at the same time.

Photo: Darkstorm
From "Everlasting Conflict: A Ragnablok Special"
Elements shown: LEGO

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Not all Poison effects are wholly detrimental. Bound by their oaths to the Daemonslayer Legionidus and cast out with him from Volhalla to the shores of hell, these slain Vol warriors grow in power by drinking the blood of the Daemons they defeat. The increasing Daemonic taint in their souls is a small price to pay for unholy strength in battle and the chance to one day return to Volhalla.

Photo: Tuefish
From "The collected Vol ground forces"
Elements shown: LEGO (modified)

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Fire is also used as the basis for other types of corrosive damage that have a lasting Burning effect from turn to turn.

• Acid burns a victim like Fire but can only die down, never growing.
• Ion Damage temporarily Overloads teknologikal systems without growing or causing any permanent damage.
• Poison, infection, and disease burn like internal Fires, but can only spread to living creatures, and only through attacks that break the skin. (Alternately, a computer virus can only spread to computers that interface with an infected machine.)

Alternate Fire-like effects can lead to alternate final stages besides death and destruction. Infectious bites, daemonic possession, mutagenetik accidents, and religious evangelism can all turn victims into unrecognizable monsters (10.4: Monsters). Creatures and objects suffering from one of these alternate forms of Burning still feel the usual effects of being on Fire - the penalties to Armor, Action, and Power, the Burning Roll, and the ability to make whatever alternate version of a Fire attack makes sense for their condition.

Difficult Terrain

" Move

The Skion colony continues to develop its defenses. These lines of barbed wire and military-grade obstacles encourage invaders to slow down and appreciate the scenery in the locations most convenient for nearby Skion artillery pieces.

Photo: Dienekes22
From "The Skion at War"
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Riding the fastest Horse in the Rayho cavalry, a Rayho Gryphon Rider gets it stuck in the tentacle trees surrounding the VladTron fortress. Thinking quickly, he spikes his lance and pole-vaults over the top of them - but not high enough! The tentacle trees snatch him out of the air.

From "Rainbow War II: Jellybean Apocalypse: Grail War"
Elements shown: LEGO

own photo

The purpose of Difficult Terrain is to hamper or disrupt unit movement. Difficult Terrain can slow units down or move them in directions they don't want to go. It can also let them go whichever direction they want, but decrease their ability to slow down or change course.

• For Slow Fields that slow or stop units (like mud, glue, or rubble), the Hazard inches are subtracted from victims' Move for the turn.
• For Fields of Thrust that carry units in a specific direction (like river currents, wind machines, or greased ramps), the Hazard inches are applied as Thrust to the unit at the beginning of its movement, and it may then use its full Move as normal.

• Slippery Fields (like ice, oil slicks, or spilled marbles) force units to continue in whatever direction they were already moving (or to remain stuck in place if they weren't moving), spending their own Move inches equal to the Hazard inches. They may then use whatever Move inches they have remaining.

  Units on foot in a Slippery Field fall over and become Disrupted on any Critical Failure on an Action Roll.

• A Spiked Obstacle Field (like barbed wire, anti-cavalry stakes, caltrops, cursed thornbushes, or clawed skeleton hands reaching up out of the grave) forces travelers to choose between losing Movement inches or taking Damage. If they spend an Action to focus and move carefully, the Spiked Obstacle subtracts es  of Move like a Slow Field. For units moving uncontrollably or moving while focusing their Action elsewhere, a Spiked Obstacle inflicts es of damage like an Exposure Damage Field instead.

Concealed Hazards

Damage
or " Move

This hallway looks totally safe.

Photo: Silent-sigfig
From "The Jackpot"
Elements shown: LEGO

photo rights: Silent-Sigfig
signed 3/25/21

Concealed Hazards add the element of surprise to Hazardous terrain. Units are never quite sure whether their next step will crack through thin ice, drop them into quicksand, or set off a landmine. Concealed Hazard dice cost half as much as the equivalent Exposure Damage or Difficult Terrain Dice.

A unit traveling into or through a Concealed Hazard must declare its path through the Field Hazard and then roll its Action Die to see how many inches it's able to safely travel. (This is a passive check that doesn't spend an Action.) If the distance rolled equals or exceeds the number of inches the unit is traveling through the Field, then nothing happens - the unit travels safely and continues as normal. Otherwise, the number rolled is the number of inches it traveled through the Field before setting off the Concealed Hazard. On a Critical Failure, the Concealed Hazard is triggered immediately, before the unit travels any distance at all.

The larger an object is, the higher its chance of setting off a Concealed Hazard. A unit making an Action Roll to travel through a Concealed Hazard takes the reverse of its usual target size modifier. (For example, an unusually large Size 8" Cow with a +4 target size bonus to hit would take a -4 penalty to its Action Roll for traveling through a Concealed Hazard.) Size 0" objects are too small to set off Concealed Hazards at all.

Objects that leap, fall, or are thrown into a Concealed Hazard roll against the number of inches traveled while airborne. On any failed roll, the consequences occur at the point of impact. Objects without an Action Die of their own roll an Incompetent .

If an object is being carefully set on the Concealed Hazard (for instance, by minifigs attempting to build a safe platform over unstable ground), the unit setting the object in place makes an Action Roll. Even though the object isn't traveling any distance, it can still set off the Hazard on a Critical Failure.

Energy Shields

Deflection die

While not Hazardous in the usual sense, Energy Shield dice are subject to the same Field Size limits as other Hazard dice.

Energy Shields are not especially cost-effective as a replacement for standard Armor or Heavy Armor, but they do open up extra protection options for a creation that has already reached its maximum Weight class. An Energy Shield Die grants one level of Deflection against an incoming damage die of the proper type. Damage based on a minifig's Action Die, like Melee Weapon damage, is blocked by an Energy Shield . All other types of damage are blocked by Energy Shields of the same die type. (A Energy Shield blocks a of Fire Damage; a Energy Shield blocks a of Crash damage or a of sword damage.)

Energy Shields must be created by Shield Projectors somewhere on the surface of the creation they protect. Each Energy Shield Die can be spent once per turn, and costs one inch of a creation's Power for the turn when used.

F.2 Traps

Not all battlefield hazards are based on environmental conditions. Every once in a while, minifigs have the time and attention span to assemble something more deliberate and specific. Defense turrets, slamming blast doors, rolling boulders, strategically positioned sleeping tigers, auto-flushing toilets - if a creation, weapon, Field Hazard, or other device can be activated, then it can be engineered into a custom Trap.

Trap mechanisms are not capable of initiative or independent thought, so players have to be specific about the exact conditions that activate a Trap, and what it does once activated.

Triggers

Traps are activated by specific triggers. Any object physically represented on the battlefield can be designated as a trigger for one or more Traps. Minifigs may be required to interact with the object in a certain way (typing the proper code into a keypad, turning the arming keys before pulling the self-destruct lever, or playing a particular tune on a skeletal pipe organ), or the trigger may be set off by any interaction at all (a loose doorknob wired with a mercury switch).

Some triggers are obvious (the comedically oversized power switch, the giant red "DO NOT PUSH" button), but many are not (the disguised torch lever that opens the secret door, the throw rug over the spiked wood chipper pit). In theory, opposing minifigs won't know the location of these secret triggers, but in most cases all the players will, unless the game has an impartial moderator or host to adjudicate secrets. Often the easiest workaround for secret triggers (as well as other types of hidden objects) is to build a large number of potential triggers and roll dice whenever one is tried to see if it's the real one.

Triggers are sometimes built into Concealed Hazard Fields - hidden pressure plates, motion detectors, tripwires, or some equivalent are scattered throughout the area, and tripping one of them will set off the device. (Concealed weapon traps are automatically pointed at the spot where the Hazard is activated. Even if the players can't know in advance exactly where the tripwires will be, the minifigs who built the trap presumably did.)

Weapon Traps

Weapon Traps are often single-use (until reset by a minifig technician - those hidden crossbows don't re-arm themselves), and they make their attacks with an inanimate object's default Action . A smart weapon equipped with a simple robot brain or magical enchantments can be treated as a kind of Programmed Half-Minded creature (10.1: Minds), allowing it to be re-used from turn to turn and to attack with a larger Action die.

F.3 The Scout

(Download the Scout card)

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The United Systems Alliance Ranger Sergeant keeps his eyes peeled as his rangers blaze a trail headfirst into hell.

Photo: Silent-sigfig
From "Factions and Lore"
Elements shown: LEGO

photo rights: Silent-Sigfig
signed 3/25/21

When dealing with Traps and Field Hazards, most units are limited to two options: avoid them completely, or shrug and hope they survive the damage. For a faction that makes sure to always be prepared, there's a third option. With a specially-trained Scout leading the way, many Hazards can be safely bypassed or neutralized.

A Scout must carry and use binoculars, a telescope, or some other optical Tool in order to take advantage of his Specialty abilities.

Pathfinding

Pathfinding Specialty:

Action vs. Field Hazards;

stops safely before setting off Concealed Hazards

A Scout has the Pathfinding Specialty, giving him the ability to recognize hidden dangers and safely navigate dangerous terrain. A Scout rolls his Specialty on any Action Roll involving a Field Hazard or Trap.

When traveling through Concealed Hazards, a Scout rolls his Specialty rather than his Action die to see how far he can safely travel, and he stops at that distance before setting off the Hazard. He can safely lead any number of other units traveling with him in single file.

Tracking

The Scout's keenly-refined paranoia and sixth sense for danger also makes him a master of detection. All units, objects, Traps, and devices within a Scout's field of view are automatically revealed to him and his allies, even if they're hidden or invisible, and their advantages from stealth or camouflage are negated.

A Scout is able to instantly communicate detected enemy positions to all of his allies, which is useful for firing artillery shells or archery volleys over the tops of obstacles at enemies hiding behind them. Any target visible to a Scout is visible to all of his allies.

The Scout can spend an Action to take this ability one step further, pinpointing a single target he can see within 8" and Marking it for attack. Until the beginning of the Scout's next turn, the Marked target is considered visible to all allies, and all allies making Ranged attacks on a Marked target do so with a +1 Action Bonus.