MC.1 Making MOCkeries

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Watching minifigs hack and smash each other into plastic bits is loads of fun, but few tabletop strategists will be satisfied with minifigs-only combat in the long run — not while visions of tanks, castles, and nuclear assault dinosaurs dance in their heads.

Rather than building a model to match a particular set of stats, the best creations result when players build their MOCs first and let the model determine the attributes. If a creation comes out a little more or less expensive than the budget calls for, it's no cause for alarm; nothing is more militarily authentic than a cost overrun. Players can add or remove a couple of minifigs from the army to make up the difference later. An arbitrary public execution for budget purposes will show the minifigs that their Humans mean business.

Design Overview

The first step for any creation is to define its core structure (Chapter Seven: Structures), on which all of the functional components and devices are mounted.

For simple buildings and fortifications, that's all that's required. However, creations are a lot more satisfying if they're loaded up with weapons and Gunners (Chapter 8: Weaponry), propulsion systems and Pilots (Chapter 9: Vehicles), or even their own Minds and abilities (Chapter 10: Creatures). Each of these are described in their respective chapters.

Default Attributes

Default Creations
Size 1" 2" 3" 4" 5"+ Structures Armor 1 2 3 Vehicles Armor 1 1 2 3 Move 5" 10" Flying Vehicles Armor 1 1 2 Move 5" Flight 10" Flight 15" Flight Power - Half Power Size 1" 2" 3" 4" 5"+ Creatures Action Armor 4 1 2 3 Move 5" 10" Flying Creatures Action Armor 4 1 2 Move 5" Flight 10" Flight 15" Flight Power - Half Power

Default Creations
Size	1"	2"	3"	4"	5"+
Structures
Armor	1		2		3
Vehicles
Armor	1		1	2	3
Move	5"	10"
Flying Vehicles
Armor	1			1	2
Move	5" Flight	10" Flight	15" Flight
Power	- Half Power
Creatures
Action
Armor	4		1	2	3
Move	5"	10"
Flying Creatures
Action
Armor	4			1	2
Move	5" Flight	10" Flight	15" Flight
Power	- Half Power

The MOC Combat system allows players to juggle a series of upgrades and downgrades to get exactly the flavor of creation they're looking for. That time is almost always better spent building more weapons instead.

The easiest way to calculate a creation's core attributes is not to bother. For creation stats that don't need personalized attention, players can drop in default abilities with a simple Size measurement (7.1: Structure). A default Size 1" creature like a minifig or large dog has Action:, Armor:4, and Move:5". A default Size 12" flying vehicle like a space cruiser or death zeppelin has Armor:2, Move:15" Flight, and Half Power.

Size Enhancements

A creation is defined by its Size above all else. The Size of a creation's central structure (ignoring surface components like cannon turrets, legs, and flame exhaust) determines how many weapons it can use in a turn, the number of times it can take damage that exceeds its Armor, and most importantly, its chances of elevating the other Humans' envy to the level of worship and/or theft.

Second most importantly, a creation's Size inches also increase its attributes and abilities.

Size Enhancements
Attribute	Base	Enhancements
Armor Chapter Seven: Ch. 7: Struc­tures	1	1 2 3 4 5 ... max 5
		Deflection + Burdened
		-: 0
Power Chapter Eight: Ch. 8: Wea­ponry	2×	3× 4×
		-: Half Power
Move Chapter Nine: Ch. 9: Vehi­cles	0"	5"	10"
			5" FlightFly 10" FlightFly 15" FlightFly
			-: Half Speed
Action Chapter Ten: Ch. 10: Crea­tures
		+1 Mind (no limit)
		-: Half Minded
Value MC.4: Unit Inches	1× Ü	-½Ü (minimum ¼Ü)
		-: +1Ü (no limit)

A basic object in BrikWars starts with Armor 1 and no movement ability. If it's able to operate devices, it has enough Power to operate twice its own Size inches' worth of weapons. If it has the ability to act on its own, it does so with an Action die of .

As a creation's Size increases, it gains Enhancements to these basic attributes, described in detail in their respective chapters. Creatures and vehicles gain one Enhancement for each of their first five inches of Size. Unmoving structures gain Enhancements on odd-numbered Size inches (1", 3", and 5"). For either type, additional Size inches past 5" have no further benefit.

Any Enhancement added past these limits must be paid for with an Impairment. An armored ogre might gain Deflection at the cost of being Half-Minded, while a high-powered artillery piece might fire with extra Power but move at Half Speed. A creation can't take an Impairment that doesn't impair it in any way (a stationary outhouse can't take the Half Move Impairment, for instance), and it can't take multiple copies of any Impairment except Impairments to Value.

MC.2 Fancy Dice

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In order to keep the Core Rules accessible for casual massacres, basic minifigs limit themselves to regular six-sided cube-shaped dice (es) with an occasional thrown in for the spicier bits. For players invested in a personalized MOC experience, a wider variety of dice are required.

Like the es and s of the Core Rules, the dice in MOC Combat's broader assortment are named according to their number of faces.

A die's number of faces is its die size. A four-sided die is a , an eight-sided die is a , a twelve-sided die is a , and a twenty-sided die is forbidden. Certain effects can increase or decrease a die's size between the five basic levels, from a minimum to a maximum .

The new dice score Critical Failures and Successes the same way as in the Core Rules (1.2: Numbers). Any roll in which all the dice come up with a result of "1" is a Critical Failure, and any die that comes up on its highest-numbered face (an 8 on a , a 12 on a ) generates a Bonus for the roll (with the exception of the , which only ever generates Bonus s).

In an Action Roll, an Action die that comes up on a numbered face of 6 or higher, ignoring modifiers or Bonus Dice, takes the Action Over The Top (4.2: Action). This is very common for Action s, and relatively unlikely for Action s.

While all dice are handled in a similar way, they each have an individual flavor dictated by tradition and superstition.

What's the one requirement of a die? Players roll it and a number comes up.

As far as minimum performance standards go, this isn't a tough one to meet, but a can't manage even that much. Numbers are scattered helter-skelter all over every face, and not a single one of them is "up." Players need a secret decoder ring just to figure out the result of the roll. s aren't even that great when used as caltrops, since construction bricks have sharper corners and players tend to have a lot more of them.

The is the most unsatisfying of all dice, and is used to represent incompetence and uselessness of all kinds. It is especially reserved for mindless destructive processes, like fire, disease, and consumer capitalism.

The is unique in that it doesn't earn Bonus es. On a roll of 4, all it gets is another Bonus .

Standard units and standard objects use the square and reliable standard . A indicates a unit or object has the basic features or abilities to accomplish its duties, but is not otherwise exceptional.

Because the majority of units and weapons are based around the es players may end up needing big piles of them if a battle is very large. Fortunately most gaming hobby shops sell uniform dice blocks of a few dozen small es for fairly cheap. Dice blocks in contrasting colors make the game experience a lot smoother, since every player will have plenty of their own dice and they won't have to pass a limited supply around the table.

The is used for advanced skills and Specialty training. These are indicated on a unit's Stat Card, either in the stat boxes or in the unit's Specialty description.

The is also used for Blast damage that spreads over an arc, such as a dragon's breath or a ShotGun blast.

If something Ossum is happening, chances are good that s are involved. The is used for siege-level weapons, vehicles, creatures, and fortifications. Heroes have a powerful Action , and Explosive s determine the radius of an Explosion.

The is rarely seen in BrikWars, and is reserved for unique SuperNatural entities and effects. Wizards, demigods, and superheroes may have access to s if they're powerful enough, but for regular mortal units (and even Heroes) this die is normally out of reach.

Damage s are used for magical, chaotic, and energy-based types of Damage that bypass a target's Deflection. Damage from lightning bolts, ghost launchers, friendship, and BrikThulhian soul disruptors is measured in s that cannot be Parried or reduced by Heavy Armor.

The is reserved for BrikThulhu alone. Even the tiniest brush with the effect of a can strike a minifig cripplingly sane.

MC.3 The Benny

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Ossum within a BrikVerse compounds over time, and events conspire to cultivate and intensify that Ossum without regard for moderation or responsible conservation practices (.3: The Ossum). The glory of Ossum rises above the ignominy of Nahsome, thanks to the irresponsibility of Humans and the power of the Benny.

MOC Combat calls on Humans to not only personalize their My Own Creations, but also their My Own Combat. By giving Bennies to their enemies, players have the opportunity to steer the group towards their preferred kinds of fun, and the mutual fun of everyone at the table supersedes any consideration of victory or loss.

If players like impressive models, they'll give Bennies for impressive models. If they like hilarious hijinks, they'll give Bennies for hilarious hijinks. This keeps everyone at the table aware of what makes the game most fun for everyone else, and the more freely they hand out Bennies, the more freely they're likely to receive them in return.

Awarding Bennies

When someone does something Ossum that deserves recognition, the Benny exists to let enemies grant each other a brief ray of hope before heartlessly crushing it brutally under heel once again. Any time a player does something cool that makes the game better, one of their enemies can award them a Benny. Examples include:

• setting up an Ossum battlefield
• building Ossum models that amaze everyone with clever details and expert craftsmanship
• building Ossum models that repulse annoying elitists with rainbow hodgepodge construction and off-brand parts
• doing anything that causes everyone at the table to say "that was Ossum" and exchange high-fives
• doing anything Ossum that causes players at the table to laugh off one or more of their collective butts, especially when it results in self-inflicted casualties for minifigs and/or Humans
• demonstrating extreme sportsmanship, character, enthusiasm, genius, bloodlust, hospitality, stupidity, brand loyalty, or any other attribute a player personally finds Ossum and would like to see more often
• acts involving beers and/or doughnuts and the Ossum sharing of said beers and/or doughnuts

To create a Benny, a player grabs any pair of construction bricks, attaches them together, calls it a Benny, and gives it to their chosen enemy. If appropriate, they can give it a name to commemorate its origins (e.g., "The Almighty Benny of Heroic Self-Immolation.") From that point forward, the enemy can break the two bits apart at any moment to add a one-time Bonus to any standard roll, unit attribute, or weapon stat (but not to a What I Say Goes or Heroic Feat Roll), or to add an extra die of Damage to an attack.

Instant Bennies

There's a less enduring type of Benny which grants the same general-purpose Bonus es but can't be saved for later. An Instant Benny represents a momentary opportunity for the army that possesses it. If it isn't spent, it disappears at the end of its owner's turn and the opportunity is lost.

Unlike regular Bennies, Instant Bennies are awarded automatically when certain conditions are met, and their use is subject to restrictions. The five standard sources of Instant Bennies are First Blood, Inevitable Betrayal, Deadly Ground, Last Man Standing, and King of the Hill. Players can add or make changes to this list to support their scenario or preferred playing style.

• The Instant Benny of First Blood is awarded to the first player to kill a minifig belonging to an enemy. Killing allies or subordinates is funny but doesn't count.



There's no more popular justification for killing a truly unbelievable number of people than flags. Even more than for doughnuts, minifigs will commit an unlimited amount of murder for scraps of cloth with colored patterns.

Photo: Aoffan23
From "USA Augmented Soldier Frame"
Elements shown: LEGO

image rights: Aoffan23
signed 7/29/20

uploaded



• Instant Bennies of Inevitable Betrayal reward players who betray their allies.

  

  Own drawing

  Uploaded, final

  

  At the beginning of their own turn, a player burdened with allies must decide whether it's time to betray them yet. If the player decides to remain faithful, then they add a brick to their personal Betrayal pile, and play continues as normal.

  If the player decides to righteously betray their alliance, then each brick in their Betrayal pile turns into an Instant Benny to spend against their former allies. The more bricks they have, the more tempting Inevitable Betrayal becomes, so players should always keep one eye on their supposed friends.

  A player who's Betrayed an alliance is no longer part of it, and can't be Betrayed by it in return.

  Plotting for Betrayal
  Backstabbing can be a tricky thing. Especially in battles with Human children (or their adult equivalents), betrayals can lead to destroyed friendships, temper tantrums, and tears. If this kind of trauma appeals to the players, they should try to set up their objectives in such a way that it takes a whole team to achieve them, but only one player can reap the spoils in the end.

• The Instant Benny of Deadly Ground is awarded to a player at the beginning of their turn if they have one or more units in enemy territory. Only units that are in enemy territory can use the Instant Benny of Deadly Ground, and only against the enemies whose territory they're in.

  In a scenario battle, enemy territory is defined in concrete terms - in a siege, for instance, the territory inside the defensive wall belongs to the defenders, while territory outside belongs to the besiegers. In more loosely defined battles, a unit is in Enemy territory if it's closer to that Enemy's starting position than to its own.

  Territorial boundaries can be marked by placing monuments or landmarks at the halfway points between players. Players can move the boundary closer or further away if one army is much larger than another, according to preference. An army that's twice as large at the beginning of a battle can be considered to control twice as much territory.

• Instant Bennies of King of the Hill are awarded to armies who achieve a scenario battle's special objectives.

  The most common objectives are to seize and hold particular critical locations or pieces of equipment, often involving flags and the capture thereof. At the beginning of each player's turn, each objective they control grants them one King of the Hill Benny.

  Objectives are normally built into a scenario at setup, but there's nothing to stop players from making up new ones at random halfway into the battle.
• The Instant Benny of Last Man Standing is awarded to any player who has only one minifig left alive at the beginning of their turn. The minifig can continue to earn a new Last Man Standing Benny at the beginning of each of his player's subsequent turns until the minifig either dies or receives reinforcements.

MC.4 Unit Inches

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In the Core Rules, military budgets are simple. Armies are balanced if players decide they are, and they can use Minifig Budgeting to double-check their figures in any situation where shrugging and handwaving is insufficiently rigorous (2.2: Minifig Armies).

In MOC Combat, customized creations make budgeting more complicated. The relative values of an orbital battlestation, an ammunition barrel full of minifig babies, or the Humans' dog running in and stomping all over the construction-brick battlefield are not as simple as counting minifigs. The wider range of units and constructions may lead players to consider more nuanced forms of accounting, even if they ultimately reject them and go right back to blowing everything up without regard to price tags.

Army Value

If players insist on calculating the value of their armies, everyone in the area should immediately stage a Preemptive Attack (2.2: Minifig Armies), even if they're not part of the game and are complete strangers.

If the offending players survive their injuries and continue to insist, then they can line up their units and compare Unit Inches.

Measuring Units

A typical minifig, appropriately armed, delivers two dice of effect at a five inch range. This is the rough effectiveness per inch for all combat-ready units, and so Humans quantify their armies' strength in the measurement most important to them: Unit Inches, or Ü. The Unit Inch value of an army is roughly the added Sizes of all of its combat-ready minifigs, creatures, and vehicles.

Only active units have a Unit Inch Value. Carried weapons, devices, and ammunition depend on the Power and Actions of the active units needed to operate them. Buildings, scenery, and terrain conditions are uncatalogued set dressing. Non-combatants and unaligned bystanders are expendable decoration, more useful as spectators or target practice than as meaningful participants.

Value Enhancements
Stat	Base	Enhancements
Value	1× Ü	-½Ü (minimum ¼Ü)
		-: +1Ü (no limit)

The base Unit Inch Value of a unit (minifigs, autonomous laser turrets, artificially intelligent spider robots) is equal to its inches of Size (7.1: Structure). In MOC Combat, minifigs and non-Heroic minifig Specialists are each worth one Unit Inch. Minifig Heroes are worth two Unit Inches.

Units can take Enhancements and Impairments to their Unit Inches, adding discounts or premium surcharges to their value. Each Enhancement decreases the unit's value by one half Unit Inch, to a minimum total value of one quarter Unit Inch. A Unit Inch Impairment increases the value by one Unit Inch.

It's almost always more cost effective to spend Unit Inches on new units than to use Unit Inch Impairments to upgrade existing ones.

Structures with no Action or movement of their own are not active units and have no Unit Inch Value. If a weapon isn't carried by or mounted on an active unit (a wall-mounted ballista, a machine gun nest), it's treated as a structure. Movable weapons (wheeled catapults, minifig-portable artillery pieces, five story parade balloon characters with working chainsaws) can also be treated as structures if they can't move under their own power. In either case, the weapons have no Unit Inch Value in themselves; their Value is in the minifigs operating them.

Free Operators

For creatures and vehicles worth at least one Unit Inch that depend on a minifig operator (Horses, giant hamster balls, militarized cotton candy carts), a single operator is included for free.

The free operator can be any non-Heroic minifig or Specialist costing one Unit Inch or less, but the normal choice is one of the three Operator Specialists.

For Horses and other steeds, the Rider specializes in mounted combat (H.2: Riding a Horse).

For mobilized weapons, the Gunner is trained to fire large weapons with greater precision (8.5: Manning Guns).

For vehicles, the Pilot has the ability to push a ride past its logical performance limits (9.4: Piloting).

The Balance of Power

Unit Inches make it easy for players to compare their relative power, both at the start of battle and as combat progresses.

At the beginning of the battle, if players' forces aren't equal, any player whose army is worth fewer Ü than their most powerful opposing player can take one Benny per Ü of difference. Depending on the degree of imbalance, underdogs can be given other concessions according to the players' tastes, like first choice of deployment location, an extra first turn, or easier combat objectives than their larger opponents.

Players can't maintain their full Unit Inches indefinitely. A player's Unit Inches go down over the course of an engagement as minifigs and materiel are lost to destruction, theft, and abandonment, or as the Effective Size of large creations is chipped away by Size Damage (7.2: Taking Damage). Unit Inches can be regained as incapacitated minifigs are revived, broken machines are repaired, enemy vehicles are commandeered, and surprise reinforcements appear in the nick of time.

When an army is reduced to half of its original value in Unit Inches, or if one side in a conflict has less than half as many Unit Inches as their strongest opponent, they can seize the disadvantage and declare that they're Fighting a Losing Battle (MC.5: Endgames).

MC.5 Endgames

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In BrikWars, when players are finished having fun, then the game is over, even if the battle itself is still raging along for the minifigs involved. In the best case, everyone agrees on this at the same time. The game ends, and players can immediately jump to deciding whether any side "won" and what the consequences were. Other times, some of the individual players might have already lost the battle, or at least have lost interest, while the rest of the table is still eager to keep going.

As a rule of thumb, as soon as any one player has lost half of their minifigs or Unit Inches, it's a good time to stop and check how they and everyone else are feeling about continuing. If the tide of battle has brought a player or players to a point where they can no longer meaningfully engage, then it's time to kick off one or more endgames.

Mob Rule

If a player has to leave immediately, whether due to ennui, diaper-related emergency, or fatal brain aneurysm, the battle doesn't have to end. That player's forces become mobs, and they (along with any other non-player-affiliated units in the game) are controlled by mob rule.

Under mob rule, mobs have their own turn (or set of turns, if there are distinct mob factions) after all the player turns are complete. A player-controlled army converted to mob rule can keep its place in the turn order, or be combined with other mobs, according to players' preference.

Forces abandoned by their animating Human suffer an immediate crisis of leadership. During a mob turn, the remaining players (and any sufficiently interested Human bystanders) take turns picking mob units one at a time and controlling their movement and Action. This continues until all of the mob units have moved for the turn, or until a majority of the remaining players have declined to control any more of the mobs for that turn.

When controlling mob units, the player with the fewest Unit Inches' worth of remaining forces goes first, and players take turns in sequence afterward.

Depending on the preferences of the remaining players, a faction taken over by mob rule might continue to behave rationally (or as rationally as they ever did), or there may be no boundaries on what players make them do.

Escalation

If a battle is bogged down by turtling forces and tactical stalemates, it doesn't mean players have to helplessly watch as tedium steals their victory. Instead, players can turn up the action.

• Crescendo of Violence
  If all players at the table agree to accelerate the action together, they can start an endgame crescendo of violence. The next player receives a single Instant Benny at the start of their turn. From that point forward, at the beginning of each player's turn, they receive one more Instant Benny than the player before them, with no upper limit.

• Secret Factions
  If a battle is getting too predictable, or if a new Human shows up unexpectedly and wants to join the fight, players can throw in a wild card with the arrival of a secret faction. This depends on having extra forces already built and available to deploy, but for many brick enthusiasts this isn't a problem.

  If a secret faction is introduced without a player standing by to take control of it, the arriving forces can be controlled by mob rule.

Fighting a Losing Battle

Soldiers facing defeat still have opportunities for glory. When an army is reduced to half of its original value in Unit Inches, or if one side in a conflict has less than half as many Unit Inches as their strongest opponent, the players can declare that they're Fighting a Losing Battle and receive special bonuses as their forces go down in flames. But there are no take-backs — no matter how well they do from that point forward, at the end of the game, those forces lose, by whatever Koincidental post-battle disasters the players have to make up in order to make it true.

• The Suicide Run
  Forces that still have a chance to achieve at least one of their objectives, but only if no one gets out alive, can go on a suicide run. From that point forward, any time one of their units is killed or destroyed, they immediately receive one Instant Benny.

  Regardless of whether they succeed in their objective, at the end of the battle, all of their surviving units (if any) are captured or killed.

• The Blaze of Glory
  Forces that have already lost the battle, but who'll be damned if they don't take their enemies with them, can go down in a blaze of glory. From that point forward, any time they kill or destroy any enemy unit, they receive one Instant Benny.

  At the end of the battle, no matter how many enemies they kill on the way out, they lose. The best they can hope for is to make sure none of their opponents win either.

• No Man Left Behind
  Forces that can't achieve any further objectives and who are determined to regroup and fight again can stage a tactical retreat with no man left behind. From that point forward, any time they evacuate one of their own minifigs off of a "safe" side of the map - living, dead, or otherwise - they receive one Instant Benny.

  At the end of the battle, any objectives the player had already achieved before declaring a Losing Battle still count as victories. Objectives achieved after calling the retreat are Koincidentally undermined. Any forces that successfully escape live to fight another day. Evacuated casualties may or may not recover, according to the needs of the story.

Ablogikal Binding Substance

own drawing Uploaded, final Ablogikal Binding Substance, or ABS, is the prime construction material for the engineers of minifig civilization. Its mysterious properties allow fuelless vehicles, impossible structures, and rekonstruktible creatures. ABS is an inexhaustible source of energy, thought, and motion - in short, all the inexplicable Plasticity that makes a BrikWar work. The reality-warping effect of ABS allows Mediks to bring dead soldiers back to life, Mechaniks to create vehicles from debris in seconds, common house pets to mutate into unstoppable monsters, fully-staffed medieval castles to materialize next to orbital military bunkers, pirate ships to sail in outer space, and invading armies from parallel universes to arrive at the wrong battlefield a thousand years off schedule. While the strange influence of ABS can never be fully defined or understood, minifig Mystiks believe that its effects radiate in tune with an underlying Farce that binds all briks together. Under the influence of this Farce, impossible and ridiculous Koincidences snap themselves to reality with a clutch power determined by how entertaining and destructive they are, rather than by rules of logic or probability. While this serves to make the universe more Ossum, there can be negative effects where cynicism and frustration take root. Minifigs who succumb to the Snark side of the Farce are dangerous opponents of fun, but for the heroic forces who are willing to face them down and destroy them, they represent valuable opportunities for glory and recreational murder. (BrikWiki entry: Ablogikal Binding Substance)