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Chapter S Minifig Specialists Every great civilization has learned through bloody experience to maintain a standing Army of military professionals. These dedicated soldiers are the men, women, animals, droids, and miscellaneous extras who risk their lives (and the lives of as many innocent bystanders as possible) to destroy enemy units and property in the name of their arbitrarily assigned faction membership. A well developed minifig military has a full spectrum of defined Specialist roles, from basic Workers and Skirmishers to highly trained Mediks and Snipers. Each Specialist has his part to carry out, from the Cannon Fodder on the front lines jumping on grenades to protect the vital strategic doughnut reserves, to the Commander back in mission headquarters performing vital doughnut consumption activities.
except where noted, all minifig Specialists have * a CAP marked with an asterisk is required equipment for the Specialist. ** a Rider or Pilot is counted as part of his Horse or vehicle, with no Unit Inch value of his own. reshoot photos and replace some of these with kloan brand elements - particularly the sniper rifle
A handful of minifig Specialist roles have already been introduced in previous books: the Hero and Rider in the Core Rules, and the Mechanik, Gunner, Pilot, and Medik in MOC Combat, each with rules for their respective Specialties. As the mission objectives made up by Human players become ever more gratuitously convoluted, a minifig military requires a wider range of Specializations to keep up. New players should feel no obligation to add these advanced Specialists to their battles. If they do, they should limit themselves to one or two. While each Specialty is relatively simple on its own, the extra rules can add up quickly for players who aren't used to the system yet.
In the scramble of rapid mustering and deployment, minifigs have limited time for paperwork. Rather than tracking which minifigs have which Specialist roles according to entries in an Army accounting spreadsheet, it's easier to base a minifig's Specialty on his equipment loadout, using a property-based system of CAPITALISM. Under CAPITALISM, minifigs aren't defined by anything so esoteric as their thoughts or souls or what's in their hearts. Like Humans, minifigs in a CAPITALIST system have no identity or value apart from their material possessions, and they eagerly seek out opportunities to sacrifice the lives of friends and family for sweet, sweet meaningless inventory items.
CAPITALIST minifigs are sorted into jobs based on their uniform and equipment. A scientist doesn't become a scientist by wasting time studying in some boring school or laboratory. He's a scientist because he has a lab coat. A Hero is a Hero because he has a cape, a Heavy is a Heavy because he has a weapon that's too big, and a galaxy-spanning space civilization's Divine God-Emperor is granted his title and authority as a benefit of having the fanciest hat. The piece of clothing or equipment that determines a minifig's role in life is his Career Assignment Piece, or CAP. Once a minifig receives his CAP, he's stuck with the job it assigns, even if he scavenges different equipment later or loses his own CAP through misadventure or criminal sentencing. (De-CAPitation is the harshest form of CAPITAL punishment). A CAP can be any item, from a pair of binoculars (making its owner a Scout) to a jet fighter (making its owner a Pilot). For most Specialist roles, the CAP is required equipment, and they must have it with them at the beginning of any battle. For others, the CAP is just a convenient marker to distinguish them from other Specialist types, and can be replaced with any other identification system that the players find convenient. Players should feel free to make up their own CAPs according to their available brick collections and desired military theme. Tool-based CAPs act as a kind of Half Power Impairment to balance a Specialty's advantages. By occupying one of the minifig's Hands, a tool or equipment requirement cuts the minifig's weapon capacity in half.
 Janitors and secretaries are the most dangerous employees in any Civilian organization.
image rights: Kommander Ken, signed 7/23
 Hardened Professionals are never more than one annoying customer away from a killing spree. This diner chef is extremely aware that every item in this kitchen is a potential murder weapon.
image rights: MadMario, signed 7/23 Uploaded, final
Sadly, not every minifig in the BrikWars universe is cut out for military service. Whether due to physical, psychological, or philosophical weakness, many unfortunate individuals are denied the opportunity to take part in their factions' campaigns of mass destruction. This unhappy majority still has its purpose to serve. Without the teeming hordes of Civilians, who would construct the industrial centers to bomb? Who would raise the next generation of soldiers? How would the military finance its operations without a large subscription base for their recreational wars on pay-per-view? For minifigs, the blood, gore, and agony they inflict on their opponents is only half the fun. Piles of steaming enemy corpses are appetizers in anticipation of the main course of terror, disfigurement, and lifelong psychological trauma that they can bring about by staging battles in the midst of innocent and unsuspecting Civilian populations. Civilians will almost never have any serious effect on the outcome of a battle (unless one of the Heroes refuses to fight until he gets some sushi, in which case his faction had better hope one of the local Professionals is a SushiChef). Civilians exist only for casual inflation to the body count, so there's no need to stress out over how their initial placement and control are handled. Players can go with whatever their playing style suggests. Unless there's an extra player who wants the task of controlling the Civilian population, the simplest way to wrangle them is to place all Civilian minifigs, vehicles, and buildings as free scenery during battlefield setup. At the end of each cycle of player turns, the Civilians take a Civilian Round in which all players (regardless of whose "side" the Civilians are on) control the Civilians by Mob Rule (MC.5: Endgames), taking turns picking an unused Civilian and directing him through his everyday mundane tasks. The Civilian Round can serve as a useful break to relax, step out to hit the refrigerator or bathroom, or explore the complex soap-opera melodrama of common Civilian lives in between rounds of more militarized violence.  In the Kingdom of Heidra, peasants are gathered into disposable militias and put on the first line of battle as tactical hors d'oeuvres.
Photo: Quiriacus
Elements shown: LEGO image rights (informal): Quiriacus 5/9/20
Civilians can occasionally form small armies of armed rabble, if the military's misbehavior gets them riled up enough. They may sometimes even receive assistance from unaffiliated soldiers with whom they've shared pizza or nachos. It can be fun to play out battles in which one or more armies has a large Civilian component, just to watch the Civilians get blasted to bits in the course of their futile attempt to make any difference whatsoever.
Most Civilians don't have sense enough to get the hell out of a war zone, and end up stumbling across streets filled with rocket fire and exploding vehicles on their way to work at the police departments, gas stations, and fast-food franchises that compose the majority of Civilian cities. Occasionally, Civilians will band together in riots and uprisings against government oppression or in support of their local sports team. Other times, they'll grow tired of the local warlords' continued raids for supplies and entertainment, and take it upon themselves to try and fend off the brigands. Regardless of the situation, a Civilian heading out onto the battlefield hasn't got much to look forward to besides getting splattered. units are controlled by Mob Rule A minifig suffering from the Civilized disability has very little capability to act in his own self-interest or follow through with consistent plans. Players use Mob Rule to take turns controlling as many Civilized units as they can stand to during a special Civilian Round.
Even without any enemies to kill, Civilians still have jobs to do. A Civilian doing a job is treated as a Professional. Very few Professional jobs involve killing, and so all Professionals hate their jobs. The mark of a true Professional is that he'll drop his job at a moment's notice if there's a chance to engage in real violence. improves Action Die to Job Training makes a Professional slightly less incompetent, using his Specialty The Professional is still subject to a Civilian's Civilized handicap; players take turns controlling Professionals in the Civilian Round along with all the other Civilians. Infantry is the heart and soul of all BrikWars armies. An army's Infantry units are responsible for operating the weapons and machinery of war, keeping score with their own accumulating corpses, and enjoying the spoils of victory in the rare instance that any of them survive. It's possible, although inadvisable, to field infantry-free armies made up of automated machinery or strange otherworldly non-Infantry beings. But without a host of fighting minifigs with hopes and dreams to splatter across the landscape, the exercise falls flat. Conveniently, the hopes and dreams of fighting minifigs are heavily focused on splattering each other across landscapes, and so any ensuing splattery is satisfying for splatterers and splatterees alike.
The minifig is the basic unit of BrikWars. Although lacking the Specialties of more advanced units, minifigs can perform any basic function of combat to a competent degree - operating weapons, riding animals, piloting vehicles, and committing battlefield atrocities with a standard Action
A Worker is a special kind of Professional who works directly on behalf of his faction, rather than bumbling around with the other Civilians. All Workers are Half-Minded - either Programmed, Submissive, or Subjugated (10.1: Minds). They can be automatically converted and put to work by any new faction that captures them with a successful Grab (possibly changing their Half Mind in the process - a group of Submissive construction workers might become Subjugated when captured by a hated enemy). improves Action Die to Like the Professionals, Job Training lets a Worker roll his Specialty Whenever a Worker isn't actively engaged in job-related tasks, he's prone to Stupidity like any other Incompetent unit.
 This camping tent is a limitless source of identical Bobs. Where did they come from? What are they doing in there? The only way to avoid the disturbing implications is not to care in the first place.
Photo: MadMario Elements shown: LEGO image rights: MadMario, signed 7/23 Uploaded, final
Cannon Fodder are forgettable extras who exist only to absorb enemy attacks without risking anything of value. If players want an epic-scale battle without the stress of fielding minifigs who actually matter, Cannon Fodder make great filler. attacks do 1 point of Damage; Actions never go Over the Top; Effective Size 0"; unit can Respawn endlessly but it doesn't matter Cannon Fodder are Irrelevant. Their Actions never go Over the Top, and their attacks never do more than one point of damage. The single point is enough to kill other Cannon Fodder and the occasional Size 0" Vermin, but it's largely ineffective against real targets unless used in Combined Fire with real minifigs operating real weaponry. Cannon Fodder have an Effective Size of 0". This gives them zero Momentum Dice, zero Physical Opposition, and zero throwing ability, and they can Shove for a grand total of zero inches. Cannon Fodder can't wield anything larger than a single Short-sized weapon or item (a Hand Weapon, Short-Ranged Weapon, or Minifig Tool). Spawners When a Cannon Fodder is killed, he and his weapon can be left where they fall or removed from the battlefield, and no one notices or cares. His corpse may flash in and out a few times before fading away, or turn upside-down and fall off the bottom of the screen while a point total rises above his place of death. On the following turn, a new, identical Cannon Fodder can reappear in a designated Spawner area, and nobody notices or cares about that either. Cannon Fodder are just that Irrelevant. Depending on the players' tolerance for endless Cannon Fodder, a player can set up one Spawner area for each Cannon Fodder in their army. These might take the form of a barracks tent, a teleportation portal, a troop transport, or a summoning pentagram. Spawners operate by the power of plausible deniability - as long as enemies can't prove that there aren't any more Cannon Fodder inside, there are always more Cannon Fodder inside. As soon as an enemy unit either touches or damages the inside of a Spawner, however, the Spawner is "cleared" and no more Cannon Fodder can emerge from it. required item: any one-handed weapon
 The Rogue is more interested in escaping with the cash than in scoring kills.
own drawing Uploaded, final
A Skirmisher is a quick and lightly-armored minifig specializing in harassment, evasion, and avoiding responsibility or consequences. Skirmishers are useful for pinning down clumsier foes with open attacks followed by flimsy evasions like "it was just a joke," "it's not my fault you're so sensitive," "I'm sorry if anyone was offended," and the classic "I'm just going out for some cigarettes." The stupider the excuse, the better for keeping targets confused and off-balance while the Skirmishers escape repercussions. unit can Disengage from Close Combat freely without drawing Counterattacks A Skirmisher has professional Harassment training, allowing him to Disengage from Close Combat freely after making a single one-handed attack. As long as he Disengages to a distance outside of the reach of his opponents' Close Combat weapons (including any Angry Inches), he escapes consequence-free, without drawing the usual Counterattacks. Skirmishers only use one-handed weapons and equipment. A Skirmisher who equips larger items, or whose movement is reduced to Half Speed for any reason, is unable to use his Harassment ability and must suffer Counterattacks as normal when Disengageing. required item: any Optics Tool
The Scout is an ultra-paranoid minifig with a sixth sense for navigating Field Hazards, detecting hidden enemies, and Marking targets for allied attacks. To take advantage of his Specialties, he must carry an optical Tool like a telescope or binoculars.
Scouts have the Pathfinding Specialty, which allows them to safely navigate Field Hazards (Chapter F: Field Hazards). A Scout rolls his Specialty When traveling or leading other units in single file through a Concealed Hazard, the Scout rolls his automatically detects hidden or invisible units, Traps, and Triggers; allows Marking of a target for allied visibility and a +1 Action Bonus to Ranged Attacks A Scout also has the Tracking Specialty. A Scout's intense paranoia allows him to see all hidden or invisible objects within his field of view, including units, Traps, and triggers. Any unit or target visible to a Scout is also visible to all allied units, even if they don't have a line of sight to the target. Tracking allows a Scout to spend an Action to Mark a single target within 8" that he can see. Until the beginning of the Scout's next turn, the target is considered visible to all allies, and they receive a +1 Action Bonus when making Ranged attacks against it. required item: a Heavy Shield
Phalanx minifigs specialize in coordinated use of Heavy Shields in formation with other Phalanx minifigs. Greek hoplites, Viking raiders, and militarized riot police are all examples of Phalanx units. units can cooperate to form a shield wall, automatically Parrying all damage from one direction If a Phalanx minifig is in formation with one or more other Phalanx minifigs, all with Heavy Shields pointed in the same direction, then they have formed a shield wall. While protected by a shield wall, all damage from the other side of the shield wall is automatically Parried, without spending any of the minifigs' Actions or Counters. Individual Phalanx minifigs can't use their Shields to Parry damage from any other direction without breaking the shield wall. When fighting in a Squad protected by a Phalanx's shield wall, minifigs in Squad Close Combat cannot be forced into a Full Engagement (SQ.4: Close Combat Engagement). If they are forced into a Full Engagement from an attack on one of their non-shield-wall sides, or if they choose to drop the shield wall and enter into a Full Engagement voluntarily, the shield wall is broken and any shield wall benefits are cancelled for as long as they are in Full Engagement. A Phalanx can open and close a shield wall very quickly in order to let allied units pass through unhindered without losing their shield wall advantages. A group of Skirmishers coordinating with a Phalanx can be great for popping through a shield wall to Harass enemies on the other side before escaping again. units Marching in formation ignore movement penalties from Heavy Armor while walking If a Marching minifig is in a Squad with at least one other Marching minifig, they can March in formation, walking at normal speed and ignoring Movement penalties from Heavy Armor. Marching is walking only - units cannot jump, Sprint, or climb in the same turn as Marching, although they can still Bail if necessary. Marching does not cost an Action. required item: a minifig Long-Ranged Weapon
The Marksman is a minifig who specializes in combat with handheld Ranged weapons. Medieval longbowmen, digital disc-throwers, and halfling slingers all fit into this category. can Aim a Ranged attack as a full-turn Action, using a Specialty Marksmen have the Aiming Specialty, granting them a Specialty When Aiming, a Marksman can make a single Ranged attack with a Short- or Long-Ranged Weapon or an AutoGun set to single fire. Aiming is a full-turn Action; the Marksman can turn to face in a new direction, but he can't use any Move inches during the turn. Aiming is slow, and enemies in position to make response Actions always have time to do so. A single point of damage or inch of KnockBack is enough to ruin a Marksman's Aim. His Action remains spent, and he can still take the shot, but he can no longer take advantage of an Aiming bonus. If he's able to finish Aiming without being rudely interrupted, the Marksman can use his Specialty required item: a minifig Long-Ranged Weapon with a scope attached
When young minifigs are diagnosed with farsightedness, they're sent away to special summer camps under the supervision of carefully-untrained Mediks who screw up their eyeglass prescriptions to cause even-farthersightedness. This makes the patients unbearably clumsy for close-up work, but preternaturally precise at a distance. They also gain a tolerance for lots and lots of camping — perfect candidates to become Snipers. can Snipe with a scoped Long-Ranged Weapon as a full-turn Action, Automatically Hitting targets at least 5" away  Tloxnar's Firearms offers the finest in precision sniper rifles to the mercenaries, adventurers, and wannabes of the outer Cyran System.
image rights: MadMario, signed 7/23 Uploaded, final
As a full-turn Action, a Sniper can Snipe with a scoped Long-Range Weapon. The weapon must have a physical scope built onto it, even if the Sniper has to steal a Scout's optical Tool and a Marksman's Long-Ranged Weapon and combine the two himself. When Sniping at a target five inches away or more, the Sniper can skip the Action Roll. Every shot is an Automatic Hit, no matter how ridiculous or unlikely. The damage can still be affected by Out of Range penalties, and RedShirts can intercept the shot, but the Sniper's aim is always perfect. Like an Aiming Marksman, the Sniper's Sniping abilities are canceled if he's interrupted during the turn, and he's then forced to take the shot with his uninspiring Because his field of view is so constrained, the Sniper is treated as an inanimate object while Sniping, and he can't Parry enemy attacks or make response Actions of any kind. required item: any too big weapon
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The Heavy is a physically powerful minifig who can perform inadvisable feats of strength as long as he doesn't have to move anywhere at the same time. when standing still, can use weapons 1" larger than normally allowed Whether due to superior strength, coordination, or the superhuman determination that rises from crippling insecurity, Heavies are able to wield larger weapons than other minifigs thanks to their Compensating Specialty. As long as a Heavy doesn't use any Move inches during the turn, he can lift, operate, and throw objects 1" larger than usual, and he's treated as having a Size of 2" when resisting Grabs, Shoves, and Collisions. Most often, Heavies use Compensating to wield and fire a 2" Ranged weapon, but it also allows the use of larger Close Combat weapons. A Compensating Heavy can wield Heavy Weapons as if they were Hand Weapons, Two-Handed Weapons as if they were Heavy Weapons, or a Size 3" Melee Weapon as if it was a Two-Handed Weapon. Minifig units running around generously granting each other horrible injuries and death are the easiest units for Human players to empathize with, but they're far from the most powerful. Siege-level vehicles, weapons, and steeds bring the heavy piles of dice, and all of these larger creations benefit from the Actions of specialized minifig Operators. An Operator is often treated as a part of whatever he's Operating, with no real identity outside of the creation he's in charge of. If a vehicle or Half-Minded creature is worth at least one Unit Inch, it comes with an appropriate Operator at no extra charge. required item: a Horse or other steed
While any minifig can ride a Horse, the Rider is an experienced horseman who fights as one with his steed. Riders are most often found on the back of some variety of Horse, but their skills apply to any vehicle or mount, from dragons to riding lawn mowers to assault helicopters. can control a steed or vehicle and make attacks with handheld weapons as part of a single Action Where lesser minifigs have to choose between either controlling their steed's movement and weapons or fighting with their own minifig weapons in hand, a Rider has the Horsemanship to do both at once, as naturally as if he and his steed were a single unit. In Close Combat, Riders and their mounts can Parry, Counterstrike, and take attacks for each other at will. When an Action Roll is called for, the mount always uses the Rider's Action Die, regardless of whose is larger. required item: any vehicle
All minifigs can operate vehicles, but only a Pilot can show how they were meant to be driven. Whether any non-Pilots agree that forklifts and hot air balloons were meant for loop-de-loops and barrel rolls is immaterial. once a turn, defy a controlled vehicle's movement limitations for up to Even compared to other minifigs, Pilots lack any sense of self-preservation. Once per turn, a Pilot can harness this advantage to violate the laws of both physiks and courteous driving to pull off a Stunt Driving maneuver. The Pilot declares the Stunt he's about to pull, measures how many inches this will push the vehicle beyond its sane performance limits, and rolls his Specialty If not, then the number rolled is the number of inches for which the Stunt succeeds, and the remaining inches are given to an enemy player to use as Thrust against the vehicle while the enemy explains how the Stunt failed disastrously. required item: must be assigned to a mounted weapon
All minifigs love firing mounted weapons, regardless of which direction they're pointed or what gets destroyed in the process. In the occasional instance where accuracy is required, a team of trained Gunners can make the difference between hitting picked targets and blowing oneself up at random. Action For any Action Roll related to the use of a weapon mounted on a creation, Gunnery allows the Gunner to roll his Specialty Gunners can spend their Actions to provide Gunnery Support to another unit operating a large weapon, each granting a cumulative +1 Action Bonus to attack. The number of minifigs in the firing team (the firing minifig, plus the Gunners providing Gunnery Support and Teks providing Assistance) is limited to the number of inches in the Size of the weapon, and each minifig must be able to access the weapon or a working set of controls for it. As long as the weapon keeps firing at the exact same point, and neither the weapon or the target move, the Action Bonuses from Gunnery Support continue until the weapon moves or aims somewhere else. Each turn that the firing team fires the weapon at the same target, they can home in, adding additional Gunnery Support bonuses to the continuing Action Bonus from the previous turn. Any Critical Failure cancels the homing in bonus and requires the Gunners to start over. Fighting battles is hard work, and all elements of a military force can use some Support. Whether stapling misplaced limbs back onto soldiers, bolting misplaced thrusters back onto rocket ships, or mixing things up and duct-taping misplaced rockets onto the soldiers to make rocket soldiers, Support units are on the job to restore units' capacity for aggression in order to keep violence flowing freely. The Specialties of most Support Units depend on a successful Construction Action (7.3: Field Construction). To initiate a Construction Action, a minifig spends an Action and immediately goes on break, doing nothing else for the rest of his own turn. From the end of that turn to the beginning of his next, the minifig can do his Specialty work during the time when any opponent is taking their turn. Mechaniks build new creations, Engineers modify existing ones, Mediks perform improvised surgeries, and Cybernetiks commit crimes against nature. At the beginning of the Specialist's following turn, or whenever they're interrupted by damage, Disruption, or death, their Construction Action ends immediately and they're stuck with the results of their labor. required item: must be assigned as an assistant to another Specialist
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Support units work tirelessly behind the scenes to keep their armies running. Behind those units are the Support units' Support units, who work tirelessly to keep the Support units running. Teks are the nurses, secretaries, grad students, unpaid interns, and other assistants who do all the actual work so that their superiors have something to steal the credit for. use Action to boost another Specialist's Specialty die A Tek's job is to give Assistance to other Specialists, increasing their Specialty die by one die size. With a Tek's Assistance, a Medik's Ker-Triage! Roll or a Mechanik's Construction Action can be made with a Assisting other units spends the Tek's Action, and the Tek must be within arm's reach of either the Specialist unit they're Assisting or the object of their Specialty die roll. Only one Tek can assist with any Specialty die roll. Teks cannot give an Assistance bonus to Commandos. required item: a Mechanik's Tool
In order to sustain and increase the level of destruction in the BrikVerse, the Mechanik zealots of the Menders of Construction relentlessly reconstruct destroyed battlefields so that minifig combatants have battlefields to destroy all over again.
Throwing construction bricks together into inadvisable creations crammed full of violent potential is almost as fun as using them to destroy each other afterwards. Luckily for the Mechanik, the Mechaniks' Union reserves all the best constructions for its dues-paying members, or else everyone would be building them. Specialty: Mechanikal Aptitude allows a Construction Action to build or repair creations on enemy turns within a radius of Using Mechanikal Aptitude, a Mechanik with an appropriate Mechanik's Tool in hand can use his Action to declare a Construction Action. At the end of his turn, while opposing players are taking their turns, the Mechanik gets to work. The Mechanik makes a roll on his Specialty Newly-built objects are Field Constructions, with a Size equal to their physical size in inches, a Weight class of ½ and Armor of 1 Mechaniks can also use a Construction Action to build continuous Patches of bricks on an object to perform Patch repairs, repairing a damaged object's Size Damage. To repair one inch of Size Damage, the Size of the Patch must be one inch larger than the object's current Effective Size. The third use of a Construction Action is to Disassemble creations, allied or otherwise. Rather than collecting new bricks, the Mechanik stands next to the object to be taken apart, and gets to work. At the beginning of his next turn, if he was able to work on the object continuously without interruption, the Mechanik rolls his Specialty required item: an Engineering Tool
There is a species of minifig for whom no matter how good something is, they know how they could make it better - usually by making all the other parts worse. Tunnel-visionaries who can maintain oblivity to the big picture for the sake of optimizing tertiary features have what it takes to become a successful Engineer. allows a Construction Action to Rationalize No matter how misguided, counterproductive, or insane the Engineer's ideas may be, his Technical School training ensures that they will always at least be Technically Correct. Thanks to atomistic reductive problematization, punctilious obfuscatory jargonizing, and a slavish fetishization of the ill-advised meddling that derives therefrom, the Engineer is able to "solve" any problem with the power of technobabble (or his culture's verbal equivalent). Engineers and internet debaters alike call this technique Rationalism, and will happily list a hundred reasons explaining why the entire rest of the world is wrong in thinking there's nothing rational about it at all. Using a Construction Action, an Engineering Tool (usually coffee), and the power of Rationalism, an Engineer can Rationalize performance tradeoffs that make no logical sense, rerouting a Specialty
In order to properly Rationalize a performance shift, an Engineer must have an Engineering Tool and access to the working parts of the device he's Rationalizing. He panders out his technobabble explanation, selects one enhancement and one impairment from the Rationalizations table, and takes a Construction Action. At the beginning of his following turn, if his Construction Action wasn't interrupted, the Rationalization is successful, and the enhancement and impairment are both applied. He removes one or more pieces from the object and attaches them to a different part of the object, to show that it's now Rationalized. (If the object doesn't have removable pieces, he can add a new element at random.) Neither the technobabble nor the modifications are required to make any sense. If the Construction Action is interrupted, then the Rationalization is incomplete. The Engineer removes one or more pieces from the object and does not reattach them. The object now has the impairment applied, but not the enhancement. Incomplete Rationalizations can be completed and existing Rationalizations reversed by any Engineer with another Construction Action. They can also be destroyed by Component Damage to the moved pieces, canceling the enhancement but leaving the impairment in effect. A creation or device can only have one Rationalization at a time, but Engineers can switch the enhancements and impairments around at will with new Construction Actions. Rationalizations are reliably unreliable. A Rationalization's enhancing and impairing required item: a Medikal Tool
StarCorps field mediks stand ready to enforce the continued functionality of StarCorps biological assets.
A fighting minifig's greatest value is in his capacity for suffering horribly for the entertainment of Humans. Sadly, there are hard limits to how much abuse he can take before falling over dead. The Medik is the minifigs' attempt to address this shortcoming. allows a Construction Action to roll
In the heat of battle, there's no time to mend wounds or heal injuries. Thankfully, literal weeks of Medikal training allow a Medik to perform Ker-Triage!, instantly assessing the number of limbs he needs to amputate to get a fallen minifig or creature back into combat and fighting again. When operating on a fallen minifig or other creature, the Medik takes a Construction Action and begins operating. At the beginning of the Medik's next turn, if his Construction Action wasn't interrupted, he rolls a If the Medik's Construction Action is interrupted, he still makes the Ker-Triage! Roll and removes the number of limbs indicated, but the patient is not revived. As long as the patient still has at least one head, the Medik may continue attempting Ker-Triage! on subsequent turns. required item: a Science Utensil
Haphazard repairs to machines and minifigs may be enough to satisfy Mechaniks and Mediks, but such petty tinkering holds no interest for the Cybernetik. His desire isn't to play god, but to outrage the widest variety of existing gods at once, and as frequently and thoroughly as possible. Rather than fixing damaged mechanical and biological assets, he uses the opportunity to graft them together in the most unnatural and offensive ways he can devise. allows a Construction Action to combine mechanikal and biologikal creations within Using Mad Science and a proper Science Utensil, a Cybernetik can declare a Construction Action to begin combining mechanical and biological parts in direct contravention of minifig decency. His Construction Action is similar to a Mechanik's, except that he can only attach biological parts to mechanical ones, and vice versa. He will never attach machine parts to machines, or biological parts to biology - not because he lacks the skills, but to do so would go against his code of violating ethiks (and against the strict trade agreements imposed by the Mechaniks' Union and Mediks' Association). During a Mad Science Construction Action, a Cybernetik can utilize and combine all loose mechanical and biological parts within When it comes to the minifigs whom all the other minifigs wish they were, it's not the minifigs making the strategic decisions. It's the minifigs who ignore those minifigs' decisions and spend the battle doing (and wearing) whatever they want. Elite units are answerable only to themselves, despite what their so-called superiors may think.
Not all minifigs play well with others. The only reason any of them can claim to is because a minifig's idea of "playing well" includes group homicide. Even measured against that low standard, there are antisocial loners who fall short. When a minifig is so tired of dealing with his peers that he can't even join them in cooperative murder, he takes off his underpants and goes Commando. can copy any ally's Specialty marked with a Specialty die, using a Specialty die one size smaller A minifig going Commando is much less restricted than other Specialists. Thanks to his independent nature and extensive solo Field Training, the Commando has enough field knowledge of his allies and their skills to strike out on his own and not have to put up with any of them. He has a basic familiarity with any ally's Specialty marked with a Specialty die, but not a mastery of any of them - when he copies an allied minifig's Specialty, he uses a Specialty die one size smaller. The Commando can only copy Specialties that were possessed by at least one of his allies at the beginning of the battle. Otherwise, his teammates don't know the techniques, so he never had a chance to copy them. Tek minifigs can't use Assistance to improve a Commando's copied Specialties. If Commandos wanted to accept help from a teammate, they wouldn't have become Commandos in the first place.
The Hero transcends the limitations of lesser minifigs by strength of personality and the power of a fashionable wardrobe, so long as an ego blown out of all proportion counts as a personality and a garish absence of restraint counts as a fashion. can take one Heroic Feat per turn appropriate to his Cliché;
can inspire nearby friendly units (within an Action Roll worth of inches) to RedShirt and take damage meant for the Hero;
becomes Cranky in the presence of other Heroic units or items
Rules, restraints, and logik are beneath the Hero and his stupendous Ego. Once per turn, he can ignore them completely in a Heroic Feat appropriate to his Action-Hero Cliché, and more often than not, they'll ignore him right back. The Hero's player declares the Feat and its predicted results and rolls a Taking damage is also beneath a Hero, who has neither the time nor the inclination to bleed. When a Hero is about to be struck by incoming damage, the Hero rolls his Action Of all the things that are beneath a Hero, sharing a battlefield with Heroic teammates is the beneathest of all. There can only be one star of the show, and the Hero doesn't like getting upstaged. Enemy Heroes are good for killing, and Heroes on allied teams are good for dramatic betrayals, but another Hero on his own team is an insult that no Hero can overlook. If a single player fields multiple Heroes, then their clashing Egos make each of them Cranky, and the more Heroes there are, the Crankier they get. For every other unit on his team with a Heroic Ego, a Heroic Artifakt, or both, a Hero's Action Die is reduced by one size to a minimum of
can make different Close Combat maneuvers with each hand or held object;
can use any held object to Parry Close Combat attacks and thrown objects;
can Counterstrike in response to any active Close Combat maneuver
Further down on the list of things that are beneath the Hero, Close Combat limitations are also beneath the Hero. For a Dueling Hero, any object can be used to beat down foes and Parry Close Combat attacks and Thrown Weapons. The Hero can perform as many different Close Combat maneuvers in a turn as he has hands to perform them with, and he can Counterstrike after every opponent's active maneuvers as if they had attempted to Disengage. He's still limited to using each hand or held object once on each player's turn. 
StarCorps executive personnel are tasked with raising profitability by at least one die size in all departments.
While not Heroes in their own right, there are minifigs possessed of a pigheaded mindset that leads them to push their comrades harder than most would find sensible or even conscionable. Rather than confront their own lack of accomplishment or ability, they increase the pressure on everyone around them to make up for it. The fine art of keeping the focus on whether other minifigs are doing their jobs, and as far away as possible from their own performance, is what separates a minifig cut out for Command from his productive peers.
An Officer has no idea what he's doing, but manages to boss around his teammates into such a state of unified irritation that it results in improved unit cohesion and performance. If the Officer isn't part of a Squad at the beginning of his turn, he's open to Stupidity like other Incompetent units (10.1: Minds). can spend an Action to improve the Action Dice of his Squad mates by one die size, up to The Officer's dysfunctional management skills lead to improved Coordination among the members of his Squad, as they all join together to compensate for his ineptitude. The Officer can spend his Action to Coordinate his Squad in a combined Action. He can choose to take part in the combined Action, if appropriate, or simply provide helpful backseat advice while his Squad mates do the actual work. As long as at least two Squad members are participating in the combined Action together, their Action Dice are increased by one die size for that Action, up to the Officer's Specialty die size of If a Tek is Assisting the Officer, the increase isn't any larger, but the maximum die size is raised to a required item: a Motivational Tool
While other minifigs are toiling away to achieve objectives and destroy enemies, the Leader is a visionary who sees the bigger picture: combat is meaningless without an audience, that audience deserves to be entertained, and as long as someone's going to be entertained then it might as well be him. Using music, dancing, gymnastics, and speeches — whatever it takes — a Leader Inspires the forces around him to ever more spectacular feats of chaos and destruction for the sake of his own front-row-seat experience. can spend an Action and use a Motivational Tool to grant a  Zupponn inspires the contestants in the Halloween Hellhunt with green transparent powered guitar riffs.
image rights (informal): Kommander Ken 5/29/20
character rights not secured: Zupponn A Leader's job is to get his allies pumped up for combat. An extra surge of motivation at the right moment can get them to push past normal limits and succeed where they might have failed, or succeed excessively and ridiculously where they might have only had the regular boring kind of success. A Leader's ability to create Inspiration is based in his dedicated motivational Tool. For political rabble-rousers it's the MegaPhone, for war drummers it's the WarDrums, for cheerleaders it's the PomPoms, for sports mascots it's the FurSuit, and for heavy metal lead guitarists it's the ElectricGuitar. Using his Motivational Tool, a Leader can spend an Action to target any unit or Squad in his field of view for a If he wants to boost his targets' Actions instead, he can give them the required item: a communications device
 
The M-Throne Empire's battlefield commanders are drawn from all walks of M-Throne life.
Photo: Azmi Timur
From "Leader Units [M:Throne Empire Series Ep.13]" Elements shown: LEGO, custom decals After all the other minifigs have picked their careers and started their training, any undecided minifig left over is bagged up and hauled away to a forced logistiks boot camp. His inability to commit to a course of action indicates a bright future as a Commander. Specialty: Strategic Intervention can spend an Action and use a communications Tool to gain one Strategy brick after witnessing a successful kill, or to spend Strategy bricks on Strategic Interventions Minifigs in the field look to the Commander for strategic direction and coordination. He doesn't have any to offer; he's only there to maintain the illusion that a plan exists. The Commander's job is to stall for as long as he can, keeping his options open until the last possible minute before calling in a Strategic Intervention. Any time the Commander or one of his Scouts witnesses his forces killing or destroying an enemy unit at least one inch in Size, the Commander can spend an Action and use his communications Tool to relay the information to his superiors. (The minifigs at headquarters have no interest in battle reports that aren't about killing something, even if there are lots of pictures.) The Commander's player adds one Strategy brick to their Strategy pile, held off to the side of the battlefield. When the Commander is ready to spend Strategy bricks on Strategic Interventions, he can spend an Action and use his communications Tool to call in Reinforcements or a Strategic Bombardment. When a Commander calls in Reinforcements, he can spend Strategy bricks to bring in fresh units and equipment. Each spent Strategy brick allows him to deploy one Unit Inch worth of Reinforcements on a friendly edge of the battlefield. He can also bring in any units waiting in the reserve at no cost, whether because they were held back from deployment at the beginning of the battle or because they previously exited over a friendly edge and have now changed their minds and want to come back. In a Heroic Escapade, Reinforcement units are pulled from the Hero's Army. In a non-campaign battle, Commanders are free to use whatever Reinforcements the players are able to bring in without slowing the game down. Reinforcements are placed on the battlefield at the end of the turn they're called in on, and take their movement and Action on the following turn.
Strategic Bombardments arrive one turn after firing. When a Commander calls in a Strategic Bombardment, he can drop one or more Payloads onto any target Marked by an allied Scout, launched from Strategic weapons located somewhere off the map. The Bombardment is treated as a Launcher attack with unlimited Range and a Use rating of four times the number of Strategy bricks spent. If the Commander has undeployed units in his Army capable of delivering the Bombardment by airstrike or artillery fire, he can let them make the Action Roll, taking advantage of any appropriate Gunnery and Assistance bonuses. Otherwise, the attacks are fired with an anonymous Action 
The leadership of the M-Throne Empire is known for having the fanciest hats in the Tharcan Galaxy.
Photo: Azmi Timur image rights: Azmi Timur, signed 7/23 Uploaded, final
 His Serenity, survivor of the horrifying Great Peace and ruler of all Skion, wears armor thicker and stronger than any other manufactured on the planet.
Not every faction is blessed with the presence of a Great Leader, but when one appears, he's a wonder to behold. Charismatic, dynamic, and always sporting the fanciest hat his civilization has to offer, the Great Leader can do no wrong. The reason the Great Leader can do no wrong is because if anything does go wrong, it's always someone else's fault, and the Great Leader is on the spot to grandly and magnanimously inform everyone of exactly which minifig is responsible — a minifig who's definitely not him. The Great Leader is beloved by his minifigs because he always lets them know who to hate and why. He catalogues every enemy transgression and assigns blame for every allied shortcoming, even if he has to make them up from scratch. A faction can only have one Great Leader. can ScapeGoat subordinate units; can make a Great Speech to convert casualties into Outrage Bennies 
own drawing Uploaded, final
Any run-of-the-mill Leader can view their subordinates' lives as disposable. It takes true Megalomania to see their deaths as the valuable political capital they are. By sensationalizing military losses and throwing subordinates under the bus, the Great Leader can stoke Outrage among his followers that drives them into ever-greater heights of zealotry and adoration. Once a turn, a Great Leader can ScapeGoat any subordinate unit that hasn't taken its turn yet, blaming them for failures real or imagined and inspiring the troops with his decisive leadership. The Great Leader finds the ScapeGoated unit guilty of treason, sentences it to immediate execution on sight, and hands control of it to an enemy player of his choice. It's important to pick a ScapeGoat which hasn't taken its turn yet, because it does so now, immediately pausing the Great Leader's turn until it's had a chance to use its movement and Action in an attempt to either escape or take revenge. From that point forward, if it survives, it takes its turn with the team of the enemy player now controlling it. The unit's involuntary betrayal doesn't go unnoticed. The Great Leader's team receives one Instant Outrage Benny against the enemy player's forces for each inch in the ScapeGoat's Effective Size (including the Effective Size of any creature or vehicle the unit was operating when it was ScapeGoated). The die size of each Instant Outrage Benny is equal to the ScapeGoat's Action Die. Like all Instant Bennies, any Instant Outrage Bennies left unused at the end of the turn are lost. Whenever the Great Leader's forces take casualties, he adds one brick to his Outrage Pile for each minifig killed. Once per battle, he can use this accumulated Outrage to deliver a Grand Speech to the fighting minifigs in the field, sensationalizing the atrocity of their deaths and naming the enemy who deserves to pay the price for them. Each Outrage brick is converted into an Instant Outrage Benny that can be used against the named enemy. If the Great Leader wants to increase the level of Outrage before his Grand Speech, he is perfectly within both his rights and his character to arrange massacres of his own troops.
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