Brikwars

"BrikWars" is a miniatures wargaming system created for use with plastic building blocks and figurines. It is designed to be simplistic and flexible, with many optional rules, as well as allowing for many player judgement calls. Humor is found in the lack of the usual seriousness of wargames and the frequent use of quotes from various thinkers on war. "BrikWars" was created by Mike Rayhawk.

cquote|"BrikWars" is the plastic-brick wargaming system that throws the peaceful worlds of your favorite construction toys into wanton chaos and destruction

"— Mike Rayhawk"

"BrikWars" uses minifigures as small soldiers, and terrain constructed from Lego bricks or random objects found near the playing area, such as cardboard boxes, shoes, CD-Drives, etc. This game can even be played with completely non-LEGO related objects, such as action figures or small crystal figurines.

"BrikWars 2005" is the most current version of the "BrikWars" rules, and is greatly reduced in size and complexity from the "BrikWars 2001" rules. The 2001 rules are now considered the "advanced" version of the 2005 rules, containing additional material that covers subjects excluded from the 2005 rules (such as adjudicating superpowers and magic).

The 2001 rules version as well as extra units can be found on the [http://www.brikwars.com/supplements.htm Supplements] page. These rules are compatible with "BrikWars 2005" and are used by many players to add supplemental unit and weapon types, such as flamethrowers or Mediks.

Play Mechanics

One feature of "BrikWars" is the application of CP (construction points) to each item. This enables players to set a budget to help battles remain fair. Another is an innovative creation system that bases vehicle costs on the size, speed, and armament of the object in question instead of having set attributes for specific vehicles, thus enabling a wider range of creations.

The player turn is grouped into movement and actions. Each unit has a certain distance that it may move on each turn. This distance is chosen by the player, and higher speeds increase the CP cost of the unit in question.

The most common action is attacking. Most actions require a unit to make a dice roll for "skill". The number and type of dice are set for the unit and are known as its "Skill Rating". For hitting with an attack, each weapon type has a Use Rating (fixed integer, not dice roll). Use Ratings for other Actions are determined as seems appropriate by the players.

When an attack successfully hits, both the attacker and the target player roll dice for armor, the number being determined by the Armor Rating or Damage of the unit or weapon in question. Most infantry units are killed by having their armor overcome once. Vehicles and structures are somewhat more resilient and may take multiple hits before being destroyed.

The rules also encourage players not to follow the rules as much as possible, as seen in the Law of Fudge. Mike Rayhawk encourages fun over obsessive rules-lawyering, to make the game as enjoyable as possible for all parties involved.

History

"BrikWars" originated as simply a name change of "Lego Wars", which, at the time, was being sued by LEGO.

The first version of "BrikWars" as a separate game from "Lego Wars" was written from 1995 to 1997. It was followed in 1998 by the first "BrikWars" edition to be released in HTML with illustrations.

The 2000 edition of "BrikWars" brought significantly more rules and gameplay mechanics. It was quickly followed by the 2001 edition, which added so many rules that Rayhawk later admitted that it was made to appease and spite the hardcore Brikwars players, who demanded balance and flexibility at the cost of simplicity.

The current 2005 edition was shortly preceded by "QuikWars". Only 3 pages long, it was designed for players with short attention spans.

The 2005 rules represented a major revision. The overall length was cut significantly, many rules were removed and reclassified as variants. Most importantly, the in-game elements like unit types and weapons were defined in general terms rather than thematic ones.

External links

* [http://www.brikwars.com BrikWars.com]