Mass Combat: Vocabulary

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Adjacent: Two Points are adjacent if and only if they have Paths to one another that share a movement type with the unit tracing adjacency.

Allied, Ally: If two units are friendly, they are considered allied. Other units are considered allied if and only if both units agree to be allied, and either unit may break alliance between actions taken.

Attribute: A trait describing the raw talent of a being or group. In these rules, the attributes used for units are Quantity, Quality, and Quickness. Unit skills are keyed to these; in some systems, the attribute might be used to create a modifier to a check, while in others the attribute is added directly or serves as a cap on the skill.

Attributes have the following ratings: Base (the lowest possible rating for a starting character), Low, Standard (the rating of an average starting character), High, Very High, Legendary (peak human level or above). These will likely need to be translated into the system used.

Bonus/Penalty: Circumstances can make actions difficult or easy. These bonuses and penalties are rated as follows: None, Mild, Moderate, Major, Critical. These will likely need to be translated into the system used.

Check: A test to determine whether or not an action is successful. Since this is a general-purpose ruleset meant to be added to an existing system, a method for doing this is not included; use the underlying mechanic of another game system. Many game systems include rules for a “partial”, “complete”, “critical”, “exceptional” or otherwise non-binary success or failure. For purposes of these rules, ignore this; the only thing that matters is that the action succeeds or fails, not how much it does so.

In many places, these rules refer to “opposed” checks. Use the system’s normal rules for resolving contested actions between two characters. If the system uses difficulties when dealing with opposed checks, use Standard difficulty.

Difficulty: Checks are sometimes made against a static difficulty rather than active opponents. The broad difficulty grades, from easiest to hardest, are Automatic, Very Easy, Easy, Standard, Hard, Very Hard, Legendary, and Impossible. These will, aside from the first and last, likely need to be translated into the system used.

Enemy: Two units are considered enemies if and only if they are not allies.

Friendly: Two units are considered friendly if and only if they belong to the same side.

Line: The route vital supplies and information take to units from special Points that provide them. Lines can be created or destroyed by unit actions.

Line Trace: The act of tracing a route, passing only through Paths with an allied line, that connects a given Point to another given Point. Usually, it is visually obvious whether or not a line trace can be done.

Point: A location on a battlefield. Points are separated by distance, and usually have some terrain effect associated with them.

Roll: A test to determine how well something is done. Roll the number of dice specified and add them up, unless the rules say to do something else with the result (the most common being to check for 1s rolled). All dice used in a roll are of the same type, which depends on the underlying system.

Side: A group of units working together under the control of one person. Alternately, the person controlling those units.

Unit: A group of people engaging in mass combat, working together closely enough to be abstracted into a single entity.