Mass Combat: Vocabulary

Home>Tabletop Games>System-Agnostic>Mass Combat System

**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.