UNIVERSAL MINIATURES RULES

Everything you need, and nothing you dont

A Rulebook by Franz Braatz


Welcome to the universal miniatures rules system. There are several reasons why I wanted to create this
rule set. I am always looking for a set of rules that I can use to play teams of soldiers with. There is
always this reason, or that reason why most of the ones you find, dont quite fit the bill for what Im
looking for. Let me go over some of the difficulties and frustrations I have with existing rule sets that are
out there. First and most importantly is that most rules are too complicated. It takes forever to learn
the rules, and then once you do, you fight and argue over the subtle nuances forever. Next, many rules
require you to have lots of special items in order for you to play. Many rules are designed to make
money or be commercially viable. Therefore, you need to have special dice, or miniatures, and extra
books for you to play a special army and so on. I wanted a rule set that anyone can use and customize
with very little effort. Character creation should be quick and easy to set up. The characters profiles are
very simple, and yet, can be customized to an infinite degree. No two soldiers or armies need to be the
same. The next thing I wanted was for the game to be virtually free to start and set up. All you need are
some six sided dice, pen and paper, a ruler, a play surface area, and some figures of your choice. With
this being a universal rule set, it should be flexible enough to fit any scenario or time frame. If you dont
have a sniper in your fantasy setting, just change the name to fire mage and you are done. All actions
in this game are resolved by one six sided dice roll. If you attack, roll a D6. If you need to defend against
said attack, roll a D6. If you want to move over there, roll a D6 to see how many inches you can move.
That is almost all there is to the rules of combat. Dont let the simplicity fool you. There will be plenty of
strategy involved. We just need to expand off of that premise and establish some parameters.

CHARACTER CREATION

Once you get the hang of it, creating your own characters will become second nature. I like to refer to
the build system as an A La Carte style system. First, you start with a basic profile, then, you can go
through the menu to pick and choose different options to make each character unique and valuable to
the team in different ways. Creating a new character consists of three easy steps described below.
STEP 1:
Start with a basic character template. Every character in the universal rules set starts out exactly the
same, with a basic framework with which to build off of and give balance to the game. All characters in
the game need to have the same initial stats so they can interact properly with the world they are in and
other characters they are playing with. Lets go over all the stats that they will need to play. These stats
are Action Dice, Movement, Melee Attack, Ballistic Attack, Damage, Defense, and Health. All stats start
at zero and can be modified with personality points later in the creation phase to increase their
effectiveness.
ACTION DICE: Each character gets two action dice to use on their turn to perform different actions of
their choosing. You can choose to use your dice to move, shoot, or melee attack in any combination you
want. Certain special abilities give you additional action dice that can only be used for certain types of
actions. Use these wisely in combination with your normal action dice.
MOVEMENT: All characters need to move. Movement is accomplished by rolling one or more six sided
dice and moving the rolled result in inches. You may roll as many dice as you have allotted and add the
results in order to perform special actions such as jumps and climbing. You also have the option of
rolling movement dice one at a time if you are not making a special action and want to try to save action
dice for other actions. Certain types of terrain may hinder your movement speed and abilities. Here are
the movement related parameters.
CLEAR TERRAIN: No movement penalties.
ROUGH TERRAIN: Examples of rough terrain would include broken ground, rubble, and heavily wooded
areas. Rough terrain gives you a minus one to your speed rolls. That means that when you roll your
action dice for moving, subtract one inch from the result.
SWIMMING: If you are trying to cross a body of water that is too wide to jump over, you may have to
swim across. Swimming is done at half speed. This means that you would divide your speed result in
half, and move that many inches across the water. It is assumed that you will not drown if you end your
movement in the water. Swimming units cannot perform any attack actions until they clear the water.
CLIMBING: Climbing is similar to swimming. You may add all of your action dice that you are using to
climb and divide by half to see how many inches you can climb vertically. As with swimming, you cannot
perform other actions until you have completed your climb up or down.
FALLING: If, for some reason your character falls, he may need to check to see if he is hurt. Anyone
falling from one floor or lower receives no penalties or injuries. For every floor above two flights, you
will have to take a damage test of one attack dice per floor with no bonuses to defense allowed.
MELEE ATTACK: This is your characters ability to fight in hand to hand combat. Everyone starts with a D6
ability to attack and can be modified with personality points and special abilities described later.
Whenever a character moves into base to base contact with an enemy, he may perform a melee attack
as long as he has the actions available to do so. Characters in melee combat may not perform ballistic
attacks until they are no longer in base to base contact with enemy combatants. If there are only two
characters involved in the melee, both have to option to break away from that combat on their turn by
using a movement action to move away from the other character. If there are more than two characters
involved in the fight, then the player with the least amount of fighters involved cannot break away from
combat. The player with the superior numbers can move people away at will until the numbers are
even. Melee attack dice are rolled one at a time. Whenever a melee attack dice is rolled, the defender
always rolls a defense dice to counter the attack. Defenders always win on ties. An attack roll of one can
still be successful if it has enough modifiers to beat the defense roll. If your melee attack roll is higher
than the defenders defense roll result, then the attack is successful. If your attack succeeds, roll a
damage dice and add any bonuses. Subtract the result from the defenders health line.
BALLISTIC ATTACK: Ranged combat is very similar to melee combat as for as mechanics are concerned.
The difference is that you are attacking from far away. In order to perform a ballistic attack you must
first choose a target. Next you want to determine if your character has a clear shot at the target. We
use a method known as the to method. If a model can see its intended target and is not obstructed
from view by more than of the area, it considered to have a clear shot with no cover penalties. If a
model is obstructed from view by more than but not more than it is considered in cover. A cover
bonus gives the attacker a minus one penalty to their attack roll. If the target is obstructed from view by
more than , it is considered to be blocked from view and cannot be shot at. Characters in melee
combat cannot be targeted for a ballistic attack as it is considered too dangerous to shoot into melee
combat for friendly team members. Next, the attacker needs to check the range to the target. Use a
tape measure to measure the distance form base to base of the two models involved. If the range is less
than 12 inches, then no penalty is applied. At a range between 12 and 24 inches, the attacker subtracts
one from their dice roll. Anything farther than 24 inches is considered too far away to shoot at. After
factoring in all of your bonuses and penalties, make your ballistic attack roll and compare it to the
defenders roll. If your attack is a success, then roll for damage as with melee combat.
DAMAGE: Whenever you make a successful attack, you may roll to see how much damage you have
inflicted on your target. For each successful attack, roll one damage dice. You may modify damage
results using personality points and special abilities. Action Dice CANNOT be used for extra damage.
DEFENSE: Every time your character is attacked with either melee or ballistic attacks, you will roll a
defense dice to counter the attackers attempt to inflict damage upon your character. Defenders always
win ties after modifiers have been applied. Defense dice are not the same as action dice, and must be
rolled against any and all attacks.
HEALTH: All characters start off with 15 health points. You can increase your total health by 5 points for
every personality point you add to your health stat. When your character is reduced to zero health
points from being attacked, they are removed from the game.
STEP 2:
Add three personality points to your character. Personality points are bonus points that you can add to
your characters profile statistics to add extra points to their dice rolls and other nice bonuses. You can
add personality points to the following stats: movement, melee attack, ballistic attack, damage, health,
and defense. For example, if you added a personality point to your characters melee attack stat, every
time you roll a melee attack roll, you would add one to the result. You can add up to a maximum of two
personality points to any one given stat. And no stat may be modified by more than three points of
combined bonuses. In order to add a point to your character, write in a +1 next to the stat you wish to
boost. The only exception to this rule is your health stat. For every personality point you put into your
health stat, you would add five additional points of health to your stat line. The two point maximum still
applies to the health stat.

STEP 3:
Select one special ability you wish your character to have. Special abilities are unique actions that your
character can perform in a particular area of expertise. Some special abilities allow characters to roll
extra dice for a particular action or give bonuses in others. A characters special ability represents his or
her role in the group. Groups of soldiers should have special abilities that complement each other in
order to maximize your groups effectiveness. Below is a list of some basic special abilities to choose
from. You can make up new ones as long as everyone playing agrees that they are balanced and fair
compared to the other options.
Name: Leader
Limit: 1 per Army
Effect: Once per game round, a leader may give any character on your team an
additional dice roll of any kind of your choosing.

Name: Infantry
Limit: None
Effect: In exchange for a special ability, you may give this unit three additional
personality point in their profile. You must still follow the rules concerning point
limitations.

Name: Drone operator
Limit: 2 per Army
Effect: The drone operator gets 2 drones that he can control remotely in the game. Each drone has one
action dice and ten health points. Drones do not benefit from the operators personality points. You
may place your drones anywhere on the board at the beginning of the game.

Name: Mounted Cavalry
Limit: 3 per Army
Effect: Cavalry units get one additional movement dice roll per game round.
Name: Sniper
Limit: 2 per Army
This unit does not suffer any penalties on ranged attacks. Snipers do not have range
restrictions.( blocked lines of fire rules still apply)

Name: Name: Assassin
Limit: 3 per Army
Effect: This unit gets one additional ranged attack dice once per game round.

Name: Grenadier
Limit: None
Effect: When this unit makes a successful ranged attack, it rolls an additional damage
dice once per game round.

Name: Commando
Limit: None
Effect: When this unit is targeted for a ranged attack, it may roll an additional
defense dice once per round.

Name: Guardian
Limit: None
Effect: When this unit is targeted for a melee attack, it may reroll a defense dice once
per game round.

Name: Tank
Limit: 2 per Army
Effect: When this unit is successfully attacked, it may roll a counter dice to negate some or all of the
damage received once per game round.

Name: Skirmisher
Limit: 3 per Army
Effect: This unit gets one bonus melee attack dice once per game round.

Name: Brawler
Limit: None
Effect: On a successful melee attack, this unit rolls an additional damage dice once per game round. (The
second damage dice is rolled separately and not added together with the first damage roll.)

Game Round Order
The game is broken up into rounds of combat. At the begging of each round, each player rolls a dice to
see who goes first. Each player activates one unit per turn and alternates moves until all units have
been activated. When all units have been activated, the game round ends and a new one begins. Players
must activate a unit on their turn, but may choose to have that unit not perform any actions. Action dice
may be rolled in any order the player chooses. If an action dice rolls more points than are needed for a
certain action, they are lost and cannot be saved for later. If a unit loses all of its health points before it
is activated, it is still immediately removed from play. The game ends when one side has no more units
on the board or one player concedes.

Rolling Sixs
Rolling a natural six in the game is always exciting and adds intensity to the game. A natural six is a six
rolled on the dice with no bonuses added. Depending on what type of roll you are making will determine
the effect of the six rolled, but it is always good for the roller.
Action dice roll: If you roll a six on an action roll, that unit gains one additional action dice. It must be
used immediately or it will be lost and can only be used by the character that rolled it.
Special Ability dice roll: If a character rolls a six on a special ability dice, the bonus dice is treated as a
normal action dice and may be used for any standard action of the players choice.
Defensive roll: If a character is rolling a defense dice and rolls a six, he instantly wins the combat and the
attacker immediately ends his turn regardless of whether they have action dice left or not. The
defending character does not receive any damage from this attack.
Damage Roll: If a unit rolls a six on a damage roll, they can keep rolling for damage until they run out of
sixes. Add up the result and remove that amount of damage from the target. Damage does not carry
over to the next attack.

Scenarios
This rule set was designed to be able to be adapted to the setting that you have already selected. It
should be flexible enough for you to use to recreate scenes from movies, TV shows and books. I have
not included any scenarios in the assumption that you have come here with narratives already in place.
There are many recourses available to make up great scenarios and battle plans in the general media.

Optional RPG Rules
I have included a role playing option in the event that an evenly matched fight is not desired and a story
narrative is more desired. In order to adapt your characters to be compatible with the role playing
aspect, they simply need to be adjusted slightly. There are just a few extra steps involved that mirror
what you have already done in the initial Character creation. NPCs can be dumbed down or beefed up
in any way you need them to in order to reflect an accurate depiction of them in your campaign.
Step One: Add three additional stats to your character profile. They are listed as follows.
Diplomacy: This stat represents how your character interacts with people and other characters. Any
time you need to talk to another character or convince them of something, you can roll a diplomacy
test.
Perception: This stat represents how your character interacts with the world around them. When a
character needs to find a secret door or relies there is danger around, you should roll a perception test.
Mechanics: This stat represents your characters skill with thing and equipment. Whenever you need to
operate a piece of machinery or repair something, you should roll a mechanical test.

The difficulty of these tests should be determined by the person running the story.
Step Two: Add one additional personality point to your character. It may only be added to one of the
new stats added for the RPG rules.

Step Three: Players may choose one of the following special RPG special abilities instead of the normal
ones.
Name: Charismatic
Limit: none
Effect: You may add one extra dice roll for diplomacy rolls.

Name: Investigator
Limit: None
Effect: You may roll one extra dice toward a perception roll.

Name: Engineer
Limit: None
Effect: You may roll one addition dice roll toward any mechanical roll.

Conclusion
I hope that these rules will help you bring your characters to life in a dynamic and easy way that can be
used over and over again in any situation that you can think of. Once you get the hang of how the
mechanics work, it should be no problem to add your own special abilities and options to suit your
needs. Thank you for reading and your support.
Franzyland





Name Limit Effect
Leader 1
Once per game round, a leader may give any character on your team an additional dice
roll of any kind of your choosing.
Infantry None
In exchange for a special ability, you may give this unit three additional personality
points in their profile. You must still follow the rules concerning point limitations.
Drone operator 2
The drone operator gets 2 drones that he can control remotely in the game. Each drone
has one action dice and ten health points. Drones do not benefit from the operators
personality points.
Mounted Cavalry 3 Cavalry units get one additional movement roll per game round.
Sniper 2
This unit does not suffer any penalties on ranged attacks. (out of range and blocked
lines of fire rules still apply)
Assassin 3 This unit gets one additional ranged attack dice once per game round.
Grenadier None When this unit makes a successful ranged attack, it rolls an additional damage dice.
Commando None When this unit is targeted for a ranged attack, it may roll an additional defense dice.
Guardian None When this unit is targeted for a melee attack, it may roll an additional defense dice.
Tank 2
When this unit is successfully attacked, it may roll a counter dice to negate some or all
of the damage received once per game round.
Skirmisher 3 This unit gets one bonus melee attack dice once per game round.
Brawler None On a successful melee attack, this unit rolls an additional damage dice.
Charismatic None You may add one extra dice roll for diplomacy rolls.
Investigator None You may roll one extra dice toward a perception roll.
Engineer None You may roll one addition dice roll toward any mechanical roll.