FSBM is a war system designed with the hope of making textually-simulated war-scenarios enjoyable, interesting, and interactive for all parties involved. Created subsequent to the Art of War, FSBM is an attempt to improve on the ideas developed in its predecessor by simplifying statistics at the user-end while maintaining complexity throughout the overall system, thus allowing for strategy and ad-hoc tactics. If one finds that FSBM fails to meet these goals, they should contact vagary@gmail.com with a method of improvement.

- GENERAL -

This, the GENERAL section, is applicable to regular participants in a battle-scenario conducted under the rules of FSBM, so participation in such requires all parties to be familiarized with its contents. That considered, this section has two main objectives; 1.\ that its contents be easily understood, and 2.\ that, on reading it, anyone may participate in a battle-scenario conducted under these rules without difficulty. While comprehension of this section is the only requirement for regular participants, capable interpretation of the ADVANCED section is required for battle-coordinators.

Getting Organized:

To begin a battle-scenario, one must 1.\ assemble the participants, and 2.\ locate battle-coordinator. After brief discussion, the battle-coordinator will establish the initiator and set the order-of-posts accordingly. Participants should be sure to send a private message to the battle-coordinator regarding their army strength as well as any other relevant resources, i.e.: character and special bonuses. Once the battle-coordinator has established the setting, the battle may begin.

Waging the War:

When the battle-coordinator signals the commencement the initiator will make the first battle-post, followed immediately and in order by the other participants, according to the order-of-posts. For this to be accomplished, all battle-posts should be pre-written; furthermore, they should be written clearly, maintaining proper spelling and grammar throughout, and within each the following should be given, either in story or brief format: unit strength, type, formation, mode, proximity, and the terrain.

• Strength: the number of units deployed; while situations vary, this does not have to constitute the full strength of the army.

• Type: the unit being deployed, i.e.: archers, entrenched spearmen, ballistae, and so on.

• Formation: the manner in which one deploys their units, i.e.: in a spread, columnar, linier, or wedge formation.

• Mode: the stance the units have taken, i.e.: holding, charging, retreating, or chasing.

• Proximity: an approximation of the distance between a unit and the opposing force.

• Terrain: the terrain a unit occupies during the altercation; the environment or setting.

Following is an example of a battle-post written in story format. Note the areas that are underlined and how they correspond to the items in the bulleted list above. Also notice the <cont'd>; this lets the next individual in the order-of-posts know they need to wait before executing their own battle-post.

-`The roar of the general's battle-cry was echoed by twelve-thousand axe-wielding berserkers in their chaotic charge down the forested ridge behind him. They seemed as a torrent of water as they smashed into the flank the opposing army.`- <cont'd>

-`Meanwhile the hiss of five-thousand arrows cut through the air of the forested ridge in dark line, flying down into the valley at the enemy with deadly accuracy, and only moments before the berserkers were upon them.`-

Here is the same battle-post written in brief format. Note proximity is left out of the latter part of both sections; this is because it is identified earlier on, i.e.: 'smashing into' and 'down at'.

-`The roar of the general's battle-cry was echoed by his army, which seemed as a torrent of water smashing into the opposing force.`- <12,000|berserkers|spread|charge|descending-forested-ridge> <cont'd>

-`Meanwhile the hiss of arrows cut the air, flying down at the enemy with deadly accuracy, and only moments before their allies were upon them.`- <5,000|archers|line|hold|forested-ridge>

Although the above examples may seem easy, translating the image of an unfolding battle-event into such a format is tricky and undoubtedly the most difficult part of FSBM. Once a cycle of battle-posts in the order-of-posts is complete, those who wish to make bonus-related posts should do so. Subsequently, the battle-coordinator will inform the participants of their respective losses and they will have the opportunity to make acknowledgements. If a member in the order-of-posts does not make a bonus-related post or an acknowledgment, they may either inform the following individual in the order-of-posts or allow a five-second interval to expire, which will indicate a continuation of the cycle.

Acknowledgments are simply an opportunity to iterate received damages, regroup from an assault, or may include troop movements so long as they aren't of an aggressive nature or exceed a reasonable timeframe. Once all acknowledgments have been made--either by individual participants or summarized by the battle-coordinator--and the battle remains unfinished, the next cycle of the order of posts begins.

Character Bonuses: These must be approved beforehand by the general coordinator for the role-play and must be displayed on the character's Web page. They are to be written in story format and posted exclusive of and following the main battle-posts and prior to acknowledgments. Character bonuses, as displayed on the character's Web page, are typically divided into four sections, although some are more sophisticated --- regardless, the spirit of these four ideas should be present: bonus name, the level of character development required to succeed in its execution (determined by the role-play coordinator), the success percentage based on d10, and the damage determined by d100. There is no limit on how many of these a character can have.

Special Bonuses: These directly effect the circumstantial bonus under general bonuses, and can result in a +1 or -1, depending on the circumstances. All suggestions for additions to this category are welcome.

• Charge: able to be used multiple times; the general charges into the fray and a cumulative death-chance roll of d3 is made. If it stacks to 3 the general is considered dead and a -1 circumstance penalty is applied to their associated army for all following attacks. If the general lives, a roll of d80 is made to determine damage against enemies and a +1 circumstance bonus is applied to the following attack. For heroes, d3 death-chance and d50 damage; for rulers, d2 death-chance and d100 damage. These must be player-characters.

• Sacrifice: able to be used once; a player-character sacrifices themselves in order to reduce enemy forces by making a d10 damage roll, where the amount rolled determines the percentage of enemy casualties. An alternative is destroying one of the opposing player-character, as determined by d3, with d1 being failure, d2 success, and d3 neither character dying. For d1 a -1 circumstance penalty is applied to their associated army for the next attack and for d2 both the associated armies receive a -1 circumstance penalty for their next attack.

One force exhausts all their troops, or retreats, or admits defeat. It all means the same thing: the battle is over. When this does happen, the leader of the losing army or the battle-coordinator should make acknowledgments. After this, the leader of the victorious force makes a closing statement. If the battle ends in a draw, the battle-coordinator should make acknowledgments and the participants should make closing statements according to the order-of-posts. Once closing statements have been made, role-play resumes as normal.

This, the ADVANCED section, is applicable to battle and role-play --coordinators, as well as those interested in attaining a better understanding of FSBM; however, only the first two groups of people are required to familiarize themselves with the contents. That said, this section has two main objectives; 1.\ that, on reading it, the battle-coordinator is able to interpret relevant data and apply it to the manipulation of the war calculator, and 2.\ to make the battle-coordinator aware of their duties during a battle-scenario.

Assuming a battle-scenario isn't part of the progression of the role-play as designated by the role-play coordinator, when a participant--the initiator--in that role-play approaches an elected battle-coordinator desiring to initiate a battle-scenario, it is the battle-coordinator's duty to assist them. If the battle-coordinator approves the battle-scenario, they should help assemble the necessary participants. If they are available, the battle-coordinator should contact the role-play coordinator so that a log of the battle is maintained; else, logging becomes the battle-coordinator's responsibility.

When everyone is assembled, the order-of-turns should be established. It should always begin with the initiator; aside from that this is the battle-coordinator's prerogative. A good method to establish the order-of-turns is to begin with the initiator, followed by their allies in alphabetical order, and then the leader of the opposing force, followed by their allies in the same order.

Once the order-of-turns is established, the battle-coordinator should launch the war calculator. Since statistics are generated with a standard deviation off a random variable, only one person is able to utilize the war calculator and attempts at following along are utterly useless.

Just click to launch the war calculator. If another window does not appear, make sure JavaScript is enabled and popup window blocking is disabled. The war calculator will not work if you have JavaScript disabled.

When the war calculator opens, note two columns; one for ARMY 1 and another for ARMY 2. The war calculator is only designed to handle two opposing forces. While battle-scenarios involving three-or-more armies simultaneously attacking each other may be attempted, the battle-coordinator will be required to make an educated guess at the outcome of each battle-scene cycle.

Under each column header is a field for units, type, proximity, and bonus; these are the only fields that need to be filled out. Beneath these is a button that says CALCULATE KILLS; clicking this will execute the script that performs the statistical analysis. In the remaining fields the results of that analysis should appear. To close the calculator, click the large X in the bottom-right of the window.

• Units: in this field, input the number of units fielded by each army.

• Type: in this field, input either an M for melee or an R for ranged. It is set to M by default. Note that this is not the same as unit type, which is used to compare unit-to-unit in the calculation of general bonuses, but a special modifier to determine a unit's specialization in melee or ranged attacks, i.e.: spearmen or archers.

• Proximity: in this field, input either a 1 for near or a 2 for far. Both proximity fields are set to 1 by default and both must be the same as they serve as a distance indicator between opposing forces. It interacts with the type value of the war calculator, as ranged units are able to strike from a proximity of 1 or 2, but melee units can only issue damage from a proximity of 1.

• Bonus: in this field, input the accumulated general bonus. It is set to 1 by default.

Once this data has been processed, the battle-coordinator should copy the output and continue computing the statistics until the order-of-turns is completed. Then, the battle-coordinator should privately inform each leader of their respective losses, preside over acknowledgments, and repeat the processes until the battle is completed.

The minimum general bonus, or GB for short, is +1. Once GBs have been tallied, the smaller of the two should be reduced to 1 and the amount reduced should be deducted from the larger, i.e.: a tallied GB of +2 and +4 would result in an end GB of +1 and +3, which would then be inputted into the war calculator. Since negative GBs are not allowed, if the table produces such both GBs should be incremented until a minimum of +1 is reached, i.e.: a tallied GB of -5 and -1 would result in an end GB of +1 and +5.

Having interpreted the battle-posts of each participant, the battle-coordinator should derive from them the information delineated in the bulleted list of subsection two, Waging the War, of the GENERAL section; that is to say, information on strength, type, formation, mode, proximity, and terrain. Out of this list, only type, formation, mode, and terrain are used to calculate GBs. Having done that, the battle-coordinator should then compare the data to the table below, which is broken into a four-by-four comparison of unit type, formation, mode, and terrain in their respective orders.

There are two ways to calculate GBs using the table; 1.\ for each army find the unit type-vs.-type bonus, then add the type-formation modifier, then the type-mode-modifier, and finally the type-terrain modifier, or 2.\ for each army find the unit type-vs.-type bonus, then add the formation-mode modifier, then the terrain-formation modifier, and finally the terrain-mode modifier.

GBs start at +1 and stack exponentially to a maximum of +8 for each GB applied, with the exception of the optional circumstantial bonus which gives a +1 or -1 depending on the situation (+1, +2, +4, and +8; possible +9 with circumstantial bonus). The circumstantial bonus includes homeland advantage, desperation, frenzy, et cetera, and is determined by battle coordinator; other modifiers of the circumstantial bonus are listed under subsection three, Optional Bonuses, of the GENERAL section.

Once the battle-coordinator has approximated GBs and the circumstantial bonus on a discretionary level, they should take into account each participant's writing style, attempt at innovation and strategy, and so on.

During the battle-scenario, the battle-coordinator is to ensure the order-of-posts are followed in an orderly manner and that participants in the battle-scenario are kept up-to-date on their army and unit statistics. When the battle-scenario is over, they should tally the remaining units of each force and add it to the battle-summary.

Other responsibilities, assuming the role-play coordinator is not present, are as follows: keeping a summary of important role-play events that transpired during the battle-scenario; handling altercations in as private a manner as possible amongst participants or, if absolutely necessary, terminating or postponing the battle-scenario if the disputes cannot be resolved; creating changes on environmental, player-character, non-player-character, or plot levels of the battle-scenario; and, lastly, creating a smooth transition from standard role-playing into an FSBM battle-scenario and back.