Expert Edition Army Books: A fanmade homebrew project to share
Hey there! I've been working on a relatively expansive homebrew project in my spare time I've been calling "Expert Edition Army Books " – an expansion on the Advanced rules for Grimdark Future and Age of Fantasy.
As I've progressed in my tinkering, I've found myself wondering what other OPR players and fans would think of the project – and if it's the kind of thing they'd want to use. So I wrote up a quick FAQ to explain the project, in hopes that this community could share their thoughts and opinions about it. Here it is!
What are Expert Editions?
“Expert Editions” are two to three-page army book expansions that add customization options for many OPR armies. I’m sharing this idea because 1.) I want to see if anyone else is interested in this concept – something that adds inspiration from tabletop RPGs and other war-games while maintaining OPR’s trademark freedom and simplicity, and 2.) If so, I’d like to gather their thoughts on the concept and potentially share drafts.
How do they work with existing rules?
Instead of purely adding new rules, I’ve tried to maintain the OPR spirit by keeping things straightforward and simple – no new core game mechanics, no new army-building guidelines that restrict hobbyists, no keywords or complicated terminology. At the core of the project, I’ve taken the Extra Actions, Command Points, and Campaign Trait rules from the Advanced rulebooks, made light modifications, and split them pretty evenly between factions. For example, instead of having every Stratagem and Extra Action available, each faction has 2 Stratagems and 2 Extra Actions they can use.
The Campaign Traits have been added to a new system called Commander Traits, which allow you to designate a Commander in your force and grant them an additional ability, weapon upgrade, or stat upgrade – all in line with the existing traits in the Advanced rulebook.
What rules do they replace?
Expert Edition rules replace the Agendas, Command Points, Extra Actions, and Campaign rules from the Advanced rulebooks.
What rules do they add?
There are few brand-new additions – but each faction will only have a few to keep track of.
The first is Army Rules. Each faction has 2 Army Rules – abilities that apply to every unit in your army. These are actually present already in some OPR factions, or almost present: for example, Dark Brothers have Grim, Ghostly Undead have Ethereal and Undead, Plague Disciples have Putrid, Robot Legions have Robot and Self-Repair, and so on. For factions that already have flavor-defining army-wide rules, they take precedence over new additions. For example, Dark Brothers only gain one new Army Rule, Robot Legions gain none, and Human Defense Force gain two.
The second is Agendas. Agendas replace Side Missions with flavorful and varied objectives for armies to complete during a game. Like regular Side Missions, they should be totally compatible with any regular Mission. Each faction has 3 Agendas available to it, and may select 2 before each game.
The third are Subfactions, a mechanic meant to allow players to really customize their specific forces. When building your army, you’ll select a Subfaction to represent the specific flavor of your army. When you do, you gain a new Army Rule, which applies to all units in your army, as well as access to a Commander Trait and Stratagem that may be chosen instead of the other options available. Certain factions simply choose two additional Army Rules and add no additional options.
The final new mechanic is called Bulwark – like Regeneration, this is a special rule that increases the survivability of your units.
Bulwark (X): When this model would lose a wound, roll a D6. If the result is equal or higher to this unit’s Bulwark, ignore that wound.
It’s really just a customizable version of rules like Regeneration or Self-Repair, and I’ve used it sparingly.
So how complicated does this make OPR?
Hopefully, this experiment adds flavor and army customization without making OPR games cumbersome or limiting. Again, every single rule and explanation fits into a maximum of 3 extra pages of rules, and those pages supersede many pages in the Advanced rulebooks.
In short, to play with Expert Editions, you’ll build your force in Army Forge as per usual. Then you’d follow the following steps:
- Choose a Subfaction.
- Designate a Commander and choose their Command Trait.
- Choose any additional Army Rules per the instructions in your Expert Edition book.
- Play with 2 Stratagems and 2 Extra Actions at your disposal.
- Optionally, play with Agendas.
What armies have Expert Edition Army Books?
Currently, the following armies have Expert Edition Army Books – I’m focusing on Grimdark Future before moving to Age of Fantasy.
- Custodian Brothers
- DAO Union
- Dark Brothers
- Havoc Brothers
- Human Defense Force
- Knight Brothers
- Orc Marauders
- Plague Disciples
- Titan Lords (Havoc-themed), there will also be a standard Expert Edition book
- War Disciples