Operation Edgelord
Overview
Welcome to the Bromad Academy persistent Infinity campaign, Operation Edgelord! It’s intended to be a low-commitment campaign that you can hop in and out of as your life and interest level allows. Want to get involved?
Here’s how it works:
- Every month, we release new match-up dependent missions and lore and secret objectives for each faction based on the games submitted and player generated lore from the previous months.
- As interest/time allows, you play 1 game a month, selecting the mission based on your faction and your opponent’s faction, with NA-2 taking mercenary contracts for the major factions.
- Submit your game results and optional battle report, including whether or not your achieved your secret objectives, and then wait for the next month’s missions and lore drop!
You get one game a month, as tracked by your ITS username. Please be reasonable and don’t ruin it for everyone by registering for multiple accounts. We won’t release results till the end of the month to discourage metagaming. If you want to make sure you make a big impact, encourage your friends to play!
Also, watch out for the special narrative bonus points available each month. In Edgelord, “fluff” is part of the game and narrative postings contain clues to scenarios featured in the advancing story. If you correctly guess the featured mission for a month and can play it against either of the factions featured in the narrative, you AND your opponent will score a bonus for your faction. If it doesn’t work out for you this month, don’t worry, you’ll get more chances later in the campaign.
Finally, note that there are secret faction objectives, which behave much like classified objectives. They’re always a way to get an additional Objective Point, but they can’t take you past 10. Please make sure to let us know if you scored your Secret Objective when you submit the Google Form! If you want to get involved with your faction, join your faction discord!
If you’d like to write a battle report, we certainly aren’t going to stop you. Please use the following Google Docs template and submit the link to your battle report to the Google Form above! Please remember to set it so that anyone with the link can view your report.
The lore behind this campaign and our mission selection will be focused on non-area control mechanics. Infinity is about skirmish combat between black ops teams, not about taking and holding ground in a large scale ground war. We will also release special “secret” objectives (as secret as anything can be on the internet) that are faction-specific. These objectives will replace any Classified Objectives in missions, and we may introduce other scoring mechanics as well, all of which will be tracked by the Google Form above.
Missions and lore may lag in their response to game results by a month or so. This is simply so we have time to respond to events, do data mining, write lore, select missions, and so on. This isn’t our day job–it’s a labor of love!
Remember, the lore is as much in your hands as it is ours. The relationship model here is of a tabletop RPG Game Master and their players. You are the players, and it’s your story that’s being told. The Game Masters (that’s us) simply enforce mechanics of the campaign, keep the storyline consistent, and make sure things generally don’t go too crazy. One direct way you can influence the lore is by collaborating with the other members of your chosen faction to write a new secret objective each month (and please tell us so we can post it!).
In fact, if you’ve got long form lore you want to clue us into, please use this Google form to drop a link to a Google doc, blog post, etc. We’ll do our best to monitor the discords, but if you want to guarantee the lore gets in front of our eyeballs, this is the way to do it.
If you’d like to hear the long form discussion and description, you can check out this Late Night Wargames episode! By the time you watch, the video might be a bit out of date (it was recorded 2024-07-02), but the general gist will be there.
Common Questions
| Can I play different factions or sectorials month to month? | Yes! Play whatever you like. Please play the appropriate missions, and don’t go spreading the secret objectives around if you’re in multiple faction discords. |
| My playgroup has an odd number of people, can one of of play 2 games a month to make sure everyone can participate? | Yes. We’re not going to gatekeep people who want to play in good faith. Don’t spam games and you’re good. |
| Can I play <X> type of Infinity game? | We’ll accept any type of game. Learning, in-person/TTS, whatever. All we ask is that you try to stick to 300 points and the appropriate mission, just to make sure the data we’re getting is consistent. |
| Where do I find the secret faction objectives? | Below, hidden by spoilers! Don’t go poking around other factions’ objectives, we’re on the honor system here. |
| Can NA2 work for <X>? | With some restrictions. See NA2 Employment Permits. |
The Story So Far…
- September 2024 Briefing
September 2024 Special Rules
With the Geological Conference (and MMA tournament) in town, our three favorite planetoids are absolutely crawling with DIggers!
For all missions this month, the following rules are in effect:
- Diggers for Everyone – You may take a free Digger in your lists, specifically the Chain Rifle profile. It does not cost points, does not contribute to surviving VP, generates an order, counts towards the 15 order limit, and has Wildcard for purposes of fireteam formation (and may join Duos in Vanilla lists). Note that including this Digger breaks any fireteam keyword, i.e. no pure fireteams, regardless of fireteam charts.
- MMA Tournament Hype Cycle – The secret objective for all factions this month is Predator. If you draw Predator as a normal classified for any mission, redraws
September 2024 Missions
Every major Infinity faction has lore- and player-driven objectives that advance the narrative of the campaign. To reflect the myriad objectives and the various alliances, grudges, and machinations between various factions, simply find your faction and your opponent’s faction in the table below to see what mission you are playing.
If you can’t find the matchup by looking at the row first, try looking for the column first, or vice versa. For example, if you’re Playing PanO and your opponent is playing Nomads, you’ll have to look at the PanO column first then go down to the Nomad row, and you’ll see you’re playing The Brawl. Similarly, if you’re playing Tohaa and your opponent is playing Yu Jing, you’ll have to go to the Tohaa row and all the way to the Yu Jing column to see that you’re playing Dead or Alive.
It’s worth pointing out that these missions have some mechanics that are perhaps unfamiliar to you especially if you’ve been playing predominantly ITS missions only. Here’s a few things to keep a look out for to make sure you’re playing the mission as intended:
- End of Turn Scoring – Instead of scoring at the end the game round, i.e. after both players have had a turn, we score at the end of every player turn. This gives us the ability to help balance first/second player turn advantages/disadvantages. This mechanic has been explored by many mission designers, and we use it here!
- Long Skill Objective Interactions – Instead of short skill + WIP, many objective interactions have been changed to require base contact (as before) but now are a long skill without a WIP roll. This prevents the non-interaction where a specialist just dies on the objective to make an unopposed WIP roll and also addresses the “well I would have won that game but my WIP 15 specialist rolled 17, 18, 18, 19, 17 on the objective over five orders” problem. This mechanic comes from BlessedBe and the IGL team. Huge thank you to them!
- Specialist Bonus is now Short Skill + WIP – In the missions where the objective interaction is a long skill, typically we’ve changed the specialist bonus from +3 WIP and +1 Burst to being able to do the objective interaction skill as a short skill, with the return of the WIP check. For example, this would represent a Hacker being able to “cut corners” when hacking an objective but maybe failing under pressure. In contrast, an Engineer will follow the full procedure and have a guaranteed success, but it will inherently take longer. Thanks to TheDiceAbide for this idea.
- Dominate and Subjugate – Dominate is more points in a zone, Subjugate is be the only one with models (not markers) in a zone. Subjugate is a Corvus Belli invention and comes from Resilience Ops, we just borrowed the mechanic.
Remember, the above mechanics are just reminders that some of the missions have these mechanics. They are not overriding rules for missions. Whatever the missions say takes precedence.
Eagle-eyed players will note that mirror matches are not allowed. This is intentional, as we really want to advance a faction narrative. If you have a really fun narrative idea and you’d like to explore a mirror match, then we recommend you play one of the Resilience Ops variations we have:
If you do this though, we kindly ask you write a really awesome battle report! If you’d like to try and guess what the bonus point mission is, have a look at John’s story and if you like what you see, buy his book!
September 2024 Faction Lore and Objectives
ALEPH
ALEPH continues to advocate for our new… friends. They continue to invest in bringing in Combined Army medical techs and pushing their nebulous agenda…
As a sentient being of science, I find the absence of a panel from Dr. Sargosh Cutthroat, PhD, is outrageous! His paper “On tunnel crumbling while crumbling tunnels” (Sargosh et al, 05/2161, SEF SIAG) is highly regarded by the scientific and engineering community.
I know that the presence of Natural Born Warriors in the convention is sometime considered unsettling, but we must reckon this haven’t stopped Mr. Connolly from being invited. Someone who is not even an academic! We ask the organizers to please rectify the schedule to accommodate Dr. Sargosh’s exposition on how mimetic technology and portable boring device can be efficiently used together.
I’ll gladly divert part of our founds for this scope if this will help to remediate this outrageous public relations mistake. We want this convention to be a real opportunity for knowledge sharing, not an echo chamber for pompous “experts”!
Uncle PentiumAriadna
While the pressure on AWU representatives has someone lessened in recent days, the pressure in the ammonia tanks has risen! With all the chemical leaks, there’s an open question as to what happened.
With all of the news traffic about Samantha Moneylady Harboil, perhaps it’s time to do some digging. Or burying.
Combined Army
The Ur Hegemony is struggling to make inroads to the hearts and minds of various human factions, although it appears they’ve wormed their way quite deeply into the quantronic minds of O-12 and ALEPH.
While they haven’t earned the trust of the Haqqislamites, Ur Hegemony medical staff are already setting up in the Averroes Hospital campus. Perhaps we’ll even see some Combined Army attendance at the Geological Conference, sponsored by ALEPH!
Haqqislam
Yara Haddad has arrived in system just in time for the 3rd Annual Human Edge Geological Conference. This will be a busy time for all Haqqislamite forces as a motley crew of geologists and combative diggers descend on the Averroes Hospital Campus.
In addition to hosting the storied conference, Averroes staff are contending with an influx of Combined Army personnel, allegedly under the guise of setting up a medical wing for Combined Army forces. This is all under the shadow of accusations and investigations regarding the true identity of Erin O’Nealz and the alleged disappearance of patients in the hospital. Yara knows her business though, and it’s to follow the money.
Nomads
The Ur Hegemony is allegedly conducting investigations of not just the Averroes Hospital campus but also O-12 facilities now? We’ve heard reports of O-12 staff being thrown out an airlock, perhaps only to be replaced by Speculos?
The Nomad Nations are not going to stand idly by and allow these overt incursions deep into the inner workings of the Human Sphere. Even if it’s “anonymized” by BitCreds. It’s all on the ledger, so just follow the money. If you can save Officer Terrance, well, we hear there’s a cocktail in it for you.
The Terrance
- 1 33cl Koors Sublight Lager
- 2 shots BOB Tequila (use only Best Of Barrio, not the Bottom Of the Barrel cheap knock-off)
- 1 shot Cointreau (or a third shot of Tequila and a shot of orange juice)
- 1/2 lime juice
O-12
O-12 has been trying very hard to salvage the PR nightmare that opening negotations and brokering a ceasefire with the Ur Hegemony has caused.
There are many open investigations in the Human Edge, being headed by many different factions. Perhaps it’s time for O-12 to get more directly involved. Wouldn’t want the wrong people talking…
PanOceania
With the alleged “sale” of Du-Ɛ to an undisclosed PanOceanian HyperCorp, the industrial might of the HyperPower and its contractors have begun the inexorable march of progress, fueled by BitCreds and millions of Oceanas.
New clothing lines have been announced for the incoming Kestrel Colonial Forces, supplied by the HardWork Wear Clothing subsidiary of Whole Protein. After all, you cannot make food and enforce order without looking fashionable!
Tohaa
Tohaa remain, as always, inscrutable agents of chaos.
Despite lacking a strong presence in the Human Edge, Tohaa agents have been engaged in a wide range of espionage and dare we say sabotage efforts across the various planetoids and space stations in system.
Trouble comes in threes.
Yu Jing
The Imperial Service is now deployed in force within the 1777 Du-ε planetoid.
Mapping the tunnels and loci of activity are the top priority of our Imperial Agents.
We will root out all JSA and NA-2 troublemakers!
Non-Aligned Armies
Hailing PanO landing transport.
Welcome, prospectors and construction workers! This place is dangerous and inhabited. MERCnet would like to offer our assistance!
Accidents are quite likely to happen here in the Human Edge. For a nominal 150 BitCred fee, we can offer you insurance against any misfortunes that may arise.
Should you desire to adventure deep into the “lawless depths” of Du-Ɛ, additional fees and paperwork are required, with prices starting at 300 BitCreds.
We’ve also been authorized to offer personal financial counseling by our team of FZX-trained financial advisors! All it takes is a simple investment of your hard-earned Oceanias into just one BitCred! Hosted in the FZX exchange you’ll more than double your return in no time at all!
Think of it this way, FZX is giving you free financial advice and doubling your investment! Everyone is doing it, get on the bandwagon now!
Prices include logistics fee of 10%, negotiable down to 7% for executive personnel and above.
NA-2 Employment Permits
If you’re playing a Non-Aligned Army (NA-2), you can play a game as any of the major factions above, assuming you have an authorized permit (green check mark). Some NA-2 factions simply won’t work for particular major factions or major factions won’t hire particular mercenary companies, so it’s not a free-for-all of playing whatever you like for whatever faction you like. There have to be some rules.
The Japanese Secessionist Army (JSA) is a little different in that it’s technically not a mercenary faction, but it’s still subject to influence and coercion by some major factions to align military goals. We model this as “working with/for” those factions here.
There are also mercenary contracts available at the Ducktail Pub to give you the opportunity to earn some BitCred, so if you’re interested in that, have a look here!
Faction Discords
Here’s a list of the faction discords:
- ALEPH
- Ariadna
- Combined Army
- Haqqislam
- Nomads
- O-12
- PanOceania
- Tohaa – Playable, but out of production.
- Yu Jing
- NA2
To ease the moderation duties of the volunteer discord admins, please don’t join all the discords, just the ones for factions you intend to play.
Get Merch
If you want to support the effort and fund any future patch production, you can buy merch!
Threadless
Patches
We’ll be making patches for the campaign, but there isn’t a concrete schedule in place yet. While you wait, you can grab a Universal Warcor Union patch while supplies last!
