One of Rebellion in the Rim 's coolest features is the commander abilities menu, giving us sets of different themes for customizable commanders. Engineering, Espionage, Gunnery, Logistics, Navigation, Squadron Tactics. Pretty much enhance the four command types, plus enhance deployment, plus support options.

Problem is, there's only six of them in the book. This seems like a wide-open design space that gives me a lot of ideas for homebrew.

I couldn't find any expanded options for these commander abilities, so I got things going by converting them from official commanders.

Expanded Campaign Commanders

In the linked Google Doc, I've converted each of the game's standard commanders into RitR-style commander abilities. I don't claim to have tested any of these for balance, but I welcome feedback on that front.

The end result is a bunch of abilities, ready to be combined together into new ability groups.

Why translations of existing mechanics from Armada commanders, rather than homebrew your own from scratch?

Easier that way? The real answer is that I wanted to start with something I know. The experiment isn't whether or not this is a reasonable commander ability. The experiment is whether there's design space for additional options for task force commanders.

The first four test cases are in the Google Doc .

Clairvoyance: Force abilities and such. Based on reverse-Dodonna, reverse-Espionage, and a retooling of Gunnery Chief Varnillian.

Shield Expert: Strengthening and manipulating deflector shields. Based on Kenobi, reskinned Jerjerrod, and an edit of a Logistics ability.

Tyranny: Bossy stuff with commands. Based on Tarkin, Palpatine, and a repeat of a Logistics ability.

Raiding: Sudden and hard attacks. Based on Officer Ozzel, Sato, and an original idea of mine.

My brain short circuited for a second, and thought that the "Kraken" commander was based on the Kraken in Kerbal Space Program. I offer up the following (not serious) suggestion:

KSP Kraken (Commander)

While attacking, you may spend a number of dice showing a crit icon to destroy your target. You are also destroyed. The number of spent dice required to trigger this effect is:

squadron or small based ship: 1

Medium: 2

Large: 3

(For those who don't play KSP, the Kraken is a bug that causes your rocket to suddenly break into its component parts, usually when loading a save)

Joke or no, I do have further ambitions to create distinctive commanders to use in a campaign. I think it'd be fun to do an Armada campaign with RPG-like elements. One of the major components would be different commanders to choose from, each with thematic abilities from these lists.