Olympus Rises (SWN)

The Scream. Grand in its scale, devastating in its effect. 400 years have passed since the Scream, it is now the year 3265 and Humanity and its allies are slowly recovering from the most devastating incident in galactic history. With the separation from the Core Worlds, the frontier sectors such as Olympus, have been on their own. Governments rise and fall. Corporations make millions of credits, only to lose them to a militarized take over. Piracy runs rampant in every sector, only to be quelled by what is left of security within the sectors. A time of strife is upon the galaxy, with no end in sight. Slicing through the mire, shafts of light emerge. Spike drives have been developed, no longer is humanity cut off from it's brothers and the grand discovery of the stars begins again. Planets come together in fellowship to brave these strange new frontiers. While still unable to reach what was once the shining jewel of the Core Worlds, empires and alliances carve out their own little section of space. The stars call to humanity as they once did millenia ago. Technology rises. Humanity rises. Olympus rises.

Greetings! My name is Jordan aka MankiGames on the internet and this is Olympus Rises! It is a sci-fi adventure between a small group of adventurers as they travel across the vastness of the Olympus sector in search of riches and long forgotten technology. As the title suggests, this game is run in the Stars Without Number OSR system with a few minor tweaks of my own for realism and character development. As a veteran of many years of GMing many different systems, including D&D, FFG Star Wars, L5R and others, I have learned the importance of creating a group of players who become emotionally invested in not only their characters, but also the world those characters exist in. A veteran of Roll20 with almost 3000 hours logged, I can promise any of my players that I am a master of utilizing the system in order to provide the most in depth and immersive gaming experience, as long as the player allows it. Below I will explain a bit more about the game itself, as well as the rules that are imposed within it.

About the Campaign: Olympus Rises is set in the Olympus Sector of Mandate space. As one of the further removed rim worlds, Olympus even in the best of times exhibited smaller amounts of TL5 technology than many other sectors that were located much closer than it to the core worlds. However, the technology that is available in 3264 pales in comparison to even this. Set in canonical SWN setting, where the Scream and Silence occur roughly the way the book lays it out, the major differences being twofold: The timeline is much closer to the end of the Silence than not, meaning that parts of the Sector have not been mapped yet and there are a few different types of alien races that are not described in the core book. The campaign follows a group of 4 (PCs) adventurers as they work for some of the megacorps, taking what jobs they can, while also trying to deal with the political landscape that exists within the sector. Who is their friend or not is a big theme to this particular game, up to and including the different and variable factions that exist in the game. Each planet or system the group travels too reveals new incredible wonders or interesting people that all have different rules, regulations and most importantly, moral codes. The setting is heavy. There are times where characters will have to question their own importance in the universe, or fight for the rights of subjugated races, or go spelunking into long forgotten tombs in search of relics. The players will be up against the odds most days, but manage to scrape by with their ingenuity and moxie. Some of the themes are appropriately adult; slavery, human trafficking, mind control, genocide, racism, sexism, religious persecution, just to name a few. The universe is a scary place, with many people who would rather kill you, than make a deal with you.

About the Game: There are a few rules that I hold dear as a GM. Not least among them being, have fun. Fun can be derived in very different ways however. Some people experience a thrill in diving into a combat with their carefully crafted character for these scenarios, and thats great! Some people like to talk their way out of everything, avoiding unnecessary violence at all costs, and thats fantastic too! I am a true believer that the only wrong way to play the game is if you tell yourself it is the wrong way. However, there are certainly wrong ways to be a players, and wrong ways to be a GM. This game in particular is geared towards working together to survive and complete your goals. Players who want a more antagonistic game, where players work against each other, can kindly look for another game. The best stories come from a small group of people overcoming insurmountable odds and thats what this story tells. There will be times where putting a bullet in a NPCs head is a correct answer, but in-fighting only causes more strain on the table, and the GM. SWN as a system is not terribly forgiving to players getting into combat. Therefore, the type of player that would fit well here would be one who becomes emotionally invested in a character, roleplaying that characters and attempting to achieve there goals while still leaving room for the other characters and understanding that they will do the same for you. Understanding that not having a combat in a session is ok and even sometimes a good thing! There will be action, some of it may even be unavoidable based on the previous actions of the party, but this is not a shoot 'em up RPG. This is a story based RPG. Characters are meant to develop and become greater than they started. That is what we want to tell. If this is something that seems in your wheelhouse, great! If this seems terribly boring and lame, you can gladly find another group that prefers shoot 'em up games, thats fine with me.

About the Rules: As a GM, I try not to impose myself too much upon the game, but in certain places it can become necessary. In this campaign, there are a set of houserules that I have created that assist either the storytelling, the character development or the worldbuilding aspects of the game. If you have familiarity with the system, these changes will not seem out of place or gamebreaking, if you have no familiarity with the system, you wont even notice where the game stops and ends. As I think I have made it abundantly clear, this campaign has a fairly clear direction in which myself and my players want to take it, additionally, any new players that may join are free to contribute ideas, thoughts and revelations at their leisure. With the understanding that I reserve the right to say no. Rules within the game however, are not particularly the issue a lot. Its the table rules that typically cause the most severe rifts. TTRPGs can be an emotional experience. The highs and lows can make players do and say things they might not do anywhere else. Thats what we love, when someone is upset because that space pirate killed their dog, thats good! Thats the emotional response that was intended. If the player however, cannot control themselves during these emotional times, and cause any amount of uncomfortable or unacceptable reactions from myself or the other players. I will remove you just as fast as you joined. Additionally, if you ever feel in the games that there are more subtle annoyances that are ongoing between yourself and another player, or even with me, I am more than willing to listen and hear someone out. This is a group of people, who may or may not become friends, who are here to experience an epic adventure together, good or bad. There are very few things that would come up that can tear that apart.

If you've made it this far, you probably read all about how deep this game can hit with certain themes. I will be the first to admit that I have made players evoke reaction up to and including vomiting, crying, screaming in anger/fear, breaking monitors, having nightmares and most importantly, desperately wanting more of the game. The last table rule that I follow is this, regardless of how your personal life is going, your dog died, your BF/GF broke up with you, you lost your job, or any number of personal issues that may come up, understand that does not affect the game in any way, and if any player brings that into my games, with negative connotation, I will be the first person to tell you to sit out. I would much rather you not play in my games, than translate whatever bad thing may be going on into the game. If you need someone to talk to, I understand, but the game is the game. Nothing gets in the way of that.

Congratulations! I applaud you for your ability to make it through all of my pedantic rambling (get used to it). There is one further disclaimer that I must mention because there are some out there, who would not be ok with this fact. Every episode of Olympus Rises is recorded for YouTube and streamed live on Twitch. As a small time content creator, this show is a mainstay in the collection and will remain so for the forseeable future. We do NOT use webcams, so it is voice only for the players. If this, in addition to all that other stuff, seems like something you are interested in, feel free to PM me so we can begin further discussions and am always willing to answer any questions about the game itself as it is an amazing universe we have created. If you are still on the fence, I offer my YouTube channel as a method for prospect players to observe what they may be getting themselves into prior to making the dive! That link is here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTGovGvS21zXBy_C9WlfkbTZi4zziZ__x

Again, any questions or comments I will take in the form of a PM! Hope to hear from you soon!