The GM’s Bit

Rules and Tools

Additional Systems
- distance and time
- travel and recuperation
- adventuring
--- environmental effects/dangers (weather, traps etc.)
--- random encounters
--- find some good free puzzle sites.
- character conditions
- the x-card (reminder)

Optional rule: Story Points

- pool of points for purely narrative uses.

Optional Rule: No metal health disorders

- stress recovery halved
- only use limit break

Optional rule: Damaged Equipment

- damaged before broken
- under half ware = damaged
- lose benefit or half benefit of equipment

Optional rule: Team Based Initiative

- done by ‘side’ not character
- characters on a side can act in any order and in different orders in different rounds.
- intended to be more open and narrative.

Random encounter tables

General GM Guidance
Play with your PC’s
- if they have suggestions for costs / extras that’s great
- intended to be communal rather than competitive.

It’s a skill based game

- worth reminding the players (for those that haven’t realised already), particularly at character
creation.
- skills help to underpin ‘who you are’ by ‘what you do/are able to do’, rather than something more
abstract, like attributes and archetypes.
- skills can have far more of an impact on tests than attributes
- skills are the prerequisite for many talents
The company/Stronghold as a character
- The PC’s company/stronghold is, in many ways, your main NPC
- can be used to bind them to the world and narrative without the reliance on individual NPC’s. In
this way it can help them feel invested.
- can be used to give them motivation and goals.

Use the Company/Stronghold System

- Use it for your own creations
- good basis for guidance, reminders and quick crib sheet for you creations
- once fully scouted, can be given out to the PC’s for their own quick reference and to represent
their characters knowledge etc.

Be guided by your campaign

- use the campaign structure (provided below) to guide yourself and help make decisions.
- the players don’t know everything, so don’t be scared to make changes.

The d6 is your friend

- d2, d3, d6
- great for, relatively, unimportant decisions; ‘its taken a couple of hours’ etc.

The 4X Metagame
The Stronghold system in Olympus has Fallen can lead to a style of metagame based around
strategy and management gameplay. This style of play has much in common with the 4X genre of
board and computer games. The 4 X’s are outlined below but may be slightly different, or tackled in
more fluid or different orders, when used in a TTRPG than the aforementioned game mediums.
• Explore means players send scouts across a map to reveal surrounding territories.
• Exploit means players gather and use resources in areas they control, and improve the
efficiency of that usage.
• Exterminate means attacking and eliminating rival players. Since in some games all territory
is eventually claimed, eliminating a rival's presence may be the only way to achieve further
expansion.
• Expand means players claim new territory by creating new settlements, or sometimes by
extending the influence of existing settlements.

As you read this book, you may well already notice that the areas covered by the 4X’s line up quite
well with the sorts of work that outriders will be doing. The other area support the general narrative
of the strongholds; to survive, secure themselves and then to prosper.

Campaigns and Arcs

Campaign Overviews
- help to keep things in order and remind of central issues and themes
- a nice central upkeep document.

Arc’s
- way of organising and keeping track of campaign
- Like a series of tv show, part in a book or novel in a series.
(how long is an arc? As long as it has to be.)
- help to retain narrative focus and make recap easier etc.
- help to make space for downtime and manage ‘time skips’ etc.
- help to clearly define goals and rewards.

Milestones
- Used for awarding XP
- Major and Minor (inc. encounters)
- Can help with structuring arc’s, or taken directly from them.

Fronts and Clocks

- can be used along side arc’s but can also be used separately.
- Can be visible or invisible to players.
– Name: Give the Front a name.
– Issue: What the Front is about.
– Trigger: What makes the front’s clock tick.
– Frequency: How often the clock ticks over.
– Dial: How many ‘hours’ there are on the clock.
– Effect/Outcome: What happens when the clock strikes midnight.

Making New Things

- Equipment and Magic Items
- NPC’s and Monsters
- Game Worlds

What actually happened (in the world) and making it your world.
- Only read if you’re interested
- Don’t read if you don’t like being spoiled.