The Oleander Daemon

A Military Sci-fi Campaign, Forged in the Dark

Space was at peace.

The cluster’s dominant presence, Starnet was made of a collection of small governments with mutual defense and open trade agreements, united under a single banner for their shared betterment. Thanks to their access to several wormholes to the rest of the galaxy, they were prosperous and powerful.

Connected to Starnet by a thin passage of stars, a small group of worlds found themselves conquered by the Primarch, the greatest military mind to grace the space lanes in generations. Quickly these system became the Primacy, and their leader was content to rule their kingdom.

However, the Primacy was a cul-de-sac, without worholes of its own, reliant upon Starnet for greater galactic access.

Due to the limitations of space travel, all travel between the Primacy and Starnet or beyond must refuel. The only refueling point is in the Nereid System, specifically Oracle Station over the planet Oleander.

No one missed the importance of this bottleneck holding the Primarch back. With no warning, the Primacy launched an attack, breaking the Starnet defenses over Oleander. The Primarch is making a play for true galactic access, and should they gain it, they will be unstoppable.

As Starnet retreated, they put into motion their contingency plan: Operation Daemon. Launching hundreds of single-soldier drop pods onto Oleander’s surface, the ground-based soldiers will fight back against the Primacy’s occupation.

The enemy cannot destroy the population, as they depend on Oracle Station. If they can be cut off from their supplies back home, the Primarch will be trapped, overextended into Starnet territory, and Starnet can win.

The Oleander Daemon is a Forged in the Dark military sci-fi campaign about one planet's resistance efforts against an occupying authoritarian military.

The true realization of the squad-based campaign structure innovated for The Unity War, The Oleander Daemon is a total reimagining of the Forged In The Dark framework. Players will collectively command Tower Section, a special operations squad sent down to Oleander as part of Operation Daemon. On each Mission, players will each select one of the Section’s Soldiers as they fight for Starnet’s future against the invading army of the Primacy. At the end of each Mission, they’ll return the characters to the Section, slightly modified and developed, ready for someone else to bring a different take to the character on further Missions.

With a dozen Missions over the three Acts of the game, players will bring freedom to the planet or die trying.

Play as these Soldiers from Tower Section (plus more as the game progresses):

Celadon, The Stranger: The military intelligence agent assigned to the team with a lot of secrets hidden in her head.
Gessig, The Augment: Surgically enhanced to be the perfect soldier, the full extent of its cybernetically modified abilities has yet to be tested.
Helic, The Local: A scout and explosives expert, Helic knows their native Oleander intimately, even if they haven’t been home in some time.
Lantas, The Technician: The team’s tech officer is now ostensibly in command, stepping to their fallen Lieutenant’s shoes.
Mosa, The Veteran: A holdover from the last Tower Section, Mosa specializes in melee, fighting with a discipline honed by experience.
Sage, The Doctor: Not just a medic but a licensed doctor, Sage’s careful hands can also guide a vehicle or drone into doing anything.
Urrutt, The Rookie: A recent recruit, straight out of basic training. Carries the special weapons for the team and patriotic fire in their heart.

A Complete Draft of the game is on my Patreon at the $3 Tier.

Screenshots

The Plan For The Future

I am pretty completely satisfied with the state of the game, and my experiences with The Unity of Skovlan and some initial playtesting of Oleander Daemon have convinced me that I have things good. However, I find myself wanting a final run of confirmation playtests — not even a full campaign — to feel confident enough to approach final edits and publication setup.

All that said, this is up next on my Signature Release docket. Expect it to disappear from the Drafts page soon, so grab it now.