The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Back in the 1980s, one of the big Hollywood successes were movies based around special operation soldiers taking out the bad guy all over the world. When audiences weren't watching Rambo piling on the body count in the backwoods of America, Southeast Asia and Afghanistan they had other Hollywood tough guys taking out terrorists. The genre never really caught on as a RPG setting, but the entire concept of special operations helped spark some of the post-apocalyptic games of the 1980s as well as Recon, a RPG based in Vietnam. Even the venerable "Top Secret" by TSR moved away from a spy genre and into one with lots and lots of firefights.

One of the best attempts at making special ops popular came out of Steve Jackson Games. "GURPS Special Ops" was written by a political scientist who studied the real world low-intensity warfare fighters and was a gamer to boot. His product is probably the best darn sourcebook ever published in the SJG encyclopedia and the new edition is an equally great follow-up. It's one of the few sourcebooks out there that is not only chock full of information, but its also a joy to read. Heck, tell your parents that you are actually learning something new when you read this because chances are you will.

Starting off with an explanation of what are special operations, the authors then move into a concise examination of the different units that exist in the world. Even the post-Soviet units are discussed in some detail.

After that comes the mechanics needed to build a special ops character. Once more things are broken down by unit in an attempt to differentiate between a SEAL and Ranger. Following this section is an equipment list and campaign notes.

According to the reviewer hints I'm suppose to find at least one weakness…and I did find one. The bibliography is quite dated and some of the books mentioned are either out of print or of dubious quality. And that folks is the only gripe I have about the book.

I doubt that this book is going to fly off the shelves of game stores which is a shame. It's a great book on a genre that few people will seem to want to run or play.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

GURPS Special Ops
Author: Greg Rose Category: game Company/Publisher: Steve Jackson Games Line: GURPS Cost: 19.95 Page count: 128 ISBN: 1-55634-366-3 Capsule Review by Tomas J Skucas on 05/20/99. Genre tags: Modern_day Historical Espionage Generic	Back in the 1980s, one of the big Hollywood successes were movies based around special operation soldiers taking out the bad guy all over the world. When audiences weren't watching Rambo piling on the body count in the backwoods of America, Southeast Asia and Afghanistan they had other Hollywood tough guys taking out terrorists. The genre never really caught on as a RPG setting, but the entire concept of special operations helped spark some of the post-apocalyptic games of the 1980s as well as Recon, a RPG based in Vietnam. Even the venerable "Top Secret" by TSR moved away from a spy genre and into one with lots and lots of firefights. One of the best attempts at making special ops popular came out of Steve Jackson Games. "GURPS Special Ops" was written by a political scientist who studied the real world low-intensity warfare fighters and was a gamer to boot. His product is probably the best darn sourcebook ever published in the SJG encyclopedia and the new edition is an equally great follow-up. It's one of the few sourcebooks out there that is not only chock full of information, but its also a joy to read. Heck, tell your parents that you are actually learning something new when you read this because chances are you will. Starting off with an explanation of what are special operations, the authors then move into a concise examination of the different units that exist in the world. Even the post-Soviet units are discussed in some detail. After that comes the mechanics needed to build a special ops character. Once more things are broken down by unit in an attempt to differentiate between a SEAL and Ranger. Following this section is an equipment list and campaign notes. According to the reviewer hints I'm suppose to find at least one weakness…and I did find one. The bibliography is quite dated and some of the books mentioned are either out of print or of dubious quality. And that folks is the only gripe I have about the book. I doubt that this book is going to fly off the shelves of game stores which is a shame. It's a great book on a genre that few people will seem to want to run or play. Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)