Disclaimer: I backed Ghost Ops and kindly got another free version here on dtrpg to review it.

GO puts its Setting in a modern day world, where terrorism and organized crime run even a little bit more rampant than it is the case in reality. After a hit on a french magazine, some world govenrments form a joint anti-terror organisation to fight this menace. Your team gets training from all over the world, from different military and police organisations in order to form a elite unit. You are the best of the best. The setting fluff is rather sparse, but gets the job done. The big plus here is that you have tons of military/spy action movies, novels and games out there to inspire you. And some setting supplements are in the making, so everything fine here.

The book itself features clean, sometimes a little too clean, layout and some neat illustrations. Nothing spectacular, but well done.

But the big thing here is the system of course. Here GO really shines in my opinion. The engine is a rather traditional roll-over-difficulty-system with strong influences from some other systems out there. I can see clearly FATE of course (but without this pesky meta-gaming), Cypher (you have some point pools to spend), Savage Worlds (roll over your base Difficulty and then you have levels of better success) and even The One Ring (... the K9). I like games which borrow from other good systems and manage to build something new and sometimes even better out of that (another excellent example of this would be the system used in Cold & Dark/Noctum). Basically you roll the 4 FATE/FUDGE dice plus Skill and add/subtract some modifiers against a Difficulty. Regarding Abilities, Talents, Skills, Point Pools and Maneuvers this sums up as an easy to learn base system with many tactical choices and possibilities. Just how i like my systems, especially when used in a setting like this. Another big plus for the idea of using FATE Dice is that it keeps the numbers low and therefore easy to handle.

Let me talk about some really nice ideas briefly. Despite having a rather grim and realstic setting, this is an action game. And it shows. For example there is a really cool "bullet time" mechanic where you spend points, make a simple roll and execute Combos, which are not possible normally. Or there is a nice subsystem for mission-funding and safe houses, where you can build and upgrade your own little FOB. Or the K9 Handler Talent, where you get a trained german shephard with stats, gear and a little mechanic to support your character in times when man and dog work closely together.

So finally: Yes, i like Ghost Ops. There are some typo-problems. Some of the rules are not to my liking (armor rolls sigh, really?), badly explained (Advancement) or lacking (Talent costs), but nothing serious and an errata is on the way. To be honest, after reading Shelter i was very nervous what would come out of this Kickstarter, but apparently Feral Games has learned and this is a vast improvement over that pbta-catastrophe. I am eagerly waiting for the other stretch goals and further products for GO. I evenwent a little bit ahead and constructed rules for Supply Drops/Air Recon and Air/Artillery Support. I know that these are coming officially, but i just couldn't wait. Nice work, keep up with this.

As a Dieselpunk-Fan, i was pleasantly surprised to find a new RPG in this vein. I was even more happy when i realised that this game has an awesome setting and an easy to grasp traditional system with some advanced modern aspects. The weird, eldritch parts of the setting are easy to ignore, if you prefer a more grounded background. For me Age of Steel falls into the same positive category of relatively unknown little gems like Warbirds, Barbarians of Lemuri or Covert Ops. Gems which deserve way more attention. I hope Age of Steel sells well, so that Isolation Games can feed us more of this goodness.

So why no 5 stars then? Unfortunately there are countless spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes all over the book. In fact there are so many that you can find several on every single page. The worst of these are the many missing commas, which at times can make sentences very hard to read. The whole book reads like as there was abolutely no editorial work done. The illustrations, while very good online and in the PDF, are way to dark in the PoD. But this is not Isolation Games' fault.

All in all i would love to see more coming for Age of Steel! Good work overall!

I was really looking forward to this game. After trying several Vietnam era RPGs and not getting exactly what I wanted, I had high hopes for Patrol. But unfortunately those got burned as I was trying to understand the rules and writing a CheatSheet.

First the Pros:

• Nice layout and okish but fitting artwork
• The authors seem to really dig the theme, you can feel the energy invested in writing this
• The basics rulewise are understandable and seem to work pretty well
• A clear map
• Printable goodies for playsupport

Now the Cons:

• The rules seem easy at first, but I just got smacked in the face by loads of sub rules, special rules and rules snippets hidden in the text.
• The amount of tables, which are really needed all the time as I understand the system, is stunning for a “fast-paced” game.
• I am not sure if I understand the system at all, especially the Turn/Action structure. Since a typical Turn Sequence is laid out in the Basic Rules section, but not fully explained (Reset Player Suppression?) and the Combat Example is a mess, I am very unsure of me understanding anything correct.
• The Combat Example: As I said before, this example does nothing to clarify anything. There are things/rules mentioned which are not explained before but after the Combat Example, like the rules for radio charges for example. How does the player fire artillery? There is dice pool for the crew mentioned, but I couldn’t find anything regarding this
• Why do People, Vehicle and Aircraft need different To-Hit rules?
• I don’t get some rules regarding Skills. Skills don’t have Ranks, but at one point one can read of a Stealth Rating which is the sum of several other ratings, including the Skill Rating/Rank?!
• As I understand, the gameis trying to implement some mechanics similar to PbtA Games, which would be a good thing. If the mechanics would have been explained better. For example the Roundel reminds me of the Clocks, found in several PbtA Games like The Sprawl. But again, this pretty cool game aid gets bogged down by special rules written on the aid itself (which are, again, not explained in the rules section). Or the Actions, which are the heart & soul of the system, are quite similar to PbtA Moves, but holy shit I counted them:68! And I think I missed some which are not part of the tables but scattered throughout the text. And Every. Single. Action. has its own rules.
• All in all Newstand Press seems to force the picture of a rules-light game, but only highlights the obvious facts (e.g. 3 stats), but says nothing of those tons of additional stats and rules. I am not sure how some of the other reviewers came to the conclusion that this is a light game.

Maybe the Q&A would clarify some things, but the link doesn’t work.

So finally: Maybe it’s just me. Maybe I just don’t get it. Maybe I’m too dumb for this game. Possible. But at this stage I can not give a higher Rating, even if I wanted. And to come to a conclusion: Like I said, I really wanted to like this game but could not. This leaves me kind of sad.

Played it, liked it. Mr Cossu has a little bit too much going on to be truly believable. And the entry of the adventure is rather abrupt. But nothing you can't easily work around. Worth its money.

We used Hot Wheels as a starting point for our Tropicana campaign. This little adventure has everything what makes an intro adventure (in this setting) great: fun, a chase (race), a fight, action, some intrigue and beautiful women. A clear recommendation!

After already reading many GRAmel products and never being dissappointed with any of them, Tropicana came around and pushed every button there is.

Maybe it's my age. I grew up with shows like Tales of the golden monkey, Magnum, The A-Team, Riptide and many others. Or maybe it's the tight way this book is written: Tropicana really catches the spirit of Savage Worlds. Every sentence and table is packed with useful information. The setting specific Edges, Hindrances and rules are crisp, to the point and absolutely fitting. The Tropicana Jukebox alone is gold. But maybe it's the fun you can feel the good people from GRAmel must have had while writing this little gem. The setting is sparkling with great ideas, interesting NPCs, cool locations and endless possibilities. Maybe it's the way modern stuff like Narcos, Uncharted (4) or Tomb Raider smoothly flow into the vibe of those old shows i loved as a kid. Or it's the way this setting is rather open and can be played in all kinds of directions: chasing gangsters; climbing the criminal ladder to the top; searching for lost treasures, relics & ruins; fighting the good fight along the rebels in the jungle; discovering forgotten and maybe horrible secrets; investigating this evil Calibana cult; heisting into the vault of El Banco; spying on hostile agents ... or a colourful mixture of parts of it or everything.

All in all this is one of the best Savage Worlds products i have ever seen and i have seen, played and hosted a lot of them. Besides some minor errors, surely coming from not having native speakers as writers, i can find nothing which i don't like here. The only thing really missing here is a map of San Jose, but this will be dealt with in the upcoming companion as i was told.

Get this.

Disclaimer: A) We are playing with our own unofficial Ubiquity conversion. Just a matter of taste. B) A free PDF of Tropicana was kindly given to me, but did not in any way influence my opinion. My stupidity in thinking that reviews are only possible as a certified buyer, was my and only my fault.

Quite disappointed with this one. Cons: There is nothing, really nothing in the Setting which hasn't been done before (better). This is your straight people fight the Cthulhu-Mythos fare with absolutely nothing new. The pagecount is as high as here, because there is a tonload of white, unused space in the book. Zillions of "This will be covered in another book" references. Things which i consider quite essential for the game, like the other types of magic player characters can use. Lots of typos. And i mean REALLY a lot of them. There are sentences that are only understandable after reading them a second or third time. Whole paragraphs that seem to be written by a non-native speaker. The illustrations are horrible and rather sparse. Ok, this one is highly subjectiv, but they just don't fit the genre, i think. The price is way too high for a lazy product like this.

Pros: Ubiquity is a very good system, so the second star is just for the system alone. It is a good (and by this point, the only) introduction of Ubiquity into the modern era (i know of).