I would give this four or five stars, but the stuff that is bad is like confusingly bad. A lot of these rules are very reasonable and I was suggested this game for solo play when I want to run more games than my one or two a week.

The rules for items are kinda spread out in a very confusing way. I've gone over those sections at least three times and I'm still puzzled. I can't remember if things are explained or given stats on one place or another.

Most weapons are a name, an attachment or ability, a caliber, and a price. I've played games with half as many pages and yet they had a much clearer idea Of having weapons have a mechanical purpose.

Right now expensive stuff is cheap, cheap stuff is expensive. Weapons that should have folding stocks don't, while almost identical guns have folding stocks somehow. I can't see why you shouldn't just use the largest caliber possible.

My players are puzzled by how expensive the vehicles are and how cheap the upgrades are.

There is lots of armor that mechanically is the same and doesn't have enough description to make you pick one over another. Its an unhappy medium of wasted space and lack of reason to care.

A military game written by authors who don't know the difference betwee a clip and a magazine, as can be noted in the response below!

OK, rant over. A very decent set of rules with terrible editting and a worse layout. Information is scattered around, repeated several times for no good reason, and stats are scattered between multiple charts.

The rules, while good, have an odd video game feel because operators are limited to a certain number of magazines without exception; there's no tracked encumrance worth mentiioning, either in the core rules or in the optional rules, ammunition consumption is abstrated, and your load-out is very limited. If you're looking to play out larger or longer fights, prepare to house rule, because you're limited to three magazines.

Apparently to compensate for the low ammo cap, there is a lot of attention paid to unarmed combat. Because apparently after spending 1.5 million dollars to train a sniper for long-range, you want him to be able to katate-chop the enemy as well. Again, a very superfical first-person-shooter feel to this effort.

Ignore the page count, because while the format is very easy on the eyes, it has very few words per page, lots of blank pages, and quite a few pages of art by people who apparently have only a vague idea of what a firearm looks like.

The setting concept is pretty thin (First World governments are OK with outside military forces killing their citizens within their borders? Silly), but the setting has zero impact on the rules.

If you're not afraid of doing some cutting and pasting, and filling in the rules gap with house rules, this will be a handy book for any setting from WW1 to near-future.

Excellent system! Finally, a military game that strikes a great balance between beefy simulation and fast-paced, narrative-oriented play. If I had to summarize it quickly, I'd say it's a great amalgamation. It mixes some of the better concepts from various systems to create a unique engine that's well-suited to its task. In essence, you might say it's the love child of the Cypher system (Numenera), FATE (FUDGE, more specifically), and a game I played a while back called In Harm's Way: Wild Blue. It's got a nice, sleek system, plenty of source material to get you rolling, and more in supplementary content.

My only personal complaint is a nitpick in that at times it feels, especially with the art, like it leans more towards Tom Clancy or Call of Duty-style operations than I'd prefer, but leaning more towards realism is as easy as playing it that way. Nothing about the engine itself or the various special forces backgrounds you can draw from say "action movie" more than "simulation", so in that regard, it's actually a good thing. If your table enjoys more romanticized action, it can do that. If your table prefers a more procedural simulation style of play, it's absolutely equipped for that. Aside from that, the book isn't extremely pretty, but it does its job and that's all you really need. I don't really have any other major complaints!

Excellent buy, not disappointed. Something I've been searching for across the past couple of years, and finally, Ghost Ops delivers.

When I read about Ghost Ops at Kickstarter I almost immediately backed the game as the setting sounded quite thrilling. I was not disappointed. Ghost Ops captures the feeling of covert operations perfectly, it's not too heavy on rules whick makes gameplay fittingly fast. If you're more interested in elaborate storytelling and character development this might not be your game, but again this is owed to the setting. The layout of the book is admittedly a bit spartan, still that's no reason to give any less than 5 stars. If you're into special military units and clandestine operations, you really might want to have a look at Ghost Ops.

Disclaimer-I backed the Kickstarter, and recieved vouchers to get my copy here.

Ghost Ops is an RPG of Special Forces. The players form a team drawn from the elite of the worlds militaries, to carry out missions that no one nation can handle. A wide variety of SF units are provided for a character's background. Each unit has three 'Packages' to choose from, with each Package (such as Assault, Engineer, or Recon) having a selection of special abilities. Initialy the player picks three of those abilities, though more can be bought later. Should a situation arise where the ability may be relevent, a bonus is given. Thirteen Skills cover a wide variety of situations.

The game uses Fudge dice, but is not the Fudge/Fate system itself. If you don't have the dice you will benefit from getting some, but it can be done with ordainary D6s. Alternately, many dice roller apps are available.

Themetically the style can vary quite a bit. Realistic anti terrorist operations, hostage rescues, drug suppresion missions and the like are all possible, but the game is geared towards a cinematic style, so if you prefer the more Hollywood approach to Special Forces you certainly have that option. A 'Bullet Time' mechanic allows for bursting in through the window, landing in a roll, and delivering headshots to three enemies before they can react. The fact that Matthew Reilly, writer of over the top but hugely enjoyable action thrillers like 'Ice Station; and 'Area 7' has given permission to feature the Maghook grappling gun in the game speaks volumes.

It's not perfect, some areas are very light on detail. I'd have liked to see more information and rules for weapons. The afore mentioned Maghook is treated here as a basic climbing aid, and deserves a few paragraphs outlining it's other uses. There are also a few typos throughout. Most of these are little more than irritants, but the ommission of the Police Package does limit the choices during character creation.

Still, that's the advantage of a pdf copy. Updated versions can be made available as these errors are caught.

Overall, if you like the idea of a fast paced globe trotting action adventure, Ghost Ops, in either this or it's Savage Worlds form, may well be what you are looking for.

So firstly, full dusclosure: I ended up being a contributor to this project. However, I did not start that way. So take what I'm about to say with whatever size of grain of salt you want, I'm going to talk a bit about why I backed the game, decided to contribute to the game, and continue to support the game and it's community.

First, it's "Now". Arguably, we all game to deal with issues we want to see resolutions to, whether subconciously or not. By playing in a modern setting, with no (little) fantasy elements we are forced to call things what they are instead of hiding them behind anaologs. I prefer this gaming method, but then I'm more of an "in-your-face" kind of person.

Second, it's "Military" or at least clsoe to it. It doesn't become a simulation, which very few people would find entertaining, but at least incorporates the military accurately into the setting (this is the part I was involved in). Coming from a military background myself, I always feel slighted when an IP is created that references the military but does so with such a degree of inaccuraccy as to make it insulting.

Third, it's from Feral Games, and they are by far the most responsive publisher I have ever interacted with. With small publishers you tend to either get the people that are bending over backward to try and make everyone happy and end up with a product more limp than wet paper, or is so passionate about their product that they refuse to change even when legitimate concerns are voiced. Feral games find the middle ground, listening while also not giving in to every whim. And that's just it, I started as a backer and became a contributor (In the core book, an mission in their mission pack, and a side project), and you could do the same.

A great simple system that utilizes fate/fudge dice, skill ratings, and target numbers. It could very well be Rainbow6 The RPG. Handlers (the GM) can build an impressive campaign drawing inspiration from squad action based tv shows/movies (Strike Back, The Unit, Sicario etc.). I hoped for more Unique Talents to choose from. Other than that this game feels solid.

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.

Great system that captures the flavour of the setting . Nice to find another system to use my Fate dice with.