Special Ops 3e

[corwyn]

I have the original printing. The book in the store has a different cover. Is there new content from the original? How much?

[johndallman]

The templates in the current edition are in the modern style, rather than the format used in the first edition. It's also somewhat updated for events between 1990 and 2002.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by corwyn

I have the original printing. The book in the store has a different cover. Is there new content from the original? How much?

There were three editions of Special Ops.

The first version was based more on the author's experiences and was a bit more focused on Special Operations Forces in Vietnam. It also had a number of Cold War "OpFor" weapons that got reprinted in other books prior to the release of the second edition. It included a number of advantages, disadvantages and skills that were later reprinted in Compendium I and had slightly different templates for different units. IIRC, it was more U.S. military-focused.

The second edition is post Compendium I and removes a number of traits printed in that book or just makes reference to them. It also drops one of the pre-generated characters. I believe the extra space is used for extra unit templates and weapon and equipment descriptions. Some of the more Vietnam-specific weapons are removed.

Political background, etc. was updated to reflect late 1990s politics, although surprisingly nobody bothered to mention an oufit called Al Queda among the list of terrorist organizations. (Despite their dry run at blowing up the WTC in 1993 and other terrorist acts throughout the 1990s.)

The text was reviewed by David Pulver, to get the equipment and guns stats into line with late GURPS 3E standards and also by Christopher Thrash, who, IIRC was serving as an active duty U.S. Army officer and helicopter pilot. That would have brought the military culture material up to date for the late 1990s.

The third edition was published in 2002 and was revised by Hans-Christian Vortish, which means that the guns and gun-related equipment got a working over as did templates and TO&E for various late 1990s-early 2000s elite units. A few weapons from other editions got removed, possibly because they were reprinted elsewhere or closely duplicated guns in other books. Equipment other than guns got "genericized" to make it more applicable to non-U.S. settings. Extra information was added on running Special Ops campaigns and Al Queda got its own entry. The illustrations got changed to photoshopped versions of historical and U.S. DoD stock photos, consistent with the look of the GURPS 3E WW2 line.

All three versions have their strengths. The first edition might be the best of the bunch if you're playing 1960s to 1980s Special Ops. Second edition is probably best for early 1990s ops. Third edition is probably best for late 1990s to 2000 and pre-911 2001 ops.

If you've got the first edition and pick up the third edition, you'll get about 95% of the total material between the three and 100% of the important material.

[corwyn]

I have the one by Gregory Rose in 1989 so I guess first edition so I guess I'll pick up the most recent.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by corwyn

I have the one by Gregory Rose in 1989 so I guess first edition so I guess I'll pick up the most recent.

The 2nd and 3rd editions are clearly marked, and the second edition has very different "trade dress" on the cover than the first, so you almost certainly have the first edition.

[corwyn]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

The 2nd and 3rd editions are clearly marked, and the second edition has very different "trade dress" on the cover than the first, so you almost certainly have the first edition.

Yeah, I figured. No reference to the Compendia, other editions, it's from the 80s...

[mightyepop]

IIRC, the first version of Special Ops, which I purchased in 1991 and lost somewhere along the way, had two sample characters. One, I believe, was a Navy SEAL officer, the other was an Army NCO. I primarily remember the second character as a short fellow with a very tall girlfriend.