Steve Jackson Games GURPS – Generic Universal RolePlaying System

ERRATA – GURPS Special Ops (First Edition) – Updated September 17, 2000

Copyright © by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated.

P. 4. Several lines of text got lost between the end of this page and the beginning of the next. Add ". . . targets in pursuit of national military, political, economic or psychological objectives. They may support conventional operations, or they may be prosecuted independently when the use of conventional forces is either inappropriate or . . ."

P. 15. Replace Grouppi interventi speciali with Gruppi interventi speciali.

P. 34. Under SEAL Training, the text should read ". . . and specialized military skills and language training similar to that afforded . . ."

P. 41. "Royal Army" is a misnomer. This should be changed to "British Army" in the top line (only). The reference to "Royal Army School of Language," however, is accurate.

P. 55. Orienteering defaults to IQ-5 or Navigation-2.

Pp. 58, 59, 61, 64-75. Replace Thrown Weapons (Hand Grenade) with Throwing. There is no hand grenade specialization of Thrown Weapons. The skills Explosive Ordnance Disposal, SIGINT Collection/Jamming and Traffic Analysis should be M/H, not M/A. Increase the sample characters' point totals by 13 and 8, respectively.

Pp. 58, 61, 64-75.

Pp. 64-75. The skills Hard Hat Diving and No-Landing Extraction are treated as Physical/Average in the skill templates. They should be M/A as per the text – though they involve physical exertion, the challenge is to the mind (to prepare properly) rather than to the reflexes.

P. 66. Delete (Aerial) from Navigation and Tactics. This is a familiarity, not a specialization.

P. 104. In the Weapons table, the Browning Baby has Malf 16, damage is halved after penetrating DR, SS is 10, and ST is 7.

P. 108. Replace Brigadisti with Brigatisti.

Replace Brigadista with Brigatista.

Tables of Organization

Details on Tables of Organization (TO) diagrams were omitted from the book . . . the editor was under the impression that everyone knew this.

Table of Organization (TO) diagrams are a specialized form of symbology that shows the command relationship among the subunits of any military organization. The TO is a graphic depiction of the lawful chain of command and responsibility: who gives orders and who has to make sure that they are carried out. The diagram is a hierarchical tree; orders come down and information goes up. In a less than perfect world, the hierarchical structure sometimes inhibits action, but experience records more failures from short-cutting channels than from getting bogged down in them.

For higher-echelon organizations, the little boxes on the diagrams are simply connected and filled in with the name or abbreviation of the headquarters involved. As an example, the TO for Joint Special Operations Command, from p. 77 of GURPS Special Ops, show that there are only two levels of command between the National Command Authority (the President of the United States) and the colonel who commands 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment – Delta.

A group of military symbols has been standardized by the NATO countries to make TOs easier to read and to show the command level of the units involved. Some of these symbols are available to download.