Quote from: Pierce InverarityNot sure if there's a PDF of the old Behind Enemy Lines (FASA). That's strictly historical commando missions and includes an intro scenario. There's also a separate Guns of Navarone supplement. Note all this is IIRC--I never bought it.

QuoteBehind Enemy Lines
[0-9754481-0-2]    $13.95 $11.95
Publisher: Mystique Enterprises
by Larry Spall    Date Added: 11/07/2006 15:53:34

   I own the original game, and if the PDF contains everything that the boxed edition had, you can be sure that's gonna be one BIG file! This game will appeal most to the 50/50 RPG/Wargamer types. A die-hard roleplayer that doesn't enjoy strategy and tactics will be bored in ten minutes flat. This game has a good balance of tactical play with roleplaying. You won't find a ton of fancy artwork, and you won't find whole chapters on character background and development. There are no rules to deal with things of a social or academic nature, nor does it attempt to give a rule for every possible situation. Thank God for small favors. It's a game that sticks to its guns, so to speak, and if the ref and players want to spend a mission or two in Paris, goofing off and forgetting about the war for a bit, that's fine, but it's up to the ref to get creative and ad-lib some new rules to cover it. No, for the most part, this is a squad-level, tactical game, experienced from a roleplaying perspective. Personally, I think that's pretty cool, and I'd take it any day over a flat board with badly-drawn terrain and chits.

By the way, if you plan to print this out for play, be advised that it's friggin' huge. Be prepared to use a lot of paper, and eat-up a hefty portion of black ink. This, of course, assuming the PDF is a direct translation of all the boxed material, with no edits. If you're old enough to remember how big the boxes were for FASA's early games (about two and a half inches deep), then you'll understand when I say that the books left little room for additional supplements. Let me give you a rundown on the original contents:

Book 1: Character Generation & Basic Rules. 96 pgs.
Book 2: Event Tables. 48 pgs.
Book 3: Missions. 56 pgs.
Inserts: 3 double-sided reference charts, 1 double-sided character sheet, 4 double-sided, two-page maps (16 pages total), and yes, you guessed it, two sheets of chits (sw that comin', didn't ya?)

A fourth rulebook was printed and sold separately, titled "Book 4: British Commandos" (48 pgs). Additionally, an adventure module was released titled "Guns of Navarone" (48 pgs). In five years of haunting eBay, I've only seen two copies of those appear, so best of luck finding them, and if you do, don't be surprised if they cost a pretty penny, especially the British Commandos book. If any others books were made, I'm not aware of it.

Now, for the last, but probably most interesting part. Mr. Holleman, in the previous review, commented that the game was rough and needed more work. Well, that's the part that had me scratching my head when I saw this release as a PDF. Y'see, it *was* re-done and re-released. Behind Enemy Lines got a major overhaul by a company called The Companions during the mid-eighties. It had all of the verbose, redundant aspects scrapped, and after polishing and refining ended up being a much smaller, and extremely competent, boxed RPG. Two "Basic Field Manuals," one for Soldiers and one for Commanders, and both running about 30 pages, each. (A few inserts and a screen were present, too, as well as a third booklet from the "War Department" detailing a scenario, with maps.) The Companions also took the rather humorous route of utilizing actual period, pocket-sized military manuals as "supplements" for the game (and sold them for pocket change, more a thing for the fans than a profit). A module or two was released, but sadly the new edition fared almost as poorly as the original, and it went out of print. It was a really cool game, that didn't sacrifice any of the detail of the original, but simply managed to do it using less language, on far fewer pages.

One last comment. Looking back, I'm now pretty sure it was the timing that got these games axed. Fantasy was still enjoying its brushfire period, and felt new to everyone, and anyone at that time that was into war roleplaying was focused on cold-war related material, primarily things involving large, green mushroom clouds with legions of Russian troops waiting over the horizon. It was a fun, paranoid time, especially for gamers, but a WWII-based RPG didn't stand much of a chance. Now, 20 years later, I think they just might. I kinda hope so.

Rating: 3 of 5 Stars! [3 of 5 Stars!]

Quote from: baran_i_kanuworking on a WW2 game in both C&C as well as D6 Space.
cause that's what i have and i'm cheap.

i'm thinking about downloading or buying some of the GURPS campaigns.

anyone else know of any others, free or otherwise?

if anyone has a scenario idea go for it.

thanks.

dave

Quote from: baran_i_kanuthanks all!
i downloaded Operation Jedburgh and am very happy with it. nice product.