Galactic Ops
A downloadable game
Galactic Ops is a cinematic, one-page, rules-lite role playing game where you play as an "Op" who is sent on risky missions across the galaxy. Your goal: get in, complete the objective, and hopefully survive.
The game features a simple mission generator to quickly create adventures for the characters. Once the mission is generated, drop the characters right into the action and play to see what happens. This game is perfect for solo play, one-shots, or as a filler game. Character advancement is possible, so you can even run multiple missions with the same characters.
The rules are extremely simple. The characters have 2 attributes: Mind & Body. Each attribute is assigned a die size. Determine the difficulty which has a die. Roll both the Attribute and Difficulty die together. If the Attribute die is greater than or equal to the Difficulty die, then it is a success. When the Attribute die is less than the Difficulty die, it is a partial success.
There's also a fun Momentum/Karma mechanic that allows characters to accumulate Karma points. Karma can be spent to alter the die before rolling or to force a re-roll after rolling. This adds to a fun dynamic element to the game.
This game is based on Pay The Price and includes quick start characters converted from the Heroes of Adventure game.
Download
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Development log
- More tables and generators!Jun 24, 2024
- Small Change, Big ImprovementJun 15, 2023
- Minor updatesMay 23, 2023
- New Singles PDFApr 28, 2023
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Official Review (now that I finished my first game)
This game plays well with a good mix of rolling challenge checks but with the narrative aspect left to you to determine how your skill or item applies. Managing and utilizing Karma & Strain provides a strategic element, with the Quirk throwing an occasional wrench into your plans. The Pay the Price system nicely propels the narrative forward. Great for solo as the resolution is player facing, but you'll need an oracle depending on your play style.
Coming from a background of huge lists of options such as classes, feats, skills, etc. made it feel like I was cheating when I got a Partial Success (failure). It took some getting used to. One example was attempting to repair an unstable reactor. I got a full success to apply the physical patch, but failed/partial success to connect to the computer system to finish the job. I determined that I fixed it, but only temporarily. This pushed the narrative forward and made me consider if I wanted to try to make it permanent or move on with my core mission.
There are a couple of minor issues to mention. There isn't a list of quirks, so you'll have to generate or think of it yourself. The lists of equipment and weapons are listed in the pregen character file instead of the core rules, but I mentioned this to the creator and perhaps he'll fold it in at some point.
I appreciate the review!
Good points on quirks and gear. I will look into those improvements among others.
I am going to try the resolution system from Cyberpunks for my solo Galactic Ops game. My character has missed completely except for 1 time out of 6 rolls. Luckily the system is setup for partial success upon failure. One time I tried rolling an extra die since two skills applied, but they both rolled low. I think adding will give more of a chance and represents the factors/experience involved better.
On a related note, the facilitator role has accumulated momentum and has karma. How is Karma used by the facilitator? Do you decide the challenge rating like normal, then use your karma to move it up one? Do you just reverse the player side to give strain or make the player reroll?
I also wanted to mention that the weapons and gear lists are only found in the quickstart characters file. I was confused trying to choose those until happening to open that file. I think a similar setup like in Cyberpunks would also work well for those. Or at least add a comment in the main file on where to find those lists.
Luckily due to the partial success aspect, I've been able to progress and it's been fun so far! Thanks for what you do, it's been fun to see the nuances
You've discovered why it is a partial success system. Characters wouldn't make it very far if it was a complete fail. Are you using opposed rolls or static #'s? I generally use opposed rolls when playing.
The CyberPunks resolution system is fun, but boy is it unbalanced. I have been testing it and the success rate is crazy high when you start getting into the d10 range. I am trying to see if different target #'s will help.
Thanks for the comment on gear in Galactic Ops. I need to circle back to this game and make some updates. That would be a good one to get in there.
As for Facilitator Karma when playing solo... I would skip it, or maybe incorporate an Oracle roll to see if the Facilitator uses it against you.
I am glad you're enjoying it. I really like the simplicity of the Pay The Price mechanic. Building fail forward into the mechanic makes the game more enjoyable for me anyways.
I'm using the difficulty die after determining the difficulty level if that is what you mean by opposed rolls. If it's by design, then I understand and it's been pushing the narrative forward in that way.
I could see that becoming unbalanced in CP. To me it's always a struggle to only rely on dice mechanics, because when you're more experienced you generally do things right. A simple task should go fine unless other factors come into play like standing on a ledge with high winds while trying to break into a window. It's annoying when an experienced character makes a noob mistake (failed roll). In the case of Galactic Ops it breaks immersion if my character is supposed to be one of the best. Nothing is perfect of course and I guess that's why we have house rules and the like.
Thanks, I did wonder if I needed facilitator Karma in solo. It seemed like something extra to track and worry about. I've been using an oracle (PUM) along with ChatGPT to narrate what happens. I also use rng assets that we all have too.
Overall the PtP mechanic seems like a stripped down PBtA, although I've still not played a PTbA game just read over them.
Thanks for the reply, have a good one!
Yep, the difficulty die is what I was referring to. When we play tested it, I facilitated and just had the players roll the die. I could have rolled, bit the players seemed to enjoy rolling both (and it was faster). It is a natural fit for solo play too.
I also lean on AI when playing solo. It really helps when I get an odd Oracle answer or when I need some inspiration for situations.
Have fun! Oh, and if you're following CyberPunks, I will probably have an update later this week if I can figure out how to fix the imbalance.
I finally finished my game over a few sessions. Overall it went well and I succeeded in my mission! I'm not sure if I'll continue the character, but did wonder if you recommend simply rolling up another mission that's connected to the first or just organically growing it. My mission was rescuing a downed pilot with intel, so that intel would seem to provide the next mission if I can get it fleshed out a bit.
That's completely up to you. If you do, bump the die of an attribute (if you didn't already) and see where it goes.