G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game Quartermaster’s Guide to Gear Sourcebook review—Lock and load cadets!

For this review, I will refer to this product as the G.I. JOE Quartermaster’s guide. This book is a supplement to the G.I. JOE Roleplaying Game by Renegade Game Studios. In this book, you’ll find:

• 8 new Influences.
• 3 new Origins.
• 7 new Focuses.
• New general perks.
• New equipment options.
• Stats for vehicles.

Game masters get some goodies as well, including:

• New and alternative rules for Requisition.
• Ways to take campaigns into other settings.
• New and alternate vehicle rules.
• A whole chapter on battle stations, strongholds, and war machines.

Before diving into what I consider a must-have supplement, you have to make sure that you have the G.I. Joe roleplaying game. You can check out my review for that by clicking here.

New Influences

The new Influences are:

• Broadcaster
• Junker
• Leadfoot
• Rocket Scientist
• Seafarer
• Skyward
• Technostalgic
• Weapon Enthusiast

I am going to give credit where it’s due because none of these feel like they should’ve been in the Core Rulebook. Most of what was added is themed around cars, technology, or weapons, and that fits because that’s what this book is all about. These Influences also provide examples for G.I. Joe’s and Cobra, something that I think is pretty neat.

My favorite new Influence is the Rocket Scientist. The Hang-Up sees you catching a Snag when you use a Science or Technology skill for the first time during a session. I like this because it’s thematically appropriate. After all, the Influence says your character will need to gather their thoughts.

New Origins

The new Origins are:

• Futurist
• Militia Member
• Racer

I like the new Origins just fine. My group got to try them during the character creation process and they managed to make some interesting character specific. The Racer Origin was the group’s favorite, leading me to create a racing-themed adventure.

This chapter also includes new Focus options like the Influence options: Examples for G.I. Joe’s and Cobra. Commando got a new option called Chameleonite. It sees your character using technology to change their appearance on a whim. Infantry got the Drone Pilot Focus. Officer got the Tech Officer Focus.

There are a host of new General Perks too. CQB is my favorite, it allows you to get +d2 to Targeting. You’ll also no longer suffer a penalty for ranged skill checks when within an enemy’s reach. The roleplay potential of this perk is crazy. My players were fighting while driving, and it created some interesting action scenes.

Weapons and Equipment

The weapons and equipment in this book have me screaming. Aside from the vehicle additions, this is the best part of the whole damn book. There are new weapon effects and traits, new weapons, new weapon upgrades, new body armor, and new kits. There is so much here.

My favorite new weapon effect/trait is called Marked which coats whatever you shoot in paint. The substance will take several minutes of scrubbing to remove and has to be removed with soap and water. I had a player going around marking enemies, and it was extremely engaging. He also used the paint to mark walls, cars, and whatever else he thought would be useful.

The group also had fun with the Irritant Disperser. It’s a glitter bomb and my players used it to annoy the enemies or toss them out of their cars as they were trying to get away. My favorite new gun is the Sawed-Off Shotgun, because it’s fun to use and has a large cone to hit. There is a whole table of new weapon upgrades as well. This is where you would get the paintball rounds to mark targets. I love the new weapon upgrades so much because they all have unique gameplay potential.

Aside from the Classic Weapons, they also added body armor as a new Battledress. Body armor is a consumable that has its own health. You can repair it, or you have to remove it when its health reaches 0. Battledresses in general got new upgrades such as Light Ballistic Armoring, Replacement Plate, and Heavy Kinetic Armoring. There are also a couple of new Kits towards the end of this section.

When I was testing this book, we were all shocked that body armor wasn’t in the base game because it feels like such a smooth addition to the game. I ran the armor in such a way that players were removing their broken armor as soon as they got a chance. It made everything extremely cinematic.

New Campaign Design

I will never forgive this supplement for making me become obsessed with different terrain types. This section provides everything you’ll need to run vehicle-focused campaigns. Your campaign could focus on the land, air, or sea and you’ll find rules here that will help you make your idea happen.

But that’s not all. There are rules here for personal vehicles, group vehicle specialization, and even vehicle upgrades. You’ll also find a healthy selection of vehicles for each terrain type. I was extremely impressed with how thorough this chapter is. If you want to run a vehicle-focused campaign, this is the book for you.

Final Thoughts

There are a lot of bonus rules in this book which is great for anyone who didn’t like the rules in the core rulebook or wanted different rules to choose from. I specifically enjoyed the new alternate rules for requisitions because it speeds up the process and lets us get to the mission quicker. Providing the requisition budget and setting the available equipment for the mission ahead of time felt more realistic to my players and me so we will continue using these rules going forward.

The new additions to Roles, Influences, and Origins are great. I appreciate how thematic all of the choices are and that there are roleplay options for the Joes and Cobra. None of the new options stood out to me as being a missed opportunity or a necessity. Meaning they felt perfect for supplementary material but did not feel like they were missing from the base game.

The new weapon options are some of my favorites in the game because they also come with unique enhancements. We tried as many of the new upgrades as possible and they’re all extremely fun to use. I especially appreciate the roleplay opportunities that the new gear provides.

Where this book comes to life, and the reason I think that everyone who owns this game should have this supplement, is the vehicle section. This chapter breaks down how to run campaigns for different terrain types very easily. Using these new rules I was able to run a one-shot game set on land, on sea, and in the air. The book offers a healthy variety of planes, cars, and boats and it’s extremely easy to make your vehicle this way. When I ran a racing one-shot for my group they had a lot of fun using the new car upgrades to make their vehicles their own.

The Quartermaster’s Guide is a must-have for anyone playing the G.I. Joe Roleplaying Game because of the amount of content that they packed into the book. Everything is thematically appropriate and the rules are well written. The artwork continues to impress me and overall, I adore this supplement and will not play the core game without it.

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