Heavy Gear
Heavy Gear is a mecha science fiction game universe published since 1994 by Canadian publisher Dream Pod 9. It includes a tabletop tactical wargame, a role-playing game, and a combat card game. The setting is also known through the PC game incarnations published by Activision in 1997 and 1999, which were developed after Activision lost the rights to the Battletech/''MechWarrior'' series. It also spawned a 40-episode, 3D-animated TV series in 2001, which featured a much simplified version of the universe developed in the role-playing game.
The background universe of the game is very detailed – more than a hundred books and game accessories have been published since 1994. A continual epic storyline runs throughout all of the game's material, with new publications moving chronologically along the timeline. The game is best known for its humanoid combat vehicles – the Gears and Striders used by the military forces in the setting.
Development
After Gen Con 1993, the game designers at Dream Pod 9 decided that they wanted to design a game system that they could use to publish their own books; this led to the Silhouette System which would be first used for Heavy Gear.Plot and gameplay
Heavy Gear is set on a distant, fictional planet called Terra Nova around 4,000 years from now. Terra Nova was once the pride of the United Earth Government's colonies. However, an economic collapse forced the UEG to abandon Terra Nova and its other colonies centuries before the period depicted in the game setting. This results in Terra Nova suffering a Dark Age. Eventually, city-states rose from the ashes, and either through treaties or tyranny, unite together to form nations called Leagues. These Leagues would in turn ally to form the superpower blocs that dominated the temperate southern and northern hemispheres of the planet.The planet's geography is composed primarily of land that contain deep underground water reserves, but few large bodies of open water, and no oceans. The planet has its own existing ecosystem of plants and animals, such as the bison-like animal called the Barnaby which is used as livestock, and the Hopper, which is the equivalent of Earth's rabbit, though most animals are reptilian in nature. The single dominant land feature is a massive mineral rich, hot desert belt around the equator of the world known as the Badlands. This territory is not dominated by any one political group, and is considered open territory to everyone, and contains many bandit groups known as Rovers. Most people live in the northern or southern polar regions where temperatures are more acceptable to human life, and other terrain types such as forests, grasslands, swamps, and jungles can be found. Small ice caps with arctic conditions and glaciers are found on the true north and true south poles. The planet has very little axial tilt, so seasonal weather differences are small to non existent.
As the setting is primarily the backdrop for a series of strategy, roleplaying, and video games the military and their weaponry are the main focus. One of the most popular weapon systems of the various groups on Terra Nova are machines known as Heavy Gears that give the universe its name. They are 12- to 20-foot-tall bipedal, armored, single occupancy military combat units. The Gears are less heavily armed and armored than main battle tanks used by the Terra Nova armies. However, the Gears provide a mix of capabilities that prove effective as the setting/game rules typically allow victory through maneuver warfare and place less emphasis on raw firepower and armor.
Several major wars take place over time, including the War of the Alliance where Terra Nova unites against a new dictatorial government on Earth that attempts to re-take its former colonies by force. Earth is using its own advanced war machines such as hover tanks and armies of purple skinned GREL super soldiers. In this war, both the North and the South cooperate to fight off the Colonial Expeditionary Force, which during their first defeat and withdrawal, abandon many personnel. These former soldiers eventually settle Terra Nova and form their own city-state of Port Arthur in the equatorial badlands.
As of 6132 AD, the Confederated Northern City-States and the Allied Southern Territories are recovering and rebuilding from the War of the Alliance. Despite the looming common threat posed by the eventual return of Earth's colonial armies, the polar superpowers have great fear and animosity for each other, an analogy of the real world NATO and Warsaw Pact, while the independent City-States of the Badlands simply try to survive the crossfire.
Heavy Gears
The namesake machines of the universe setting are the Heavy Gears. They are 12- to 20-foot-tall machines usually weighing between 5 and 12 tons, that resemble robotic humanoids. They seat a single pilot inside the chest and head unit. They provide a flexibility to the battlefield of Heavy Gear setting that make them more useful than most other units, though they do not dominate. They can traverse more difficult terrain faster, and change direction swifter than tanks, which is important to a setting that emphasizes mobility, and not just firepower.They are powered by a unique hydrocarbon-burning piston engine called a V-engine, often mounted as a backpack. This is different from most science fiction settings, which use some form of nuclear power or a more obscure or invented power source. Confusingly, this V-engine is not the same design as a modern V-engine, but an alternative working design invented by students at the University of Colorado. The engine has two rotating cylindrical engine blocks with multiple chambers in each block. The blocks somewhat resemble large scale cylinders from a revolver handgun. The two rotating cylinders are set approximately 90 degrees from each other, and shared between each rotating block are several solid V-shaped rods that serve as pistons. As the blocks rotate inside static housings, openings in the sides of the rotating and static portions of the engine will line up and act as intake and exhaust ports, and electrical contact connections trigger the spark plugs. The rotation of the cylinder blocks is tapped for electrical power generation or directly for hydraulic pressure.
The weaponry of the Heavy Gear is usually lighter and less powerful than a main battle tank, as Gears themselves typically weigh only a fifth the weight of a tank. They typically have one automatic cannon carried as a Gear sized hand held assault rifle. They also typically have a shoulder mounted multiple-launch missile launcher rack, as well as a small anti-personnel fragmentation grenade launcher for use against infantry. However, variants of many machines, especially heavier models, can carry or mount a wide variety of weapons, such as heavy mortars, bazookas, guided missiles, larger hand-held grenade launchers, larger cannons or artillery, and even advanced directed energy weapons.
Artwork and design
The Heavy Gear books are notable for their heavily illustrated content. Each book features highly detailed plans and cutaways of the machines, along with flags, insignias, maps and other visual information to help players' immersion. Most of the artwork was done by illustrator Ghislain Barbe, who was also responsible for the artwork of Jovian Chronicles, another Dream Pod 9 game. Although he left Dream Pod 9, Ghislain produced book covers for the Heavy Gear franchise until Heavy Gear Blitz! Locked & Loaded. Currently, artwork is provided by a team of individuals.The main themes of many artworks are the Heavy Gears themselves, with distinctive backpacks for the V-engine, single 'eye' head units, and at least a small area of the machine painted with an alternating yellow and black warning stripe paint scheme.
Rules
All editions of Heavy Gear use some variation of Dream Pod 9's own Silhouette game system. The first and second editions of the game contain both Role-playing and Tactical Wargame Rules. "Tactical" Heavy Gear calls for the use of hex maps and paper counters or miniatures.The third edition of the Heavy Gear RPG uses a separate Silhouette CORE Rulebook, which is needed for play. The Heavy Gear 3rd Edition book contains useful summaries from many 2nd edition products, combined with some detailed statistics for both the SilCORE and OGL D20 systems.
Heavy Gear: Blitz! Locked & Loaded is the most recent Heavy Gear: Blitz! rulebook, the first of which was released concurrently in 2006 with a new line of miniatures. It contains no role-playing material and is styled as a dedicated wargame; it contains a streamlined rule system, an innovative new army building system, complete army lists and background information for five factions, a basic campaign system, a painting guide, and a timeline of historic events in the Heavy Gear universe. The Heavy Gear: Blitz! rules are intended for use with 1:144 scale model terrain, but it is still possible to use hexed mapsheets and paper counters.
The Heavy Gear Blitz! ruleset was a nominee for the 2007 Origins Award for Best Miniatures Game or Expansion of the Year.
In May, 2009, Dream Pod 9 released "Return to Cat's Eye", the first expansion book for Heavy Gear Blitz!, which provides background information and army lists for three new armies.
''Silhouette CORE RPG'' Rules
The Silhouette RPG, known in later editions as SilCORE is a simulationist system that defines characters in terms of 10 base attributes, 5 derived attributes, and a variety of skills. Skill rolls make up the "backbone" of the system, while basic and derived Attributes serve as modifiers to the roll.The task resolution and tests involve rolling a number of 6-sided dice, taking the highest result, adding in modifiers for attributes and/or situation, and then comparing it to a set threshold number. If the result is higher than the threshold the test is a success; if it is lower the test is a failure. The margin by which the test succeeded or failed helps to determine the outcome. Characters may suffer penalty-inflicting wounds rather than depleting a set number of health points.
Some players regard the system as particularly lethal, especially for inexperienced characters. A variety of optional rules are available in the SilCORE rulebook to mitigate this lethality.
DP9 ceased producing RPGs between 2006 and 2008 for their entire game catalog, including Heavy Gear.
On August 27, 2008, Steve Jackson Games announced that they had entered into an agreement with Dream Pod 9 to produce a fourth edition of a Heavy Gear roleplaying game. The project never got past the planning stages, however, and on August 9, 2010, Steve Jackson Games announced that they were relinquishing the rights to Heavy Gear back to DP9.
Dream Pod 9 announced that they would produce a fourth edition of a Heavy Gear RPG themselves, with a tentative release date of late 2011. This edition was not published.
In May 2023, Dream Pod 9 announced the coming of the official 4th edition rules for Heavy Gear, funded by crowdfunding to raise money for production and art costs. The project was fully funded and plans for a Q4, 2023 release are still in place. This marks the first new product for the Heavy Gear RPG line since production ceased in 2008. This new edition is reported to be compatible with Dream Pod 9's Heavy Gear Blitz! miniatures game as well as being backwards compatible with all Heavy Gear 2nd Edition rulebooks.