For those new to the Heavy Gear setting, as well as returning veterans, we’ve put together a PDF to help capture the mood and feeling of life and warfare on Terran Nova.

Terra Nova

Here we have our complete map of Terra Nova, in full color!

OACS-03M/AB NASH BASILISK

The Nash Basilisk was one of the earliest southern gears to be equipped with a radar absorbent material coating which resulted in an early stealth gear. The modifications were originally made by technicians from the MILICIA’s 11th Gear Regiment, the Rapiers, in the TN 1860s. The Rapiers treated more favorably than most MILICIA units. Consequently, it was the Rapiers who found that, in open ground, the gear remained difficult to conceal even after the coating was applied. However, when used in combination with natural cover, the gear’s new skin permitted the vehicle to approach targets while very likely remaining undetected. Should the gear remain immobile in cover, stealth performance goes from good to excellent. The Rapiers immediately began using the new model as an ambush specialist, equipping it with heavy weaponry such as bazookas.

For beginners or RPG vets, Heavy Gear is a vibrant world to explore.

You might have just seen the kickstarter, or you might have had friends talk about this 90s Canadian mecha game they used to be obsessed with, either way, you don’t know if it is a good game to pick up. Heavy Gear has a lush setting and long in-world history. These are far from the best reasons to play it. Here are five reasons you should play Heavy Gear.

HACS-01LG-MP METAL CAT

Shaian’s main claim to fame is the Cheetah, an insanely nimble but incredibly expensive recon gear that is so capable that it outshines every opponent in its class. This however led to a problem, a gear that is expensive to make and maintain and serves mainly as a dedicated EW platform is not always in high demand. Simple economics dictated that in order to survive Shaian would need something closer to the baseline.

Hey everyone, Prof9844 here with another RPG article. This time we are going to tackle how to convert your 4th edition RPG character for use in a game of Heavy Gear Blitz.

This process is the official process for doing so. Normally we would want this in the book, but space requirements prevented us from doing that. Also, this does NOT recreate blitz vehicles exactly. If you were to put say a Visigoth through this process it comes out at PI 5+ instead of 6+. This is a quirk of the system and you can adjust if this is of concern.

We knew when building Heavy Gear RPG 4e that we wanted to have customization incorporated into the rules set. We also knew we wanted it to be intuitive and simple, but gamified in a way that is fun to play around with. The result is that you can customize almost everything. While Priority Level acts as a gating mechanic, the only real limit is what the director will allow. 

Custom Design Philosophy.

To quote William Gibson, “the future is already here, it just isn’t equally distributed.” We tried to play this idea forward in Heavy Gear. Auto factories do mass assembling in the more wealthy nations while poorer places still make heavy use of human labor. Advanced and well supplied military units might be able to cut and assemble entire weapon systems in a few hours while a Badlands outpost might have to reuse decades old tech to save valuable supplies and wear on essential machinery. To represent the ready availability of equipment, equipment uses the Priority Level (PL) system. If equipment matches your PL, then it is assumed to be available to the team without too much fuss. You can still use anything you find (and convince your sponsor to let you keep), but PL is usually going to be readily available to switch out and easy to replace. 

Spartan II

The Spartan was designed by Peace River Skunkwerks to be an easy to produce heavy trooper gear that could be used in place of Warrior IVs. Simpler, easy to produce components were sourced from other Peace River designs particularly the Crusader. These larger parts made the Spartan quite a bit larger than other gears of its class. Paxton unveiled their new gear to the public as part of its rebuilding campaign with the tagline “Bigger & Badder”. The larger actuators and joint components had an unexpected side effect once the gear hit the market.

T-XM1500/2 GOLD MAMBA

Archetypes are one of the optional rules for Heavy Gear. They represent different specializations a character can pursue, and players will recognize them as similar to the classes or jobs found in other roleplaying games. An Archetype represents a career long – or possibly life long – focus for a character, so they must be chosen during character construction and can’t be changed. A character starts at Rank 1 in their chosen Archetype and gets an ability then, and each time they rank up, up to Rank 6 in total. Ranking up typically happens at major story junctures, and is one of the many ways characters can advance over time. 

Heavy Gear Fourth Edition aims for a combination of open ended rules with well defined game effects. Anything the player imagines can be a Skill, Trait, or equipment and those rules get applied in the same simple ways. Heavy Gear 4e When and how they get applied though is up to a process called Lobbying.  

The Player Lobby