Adventures Preview!
Hi all! Noah here, the Adventures Lead for the Heavy Gear 4th Edition! I hope you're all excited for the coming seasons of pre-made and carefully crafted adventure modules! First let me share my sincerest apologies for the starter adventure delays. Life threw me some truly overwhelming challenges, and I am saddened to have kept you waiting a little longer for these adventure modules. The team has been doing their very best to support the adventures and I'm incredibly excited to reveal some of their features before their impending release!
With that said, here's some sneak peeks of what you and your fellow Gearheads will be jumping into very soon.
DETAILED PLAY MAPS
Every adventure scenario comes with its own high resolution play map and a Director's guide overviewing the key points of interest and the various NPCs and units the players should encounter while they explore and uncover the scenario features. What will you be up to in this lush jungle area? Why does the jungle have walls all around it? What's in that hatch over to the north? Find out soon in Tempest Winds!
NEW PEOPLE, NEW COMPANIES, NEW ADVERSARIES
Every adventure module has its own intro detailing the organizations involved in the storyline and any interesting plots they might have. For example, Tempest Winds features a struggling mercenary outfit that offers a fresh start to would-be Heavy Gear pilots. The adventure gives you everything you need to roleplay as Tempest Arms trainees and mercenaries, and also details how to integrate organizations like Tempest Arms into other campaigns and situations. The Characters appendix gives you skills, backgrounds, and little story details for every non-player characater (NPC) you'll find along the journey. And veteran Heavy Gear fans will recognize the return of the chesspiece system that easily marks which characters are crucial to the storyline and which ones are pawns in someone else's schemes.
SPECIAL FEATURES
More than just maps and stories, each adventure module comes with a special features section you can use to expand your campaigns with new ideas and fresh challenges. Tempest Winds comes with an additional player archetype - the Handler. These animal enforcers bond and train with creature companions and work as a unit to sniff out threats and hunt down their targets. One Minute to Midnight comes with a series of high risk, high reward scenarios that can be dropped into any campaign or adventure for a little extra spice. Should you and your squadmates overcome these challenges, special rewards like the experimental Hydro Cat Cheetah MKII will be yours to enjoy.
*Prof Note, the RPG adventures will occasionally have unique units for that adventure. They live in their own adventures and will not have supported Blitz profiles. You can use the RPG to Blitz converter at the link below if you want to bring some into narrative games.
https://www.dp9community.com/gear-up-blog/bringing-the-rpg-to-blitz
UNIQUE LOOT
Speaking of special rewards, every adventure module features some unique loadouts and modified weapons and equipment for players to find and salvage along their adventure. These goodies might be hidden around the play maps, or they might be closely guarded by the NPCs scattered throughout the adventure. To the victor goes the spoils!
ENDLESS VARIATIONS
All adventure scenarios feature potential complications that allow Directors to add extra twists and turns along the campaign. Did the supply caravan you were chasing already get ransacked before you could arrive? Has your mole in the rover base turned out to be a traitor? No two adventure playthroughs could be the same and these ideas are designed to help you jump into making your own changes and spinning your own narratives into the adventures. Larger campaign variants are introduced in every intro of the book to really put a spin on the adventure. Instead of a mercenary training program, you could play Tempest Winds as an underground bloodsport arena where contestants get paid out if they can survive all of the dangerous traps and trials. Instead of a band of Terra Novan heroes working to stop the CEF, you might run One Minute to Midnight as an offworld faction set to carry out their vicious plot against Terra Nova. Shake things up with plenty of ideas in every adventure book!
GO VIRTUAL!
Whether playing in-person or with squadmates far, far away, the adventure modules are ready for you. Every adventure map is planned to include an editable version you can import into the RPGMap tool to change the layout or add your own objects and secrets. All of the map objects used in each adventure are also included with each digital copy of the book! In addition, the high-resolution maps come in gridded and gridless versions to suit your player group's preference. But that's not all...
All adventure modules for the Heavy Gear RPG 4th Edition are planned to have virtual tabletop support! Pre-made modules for Roll20 and FoundryVTT will be released shortly after each book is released so users of either popular VTT application can import the adventure, add their player characters, and jump right in!
Of course, the full adventure books contain even more treats and surprises. I can't wait for players and directors to dive in and have fun with them. The starter adventures Tempest Winds and One Minute to Midnight are still on track to be delivered digitally to backers soon. Stay tuned for more info on Season 1!
For the love of the Gear,
Noah Tebben
