Heavy Gear RPG: Archetypes

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. 

Broadly, Archetypes fall into three categories being direct bonus focused, mechanic focused, or team focused. We will break each of them down below, and preview how each Archetype works, but it is worth noting that almost all have abilities that effect role-playing situations as well as combat bonuses.

Direct Bonus Archetypes 

Grunt

Non-nonsense soldiers. Each time a Grunt ranks up they can choose from one of four abilities from a list of Melee, Ranged, Endurance, and Brute. You can freely mix and match from your current rank or any previous rank, but the highest level abilities are only allowed for Grunts that take most of their upgrades from one category. This allows you to build anything from a heavy weapons expert, to a melee berserker, to a hard to kill tank. 

Pilot

Deft vehicle operators. At Rank one Pilot’s choose what kind of vehicle their abilities function on. They begin with the ability to “patch” their vehicle, allowing them to keep it temporarily running when damaged. As they rank up, they will get to choose between attack or movement based abilities. This leaves room to be skilled fighting vehicle operators or just highly effective drivers.  

Scout 

Forward observers, stealth operatives, or snipers. Just like the Grunt, the Scout will choose from three different upgrade categories each time they rank up picking between Pathfinder, Sniper, and Guerrilla abilities. Pathfinder abilities deal with forward observation, spotting hidden details, and tracking. Sniper abilities are focused on – well, sniping. Guerrilla abilities help with stealth, concealment, and breaking into secure locations undetected. 

Mechanic Based Archetypes

Commander

Inspirational leaders. While any character can lead a team effectively Commanders are ideal for the role, acting not unlike a bard inspiring others to success. Commanders have a list of orders they can issue with command points just like in Blitz. Each intermission, the Commander can change their list of orders to choose from, letting them customize for the upcoming mission. 

Duelist

Close assault masters. Duelists are experts in piloting a Heavy Gear. Duelists gain Momentum each time an attack hits and they make an impressive or clever maneuver. Momentum can then be spent off a chart of special moves that affect where attacks hit, dice and threshold, or other factors. If they are clever about it they can chain moves into deadly combos.

Techie 

Tech savants. Techies can push electronic and mechanical equipment beyond its specs with experimental techniques or clever hacks. At Rank 1, they specialize in a field, and gain a pool of Enhancement Dice to be used on this field. These dice can be added as a bonus to skill checks. Enhancement Dice that beat the threshold of a test get added back to the pool, while failures are removed. However, if three or more of these dice fail, the equipment is damaged from pushing the envelope too far. As they rank up, Techies can expand the fields they can influence or increase their skill in their chosen fields.    

Team Focused

These archetypes help themselves, but also provide an important resource to the whole Team or help in role-playing situations.

Caretaker

Team Support. Like the Grunt and Scout, caretakers choose from different special abilities each level. These abilities help team members fix damage, or even act as a temporary buffer to it. The interesting part is that caretakers can choose from shell shock, system shock, or mechanical abilities. This means they could simply be a mechanic or doctor, but also a chaplain or bartender type focused on their Team’s mental health. You can even mix and match to provide all around support. 

Fixer 

Jack-of-all-Trades. A Fixer gets a pool of bonus dice each session that they can spend on any skill roll, allowing them to fill a critical hole when needed. As they rank up, they also can develop faster over time by getting to mark XP on a skill they didn’t use or getting extra Intermission actions. Finally, their highest level ability lets them actually change the story by adding a detail to a scene which can dramatically effect events or simply solve a critical problem at once. 

Simple Rules, Complex Possibilities 

Archetypes have been designed to be neutral in their rules language when possible. This allows them to work for all different kinds of games. For example, a Duelist’s skills being based on the Melee domain means they can just as easily be a Heavy Gear pilot as they could an Edenite Knight or a brutal ESE pitfighter. Techies work well as hackers instead of EW experts, while Scouts or Grunts could serve in military roles, be secret agents, or desperate freedom fighters. But just the same, they are designed not to be limiting. A character with the right traits and skills can often be nearly as good as an archetype specialized in the same activity. So really, the choice is up to you and no one is forced to be a certain class to assure the Team succeeds.