Heavy Gear RPG: Customizing Equipment and Vehicles
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.
Personal Equipment
This category includes everything that isn’t a vehicle. For this level of equipment we assume there are hundreds of manufacturers providing thousands of products, and a near infinite variety aftermarket customizing. Rather than provide endless pages of variation for everything from PL 1 to 10, we give a few levels of core devices and allow them to be modified to increase or decrease that level.
For an example, let’s take a starting PL1 character and PL1 repair kit. This small tool kit found in a Gear’s emergency supply would provide +1d6 to the Mechanics: Field Repair skill. The player decides they want something a little better so they ask their sponsor to give them a kit with the Customized, and Specialized Use modifications. Customized which adds +1 PL and gives +1d6 to the skill. Specialized Use gives -1 PL and further penalizes the kit if it is used for any other skill besides Mechanics: Field Repair. They get to have their 2d6 kit at PL 1, which will help them a lot in one task and work badly in literally any other situation. When the character hits PL 2, they ask Command for some better multi-tools. This will be the same +2d6 kit, but drops the Specialized Use modifier making it PL 2 to match their new status.
Weapons
Weapons follow almost the same system as personal equipment: add or subtract PL to change the game effect. Ammunition can also be customized, allowing for even more control. Some weapons also get one more perk, weapon frames. This means the weapon itself is essentially the modular receiver, and different attachments can be added to change its performance. For example a frame might be based on an assault rifle, but have parts removed to then act as a pistol. Frame weapons have to stay within the same class (light, medium, or heavy) but can be exchanged for any other frame weapon so long as the character has time to get the weapon converted and calibrated, and the parts with them. This benefit stacks with modifications, allowing you maximum flexibility. Of course, it’s still a Desert Epic, so single purpose weapons gain advantages of durability over the frame systems.
Heavy Gear Customization
Heavy gears follow a more in depth system. Just like personal equipment gears rely on PL to determine their access to weapons and parts. Gears are assumed to have modular hard points for equipment of all kinds allowing easy customization or a quick change between mission roles. We track this modularity with slots which represent both hard points or modular attachments and universal internal power and computing capability.
You only need to look at how many slots the weapon or piece of equipment takes, how many are available, and then swap out anything at your PL with the help of a mechanic. For Gears with hands, their manipulator slots are particularly valuable since they can swap weapon systems pretty much instantly. Spare slots on the Gear’s torso also allow back-up weapons or more ammo to be carried.
It is also possible to strip a gear, removing all of its equipment and then building out the raw slots. This process is assumed to be a little more drastic and will degrade the gear’s overall performance, but it will let you retool it for a dramatically different task. Stripped gears may actually contain less slots than their native format. Just because something is designed for modularity doesn’t mean it was designed for THIS vehicle’s modularity. This acts as a limiter against making a MR 10 Spitting Cobra, or a Cheetah with a heavy tank gun. Most games assume a sponsor providing supply and tech. For scenarios where the Team is poorly supplied, stripping can allow some unique builds or easy equipment access.
While the gear customization system affects every kind of anthropomorphic vehicle in the game (gears, striders, frames, etc) vehicles like tanks don’t directly follow this same system. That said, they can still be customized by removing and adding back equipment but require a little more director intervention.
The right tool for the job
Equipment provided by PL means another way to improve your character over time. It also means you might take different equipment on different missions, say a concealed kit when you need to cut a low profile, or a more bulky rig designed for more functionality when the team expects to be far from home. You can switch your favorite gear’s equipment out each mission: fit it for air drop for a deep deployment mission, for stealth in a clandestine op, or load up on shaped charges and grenades for a frontal assault.
Of course, we have hundreds of pre-built gears and lots of basic equipment too. So if this kind of tinkering isn’t something you enjoy, you can just select the basics and your character will not suffer for it. For those that love to tinker: enjoy building something awesome.
