Team Dynamics and Session Flow in Heavy Gear RPG

Today we want to talk about some of the basics that guide what a session of Heavy Gear looks and plays like. Before getting into any of that though, we should talk about optional rules. Heavy Gear Fourth Edition contains some rules which are tagged optional. By default these are on but a Director might choose to play without them. These rules add more complexity to the game and cover area’s otherwise entirely left to Director discretion. They can be thought of like mods to a video game – something that is rarely essential but provides a richer experience. The game functions fine without any of them, and may be a more streamlined experience, but we recommend using them. Some examples of optional rules are the wealth system, burden (how much players can carry), and Archetypes (which act like character classes in other systems.)  

Teams, Sponsors, and Player Roles

The player characters in Heavy Gear are called a Team. Certain rules effect every member of the Team or can be shared among them. They are bound together – or just stuck together – to do a job for a Sponsor. Your Sponsor may be a major military like the Northern Guard or Southern MILICIA. Just as easily it could be a corporation, a paramilitary regional defense force, an eccentric billionaire,  a criminal syndicate, or freedom fighter organization. For new Directors, or those looking for a quick start, sample sponsors are provided along with a range of missions they might typically run.  

Regardless of who it is, the Sponsor determines what vehicle list the players get to choose from starting out, and what kind of help they are likely to get in their missions. Different vehicle lists have strengths and weaknesses built in, but with variants and Gear customization, every Sponsor can find a way to get the job done.

Team members will have a job to do, and usually their chosen Skills will determine a lot of their character’s role in the team. Different vehicles are designed for different roles to help characters get the most out of their skills. Yet, since the bonuses are linked to the vehicle, swapping gears can let you mix it up a bit. So long as you have basic competency at a role, every character can do at least ok at everything – meaning no one is always locked in to a single job.  

The optional Archetypes rule, can give players more defined places in a team. There is a lot to talk about here so expect a separate article on them. They are larger ideas like Grunt, Commander, Duelist, or Techie and grant fixed bonuses or new rules to help the character succeed at a specific play style.

Priority Level

The assumption is that Sponsors have provided the Team with the equipment they need – more or less. This is represented by Priority Level (or PL). If a piece of equipment matches the Team’s PL, and they can argue that they need it for a mission, their Sponsor simply provides it. Outside of a military context, this might mean that it goes on the corporate account, that their resistance cell has struggled to gather it, or that the fabricator has been pushed all night cutting parts. Regardless, there is no need to track every dollar or get bogged down in equipment hunting. Priority level ranges from 0-10 (zero being civilian equipment) and players typically start at level one, giving them just enough equipment to get into trouble. 

PL doesn’t limit what you can have and use during the game, only what is readily available. If you capture a high tech enemy weapon (and convince command to let you keep it) you can use it. This also means that if you come up with a unique idea for how to handle a situation, your sponsor can help it happen with ease. 

A last note on PL: there is also an optional wealth system to allow players to make personal purchases. If not being used, poor or rich characters can be represented with Attributes, but the wealth system gives players an ability to simply acquire a certain amount of things each game session. Rather than track each mark and dinar, equipment is divided into categories such as “trivial” or “expensive.” The higher the character’s wealth, the higher category possessions they can purchase per pay cycle.  

Intermission

Heavy Gear Fourth Edition is meant to flow like a movie. This also means that sometimes a lot of time needs to pass quickly or developments need to be assumed to get us back to the action. Intermissions are breaks that happen between game sessions, or sometimes during a session when a lot of in-world time is passing. They fill the space of montages and off camera story and character developments. 

During Intermission each character gets to take one action off of a long list. If they have taken damage, they can use it to heal their physical or psychological wounds (when incapacitated this becomes mandatory) or fix their gears if in the field. There are a whole lot of other options though. They can train for extra XP, work on attributes, gain intel on their next mission, modify their equipment or gears, or even just get into trouble. Intermission actions are fairly valuable, and the choice between which ones to take is supposed to be hard. They can also add a sort of rhythm to the game session, filling in the last ten minutes or so of play and letting the players have an idea of what their characters are up to when they are not on camera.