Getting your character made in Heavy Gear is pretty simple once you know the concepts. It can be done before the game, but is really best done with all the players and the Narrator together as a sort of session zero. Today we are going to run through the process.

Building the Team, National Origin, and Lifepath   

The player characters in Heavy Gear are referred to as a Team. They might be a military, corporate contractors, or even a group of criminals brought together for a heist. The important part is that they are in this together. The Team works for a Sponsor, such as the military the Team serves in, a corporate entity, a revolutionary movement, or just about anything else. The Sponsor helps determine which vehicles the Team can choose from.   

It’s with great pride and pleasure that Dream Pod 9 announces the final Heavy Gear 4th Edition Roleplaying Game plans. Writing and basic layout is now complete for the HG 4th Ed RPG Rulebook, which clocks in at a massive 480 pages and includes everything players and gamemasters need to play and run games. Inside players will find a detailed history of the world, the core game rules, character creation, plus a massive library of gears, vehicles, and equipment to use in the game. The new edition calls back to the beloved 2nd Edition, while also presenting Heavy Gear to a modern audience. It focuses on roleplaying and storytelling while using an updated version of the Silhouette d6 system. Instead of just additional 6’s giving you a +1, now other results can do so as well, like in Heavy Gear Blitz. Also, players can customize not only their character but their gear.

Welcome to Heavy Gear Revitalized!

Until now the older Heavy Gear ebooks available on DriveThruRPG have been scanned copies of the original printed books. Dream Pod 9 is happy to announce the release of high-quality electronic format ebooks for the Heavy Gear Classic Roleplaying & Tactical Game publications. The first 22 Revitalized titles are now live on DriveThruRPG for purchase and include the following:

1. Heavy Gear Revitalized - Heavy Gear Rulebook 1st Edition DP9-001
2. Heavy Gear Revitalized - Life on Terra Nova 1st Edition DP9-002
3. Heavy Gear Revitalized - Technical Manual 1st Edition DP9-004
4. Heavy Gear Revitalized - Duelist’s Handbook 1st Edition DP9-005
5. Heavy Gear Revitalized - Operation Jungle Drums +Counters/4Maps/GM Screen DP9-006
6. Heavy Gear Revitalized - Tactical Air Support DP9-008
7. Heavy Gear Revitalized - Field Guide, North 1 DP9-009
8. Heavy Gear Revitalized - Field Guide, South 1 DP9-010
9. Heavy Gear Revitalized - Field Guide, North 2 DP9-012
10. Heavy Gear Revitalized - Field Guide, South 2 DP9-013
11. Heavy Gear Revitalized - Tactical Field Support DP9-016
12. Heavy Gear Revitalized - Into the Badlands DP9-018
13. Heavy Gear Revitalized - Character Compendium DP9-021
14. Heavy Gear Revitalized - Southern Republic Army List DP9-024
15. Heavy Gear Revitalized - Vehicle Compendium, North 1 DP9-025
16. Heavy Gear Revitalized - Vehicle Compendium, South 1 DP9-026
17. Heavy Gear Revitalized - Record Sheets, North 1 DP9-027
18. Heavy Gear Revitalized - Record Sheets, South 1 DP9-028
19. Heavy Gear Revitalized - Northern Lights Confederacy Leaguebook DP9-030
20. Heavy Gear Revitalized - Southern Republic Leaguebook DP9-031
21. Heavy Gear Revitalized - Humanist Alliance Leaguebook DP9-032
22. Heavy Gear Revitalized - Storyline Book 1 – Crisis of Faith DP9-033

Plus we have a Heavy Gear Revitalized Bundle 1 with all 22 ebooks at a special discounted price.

Automaton Infantry

Utopian warfare is dominated by automatons, or autos for short. Auto is a catch all term for any drone used by Utopians be it for combat, transportation, picking up garbage or even housekeeping. The most famous examples known on Terra Nova are the N-KIDU units. However, these are far from the only models used. Recent sightings of smaller, humanoid units have begun to trickle in. Classified as Trooper Automatons, the Utopian armies use these to clear dense urban terrain as well as hold and fortify positions against attacks. The Clearance teams in particular have a reputation for completely annihilating any opposing forces, human or auto, civilian or military, unless they receive an order to stand down.

Start by building the body of your Tiger as normal, with the usual legs, torso, backpack, medium rocket pack and arms. For the HAC arm, you’ll need to clip the Tiger’s hand off, or clip off the hand attached to the HAC part, then attach. Next attach the Satellite Uplink pod from the Spearhead Parts onto the shoulder opposite of the rocket pack. Finally, use the head part from the Spearhead Parts and you’re all finished!

HACS-08MG-D SPEARHEAD TIGER

We are soon to go live on kickstarter to fund some of the high quality art and storytelling that goes into the core book. And it’s going to be a very full core book. You will find information on all the Terra Novan factions, overviews of all other planets previously written about, and over 200 Heavy Gears and Vehicles for your character to use.

Today we’re featuring another army from the community. Léon (aka Part Time Commie) from the local community has sent us pictures of their fantastic looking Port Arthur Korps army (with a little CEF mixed in).

Here’s my PAK armies, sometimes shamelessly used as CEF for narrative purposes, I decided to go with PAK because I really liked their tanks, especially the MHT-68 all hail the MHT-68, and their combined arms approach. I could have went with CEF but I found the narrative possibilities with PAK more interesting since you could do more with border politics than the big bad threat from outer-space. I also really liked the idea of those old tanks being maintained past their primes and supplemented with old gears they got for cheap. I have other armies from which I can pull models to put them in and maybe later I will paint gears in PAK colors and decals. I decided to go with something very standard for the color scheme as I had multiple armies I wanted to paint and wanted to be flexible in my narratives. It’s not original but I really like that color scheme and it screams PAK/CEF when you look at it, at least to me!

Miranda and Julius

Rovers are a constant threat to Peace River forces and their interests in the Badlands. To fight this menace, specialized anti-rover squadrons are put together. Fitted with ECM Spectre upgrades with enhanced jamming capabilities, Anti Rover Blockade Squads shut down the communication equipment of the enemy rovers, before isolating and destroying the individual threats.

Using Specialist Combat Groups in Heavy Gear Blitz!

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Constructing a Specialist Combat Group is a bit different than a normal Blitz! combat group. Instead of picking the role and secondary role for the unit and filling it how you please, you must instead adhere to strict rules for composition, which may even include only running specific variants or upgrades. In exchange for adhering to this rigid formation, you may be able to run some models in a Role they may not normally fit in, or gain access to some unique options.

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