… is that it is a gentle (yet utterly awe-inspiring) reminder of the vast scope of our universe. It is a planet nearly the size of the Earth so far away that it is rendered as nothing more than a pinprick silhouette upon the surface of the sun. And that, in itself, suddenly lends a humbling perspective to our own distance from the sun and the vast size of that celestial body of fusion and flame.

It is a sight which is literally mind-boggling. Looking at that tiny dot of Venus, our brains simply cannot process the reality of what we’re seeing: Regardless of what the rational side of our brain may be capable of appreciating in that moment, our eyes nevertheless refuse to interpret that black splotch as a planetary mass.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is a novel written using the English language. It was written by J.K. Rowling, who has also written several other novels.

As far as the novel goes, it has a nice cover featuring a picture of Harry Potter on a broom. It wraps-around fully and even goes onto the inside flaps. It’s rather whimsical and is one of the reasons that I bought the book. The book is a 6″ x 9″ hardcover with a glue binding. The type is very legible in 12-point Adobe Garamond. The interior art is all pencil drawn and of decent quality. I have seen better in other books, but it’s not bad. The margins are fairly large and the type is widely spaced. I did not notice any problems with proofreading.

On the contents. The inside covers are blank and navy blue in color. The first page contains the title, then there’s another page with title, author, and illustrator. The third page contains the copyright notice followed by a table of contents. There are seventeen chapters.

On page 9, the action starts. Harry Potter is a young boy who has been orphaned. This goes on for 17 pages, then we skip ahead a decade or so. Things proceed in a linear narrative from that point forward.

At the end of the book, there’s a couple pages detailing the type font and various other credits.

Overall, the novel was quite good. The format is a bit worn (young hero does heroic stuff), but there is a good mix of mystery and magic to offset this. It is supposed to be the first in a series of novels focused on Harry Potter, so the characters should see some much-needed development in the future.

I recommend this novel and await the next installment.

Go to Part 1

HEXES

1 Hex = 12 miles (center to center/side to side) = 7 mile sides = 124 square miles

WATCHES

A watch is the basic unit for tracking time. A watch is equal to 4 hours.

Determine Time Within a Watch: To randomly generate a particular time within a watch, use 1d8 to determine the half hour and 1d30 to determine the exact minute (if necessary).

SPEED AND DISTANCE

Consult the table for movement per hour, per watch (4 hours), or per day (8 hours).

Hustle: A character can hustle for 1 hour. Hustling for a second hour between sleep cycles deals 1 point of nonlethal damage, and each additional hour deals twice the damage taken during the previous hour of hustling. A character who takes any nonlethal damage from hustling becomes fatigued. Eliminating the nonlethal damage also eliminates the fatigue.

Mounts: Mounts carrying riders at a hustle suffer lethal damage instead of nonlethal damage.

March: A character can march at walking speed for 8 hours between sleep cycles.

Forced March: For each hour of marching beyond 8 hours, a character must make a Constitution check (DC 10, +2 per extra hour). If the check fails, the characters takes 1d6 points of nonlethal damage. A character who takes any nonlethal damage from a forced march becomes fatigued. Eliminating the nonlethal damage also eliminates the fatigue.

Mounts: Mounts carrying riders in a forced march automatically fail their Constitution checks and suffer lethal damage instead of nonlethal damage.

MODES OF TRAVEL

Normal: No modifiers.

Hustling: Characters are assumed to be moving quickly in any watch during which they hustle. Navigation DCs increase by +4 while hustling.

Tip: For each hour that characters hustle during a watch, you can simply add their movement per hour to their total movement for that watch.

Cautiously: While moving cautiously, characters are purposely being careful. Movement is made at 3/4 normal speed. The chance for any non-exploratory encounter is halved. (If a non-exploratory encounter is generated, there is a 50% chance it doesn’t actually happen.) Navigation DCs are reduced by -4 while moving cautiously.

Exploring: While exploring, characters are assumed to be trying out side trails, examining objects of interest, and so forth. Movement is made at 1/2 normal speed. The chance for encounters is doubled.

Note: It is possible to move cautiously while exploring. Apply all rules for both modes of travel (including both movement modifiers).

Foraging: While foraging, characters move at 1/2 normal speed but can make a Survival check once per day. On a successful check, the character has gathered enough food and water for one day. They can provide food or water for one additional character for every 2 points by which the check result exceeds the DC. The DC is determined by the terrain type.

TERRAIN

The type of terrain modifies the speed at which the character can travel.

• Highway: A highway is a straight, major, paved road.
• Road: A road is a dirt track or similar causeway.
• Trail: A trail is like a road, but allows only single-file travel. A trail in poor repair requires a DC 12 navigation check to follow.
• Trackless: Trackless terrain is a wild area with no paths. +2 to Navigation DCs.

CONDITIONS

Poor visibility also increases the DC of navigation checks by +4 and forage checks by +2.

OPTIONAL RULE: ACTUAL DISTANCE TRAVELED

The distance cited on the tables is the average distance traveled. The actual distance traveled is 50% to 150% (2d6+3 times 10%) of that distance.

Characters can ascertain the actual distance traveled with a successful Survival check made at the Navigation DC of the terrain. On a failure, they assume the average value of the distance traveled.

Note: The purpose of this rule is to make accurate mapping more difficult. (You could actually adapt a similar rule to dungeon exploration in order to make accurate mapping of the dungeon environment more difficult, although the resolution time involved might be prohibitive.) Take 10 is an option, so experienced explorers will never have any problem accurately gauging how far they’ve traveled.

TRACKING HEXES

Movement on the wilderness hex grid is abstracted. In order to determine if a party has left a hex, you must keep track of their progress within the hex.

Starting in a Hex: If a character starts movement within a hex, it requires 6 miles of progress in order to exit any face of the hex.

Optional Rule: You can choose to bias a starting position. For example, you might see that a river flows near the western edge of a hex. If the PCs start traveling from that river, you might decide that it only takes 2 miles to exit through the hex’s western face and 10 miles to exit through its eastern face.

Crossing Hex to a Far Side: It requires 12 miles of progress to exit a hex through one of the three faces on the opposite side.

Crossing Hex to a Near Side: It requires 6 miles of progress to exit a hex through one of the two nearest faces.

Back the Way We Came: If characters deliberately double back along their own trail, simply reduce their progress until they exit the hex. If they leave back through the same face through which they entered the hex for any other reason (by getting lost, for example) you can generally assume that it takes 6 miles of progress to exit the hex unless circumstances suggest some other figure.

Go to Part 3: Navigating the Wilderness

This material is covered by the Open Game License.

As part of my essay on game structures in roleplaying games, I specifically discussed the basic structure of the hexcrawl:

(1)   Draw a hexmap. In general, the terrain of each hex is given as a visual reference and the hex is numbered (either directly or by a gridded cross-reference). Additional features like settlements, dungeons, rivers, roads, and polities are also typically shown on the map.

(2)   Key the hexmap. Using the numbered references, key each hex with an encounter or location. (It is not necessary to key all of the hexes on the map.)

(3)   Use (or design) mechanics which will let you determine how far the PCs can move while traveling overland. Determine the hex the PCs start in and track their movement.

(4)   Whenever the PCs enter a new hex, the GM tells them the terrain type of the hex and triggers the encounter or location keyed to that hex: The PCs experience the event, encounter the monsters, or see the location.

Initially a core component of roleplaying games, the hexcrawl structure slowly faded away. By 1989 there were only a few vestigial hex maps cropping up in products and none of them were actually designed for hexcrawl play. 2^nd Edition removed hexcrawling procedures from the rulebooks entirely. It wasn’t until Necromancer Games brought the Wilderlands back into print and Ben Robbins’ West Marches campaign went viral that people started to rediscover the lost art of the hexcrawl.

During my discussion of game structures,  I mentioned that I had been developing and playtesting a robust structure for hexcrawling. Since then I’ve received several requests to share my rules for hexcrawling. Although still very much a work in progress, over the next few days I intend to do exactly that.

DESIGN GOALS

Before we get to the actual hexcrawling, however, I want to take a moment to clarify what my design goals were (and are) for this project.

First, I wanted a structure which would hide the hexes from the players. Although I find the abstraction of the hex extremely convenient on the GM’s side of the screen (for tracking navigation, keying encounters, and so forth), I’m of the opinion that it has negative effects on the other side of the screen: I want the players interacting with the game world, not the abstraction. Therefore, the hexes in this hexcrawl system are a player-unknown structure.

Second, building on that, the structure is explicitly designed for exploration. The structure, therefore, includes a lot of rules for navigation, getting lost, and finding your way again. It’s built around having the players constantly making new discoveries (even in places they’ve been before).

Third, the system is built around the assumption that every hex on the map will have at least one keyed location. And note that I said “location”, not encounter. Traditional hexcrawls will often included hexes keyed with encounters like this one (from the Wilderlands of Magic Realm):

A charismatic musician sits on a rock entertaining a group of Halfling children. He sings songs of high adventure and fighting Orcs.

While this system certainly could be used with such keys, my intention was to focus the key on content that could be used more than once as PCs visit and re-visit the same areas. (Particularly useful for an open gaming table.) In other words, the key is geography, not ephemera.

Fourth, to support all of these goals (hidden hexes, exploration, reusable material) I wanted to introduce uncertainty into whether or not the keyed content of a particular hex would be experienced (instead of automatically triggering the content when the hex was entered). Furthermore, I wanted a rich system for generating encounters (in order to both create content and to replace the ephemeral hex keys I had eschewed). I accomplished both of these goals by creating a unified, streamlined system of encounter checks.

Go to Part 2: Wilderness Travel

HEXCRAWLS
Part 2: Wilderness Travel
Part 3: Navigating the Wilderness
Part 4: Encounter Tables
Part 5: Spot Distances
Part 6: Watch Checklist
Part 7: DM’s Worksheet
Part 8: Sample Hex Key
Part 9: Four Documents of the Hexcrawl
Part 10: Stocking the Hexes
Part 11: More Hex Stocking
Part 12: At the Table
Part 13: Hexcrawl Cheat Sheets

Addendum: Sketchy Hexcrawls
Thinking About Wilderness Travel

Tagline: Terra Nova, the colonial world in which the Heavy Gear game is set, is the best setting for a roleplaying game ever. Period. Life on Terra Nova is your key to that wonder.

I had a difficult time with this review. The back of mind kept getting plagued with the notion of marking down one or both of the scores for various shortcomings. Eventually, though, commonsense won out: This book may have a couple of problems, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s one of the best sourcebooks you’ll ever buy.

So what were the problems?

Okay, first off Dream Pod 9 needs to seriously look into how their proofreading procedures are being carried out. This book was just plain sloppy. When I encountered two significant typos in an early discussion of what is probably the most signficant event in recent Terra Novan history I realized I was in trouble; it was a little like having “ROSEBUD” spelled wrong at the end of Citizen Kane. When I realized that they had actually succeeded in missing the insertion of italics (the editorial marks are still present in at least two locations)… well…

Second, I continue to hold reservations about their second edition products. One of the things which I really liked about the Heavy Gear product line was the fact that you picked up the rulebook and it gave you a baseline to the way the world was in TN 1932. Then you could pick up other sourcebooks (which were conveniently labelled with the date on the backcover) to supplement that baseline as you needed it, relying on the storyline books to advance the world for you. The second edition rulebook advanced the clock to TN 1934, effectively eliminating most of the first storyline book. This second edition of Life on Terra Nova advances the clock again, this time to TN 1935. I just don’t like it. Where I initially praised the Heavy Gear line of products for the clarity of its presentation and development, now there’s a muddle. The primary sourcebooks are set in TN 1934 and TN 1935 – but the regional sourcebooks published to date all take place before those dates. This taking a general survey course in physics which covers the cutting edge of development, but then spending the rest of your college career studying the Aristotelian worldview. Although there’s nothing you can do about the past, I’d encourage Dream Pod 9 to stop this here. I think I speak for all Heavy Gear fans when I say that we’d much rather have new stuff produced in a coherent and progressive order, rather than continually revamping the core products. The “baseline and expand” approach you’ve developed means you don’t have to do that the way most other systems do; and, in fact, if you do follow that course you end up making things worse.

Third, although many things have been expanded in this version of Life on Terra Nova (including a complete mini-sourcebook of the Port Arthur area), several things have also been excised. The new material is (of course) superb, but some of the nice touches of the original – particularly in the history section of the product (stuff that can never be effectively presented elsewhere) – are no longer there. The devil is in the details, and so is the strength of roleplaying settings. Particularly this one.

Fourth, although much has been added, much has ben changed, and some has been lost, there is some stuff which has been copied verbatim. Unfortunately not a lot of thought was apparently always put into this. For example, in the section on the city-state of Exeter the following passage appears in both the original Life on Terra Nova (set in TN 1932) and this new version (set in TN 1935): “Exeter’s most notable export is ‘Pride of Exeter’ brand premium ice cream. Numerous Pride of Exeter shops have opened up all around the CNCS over the past forty years. However, sales recently decreased after the Norlight Inquirer reported that Pride of Exeter brand ice cream was laced with mind-controlling substances. The ice cream’s manufacturer is currently suing the Norlight Inquiry for libel and lost sales.” Uh huh…. Apparently the definition of “recent” is different on Terra Nova.

These may all seem like nitpicks to you – and you’d be right. So why am I spending so much time commenting on them? Because Dream Pod 9 has set a very high standard for itself. And because there’s nothing else bad to say about this product. It’s fantastic.

The setting for the Heavy Gear game, primarily the planet Terra Nova, is possibly the best setting for a roleplaying game on the market today. Some other settings may come close – and some may even be its equal – but none exceed it. And Life on Terra Nova is the key to it all.

What makes this setting so special?

Well, for example: That small quote about Pride of Exeter brand ice cream mentioned above (however out of place it may be in this new product) is simply one minor example of all the important little details which Dream Pod 9 has carefully and consistently sprinkled across their work. This is a world where actual recipes are available for cooking with the indigenous life of the alien planet.

Next realize that the world they have developed is not composed of bland vanilla, it is an onion with layer upon layer which can peeled off. Most roleplaying settings can be reduced to a single feeling and style. Some (if you’re lucky) have a selection of styles, carefully separated across the map. Not Terra Nova. Here you have a planet broken into two hemispheres and a broad equatorial region. The equatorial region (the Badlands) is generally characterized as a sort of Wild West meets Arrakis, but within that broad characterization you have a myriad variety of unique communities – from the city composed of outcasts left behind when Earth’s invading forces retreated to the corporate arcology to small villages to raiders to wandering nomads.

In the southern hemisphere you have the Allied Southern Territories, a confederation composed of four leagues: the Southern Republic, Humanist Alliance, Mekong Dominion, and Eastern Sun Emirates. The Southern Republic is generally imperialistic and tending towards decadency – but within it there is the bureacuratic capital of Port Oasis, the rebellious city-state of Saragossa, the university city of Newton, and nearly a dozen others; each unique, each part of an integrated whole. The Humanist Alliance is a designed utopia, again ranging from carefully planned communities to a city completely beneath the surface of the earth. The Mekong Dominion is a corporate culture; the Eastern Sun Emirates are feudalistic and debauched.

In the northern hemisphere you have the Confederated Northern City-States: the Northern Lights Confederacy, the United Mercantile Federation, and the Western Froniter Protectorate. Again each is unique (from the religious orientation of the NLC to the industry focus of the UMF) and is composed of many different communities which are equally unique. Everything blends together into a synchronous whole, just like the real world is composed of disparate parts.

Each community is given a distinct architectural style and culture. Each government is formalized in a unique way – a way based on firm historical reasons. The people live and breath because you are given the details which make up their collective lives. Each city exists for a specific reason, not just because someone put some dots down on the map. The roads go places because the patterns of trade and industry say they should, not because someone needed to connect two towns with a line. The guys at Dream Pod 9 have done such a great job that you even accept the existence of mecha – because they’ve made the Gear technology believable and then proceeded to realistically integrate it into the society. Add to all of this a complex web of politics and intrigue and a developing meta-story that leaves you drooling in anticipation of the next release just so you can see where it’s all going.

What more can I say? You simply can’t find a better game setting. Period. If you don’t own this book you’re missing out big.

Style: 5
Substance: 5

Author: Philippe Boulle, Gene Marcil, Guy-Francis Vella, Marc-Alexandre Vezina
Company/Publisher: Dream Pod 9
Cost: $23.95
Page Count: 160
ISBN: 1-896776-40-X

Originally Posted: 1999/04/13

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.