Tagline: The Heavy Gear universe is perhaps the best in all of role-playing and tactical gaming – practically unmatched in depth, detail, texture, and life. This book is the key which opens this magical treasure trove of adventure.

My first review on RPGNet was of a Heavy Gear sourcebook and I would go on to post more reviews of Heavy Gear sourcebooks than of any other RPG. This is largely because I was more enthused about Heavy Gear than any other RPG of the time: I reviewed what I read; I read what I liked. This is one of the advantages of being an amateur reviewer: The professionals only get to review some of what they read and rarely get to read what they like.

When you delve into science fiction or fantasy you will often find yourself encountering worlds either entirely separated from our own or at least placed so far in the future that the extrapolations from our current time have rendered them almost wholly different from what we know. When you encounter these worlds you will find that they often break down into two broad categories – those worlds which might actually exist and those worlds which have clearly been created merely to suit the whims of the author’s story and couldn’t possibly exist.

In role-playing we have all encountered the latter many, many times. (“If this dungeon is so close to the town why hasn’t it been looted over the centuries?” “Because the locals are all frightened by the monsters.” “Yeah, speaking of those monsters – what are they eating down there?” “Look, do you want to play or don’t you?”) Fortunately those of the former have grown increasingly frequent in our hobby (although, frustratingly, we are often prohibited from playing certain characters by the rules of the game).

Sometimes, however, you come across a real jewel of a world. A world so intricately detailed, so deeply described, and so excellently constructed that you realize that not only can you tell “science fiction stories” in this setting, but any story in this setting. Terra Nova – the world of the Heavy Gear game – is such a world.

THE WORLD OF TERRA NOVA

For more details on the history of humanity (which is presented in great detail within this volume) in the 4000 years which separate its time and our own see my review of the second edition of Heavy Gear elsewhere on RPGNet the Alexandrian.

Terra Nova is a world divided into two lush polar regions by the great deserts referred to collectively as the Badlands around its equator. Following a period of chaos in Terra Nova’s past the two polar regions coalesced into a series of leagues. Those leagues eventually allied with themselves to form the two great polar alliances – the Allied Southern Territories (AST) and the Confederated Northern City-States (CNCS). The Badlands have a few centers of power in the forms of city-states, but are largely settled only by isolated villages which are focused around “oasis towers”. Because the Badlands generally lacks the political power of the two polar alliances, it is easily exploited as a “neutral” battleground between the two. A little over a decade ago all of Terra Nova came together in order to beat back aggressive conquerors from Earth who had returned to reclaim their colony.

To begin in the south, the AST is composed of four leagues – the Southern Republic, the Humanist Alliance, the Mekong Dominion, and the Eastern Sun Emirates. The Humanist Alliance was, in fact, the first league to form on Terra Nova. Based on the teaching of Yuri Gropius it is a realized utopia similar to the teachings of the ancient Greek philosophers (most notably Plato) – the only price of this utopian existence is freedom. The Mekong Dominion is a society based entirely upon the corporate structure. It is the economic and production center of the entire South. The Eastern Sun Emirates is a feudal society which formed around the power garnered from the distribution of supplies from the space freighter the Eastern Sun during the time of chaos which plagued Terra Nova centuries ago. Finally, the Southern Republic is supposedly a free democratic society – in truth the people have bargained away their power as voters in exchange for a comfortable and luxurious lifestyle. Further, the Southern Republic rules the AST – having been responsible for its formation in their wars of aggression.

In the North the CNCS is composed of three leagues – the Northern Lights Confederacy, the United Mercantile Federation, and the Western Frontier Protectorates. Similar to the Mekong Dominion the UMF is focused upon production. Unlike the Dominion, however, the UMF focuses more heavily upon the work ethic than upon the philosophy of “business is war”. The society of the WFP is focused upon its military forces. Like the society detailed by Heinlein in Starship Troopers (the book, not the movie) only citizens who have served in the military for a certain amount of time are allowed the right to vote – not out of fascist beliefs, but out of the belief that only those who are willing to die for their country should be allowed to control the destiny of their country. The NLC is a democratic society which is increasingly dominated by religious fundamentalism – although it, like the Southern Republic, is both the most powerful league of its alliance and has fought wars of aggression in the past it did not – like the Republic – force the formation of its league, and does not rule it with an iron glove.

There are two important city-states in the Badlands – Peace River and Port Arthur.  Peace River is ruled by a company known as Paxton Arms, and most of its citizens are employees of the corporation. Peace River and Paxton Arms have recently come into conflict with Port Arthur (a city-state established by Earth troops abandoned after the recent invasion, but which has since become a haven for Badlanders in need) because both city-states see it as their duty to protect the Badlands – and have different ideologies about how that protection is to take place.

This, in brief, is a broad picture of the world. Unfortunately I cannot go into the details of this world – unfortunate because it is in the details that this world truly shines. Every league (and the Badlands as a whole)  is a hotbed of activity. Besides the main conflict between the CNCS and AST (and, indirectly, the NLC and Southern Republic), there are numerous other conflicts at large. The Badlands are torn apart by the Badlands Revolutionary Front, the Saragossa People’s Front for Independence fights the oppressive government of the Southern Republic, revolutions dot the Eastern Sun Emirates, the Humanist Alliance is attempting to secretly prepare for a break from the Southern Republic, and the entire globe is plummeting towards war.

Beyond simple conflict, this world is exquisitely detailed. Not only do you learn of the “big picture”, but you learn the little details which can be so important while roleplaying. What foods do people eat in a given location? What drives the local economy? What do people wear? What music is popular right now?

You will be hard put to find a campaign setting – particularly a science fiction campaign setting – on the market today that allows you so many options and provides you with so much detail.

CONCLUSION

Although not a direct part of this product, it is important to remember that the story of Terra Nova is not only evolving – it is evolving in a very deliberate, easy to understand, easy to follow method that is alien to nearly every other game system I have ever encountered. (See my review of the second edition rulebook for more details on this.)

As a result in buying into this world you not only buy into a world of incredible depth and detail – but a world where that depth and detail is evolving and progression.

In short, not only should you buy Life on Terra Nova because of the incredible strength of the product itself, but due to the incredible strength of supplementary products which the purchase of this book will open up for you.

Style: 5
Substance: 5

Author: Gene Marcil and others
Company/Publisher: Dream Pod 9
Cost: $19.95
Page count: 160
ISBN: 1-896-776-00-0
Originally Posted: 1998/05/16

D&D 4^th Edition Gamma World is neither D&D nor Gamma World nor a 4^th Edition.

To boil that down: The newest edition of Gamma World is actually the 7^th of that name. It is self-evidently not D&D. It also bears very little in common with previous editions of Gamma World (sharing with them neither setting nor mechanics).

With that being said, of course, one can still judge the newest Gamma World on its own terms. And what are those terms? Providing a “beer-and-pretzel” game that’s not meant to be taken very seriously, featuring fun, rapid-fire character creation plugged into an ultra-light chassis based on a super-streamlined version of the D&D 4^th Edition rules.

And on those terms, the game is mostly a success.

CHARACTER CREATION

The core of character creation in Gamma World are the character origins. A random table of twenty different origins – Android, Felinoid, Hypercognitive, Speedster, Yeti, etc. – is provided. You roll twice and you character is the resulting combination of origins: Maybe you’re a Seismic Doppleganger; or a Giant Empath; or a Radioactive Hawkoid.

The origins you roll pre-determine the value of your prime requisites, but then you roll the rest of your attributes 3d6 in order. Your origins also provide you with bonuses to certain skills, and you’ll randomly determine another skill to receive a bonus.

At this point, everything else falls out in a fairly predictable pattern: Hit points. Armor class. Defense scores. Skill bonuses. Yada yada yada.

You get to pick your starting armor and your starting weapon, but everything else (including the rest of your starting gear) is randomly determined. The result is a character creation system which is theoretically very fast. In practice, I found that it bogged down a bit due to the calculations involved in combining two different origins. (Although this may improve as one becomes more familiar with the system.)

(Note, also, that the character sheets included with the game include a step-by-step walk-thru for creating a new character. The result, unfortunately, is a character sheet which is not terribly useful during actual play.)

What the system does succeed brilliantly at, however, is inspiring immense amounts of creativity as players seek to explain unique origin combinations.

When I rolled up a test character in the system, for example, I generated a Giant Hypercognitive. The result? The Jolly Olive Giant, seeking the lost legends of his tribe from before the Fall (when they were apparently provincial farmers) in order to unlock the secrets of greatness which are glimpsed in his furtive dreams of future potential.

My first real PC in the system was an Ectoplasmic Android. HAL Negative 9000 was the ghost of a shipboard AI from an alternate reality that crashed his spaceship into the Large Hadron Collider, triggering the apocalypse. Two arms of ectoplasmic iron have been bolted to his sides. He carries with him at all times an iPad 6 which he’s loaded up with a HAL 9000 soundboard app. He refers to the iPad as “Bob” and frequently has conversations with it.

What I’m basically saying is that this character creation system is fantastic. Flat out amazing. It forces the player to commit an act of creative closure in order to reconcile two disparate origins which have been artificially conflated, and provides enough random chaff (a skill, miscellaneous equipment, secondary ability scores) for inventive frisson. The result immediately catapults the player into their role while getting their creative juices flowing.

The game has received significant accolades and this extremely effective – and extremely exciting – character creation system has a lot to do with it.

ALPHA MUTATIONS

Your character will also possess alpha mutations. These are not, however, permanent features. Instead, you will draw a new alpha mutation card (a) every time you roll a “1” on a d20 or (b) at the end of every encounter.

(The explanation is that reality has been fractured by the Big Mistake that created the apocalypse. As a result, PCs can randomly “draw on alternate worldliness in which they naturally possess” these disparate powers.)

The goal appears to be to provide a constant flux of new tactical options in order to keep the game fresh and interesting.

In practice, however, I found that the churn rate on alpha mutation powers was too high. Because you’ll be forced to exchange your alpha mutation card at the end of every encounter, it creates a sense of urgency to use the power so that they don’t get “wasted”. The result is that the game seems to strongly “play itself” as you maneuver yourself into whatever position is necessary to trigger or use the current alpha mutation.

Perhaps this sense of urgency will be lessened once you’ve seen every power several times. But, if so, this seems equally problematic in other ways (as the game becomes stale).

Furthermore, I suspect that the root of the problem is not the novelty of the alpha mutation cards. Rather, it is the fact that the alpha mutation cards make up a significant portion of your interesting abilities in each encounter.

OMEGA TECH CARDS

You will also receive random Omega Tech cards. These are “artifacts of advanced technology” which each have a single power that can be used once per encounter. (A few exceptions do exist.) After each encounter in which they are used, there’s a 45% chance that they’ll malfunction and stop working.

Mechanically, the Omega Tech cards work just fine. Since they don’t automatically burn up at the end of each encounter, they provide a strategic resource that can be meaningfully managed.

What I don’t like abut the Omega Tech cards, however, is that they’re designed to be rewarded randomly at the end of an encounter. Basically, they’ve hard-coded the old silliness of a monster carrying magic items it doesn’t use into the system.

Also: If you have two decks of cards in a game which are never supposed to be inter-mixed with each other, please don’t use the exact same back for both sets of cards.

OTHER SHORTCOMINGS

The streamlining of the 4^th Edition ruleset into a simpler version of itself is handled pretty well. Unfortunately, there are numerous places where this streamlining simply takes the form of incomplete rules. One prominent example is the lack of rules for vehicles and mounts, despite the fact that a new character’s random equipment is actually quite likely to include one or the other (or both). But there are also several places where rules will be referenced which don’t actually exist in Gamma World.

One of the effects of streamlining the 4^th Edition ruleset, however, is that Gamma World even more heavily emphasizes encounter-based adventure design. For example, there are no daily powers and there are no healing surges. The result is that your character basically resets back to a clean slate at the end of each encounter. There is virtually no strategic component to the game: The game is entirely tactical… and entirely bland.

4^th Edition’s penchant for “leveling up the game world” to match the current level of the PCs has also never been more blatant. Tasks throughout the rules are defined only as being “easy”, “moderate”, or “hard”. The DCs associated with each descriptor depends entirely on the current level of the PCs.

Finally, the index is abysmal. I’m assuming they just had someone randomly generate page numbers and then randomly pick words off the pages they generated. After filling half a page with half-hearted page references, they realized the futility of the task and quit.

ACCOUTREMENTS

It should also be briefly mentioned that the Gamma World boxed set includes a couple of poster maps and a decent number of high-quality cardboard counters.

I’m not a huge fan of WotC’s “brown, green, and glowy” style for battlemaps, but these are fairly well done.

The counter selection, however, simply confuses me. The PC counters only account for roughly half the possible origins (which is perhaps understandable), but inexplicably some of the origins represented are duplicated. The monster counters also represent only a subset of the two dozen creatures in the bestiary (which is also understandable), but are not even sufficient for running the encounters from the sample adventure.

FINAL THOUGHTS

There is a little doubt in my mind that character creation in Gamma World is a complete triumph. I could spend an entire afternoon just rolling up characters and spinning tall tales.

Unfortunately, I feel the character creation system is merely the capstone to a fairly lackluster system. The streamlining of the 4^th Edition system only places an even greater emphasis on combat encounters. The high-churn of alpha mutation cards appear to fight a largely losing battle against the bland monotony of the combat, but the churn itself becomes a problematic gimmick.

Can a game survive on character creation alone? Maybe.

I haven’t actually given up on this game yet. (I’m hoping to play at least a couple more times, and I’ll probably slide over to the GM’s side of the screen at least once before I’m done.) If it wasn’t for the character creation, that certainly wouldn’t be true.

But while the character creation makes me wish I could give this game a ringing endorsement, the reality of playing it (at least to date) makes that impossible. If it’s caught your attention, I won’t say that you should write it off. But you will want to approach it with a fair bit of caution.

Style: 4
Substance: 3

FURTHER READING

Gamma World – The Sample Adventure

Gamma World – Playtest Report

Gamma World – The Egyptian Incursion

Tagline: Heavy Gear is, in the words of the publisher, “not your father’s giant robot game”. One of the best games of the ’90s, the second edition of this game is everything a second edition should be and more.

This review gushes a bit, but more than a decade later Heavy Gear is still one of my favorite games and Terra Nova is one of my favorite settings. I will also say that the Heavy Gear game line during its first and second editions remains an almost perfect example of how RPG product lines should be organized.

There are a lot of games out there and there are a lot of settings out there and, usually, even if I like a game or setting in general there are products for that game or setting with which I am not happy. We can all think of an example where the publisher’s of our favorite game have let us down by releasing an inferior product.

It has been a pleasant surprise, therefore, for me to encounter the games of Dream Pod 9 – although I have yet to purchase every supplement for their games, I have bought the majority of them and can testify that not a single one of them has been a disappointment. Whereas other game companies have to prove to me that their product is worth my money, Dream Pod 9 would have to prove to me that their product is not worth my money before I would consider not buying it. I may not own all the supplements yet, but I intend to the minute it is within my financial ability.

It therefore came as no surprise to me that the second edition of their Heavy Gear game proved to be a textbook case of not only how to do a core rulebook, but how to do a second edition.

The first edition of the Heavy Gear game (“A New Era Has Just Begun”) was released three years ago in 1995. I didn’t pick it up until just last year (literally the day before the second edition was announced on Dream Pod 9’s website). With fully integrated rules for both roleplaying and tactical play it had a powerful system with a lot of potential in a visually stunning package. It was possessed with some minor flaws, of course (no game is perfect): the material was very tightly packed with some degree of muddiness in the lay-out and the chapter on the world of Terra Nova (where Heavy Gear is set) was only six pages long.

Over the next two years Dream Pod 9’s general competency at laying out material would increase and it would be revealed (through supplements such as Life on Terra Nova) that the universe of Heavy Gear and the story being told there are even better than the rules.

This is where the second edition comes in. The folks down at Dream Pod 9 managed to perfectly target every problem area of the first edition, leave every feature of the first edition intact, and release a second edition which every other game publisher in this industry should take as a model. The first edition of Heavy Gear was fantastic. The second is sublime.

First, they have taken advantage of two years of experience and player feedback. Specific problem areas in the rules have been resolved and cleaned up. The overall lay-out and structure of the book has been redone in a manner which is both clean and logical – making the game easier to learn for newcomers and easier to reference for active players.

Second, they have added an extensive chapter on the background of the game – with general information on the entire world of Terra Nova along with an in-depth look at the city of Peace River in order to provide a beginning location for new GMs. This section also contains a beautiful full-color map of Terra Nova. The first edition of the game presented an odd dichotomy – everyone said the outstanding setting and developing story of Terra Nova was the biggest strength of the game, yet the rulebook contained almost no information on that setting or story. The second edition has resolved this problem.

Third, they have left intact everything which was good in the first edition. The rules are still simple, yet powerful. They still provide perfect integration between roleplaying and tactical games for those who are interested. The visual presentation is still stunning.

Too often when publishers release second editions of great games they have spoiled what was there to begin with – cluttering the elegant design of the first edition with unnecessary rules and complexity, destroying the essence of the original game, and catering towards people who are already playing the original edition. The second edition of Heavy Gear has done none of this.

THE RULES

In my discussion of the rules I am only going to deal with the roleplaying components of them – as I am not an experienced tactical player with this system. The tactical system is 100% compatible with the roleplaying system (with only a simple scale change involved), however, and is (by all reports) of excellent quality in its own right.

The central mechanic of Heavy Gear is simple. To perform any task you perform an Action Test. Roll a number of six-sided dice – whichever die is the highest is your total. If more than one six is rolled, each additional six is treated as a +1 (so rolling three sixes would result in a total of 8 (6+1+1)). If you roll all 1’s you have fumbled. Certain modifiers may add to or subtract from your total.

In a Standard Action Test, unless you fumble, you compare your total to a Threshold assigned by your GM to the action in question. If your total is higher than the Threshold, you have succeeded. If it is lower, you have failed. Your Margin of Success is the total of your die roll minus the Threshold. Your Margin of Failure is the Threshold minus your die roll.

In an Opposed Action Test you simply compare the two rolls – whichever is higher succeeds. A draw is a marginal success for the person resisting an action. The Margin of Success is determined by subtracting the lower total from the higher total.

This basic mechanic will be used most often to perform a Skill Check (there are also Attribute Checks and Chance Tests). In a Skill Check the number of dice you roll is equal to your rating in the skill you are attempting to us. Whatever attribute is effecting the roll acts as a positive modifier to the roll.

An example: Miranda Petite is attempting to do a backflip. She has a skill level of 2 in Acrobatics and her rating in the Agility attribute is 3. Because she has a skill level of 2 she rolls two dice. She rolls a 5 and a 4, so her total die roll is 5. She adds 3 to this (from her Agility attribute) for a final total of 8. If the GM had assigned a Threshold of 3 (Easy) to this task, Miranda would succeed with a Margin of Success of 5 (8 – 3).

Combat is handled as a series of opposed action tests, with various modifiers applied according to factors (cover behind which your target is hiding, lighting, the amount of time you spend aiming, the accuracy of your weapon, etc.). Damage is calculated from the Margin of Success of the attack by multiplying the MoS and the damage rating of the weapon. A character has three Wound Thresholds – Flesh Wound, Deep Wound, and Instant Death. The damage is compared to the Wound Threshold of the character – if it exceeds the character’s thresholds, the character takes a wound.

Character creation is a process of purchasing attributes and skills, as well as calculating secondary traits. The points for attributes and skills are separated – but there is provision for converting unused characters points (used for purchasing attributes) into skill points. There are ten attributes (Agility, Appearance, Build, Creativity, Fitness, Influence, Knowledge, Perception, Psyche, and Willpower) and nine secondary traits (Strength, Health, Stamina, Unarmed Damage, Armed Damage, Flesh Wounding Score, Deep Wounding Score, Instant Death Score, and System Shock).

THE SETTING

Heavy Gear is set 4000 years in the future. During that time we have perfected a system of interstellar travel using “Tannhauser gates” (named after the scientist who’s Grand Unified Theory explained time-space discontinuities – the “gates”) and begun to settle the galaxy – including the Helios system where the planet of Terra Nova is located.

Terra Nova is a largely dry planet. Slightly larger than Earth it’s equatorial region is a vast desert referred to collectively as the Badlands. Its polar regions, however are fertile and were centers of the colonization effort.

At the end of the 58th century, however, Earth decided that the benefits of the colony worlds was no longer worth the financial burden of supporting them and withdrew their support – including the massive gateships required for interstellar travel. Terra Nova suddenly found itself isolated from the rest of humanity.

Years of chaos ensued. Slowly, however, means of staying alive on this strange and hostile world without the aid of the home world were found. Political leagues were formed – in the southern hemisphere the Southern Republic, the Humanist Alliance, the Mekong Dominion, and the Eastern Sun Emirates; in the northern hemisphere the Northern Lights Confederacy, the United Mercantile Federation, and the Western Frontier Protectorate. The polar leagues eventually formed two polar alliances – the Allied Southern Territories and the Confederated Northern City-States. The Badlands, however, remained largely a hostile and volatile geopolitical area with various city-states and smaller communities.

Then Earth returned – in the form of the Colonial Expeditionary Forces (CEF). What ensued was the War of the Alliance – as the two polar confederations, typically political enemies, allied with each other against the common foe. Finally the CEF forced to retreat back through the gates and the spirit of cooperation did not last long after their leaving. Now, nearly two decades later, the two polar alliances are on the verge of war.

The rules of Heavy Gear are simple and elegant, but the setting is a work of art. The cultures of the various leagues are rich tapestries – each with their own character and individuality. The political spectrum of this world is complicated and detailed. As you delve into the supplements you get details not only on broad patterns, but also on how people actually live their lives. You will not find a better game world on the market today, in my opinion. Period.

HEAVY GEAR: THE GAME LINE

At the beginning of this review I mentioned the supplementary products for the Heavy Gear game. There are not many games so well supported as Heavy Gear. In an industry which suffers alternatively from vaporware deadlines and large gaps of time between releases, Dream Pod 9 has committed themselves to both an adherence to deadlines and near monthly release schedule for the Heavy Gear game since its inception. And the products released do not suffer from the speed at which they are produced. Quite the opposite, the quality of Heavy Gear products is consistently among the best in the industry (they were nominated for two Origin awards this year, for example).

My favorite aspect of the entire game, however, are the Storyline books – coupled with the Timewatch(TM) system. Although only one (Crisis of Faith) has been released so far, the concept is fantastic and should, I think, be emulated by other games. The universe of Heavy Gear, like many others, has an advancing timeline – let’s call it a meta-story which is told behind which the primary stories (those told by the GMs and players). The problem many other games have is that following that meta-story becomes increasingly difficult as more and more products are released. Take Shadowrun, for example. There are dozens upon dozens of products available for Shadowrun, and through those products a story is told – but new players have very few clues available to them as to where to start. The other problem is that – because that story is told over the course of all those different products – to follow it requires an ever-increasing financial investment. I, as a new player to Shadowrun, found that investment quite daunting and – instead – chose to create the material myself.

The Storyline books and Timewatch(TM) system which are part of the Heavy Gear line, however, solve both these problems. First, the Timewatch(TM) appears on the back of all Heavy Gear products – giving the game year in which the product is set. For example, the Second Edition Rulebook is set in TN 1934. This makes it very easy for new players to know exactly when a product is set. Second, the Storyline books are designed to push the meta-story of the world forward. Although they capitalize on hints and material found in the other sourcebooks, they are stand-alone products and tell the most important parts of the evolving story of Heavy Gear.

What this means is that, first, any supplements that players buy for the game can be quickly identified as to the time period they are discussing. Second, for players who don’t want to obsessively buy every product which comes out for the game, they can still follow the evolving meta-story. This means that if I wanted to run a campaign in the Humanist Alliance I wouldn’t have to buy supplements for the completely unrelated area of the Northern Lights Confederacy because the NLC sourcebook contains elements of the evolving meta-story I will require to understand future products released concerning the area I am really interested in, the Humanist Alliance.

CONCLUSION

Heavy Gear is blessed with a great system (which supports both roleplaying and tactical playing), a fantastic setting, and an excellent line of support (in quality, in timeliness, in detail, and in organization).

Dream Pod 9’s recent advertising for this game has included the tag line: “This is definitely not your father’s giant robot game.” I think it’s important to note that this 100% true. Many giant robot games tend to focus more on the technology than on the characters, but the world of Terra Nova is so deeply and richly textured that it is more than possible to adventure there without ever seeing or getting into one of the “gears” from which the game gets its name (you’ll note that they have not once come up previously in my review). They are part of the world, but they are not the entirety of the world by any stretch of the imagination.

The world is so wonderfully detailed, in fact, that I have seen games run within their fictional cultures which could just as easily have been run in a modern setting with a few minor technological changes. This game can be satisfying to those interested in any genre of play, because the world is large enough and realistic enough to realize that interesting stories can be told about anybody and anything.

I said earlier that no game is without a flaw. The second edition of Heavy Gear is no exception, although I had to look for quite some time to find it: A lot of the artwork is recycled. This would not be a bad thing if it was merely recycled from the first edition rulebook – however, many of the pieces are, in fact, from other sourcebooks. For those of us who are Heavy Gear junkies and used to every book getting a fresh and excellent art treatment, seeing these pictures a second time was an unwelcome surprise. New players entering the game will undoubtedly get the unfortunate impression that Dream Pod 9 is in the business of recycling art for their supplements.

As flaws go, this one is so insignificant as to be meaningless. This is a game you should buy. Right now. In fact, get up from your computers, go to your car, drive to you game store, buy it. Right now. Go.

What are you still doing here?

Style: 5
Substance: 5

Author: Philippe R. Boulle, Jean Carrieres, Elie Charest, Gene Marcil, Guy-Francis Vella, Marc A. Vezina, and other contributors.
Company/Publisher: Dream Pod 9
Cost: $29.95
Page count: 240
ISBN: 1-896776-32-9
Originally Posted: 1998/05/08

It’s becoming something of a cliche:

Player: I jump down to the ground.
GM: Are you sure you want to do that?

Here’s the thing: If your players are suggesting something which is self-evidently suicidal to the GM, then there has probably been some sort of miscommunication. Simple example–

Player: I jump down to the ground.
GM: Okay. You fall 200 feet, take 20d6 points of damage, and die.
Player: What? I thought the building was only 20 feet high!

That being said, I’m not a big fan of the coy, “Are you sure you want to do that?” method. While it may warn the player away from some course of action, it is unlikely to actually clear up the underlying confusion.

It’s generally preferable to actually explain your understanding of the stakes to the player to make sure everyone is on the same page. For example–

Player: I jump down to the ground.
GM: The building is 200 feet tall. You’ll take 20d6 points of damage if you do that.
Player: Ah. Right. Well, let’s try something else, then.

Although the misunderstanding can just as easily be on the GM’s side–

Player: I jump down to the ground.
GM: Are you sure you want to do that?
Player: What? Is it covered in lava or something?
GM: No, but the building is 200 feet tall. You’ll take 20d6 points of damage if you do that.
Player: I’m planning to cast feather fall. I just want the princess to think I’ve committed suicide.
GM: Carry on.

This carries beyond deadly situations. For example, if you’re running a mystery scenario and one of the players says, “I inspect the carpet.” And you don’t know why they want to inspect the carpet, just ask them.

Player: I inspect the carpet.
GM: What are you looking for?
Player: You said it rained last night at 2 AM. If the killer entered through the window after 2 AM, there would be mud on the carpet.
GM (knowing the murder took place at 4 AM): Yup. It looks like somebody tried to clean it up, but you find some mud scraped onto the molding near the window.

If you don’t ask the question and you don’t understand what they’re looking for, you might end up feeding them false (or, at least, misleading) information.

Which suggests a general principle:

If you don’t understand what the players are trying to achieve with a given action, find out before adjudicating the action.

The beautiful abstraction of inflationary hit points is an efficient, streamlined, and (most importantly) fun way of handling combat damage.

Once you get outside of combat, however, they do take a toll.

Falling damage is oft-cited, but doesn’t really bug me any more: If your character is capable of punching out a dragon (and they are), the fact that they can jump off a skyscraper doesn’t really seem that implausible. My philosophy is let the demigods be demigods.

But the one tack-on effect that does bug me is the loss of stealth-based play. You can’t just sneak past the guards, because in practice that usually just means that you end up with enemies in front and behind you. And since the system is designed to make it difficult to take out your typical opponent in one hit (because that doesn’t make for a fun combat), it’s impossible to execute a “quiet sweep” (by taking out opponents without raising the alarm). So, in general, your only viable option within the mechanics is to go for a full breach every time. And this is a problem that is typically exacerbated as the PCs gain levels.

(You’d think that having a wider range of weaker opponents would counteract this trend, but in practice it doesn’t because the players don’t have a reliable way of knowing which opponents are weak enough for the “guaranteed take-out”. Since a failed stealth attempt will generally put you in a bad position and the group can usually just overwhelm targets they could successfully take-out during a stealth op, my gameplay experience suggests that they’re rarely willing to take the gamble with the odds stacked so heavily against them. This could be addressed by adding a mechanic that would allow PCs to figure out “how tough is this guy?”.)

Another solution, of course, would be to increase the lethality of the system. The D20 version of Call of Cthulhu, for example, lowered the Massive Damage Threshold to 10. This encourages stealth-focused play from both sides — it makes the PCs vulnerable in open melees and makes it possible for them to take out opponents in a single, stealthy blow.

Of course, in D&D, setting the MDT to 10 would simply turn the game into a big crap shoot of save-or-die. Not much fun. I’ve long been tempted to play around with setting the MDT to a character’s Constitution score + HD in a D20 game just to see what would happen. That might work for an E6 game; although beyond that point the lethality would start creeping back up into save-or-die territory.

But I digress. My point is, using MDT to solve the problem will also impact how combat itself plays out. Which may not actually be desirable. So let me tweak it a little bit and propose something different.

SURPRISE DAMAGE THRESHOLD

Create a “surprise damage threshold”. If a flat-footed character suffers more damage than their surprise damage threshold during the surprise round, they are knocked unconscious.

This rule allows the PCs to dogpile a single sentry or small group to help guarantee that their stealthy behavior pays off. And by requiring the damage to be dealt during the surprise round, you’re eliminating random knock-outs at the start of every fight. (The flat-footed requirement is there to make this strictly about achieving surprise.)

What value should the SDT be set at? That’ll probably require some tweaking and playtesting, but Constitution score + HD might not be a bad place to start. You could also add a Fortitude save like the regular MDT rules require.