Tagline: Into the Badlands was one of the first Heavy Gear supplements. It set the pace of excellence which we’ve come to expect from Dream Pod 9.

There comes a point in reviewing Dream Pod 9’s work, I’ve realized, that you begin to run out of ways to say, “This is really great stuff.” After you’ve run through the synonyms of great, brilliant, sublime, creative, innovative, and brilliant (did I say that already?) you begin to worry that people will think of you as nothing but a broken record. I can almost hear your thoughts as you sit there reading through one review after another thinking, “This man has been bought off by Dream Pod 9. Nobody can be that good every single time.”

Ah, but apparently they can.

Let me say it simply one more time: Dream Pod 9 is great. Heavy Gear is great. If you aren’t buying these books you’re missing out on a great thing.

To explain just how great these books are, let’s time travel back to the summer of 1997 and take a look around. In 1997 I’d been into roleplaying games for nearly a decade. Despite the fact that I still loved the games dearly and checked in on the Usenet newsgroups from time to time I hadn’t bought more than one or two roleplaying products in over two years. Nothing in the industry was really getting under my skin the way it used to and my interest was slowly waning.

In the summer of 1997 – nearly two years ago now as I write this – all of that changed. Despite having withdrawn my cash into other areas I had become aware of various titles over the years that had interested me to one degree or another: Feng Shui, CORPS, Theatrix… and Heavy Gear. None of them had caught me interest enough, however, to actually take the time to go out and buy them until one day I happened to spot the first edition of the Heavy Gear Rulebook on the shelf of the local hobby store. The cover, with its gear in extreme close-up, drew me in and the professional lay-out and clarity of the interior sold me. I bought the book there and then.

Over the next few days I devoured it in my free time. By the time I was finished I had become impassioned by roleplaying once again. I travelled back to the hobby store, but they didn’t stock any other Heavy Gear products at the time, so I picked up Feng Shui instead.

Heavy Gear brought me back to roleplaying, and its kept me here ever since. That’s how good it is.

All of which, in a rather roundabout manner, brings us to Into the Badlands — the latest Heavy Gear product I happened to read after running out of ways to say “buy this game dammit!”.

Into the Badlands is the sourcebook covering, as the name suggests, the Badlands: the broad equatorial deserts of Terra Nova. The Badlands are an excellent example of how Dream Pod 9’s ability to incorporate uncommon depth into their products gives the GM a broad palette and selection of tools in creating his adventures. Broadly speaking the Badlands are a mix of the American Wild West and the Middle East. If another company were handling this material it is easy to see how the Badlands would quickly be reduced to this common denominator. There would be a number of different cities, but at heart they would all be mere variations upon this simple theme.

Into the Badlands, on the other hand, takes the simple theme and (rather than simply varying it) begins creating whole new themes which are supported by the basic theme, but also subtly supplement it. Hence you get the frontier qualities of the desert oasis towers, you get the corporate politics of Peace River, you get the militaristic refugee community of Port Arthur, you get the visionary unity of Jan Mayen, you get the religious fervor of Massada, you get rover gangs and dueling circuits and smuggling cartels and gambling communities and polar influence and cold war and… well, you get a lot. Plus you get all the fringe areas where those different cultures come into contact and conflict with each other. All of which is supplemented by a plentiful amount of information about how life is actually lived on a day-to-day basis. (Ever sit down after reading a wonderful setting and realize that you have no idea how to actually get inside the mind of a character living in that setting because everything was dealt with at a macro-level? You’ll never have that problem with Terra Nova.) Tack on a couple of chapters on practical adventuring advice – including a dozen adventure seeds, some NPCs and archetypes, and a look at the creatures who make the Badlands their home – and you’ve got a well-rounded sourcebook.

About the only bad thing about the book is the lack of an index, but I could wax rhapsodic for a while longer about many things (like the way that they manage to cover everything you’d expect in a regional sourcebook, plus about twice as much that you wouldn’t – particularly in a book this size), but I won’t because it would be largely repetitious of my other recent reviews of Heavy Gear products. Buy the book.

Style: 5
Substance: 5

Author: Philippe R. Boulle
Company/Publisher: Dream Pod 9
Cost: $18.95
Page Count: 108
ISBN: 1-896776-02-7

Originally Posted: 1999/04/26

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

Tagline: Crisis of Faith was a masterpiece. Blood on the Wind is better.

The simple summary of content: The world goes to hell and Dream Pod 9 takes you along for the ride.

The short summary of quality: Dream Pod 9 just keeps making great things even better. Don’t let them get their hands on chocolate – they might turn it into an addictive narcotic.

The big concept: Crisis of Faith was a masterpiece. Blood on the Wind is better.

Within the last week I have found the time to plunge once more into the wonderful Heavy Gear game setting after a long absence compounded by “real life”. To ease myself back into things I took a look at the eye candy which is Making of a Universe. Then I devoured the second edition of Life on Terra Nova (a book which has sat, neglected, on my shelf for far too long). Then I took the time to re-read Crisis of Faith. Pausing briefly to write reviews of each of these products (all of which can be found elsewhere on RPGNet) I picked up Blood on the Wind, the second storyline book and one which has been taunting me for over a month now.

I thought Crisis of Faith was a pinnacle of excellence. Much to my surprise I discovered that Blood on the Wind had not only built upon that success, but improved upon it.

First, what has remained the same. The story is still told through the collected notes and data of Nicosa Renault – a master spy who has “retired”, but remains interested in understanding why things happen on Terra Nova. As a result you get to hear the story of Terra Nova told through the thoughts, conversations, video logs, and journals of Terranovans – all gathered by another Terranovan who has an actual personality (and is not merely an excuse for Dream Pod 9 to gather up a bunch of useful stuff).

The product still tells a meta-story of immense proportion, power, and potential – taking full advantage of the roleplaying medium (see my review of Crisis of Faith for a fuller discussion of this). It accompanies this with a visually stunning presentation which demonstrates, once again, that Dream Pod 9 knows how to put a book together. (There aren’t quite as many images as in Crisis of Faith, but if quantity is all you’re interested in your still going to find more here than anywhere else you might care to look.)

So, what’s different? The smaller format of Crisis of Faith has been abandoned in favor of an 8.5 x 11 format (although it is turned on its side, so to speak, from your typical roleplaying supplement). Additionally, an appendix has been added including a detailed timeline of events and a “Who’s Who on Terra Nova” – both valuable resources for any roleplaying or tactical campaign (moreso the former than latter, but that’s to be expected). Also, the color sections found in Crisis of Faith have been abandoned in Blood on the Wind — probably due to cost considerations. I am sorry at their loss, but can understand that the Pod People simply had no choice in light of the negative market performance of Crisis of Faith due to its format. Finally, the layout and organization of this product is clearer than in Crisis of Faith. It’s a subtle improvement. If Blood on the Wind had never existed you’d never have known that anything was “wrong” with Crisis of Faith, because its really just a matter of degree in quality – not a “have and have not” situation.

I could go on at length about the wonders of this product, but I would largely be reduced to either repeating what I said in my review of Crisis of Faith and providing spoilers of the material found within. I choose to do neither.

So you’re wondering if you’ve understood me correctly: Crisis of Faith was one of the best products ever produced in the roleplaying industry. Blood on the Wind took every one of those strengths, eliminated the two small problems which might mar it in the opinion of some, and the only drawback is that I lost the full-color sections of the book? Plus I get more material? Plus it’s cheaper?

Yes, that’s right.

Plus if you thought the last six pages of Crisis of Faith were mind-blowing, wait ‘til you check out the first two pages of Blood on the Wind. Those are big. Then you get to the last four pages of the storyline book proper…. Welcome to a whole new level.

Style: 5
Substance: 5

Author: Philippe R. Boulle
Company/Publisher: Dream Pod 9
Cost: $17.95
Page Count: 80
ISBN: 1-896776-27-2

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.

Ridley Scott’s Prometheus is an absolutely stunning and soul-searingly beautiful film. I saw it in 3D on an original IMAX screen (which undoubtedly assisted the breathtaking vistas), but if you want to see two hours of cinematic splendor this film will absolutely deliver that.

It is a testament to the film’s grandeur that I was absolutely captivated by it from one end to the other. Because everything else about the movie is mind-numbingly awful.

The problem can be easily summed up: The script is two tons of stupid in a one ton bag. The rest of this post is just a venting litany of its stupidities, so…

SPOILERS AHOY…

(1) Early in the film, while exploring an alien planet, the entire crew removes their helmets. This is the moment when I abruptly lost all sympathy or empathy with the characters, because they were all clearly idiots.

I mean, I was OK with the first guy doing it. He’d been consistently portrayed as cocky, arrogant, and naive. His instruments tell him that unknown chemical processes are terraforming the air to make it breathable and between his naivete, his arrogance, and his irrational faith in the goodwill of the Engineers it makes sense for him to do the stupid thing there.

But while he’s doing that stupid thing, literally everyone else is telling him not to do it. Then he takes off his helmet, he doesn’t immediately die after three seconds, and… suddenly everyone thinks it’s OK? Holy crap. You guys are dumb as bricks.

(2) Then, even after they believe that there’s the risk of biological contamination on the planet, they continue to deliberately walk around with their helmets off. The scenes of characters practically nuzzling their faces into alien chemicals with unknown properties are absolutely mind-boggling.

(3) From a structural standpoint, the screenplay fails again and again to provide necessary exposition. One of the things that made Alien an effective horror film was that the properties of the xenomorphs were clearly translated to the audience. This understanding allows the audience to experience dread when the characters wittingly or unwittingly take dangerous actions.

By contrast, the “black death” which forms the primary threat of Prometheus doesn’t make any sense and doesn’t seem to follow anything even vaguely resembling consistent rules: If you drink it, you get sick. If you get a face full of it, it turns you into a contortionist berserker. If some worms fall into it, they’ll turn into face-fuckers and kill you. If you have sex with someone who has been contaminated, then you’ll have a mystical pregnancy. The result of that mystical pregnancy will also face-fuck and kill you, but this time it’ll work like a facehugger and spawn a proto-xenomorph. If you get infected and then you get decapitated, your head will explode.

This failure of exposition extends to minor stuff, too: Sometimes the suits will process oxygen from the surrounding atmosphere. Sometimes they won’t.

(4) Ironically, despite failing to provide any of the clear exposition required to make the film successful, the screenwriter handles conversations between characters by having them speak in ham-fisted exposition without any subtlety or humanity at all.

It’s all well and good to want to tell a story about children wanting to kill their parents (as counterpoint to our alien parents wanting to kill their children), but your method for telling that story should be a little more subtle than just having both children say, “I want to kill you, dad.”

(5) On a similar note, the writer is clearly incompetent when it comes to setting up any kind of dramatic tension. For example, one of the climactic scenes is the main character begging the ship captain to take down the alien vessel before it can go to Earth and wipe out human life. Structurally, this scene is clearly meant to be tense: What will the captain do? Will he believe her and do the right thing? Or try to save himself and damn us all?

Only it’s not tense at all. Because two scenes earlier the writer went out of his way to have the captain literally say, “The only thing I care about in this universe is making sure that alien vessel doesn’t get to Earth.”

Wow. I wonder if he’ll do the thing he told us he would absolutely do no matter what just a couple of scenes ago?

(6) I’ve tried my best, but I can’t come up with any explanation for why David chooses to deliberately infect the archaeologist with the “black death”. It accomplishes absolutely nothing and does nothing to advance any of the agendas that David is supposedly pursuing.

(7) In a different film, I might believe that the willingness of Guy Pierce’s character to ignore the clear signs of biological doom that people are trying to warn him about is justified by his desperation to find a way to survive. But in the wider context of the film, it’s really just another bit of stupid to pile on top of all the other stupid.

(8) We can probably just toss it on the pile next to, “I want you dead and gone, dad.” “Oh? Really? Well, why don’t you just stay here in charge of the only ship that can take me home, then.”

(9) How do you lose track of two guys whose position is being tracked on a giant map directly behind you? How do those guys get lost when they have access to a map of the complex? Especially when one of them is the guy who apparently specializes in mapping and takes great pride in his “mapping pups”?

(10) So the aliens want to build a bioweapon to wipe out Earth. Fair enough. They build a facility on an otherwise empty planet because they don’t want to risk the bioweapon contaminating them. Good idea. But then why are they telling primitive cultures on Earth where the bioweapon manufacturing plant is? What is that supposed to be accomplishing?

(11) Holy shit! Their DNA is an exact 100% match for ours! … uh, okay. Then why are they 12 feet tall?

When the film throws a lampshade on “okay, let’s just ignore Darwinism” I’m willing to go along with it. But if you’re just going to throw stupid up on the screen over and over and over again, I’m going to check out.

SPECULATIONS

I don’t mind the ambiguity of the Engineers at all. Their motivations for creating us? Their desire to destroy us? The possibility that the group responsible for the former and the latter aren’t the same group of Engineers? Those are all great questions and they’re probably better for not being answered.

On a similar note, I think the film would have been better if it had ended with Elizabeth flying off on her journey of faith and searching instead of tacking on a “BTW, this is totally a prequel” coda. It probably would have been better to bump that until after the credits if it absolutely needed to be there.

But since it is there, lemme speculate a little: My hypothesis is that the bioweapon-that-creates-xenomorphs didn’t stay contained to this planet. The xenomorphs escaped 35,000 years ago and evolved. The xenomorphs and dead space jockey we see in Alien are the legacy of that history.

What I don’t understand is what the opening scene of Prometheus is supposed to be. It appears to be an Engineer sacrificing himself in order to seed Earth with life while his ship flies away. (Note that after we zoom in on his genetic structure breaking apart, we see part of it recombining and forming new cells.)  But if that’s true, I’m not sure how it’s supposed to hook into the legacy of Engineers being worshiped by primitive humans.

Tagline: A masterpiece. ‘Nuff said.

This book is a masterpiece.

First, let us look at the design philosophy of the Heavy Gear line of products. Like any other roleplaying game on the market the first product you are expected to buy is the rulebook. Currently in its second edition as I write this, the rulebook contains a regrettably brief coverage of the world of Terra Nova, the setting of the game. ‘Regrettably’, I say, because the very best thing about the game (despite the fact that the Silhouette engine on which it is based is one of the best on the market today) is the rich and inspiring world in which it is set. This isn’t much of a shortcoming, however, because the main rulebook contains not only a complete roleplaying game but a complete tactical game as well (which is beautifully based on the same basic system and principles). The rulebook is a masterpiece of system design in its own right.

After purchasing the rulebook your next step should be to pick up Life on Terra Nova (also in its second edition as I write this). Life on Terra Nova is the key to a magnificent, layered, believable, living world. It is without equal in terms of its originality, depth, and potential. Don’t be fooled into thinking that because the game is called Heavy Gear that the primary focus of the game is necessarily on the gears – the primary focus is on the characters and the world. The gears (as DP9 likes to point out) are merely the coolest selling point available. Like the rulebook, Life on Terra Nova is a masterpiece.

Once you own these two books you have the core of the Heavy Gear product line in your possession. At this point (as a roleplayer) you can go in several directions: You could purchase the host of technical supplements for the game (primarily for Tac use, but also useful for roleplaying campaigns with a technical or gear-slant to them). Or you could look at buying one of the regional sourcebooks (some of which, like The Paxton Gambit, double as campaign jumpstart kits). Either way you’re on firm ground. I have yet to buy a Dream Pod 9 product that has come anywhere near to disappointing me – even their Character Compendium is an intriguing, exciting product for god’s sake! How do you pull that one off?

But the most original aspects of the Heavy Gear product line (in my opinion) are the storyline books and the Timewatch system. To understand why I feel this way you must first understand why I get frustrated with many other roleplaying game lines – such as Trinity or Fading Suns. While I feel both of those games are some of the strongest competition to Heavy Gear’s title as reigning champion of setting design, those settings are damnably difficult to keep up with. Trinity, for example, requires you to purchase adventure supplements in order to keep up with the developments of the world with any cogent completeness. Another excellent example of this trend is Shadowrun, a campaign setting which has developed through several years of “game time” and which intrigues me deeply, but which will never be able to attract much of my money because trying to buy enough product to untangle what the setting is and where it has been is simply too gargantuan a task for me.

Not so with Heavy Gear (which is to Shadowrun what X-Files is to Babylon 5; both have over-arcing storylines, but only one was worked out in advance… and it shows). First, each product (with one exception where they screwed up) has a date printed on the backcover: the cycle in which the product is set. This simple innovation (known as the Timewatch system) seems simple and obvious, but it is has never been done before. It means that it is possible to figure out when each product is set in the timeline of the setting with a simple glance – you don’t have to wonder, as you stare at a shelf full of product, which ones you should buy first in order to coherently understand the development of the fictional world. You know right off the bat.

The second element which makes Heavy Gear better than Shadowrun or Trinity, however, are the storyline books (of which Crisis of Faith is the first – see I’m going to get to an actual review of this product eventually). The storyline books cover the major developments in the meta-story of the world over the course of a couple of cycles (the Terranovan equivalent of years). This means that you don’t have to buy, for example, the campaign sourcebook The Paxton Gambit (which might be of negligible or nonexistent use to you) to know about the BRF uprising in Peace River in TN 1935; it will be summarized in the second storyline book (Blood on the Wind) just as the events in the campaign book The New Breed are summarized in Crisis of Faith. Other games have occasionally issued updates or new editions of products, but nothing of this methodical nature. In addition the meta-story of Heavy Gear is like that of Babylon 5 (as noted above) – it was worked out in advance and as a cohesive whole, instead of merely being thrown together as things develop. If some development is hinted at and then carried out later it isn’t because someone had a really cool hint and them somebody else had to ad hoc a solution to it, it’s because the guys down at Dream Pod 9 are really on top of the ball. (The closest I’ve seen anyone else come to this currently is Andrew Bates and Trinity — I heartily encourage him to embrace the storyline book concept from Dream Pod 9 in developing the very intriguing meta-story he is developing there.)

I could go on and on about other brilliancies in the design of the Heavy Gear product line (such as the chesspiece system which tells you at a glance how important DP9 NPCs are to the storyline – allowing you to gauge how much freedom you have in manipulating their lives in your own campaign), but instead I’m going to fulfill my obligation to you and start talking about Crisis of Faith in particular now that you understand the design philosophy which gave it birth.

As I mentioned above, Crisis of Faith is a masterpiece. It also has the potential of being a very misunderstood one.

Specifically, Crisis of Faith can be misunderstood due to its size and due to its content. The first is simple to understand. Like Making of a Universe (a behind-the-scenes look at the development of the Heavy Gear setting and reviewed by myself elsewhere on RPGNet), Crisis of Faith is a half-sized, 112 page book. It simply looks small on the shelf and the fact that it is no cheaper than your average roleplaying product made it look skimpy for the dollar value. Personally I have no problems with this format – particularly since it allowed the inclusion of multiple full-color sections (more on the art below).

The second misunderstanding arises because, quite frankly, this book doesn’t have any immediately applicable usefulness in a roleplaying (or tactical) campaign. Your average sourcebook gives you floorplans or NPCs or something of immediate, tangible use. Crisis of Faith gives you a narrative of events. This has led some to ask, “What good is it?”

Those of you who have read my review of Making of a Universe have probably already figured out where I’m going with this – in short, Crisis of Faith is being judged as something which it is not. Like attempting to judge your daily newspaper in terms of how well it succeeds at being the Great American novel, judging Crisis of Faith as a traditional roleplaying sourcebook is a waste of time. Crisis of Faith attempts to do two things, and it does these things very well:

First, as detailed above, it is primarily useful to the roleplayer or tactical player by providing a narrative of events transpiring in the setting of the Heavy Gear game in a single resource – meaning that you don’t have to buy every product released for the game in order to keep up with the major developments in the world as a whole. The storyline books (along with Life on Terra Nova) free you from that necessity, allowing you to pick and choose the products you need to buy (as much as you “need” to buy any form of entertainment). Naturally if you want a more comprehensive look at a particular event or a particular location then you buy the applicable sourcebook. The key here is that Crisis of Faith (and its sequels) means that you can keep track of the world without having to religiously deposit your weekly paycheck at the hobby store in order to keep up with every release. This is a good thing in my opinion. (The only flaw in this plan is that the Heavy Gear setting is so fantastic that it can prove addicting – forcing you to buy all the products anyway. Oh well. That’s a flaw I, for one, can live with.)

The second function of Crisis of Faith, however, is to tell a good story. The design team down at Dream Pod 9 have realized the simple truth that roleplaying games provide a medium for telling stories in a way which no other medium does – both at the meta-level and at the personal level. At the meta-level the story is the comprehensive development of the world. At the personal level the story is that of the particular PCs. Both stories by themselves (if the particular campaign in question is a good one) can be enthralling and entertaining, but when you weave them together (the personal story taking place in the backdrop provided by the rich, evocative, intriguing meta-story) you have a dynamic process taking place.

And the story being told by Dream Pod 9, and as epitomized in Crisis of Faith, is one of the best. Intrigue, power, politics, war, love, murder, mayhem. You name it and Heavy Gear has got it.

And if that’s all there was to it, Crisis of Faith would already be one of the classics in this industry. But I have yet to deal with another pillar of strength in the Heavy Gear: The Artwork.

[ A brief aside: Heavy Gear is a game seemingly possessed of no weaknesses and excellence in everything. No other line of games in the history of this industry can boast of such a consistent level of quality throughout their entire product line. Usually you can find, even in the best of games, some throw-away product or another where the writing or the art or the basic concept simply wasn’t all that strong. Not so Heavy Gear (or any other Dream Pod 9 product). The strength of their product methodology and their writing has already been dealt with, now let’s look at the artwork. ]

Quite simply no bad artwork has ever appeared in a Dream Pod 9 product. Ever. And that’s a pretty impressive thing considering the dozens of products they’ve produced and the hundreds of illustrations which accompany each one. Quite simply this excellence can be ascribed to Ghislain Barbe. His style for Heavy Gear has been heavily influenced by anime and this has led, occasionally, to the mislabelling of the game as an “anime game”. It isn’t. It is, however, superb – you merely have to flip through any Dream Pod 9 product to see that. It’s simple line art which is crisply inked and then colored by computers (even when the artwork is produced in black and white for the actual book), producing a rich depth to every piece.

The reason I bring this up is that Dream Pod 9’s products are the most visually dynamic and consistent products in the industry ever. And Crisis of Faith is, quite simply, the best of the best.

(To fully appreciate this you should note that Dream Pod 9 “throws away” artwork which most companies would give their left arm’s for by making them smaller on the page in order to produce a visually rich and dynamic whole. Crisis of Faith is an excellent example in which almost every page has three small illustrations (smaller than my thumbnail) in the upper corner – each of which directly reinforces the text. Some of these pieces are recycled from other works, but most of them are originals created specifically for Crisis of Faith.)

Every page in Crisis of Faith shows a brilliancy of lay-out and artistic design which, if everyone else in this industry possessed only 1/10th as much skill, would improve product quality exponentially. Unlike many “artistic designs” almost no element on the page is there merely for the sake of its own existence. Despite that simple utilitarian elements (page numbers, the date of the material being discussed, the line which separates the columns) are beautifully blended into a powerful whole in a masterful display of raw talent. Then there are the color sections, which you can just stare at for extended periods of time.

Did I mention that the last six pages contain a surprise, cliff-hanger ending so shocking that you will be begging for more?

So, to sum up: Crisis of Faith is part of the best game line in existence today. Crisis of Faith is the first in a series of “storyline books” which, if there is any justice in the world, will revolutionize the way in which game settings are developed in this industry. Crisis of Faith tells one of the best stories ever created, taking advantage of the full potential the roleplaying medium has to offer. Crisis of Faith is quite possibly the most visually dynamic and powerful roleplaying product ever designed. Crisis of Faith is one of the best roleplaying products ever. Period.

I know I’ve said it before (and I will undoubtedly say it again), but if you aren’t involved in Heavy Gear you’re missing out on one of the best things this industry has ever had. If you haven’t already done so, go out and buy the second edition of the rulebook, the second edition of Life on Terra Nova, and Crisis of Faith. You won’t be disappointed.

[ One final note: You should read Crisis of Faith before reading the second edition of Life on Terra Nova. This is due to the biggest mistake Dream Pod 9 has ever made, which is detailed in my review of the second edition of Life on Terra Nova elsewhere on RPGNet the Alexandrian. In short if you don’t read Crisis of Faith first the ending will be spoiled. (But then again, if you paid attention to the Timewatch system you’d already know that – since the second edition of Life on Terra Nova takes place in TN 1935, the cycle in which Crisis of Faith ends. ]

Style: 5
Substance: 5

Author: Dream Pod 9
Company/Publisher: Dream Pod 9
Cost: $29.95
Page Count: 112
ISBN: 1-896776-21-3

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.

Tagline: This is a beautiful book which some will find useful but which all should find wonderful.

The Making of a Universe: Heavy Gear Design Works is something which has never been done in the roleplaying industry: A peek behind the wizard’s curtain. Fans of speculative fiction have seen this type of thing before – the worlds of Middle Earth, Pern, and the Wheel of Time (among others) have all been subjected to visual tours, atlases, and looks at the “research materials” their creators produced before sitting down to write their stories.

What makes Heavy Gear unique, however, is that the universe was conceived as a whole. It was not produced so that a story could be set in it, but rather as a product which could stand on its own. Its creation was a collaboration, combining not only the written word but also the visual elements of the world in an organic whole (unlike Middle Earth, Pern, and the Wheel of Time wherein artists would come in after the author finished and conceive visually off of a finished concept). The result has been widely touted as one of the most original and creative settings ever designed – not just for roleplaying games, but period. And, in my opinion, the world of Heavy Gear deserves every one of those kudos.

And The Making of a Universe gives us a look at the design process which led to the creation of this wondrous place. That’s a pretty cool concept.

Indeed, this book lives up to it. It’s cool. Despite its half-size format (which has since been abandoned by Dream Pod 9 after the complaints associated with Crisis of Faith) The Making of a Universe is a visual tour-de-force showing in great detail the gradual development of the style, the Gears, the tech, the culture, the architecture, the creatures, the characters, and an entire living world. It’s breathtaking.

So that’s what this book is – a wonderful guided tour of how a universe was made (check out the title!); so what is it not?

The Making of a Universe is not a roleplaying supplement. It was not designed to be useful to a roleplaying session in the same way which a sourcebook or a campaign book would be. It treats the Heavy Gear universe as being separate from the roleplaying or tactical games – as something with a legitimate existence outside of “gaming”. It does so deservedly, but this has lead to some confusion over this product. Understand that if you are looking for something which would be useful for your gaming experience this book is probably not going to be your best buy. If you love the Heavy Gear universe as much or more than you love the actual game (and I know this statement applies to a lot of Heavy Gear players), then you’ll love The Making of a Universe. Buy this book.

Before closing, let me say that The Making of a Universe isn’t entirely worthless as a resource. In much the same way which the Illustrated Guide to Pern would be useful in running a Pern game, so The Making of a Universe is useful to a game set in the Heavy Gear universe. For example the Gear Showcase groups together a lot of information which I occasionally use as an uber-resource in referencing the broad spectrum of Gear technology (similar sections exist for ground and air vehicles). The section which shows detailed, isolated pictures of weapons, sensors, and other technical equipment has proven to be ocassionally useful in the extreme. So this book isn’t useless for such applications – that’s just not what it’s primary goal is and it shouldn’t be judged as a roleplaying resource.

Style: 5
Substance: 5

Author: Dream Pod 9
Company/Publisher: Dream Pod 9
Page Count: 112
ISBN: 1-896776-31-0

Originally Posted: 1999/04/13

In many ways, this is a book without a clear identity. (And, as my review tried to explain, that’s more than okay.) But that lack of a clear identity also posed a challenge for me in reviewing it. I remember struggling mightily with that challenge. And, in retrospect, it’s a challenge that I ultimately didn’t conquer.

Still a good book to check out if you’re a Heavy Gear fan, though.

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