The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Hello, folks. I'm just an ordinary gamer, like the rest of you. What makes me different is that I'm just plain tired of reading reviews from people who seem like they are being payed off by game companies. How about a little impartiality, folks?

So without further ado, here is my no BS review of the Heavy Gear Rulebook, 2nd Ed.: Into the Eye of the Storm.

THE CONCEPT:

Dream Pod 9 has taken a fairly familiar concept, the 'giant robot' or 'mecha' game and ran with it, pairing the machanized combat with extensive roleplay, giving us an extremely fleshed out world to adventure in, with a definite, ongoing storyline.

Perks: An extremely detailed world, and well thought out ongoing storyline that will probably rival Babylon 5. Heavy Gear begs to be made into an animated series!

Flaws: DP9 takes great effort to say that Heavy Gear is a hard SF game, even though everything about it cries "ANIME!" (this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if it looks like a snake, feels like a snake and sounds like a snake, then by all means, call it a snake.)

THE SETTING:

DP9 has given us the vast and rich world of Terra Nova as our stage, and boy is it extensive! Taken as a whole, Terra Nova is a cross between The Cold War, light cyberpunk (minus cyberspace), Dune (the novel, minus the sand worms), and a Clint Eastwood spagetti-western. Virtually any type of character can be spawned in Terra Nova's varied environment.

Perks: A rich, detailed world unparallelled in any game I've seen so far.

Flaws: Not everything is covered in the rulebook, making the purchase of another volume (indeed, several more volumes) necessary. Also, the sheer amount of background material one needs to read and be familiar with makes this an extremely daunting game to run. The same thing makes Heavy Gear extraordinarily hard for first time players to get into it.

THE SYSTEM

The Silouette system is fairly average, although it makes use of the second quirkiest dice mechanic I've seen, using six siders taking the highest die rolled and if a six is rolled, each additional six as a +1 to the roll. Skills are used as dice pools (a skill 3 yielding the same number of dice), and attributes are used as modifiers, with a rating of zero being average, with below average as negative and better as a positive number.

Perks: The damage system is wonderful. Weapon damage is a muliplier of your attack roll's margin of success. In other words, how well you hit your enemy determines the damage you do, with a base damage done by the weapon used. Characters have three classes of wounds: Fleshwounds (painful but not debilitating), Mortal wounds (verge of Death), and Deadly ones. (vehicles use the same system, with Light, Heavy, and Overkill results.)

Flaws: The character generation system is one of the worst I've seen. Not as bad as GURPS, but there be LOTS of math here. Attributes and skills are bought on an exponential scale: A +1 in an attribute is a lot less expensive than a +3. I would be able to handle that just fine, but it costs points to gain an average rating in an attribute. A much simpler solution would have been to give the players a pool of five or six points to distribute at a one to one ratio.

THE BOOK

Heavy Gear is a solidly bound paperback, with high quality black and white artwork throughout. The layout is well organized, and the information is densly packed using a small font. My only complaint here is the cost. Yes, the setting is awesome, and it contains lots of information, but thirty bucks for a softcover edition? With black and white artwork? At the risk of sounding sarcastic, C'mon, guys, get with the program! With the average core RPG book costing about $20-$25 for a B&W softcover, we should get a little something extra for the cash! Especially since all of DP9's artwork is originally done in color in the first place. The increased durability of hardcover would be extremely good, what with all the wear and tear that we gamers put our books through. Sure, we get an awesome setting, and lots of info packed into a single book, with great artwork along for the ride, but we expect that anyway. I wish I'd gotten more for my money.

Perks: Extraordinarily good artwork, lots of info, and good organization.

Flaws: It costs Thirty bucks!

OVERALL

This is a good game. Not a great game, and certainly not one for beginners, but a good solid game, rife with roleplaying potential. I recommend Heavy Gear to anyone wanting to pay the hefty price of admission.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Heavy Gear 2nd. Ed.: Into the Eye of the Storm
Author: Dream Pod 9 Category: game Company/Publisher: Dream Pod 9 Line: Heavy Gear Cost: $29.95 American Page count: 248 ISBN: 1-896776-32-9 Capsule Review by Niles Smith on 05/12/99. Genre tags: Science_fiction Far_Future Space Anime	Hello, folks. I'm just an ordinary gamer, like the rest of you. What makes me different is that I'm just plain tired of reading reviews from people who seem like they are being payed off by game companies. How about a little impartiality, folks? So without further ado, here is my no BS review of the Heavy Gear Rulebook, 2nd Ed.: Into the Eye of the Storm. THE CONCEPT: Dream Pod 9 has taken a fairly familiar concept, the 'giant robot' or 'mecha' game and ran with it, pairing the machanized combat with extensive roleplay, giving us an extremely fleshed out world to adventure in, with a definite, ongoing storyline. Perks: An extremely detailed world, and well thought out ongoing storyline that will probably rival Babylon 5. Heavy Gear begs to be made into an animated series! Flaws: DP9 takes great effort to say that Heavy Gear is a hard SF game, even though everything about it cries "ANIME!" (this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if it looks like a snake, feels like a snake and sounds like a snake, then by all means, call it a snake.) THE SETTING: DP9 has given us the vast and rich world of Terra Nova as our stage, and boy is it extensive! Taken as a whole, Terra Nova is a cross between The Cold War, light cyberpunk (minus cyberspace), Dune (the novel, minus the sand worms), and a Clint Eastwood spagetti-western. Virtually any type of character can be spawned in Terra Nova's varied environment. Perks: A rich, detailed world unparallelled in any game I've seen so far. Flaws: Not everything is covered in the rulebook, making the purchase of another volume (indeed, several more volumes) necessary. Also, the sheer amount of background material one needs to read and be familiar with makes this an extremely daunting game to run. The same thing makes Heavy Gear extraordinarily hard for first time players to get into it. THE SYSTEM The Silouette system is fairly average, although it makes use of the second quirkiest dice mechanic I've seen, using six siders taking the highest die rolled and if a six is rolled, each additional six as a +1 to the roll. Skills are used as dice pools (a skill 3 yielding the same number of dice), and attributes are used as modifiers, with a rating of zero being average, with below average as negative and better as a positive number. Perks: The damage system is wonderful. Weapon damage is a muliplier of your attack roll's margin of success. In other words, how well you hit your enemy determines the damage you do, with a base damage done by the weapon used. Characters have three classes of wounds: Fleshwounds (painful but not debilitating), Mortal wounds (verge of Death), and Deadly ones. (vehicles use the same system, with Light, Heavy, and Overkill results.) Flaws: The character generation system is one of the worst I've seen. Not as bad as GURPS, but there be LOTS of math here. Attributes and skills are bought on an exponential scale: A +1 in an attribute is a lot less expensive than a +3. I would be able to handle that just fine, but it costs points to gain an average rating in an attribute. A much simpler solution would have been to give the players a pool of five or six points to distribute at a one to one ratio. THE BOOK Heavy Gear is a solidly bound paperback, with high quality black and white artwork throughout. The layout is well organized, and the information is densly packed using a small font. My only complaint here is the cost. Yes, the setting is awesome, and it contains lots of information, but thirty bucks for a softcover edition? With black and white artwork? At the risk of sounding sarcastic, C'mon, guys, get with the program! With the average core RPG book costing about $20-$25 for a B&W softcover, we should get a little something extra for the cash! Especially since all of DP9's artwork is originally done in color in the first place. The increased durability of hardcover would be extremely good, what with all the wear and tear that we gamers put our books through. Sure, we get an awesome setting, and lots of info packed into a single book, with great artwork along for the ride, but we expect that anyway. I wish I'd gotten more for my money. Perks: Extraordinarily good artwork, lots of info, and good organization. Flaws: It costs Thirty bucks! OVERALL This is a good game. Not a great game, and certainly not one for beginners, but a good solid game, rife with roleplaying potential. I recommend Heavy Gear to anyone wanting to pay the hefty price of admission. Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Heavy Gear 2nd. Ed.: Into the Eye of the Storm

THE CONCEPT:

THE SETTING:

THE SYSTEM

THE BOOK

OVERALL