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Life on Caprice extends the Heavy Gear universe to encompasse another planet. Previous to this release the game focused only on the planet Terra Nova, which has been meticulously described in a long series of supplements. Now the game is widening its focus to include the other inhabited planets of the 62nd Century, and Caprice is the first such planet to be described.

Perhaps most importantly Caprice is the setting for the Heavy Gear II video game. :)

Caprice is a gateworld that connects the various inhabited planets. The FTL technology in the Heavy Gear universe involves the opening of wormhole type gates. For some reason the Caprice system holds a great number of these gates. Caprice is also interesting for having only one inhabitable region: the bottom of a giant canyon known as the Cat's Eye Trench. The trench is home to one massive city with the tourist friendly name of Gommorrah, where the overwhelming majority of Caprice's residents live.

The political situation on Caprice is that it has been taken over by the 'evil' New Earth Commonwealth, the same bad guys who attacked Terra Nova about 15 years ago in Heavy Gear history. Domestic life remains pretty much the same for the average Gommorran, although the NEC is using Caprice as a base to invade the other planets. This all seems to fit into the overall Heavy Gear plot in which the residents of Terra Nova seem to be wakening up to space civilization and will fight the NEC bad guys for top dog status in the human race.

The book itself does an excellent job of detailing a believable world developed from a few core ideas. Everything fits together plausibly and I almost never grew scornful at the text, which I am prone to do when reading geographic sourcebooks for roleplaying games.

The book opens with short texts on geography and history. A nice map was included, which is something DP9 has forgotten in some of its books. The third chapter is a nice discussion of the local solar system as a whole. There is a map of various planets and important stations. The most important political groups are mentioned. They are the NEC occupation troops, the corporations which in typical cyberpunk fashion dominate Caprice, and the Liberati miners who rebel against the Earth invaders. The section on corporations was not at all over the top, as we see in Cyberpunk 2020 and Shadowrun. Some corporations are more into cooperating with the invaders and others rebel, but all of them focus on profits without fielding corporate armies to shoot each other up.

The fourth chapter focuses on the massive city of Gommorrah. The text can't make up its mind whether the city's population is 311 or 131 million. I think the most supported figure is 131, but then given that the trench is the size of Japan, the population density shouldn't be so high. But this is a minor quibble. The text describes 200 story towers that cover the entire canyon floor. This is the central stylistic fact about Caprice and is a leap I'm willing to accept. The city is simply huge. The authors give plenty of local color and see fit to explain where necessities like food and water come from.

The fith chapter is on Bastille Alpha, a large prison complex on the exposed surface of the planet. This chapter might as well have been a sample adventure given the writing style employed. The NEC is for some strange reason locking up and exterminating surplus genetically engineered super soldiers. These guys and regular human prisoners are teaming up to escape and join the Liberati rebellion. That this is going to successfully happen is written almost matter-of-factly. In fact, a mining work detail is only 'ten meters away' from escaping.

The sixth chapter gets back to the long term view by describing Caprician culture in some detail. Clothing, religion and other issues are addressed. This is done well in a way that emphasizes the planet's differentness without going over the top. The book concludes with some sample police robots.

This book's strength is its ability to detail the fine points of this distant culture without resorting to implausible zaniness. The Heavy Gear line has suffered some of this in the past; consider the all nude city state on Terra Nova. The Caprice book gets away from this because of its fine attention to detail. Invading armies and giant corporations are described without resorting to stereotypes. People live in a humongous future city that is not a hellhole.

Between the giant city of Gommorah, the Liberati rebels, and the planned incursions by the Terra Novans, this planet could be pretty fun to set a game on. There is plenty of tension in the air. Unfortunately the main drawback is that Heavy Gear already has a finely detailed planet on which to set games. While DP9 is producing a lot of products this year that tie in with Caprice, I can't judge how many gamers want to go off-planet with their campaigns. Certainly HG tactical players will stick with the North vs. South on Terra Nova conflict that previously products have plugged, although roleplayers might be more willing to experiment. Right now it is almost as if Caprice is a entirely separate setting and it will be interesting to see if DP9 can convince its audience to buy products set on both planets.

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

Life on Caprice
Author: Lucien Soulban with Stuart Elle, Chris Hartford, and Auden Reiter Category: game Company/Publisher: DP9 Line: Heavy Gear Page count: 96 ISBN: 1-896776-66-3 SKU: DP9-047 Capsule Review by Jeremy Fox on 06/04/00. Genre tags: Science fiction Far Future Space Anime	Life on Caprice extends the Heavy Gear universe to encompasse another planet. Previous to this release the game focused only on the planet Terra Nova, which has been meticulously described in a long series of supplements. Now the game is widening its focus to include the other inhabited planets of the 62nd Century, and Caprice is the first such planet to be described. Perhaps most importantly Caprice is the setting for the Heavy Gear II video game. :) Caprice is a gateworld that connects the various inhabited planets. The FTL technology in the Heavy Gear universe involves the opening of wormhole type gates. For some reason the Caprice system holds a great number of these gates. Caprice is also interesting for having only one inhabitable region: the bottom of a giant canyon known as the Cat's Eye Trench. The trench is home to one massive city with the tourist friendly name of Gommorrah, where the overwhelming majority of Caprice's residents live. The political situation on Caprice is that it has been taken over by the 'evil' New Earth Commonwealth, the same bad guys who attacked Terra Nova about 15 years ago in Heavy Gear history. Domestic life remains pretty much the same for the average Gommorran, although the NEC is using Caprice as a base to invade the other planets. This all seems to fit into the overall Heavy Gear plot in which the residents of Terra Nova seem to be wakening up to space civilization and will fight the NEC bad guys for top dog status in the human race. The book itself does an excellent job of detailing a believable world developed from a few core ideas. Everything fits together plausibly and I almost never grew scornful at the text, which I am prone to do when reading geographic sourcebooks for roleplaying games. The book opens with short texts on geography and history. A nice map was included, which is something DP9 has forgotten in some of its books. The third chapter is a nice discussion of the local solar system as a whole. There is a map of various planets and important stations. The most important political groups are mentioned. They are the NEC occupation troops, the corporations which in typical cyberpunk fashion dominate Caprice, and the Liberati miners who rebel against the Earth invaders. The section on corporations was not at all over the top, as we see in Cyberpunk 2020 and Shadowrun. Some corporations are more into cooperating with the invaders and others rebel, but all of them focus on profits without fielding corporate armies to shoot each other up. The fourth chapter focuses on the massive city of Gommorrah. The text can't make up its mind whether the city's population is 311 or 131 million. I think the most supported figure is 131, but then given that the trench is the size of Japan, the population density shouldn't be so high. But this is a minor quibble. The text describes 200 story towers that cover the entire canyon floor. This is the central stylistic fact about Caprice and is a leap I'm willing to accept. The city is simply huge. The authors give plenty of local color and see fit to explain where necessities like food and water come from. The fith chapter is on Bastille Alpha, a large prison complex on the exposed surface of the planet. This chapter might as well have been a sample adventure given the writing style employed. The NEC is for some strange reason locking up and exterminating surplus genetically engineered super soldiers. These guys and regular human prisoners are teaming up to escape and join the Liberati rebellion. That this is going to successfully happen is written almost matter-of-factly. In fact, a mining work detail is only 'ten meters away' from escaping. The sixth chapter gets back to the long term view by describing Caprician culture in some detail. Clothing, religion and other issues are addressed. This is done well in a way that emphasizes the planet's differentness without going over the top. The book concludes with some sample police robots. This book's strength is its ability to detail the fine points of this distant culture without resorting to implausible zaniness. The Heavy Gear line has suffered some of this in the past; consider the all nude city state on Terra Nova. The Caprice book gets away from this because of its fine attention to detail. Invading armies and giant corporations are described without resorting to stereotypes. People live in a humongous future city that is not a hellhole. Between the giant city of Gommorah, the Liberati rebels, and the planned incursions by the Terra Novans, this planet could be pretty fun to set a game on. There is plenty of tension in the air. Unfortunately the main drawback is that Heavy Gear already has a finely detailed planet on which to set games. While DP9 is producing a lot of products this year that tie in with Caprice, I can't judge how many gamers want to go off-planet with their campaigns. Certainly HG tactical players will stick with the North vs. South on Terra Nova conflict that previously products have plugged, although roleplayers might be more willing to experiment. Right now it is almost as if Caprice is a entirely separate setting and it will be interesting to see if DP9 can convince its audience to buy products set on both planets. Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)