The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Listen up, people! This is how you do it; this is how you make a campaign suppliment.

Dream Pod 9 does it again with their second campaign book. This time, they expand on the material in the second edition Heavy Gear rulebook and bring Peave River up to the current year (TN 1935). The book isn't as thick or as meaty as DP9's first campaign suppliment, but it is comprehensive and complete.

This time, the campaign centers around a squad of Peace River cops- called the Peace Officer Corps- and their attempts to keep it all together during a big arms deal between Paxton Arms and the rebels in the Eastern Sun Emirates. The PCs must contend with foreign spies, domestic terrorists, corporate politics and a lot of desperate people in dire circumstances. Oh, and there's all of the action, intrigue and drama that you've come to expect from a Heavy Gear campaign.

If you've seen Ghost in the Shell (or played the video game), then you're already familiar with how this kind of story goes. Other signifigant influences include Blade Runner (both the movie and the PC game), Appleseed and Green Legend Ran (the Hazard, specifically). Unlike the first campaign setting, this one doesn't have so much Gear combat. Most of the action is personal in scale, but the scope of the action (and its consequences) is global; if the PCs botch this one, then Terra Nova can kiss Peace River goodbye- and that will set all of the global powers pointing fingers at each other, which will set off the next world war long before anyone is ready and that means "Goodnight, Gracie!" for billions of poor schmucks everywhere.

The fate of Peace River (and Terra Nova) rests with a bunch of overworked, underpaid and ill-used cops. If that isn't a recipe for a gripping campaign, then it hasn't been written. The flaws are trivial- some spelling and grammatical errors, some recycled art, etc.- compared to the blinding sheen of gaming greatness that is this book. There's more meat here than in most Palladium books twice its size, and there's more roleplaying hooks than in the entire World of Darkness product line. You'll refer to this book again and again as a model for your own work, and for that reason only- if you must have one- I implore you to shell out the cash to buy a copy. You will not regret the expense.

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

The Paxton Gambit: Peace River Showdown
Author: Michael Butler, Guy-Francis Vella Category: Company/Publisher: Dream Pod 9 Cost: $15.95 (US) Page count: 64 pages ISBN: 1-896776-33-7 Capsule Review by Bradford C. Walker on 10/01/98. Genre tags: Science_fiction Far_Future Anime Espionage Conspiracy	Listen up, people! This is how you do it; this is how you make a campaign suppliment. Dream Pod 9 does it again with their second campaign book. This time, they expand on the material in the second edition Heavy Gear rulebook and bring Peave River up to the current year (TN 1935). The book isn't as thick or as meaty as DP9's first campaign suppliment, but it is comprehensive and complete. This time, the campaign centers around a squad of Peace River cops- called the Peace Officer Corps- and their attempts to keep it all together during a big arms deal between Paxton Arms and the rebels in the Eastern Sun Emirates. The PCs must contend with foreign spies, domestic terrorists, corporate politics and a lot of desperate people in dire circumstances. Oh, and there's all of the action, intrigue and drama that you've come to expect from a Heavy Gear campaign. If you've seen Ghost in the Shell (or played the video game), then you're already familiar with how this kind of story goes. Other signifigant influences include Blade Runner (both the movie and the PC game), Appleseed and Green Legend Ran (the Hazard, specifically). Unlike the first campaign setting, this one doesn't have so much Gear combat. Most of the action is personal in scale, but the scope of the action (and its consequences) is global; if the PCs botch this one, then Terra Nova can kiss Peace River goodbye- and that will set all of the global powers pointing fingers at each other, which will set off the next world war long before anyone is ready and that means "Goodnight, Gracie!" for billions of poor schmucks everywhere. The fate of Peace River (and Terra Nova) rests with a bunch of overworked, underpaid and ill-used cops. If that isn't a recipe for a gripping campaign, then it hasn't been written. The flaws are trivial- some spelling and grammatical errors, some recycled art, etc.- compared to the blinding sheen of gaming greatness that is this book. There's more meat here than in most Palladium books twice its size, and there's more roleplaying hooks than in the entire World of Darkness product line. You'll refer to this book again and again as a model for your own work, and for that reason only- if you must have one- I implore you to shell out the cash to buy a copy. You will not regret the expense. Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

The Paxton Gambit: Peace River Showdown