Heavy Gear RPG

[Jacob_Gallagher]

I bought the Heavy Gear Rulebook (2nd Ed) last year after recognizing the title from an old PC game, and just now am getting around to actually learning the rules and possibly hosting a game.

I was curious as to people's thoughts on the game. It uses very different mechanics from D20, and is designed to be completely compatible with an included set of wargame rules for large battles. Is it any good? Any pitfalls to avoid, or books to seek out?

[Artanis]

I like it, and the system itself works pretty well. It's effect-based, so you don't screw with HP, and instead have combatants that actually get weaker as the fight progresses. And the SilCore ruleset that it runs on is about as good as it gets when it comes to making vehicles. All in all, it's really nice once you get the hang of it.

The downside is the "once you get the hang of it" part. Absolutely nothing in the system is nice and linear, so it can be a real bitch at first. Make sure the first few encounters are nice and simple to give yourself and your group a chance to get used to it.

[Jacob_Gallagher]

Yeah, one thing that I'm really liking is the effect-based nature of the mechanics. No rolls for damage, no tracking hit points, it's all rolled into just one roll and the effects are measured in a much more visceral manner than intangible HP.

Regarding linearity, I take it you're referring to the damage and threshold system?

[Artanis]

Damage and threshold are a couple of the parts that're the closest to linear :smalltongue:

I was more referring to things like the method for pricing custom vehicles, which has several exponents in there. The dice system itself also stands out, resembling Risk more than any other RPGs I've come across :smallwink:

[Matthew]

I really like the setting; not sure about the RPG rules, I only have Heavy Gear: Blitz.