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View Full Version : Heavy Gear and Jovian Chronicles: Overlooked Goodness



Arlanthe
2007-09-05, 04:47 AM
In my irritation at WotC over $e, I have decided to rediscover some old games and explore some new ones. (Every time a door closes, a window opens somewhere else…) It will be nice to rotate back into Shadowrun, which has always been a source of gritty action for my gaming crew.

The other day, I cracked my Heavy Gear books open for the first time in something like six years. I couldn’t help but think, “wow, why did I ever stop playing this”?

Has anyone else played Dream Pod 9 games much? I must say, the Silhouette (or SilCORE) system is simple yet flexible. And there is a keen uniformity of design within each of the dp9 games that seems to be among the best in the industry. The theme, art, and so forth are all consistent and add up to a cohesive whole that really creates the best environment for theme gaming.

What I particularly like about Heavy Gear is that you can play it as an RPG, tactical game, or both, on fleet, mecha, and ground operations levels. One session you can be winding through some industrial zones in the Mekong Dominion negotiating over business deals and trying to root out corporate spies, and in the next game fight battles in your very own Gear, and rip other robotic war machines to bit. And the third day sneak into an enemy building to steal some data…

Jovian Chronicles too, is a very good universe for pure, raw classic sci-fi role playing and story telling. Based on our own Solar System, the game is a vision of a distant future where the Solar System has been colonized to Jupiter, interplanetary tension is high between many factions, and space exploration, ships and shuttles, and science fiction loom large.

Does anyone else have good or bad experiences with Heavy Gear or Jovian Chronicles? Does anyone else play them? I’m really glad I’ve started branching out again, the new campaign my group is embarking on is going to be great, and I’m looking forward to it!

Reel On, Love
2007-09-05, 04:55 AM
In my irritation at WotC over $e

Never, ever say "$e" again. That's on par with the kind of people who say "M$" for Microsoft. It's not witty, it's not funny, and here it's not even true. So don't do it.

Arlanthe
2007-09-05, 05:32 AM
Never, ever say "$e" again. That's on par with the kind of people who say "M$" for Microsoft. It's not witty, it's not funny, and here it's not even true. So don't do it.

Never tell me what to do again. I'll say $e any time I like.

I believe the irony that the $ sign is on the "4" is relevant. You are welcome to disagree as you obviously do, and I would never ask you to censor yourself if you were posting within the rules, which in this case I am.

Do you have anything to add to the main point of this thread, or was your intent solely to harass me?

Ashtar
2007-09-05, 05:34 AM
I've done some Jovian Chronicles. It does take some planning if you do it in hard sci-fi mode (at one point I was calculating slingshot vectors), but... Oh goodness, I like it!

Also the SilCore works well whatever the setting. I did a "school campaign" where characters are usual school kids using the rules for social attacks. My players had loads of fun.

Reel On, Love
2007-09-05, 05:41 AM
Never tell me what to do again. I'll say $e any time I like.

Yeah, whatever, I'm not going to, or able to, force you to stop. Just know how that comes across: the same way, oh, PETA members do.

Quincunx
2007-09-05, 06:49 AM
How about "the dollar sign, on U.S. keyboards, is on the 5 key, thus making your comment look like a typo"? Whatever wit there was is lost.

Jayabalard
2007-09-05, 07:11 AM
How about "the dollar sign, on U.S. keyboards, is on the 5 key, thus making your comment look like a typo"? Whatever wit there was is lost.I don't know about you but I have a standard US QWERTY keyboard and the $ is on my 4 key.

Quincunx
2007-09-05, 07:25 AM
. . .

)#%/, I thought that was a U.S. keyboard. Now which kind is it. . . ?

[researching - return later]

AslanCross
2007-09-05, 07:50 AM
I was a mech-head in high school (I still am), and reading my classmate's Heavy Gear books was a treat. Just that we never really bothered to spend time to get into PnP games back then because we were all too busy killing each other in CounterStrike.

Ashtar
2007-09-05, 08:07 AM
I find it hard to find sci-fi mech-head players in switzerland. Most people around here seem to go for fantasy when there's so much potential in sci-fi!

Arlanthe
2007-09-05, 08:20 AM
I find it hard to find sci-fi mech-head players in switzerland. Most people around here seem to go for fantasy when there's so much potential in sci-fi!

I agree, I just think that sci-fi games have been too narrowly created.

For instance, Shadowrun is awesome and the theme is consistent and great, but narrowly defined. Like Cyberpunk, from which SR has heavily borrowed. MechWarrior and Heavy Gear are flexible and fun, but also narrowly designed. (And D20 Modern or GURPS rules and theme just never sat well with me for Sci-Fi).

Now, what would be great is a Sci-Fi RPG setting that is tunes specifically to Sci-Fi, and flexible enough to make something in the way of Alien, Metroid, Starship Troopers, or Pitch Black.

I think with some tuning this could be done with the SilCORE rules, and I am attempting to do just that. Toss in some rules for aliens, and make players a bit less crunchy, add a few ships, new races and civilizations beyond the Universe already detailed- and there you go.

UserClone
2007-09-05, 01:06 PM
Actually, I find $E to be fairly accurate (and it's the 4 key, FWIW) in terms of how quickly Wizards comes out with new core books, compared to TSR. As the specifics have been discussed in previous threads, I won't go into them. However, consider the amount of money that will be spent on upkeep of one's WoW DnD Insider account once 4E launches, compared to the $100~120 you spent on 3.0, then 3.5, then the 4E corebooks...It will add up even quicker than it does these days, methinks. Wizards is encouraging a 3.x "Monty Haul" effect IRL, IMO. QED. PbP. Etc. Tee-Hee.:smallamused:

Kevlimin_Soulaxe
2007-09-05, 11:17 PM
$e just looks like a typo. Now that I know what you meant, it also looks like an attempt to incite, and a piece of unnecessary and uncreative internet slang.

So, the moral of this story is, if you lead off with (biased and pointless) politics, don't turn around and tell people to stay on topic. It wasn't needed, wasn't relevant, wasn't funny or witty or insightful. It added nothing to your topic. You put it there knowing people would read it, and knowing that people have split opinions.

Arlanthe
2007-09-05, 11:34 PM
$e just looks like a typo. Now that I know what you meant, it also looks like an attempt to incite, and a piece of unnecessary and uncreative internet slang.

So, the moral of this story is, if you lead off with (biased and pointless) politics, don't turn around and tell people to stay on topic. It wasn't needed, wasn't relevant, wasn't funny or witty or insightful. It added nothing to your topic. You put it there knowing people would read it, and knowing that people have split opinions.

It's a valid expression of speech and opinion, regardless of whether or not you find it funny, witty, or insightful, or needed.

Ashtar: Why is fantasy bigger than Sci-Fi in Switzerland?

Aslancross: Heh, still playing Counterstrike? Do you tabletop at all?

Ashtar
2007-09-06, 05:58 AM
Ashtar: Why is fantasy bigger than Sci-Fi in Switzerland?


Beats me! If I only knew. Even students at polytechnic University (who play with fusion power plants and have a nuclear reactor to run tests with) are more fantasy than sci-fi.

Maybe it's something to do with the mountains... yeah, i'll blame the mountains for lack of a better explanation.