With the recent release of Heavy Gear RPG 4th Edition, players have a huge arsenal to customize their gears. This guide is meant to help new players and Directors/GMs sort through the weapons list, letting you pick ones that fit your character concept or design a satisfying fight!

A few notes before we begin:

1. With so many weapons available, it is fine (and expected) if you need to read this guide more than once. One fun way to learn is to pick out a few weapons at a time, then ‘sandbox test’ them by putting a mini on the table and rolling dice with them in various practice scenarios.

   [Read More]

Faction: Northern Guard

Stat Block

Primary Skills:

Tactics (Northern Guard), Athletics (Pack Training) , Awareness (Battlefield), Institutions (Northern Guard), Melee (Close Assault), Gunnery (Small Arms), Survival (Emergency Survival), Athletics (Throwing)

本 週 我 們 來 看 看 湄 公 河 自 治 領 的 步 兵!

Faction: Peacekeepers

Stat Block

Primary Skills:

Stealth (Camouflage), Awareness (Battlefield), Melee (Takedowns), Survival (Jungle), Gunnery (Small Arms), Institutions (Mekong Law)

Secondary Skills:

Pilot (Ground Vehicle), Investigation (Police Investigations), Medicine (First Aid), Electronics (Computers), Tactics (Peacekeepers), Survival (Explosives)

Squad Organization:

On civilian duty Peacekeepers usually operate in pairs, and their military escouades consist of four of these pairs merged into an 8-man unit. 6 of these carry Main Weapons, with 1 from each of these pairs (3 in total) also carrying a demolition charge, while 1 pair that has received special training carry Support Weapons. SWAT teams are made up of 5 soldiers each, 2 of which carry Main Weapons while 3 carry Support Weapons.

The NPC/Equipment series continues with the Frenchest of all Terra Novans.

Faction: SRA

Stat Block

Primary Skills:

Awareness (Battlefield), Tactics (Southern Republic Army), Melee (Unarmed), Gunnery (Small Arms), Survival (Military Survival Training)

$$$ Secondary Skills:

Stealth (Camouflage), Pilot (Ground Vehicle), Medicine (First Aid), Melee (Knife), Awareness (Forward Observation), Athletics (Throwing), Gunnery (Heavy Weapons)

Squad Organization:

SRA Escouades are made up of 10 soldiers each. 6-8 of these carry Support Weapons, while the remaining 2-4 carry Main Weapons. Heavy Weapons Escouades also exist where 8 soldiers carry Support Weapons and only 2 carry Main Weapons. Since the War of the Alliance the SRA has increasingly embraced an alternate doctrine where all Main Weapons in an escouade are replaced by a second, complementary support weapon, creating a unit with little tactical flexibility but that excels in a singular role. 

As part of the RPG, we want to provide more support with things like premade NPCs. This is the first in a series that will see us look at the various infantry of the powers on Terra Nova. Where better to start than the good old MILICA!

Thank you to Scuttlefish for writing this, and with that I will let him take it away….

Faction: MILICIA

Stat Block

Primary Skills:

Gunnery (Small Arms), Survival (Foraging)

Vehicle Rarity

The world of Heavy Gear is full of various factions and powers but what can often be forgotten is that many of those are themselves coalitions of smaller entities. The “North” is a full confederation of 3 leagues of city states for example. Each of those leagues has their own military as well as the Northern Guard and smaller independent reserve or militia units. Within that web of members, different companies produce combat vehicles and sell to those members. However not all members have equal access to all vehicles produced by all companies. Each member would have an easier time buying from local companies for example. This disparity has not truly been modeled in either the RPG or Blitz previously until now.

OACS-03M/COM ELINT SILVERSCALE

The Basilisk proved its worth to the armies of the South by becoming the basis for a variety of technically advanced variants which belie the chassis’ humble beginnings. The rugged and reliable frame came to house valuable electronics carried into the battlefield for various specialized roles. The Elint Silverscale — part of the Silverscale family of Basilisk variants — was just one such model, a very effective electronic intelligence platform. The Gear was designed to travel quickly over contested ground and monitor enemy frequencies, jamming them if need be, but, more importantly, gathering valuable tactical information from intra- and inter-unit communications. The Elint was heavily modified for its task, having many of its composite steel alloy armor plates replaced by lighter ballistic cloth in order to reduce overall weight and increase speed. In addition to the target designator/sensor mast used by the Silverscale, the Elint was also equipped with secondary sensor pods on each shoulder and with a large listening dish. Together this package consisted of some of the most sophisticated electronic signal gathering equipment on the battlefield at that time. Offensive firepower was very limited, however, with the Elint shedding its Vogel rocket pod and PR-25 autocannon. A simple DP76 20 mm pack gun was provided for defensive purposes. All in all, the Gear was not designed for combat, with few weapons, light armor and very vulnerable systems.

Hey everyone, Prof here with a quick RPG update.

The KS is ending soon, and we just unlocked our last adventure stretch goal and the final goal is a new art book. We would love to get that done and show off all the stuff we have done. Blitz also just unveiled the 3.1 companion that Rooster has been hard at work on for quite a while. It has many new units for Blitz and of course we want them in the RPG! The only two vehicles that were in there that didn’t make it into the RPG book were the Murdock and Seeker. These are available in the North vehicle list.