''Gear Krieg'' is an

alternate history Alternate history (also alternative history, althist, AH) is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, altern ...

game A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...

setting published by Dream Pod 9. It contains information suitable for role-playing and wargaming a pulp-fueled World War II, featuring walking tanks and epic tabletop battles. __TOC__

Setting

''Gear Krieg'' is an alternate history take on World War II, where the technology curve is a little more steep than in our own reality. Technology, such as personal jet packs, rocket fighters, and walking tanks, are developed during the course of the war, sometimes massively changing events and famous battles. From the game's rulebook: "The world would indeed have been a different place had the Roaring Twenties not delivered the wonders promised by visionaries. Instead, war walkers now stride across the battlefield of Europe, huge supertanks thunder over North Africa, rocket fighters duel high above the Pacific, adventurers and superspies battle the Nazi forces in the shadows and scientists work feverishly in their laboratories to perfect the next doomsday weapon for their masters. Powered by advanced science, will the darkness of fascism spread across the world, or can brave men and women prevent it?"

Rules

''Gear Krieg'' is based on the ''Silhouette'' game engine, a streamlined set of rules that is already described in '' Heavy Gear'', Dream Pod 9's other science fiction game. It can be played as either a

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

(RPG), a tactical wargame, or an hybrid integration of both. Both the RPG and miniature games are built on the same basic rule mechanics. ''Silhouette'' is a realistic, simulationist system that defines characters in terms of ten base attributes (agility, knowledge, etc.), 5 derived attributes (health, etc.), and a variety of skills. Skill rolls make up the backbone of the system, which focuses on effect-based speed of play over grainy detail. The core mechanic involves rolling a number of 6-sided

dice Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing g ...

, taking the highest result and comparing it to a set threshold number. If the result is higher than the threshold the test is a success; if it is lower the test is a failure. The margin by which the test succeeded (Margin of Success, MoS) or failed (Margin of Failure, MoF) helps to determine the final outcome. Combat is handled by the same system, with characters taking penalty-inflicting wounds rather than depleting a set number of health points. As a result, the system can be lethal, especially on inexperienced characters. To keep the proper pulp high-action atmosphere, the game includes rules that allow players to twist the odds in their favor, in keeping with the conventions of the adventure genre.

Publication history

Just as its support for '' Tribe 8'' was starting to fade, Dream Pod 9 came out with their fourth RPG, ''Gear Krieg'' (2001), an alternate-history role-playing game set during World War II where technology was more advanced and thus the game featured technological anachronisms such as walking tanks. Like the company's earlier game '' Heavy Gear'', ''Gear Krieg'' could be played either as a role-playing game or a tactical one. The ''Silhouette CORE Rulebook'' (2003) offered a new standalone version of Silhouette that turned it into a generic system and also contained rules for converting d20 to Silhouette. The 'SilCORE' book – as it was called – was immediately followed by the ''Mecha Companion'' (2003), which offered d20 stats for all the mecha from ''Heavy Gear'', '' Jovian Chronicles'' and ''Gear Krieg'' using Guardians of Order's ''d20 Mecha'' (2003) mech description rules. The creation of the ''SilCORE'' book also allowed Dream Pod 9 to rerelease old games in dual d20 and Silhouette form, and the next year thus saw the release of ''Jovian Chronicles'' second edition (2003), ''Gear Krieg'' second edition (2003), ''Heavy Gear'' third edition (2003), ''Tribe 8'' second edition (2004) and the brand new ''CORE Command'' (2003).

Reviews

*'' Knights of the Dinner Table Magazine'' #49 (Nov., 2000) *'' Pyramid'' *'' Pyramid''

References

{{reflist

External links

Official ''Gear Krieg'' Site

Dream Pod 9

Fusion Models (Vehicle Designer)
Alternate history games Dream Pod 9 games Miniature wargames Role-playing games about World War II alternate histories Campaign settings Pulp and noir period role-playing games Wargames introduced in the 2000s