The Two Solitudes
Heavy Gear, 2nd edition
By Philippe R. Boulle, Jean Carrières, Élie Charest, Jean Marcil, Guy-Francis Vella & Marc A. Vézina
31 Jul, 2025
Roleplaying Games
Dream Pod 9’s 1997 Heavy Gear, 2nd edition, is a science fiction roleplaying and tactical game. Per the title, it is the second edition of Dream Pod 9’s Heavy Gear. The first edition appeared in 1995, almost exactly thirty years ago.
Second Edition’s writers included Philippe R. Boulle, Jean Carrières, Élie Charest, Jean Marcil, Guy-Francis Vella, and Marc A. Vézina. The art direction was by Pierre Ouelette, with art by Ghislane Barbe, Normand Bilodeau, Jean-Francois Fortier, Charles-Emmanuel Ouellette, Pierre Ouellette, plus many others too numerous for me to list1.
The setting of the game: four thousand years from now, the competing nations of the exoplanet Terra Nova contend against each other and those darn Terrans using a variety of methods, not least of which is Heavy Gear powered armour.