Heavy Gear is a combination science-fiction role-playing game and tactical wargame set on a distant planet. It, like all of Dream Pod 9's games is based the Silhouette game engine, a simple, fast and fairly realistic system based on six-sided dice only. Heavy Gear's setting is a rich, well-developed one with an advancing storyline which is slowly revealed as its supplements are published. A unique method of identifying key players in this ongoing storyline helps those running the game to avoid stepping on events to come.