Dream Pod 9 - WikiHQ

Dream Pod 9 (DP9), formerly Ianus Games, is a Montreal-based Canadian game publisher. Its most notable products are Heavy Gear, Jovian Chronicles, Tribe 8, and Gear Krieg, as well as the Silhouette role-playing game system.

History

Ianus

In 1987, Montreal-based Ianus Publications was licensed by Harmony Gold to publish Protoculture Addicts, In 1989, Ianus relinquished the Robotech license In 1991, Ianus began publishing the mecha-inspired Mecha Press.

The following year, Ianus and R. Talsorian Games (RTG) struck a deal to develop a series of products set in an alternate reality based on RTG's successful game Cyberpunk 2020. The Ianus design team working on this project became known in-house as Dream Pod 9, and within three years had produced 15 various rulebooks and adventure modules.

In 1993 the Dream Pod 9 design team then created Jovian Chronicles, a new setting for RTG's Mekton II roleplaying game. their first roleplaying and combat game that used the design team's roleplaying game system called "Silhouette", As Moby Games summarized it: "This new addition in the world of giant robots (mecha) gaming not only introduced realistic warfare game mechanics to the hobby, but gave North Americans what they have been waiting for since they were introduced to the world of mecha warfare in the early eighties: a story that is both vivid and entertaining, and designs which are made by North Americans for North Americans." At the height of Dream Pod 9's popularity in the late 1990s, despite having a staff of only nine writers, Heavy Gear was reportedly the fourth-most popular roleplaying game in the U.S.

In 1997, Dream Pod 9 released the second edition rules for Heavy Gear, again using the Silhouette game system.

Decline

In 1999, Activision's Heavy Gear II: Black Talon was commercially unsuccessful, selling less than 30,000 copies by the end of the year; Activision chose not to develop a third title.

By 2001, sales of Dream Pod 9's Silhouette-based games also declined as the d20 system became popular throughout the role-playing game industry. Dream Pod 9 responded by releasing a third edition of the Heavy Gear roleplaying game in 1993 that had been converted to the d20 system under the Open Game License (OGL). Since this edition could not include game system rules under the terms of the d20 System Trademark License, players had to purchase the Players Handbook for the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons in order to play the game. For players who still wanted to use the Silhouette rules system, Dream Pod 9 also published the Silhouette CORE Rulebook (SilCORE), which contained the Silhouette rules system; conversely, it also explained how to convert previous editions of their games that used the Silhouette system to d20 rules. Regardless of which system players wanted to use, they still had to purchase two books in order to play the third edition of Heavy Gear. Sales of both products were low, and used this movie industry money to help fund production of Heavy Gear Blitz!, a mecha miniatures game, Dream Pod 9 was nominated for two ENnie Awards, "Best Miniature Product" and "Best Electronic Book", in 2008.

In 2008, Dream Pod 9 licensed the rights to Heavy Gear to Steve Jackson Games, which wanted to create a fourth edition Heavy Gear roleplaying game based on the GURPS rule system; ultimately Steve Jackson Games decided to shelve the project, and in 2010 relinquished their rights to the game. in 2017, the two companies renewed the partnership for a further five years, with plans to include sponsorship of eSports tournamaents.

In 2013, Dream Pod 9 was nominated for an Origins Award in the category of "Best Miniatures Rules" for Heavy Gear Blitz! Perfect Storm: The NuCoal Field Guide.

In 2015, Heavy Gear Blitz! Tabletop Wargaming - Living Rulebook was released for free on DrivethruRPG as a PDF. In the following year, Heavy Gear Blitz! Tabletop Wargaming - Quick Start Rulebook was also released on DrivethruRPG. Both of these rulebooks were last updated on February 23, 2018.

Kickstarter

Between 2014 and 2018, Dream Pod 9 launched six Kickstarter campaigns - five campaigns were successfully funded. All of the campaigns focused on raising funds to create new miniatures for either Heavy Gear or Jovian Wars.

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="margins:auto; width=95%; font-size: 95%;"

!width="40%"| Campaign

!width="15%"| Goal (CAD)

!width="15%"| Date

!width="14%"| Backers

!width="16%"| Amount Raised (CAD)

|Heavy Gear Blitz -War for Terra Nova- Miniatures Starter Set

| 27,000

| 11/22/2014

| 1,015

| 150,406

|Jovian Wars - Resin Spaceship Miniatures

| 9,000

| 03/19/2017

| 143

| 25,090

|Heavy Gear Blitz! Plastic Peace River, NuCoal & Utopia Minis

| 50,000

| 12/05/2017 - 01/06/2018

| 232

| 30,180

|Heavy Gear Blitz! Utopia Armed Forces Plastic Miniatures

| 30,000

| 01/16/2018 - 02/03/2018

| 192

| 30,516

|Heavy Gear Blitz! Peace River & NuCoal Plastic Miniatures

| 25,000

| 04/25/2018 - 05/26/2018

| 243

| 40,912

|Jovian Wars Venus Forces Kickstarter

| 4,000

| 11/05/2018 - 12/03/2018

| 57

| 8,708

Properties

The company is best known for a set of universes on which role-playing games, wargames, scale models and miniatures have been based:

Heavy Gear is a military science-fiction universe where human worlds wage war against one another with mecha.
Tribe 8 is a tribal, post-apocalyptic fantasy game of horror and epic adventures.
Gear Krieg takes place in an alternate reality World War II firmly set in the pulp genre.

A few other less well-known settings for use in various publications include CORE Command, a space opera universe set millennia in the future.

References

External links

Dream Pod 9's Website