# Jovian Chronicles tags: #game/rpg/jovian-chronicles ![[Jovian Chronicles (cover).jpg|600]] **Jovian Chronicles** is Dream Pod 9's other mecha flagship — the solar-system cousin to **[[Heavy Gear]]**, set in a solar system the *Odyssey* cut off from Earth rather than on an arid colony world. Pilots strap into exo-armors, fly starfighters, and crew warships through the politicized space of the 23rd century, all on the company's house **[[Silhouette]]** engine. Where Heavy Gear is the dusty ground war, Jovian Chronicles is the anime-inspired void war: War, Death, Love, and a good soundtrack, as it cheerfully admits. ## Setting The year is 2210. Humanity spread through the solar system and then, in the event known as **the Odyssey**, lost contact with Earth for a generation — leaving the colonies to scrape out self-sufficiency while Earth, on re-establishing contact, consolidated into the **Central Earth Government and Administration (CEGA)**, a force that didn't take the colonies' independence lying down. The poles of the setting are **Earth** (militarized, resentful of its wayward colonies) and the **Jovian Confederation**, whose armed forces defend a belt of orbital settlements, moons, and Trojans. Around them orbit the **Venusian** corporations, a **Mars** still finding its footing, the **Mercurian** trade guild, the nomads of the asteroid belt, and **Saturn and Titan**. When CEGA declared its fleet had "temporarily gone rogue" after the **Battle of Elysee** and started a witch hunt over the whole affair, space suddenly got very militarized — and that's where you come in. The tone is serious and cinematic, cut from the same cloth as anime: a false move can be fatal, the mundane physics of fuel, oxygen, and radiation are hand-waved unless they serve the plot, and characters are pilots, spacers, soldiers, mercenaries, reporters, and young aces chasing the action across the void. ## Mechanics — the original Silhouette Jovian Chronicles 1st Edition runs on the classic **Silhouette** d6 engine. Roll a pool of six-sided dice and, crucially, they are **not added together** — the **highest single die is the outcome**. Each extra **6** beyond the first adds **+1** to the total, and if *every* die comes up 1 the roll is a **Fumble**, counted as zero. Modifiers nudge the total, but never below zero. This feeds the two test types: - **Action Test** — one roll compared to a fixed **Threshold**, which reflects task difficulty (1 Easy … 6 Difficult and beyond). Beating the Threshold gives a **Margin of Success (MoS)**; missing it gives a **Margin of Failure (MoF)**; a draw is a marginal/ambiguous result. - **Opposed Action Test** — each side rolls the relevant attribute or skill and the **highest result wins**; the winner's MoS is their roll minus the loser's. The same dice convention runs both the roleplaying and the tactical space/mech rules, so a pilot's skill transfers straight from character play into exo-armor and ship combat. ## Editions - **First Edition (1997)** — the core rulebook, on classic Silhouette 1.x, covering the RPG, tactical space/air/ground combat, and a ready-to-play campaign on the *JSS Valiant*. *In the library (Rules).* - **Companion (1st edition)** — supplements the setting, fleets, and play. *In the library.* - **Second Edition** — a later Silhouette revision of the line. *Not in the library.* - **Jovian Wars** — the JC-universe space-combat game, a separate product from the RPG. *Not covered here.* ## References - [Jovian Chronicles Rulebook - DriveThruRPG](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/579/Jovian-Chronicles-Rulebook) - [Jovian Chronicles Companion - DriveThruRPG](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/575/Jovian-Chronicles-Companion) Piloted exo-armors, dogfights against a backdrop of Jupiter, and a solar system still angry about being cut off from Earth — **Jovian Chronicles** is Heavy Gear's quieter, more operatic sibling, and it runs on the same trusted dice.