From the back cover: "A Hunter races past you, its rapid-fire 20 mm autocannon spitting metal death. As you watch in horror, your commanding officer's Black Mamba erupts into a ball of raging flame, composite armor and fuel ablaze in a bright fireball. "Fall back! fall back!" Hastily, you have taken command. Your squadron pulls back behind a rocky outcropping and regroups. Tracers surround your temporary shelter like angry fire hornets -- you all know you can't stay there forever. You crouch low and burst out of the rock's shadow, zipping, zooming and ducking on powered wheels like an oversized armored skater. A hail of shells explode around your Heavy Gear, but you're too good a pilot to be hit. Unleashing the full power of your V-engine, you head back into the firefight, emptying your shoulder-mounted 71 mm rocket pod on an enemy heavy tank. And they told you this was just a routine patrol...

The Heavy Gear Rulebook is the Silhouette game system manual for Dream Pod 9's exciting new science-fiction game. Within these covers you will find:

• A complete easy-to-use, yet realistic roleplaying game system which uses the classic six-sided die to resolve conflicts.
  
• A complete tactical game system that can either be played on its own or interact smoothly with the roleplaying game.
  
• Optional rules for tabletop gaming using metal miniatures.
  
• Advanced Heavy Gear Fighter card game rules, including Multi-Player and the all-new Duel rules.
  
• A brief summary of the Heavy Gear science-fiction game universe.
  
• Fully illustrated descriptions and game stats for 8 Heavy Gears, 4 ground vehicles and 2 striders.
  

Get ready to jump four millennia into the future and step into the world of Heavy Gear. Are you up to the challenge?"