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{{italic title}}
[[Image:JovianChronicles2Cover.gif|thumb|right|Cover of the 2005 ''Jovian Chronicles'' core book]]
'''''Jovian Chronicles''''' is a [[science fiction]] [[game]] setting published by [[Dream Pod 9]] since 1997. It introduces a complete universe for [[Role-playing game|role-playing]] and [[wargaming]] [[space combat]] featuring [[mecha]], giant [[spacecraft]], and epic space battles.
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The ''Jovian Chronicles'' setting was originally published as a pair of licensed supplements for the ''[[Mekton]]'' role-playing game; [[IANUS Publications|Ianus Publications]] released two volumes—''Jovian Chronicles'' and ''Europa Incident—''in 1992. This first edition is known amongst fans as the "Green Edition" because of the color scheme of its cover design.
 
After Ianus decided to split into two ventures in 1995 — Protoculture, which would publish ''Protoculture Addicts'' magazine; and Dream Pod 9, which would design and market miniatures and gaming books,<ref name="designers"/>{{rp|271-272271–272}} ''Jovian Chronicles'' was re-published as a full-fledged game line in 1997 by Dream Pod 9, this time using their own in-house rule system. This edition, because of its white cover, is known as the "White Edition", and subsequent supplements are also called this, even though several of the supplemental books feature a dark blue starfield cover.
 
==Publication history==
Ianus Publications had licensed the anime-related games of [[R. Talsorian Games]], and Marc A. Vezina's ''Jovian Chronicles'' (1994) detailedby Marc A. Vezina featured an original campaign setting for R. Talsorian'sthe ''[[Mekton]]'' role-playing game from R. ItTalsorian. Vezina had originallyintended been''Jovian intendedChronicles'' to be published as a serial forin the company's ''Mecha Press'' magazine. ''Jovian Chronicles'' was instead published as a standalone setting and supplemented soon after with ''Europa Incident'' (1994). [[Dream Pod 9]] was soon split out from Ianus as a separate company, and their second game after ''[[Heavy Gear]]'' was ''Jovian Chronicles'' (1998), a game based on Dream Pod 9's Silhouette system, and a variant of the game setting that they had previously createdpublished for use with ''Mekton''. The new edition included changes tochanged the theme of the game, which wasto nowencompass an anime mecha game, a space-opera starfighter game, andas well a near-future builtgame on withusing hard science. Many of the mecha were maderedesigned blockierto inaccommodate designa tovideo bettergame accommodatethat awould potentialhave been released by Activision gamebut thatwas never came to bepublished.<ref name="designers"/>
 
The later ''Silhouette CORE Rulebook'' (2003) offered a new standalone version of Silhouette that turned it into a generic system, and was immediately followed by the ''Mecha Companion'' (2003), which offered [[D20 System|d20]] stats for all the mecha from ''Heavy Gear'', ''Jovian Chronicles'' and ''[[Gear Krieg]]'' using [[Guardians of Order]]'s ''d20 Mecha'' (2003) mech description rules. ''Jovian Chronicles'' second edition was also released in 2003.<ref name="designers">{{Cite book|author=Shannon Appelcline|title=Designers & Dragons|publisher=Mongoose Publishing|year=2011| isbn= 978-1-907702-58-7}}</ref>{{rp|271-273271–273}}
 
In 2017, Dream Pod 9 launched a [[Kickstarter]] to create new resin spaceship miniatures. The goal was to raise 9,000 [[Canadian dollar|CAD]]; with the support of 143 backers, they raised a total of 25,090 CAD.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tabletopanalytics.com/project/jovian-wars-resin-spaceship-miniatures-5758|title=Jovian Wars - Resin Spaceship Miniatures|last=Projects|first=Tabletop Analytics-Kickstarter|website=tabletopanalytics.com|language=en|access-date=2019-07-18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.backerkit.com/projects/heavygearblitz/jovian-wars-resin-spaceship-miniatures|title=Track Jovian Wars - Resin Spaceship Miniatures's Kickstarter campaign on BackerTracker|website=BackerKit|language=en|access-date=2019-07-18}}</ref> Dream Pod 9 reported that by November 2017 they had "completed the shipping of Backer Reward Packages".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/heavygearblitz/jovian-wars-resin-spaceship-miniatures/posts/2035260|title=Update 33: Jovian Wars Post Kickstarter Update 18: Backer Rewards Shipping Complete! · Jovian Wars - Resin Spaceship Miniatures|website=Kickstarter|language=en|access-date=2019-07-18}}</ref> In 2018, they launched a second Kickstarter to create additional new spaceships and exo-armor squad miniatures. The goal was smaller this time (4,000 CAD) and while it was successful, it was less successful than the first Kickstarter (57 backers raising 8,708 CAD).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tabletopanalytics.com/project/jovian-wars-venus-forces-kickstarter-11285|title=Jovian Wars Venus Forces Kickstarter|last=Projects|first=Tabletop Analytics-Kickstarter|website=tabletopanalytics.com|language=en|access-date=2019-07-18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.backerkit.com/projects/heavygearblitz/jovian-wars-venus-forces-kickstarter|title=Track Jovian Wars Venus Forces Kickstarter's Kickstarter campaign on BackerTracker|website=BackerKit|language=en|access-date=2019-07-18}}</ref> Dream Pod 9 reported that they had begun shipping out "Backer Reward Packages" in April 2019.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/heavygearblitz/jovian-wars-venus-forces-kickstarter/posts/2475660|title=Update 18: First Venus Kickstarter Backer Reward Packages Shipped this Week! · Jovian Wars Venus Forces Kickstarter|website=Kickstarter|language=en|access-date=2019-07-18}}</ref> During this time, Beta Playtest Rules for a new edition, called ''Jovian Wars'', were released for free on [[Indie role-playing game#Distribution methods|DrivethruRPG]] as a PDF. These rules were last updated on February 14, 2018.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/201440/Jovian-Wars--Beta-Playtest-Rules-Package-Ver12|title=Jovian Wars - Beta Playtest Rules Package Ver1.2 - Dream Pod 9 {{!}} Jovian Chronicles {{!}} DriveThruRPG.com|website=www.drivethrurpg.com|language=en|access-date=2019-07-18}}</ref>
 
==Setting==
The game world shows one possible future, a time in which Mankind has expanded and settled the [[solarSolar systemSystem]], going as far as [[terraforming]] [[Venus]] and [[Mars]]. The colonists living around [[Jupiter]] are at odds with the government of [[Earth]], driving much of the series' intrigue. The game features a blend of action/adventure and hard-science [[space colonization]] facts.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZnLkqqG1tg |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/xZnLkqqG1tg |archive-date=2021-12-13 |url-status=live|title=Game Geeks #103 Jovian Chronicles & Core Command|last=Wiegel|first=Kurt|date=June 4, 2009|website=YouTube|publisher=Game Geeks © PugKnows Productions|access-date=July 18, 2019}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=|first=|date=November–December 1993|title=Jovian Chronicles|url=https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/1738/Mecha-Press-10?term=mecha+press++10|journal=[[Mecha Press]]|publisher=[[Anime News Network | IANVS Publications]]|volume=|issue=10|pages=|via=}}</ref> The books are based on plausible technical details to maintain a realistic [[hard science fiction]] setting.
 
*'''Mercury''': a small settlement, whose main exports are high quality electronics and [[metal]]s. [[Mercury (planet)|Mercury]] is the headquarters of the powerful Merchant Guild, an association of companies which provide most of the transportation throughout the system.
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==Game rules==
 
The concept has its origins on a campaign played by the authors [[Mark A. Vezina]] and [[Etienne Gagnon]] since 1987, using [[R. Talsorian]]'s [[Mekton]] system. After 5 years of development, IANVS plublicationspublications licensed the Mekton II rules and published the ''Jovian Chronicles'' Campaign Setting, a 112-page letter sized book which describes the JC universe, timeline, technologies and introduces players to the setting thru a 12 episode campaign. The JC campaign works as an extension of the Mekton rules set, with minimum changes required and then only for character status and wealth, however, compared to other Mecha depicted in Mekton, JC Exo-armors tend to be less resilient and their weapons are less powerful. It is also of note that at this stage, ''Exos'' tend to be more balanced with little differences among them, while on later editions, ''grunt'' exos are intentionally inferior to ''hero'' machines, for example, a CEGA Syreen and a JC Pathfinder are equally balanced in power, armor and weapons, and similar in capabilities to larger machines.
 
Mecha designs also vary on this edition, being more complex and elaborated in design than on latter iterations, during this release, there were also a number of metal miniatures for six of the exo-armors in the setting, these were produced by Canadian manufacturer [[RAFM Company|RAFM]] and were based on the campaign book technical designs by [[John Moscato]]. Miniatures were in 1/325 scale due to the fictional size of the exo-armors and presented one of the finest and most dynamic mecha sculptings of the era.
 
The second release of Jovian Chronicles, was the first one published by DP9, adapts the ''[[Silhouette game system]]'', a streamlined set of rules already tested and proved in ''[[Heavy Gear]]'', [[Dream Pod 9]]'s other successful [[science fiction]] game.<ref name=":0" /> It can be played as either a [[role-playing]] [[game]], a tactical [[Wargaming|wargame]], or an integration of both. There are major changes on this release, such as the aforementioned distinction among the different exo-armors and other equipment as well as the focus on the character creation.
 
Both the RPG and miniature games are built on the same basic rule mechanics. ''Silhouette'' which defines characters in terms of 10 base attributes (agility, knowledge, etc.), 5 derived attributes (health, etc.), and a variety of skills. Skill rolls make up the backbone of the system, which focuses on effect-based speed of play over grainy detail. The core mechanic involves rolling a number of 6-sided dice, taking the highest result, adding in modifiers for attributes and/or situation, and then comparing it to a set threshold number. If the result is higher than the threshold the test is a success; if it is lower the test is a failure. The margin by which the test succeeded (Margin of Success, MoS) or failed (Margin of Failure, MoF) helps to determine the final outcome. Combat is handled by the same system, with characters taking penalty-inflicting wounds rather than depleting a set number of health points. As a result, the system can be lethal, especially on inexperienced characters.
 
New miniatures were also released for this edition, for both, exo-armor/fighters as well as spaceships. The new line of miniatures covered a much broader range of subjects, at the expense of size, being scaled at 1/500 for the exo armor/fighters which were near half the size of the original ones, this edition also marks the appearance of spaceship miniatures, which were scaled to 1/5000.
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During this stage, the game system was splintered into the ''Silhouette Core'' RPG rules and the ''Lightning Strike'' system for tactical scenarios. The latter, is a more abstract version of the original tactical system which allow for combined arms maneuvers.
 
A third edition [[Jovian Wars]] was put on kickstarter during March-AprilMarch–April 2017 and is in the process of delivering to its backers, the new edition is a fleet scale tactical game, whose rules are distributed for free at the DP9 website and changes (again) the scale of the miniatures to 1/1000 to exo-armors and fighters and 1/4000 for the spaceships.
 
This change in scale intends to represent more realistically the magnitude of the conflicts depicted, making combat units smaller and warships larger. It features a new turning template for ship maneuvers which is promoted as the major innovation in the system and due to the scale of the exo-armors, they now operate in squadrons of 3 miniatures each. With the new scale, each exo/fighter is around 15mm in height, compared to 30mm for Lightning strike minis and an average of 54mm for RAFM miniatures. The RPG aspect of the game is all but left aside.
 
The project was funded, however it is uncertain if besides backers, other potential or new players will accept the scale change which has turned the exo-armors, an emblematic symbol of the series and marketing hook (first edition depicted a full page illustration of a Jovian Exo-armor on cover which was also used on the RAFM blister's card) into a sort of battle counter (size matters... sometime), rather focusing on ship to ship maneuvers.
 
==Product Line==
=== IANUS Games ([[Mekton]] Supplements) ===
* IMP-01: Jovian Chronicles: Campagne (January 1993).
* IMP-02: Europa Incident: Campagne (January 1995).
 
=== Dream Pod 9 ===
* DP9-PJC: Jovian Chronicles - Promotional Poster(2002).
* DP9-300: Jovian Chronicles - Lightning Strike Demo Game (2002).
* DP9-301: Rules & Background for Jovian Chronicles - Enter the Saga of Mankind (June 1997).
* DP9-302: Companion to Jovian Chronicles - Advanced Rules & Background(October 1997).
* DP9-303: Mechanical Catalog - Exo-Armors & Spacecraft (July 1997).
* DP9-304: Chaos Principle - Original Cinematic Adventure (April 1998).
* DP9-305: Game Aid for Jovian Chronicles - Gamemastering Made Easy (April 1998).
* DP9-306: Ships of the Fleet - Volume 1: Jovian Confederation (November 1998).
* DP9-307: Spacer's Guide - A Guide to Life in the Twenty-third Century (May 2001).
* DP9-308: Solapol - Sourcebook (May 1999).
* DP9-309: Ships of the Fleet - Volume 3: CEGA Navy (November 1999).
* DP9-310: Earth - Planet Sourcebook (June 2000).
* DP9-311: Mechanical Catalog Two - Civilian Equipment & Spacecraft (August 2000).
* DP9-312: Jovian Fleet - Blueprint File(1998).
* DP9-313: Ships of the Fleet - Volume 2: Jovian Confederation (February 1999).
* DP9-314: Lightning Strike - Fleet Combat Rules(1999).
* DP9-315: CEGA Fleet - Blueprint File (1999).
* DP9-316: Lightning Strike - Behind the Veil: Venus (1999).
* DP9-317: Jupiter - Planet Sourcebook (February 2000).
* DP9-318: Lightning Strike - Call to Arms (1999).
* DP9-319: Ships of the Fleet - Volume 4: Venus (May 2000).
* DP9-320: Shadow of CEGA - Planet Sourcebook (March 2001).
* DP9-321: Space Equipment Handbook - Advanced Tools & Weapons (December 2000).
* DP9-322: Lightning Strike - Second Edition (2000).
* DP9-323: Nomads - Planet Sourcebook (July 2001).
* DP9-324: Lightning Strike - Companion
* DP9-325: Mercury - Planet Sourcebook (January 2002).
* DP9-326: Venus - Planet Sourcebook (May 2002).
* DP9-327: Mars - Planet Sourcebook (August 2002).
* DP9-328: Cislunar Space - Planet Sourcebook (Mars 2003).
* DP9-920: Jovian Chronicles Second Edition - RPG Player's Handbook (July 2003).
 
==Reception==
In September 1994, ''[[White Wolf (magazine)|White Wolf]]'' gave the game a 3.5 out of 5 rating and said the game "offers a lot of material in a beautiful package".<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?articleid=16993|title=Review: Jovian Chronicles - RPGnet RPG Game Index|website=index.rpg.net|access-date=2019-07-19}}</ref>
 
''Jovian Chronicles'' was featured on the front cover of the March-AprilMarch–April 1997 edition of [[Pyramid (magazine)|Pyramid]] (Vol. 1, Issue 24), and a sneak preview of the game was offered inside the same issue.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.warehouse23.com/products/SJG30-8824|title=Warehouse 23 - Pyramid Classic #24|website=www.warehouse23.com|access-date=2019-07-19}}</ref>
 
In the February 1998 edition of ''[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]'' (Issue 244), [[Rick Swan]] reviewed both the ''Jovian Chronicles'' setting and the ''[[Heavy Gear]]'' setting (also published by Dream Pod 9), and praised the high production values: "Both are beautiful games, into which a lot of effort has been invested." Swan admired the "Silhouette" game system, calling it "the smartest set of universal rules this side of the [[GURPS]] game." But he criticized the combat rules, which he called "more work than fun", and he found little to be excited about in the setting, saying, "There's nothing terribly interesting going on here, and the game's ambitions seem awfully modest compared to the wide screen spectacle of ''[[Trinity (role-playing game)|Trinity]]''." Given the setting's emphasis on robot combat, Swan believed that "''Jovian Chronicles'' aims at players more interested in hardware than human beings." He concluded with an ambivalent shrug: "Other than the lifeless settings, I couldn’t find anything seriously wrong with... ''Jovian Chronicles''. But I couldn’t find much to be excited about either."<ref name="dragon">{{cite journal|last=Swan|first=Rick|authorlinkauthor-link=Rick Swan|date=February 1998|title=Roleplaying Reviews: To the Stars!|url=|journal=[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]|publisher=[[TSR (company)|TSR, Inc.]]|volume=|issue=244|pages=101-104|via=101–104}}</ref>
 
A review of the ''Ship of the Fleet, Vol. 4'' — a supplement describing six Venusian ships of the ''Jovian Chronicles'' line — that appeared in the August 11, 2000 issue of ''Pyramid'' found the supplement had failed in the small details that other works by Dream Pod 9 had possessed, saying "Being truly excellent is a double-edged sword: On the one hand, of course, you're excellent -- and that comes with a lot of perks. On the other hand, though, you have set yourself a very high standard indeed -- and a failure in the details suddenly becomes a notable offense."<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=1797|title=Pyramid: Pyramid Review: Jovian Chronicles: Ships of the Fleet, Vol. 4 -- Venus Fleet|website=www.sjgames.com|access-date=2019-07-19}}</ref>
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*''[[Alarums and Excursions|Alarums & Excursions]]'' #313 (Sept. 2001)
*''[[Pyramid (magazine)|Pyramid]]'' Volume 1 Issue #24 (March/April 1997)
*''Backstab'' #6<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/backstab-magazine-french-06/page/n47/mode/2up|title = Backstab Magazine (French) Issue 06}}</ref>
 
*''[[Casus Belli (magazine)|Casus Belli]]'' #109<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/casus-belli-109/page/n15/mode/2up | title=Casus Belli #109 | date=1997 }}</ref>
 
==References==
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*[http://www.dp9.com/ Dream Pod 9 (Publisher)]
 
[[Category:Anime role-playing games|J]]
[[Category:Canadian role-playing games]]
[[Category:Dream Pod 9 games]]
[[Category:Fiction about Earth]]
[[Category:Fiction aboutset on Jupiter]]
[[Category:Fiction about main-belt asteroids]]
[[Category:MarsFiction inset fictionon Mars]]
[[Category:Fiction aboutset on Mercury (planet)]]
[[Category:Miniature wargames]]
[[Category:ScienceFiction fictionset role-playingon gamesTitan (moon)]]
[[Category:Fiction aboutset theon Solar SystemVenus]]
[[Category:Fiction about Titan (moon)]]
[[Category:Fiction about Venus]]▼
[[Category:Mecha role-playing games]]
▲[[Category:FictionCampaign about Venussettings]]

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