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, a quarterly magazine dedicated to the Robotech TV series. In 1989, Ianus relinquished the Robotech license so that they could turn Protoculture Addicts, into a bi-monthly magazine with an industry-wide focus; it became the first large mainstream anime and manga magazine in North America. 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. In 1993, the same design team was hired by Palladium Books to work on supplementary deck plans of the Macross II roleplaying game. The design team, under license from RTG, also created the comedy sf game Star Riders using the rules system from RTG's Teenagers from Outer Space roleplaying game. This also resulted in a three-part comic book anthology in Dark Horse Presents. In 1994, the Dream Pod 9 team developed a card game called Heavy Gear Fighter, their first in-house project, and started to develop a game called Project A-ko: The Roleplaying Game based on the anime movie Project A-ko, as well as a roleplaying game system. Dream Pod 9 In 1995, the Dream Pod 9 team released the first edition of Heavy Gear, their first roleplaying and combat game that used the design team's roleplaying game system called "Silhouette", and started using a "Dream Pod 9" logo to identify their work. In December 1995, after experiencing strong growth in both the magazine business and the games division, Ianus decided to split into two ventures: Protoculture, which continued to publish Protoculture Addicts; and a fully independent game publisher, Dream Pod 9, which would design and market miniatures and gaming books. Mecha (giant robots) would be the focus of Dream Pod 9. Silhouette game system The Silhouette game