Grade The D6 System

[kronovan]

I came to the party late for this TTRPG with the free (at the time) D6 Space being my entry point. I ran the free Septimus setting with those rules which went reasonably well, although IIRC it presented some rough edges which limited the length of my campaign. A few years later I bought a cheap, preowned copy of the WEG Star Wars 2e Rev. and ran a series of SW adventures over the Xmas holidays. When FFG re-released the original 1e via their boxset, I bought one. I preferred it as one of my dislikes of 2e was the sprawling skills list and 1e had a shorter, more reasonable set of skills. I did houserule in some of the improved rules from 2e Rev for the short campaign I ran. I also bought the Viking themed Vikingr which uses the d6 system, but I've yet to run a campaign or adventures with it.

I voted "It's Pretty Good", as I've always had decent results using the d6 rules. Albeit I've never used the Adventure or Fantasy flavors of them. My biggest barrier to getting d6 to the table more often, is that for most genres I'd use it for I can get similar results using Savage Worlds or Cepheus Engine, but with less effort. I'm much more of a homebrewer, so TTRPGs that I can build with quickly tend to be my goto's. When it comes to running Star Wars adventures though, WEG SWs is still my preferred choice.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I only had one extended use of it that kind-of went wrong, but I think some of that was non-system based. I like the damage-threshold stuff in principal, but doing it with dice pools produces some odd artifacts (you have to keep Brawn down to a dull roar or its can be literally close to impossible to do any damage to the target). I also wish the Advantage/Disadvantage system was a little more coherently put together (which is not the same as wishing it wasn't there), and the conflation of metacurrancy and advancement points can, as with all versions I've seen of this, go die in a fire.

 

[Umbran]

Oh boy. WEG Star Wars d6 is one of my all-time favorites.

I had a lot of fun playing WEG Star Wars. However, I don't know if that's because of the system, or because that was just what my group was playing at the time.

Today, if I compared WEG's version to the others, would I really find the d6 version preferable? I am not so sure.

 

[aramis erak]

The main problem I have with the game is that I miss hit points in a big way. As a DM it's so hard to judge encounters and make them exciting if any single shot could take out a PC. The dice pool system tends to make opponents either hapless or else lethal and there is very little in between. While you could say this fits the flavor of the movies, it doesn't make for an interesting action based RPG. I'm sort of avoiding it by playing a heavy investigation based game, but that really doesn't fit the flavor of Star Wars.

D6 Space, D6 Adventure, and D6 Fantasy all have options for Body Points (which originated in Hercules & Xena). In fact, there are 3 official variations: Damage Levels (as used in WEG Star Wars), Body Points alone, or Body Points with wound level penalties based upon current body points. They're the same rule in all three.

 

[Thomas Shey]

D6 Space, D6 Adventure, and D6 Fantasy all have options for Body Points (which originated in Hercules & Xena). In fact, there are 3 official variations: Damage Levels (as used in WEG Star Wars), Body Points alone, or Body Points with wound level penalties based upon current body points. They're the same rule in all three.

Though I have to say, in a game system that normally gets nowhere near random generation anywhere else, deciding suddenly to do it for Body Points was a peculiar design decision.

 

[aramis erak]

Though I have to say, in a game system that normally gets nowhere near random generation anywhere else, deciding suddenly to do it for Body Points was a peculiar design decision.

yeah, it was... but it's there for those who want/need it.
I'd allow a reroll between adventures for 5 CP ...
If one wants to just have a fixed number, 3 per die....

 

[Thomas Shey]

yeah, it was... but it's there for those who want/need it.
I'd allow a reroll between adventures for 5 CP ...
If one wants to just have a fixed number, 3 per die....

Yeah, but they didn't have to do that with the roll; they could have just had you apply an average result rounded up with the bonus. I personally think whoever decided on that die roll there was working in an odd mindset given the rest of the system.

 

[Deset Gled]

For some reason, West End really hated the idea of players being able to make characters as competent as the ones from their licensed properties. In the Hercules & Xena game, for instance, if you sat down hoping to play Hercules or Xena, or even lesser characters from the shows like Gabrielle or Iolaus, you were gonna be disappointed -- a starting PC in that game is barely on the same level as the useless comedy sidekick Joxer. And in their DC Universe game, if you were playing at the "Batman" level, you couldn't even create a hero who was as capable as Robin.

I guess this is kinda furthering my point from the "Star Wars without so much Jedi" point above, but I always thought this was a major strength of the D6 system, not a flaw. The idea is to have fun exploring the world, not to be the most powerful person in it. Of course, I have to admit that this works a lot better in world-rich settings like Star Wars. I never played Hecules and Xena, but I think they could work. Batman or most other superhero settings, on the other hand, would certainly be a bit of a rough. I think the Stargate d6 game that was in progress with WEG folded would have worked great; you don't need to be Jack O'neil to enjoy exploring new worlds through the gate, you just have to accept you're not supposed to Ascend at the end.

Of course, it should also be understood that I like versions of D&D where level 1 characters can still be killed by a critical hit from a house cat. YMMV.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I guess this is kinda furthering my point from the "Star Wars without so much Jedi" point above, but I always thought this was a major strength of the D6 system, not a flaw. The idea is to have fun exploring the world, not to be the most powerful person in it. Of course, I have to admit that this works a lot better in world-rich settings like Star Wars. I never played Hecules and Xena, but I think they could work. Batman or most other superhero settings, on the other hand, would certainly be a bit of a rough. I think the Stargate d6 game that was in progress with WEG folded would have worked great; you don't need to be Jack O'neil to enjoy exploring new worlds through the gate, you just have to accept you're not supposed to Ascend at the end.

Of course, it should also be understood that I like versions of D&D where level 1 characters can still be killed by a critical hit from a house cat. YMMV.

I think the problem you run into is these are all high-heroic settings; that means most people drawn to them are going to expect to be playing characters at least in that rough weight class, not everyman heroes.

 

[Celebrim]

I think the problem you run into is these are all high-heroic settings; that means most people drawn to them are going to expect to be playing characters at least in that rough weight class, not everyman heroes.

But then you end up with a silly setting where you have scores of Luke or Vader level characters running around that totally undermines the tone and precepts of the setting. Every time they introduce yet another survivor of Order 66 I just cringe.

If the Harry Potter setting can only support Harry Potter, the Dune setting can only support Paul, the Lord of the Rings setting can only support Frodo, and so forth, then the setting just isn't gameable. We already know those stories.

Moreover, most players of most RPGs are going to expect progress. So if your starting character is already as skilled as the most skilled characters in the narrative, where do you go from there? I can understand having rules for CharGen that start characters out at different tiers, but not the idea that if you play you are going to start as the galaxy or world's mightiest hero by default.

We've seen how destructive starting play out at too high of a level can be indirectly in the Star Wars video games, were having nowhere to go but up leads to increasingly silly feats that invalidate the setting. Even in the movies and extended universe, that impulse to always go over the top and tell a bigger story than the one before ultimately is a dead end that goes nowhere. Sometimes less is more. Always ramping up the scale just leads to erosion of cool, not the increase of it.