E6: The Game Inside D&D

[Dragonblade275]

One thing that E6 is a bit weak on is the opening pitch. I'm thinking of adding these paragraphs before the FAQ:

How E6 works

E6 is a game where heroes rise against evil, face terrible dangers, and battle against mighty monsters. Like D&D, E6 is a game of enigmatic wizards, canny rogues, and mighty warriors. But instead of using D&D’s 20 levels to translate the characters in that world into the rules, E6 uses only the first 6 levels. E6 is about changing one of D&D’s essential assumptions, and it changes the world from the ground up.

What is an E6 world like?

An E6 world looks very much like a traditional fantasy world, like we see in Lord of the Rings or the Dragonlance fantasy novels. The difference is how that world is expressed in the rules. The average person in this world is a 1st-level commoner – imagine, from their perspective, the abilities of a 6th-level Wizard or 6th-level Fighter. The wizard could kill everyone in your village with a few words (provided you standed relatively close together. The fighter could stand up to ten armed men and kill every one of them. When you see a manticore, you, and your whole village must run, and you can only hope to find men of such power and skill that might be able to defeat them. 6th level characters are mortal – but they are epic heroes, nonetheless.

I like it. The sales pitch for E6 needs to be pretty good for those that are still stuck in the idea that DnD must have 20+ levels to be DnD.

I looked at the Bone Template. I could definitely make a lich from that that would strike fear into the hearts of the 4th level characters that are currently exploring Cauldron and it's surroundings in The Shackled City. I may just do that and create one as a side quest villain in Drakthar's Way (or somewhere else down the line). Definitely food for thought!

 

[Ry]

Yeah, it's not so much about "converting naysayers" as "not eliciting a reaction equivalent to 'huh?'"

 

[wolfpunk]

I think an easy way to pitch E6, is to put it in perspective to the campaign that you are going to run. I see E6 working great for a mostly historical earth style rpg, I think it would work well for George R. R. Martin's Fire and Ice series, and so on. If your players go for that campaign idea, then E6 should be an easy sell.

 

[Squire James]

Wow. Um... that's not really the intent, but OK. I'm more into "State what your campaign is at the beginning, and stick with it. That might be E6, or E6 with feats to gain 8th, or whatever, but stick with it for the sake of your players."

Now that I think about it, though, there's one benefit, if you think of high-level WoW play: "We know what the PCs will be like, so we can build reams and reams of things for them to do, and play around with how to challenge them now that we know their capabilities."

My WoW comment was mostly a joke on how all these people here seemed to want an "expansion pack" to extend the E6 level limit to 7 or 8... and that I can easily imagine a world full of max-level characters who consider anyone of level 5 or lower a "noob". Even if a "noob" can conceivably be a threat to them, most level 6 guys are in a guild, and whomping a guildsman will bring MORE level 6 guys out after you!

I could see a world where level 5 guys really face a "trial by fire" because guilds opposing the PCs goals would be targeting them for removal to keep them from joining a rival guild, while those same rival guilds are more interested in testing these level 5 "noobs" than actually helping them!

 

[Ry]

I see it now, Squire James. This is like the classic cowboy/samurai scenario "someone who looks way too tough for this town is drinking sake/beer over there. Guards, go arrest him, and if you can't arrest him, we should try to hire him!"

 

[Ry]

I've repeated a principle several times and as I compile the FAQ I think it's time to advise it. The principle was:

"If you could build a 6th-level character with some ability, then I think it should be fair game for that ability to be at the end of a feat chain."

I think a better principle would be:

"Before trying to make a new feat to cover a particular kind of character improvement, see if you already have an official feat that helps enhance that same character concept."

 

[Ry]

They point out that balors, dragons, titans, and so on will be unbeatable. I point out that for the most part, they should be. I took time to point out all the creatures that the DMG shows experience for 6-th 7th level characters going all the way up to CR 13-14. That covers probably two thirds of the monster manual's monsters.

I think the way to go is to talk about how a Balor or a CR 20 dragon isn't really an E6 demon or E6 Dragon. Those are E6 gods. Or at least E6 campaign events.

 

[Animus]

Ry,

What do you think of aspects of the gods and/or fiendish lords? I think that they work well in the E6 "scale", don't you think?

 

[Ry]

Absolutely. You might want to give them some kind of "gestalt" abilities with another demon if you want to make them long-running villains, but yes, yes, yes I think Aspects make for great representations of the gods in an E6 campaign, as long as you're happy with them being possibly-defeatable (which to me is a demigod or a demon lord, and I like the idea that the gods like Bahamut are just counterpoints to demon lord level power).

 

[Ry]

On RPG net someone posted about how all the feats you need for an all-psionic E6 campaign are already in the SRD (or at least, the really essential ones).

Damn that could be cool.