JediSoth said:
So how about it? Anyone intimately familiar with both systems to the point they can comprehensive analysis of the differences?
I'll take a crack at it, having played plenty of d6 back in the day and being an avid fan of Saga.
Remathilis hit one of the major contrasts regarding the class system. In d6, since you can spend your experience any way that you want, it can lead to characters that are wildly awesome in a very narrow range of skills, but are far less competent at things outside of their area of expertise. Much like you'd see in the real world if someone hyper-specialized at one thing. The Ace Pilot is one example, as is the Gunslinger, both of whom after several adventures may have 10+ dice in their key skills, but would be lucky to have more than 3 dice in non-key skills, and especially true of the Force Wizard since their Force skills can do so freakin' much, and it can get costly to raise them. It allows for great customization of what your character can do, but at the same time it can limit the GM in the type of scenarios he wants to run. Hard to do a dramatic old west type chase scene with the PCs atop kybuks if nobody invested in points in their Ride skill (although the Ace Pilot might do okay since his Mechanical attribute will be pretty decent).
In Saga Edition, you wind up with characters that are good/really good at their areas of expertise, but not hopeless in others. To use the old west chase scene, even if nobody has the Ride skill, the PCs can do a reasonable go at it since they'd get to add 1/2 their level to the skill check. Saga Edition takes the approach that if you've been out adventuring for a while, then you're going to pick up some tangential knowledge about other things. Master Yoda may not be much of a computer whiz compared to guys like Ghent, but after 800+ years, he's picked up a things here and there that lets him do alright if he has to deal with a computer. That's not to say that Saga Edition characters can't become "instant experts" thanks to the Skill Focus feat, but that would be akin to dumping a large number of your starting skill dice in d6 into a couple of skills with some specializations (i.e. 2 dice in Space Transport Piloting with YT-1300 as a specializtion).
Also, where d6 just lets you advance willy-nilly and can lead to some hefty imbalance in the group's capabilities (the bounty hunter with 12D in Blasters while the rest of the group averages about 6D in the same skill), Saga Edition uses of classes helps keep everyone on a generally even playing field, at least where general combat capabilities are concerned. It isn't 100% foolproof (a character with a starting Dexterity of 20 is going to be combat god from the word go in SWSE), but it usually doesn't lead to the wide variance that could occur in SWd6.
Skills are also a big change. D6 broke skills out quite a bit, and made combat abilities into skills. SWSE consolidated a lot of skills from its d20 predecessors, and as a d20 game combat stuff is handled by class leves (attack bonus, class defense bonuses). There's also the feat and talent system, which lets players further customize what their character can do outside of skills. In SWSE, skills are the basics of what a character can do, but its the talents and feats that set you apart from everyone else. Just about anyone can train to pilot a vehicle, but guys like Han and Wedge Antilles are going to be able to do things in their respective crafts that the average person wouldn't have a hope of replicating due to the feats and talents they've taken to further enhance their piloting abilities.
The Force is probably the most dramatic difference between the two. D6 had your classic three skills (Control, Sense, Alter), where SWSE just has Use the Force. In D6, you simply chose whatever powers you'd like for every pip you had in that respective Force skill, where SWSE if you only have UtF, you get access to some fairly minor yet basic Jedi abilities (sensing other Force users, limited telekinesis, telepathy), with the need to spend character level feats to pick up Force Training so you can get the more advanced powers such as enhancing your combat prowess, moving starfighters, hurling lightning, crushing someone's trachea, healing others, and blasting battle droids to bits with a wave of your hand. At low-levels, a Force Wizard (has Skill Focus in Use the Force) in SWSE is going to have an easy time overcoming their enemies' Defense scores, but that will begin to change at the higher levels, since Defense bonus progression (+1 per heroic level) quickly outstrips Skill check bonus (+1 for every 2 heroic levels), so by 20th level you'd be lucky to affect a fellow 20th level character with a Force power (which is why Yoda, Palpatine, and Dooku generally wound up going for their lightsabers in the prequels).
Force Points also work differently between systems. In D6, they gave you an ungodly boost to your skills, but in SWSE they just give you a minor boost, more along the lines of spending a Character Point in D6 to boost a skill check.
I'd say that's a decent start for a comparison between the two. As for which is better, that's a matter of personal choice. I know a few D6 fans that will stick with that system until their dying breath, while I'm a SWSE fanboy.
