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Forked Thread: Star Wars: WEG D6 v. Saga/D20?
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<blockquote data-quote="Wik" data-source="post: 4617683" data-attributes="member: 40177"><p>You know, I think people missed a big point that makes d6 a bit more 'heroic' in some ways: multiple actions.</p><p></p><p>In SWSE, you can take a small selection of actions per round: a standard, a move, and a minor. In d6, your number of actions are unlimited (well, sort of).</p><p></p><p>Essentially, every skill beyond your first inflicts a -1D penalty on ALL skills you made during your round. So, if I have a shooting skill of 6d6, I can shoot once with all my dice, shoot twice at 5d6 each, shoot three times at 4d6, etc...</p><p></p><p>Or, more to the point of the game, I can run through the hatchway (1 action), pull off two shots in succession against those stormtroopers (2 actions), and then hop on my speeder bike and retreat (1 action) - if I'm willing to take a -3D penalty on all my skill checks. In SWSE, those sorts of plays are not available.</p><p></p><p>d6 is a much more "loose" system, and it can lead to some abuses by players if approached from a purely mechanical stance. However, I feel it fits the game better than SWSE for a bunch of reasons:</p><p></p><p>1) The multiple actions of d6 fit the cinematic flair of Star Wars much better, in my opinion.</p><p></p><p>2) d6 is pretty "rules-light", and very quick to learn. I've run it many times, and each time even my stupid players figure out the rules within about fifteen minutes. SWSE... not so much - there are definitely corner cases.</p><p></p><p>3) Force points in d6 fit the game. You spend a point, you get a HUGE bonus. However, if you spend the point to save your own butt, it's burned. Worse, if you spend it to do something actively evil, you gain a Dark Side Point (and the more DS points you get, the more likely you'll turn into Vader and become a very annoying NPC). Even cooler, if you spend a force point to do something heroic ("Go on! I'll hold the door! Pew pew pew!"), you get your force point back at the end of the adventure, and may even earn another one.</p><p></p><p>4)Regarding specialization - I find that while d6 tends to have specializations at first (a gun specialist can start with a skill as high as 6d6, while a guy with absolutely no gun experience and a poor base attribute will be using 2d6), these even out rather quickly. The higher your skills get, the more they cost - I've found during play that most of my players start putting them into skills they sort of suck at, using the logic that it's better to improve two or three low skills than it is to improve a skill you're already the best at. </p><p></p><p>Another point here is that characters in the movies had different roles, but they could do a little bit of everything. in d6, there are no "trained only" skills - everyone can fly an X-Wing, even if they're an Ewok (or, say, a young kid with Jedi powers who shoots everyone in a hangar in one of the most annoying scenes in any movie... EVER). I'm not 100% on SWSE, but I'm pretty sure there are "trained only" skills, which kind of detracts from the movie feel of the game. </p><p></p><p>5) Regarding Wild Dice: I know the d6 system uses them now, but I never saw them used in d6 SW. I think maybe they were an addition of the 2nd edition? In any case, I hate them, and we house-ruled them away when we started playing generic d6, so I have no experience with them.</p><p></p><p>6) The Force: Yeah... SWSE is probably more balanced. But, to be fair, the original game was built on the assumption that there was very little in the way of force powers available (it was, after all, set in the original movie period), and that you'd need a Yoda-like trainer to improve what little skills you had. While they were pretty powerful, I never felt like they dominated the game. Mind you, we never got too far using force powers - they weren't really an interest among my group of gamers, and still aren't. </p><p></p><p>Alright, all that being said, I think d6 is far preferable to SWSE in terms of capturing the feel of the Star Wars movies - primarily because d6 is a rules-light system that spends a huge chunk of it's page space encouraging role-playing over mechanics. To compare the two in terms of mechanics is unfair to d6, because a perfectly balanced mechanical system was never the main intent of the system. The system was built to reflect the Star Wars movies, and to be a fast-running system that was friendly to newbs. </p><p></p><p>SWSE, by the way, is a good system. I like it... I just think the d6 system is better. </p><p></p><p>(P.S. I love the d6 system, so I am quite biased. The game I'm working on for the RPG Design Contest borrows one or two ideas from the d6 system, and I firmly believe that it remains one of the best thought-out games of all time).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Wik, post: 4617683, member: 40177"] You know, I think people missed a big point that makes d6 a bit more 'heroic' in some ways: multiple actions. In SWSE, you can take a small selection of actions per round: a standard, a move, and a minor. In d6, your number of actions are unlimited (well, sort of). Essentially, every skill beyond your first inflicts a -1D penalty on ALL skills you made during your round. So, if I have a shooting skill of 6d6, I can shoot once with all my dice, shoot twice at 5d6 each, shoot three times at 4d6, etc... Or, more to the point of the game, I can run through the hatchway (1 action), pull off two shots in succession against those stormtroopers (2 actions), and then hop on my speeder bike and retreat (1 action) - if I'm willing to take a -3D penalty on all my skill checks. In SWSE, those sorts of plays are not available. d6 is a much more "loose" system, and it can lead to some abuses by players if approached from a purely mechanical stance. However, I feel it fits the game better than SWSE for a bunch of reasons: 1) The multiple actions of d6 fit the cinematic flair of Star Wars much better, in my opinion. 2) d6 is pretty "rules-light", and very quick to learn. I've run it many times, and each time even my stupid players figure out the rules within about fifteen minutes. SWSE... not so much - there are definitely corner cases. 3) Force points in d6 fit the game. You spend a point, you get a HUGE bonus. However, if you spend the point to save your own butt, it's burned. Worse, if you spend it to do something actively evil, you gain a Dark Side Point (and the more DS points you get, the more likely you'll turn into Vader and become a very annoying NPC). Even cooler, if you spend a force point to do something heroic ("Go on! I'll hold the door! Pew pew pew!"), you get your force point back at the end of the adventure, and may even earn another one. 4)Regarding specialization - I find that while d6 tends to have specializations at first (a gun specialist can start with a skill as high as 6d6, while a guy with absolutely no gun experience and a poor base attribute will be using 2d6), these even out rather quickly. The higher your skills get, the more they cost - I've found during play that most of my players start putting them into skills they sort of suck at, using the logic that it's better to improve two or three low skills than it is to improve a skill you're already the best at. Another point here is that characters in the movies had different roles, but they could do a little bit of everything. in d6, there are no "trained only" skills - everyone can fly an X-Wing, even if they're an Ewok (or, say, a young kid with Jedi powers who shoots everyone in a hangar in one of the most annoying scenes in any movie... EVER). I'm not 100% on SWSE, but I'm pretty sure there are "trained only" skills, which kind of detracts from the movie feel of the game. 5) Regarding Wild Dice: I know the d6 system uses them now, but I never saw them used in d6 SW. I think maybe they were an addition of the 2nd edition? In any case, I hate them, and we house-ruled them away when we started playing generic d6, so I have no experience with them. 6) The Force: Yeah... SWSE is probably more balanced. But, to be fair, the original game was built on the assumption that there was very little in the way of force powers available (it was, after all, set in the original movie period), and that you'd need a Yoda-like trainer to improve what little skills you had. While they were pretty powerful, I never felt like they dominated the game. Mind you, we never got too far using force powers - they weren't really an interest among my group of gamers, and still aren't. Alright, all that being said, I think d6 is far preferable to SWSE in terms of capturing the feel of the Star Wars movies - primarily because d6 is a rules-light system that spends a huge chunk of it's page space encouraging role-playing over mechanics. To compare the two in terms of mechanics is unfair to d6, because a perfectly balanced mechanical system was never the main intent of the system. The system was built to reflect the Star Wars movies, and to be a fast-running system that was friendly to newbs. SWSE, by the way, is a good system. I like it... I just think the d6 system is better. (P.S. I love the d6 system, so I am quite biased. The game I'm working on for the RPG Design Contest borrows one or two ideas from the d6 system, and I firmly believe that it remains one of the best thought-out games of all time). [/QUOTE]
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