Star Wars d6 -- wild die?

[Quasqueton]

Can someone familiar with the old Star Wars d6 system tell me about "wild dice"? Am I correct in remembering that you always rolled an extra die (the wild die) when you attempted something; and if that die came up 1 you had a "fumble" of some sort, and if it came up 6 you had some kind of wild success?

Was this a core mechanic or an option, or am I just thinking of someone's house rule?

Quasqueton

 

[Bran Blackbyrd]

That looks about right to me.

The very first time I played, the very first thing I rolled for was to crawl through a small stream that was running underneath a shock-fence. The ditch the stream made was the only place the fence could be bypassed without going over it (which couldn't be done without alerting all the bad guys in the compound).
I rolled a 1 on the wild die, the tip of my bounty hunter's jetpack touched the shock-fence and it zapped me badly enough (I was in water after all) that I went unconscious and the other PC, a quixotic jedi, had to revive me.

On the other hand rolling a 6 on the wild die led to many spectacular actions by my character; actions like taking out an AT-ST with one well thrown grenade.

 

[Dr Simon]

It's not a core mechanic in the first edition, but it might have been added later. Sounds similar to the "botch die" of Ars Magica 4.

 

[Quasqueton]

Interesting. One response says yes, one says no.

Quasqueton

 

[Henry]

Slight correction:

The Wild Die was not an extra die. It was one of the dice pool you rolled. If it came up one, you took that die away totally, and some mishap that drove the story a bit would be inserted by the GM. If it came up 6, you could re-roll it, and KEEP re-rolling it as long as it came up 6. There was only one die per action designated as wild die, usually by a different color.

 

[Henry]

Interesting take: I once had a Jedi character who decided to avoid using his lightsaber to kill a guard; he punched him instead, and rolled a "6" on the wild die when rolling damage. He rolled somewhere between 5 and 10 sixes IN A ROW on that die. (Been a few years, can't recall exactly how many) The result was somewhere in the 50's, so I ruled his punch accidentally killed the guard, driving a broken nose-bridge fragment into his brain. Even now years later we talk about his "murderous" Jedi, to which he gets flustered for our amusement.

 

[Dr Simon]

What version of the game are you playing? I don't ever recall seeing that in the 1st Ed. rules (and they weren't very complex so I doubt I've overlooked it all these years!).

 

[Mighty Halfling]

In all current D6 games, you must at roll a wild die with every skill check. For example, if you have a skill check of 1D, that die is the wild die. If you have 6D, one is the wild die and five are regular.
Anyway, the wild die counts toward your regular total on all rolls.
However if it rolls a 1 or a 6 it will have different effects.
If you roll a 6, you roll that die again and add both rolls to the final total. If you roll another 6 on the wild die, you roll it again and again until you stop rolling 6s. This can create for some massively (read heroic-level) skill successes. Typically, the GM is asked to embellish the effect in a positive direction. For example, if you get a skill total of 32 (with two 6 rolls on the wild die) on a computer search roll, you not only find the information on the crook you're researching, but you also find out that he's also the cousin of the city mayor, the two own a business together, and they have several shadey dealings going on.
If you roll a 1, you trigger a critical failure. Not only does that one count toward your total, you also loose the highest roll you made on that skill attempt, further lessening your success.
If you roll a 1, but still succeed at the skill attempt, you do something embarassing or foolish or something to lessen the success. For example, you roll a 1 on the wild die, but still pass your Repair skill check. Sure you succeed, but you break your hydrospanner in the process, meaning you can't make anymore.
If you roll a 1 and fail at the attempt, you really botch the job. For example, under the same skill attempt above, you fail your Repair attemp, drop your hydrospanner down into the sublight drive engine, and do even more damage to your engine than before.

 

[The Horror]

In d6 SW this is the way it used to work:

The wild die is just one of the die in the pool but of a different colour.

If it rolls a 6, you count the 6 and roll the die again. Add the result of the extra roll to the total. If you roll another 6 you can keep rolling and adding it to the total.

If it rolls a 1 you disregard the die from the total, and you also lose the highest scoring die from the pool (usually a 6). You then pick it up and roll the wild die again. If it scores a 1 on this second roll you get a critical mishap. If you score anything but a 1 nothing happens (other than you possibly failing the roll).

The thing to remember about critical mishaps is this: they should always further the plot. This is Han Solo stepping on a twig in RotJ here. He alerts the scouts to his presence, which leads to a chase and the characters meeting the Ewoks.

In one of out games a mishap resulted in the Padawan (sp?) screwing up his astrogation roll and stranding himself in the middle of nowhere without a functioning hyperdrive. He eventually was picked up by slavers, finding vital clues on who was responsible for the current attacks on Mon Cal shipyards (the slavers were transporting Mon Cal engineers from said shipyards, but were not themselves responsible for the attacks).

Hope this helps.


The Horror

 

[Henry]

What version of the game are you playing? I don't ever recall seeing that in the 1st Ed. rules (and they weren't very complex so I doubt I've overlooked it all these years!).

The Wild Die came in in the 2nd edition of the game, along with using character points to adjust dice pools instead of just character improvement. They remained for the 2nd edition revised rules (incidentally, the last set of the rules to be published under Lucas license with WEG).