What are your views of D6?

[shadow]

I've played the d6 system before for a number of different games. Personally I hate the system. IMHO, d6 suffers from two fatal flaws:

1. Bucket o' dice syndrome: This really gets to be a problem in higher powered games. When I played WEG Star Wars, it wasn't unusual for some of the jedi characters to be rolling 12 or 13 dice at a time when using force points.

2. All skills default to the base attribute: This can give a cinematic feel to the game (heroes with a high enough attribute can perform any skill that falls under the said attribute), but it leads to a number of absurd situations. For example, in a d6 pulp game that I played in the kid sidekick character had a much higher firearm dice pool than my hardened mercenary character simply because the kid had a higher dexterity (which made sense for a kid sidekick), and gun skills defaulted to dexterity. Also, since everyone can really do any skill at their defalt attribute, on higher levels characters are no longer unique. When attributes get high enough, every character can do just about everything; no skill is unique to a certain character.

just my 2cp

 

[Psion]

I've never tried it except in the WEG SW implementation. I consider it simplistic and nice for beginners, but problematic for extended play, and disdain it for the faults common to dice pools.

 

[kenobi65]

I second this, but I also have a lot of good memories of D6 Star Wars. I don't want to complain about a game that has such memories attached to it.

Don't get me wrong; we really enjoyed our SW d6 campaign. But, it ran for about 7 years, and by the end, the PCs were just too powerful for the system.

(I should note that, when we converted the d6 PCs to the d20 system, using the conversion guidelines in the back of the 1st edition d20 book, they ended up being 15th-20th level. And, we played with the PCs in d20 for a couple of years, and they were pretty much overly powerful for that system, too.)

I also adapted the d6 system for a fantasy campaign back in the late 90s, when I inherited the DM chair for a D&D group, but had no interest in running a 2E campaign. It, too, was fun, until the PCs got to be "high-level", at which point it was largely an exercise in dice-rolling. If anyone's interested in seeing my d6 fantasy rules, they're on my web site at: http://members.aol.com/mjmistele/sword.html

 

[Ranger REG]

I liked it for Star Wars, never had any experience it with anything esle though

Not a fan of d6. Prior to WotC and 2000, I was forced to play the "bucket o' dice" version of Star Wars because my friends are fans of Star Wars (at least more fanatic than I am). The more I play the game, the more I hate it (also my roleplaying skill is honed because they didn't know how the disgust I harbor against it).

Star Wars d20 somehow brought me back, despite George Lucas's attempt at Prequel.

The only d6-based systems I like are Fuzion/Action!, HERO, Icon (due to LUGTrek), and CODA.

 

[Dingleberry]

I'm surprised to hear so many complain about the "bucket o' dice" aspect of d6. I ran a d6 SW campaign for several years, and some of my greatest memories were when a player would use a Force Point and get to use a huge handful of dice. Sure, it takes longer to add up, but you can't beat the sound of 16 dice clattering on the table.

 

[Desdichado]

Star Wars d6 was my first RPG, so the system will always have a special place for me. Of course, I haven't played it in years, and probably wouldn't unless it was the only option left. I really don't like having to use all those dice.

At least its easy to find lots of d6s. I like using the big red casino dice myself.

 

[Desdichado]

I'm surprised to hear so many complain about the "bucket o' dice" aspect of d6. I ran a d6 SW campaign for several years, and some of my greatest memories were when a player would use a Force Point and get to use a huge handful of dice. Sure, it takes longer to add up, but you can't beat the sound of 16 dice clattering on the table.

The complaints tend to be around two things, 1) the rolling of lots of dice, and then counting them up, slows down what is otherwise a fast-moving system and 2) the statistical results of rolling a "bucket of dice" isn't easy to predict from a player perspective, making judging how likely you are to succeed on something difficult to tell. Most of the bucket o' dice games also tend to show that the designers weren't very familiar with the probabilities involved either.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Most of the bucket o' dice games also tend to show that the designers weren't very familiar with the probabilities involved either.

Such as the Shadowrun module that required two "8"s ( roughly 0.025% on six dice) in order to find one of the starting locations? Yeah. Been there.

 

[Aaron L]

I don't want to be mean, but I despise the WEG D6 system.

 

[Greatwyrm]

I am currently reading Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying and I understand the first edition was d6. The d10 version seems quite elegant; all you need are 2d10s.

I agree that WFRP2e is much cleaner and nicer than 1e, but 1e wasn't a d6 game. In most respects, it's pretty similar to 2e. Not the same, but similar.