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Author Topic: Sell me on d6 System  (Read 2878 times)

CleanCutRogue

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Sell me on d6 System
« on: March 21, 2006, 10:51:06 PM »
I played a dozen or so sittings of the WEG Star Wars (Fifth Edition I think?  I dunno) under a deranged game master a while back and certifiably hated it.  Then I was at his house recently and read the book and realized that the system is great and that he was just a dink.

Anyway, I see promise in the system.  Simple, elegant, action-oriented.  I see that WEG has a universal type system out, albiet with three distinct books for genre separation (read: profit reaping).  

Anyone playing it?  Anyone have any sites or experiences with it?  Which genre books are a must-have?
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Knightcrawler

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Sell me on d6 System
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2006, 11:45:23 PM »
There is no promise, there is no good, there is nothing but crap to the system.  I utterly loathe the d6 system they used for Star Wars, it was headache inducing.

Your experience with that DM will not change with a better one.  :(
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Dacke

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Sell me on d6 System
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2006, 03:06:54 AM »
I, on the other hand, really like the D6 system. I'm only familiar with it in its Star Wars incarnation though, so I can't really help you with other versions.
 

kryyst

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Sell me on d6 System
« Reply #3 on: March 22, 2006, 08:03:19 AM »
D6 is great at low levels soon as you start to power up the die roll mechanic of adding up d6's is just irritating.  If you want to use a similar feel mechanic but is a lot faster and works a hell of a lot better I'd suggest checking out Silcore.  It's a better system overall.
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Joey2k

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« Reply #4 on: March 22, 2006, 08:13:56 AM »
I really like it as well.  In fact, it's my system of choice, too bad it's a little harder to find players.  

If you've played SW, you know the gist of the system, but I'll describe it again for those who may not know.  You have the usual breakdown into Abilities (natural talent) and Skills (learned/trained talents).  Each Ability has a number of skills tied to it.  For example, in the new version you have Coordination ability which governs skills like Marksmanship, Lock Picking, etc.

Instead of a single numeric score, Abilities and Skills have a die code, which is a number of D6s you roll for task resolution.  For example, your die code in Coordination may be 3D, which means you roll 3D6 when attempting a Coordination-related task.  Skills start at the same die code as their controlling ability, but you have skill dice you can assign to raise them beyond that. Your Coordination die code may be 3D, but you might assign 1 skill die to raise your Marksmanship skill, so when you used Marksmanship you would roll 4D6 instead of 3D6.

As far as combat, weapon and armor ratings are given in a similar format.  A rifle with a damage rating of 3D means you roll 3D6 when figuring damage.  Armor with a rating of 2D means you roll 2D6 to figure out how much damage your armor stops.  There are two damage systems to choose from, a Wound tracking system and a Hit Point system (called Body Points).  

I think it's simple and elegant, though possibly a little lacking in flavor, but that can be compensated for with good roleplaying.  It works best for fast-paced cinematic games.  And it's easy to learn, you can pick it up in about 5 minutes (and that includes character creation).

BTW, WEGs Star Wars only had 3 editions (2.5 actually).  First edition had the Star Wars gang on the cover with Luke Skywalker in the front on a black background.  Second edition had a blue cover with Darth Vader on the cover, I believe.  Second edition revised had a black cover with the Millenium Falcon on it.  Second Edition is widely considered the least desirable of the three, but the Revised edition cleaned up a lot of its problems.
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Joey2k

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« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2006, 08:16:30 AM »
Quote from: kryyst
D6 is great at low levels soon as you start to power up the die roll mechanic of adding up d6's is just irritating.  If you want to use a similar feel mechanic but is a lot faster and works a hell of a lot better I'd suggest checking out Silcore.  It's a better system overall.

Well, I've never had a problem adding single digit numbers together in my head, but I've also found that advancement is fairly slow compared to other games unless your GM is handing out Character Points (the equivalent of XP) like candy.
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kryyst

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Sell me on d6 System
« Reply #6 on: March 22, 2006, 08:23:50 AM »
Quote from: Technomancer
Well, I've never had a problem adding single digit numbers together in my head, but I've also found that advancement is fairly slow compared to other games unless your GM is handing out Character Points (the equivalent of XP) like candy.



Good for you.  It's not the difficulty of adding up 3d6 - it's higher levels when you get to add up 8d6.  I can do the math I just don't want to.  It's not as fast or as elegant as counting successes or taking a high die and adding 1 to it for each additional 6.  Plus the huge randomness makes rolling 8d6 start to get pointless.
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Nicephorus

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« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2006, 09:13:30 AM »
It's alright.  But, at high levels, and with mods for various things,  it can be lots of dice.  Adding up 10+ dice and subtracting a bunch more dice gets tedious when you're doing it for every action.  

For Star Wars, it's ok as an SF game but I think of the movie as heroic fantasy in space.  I'm not a D20 for everything gamer, but I think it's a reasonable choice for Star Wars style space opera.

Joey2k

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« Reply #8 on: March 22, 2006, 09:14:11 AM »
Quote from: kryyst
Good for you.  It's not the difficulty of adding up 3d6 - it's higher levels when you get to add up 8d6.  I can do the math I just don't want to.  It's not as fast or as elegant as counting successes or taking a high die and adding 1 to it for each additional 6.  Plus the huge randomness makes rolling 8d6 start to get pointless.

True.  I should mention that the new books have a way around that.  When you get to the point where you are rolling larger dice pools, there is a chart in the back that has you roll just a few dice and add the result to a static number (the average of the rest of the dice, I guess).  So if you had to roll 10D, you might actually only roll 3D and add 24 (the average roll of 7D6) to the total.  That might speed things up some.
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Mcrow

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Sell me on d6 System
« Reply #9 on: March 22, 2006, 11:04:28 AM »
I haven't had a chance to play the new version of D6 but I do own the books. It seems to me that the new d6 is a bit more simple than I remember SW d6 being.

One of the best things about d6 is that is flexible enough to use for any type of game. It's not quite as much of a tool box game as FUDGE is but it is much easier to tinker with and keep balanced than d20.

Silverlion

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Sell me on d6 System
« Reply #10 on: March 22, 2006, 02:12:32 PM »
I've run Godsend Agenda D6 (and Star Wars D6 in ages past), Godsend Agenda  uses a version of  D6 Adventure (but is complete) and while it has some hefty die pools possible (15+) there is a quick little "rapid resolution" style chart to speed up die rolling of lots of dice in it, and I'm pretty sure  that's in the other D6 books as well.

I find 10d6-15d6 or so adding faster than adding up a string of modifiers in othr games (+3-1+5 etc..) simply because of the ability to group likes in a physical manner. Its not really any slower than D20/D&D3 and its faster than a lot of games in terms of checks (most characters won't have that many dice, except the superheroes..)

I'm fond of D6 because of its simplicity in play, however, the current incarnations of D6 are not the simplest versions. They've added a lot of details (combat most notably) that some people seem to want hard coded into the rules. Modifiers and details that early Star Wars and the "D6" under original WEG didn't have. Those things can be ignored or discarded, but its not as simple as it once was.

I still think its a good game system, flexible, fast, and easily playable. There are a few I'd recommend over it these days but only marginally.
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Cyclotron

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Sell me on d6 System
« Reply #11 on: March 22, 2006, 02:13:37 PM »
Quote from: CleanCutRogue
Anyone have any sites or experiences with it?

No, sir.  I don't like it.

Take a look at Alderac's d10 Roll and Keep system (L5R, 7th Sea)...  Similar system, but much better.
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Dacke

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Sell me on d6 System
« Reply #12 on: March 23, 2006, 05:28:47 AM »
Quote from: kryyst
Good for you.  It's not the difficulty of adding up 3d6 - it's higher levels when you get to add up 8d6.
Just collect the dice in piles that add up to 5 or 10. That makes it a lot faster.
 

kanegrundar

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Sell me on d6 System
« Reply #13 on: March 23, 2006, 09:58:11 AM »
I've never been big on dice pool games.  It's not a matter of too many dice to roll and add up, but a problem of that not be a very great way to play in my opinion.  Rolling a die and adding in any modifiers to beat a static number is the way to go for me.  It's just easier than sorting and adding up 8 to 12 d6's.  

Needless to say, I was never a fan of the D6 system.  I played it when WEG had the SW liscence, but not since then.  There are better systems out there.
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CleanCutRogue

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Sell me on d6 System
« Reply #14 on: March 23, 2006, 07:21:33 PM »
hm... I've been quietly listening and now I have some questions to ask, and this will help me decide whether to buy it or not.

1) the wound resolution system - is it simple (like the damage boxes of WOD), numerically depletive (like hitpoints in d20), or something else?  It was mentioned in your post (Technomancer) that there are two systems.

2) is it common to roll so many dice?  How common?  I'm fine tossing 3-5 dice for most actions (we do that in FUDGE, Gurps, etc. anyway).  Is rolling 15 dice something that a player gets to do once in a great while (smiling the whole time he gathers them) or is it something that happens multiple times per sesson - making it not special and therefore just tedious?

3) in SW (the one we played had Darth Vader on the cover btw) they had Force Points.  I'm generally not a fan of meta mechanics like fate points, luck points, etc.  But Force Points were intrinsic to the setting and therefore the mechanics - not meta mechanics.  Is there something in the new rules for this or is this eiliminated for the sake of realism?  Is it tied to behavior or roleplaying or alignment/allegience/etc.?

4) did WEG get on the bandwagon with Advantages/Merits and Disadvantages/Flaws?  It seems to be a common mechanic most games have nowadays.
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