Anyone else currently running d6 System? I started my Mini Six Legend of the Silver Princess campaign last week, 2nd session tonight. Set in the pulp fantasy world of Primeval Thule, I'm using the Pathfinder print of Thule since it's essentially generic/rules-free aside from the appendix.

Mini Six packs a ton into its few pages, and does a great job as a cinematic action game that plays very differently from D&D. I'm still getting used to it, tweaking the rules etc. One issue is whether the magic system is underpowered for Swords & Sorcery, so I've been wondering about tweaks, eg reduce the skill dice cost for the Sorcery perk. D6 Fantasy also provides a good amount of convertible material - I definitely prefer Mini Six's Fast Static combat (rather than roll defences vs every attack) and the systems are 90%+ compatible. Mini Six's Hero Points giving +6 to a roll also works much better than doubling rolls IMO.

I've been thinking about running Star Wars d6 (1e) again for the first time in over 30 years...

Not running a game atm, but I'm considering doing my own version of D6 Fantasy built into a setting. I have no experience with mini six. As for speeding up D6 Fantasy, one can do a few things to hurry it along. One is make defense rolls stand for the whole round or encounter vs that attack type (melee/ranged/thrown) until subject is wounded or moves more than a half move, or do static number (die code x3, so 5D dodge becomes static 15). I like the "hard mode" damage resist roll on page 63, which is no roll unless you spend fate or character points. I wouldn't play at all without my version of dueling blades chart, which makes melee with miniatures very fun. If D6 system has a flaw its the "double dice" of fate/force points as written, I change that to instead render the roll (except wild die) to be all 6's. I've never felt that Fantasy's magic system, which is more a toolkit than a system, was either over or under powered, mostly because the lack of a great many prefab spells forces you and the player to make the spells together so everyones concerns get addressed when it is written up. I do find that for a fantasy game the starting skill dice are a bit too high if you want that 1st lvl rags to platemail feel d&d had, but just trim them back and eliminate specialization.

I had a tough time getting friends who were used to d&d to wrap their skulls around D6 at first. What I finally wound up doing is taking class notions from 3e and making them advantages/disadvantages to be bought at character creation, this helped a lot and got them engaged and enthusiastic, I suppose they couldn't see the systems flexibility because the book is written more toolkit than completed game, but now you'd have a hard time getting them to drop D6 for anything else. Still have not come up with a good way to emulate levels, but did get a sort of class system built in: Classes are wizard/warrior/wanderer; then templates are things like ranger/paladin/rogue. Just gave the classes a 1 cp per pip increase total reduction for "class skills" which are of course combat skills for warrior, extranormal (magic/miracle) for wizard and all other skills for wanderer. Thus increasing dodge from 3D to 3D+1 costs 3cp for everyone but warrior who just pays 2cp. I'll try share what I did so far.

But, like I said, we are not playing anything but axis & allies at the moment, tabletop wise, and I'm looking into making a D6 fantasy rehash built into a setting, think I'll go with just 4 attributes rather than six.

5 file limit, but i have pics from playtest prior to these of total class template package as well

well those are too small to read my bad hang on will try to fix

try it this way:
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https://ibb.co/RbXjXtr
https://ibb.co/YBhX4Bc
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second try, 5 pic limit lol
these were from early playtest when players were not yet committed to core D6 Fantasy but wanted a D6/3e d&d hybrid

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ETA
derp ok first post edited to deliver links with pic

those in this post are the attempts to show players that D6 can do d&d classes, back when i was still forced to use magicka instead of fate point, the d&d attribute names, and dodge was called reflex etc...

after that round of playtest they got interested enough to read D6 fantasy themselves and be a little more by the book than me trying to put a D&D mask on D6 fantasy

Lots of good ideas, thanks! I'm finding the Primeval Thule Heroic Narratives' benefits also help 'ground' the characters. I want to keep away from a full class system but characters do need hooks, otherwise they tend towards generic mush.

You should check out Mini Six RPG how it handles 4 attributes, static defences, hero points etc - plays very well. I also went over to using Agility rolls for cyclical init after trying the d6 Star Wars 'highest action roll goes first' approach. But I wonder if Initiative ought to be a skill in itself.

Mini Six has a nice selection of spells and a cool casting system, but the system favours hitting people with chunks of metal.

Quote from: Slipshot762;1121914I do find that for a fantasy game the starting skill dice are a bit too high if you want that 1st lvl rags to platemail feel d&d had, but just trim them back and eliminate specialization.

Yeah, I don't use specialisation but it was very noticeable with running a conversion of B3 Palace of the Silver Princess, it's clear that both Attributes & starting skills give a big edge over even elite NPCs. OTOH with the wild die any attack has a theoretical chance to be fatal, and resurrection is basically impossible (it's a spell in Mini Six with a target number of 60, where 31+ is Legendary difficulty) so the game can't be too lethal if PCs are going to stick around. The first combat I ran did feel very 'cinematic', with the Named Protagonists demolishing a small army of mooks.

Players were familiar with starwars D6 and enjoyed it but had a hard time doing fantasy with it at first, largely due to the way the D6 fantasy books was written, it comes off as more toolkit than completed game in its effort to be genrically applicable to whatever given type of fantasy one wants to emulate. Part of that also is that fantasy for most is defined by their D&D experience and so you kind of have to show them that D6 can "do" d&d if the gm puts in the effort. I'd really like to get everything more lined out and codified than the assorted iteratons of frankengame that the playtest runs turned out. Maybe pdf that sucker with a cool cover like lion and dragon has, slap that shit up for free on drive thru, and then write one dollar adventure modules for it when i get bored.

Problem is such projects cut into game time family time troll time and masturbatorium design/construction time. I really need a lifecoach because i try to do 100 things at 150% throttle, get a proof of concept done, then move on to another project. Right now i've got a tree stump of insane size I had thought about carving into an ornate throne and painting/resin coating, took so long to get it and transport it to my shop that I abandoned it for the last month to play around in gimp sharpening my digital art skill, which is fairly non-existant beyond make shit chan lvl memes. Everyone giving me grief about it too, telling me to instead make like 20 coffe tables from it than the throne, but throne would be much cooler.

The attribute/skill issue with D6 is, I think, about getting enough skills under an attribute to make it worth having. By default in D6 fantasy for example the physique attribute has like 4-5 skills, and the reason the designers split what we would think of as dexterity into two attributes, agility and coordination, was the sheer number of d6 skills that fall under that. You would have one attribute with like 15-20 skills and another with only 4-5 had they not done that. I think four attributes would be optimum and you could get a roughly equal skill count under each with that division.

I have d6 Fantasy, and apart from the cool cover the presentation definitely does it no favours. The D6 System works much better than D&D to replicate the kind of action seen in fantasy/sword & sorcery films, though, which I really like. I like it that wounds are rare and meaningful, and that combat is always at least slightly risky - also with xp/cp not tied to dead monsters, there are sound reasons for avoiding it.

one consideration i've tossed around is the viability of tying at least some cp/xp earned to treasure found or converted; say, imagine a medieval moneylender/coin smelter type organization that specializes in turning valuable metals found in ruins into coins with the local lords face or sigil upon them; said org could take loot off your hands granting xp/cp and perform the service of minting for competing political powers. i imagine this method similar to modern political candidates handing out "vote for me" cards or flyers; anyone who just built a castle and wants to be politically powerful wants to get their face/family sigil on coins and in the hands of peasants thus meming their authority about.

But there is apprehension, how can players abuse such, and what happens if you are too free with the loots?

eta

also, I've recently put some thought into a mass combat system for D6 fantasy derived from the scene/encounter/round breakdown of 2e revised starwars, maybe grouping units into entities and drawing on capitol ship combat from starwars

How compatible are these systems with a typical OSR adventure/module?  Can I easily run Keep on the Borderlands? How much conversion would be needed?

Quote from: Slipshot762;1121924one consideration i've tossed around is the viability of tying at least some cp/xp earned to treasure found or converted

Right now I'm just giving CP for treasure found as a quest/goal achievement; so where a typical session might earn 4 CP, getting the quest maguffin might earn 6 or 7 - I gave out 7 CP in the playtest session when the PCs finally completed the quest and found the sacred chalice inscribed with "The greatest treasure is the friends you make along the way."

Quote from: Crusader X;1121925How compatible are these systems with a typical OSR adventure/module?  Can I easily run Keep on the Borderlands? How much conversion would be needed?

Wouldn't be hard at all, d6 is a system where you can have monsters statted with different attributes and skills than players or even other monsters since they typically only matter for one encounter anyway. For example you could stat a dragon as physical 8D mental 5D scale 12 and mystic ability (catch all for breath or casting in this one case) as 4D, move 10 flying 25. Or all stats 5D except/ and then assign die code to exceptions. Crazy easy really, you could give it as many or few wound lvls as you like or even stat mook mobs into a single entity.

Quote from: Slipshot762;1121924also, I've recently put some thought into a mass combat system for D6 fantasy derived from the scene/encounter/round breakdown of 2e revised starwars, maybe grouping units into entities and drawing on capitol ship combat from starwars

Treating all die except the wild die as '3' (per Mini 6, 3.5 works but takes more calculation) I think it's possible to run mass battles. From my blog page:

Mass Combat
In mass combat (typically 6+ NPC attackers, starship guns, etc), each die other than the Wild Die is treated as a 3. Each Wild Die is still rolled normally, and added to the total. The GM typically works out the target number, then rolls all WD together.
Eg: 10 skilled archers, each with attack 5D, shoot once at 1 PC, so each rolls a 12+WD for their attacks.
If the TN is 6+ over the base number, then assume 1 WD result of '6' per 6 rolls, and roll the remainder.
If the to-hit number TN is 8+ higher than the base number, then reroll all '6's after the first results are determined.
Eg: 65 elite archers, each with attack 8D, shoot at the Mighty Hero with Dodge Defence 30. Each archer rolls (7x3=)21+WD for their attacks. 10 from 60 are assumed to roll a '6', giving 27+WD, while the remaining 5 are rolled as 21+WD.  Rolls of 30+ actually hit.

Skill Mass Roll
1D      WD
2D     3+WD
3D     6+WD
4D     9+WD
5D    12+WD
6D    15+WD
7D    18+WD
8D    21+WD
9D   24+WD
10D 27+WD

For mass combat I'd say it works to have 3+ wound results or 1 incapacitate+ result take out 1 target. So eg if you get 24 wounds and 3 incapacitate+ results on a unit, you take out 11 men. You can also use the Scaling rules to have units fight as single Scaled entities vs smaller units, eg squad +4D, company +8D, brigade +12D.

Quote from: S'mon;1121944Treating all die except the wild die as '3' (per Mini 6, 3.5 works but takes more calculation) I think it's possible to run mass battles. From my blog page:

Mass Combat
In mass combat (typically 6+ NPC attackers, starship guns, etc), each die other than the Wild Die is treated as a 3. Each Wild Die is still rolled normally, and added to the total. The GM typically works out the target number, then rolls all WD together.
Eg: 10 skilled archers, each with attack 5D, shoot once at 1 PC, so each rolls a 12+WD for their attacks.
If the TN is 6+ over the base number, then assume 1 WD result of '6' per 6 rolls, and roll the remainder.
If the to-hit number TN is 8+ higher than the base number, then reroll all '6's after the first results are determined.
Eg: 65 elite archers, each with attack 8D, shoot at the Mighty Hero with Dodge Defence 30. Each archer rolls (7x3=)21+WD for their attacks. 10 from 60 are assumed to roll a '6', giving 27+WD, while the remaining 5 are rolled as 21+WD.  Rolls of 30+ actually hit.

Skill Mass Roll
1D      WD
2D     3+WD
3D     6+WD
4D     9+WD
5D    12+WD
6D    15+WD
7D    18+WD
8D    21+WD
9D   24+WD
10D 27+WD

For mass combat I'd say it works to have 3+ wound results or 1 incapacitate+ result take out 1 target. So eg if you get 24 wounds and 3 incapacitate+ results on a unit, you take out 11 men. You can also use the Scaling rules to have units fight as single Scaled entities vs smaller units, eg squad +4D, company +8D, brigade +12D.

that alone is miles ahead of any system i had ever seen for ad&d mass combat, and reminds me of the star wars miniature battles rules which i had a pdf of somewhere. its also what i'd refer to as tactical scale mass combat, i've also been considering a larger strategic scale set of rules for the possibility of players being lords of large fuedal domains and invading their neighbors, something where a round or turn is actually months of conflct. the flexibility of d6 is something i continue to be amazed with.

Quote from: Crusader X;1121925How compatible are these systems with a typical OSR adventure/module?  Can I easily run Keep on the Borderlands? How much conversion would be needed?

I'm currently running Palace of the Princess in Mini Six, so I'm finding out! It looks very easy so far. I can substitute in Mini Six monster stats, or create my own similar stats. Might (Strength/Physique) = Hit Dice +2 looks about right for monster power so far. Eg a Normal Man Lvl 0 equates to Might 2D. A giant rat or kobold HD 0.5 equates to Might 2D also. A Goblin HD 1-1 equates to Might 2D+2. Orc HD 1 equates to Might 3D; a Hobgoblin HD 1+1 equates to Might 3D+1. A Gnoll HD 2 equates to Might 4D. A Bugbear HD 3+1 equates to Might 5D+1. An Ogre HD 4+1 equates to Might 6D+1. And so on (although you probably want to use the Scaling rules for giants & such).

Quote from: Slipshot762;1121945that alone is miles ahead of any system i had ever seen for ad&d mass combat, and reminds me of the star wars miniature battles rules which i had a pdf of somewhere. its also what i'd refer to as tactical scale mass combat, i've also been considering a larger strategic scale set of rules for the possibility of players being lords of large fuedal domains and invading their neighbors, something where a round or turn is actually months of conflct. the flexibility of d6 is something i continue to be amazed with.

Thanks! Yeah, I'm finding that the system architecture gives it a lot more 'power' than a traditional one-die system. I'm still finding out about the possibilities. I only ran it in the '80s with SW1e and a lot of clever developments took place later; a lot of these are in Mini Six but I'm glad I paid £15.50 each for a print copy of d6 Fantasy & d6 Space, since they also have ideas like averaging all dice but the Wild Die that are potentially very powerful, in this case explaining how to run battles with Imperial Dreadnoughts firing hundreds of turbolasers at the Hero Ship, or hundreds of archers at the Hero - or at another group of soldiers.