TheRPGSite

Lo!

Upon this thread (http://www.therpgsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8409) didst James Skach ask of me whence stems my predilection for West End Games' D6 System.  As I've much to say by way of an answer, I decided to do so here, in this thread, which you are reading now, with your eyes or whatever.  I will use your human language for ease of comprehension.

It bears noting, by the way, that these are the reasons why I enjoy the game.  I think this stuff is very subjective; some GMs can run a game like Yngwie Malmsteen plays guitar, while the same game might feel lifeless and stupid in another GM's hands, like he or she were holding a frozen fish or something.  Keep that in mind, turkeys.

I like D6 as much as I do because it generates results quickly, and those results are easy for me to interpret with the game system's help. That system is remarkably simple: roll a number of d6s, add them up and compare to a target number.  One die is always "Wild", and certain results on that die can have an effect on the total rolled.  Multiple actions are handled sinply and elegantly: lose a die off all your rolls for every action after the first one.  Shoot once at 4D, twice at 3D, thrice at 2D or four times at 1D.  Very simple.  

I've never had a problem rolling a bunch of dice.  I hear a lot of "buckets of dice" complaints from people, but there are very simple work-arounds for the perceived problem...and truth is, rarely do you have to roll (and add up) more than 6 dice.

I like the simplicity and speed with which characters can be built and still have some mechanical heft and tweaks, especially in the game's latest incarnation with Advantages, Disadvantages and Special Abilities.  These add an extra level of detail in character creation without adding a lot of extra crunch, if any crunch at all. Think of these Ads/Disads/SAs as HERO Very Lite.  

That said, those wingdings can be left off without losing much at all, and that means low prep requirements.  I can write up a fully-viable NPC in...I dunno, 45 seconds to a minute, and that's if I'm hemming and hawing and choosing things very specifically.  A major NPC might take a little longer, but not by much -- say a few extra seconds, but that's time taken mostly to write stuff down.  Here, watch this:

   Triad Thug
All stats 2D except: DEX 3D, Marksman 4D, Dodge 3D+1, STR 2D+2, Stamina 3D.  GEAR: Machine pistol (3D+2, can fire full auto), light body armor (+2), keys to a Ferrari.

I like that the rules are very flexible yet sturdy.  The answer to a rules question is always simple and usually makes sense; when it doesn't make sense to me, I can change it easily without disrupting the rest of the rules.

Familiarity plays a part, albeit a very small one -- Star Wars - The Role-Playing Game was my first game ever, 20 years ago this week.  I've had 20 years to walk away from it, then, haven't I?

The system meshes well with my desired GMing style: quick pace, dramatic results (when dramatically appropriate), just enough reliance on rules to feel like I'm playing an actual game and, above all, spontaneous.  

I now open the floor to questions, comments, statements of befuddlement and dancing robots.

Is liking buckets of dice wrong?:D

Quote from: McrowIs liking buckets of dice wrong?:D

Not if you like buckets of dice... :D

-clash

Quote from: McrowIs liking buckets of dice wrong?:D

No sir.  It's a taste thing.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!The system meshes well with my desired GMing style: quick pace, dramatic results (when dramatically appropriate), just enough reliance on rules to feel like I'm playing an actual game and, above all, spontaneous.  

That's me, too.  I also like PIG's genreDiversion rules for the same reason.  With d6 going OGL-ish, I'm seriously considering doing conversions of games like Vice Squad: Miami Nights and the upcoming Dreamwalker Revised.  

Pete

Quote from: pspahnWith d6 going OGL-ish, I'm seriously considering doing conversions of games like Vice Squad: Miami Nights ...

Consider harder.

Do the buckets'o'dice get in the way of large combats?

Is it easy to min-max in character generation?

My favorite flavor of d6 is:

1. Minus the wild die.
2. Up the Hero/Fate/Karma/Cinematic-Kick-Butt dice.
3. Use body points instead of a toughness save.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!Consider harder.

Ha!  I'll have to see if I can include the complete rules like true OGL or if it will be something similar to the d20 license where you can only include add-ons and not the core.

Quote from: KenHRDo the buckets'o'dice get in the way of large combats?

Is it easy to min-max in character generation?

I think the "buckets-o-dice" label is a turnoff for a lot of people, but I think it's largely unfounded.  For task resolution, you roll a number of dice equal to your skill (or default stat).  So in Doc's example above, the Triad thug would roll 4d6 when he tries to shoot someone.  I've run several long-term Star Wars campaigns and rarely have my players increased their skills passed 10D and usually only one or two skills get that high.  This is because "character points" are expendable in game play and allow you to roll extra dice in tight situations.  My players always like to keep a dozen or so points handy in case of emergencies (especially when resisting damage).  

True buckets-o-dice only come into play when a character spends a Force Point which effectively doubles all skills for that round (so a character with 8D in blaster is going to be rolling 16 dice).  That's a lot, but it's not frequent, as most characters rarely accumulate more than a half a dozen Force Points.

I don't see an effective way to min-max with d6, and believe me, I've had players who would have figured it out by now.  :)

Pete

Thanks, Pete.  The min-max thing is a concern for me, as the best player in my group is also the best at optimizing his characters in any game we play...I love the challenge that presents me as a GM, but sometimes it just drives me up the wall! :)

I'm loving this thread already.  Gotta break out the Fantasy book this weekend and take a look...I'm sure I'll have more questions then!

Fat Colin once told me "D6 is the only non-story system that does Farscape well -such an easy mod" and he's a proper genius so I might give Septimus a gander when it comes out

Quote from: KenHRThanks, Pete.  The min-max thing is a concern for me, as the best player in my group is also the best at optimizing his characters in any game we play...I love the challenge that presents me as a GM, but sometimes it just drives me up the wall! :)

Heh.  I know what you mean.  The thing is, with d6, there is a cap on starting attributes and skill dice, so even if he loads up on one thing (like blaster), I think 8D is as high as he can go and he's going to be hurting in a lot of other areas.  

QuoteI'm loving this thread already.  Gotta break out the Fantasy book this weekend and take a look...I'm sure I'll have more questions then!

I'm a lot more versed in d6 Star Wars/WEG than the latest versions, but from what I understand, the core concepts are the same.  They do add advantages and disadvantages that I haven't had a chance to test out, but they seem fairly balanced for the most part.  

Another thing that's a huge plus with this system is the low GM prep time.  NPC chargen literally takes about 1-3 minutes.  In my experience, only PIG's genreDiversion system comes close to that.  

Pete

I recall buckets of dice in Star Wars coming up in a few particular situations, usually involving changes in scale and grouping of rolls.  For example, suppose you wanted to shoot a Star Destroyer with photon torpedoes.  You'd have no chance with normal pilots unless they shot as a squadron.  That adds dice to the roll.  Due to differences in scale, the X-Wings added 6 dice to hit but the Star Destroyer added 6 dice to absorb the damage.  
 
You can always drop an equal number of dice from both sides.  It has no effect on the mean values and has only a small effect on the likelihood of beating an opposing roll as long as both sides are rolling several dice.  For example 6d6 - 8d6 is about as likely to be >0 as 11d6-13d6.  But 1D6-3D6 would be iffy.
 
I found the system a bit tedious for rolling for large groups, each with multiple dice - I'd rather rolling 6-8 D20s at once and see how many are above a target number than roll 6-8 sets of 4D6.  But as long has you have methods for rolling for units and reducing the number of dice rolled, it's manageable.  (Or you can also avoid large combat situations.)

Quote from: KenHRDo the buckets'o'dice get in the way of large combats?

Not necessarily.  As Pete said, it can get to "lots of dice" (i.e. more than ten) but that's actually rare.  The only way I can think that someone with a huge die code can slow down a game is if they take a lot of actions -- but that's because they'd be taking a lot of actions, and that would be true of any game.  

QuoteIs it easy to min-max in character generation?

Never tried and wouldn't bother.  Seriously, it's so easy to get a satisfying character out of the gate, that min-maxing for extra points would be like lying on the floor saying, "OH MY GOD, I'm so full of delicious chicken wings!  Aaaaauuuuugh!  Tell the manager I want a free bucket."

That's a rocket-ride to Pathos Town,that is.

In regards to Nicephorus' comments, I can confirm that those issues have been addressed in the latest edition of the game.  Scaling now uses a straight modifier (not extra dice -- just a value), and in any case, you can simply assume average results out of some of the 16 dice (to pick a number) and roll the balance.  The book has easy charts for assuming averages on 5D, and for all dice -- save of course the Wild.

You could always do this, of course, but this latest edition puts the tables in the book an saves you some mathin'.

Yes, I said "Mathin'".

Yeah, outside of SW I think it's rare to get "buckets of dice", still, when it happens I think its cool. If it happened all of the time then it would get a little cumbersome.

Quote from: NicephorusI found the system a bit tedious for rolling for large groups, each with multiple dice - I'd rather rolling 6-8 D20s at once and see how many are above a target number than roll 6-8 sets of 4D6.  But as long has you have methods for rolling for units and reducing the number of dice rolled, it's manageable.  (Or you can also avoid large combat situations.)

Oh, yeah, you'll definitely want to group roll for stormtroopers or orcs or what have you.  If there's a space trooper or orc wizard or chieftain you can roll separately for them.  

QuoteDue to differences in scale, the X-Wings added 6 dice to hit but the Star Destroyer added 6 dice to absorb the damage.

That's true, but how often did that come up?  I can only remember a handful of times my players ever messed around with something big, and usually they were trying to outrun it long enough to jump to lightspeed.  Vehicle scale came up a bit more often (+2D), but my players always seemed to enjoy rolling the extra dice.

Pete

Thank you for reminding me of how easy D6 is for the GM.  I know the system as a player, but every time I've tried to run a D6 game, we somehow ended up playing something else.  (Not because there was anything wrong with D6, but because something else won the vote.)

Quote from: NicephorusI found the system a bit tedious for rolling for large groups, each with multiple dice - I'd rather rolling 6-8 D20s at once and see how many are above a target number than roll 6-8 sets of 4D6.

Yeah, that mainly comes down to whether or not you like the Armor Class system.  With d6 you always have the option to dodge an attack, pitting your dodge skill dice directly against your opponent's attack skill dice.  The major difference between the two is that with d6 you can add character points to enhance your roll while with d20, Armor Class/Defense is a static number--you either get hit or you don't, based on whatever the GM rolls.  VtM was the first RPG I played for any length of time after D&D so I got in the habit of rolling defense/soak against attacks, but I can see where a lot of people might not like the extra roll.

Pete

Quote from: pspahnThat's true, but how often did that come up?

It's really quite rare.  It's probably a handful of big rolls per campaign.  Even then, if you use sense and drop dice from both sides, it's manageable.  
 
On the whole, I prefer systems with 1 or 2 dice for all rolls - it's a taste thing.  But D6 doesn't have a buckets of dice problem.

Quote from: pspahnso I got in the habit of rolling defense/soak against attacks, but I can see where a lot of people might not like the extra roll.

Quote from: NicephorusOn the whole, I prefer systems with 1 or 2 dice for all rolls - it's a taste thing.

Ha!  We said pretty much the same thing at the exact same time (check the times of our last two posts).  :)

Pete

I've never had a bad time playing D6.

Even "out of the box" with a brand new character, I remember being able to do fun, cinematic things but never felt like an uber-badass. It was just a lot of fun, all-around.

I think D6 is perfect for fun, almost lighthearted campaigns. Sorta like, a beer and pretzels game for the long-term.

Another nostalgia generating thread. I still have my 1st edition Star Wars RPG. Such a fun game to run, and dead simple prep. Easy as hell to run on the fly. I remember running a pickup game for two friends. One had a bounty hunter, the other a smuggler. I picked one of the idea seeds from the back of the book, and just ran with it: picked NPC stats on the fly, drew rough maps on scratch paper, easy peasy.

During the adventure, an NPC sold them out to the Empire. After barely escaping, the two PCs interrogated the  poor sap with truth serum. Hey, why not? I do a great druggie voice. At first, they wanted to torture him, for revenge. Then, they got the bright idea to torture his family. :eek:

"Where's your family?" they asked.

"The Imperial detention center."

"Oh. Maybe he's not so bad. Let's rescue his family!"

So, completely on the fly, I improvised a heroic rescue from an Imperial detention center.

That was what I loved about the original, Greg Costikyan rules. That kind of seat of your pants, run with it ethos. Plus, best advice ever: Make funny noises! WAAAAAAW! PyewPyewPyewPyew! BA-WHOOM!

Curses, Dr. Rotwang! Now I must run Star Wars!

Quote from: Leo KnightThat was what I loved about the original, Greg Costikyan rules. That kind of seat of your pants, run with it ethos. Plus, best advice ever: Make funny noises! WAAAAAAW! PyewPyewPyewPyew! BA-WHOOM!

My first game ever, in fact.  It really set the tone for what I expected RPGs to be about.

QuoteCurses, Dr. Rotwang! Now I must run Star Wars!

It pleases me to be of assistance.

I would like to mention I just ordered d6 Space Ships from my FLGS today.

Pretty useful.  Not perfect, but pretty useful.  The planet generation charts in the back are nice for on-the-go world-building.

If I'm going to throw a bucket of any die, it'd the D6.  

The D6 truly is the most awesome of dice.  

Easy to get in bulk, they don't roll all over the table when thrown, and truly pure in their cube-like serenity.

As systems go, D6 is simple, smooth, easy to work with as a player and a GM, and robust enough for long term play and significant character power level growth over time.  Character, both player and nonplayer are quick to make, there's a decent sized fan community, it's really good stuff.

My only complaints are, I don't like how WEG released the newest set of books.  I'd have preferred a single D6 system book over the spread of three.  Plus they were very dry reading, and this is from someone who likes rules sections to be somewhat technical/dry.  And the wild die has always been a bit annoying, in the hands of a twit GM.

I hope the OGL release kicks arse.  I've preordered septimus, because I know Mr. Coffin produces good stuff, and it sounds righteously interesting.  Most of all, I want more D6 stuff.  A complete core system book would be awesome, and a full, deep, fantasy setting treatment would have me gibbering with delight.

Hmmm, D6 and I have been making eye contact for years, even flirting briefly and surreptitiously on occassion.  This thread is making me think that the time for us to make out in the bathroom during the staff party may be approaching.

I did have a brief fling once with d6. Perfectly nice girl, but I found I couldn't leave RQ for her.

Now that I get my kicks by neck-raping cabin-boys, I have no use for either of them, of course.

Quote from: ScaleI hope the OGL release kicks arse.  I've preordered septimus, because I know Mr. Coffin produces good stuff, and it sounds righteously interesting.  Most of all, I want more D6 stuff.  A complete core system book would be awesome, and a full, deep, fantasy setting treatment would have me gibbering with delight.

Me too, me too.  Bill Coffin can flat-out write (see:  Worldbooks:  Fantasy, Palladium), and I hope a mix of that and the OGL gives some folks good reason to check out d6 (perhaps again).

If D6 system was a movie character, it would be like this:

QuoteD6 is totally awesome and can kill anyone he wants just by looking at them. D6 only sleeps for one hour a day, which he does in 10 second stretches throughout an entire day. D6 can pierce your skull with his erection. D6 can prove P=NP. God prays to D6 to win the lottery. He rocks ass.

As Kaz said, never had a problem running D6. My SW D6 campaign is one of my finest ever. Easy, quick, and it does what it means to do.

Poking around in my links the other day, I found this site (http://www.met.rdg.ac.uk/%7Esws99dsc/rpg/isis/), which has some interesting material for d6.

EDIT:  And this was pointed out to me:  a d6 character generator on the Wayback Machine (http://web.archive.org/web/20061028164750/http://www.westendgames.com/html/d6genchar.html).

...and i just ordered d6 Adventure because of you, Rotwang! :raise:
DAMN YOU AND YOUR CONTAGIOUS EXCITEMENT!! :D

Quote from: kregmosier...and i just ordered d6 Adventure because of you, Rotwang! :raise:
DAMN YOU AND YOUR CONTAGIOUS EXCITEMENT!! :D

Yes, damn me.  Damn me AAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL the way to hell.  Because I'm a jerk, y'see.

Big ol' jerk, just making people spend their money on things they might like.  

MA-KING.

I'm a monster.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!Yes, damn me.  Damn me AAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL the way to hell.  Because I'm a jerk, y'see.

Big ol' jerk, just making people spend their money on things they might like.  

MA-KING.

I'm a monster.

I would've waited for the OGL'ish version to appear, but admittedly the system is one of those that i've put off checking out for a while now.  all the love generated from this post pushed me over the edge, and i have you to thank. (and this will hopefully get the bad taste cthulhutech left out of my mouth...) :haw:

Quote from: KenHRThanks, Pete.  The min-max thing is a concern for me, as the best player in my group is also the best at optimizing his characters in any game we play...I love the challenge that presents me as a GM, but sometimes it just drives me up the wall! :)

IIRC, in Star Wars the highest starting skill for a human character is 7D.  That's an attribute of 4D, plus 2D skill allocation and another 1D for a specialisation.  Some aliens can have starting attributes as high as 5D, so their maximum starting skill is potentially as high as 8D.  This will give you a pretty lopsided character.  So if you want to combat min-maxing players it's pretty easy to throw them some challenges that test their other skills.

In practical terms, I never found high skills to be that much of an issue.  Yes, it is possible (in fact, quite easy) to max out a couple of skills during character generation.  Once the game starts, though, the cost of raising uber skills is costly.  It reaches a point where the diminishing returns of increasing a skill beyond a certain are just not worth the cost.

The other thing, is that performing multiple actions incurs a -1D penalty.  So characters with a particularly high skill tend to do a lot of things.  My old group had a bounty hunter with 8D blaster pistol... but in most situations he would only roll 6D because he would shoot three times each round (or shoot and dodge).  This was particularly true when facing numerous foes (even if they weren't actually that powerful).

Yeah, this thread has me excited to play with the books.  This past weekend was a whirlwind of the bad kind of busy, but I might have some time tonight to roll up a couple characters and see what the engine can do!

Thanks for starting this thread, Doc, and to everyone else, thanks for the info (And keep it coming!).  This is an example of TheRPGSite at its best.

While looking through D6 Space last night, I was thinking how easy it would be to do a port of Traveller to D6.  The way the D6 templates/char gen are set up--with assigning dice to what you want over and above the governing stat would be really easy for career paths:

 "OK, reenlist for the Army career path--yep, survival roll (using d6s, natch), k, looks like I pick up a d6 in Demolitions".

"Alright, now as a newly commissioned Imperial Naval Officer--cool!  Looks like I get to add a d6 in Navigation for this tour of duty!".

If not Traveller, certainly you could throw in Traveller-esque elements, easy as pie.

Awww.  Cue the sappy music!

Seriously, though.  Just 'cause I like this system doesn't mean it'll turn all cranks.  But if someone out there looks at it and finds in it a game that'll bake his or her biscuits, then...

quick question:

I happened upon this review (http://www.ogrecave.com/reviews/d6_adventure.shtml) over at the Ogre Cave, and was wondering if, in the opinion of anyone here, the following quote absolutely holds true:

QuoteThe limitation of the system lies within the tolerance of play groups for rolling and summing large quantities of dice. It’s also why you don’t find things like tanks, jet airliners, or submarines in the book. The system can’t handle such large-scale items without resorting to unwieldy quantities of dice or GM fiat.

Now, granted I'm not gonna toss in tanks and starships off the bat or anything (sticking with gritty low-tech stuff for my first foray in), but is there any later systems for large-scale combat/damage?  Is that where the "bucket o' dice" criticism comes from?  People wanting to add in things like...i don't know, mecha or assault tanks?

Quote from: kregmosierNow, granted I'm not gonna toss in tanks and starships off the bat or anything (sticking with gritty low-tech stuff for my first foray in), but is there any later systems for large-scale combat/damage?  Is that where the "bucket o' dice" criticism comes from?  People wanting to add in things like...i don't know, mecha or assault tanks?

I only have experience with the very first edition of D6 Star Wars and some non-SW homebrewing, but I'll take a shot at answering your questions:

- For lots of combatants, I've seen a pretty simple mechanic - not sure if it was homebrew or taken from 2E. Basically, if you have a group of largely identical combatants acting in unison (like, laying down covering fire on an area), then instead of rolling all attacks separately, you just roll one single attack, with a certain number of bonus dice depending on number of attackers that can be added to the attack and/or damage roll.

- Large vehicles, etc.: There's the concept of scale. Basically, there are three scales: personal, vehicle and starship. Or something like that in 2E, maybe with an extra scale for capital ships and the like. Therefore, both your 5D blaster rifle and an X-Wing's quad laser can do 5D damage, but on a different scale. You only roll 5D when hitting personal-scaled target, while the X-Wing rolls 5D when hitting a fighter-scaled one. If you're firing at/hitting something on a different scale, you add/subtract modifiers. More dice for hitting something larger and less for smaller, more dice for damaging something larger and more for smaller. Therefore, lots of dice only really come into play when you're hit by or you're attacking something one or several scales larger.

Quote from: PremierI only have experience with the very first edition of D6 Star Wars and some non-SW homebrewing, but I'll take a shot at answering your questions:

- For lots of combatants, I've seen a pretty simple mechanic - not sure if it was homebrew or taken from 2E. Basically, if you have a group of largely identical combatants acting in unison (like, laying down covering fire on an area), then instead of rolling all attacks separately, you just roll one single attack, with a certain number of bonus dice depending on number of attackers that can be added to the attack and/or damage roll.

- Large vehicles, etc.: There's the concept of scale. Basically, there are three scales: personal, vehicle and starship. Or something like that in 2E, maybe with an extra scale for capital ships and the like. Therefore, both your 5D blaster rifle and an X-Wing's quad laser can do 5D damage, but on a different scale. You only roll 5D when hitting personal-scaled target, while the X-Wing rolls 5D when hitting a fighter-scaled one. If you're firing at/hitting something on a different scale, you add/subtract modifiers. More dice for hitting something larger and less for smaller, more dice for damaging something larger and more for smaller. Therefore, lots of dice only really come into play when you're hit by or you're attacking something one or several scales larger.

Thanks for the reply, Premier!  Yeah, now that sounds completely reasonable.  I assumed perhaps (esp. with d6 SW) some sort of Scale system was involved.  If not it seems easy enough to cobble in.

cheers!

Yeah, when playing the old Star Wars, there wasn't much difference between blasting your way out of a cantina or getting into a dogfight with a handful of TIE fighters. Both in the dice mechanics and the level of fun.

I am pretty sure there were rules, too, for when mastery-level characters were facing off, where you would scale back the dice, but still keep the differences between the two. (Like, 12D vs. 8D would be rolled as just 6D vs 4D.) But I could be remembering that wrong or completely making it up.

QuoteThe limitation of the system lies within the tolerance of play groups for rolling and summing large quantities of dice. It’s also why you don’t find things like tanks, jet airliners, or submarines in the book. The system can’t handle such large-scale items without resorting to unwieldy quantities of dice or GM fiat.

I disagree.  Play groups need only tolerate rolling bunches of dice if they are not willing to use averages and so on to fudge things.  

Furthermore, the sytem can handle large-scale items, and it does it with modifiers:

Let's say that a mechanical shark (Scale 16 for the sake of argument) attacks a submarine (Scale 24, why not).  That's a scale difference of 8.

When the shark attacks the sub, the difficulty drops by 8 -- the sub's too big not to get hit.  Of course, the sub will add 8 to its defense roll, because the shark's smaller and can't damage it as well.

When the sub fires back, the difficulty to hit the shark goes up by 8, but the damage it inflicts goes up by 8, too.

Then, Godzilla (Scale 40), annoyed by all this sub-on-shark action, decides to put a kibosh on the proceedings.  We figure his modifiers (16 vs. sub, 24 vs. shark) and continue rolling our dice (Godzilla might have brawling of 4D, I suppose) and adding our mods and keeping all the books straight so that the folks who say things like "The system can’t handle such large-scale items without resorting to unwieldy quantities of dice or GM fiat" will have an answer.

Then Godzilla has his cable disconected because he's 3 months past due.

DAMN YOU, COMCAST-CHAN!

...but thanks for the example, Doc!  I assumed there was surely some method for this, since it was the same system that powered SW for so long.

Yeah, it's been tweaked and revised as the years have gone by.  I'm awfully fond of 1st Ed. Star Wars, yet I feel that the current version of the system exhibits all changes for the better.

And, really, those changes aren't very far from the original rules to start with.

For all the wonders of d6, I must admit that Savage Worlds is a pretty reasonable substitute.  It is lighter, faster and isn't burdened with the bucket-o-dice problem.  And the mook system is just perfect for mowing down stormtroopers.  Sure, it doesn't have as much flavour as d6 Star Wars, but then it is a generic system.

This is more in-depth than a lot of folks will ever go with d6, but the Wayback Machine also gives us the Wizard's Little Helper (http://web.archive.org/web/20060317012535/www.westendgames.com/d6/makespell.html) (java) for custom spell generation.

Actually, the entire Free Stuff page (http://web.archive.org/web/20060317012025/www.westendgames.com/html/freed6.html) is pretty rockin'.

The Wizard's Little helper is pretty cool...'cept it gives back  results like these:

QuoteName: Git!
Skill: apportation
Difficulty: 53869999
Effect: 10 (100 kilograms moved up to the range distance, and target must be within 1 meter of caster.)
Range: 25 meters (+7)
Speed: instantaneous (+7)
Casting Time: 1 second (-0)
Duration: 1 round (+4)
Other Aspects:
Gestures (-2): Point away from the object (simple, offensive)
Incantations (-1): Say, "Git!" (few words)
Description: Makes something move away from the caster.

...emphasis mine.

EDIT: On review, if I do an alteration skill...

QuoteName: Boo-Yah!
Skill: alteration
Difficulty: 15
Effect: 24 (4D attribute modifier)
Range: 1 meter (+0)
Speed: instantaneous (+0)
Casting Time: 1 second (-0)
Duration: 1 minute (+9)
Other Aspects:
Gestures (-2): Flex muscles (simple, offensive)
Incantations (-1): Say, "Boo-yah!" (few words)
Description: Get strong! Add 4D to Strength.

...weird.  What was I doing wrong...?

Have any of you d6 aficionadoes seen this hack for Glorantha? I always liked his way of handling magic, but never got around to actually using it.

Moon Wars (http://www.pheasnt.demon.co.uk/Moon2.html)

QuoteOne of the things I want to get away from in Moon Wars is the spell list. Does anyone believe that a Humakti says to his sword brothers 'Hold on while I cast Bladesharp 5?' Of course not. He might say 'Humakt aid me. Sharpen my sword,' but would he know that after saying that his sword would do five points of extra damage. Not four, not six. Five.

Instead of having a list of spells that each cult can teach each of it's members Moon Wars assumes that cult's magic is capable of doing anything within it's own field. For example Orlanth is a God of dreadful weather and warriors. A character can use his Orlanthi Magic skill to cast spells that would cause winds and rain or make him fight better. Orlanthi magic would not help a character understand ancient scrolls or heal a horrible disease.

To use this sort of magic players and GMs should be flexible. In conventional RuneQuest characters have a defined set of things that they can do. A Character might be able to make his bow accurate, but not his sword. In Moon Wars the only restrictions are based on what the player and the GM think is reasonable. You can, if you want, confine the spells you're trying to cast to those ones listed in RuneQuest rulebooks, but I think that would be missing the point. It's a system open to abuse, but unless the players and the GM trust each other the games not going to work anyway.

It's more important to ensure that the players are having fun and that the characters seem to be doing things appropriate to their cult's magic than to nit-pick about whether or not an Orlanthi should be able to raise his Shield skill.

The only thing that kind of disappointed me with the new versions was the inclusion of advantages and disadvantages.

Star Wars 1e is a very easy system, you allocate dice to stats and skills and you're done.

Current d6 (and most other d6 games I've seen) has you buying disadvantages for extra dice and spending dice to gain advantages, it adds complexity and far more analysis into chargen, and I'm not persuaded the result is more memorable or credible characters.

Personally, I'd prefer d6 without the ads and disads, but increasingly I find I prefer most games without them.

Quote from: pspahnThat's me, too.  I also like PIG's genreDiversion rules for the same reason.  With d6 going OGL-ish, I'm seriously considering doing conversions of games like Vice Squad: Miami Nights and the upcoming Dreamwalker Revised.  

Pete

I'd buy a D6 Vice Squad edition.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!The Wizard's Little helper is pretty cool...'cept it gives back  results like these:

...emphasis mine.

EDIT: On review, if I do an alteration skill...

...weird.  What was I doing wrong...?

Huh. I'm getting something similar.  Can't figure it out.  It wasn't...well, wait:


Name: Buff
Skill: alteration
Difficulty: 13
Effect: 9 (2D physical damage modifier)
Range: 1 meter (+0)
Speed: instantaneous (+0)
Casting Time: 1 round (-4)
Duration: 1 hour (+18)
Other Aspects:  none
Description: Buff for damage

I put in simple gesture, simple incantation, and that's what I got.  When I move those up:

Name: Buff
Skill: alteration
Difficulty: 10
Effect: 9 (2D physical damage modifier)
Range: 1 meter (+0)
Speed: instantaneous (+0)
Casting Time: 1 round (-4)
Duration: 1 hour (+18)
Other Aspects:  none
Description: Buff for damage

Well, I'll have to mess with it (and go back and look at spell creation again).

Quote from: BalbinusI'd buy a D6 Vice Squad edition.

With the OGL coming up, I'd love to see more designers pushing out product for d6.

Thanks for the link, droog.  Tagged!

Quote from: BalbinusCurrent d6 (and most other d6 games I've seen) has you buying disadvantages for extra dice and spending dice to gain advantages, it adds complexity and far more analysis into chargen, and I'm not persuaded the result is more memorable or credible characters.

Then don't use them.  They're optional.

Quote from: BalbinusThe only thing that kind of disappointed me with the new versions was the inclusion of advantages and disadvantages.

Star Wars 1e is a very easy system, you allocate dice to stats and skills and you're done.

Current d6 (and most other d6 games I've seen) has you buying disadvantages for extra dice and spending dice to gain advantages, it adds complexity and far more analysis into chargen, and I'm not persuaded the result is more memorable or credible characters.

Personally, I'd prefer d6 without the ads and disads, but increasingly I find I prefer most games without them.

See, I like the ads and disads, but I agree that the point buy options make them seem too complex.  That's what I meant about the OGL.  If I'm allowed to play around with the system and "fix" what I want to fix, I'm fairly certain there will be some conversions coming along.  If it's more like the d20 STL where you can include certain things, but not others (like character advancement), then I'll probably pass.  

Pete

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!Then don't use them.  They're optional.

Absolutely. It's an add-on, and quite modular.  The game does not suffer w/out them (though I don't mind them), IMO.

Quote from: droogHave any of you d6 aficionadoes seen this hack for Glorantha? I always liked his way of handling magic, but never got around to actually using it.

Moon Wars (http://www.pheasnt.demon.co.uk/Moon2.html)

Nope, never seen it.  But then I've never played in Glorantha.  But it does remind me a bit of The Gramayre, which was originally written for Fudge but could easily be ported to just about any other skill-based system.  A more polished version can be found in Grey Ghost Games "A Magical Medley" (along with several other magic systems).  I'm told that in turn, it is very much like the magic system in Ars Magica, but again, it's another system I've never played.