Guess I'll start.

The best thing about D6 was the startup time. For Star Wars, you just picked an archetype and after a little tweaking you were off. Every game should have archetypes as easy to use and modify as these, and some of the best have. Come to think of it, the board game Talisman feels very similar in this respect.

The worst thing was how pacing suffered from all the adding once die pools reached a certain size. And while D6 had rules to address this issue (each die could be considered a default fixed value instead of rolled), it resulted in certain tasks being impossible to fail (well, in theory there's the Wild Die, but it just wasn't wild enough .

On a personal note, I don't like the +1 and +2 ability pips that exist between die levels. It just feels like a clumsy fix, like a stray thread in an otherwise nice looking sweater.

Beyond that, D6 strikes me as rather similar to every other traditional RPG out there, but I have to admit that the residual nostalgia from Star Wars and Ghostbusters is pretty hard to shake.

I'd ditch the wild die. It doesn't serve a useful purpose in my games and just complicates thing. Isn't success and failure (and by how much) already measured by the normal d6 rolls?

I'd like to have a consistent "power" design system as well. Probably using D6 powers as a base.

Quote from: chaosvoyager;281324The best thing about D6 was the startup time. For Star Wars, you just picked an archetype and after a little tweaking you were off. Every game should have archetypes as easy to use and modify as these, and some of the best have.

Preach it! Nowadays we (that means my group) haven't got much time to game, so we can't afford the luxury of wasting time on a long character sheet. Star Wars d6 did it right, creating a character was a breeze.

On the other hand, I don't like archetypes very much, I want my characters to be mine, not someone else's that I just modified. I admit that Star Wars is one of the few games that gets my forgivement.

Quote from: chaosvoyager;281324The worst thing was how pacing suffered from all the adding once die pools reached a certain size. And while D6 had rules to address this issue (each die could be considered a default fixed value instead of rolled), it resulted in certain tasks being impossible to fail (well, in theory there's the Wild Die, but it just wasn't wild enough .

On a personal note, I don't like the +1 and +2 ability pips that exist between die levels. It just feels like a clumsy fix, like a stray thread in an otherwise nice looking sweater.

D6 Legend (an alternate system to regular D6) addresses both of these issues.  You count successes rather than adding the dice up.  And it uses whole dice only (eliminates the pips).  A few WEG games used this system (Hercules & Xena and I think DC Universe, possibly some others).

As applied to Star Wars and Ghostbusters, the D6 system was near perfect.  Well okay, there were a few flaws, but it was a marvel of elegant design. With Star Wars in particular the system really seemed to capture the spirit of the movies.

There is so much that was right in the D6 Star Wars
 it i s hard to cover it all, but here are a few:
 
While it was a really simple system, it was actually remarkably complete, with a full skill system and it catered for things like multiple actions per turn.

Between the easy system the well known setting and plenty of tips in the rulebook, it made the ideal beginner game.

A wound system that was simple made a little more sense than hit points.

With Force and later Skill points it was one of the first games to meta-game mechanic to improve dice rolls when it really mattered to the player.

I loved the fact that Star Wars was not an equipment focused game. You could get through a whole campaign using the same blaster you started with.

It was character focused, encouraging players to think about a quote and connection to other character. Simple stuff, but effective.

It was also the game that introduced to me "cinematic" gameplay as in the emulation how things work in the movies rather than how things work in reality.

Latter incarnations of D6 as a generic system I think suffered from being too much of a toolkit with too many options to choose from. The strength of D6 is that it's fast and simple, it should play to it's strengths rather than try to compete with GURPS. If it were to me and I wanted to revamp D6 I'd choose a setting suited for a low crunch,  cinematic play, ideally a setting that isn't in a already saturated market like fantasy. Then I'd create a custom version of D6 for that specific game (possibly using the Legend variant) and maybe try to plug it as the entry level roleplaying game.  Of course I'm just making this up as I go along, I know nothing about the actual industry.

I've never gotten into d6, in spite of great stuff I've heard about it. The reason is touched on with the archetype issue: the non-SW games seem too generic and wide-open to really draw me in. Meanwhile I've just never been keen on playing SW as an RPG. (Generally I don't care for licensed settings, especially if there's already canonical saga associated such as LotR.)

If someone just out and made a neat game with d6 as the engine, but it's own cool flavor, I'd be more inclined to give it a look.

Heh!  I'd get to play it more often.

That's PLAY, not RUN.

I would create a d6 cheesy 80s cop show game, like Magnum PI d6, or Riptide d6, or A-Team d6.

I have no need for generic systems.   Give me a great setting using D6 and you have my attention.    The World of Aden D6 was a great example of a D6 game done almost great.   Very cool steampunk fantasy.

I agree on the Archetypes.   They were good solid skeletons and you had enough extra D6s to spread about quickly to personalize your character.

They certainly made starting up games and one-shots very easy and that is an important factor for new RPGs.

I prefer to count successes than tally up totals so the D6 Legend method would be my preferred option.  

And I would nuke the Wild Die.

Aden was a Masterbook game. It did have D6 conversion at the back, but that is never quite the same. It had some good ideas but in the end I think the only reaso I still have it is becasue I like the art work.

Bloodshadows was re-issued as a D6 book, but you need the core D6 Adventure to run it which again is a bit of a barrier if your target audience is the pick up and run game. It's a cool but confusing setting.

Quote from: Sigmund;281357I would create a d6 cheesy 80s cop show game, like Magnum PI d6, or Riptide d6, or A-Team d6.

I'd give this a look, for sure. Just don't link it to a particular show. Instead make templates for each of the general types of tv cop hero.

Quote from: Elliot Wilen;281414I'd give this a look, for sure. Just don't link it to a particular show. Instead make templates for each of the general types of tv cop hero.

I agree. Maybe even some sample stat blocks of tv characters, but no tie to a specific show.

D6 is well suited for a A-Team kind of game. Considering that the A-Team itself being made in a movie due in 2011 the timing could be just right. Of course actual licenses are expensive.

I feel ill just saying  it, but perhaps the sort of thing D6 could do that might actually sell is a sort Harry Potter knock-off introductory rpg. I personally don't get the whole Potter thing, but it has hugely successfull and I don't think it is really represented in the rpg market.

I much prefer the Legend version of D6 because it's easier to add the dice up and it doesn't have the clunky +1 and +2 pips which I've always hated.

  The Herc/Xena game is actually pretty good.  I would love to see a simple generic Swords & Sorcery version of that game.

I'd like to see it revamped into a single core rulebook with supplemental setting books similar to how Savage Worlds does it.