The D6 System: My Go-to, Quick-fix RPG

 

While this blog is primarily focused on old school (A)D&D and its derivatives, these are not the only roleplaying games (RPGs) I’ve played, or will ever play.  One of my other favorite games, which I’ve mentioned before, was West End Game’s (WEG) Star Wars RPG.

I’ve learned recently that I’m part of a sub-generation of late Gen-Xers called “Xennials” which are also apparently called the Star Wars Generation, so I guess it’s no surprise that an RPG based on that beloved, space-fantasy franchise called deeply to my soul.  Younger folks may not get it, and I imagine that over time, with the churning of subpar, commercial sequels, prequels, and spinoffs (which I still consume, to my shame,) the franchise will become (or already is) a joke – one of those stupid “Boomer” things (which is what the kids these days call anything and anyone older than them.  Harrumph!)  Still, that galaxy far, far away is embedded deeply in my aging psyche.

I think one thing that made the game successful (you know, other than the big-name IP) was its unique system.  It used pools of six-sided dice, but rather than working on the number of “successes” each die rolled, it added them together and compared the result to a difficulty number with a descriptor (Easy, Moderate, Hard, etc.; may seem familiar to those that have played d20-based games.)  

Attributes and skills, were noted as the number of dice you could roll, with two “pips” in between each full die in a sequence: 1D, 1D+1, 1D+2, 2D, 2D+1, 2D+2, 3D, etc.  More dice meant a widening bell curve, where harder difficulty numbers become routine to more experienced characters, who tend to succeed more often.  The addition of heroic point mechanics to increase crucial die rolls (called Force Points, and Character Points, respectively,) helped the game simulate the fast-paced, cinematic action in Star Wars pretty easily.  What’s more, the system was simple and very easy to learn; once you got used to the funky die progression, that is.

Unfortunately, WEG made a few mistakes that would make TSR hold its beer.  Among these was using a different system, Masterbook, as its house system for other licensed games instead of the D6 system in the Star Wars RPG.  It seems as they too realized this mistake a little later, since several of the Masterbook sourcebooks had an appendix for converting them to the D6 system.  They eventually released a generic, customizable game based on the D6 system, along with  couple of other D6-based, licensed games in the late 90s.

This short, 79-page book was more of a toolkit than complete game, and it was judged harshly for it, when it was noticed at all.  Still, I loved this little book, and how I could use it for any whacky idea I had for a one-shot or short campaign.  These days, it reminds me of the original D&D game, insofar as its do-it-yourself (DIY) quality.

I wasn’t alone.  At least one fan created several Tripod webpages (remember those?) with homebrew D6 games based on films, TV shows, anime, and video games.  I’m both surprised and happy to see these sites still exist.  As far as I can see, they still work, but may have some dead links and/or annoying ads; clicker beware.

• The Matrix D6
• Buffy D6
• Evil Dead D6
• Neverwhere D6
• Appleseed D6
• Starcraft D6

 Not long after making that generic D6 game, WEG went the way of TSR, albeit without a cash-flush company like Wizards of the Coast (WotC) swooping in to save the D6 game system like they did with D&D.  And so, the D6 System went into a period of obscurity, save in the hearts of a few fans like myself.

Circa 2004, WEG came back under the new ownership of Purgatory Publishing under one Eric Gibson, and they released three games based on the D6 System: D6 Adventure, D6 Space, and D6 Fantasy.  These were individual adaptations of the game system for modern-day, sci-fi, and fantastic or pseudo-historical campaigns respectively.  They also tacked on rules from the Masterbook games, like character advantages/disadvantages and a spell system which originated from WEG's multi-genre game Torg (also the origin of the Mastebook rules, I believe.)

These came out at a time where I was starting to get a little burned out on Third Edition D&D (then in its 3.5 version,) and they were a timely breath of fresh air.  The games rekindled my excitement for simpler, fast-paced, DIY GMing.  I took a break from D&D to run some successful mini-campaigns with themes like modern-day, urban horror, Firefly-esque space heists, and bloody swords and sorcery set in the Hyborian Age of Conan.  My friends and players remarked how much simpler and easier D6 games were to play than 3e D&D, and I agreed.  Alas, this lesson didn’t really stick with me (for D&D, that is) until several years and yet another edition of the game later.

Unfortunately, nu-WEG also went under a mere four years later.  Perhaps it was not having a strong enough IP like Star Wars to buoy the D6 System, or a debacle regarding their D6 Space setting of Septimus by author Bill Coffin (of RIFTS Phase World fame,) or maybe it was just fickle Fortune pooping all over small business as it often does.  Regardless, it was the Final Death of WEG, but not necessarily of the D6 System itself.

As a final and quite charitable act, Mr. Gibson gave Rome back to the people by releasing the D6 System rules and sourcebooks under the Open Game License (OGL) as Open D6, so that others could continue to use the rules in their own games.  This spawned a small, but vibrant community of independent publishers, but these games have sadly not had much time in the limelight without the flash, marketing, or big IPs larger game publishers can bring to bear.  But maybe that’s the way it should be.  Sometimes, a cozy niche is just fine being a cozy niche.

But why am I waxing nostalgic about the D6 System?  Well, I feel another one of those “fevers” coming on after watching the televised rendition of a certain, retro-futuristic, post-apocalyptic video game series which I have enjoyed since the original PC game.  Therefore, I’d like to do a series of posts (concurrently with my other series) to make some quick-and-dirty, homebrew D6 rules for playing in this universe, and then create a little sandbox for using them in (or the official game rules, if one is so inclined, although the core book seems to be sold out at the time of this writing.)  

So…