D6: what to do? Good and bad examples?

[Grim_Wicked]

Hi all!

I'm currently writing a d6 tabletop rpg (for those gamers who don't want to buy a full set of dice, I guess), but I have a bit of trouble finding examples. I've played lots of D&D (3.5e through 5e) and some D20 modern, so I don't have lots of experience with d6 systems.

What are some good examples of d6 systems? What are some bad examples? How about the dos and don'ts of making a d6 system (or of making a system in general)?

Thanks! :smallbiggrin:

[Bruno Carvalho]

There are a HUGE amount of d6 systems out there. You must create your design goals and find the roll system that can better attain that goal.

To help finding your design goals, try to answer these questions:

1) What kind of experience you want to give? A broad, generic multi-scenario game? Or a focused, tight, scenario-specific game?

2) How crunch-heavy do you want to be? Crunchier, boardgame-like or lighter, story-driven?

3) How much luck-driven do you want the game to be? More luck driven, with a greater impact of random chance or more skill driven, with a lower random impact?

Please do understand that there is no "right" way of creating your game, but there are different games created by different design goals who cater to different audiences and playstyles.

[Grim_Wicked]

Thanks for the questions! To answer them:

1. I guess a focused, scenario-specific game. I have this idea of humans having become sentient because spirits inhabit their bodies (which I'll process into the game mechanics as a sort of cross between heritage/race and class). Now, though, humans are hunted down by the remaining spirits, who think it was a bad idea after all to give humans sentience. I have a specific setting for it, but no specific adventures (yet).

2. I'd prefer a crunch-light game. Much should be solved with a broad interpretation of the rules and what seems appropriate.

3. As I've written it so far, luck is less of a factor than in D&D. Almost everything is done through skills (based on D&D's skills, but also including weapon use and with a greater focus on professions than D&D had). I don't know if that's practical, but that's why I would like to read some other d6 systems. See what they did, how they treat the d6 and luck.

Again, thanks for the info! It helps to know my design goals.

[Bruno Carvalho]

Thanks for the questions! To answer them:

1. I guess a focused, scenario-specific game. I have this idea of humans having become sentient because spirits inhabit their bodies (which I'll process into the game mechanics as a sort of cross between heritage/race and class). Now, though, humans are hunted down by the remaining spirits, who think it was a bad idea after all to give humans sentience. I have a specific setting for it, but no specific adventures (yet).


I can help you more if you elaborate into this. What is the intented player experience? Fantastic heroic adventuring? Grim-and-gritty realism? Horror? Political (or spiritual) intrigues? Where and when is the setting? Real Earth? Fictional Earth? A new world altogether? There is only one plane of existance or will it be a multi-plane experience with planar travel and/or communication? Is it Ancient? Medieval? Modern? Cyberpunk? Sci-fi?



Thanks for the questions! To answer them:
2. I'd prefer a crunch-light game. Much should be solved with a broad interpretation of the rules and what seems appropriate.

3. As I've written it so far, luck is less of a factor than in D&D. Almost everything is done through skills (based on D&D's skills, but also including weapon use and with a greater focus on professions than D&D had). I don't know if that's practical, but that's why I would like to read some other d6 systems. See what they did, how they treat the d6 and luck.

Again, thanks for the info! It helps to know my design goals.

Lemme talk about some game engines that may serve as a inspiration guide:

1) Roll over
Dice + Bonuses > Difficulty = Sucess. Typical d20 fare, but with d6. There are variations rolling 2d6 or 3d6. Bonuses come from stats, skills, circunstance bonuses, etcetera.

Examples: Final Fantasy D6, Dragon Age, D&D (rolling 3d6 instead of 1d20).

2) Roll Under
Dice < bonuses = sucess. You roll some dice, add them up, and if they're lower than your stat or skill or anything like that, you win. They usually feature hard character creation and ease of play (after you built your character).

Example: GURPS

3) AWE (Apocalipse World Engine)
You use moves to act, each move with its own rulings. Based on what you said, I strongly recommend you to check this system.

Examples: Apocalipse World, Dungeon World

4) Roll And Keep
Usually rolled with d10, you may adapt to d6 reducing the target numbers. You roll pools of dice, based on your stats and skills, and select some of them to compare with the target number.

Examples: Legend of the Five Rings, The 7th Sea

5) Dice Pool
Another featuring mostly d10, but adaptable. You roll a pool of dice, each needing to be higher than a sucess threshrold (usually 4, 5 or 6). Each dice greater than the difficulty counts as one sucess.

Examples: Storyteller, Storytelling

6) Fudge
You roll a fixed number of d6 (called fudge dice), granting bonuses or penalties to your rolls. The total bonus or penalty is added to your stat or skill and compared to the difficulty. For example, you may roll 4d6, each 1 or 2 counting as -1 and each 5-6 counting as +1. Your roll would be between -4 and +4.

Example: Fudge

7) Privilege and Raises
Mostly a narrativistic system, you roll pools of d6 to achieve narrative privilege. Raises are added to increase results or to gain more narrative power.

Examples: Houses of the Blooded, Blood & Honor

8) ORE (One Roll Engine)
Another pool dice rolling system, you roll lots of d6 and count sucess by selecting sets of matching dice.

Examples: Wild Talents, Reign, Nemesis

9) Otherkind Dice
Each conflict you roll 4d6 and after seeing the results you assign the dice to categories, describing if you win or not, who narrates the outcome and if you are hurt in the process or not

Examples: Otherkind

Of course, there are TONS of other ways to roll and make a good game system. My main advice for you is: GO PLAY GAMES! The more different games you read and play, the more knowledge you amass and the best the games you make will become.

[Grim_Wicked]

Thanks for all the recommendations! I'll definitely check them out.

Going into more detail:

- The intended experience is sort of dark fantasy survival - not straight horror (although I'd like it if that's a real possibility for GMs to explore), but a bit of a cross between heroic fantasy and grim, dark realism.

- The setting is a fantasy world with a technology level roughly comparable to ours today or in the near future. However, thanks to the wars and spirit purges it's difficult to maintain a stable internet connection, and due to the nature of the world (flat and endless, I think), there are no satellites for GPS. They've probably found others ways to do that. There is only one plane of existence, but on that plane there might be more "worlds" to travel to (e.g. the moon, the insides of the earth, the sun, etc.). I guess it'll be a cross between fantasy (with the spirits and stuff) and sci-fi (with the technology level). No cyberpunk (since I want internet to not really be a thing).

[upogsi]

Also be aware of your complexity budget. If your game is too complex up front, then people won't want to go through the effort to play. Also the lower the complexity in your core rules, the more room you have to make fancy abilities and stuff.

Tracking complexity is the stuff you need to keep track of during the game, while rules complexity is stuff that you need to learn beforehand. If you have the choice, go for rules complexity.