The D6 System

My latest gaming thing has been all about the D6 System. We go way back, D6 and I. A version of this is the game system that powered the original Star Wars RPG by West End Games back in 1987. One of the first games I ran for a motley group of gamers.

My brother and I keep discussing a one-on-one game that we'll get to play someday. As we try to narrow down what the game will be about, I've been trying to decide what game system to use. At first I was thinking one of the many stripped down d20 systems, but realized I just don't like the d20 system in any form (not even True20, which I really tried to like). Then I thought about using GURPS which I ended up really really liking, but the style of game that comes from GURPS didn't fit my vision of what I am hoping for for our game. And it's a bit daunting trying to wrap my own head around the system and character creation, let alone teaching it to a virtual gaming noob. I finally decided- the heck with it. Lets just go back to the system we played back in the day- Star War's D6 system.

This lead me to start to seek out the generic core books that were published after West End Games no longer had the Star Wars product license. I'd always been curious about them and then acquiered the free PDF versions when they went open. It was interesting to see how similar the D6 System is with the GURPS system beyond the obvious six-sided dice system. They're really almost the same with the resolution mechanics flip-flopped.

Coincidently, there also seems to be a resurgence in the D6 fan-base community. All the core rule books, location books and bestiaries recently became open license products. This has caused many discussions about system reference documents and online, as well as print, magazines, over at the West End Games Fan forums.

I started working on my own system reference document using the wikidot.com web service.

opend6.wikidot.com

This is an attempt to make the D6 System's own SRD like the Hypertext SRD for the d20 system which I quite often used to use. Its not finished yet, but it is coming along.

I think D6 will be a good fit for our game when it does happen. It tends to be more cinematic than realistic. It's very easy to understand and explain. I look forward to getting used to it for use when my kids are ready to roll the dice.