[Note: This article originally
appeared in 2004 as a two-part “Dispatch” on my old Griffon’s
Aerie website. It does not cover the few developments in the D6
System after that time, including such innovations as Wicked North Games’ releases under that banner, AntiPaladin Games’concise distillation of the system in Mini Six, or the release
of the game under the Open Game License. – PS]
Since its first appearance in 1986, West End
Games’ D6 System has undergone refinement through several
permutations, from the prototypical and novice-friendly Ghostbusters
game engine to its incarnation in the core books for D6 Adventure,
Space, and Fantasy. The game’s simple core rule –
“roll your attribute or skill dice higher than a difficulty number”
– was among the first to use dice pools in an era when most
roleplaying games focused on more abstract and complex
representations of reality through game mechanics. The D6 System’s
popularity developed primarily from its symbiotic relationship with
popular licensed settings, from Ghostbusters and Star Wars
to Men in Black and Hercules & Xena, which drove
high-visibility sales for many years. The combination of an intuitive
game engine with well-known settings helped ensure the system’s
success.
This essay surveys the various game releases
incorporating the D6 System, focusing primarily on system
innovations and presentation. It is not a history of West End Games,
though some events in that company’s past affect developments in
D6.
What
Makes A D6 Game?
Official D6 System games originally came
from the company that holds the rights to that game engine: West End
Games. That corporate identity changed hands several times in the
late 1990s due to financial difficulties, and in November 2003
emerged in an incarnation owned by Eric Gibson’s Purgatory
Publishing.
D6 games have two core concepts, one
focusing on game mechanics, and the other on thematic/presentation
elements:
- Attributes and skills are represented by die codes instead of set numeric values, which players must roll equal to or higher than a difficulty number to succeed (sometimes with the aid of bonus dice). All other rules flow from this central mechanic.
- Rules presentation is geared toward newcomers (whether gaming novices or new D6 players) customized to a particular and popular setting (often a licensed media property).
Ghostbusters
The gaming community generally acknowledges that
Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game first
used the core D6 System mechanic of dice pools representing
attributes and skills. Released in 1986 with a license from Columbia
Pictures Industries, the boxed set drew on the popular Ghostbusters
film starring Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, Harold Ramis, Sigourney
Weaver, Ernie Hudson, and Annie Potts. The rules even contained
numerous cartoon images of the movie characters adding occasional
marginal commentary. Chaosium’s Sandy Petersen and Lynn Willis,
with Greg Stafford, designed the core rules system. Such game
industry notables as Aaron Allston, Scott Haring, and Daniel
Greenberg contributed to the sequel game (Ghostbusters
International) and a line of adventures.
Ghostbusters was West End Games’ second
roleplaying game line after the cult hit Paranoia, released in
1984. Before that the company produced wargames with high production
values: color maps, cardboard counters, dice, and the ever-popular
sealed counter trays (which remained much-sought-after items years
after the wargames went out of stock). West End brought similar high
production values to its roleplaying game components.
System
Innovations
As the prototype D6 System game,
Ghostbusters established several core mechanics that later
evolved into elements current D6 players would recognize. Each
character had four traits (attributes), each with an associated
special talent (skill). Traits had values from one to seven, while
talent increased those. If a character did not have a specific talent
to deal with a situation, he defaulted to his trait. Characters could
choose talents from an established list (much like a skill list).
Difficulties ranged from Easy (with a difficulty number of 5), to
hard (20) and impossible (30).
In addition to normal dice, the game included one
Ghost Die with the Ghostbusters symbol taking the place of the
six – the prototype Wild Die. Players incorporated the Ghost Die in
each roll they made and experienced some form of failure (often
humorous) if they rolled the ghost.
Each character began with 20 Brownie Points, which
served as the forerunners of Character Points. They enabled players
to use additional dice to accomplish tasks, but they had to declare
their use before the roll. Players could roll as many dice as they
had remaining Brownie Points. These also functioned as a measure of
success or failure: those accomplishing scenario goals received more
points, those hit in combat or failing important rolls lost points.
Anyone collecting 30 Brownie Points could use them to improve a Trait
by one.
The “How To Play” booklet – what readers
first saw upon opening the box – encouraged people to dive into the
game by playing the characters from the Ghostbusters film,
included on perforated reference cards as a form of pre-generated
character template.
Presentation
The components in the Ghostbusters boxed
set provided a model for presenting games to newcomers and fans of
popular films. It included three levels of the rules: a three-page
“How To Play” flyer that covered the basics and got gamers
playing right out of the box; a 24-page “Training Manual” that
served as a basic rulebook, elaborating on the simple concepts in the
starter flyer; and the “Operations Manual” which functioned as
the full-fledged sourcebook with more examples, scenarios, ghosts,
adventure ideas, stats for typical non-player characters, and a
random adventure generator. Two sheets of perforated cards contained
the stats for the main film characters (pre-generated character
templates of a sort) and a host of smaller equipment cards detailing
various gadgets and artifacts used during scenarios.
On a visual level such production values weren’t
new. In 1982 TSR’s Star Frontiers also contained a similar
array of components, including basic and advanced rule booklets,
maps, and counters. But it did not focus on a licensed media property
and thus did not have a particular tone to promote through the text.
(At the time, West End Games was emerging as one of a handful of
companies that could offer such high production values as industry
leader TSR.) Ghostbusters’ designers and developers already
had practice at infusing game rules with the appropriate (and
humorous) atmosphere from previous work on Paranoia. Movie
characters appeared in the margins to offer comic commentary.
In-universe paperwork provided props for “Releases from Damages,”
“Temporary EPA Permit,” and the useful “Last Will and
Testament” for Ghostbusters characters. Movie stills
enhanced the rulebooks’ graphic presentation and reminded players
they were running around a world where they could learn everything
they needed to know from watching a film.
Ghostbusters would be the last D6 System
game appearing in a box packed with all the trappings until the
release of the Star Wars Introductory Adventure Game in 1997.
Although West End Games later published several flagship, non-D6
games as boxed sets – such as second edition Paranoia,
Shatterzone, Indiana Jones, and Bloodshadows – the
overall expense of producing such high-value components as foldout
maps, perforated cards, and special dice became prohibitive. Much of
the roleplaying game industry followed this trend, which focused on
releasing core rules sets in books rather than boxes to avoid high
production expenses and open the way into major bookstore chains,
which at that time understood how to market and display books better
than boxes.
The Star
Wars Roleplaying Game
In 1987 the Star Wars franchise seemed dead
in the water. The last film, Return of the Jedi, opened in
1983. In the subsequent years, the avalanche of marketing made
popular by the Star Wars movies died off (and certainly held
no promise for a product as esoteric as a roleplaying game).
Filmmaker George Lucas focused his efforts on obscure projects like
Howard the Duck and Willow. The popularity of Star
Wars seemed little more than nostalgia for the days of action
figures and trading cards.
West End Games established a licensing agreement
with Lucasfilm Ltd. to produce a Star Wars roleplaying game
and published the two-book set in 1987, ten years after the original
movie’s release. Designers Greg Costikyan, Curtis Smith, and Bill
Slavicsek refined the D6 System from Ghostbusters into
a more substantial game engine suitable for the cinematic action of
the Star Wars films. The first edition rules and sourcebook
drew gamers and movie fans into the roleplaying universe far, far
away and spawned a line of scenarios and supplements that supported
an ever-growing consumer base. In 1991 the release of Timothy Zahn’s
Heir to the Empire – the first original sequel novel in the
Star Wars galaxy since Return of the Jedi’s
release – re-ignited massive fan interest in the franchise and sent
scores of enthusiasts to roleplaying game books seeking officially
licensed source material expanding the scope of the galaxy.
A second edition of the Star Wars Roleplaying
Game released in 1992, followed by the Star Wars Roleplaying
Game: Second Edition – Revised & Expanded (1996), and the
Star Wars Introductory Adventure Game (1997). (For a detailed
comparison of the three main versions, see “WEG’s Star Wars
RPG: Which Edition?”) The game line published more than 120
products (including revisions of previously released books and 15
issues of The Official Star Wars Adventure Journal) and was
sub-licensed and translated into several foreign languages before
West End lost the license in 1998 during its financial troubles.
System
Innovations
Overall the Star Wars Roleplaying Game
refined Ghostbusters into the familiar game engine
incorporating many of the core mechanics that now form the D6
System. Where the earlier game strove to achieve a basic
framework for humorous action, Star Wars created a workable
and detailed game engine to simulate cinematic drama in a particular,
more serious universe. Players needed more rules guidance and
character options to fit the conflicts and technology of the Star
Wars galaxy.
The Star Wars Roleplaying Game modified a
character’s basic stats, changing four traits into six attributes,
and one talent per trait into a short list of skills in which
everyone had some proficiency (a die code that defaulted to the value
of the associated attribute). Various editions of the Star Wars
game differed in offering every template the same skills or
customizing skill lists to what a character could reasonably know.
The game retained the core rule of rolling a die pool equal to or
greater than a difficulty number.
The first edition did not include any rules for a
Wild Die. Some might argue the range of results one could roll in a
die pool were chance enough for critical successes and failures,
while others would say a Wild Die – and one that “exploded”
each time a six appeared in succession – added to the heroic
cinematic nature of the game. This argument obviously won out with
the designers of the second edition, which included Wild Die rules.
If a one appeared on the Wild Die, it might simply affect a lower die
roll total, or, at the gamemaster’s discretion, signify some
critical failure. A six on the Wild Die added to the result and was
rolled again as a bonus. Second Edition – Revised & Expanded
included the Wild Die, by then a standard D6 System
convention, though for simplicity’s sake in catering to a younger
market, the Star Wars Introductory Adventure Game omitted the
Wild Die.
Ghostbusters’ Brownie Points split into
two systems to aid character rolls: Force Points and Character
Points. To accommodate the role of the Force in the Star Wars
galaxy, the game included Force Points representing every character’s
innate ability to tap the power of the Force. (Jedi also had access
to Force powers based on their capacity for using three Force skills:
control, sense, and alter.) When a player used a Force Point –
prior to making any die rolls – she could double all die codes for
that round only. Combined with the game’s multi-action rules, it
allowed characters to undertake amazing and heroic feats in the face
of insurmountable odds. Force Points were rarely awarded, though, and
were overpowered for boosting less-important rolls. Character Points
replaced the standard Experience Point mechanic from first edition,
which only allowed players to use them to improve their characters’
stats. Character Points served both the purpose of experience and
bonus points, forcing players to decide if they wanted to boost die
rolls by one, two, or three dice after their roll, or save them for
character improvement later. As with Ghostbusters,
accomplishing a scenario garnered Character Point awards, varying by
the degree of success.
The Star Wars Roleplaying Game refined the
concept from Ghostbusters of playing film characters using
pre-generated stat cards. Instead of gamers arguing over who got to
play Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Chewbacca, players
customized their own characters based on stereotypical templates that
offered similar roles, such as smuggler, minor Jedi, young
senatorial, and Wookiee. This gave everyone the chance to pick a
template, add some skill dice, and dive into the game, and was
particularly important in first edition, which introduced Star
Wars gaming. Later editions provided different templates; players
always had the option of creating their own once they were
comfortable with the system. The concept of pre-generated characters
– even ones gamers customized by assigning 7D to skills – still
accomplished the goal of making this D6 game a quick start-up
for newcomers.
Presentation
The various editions of the Star Wars
Roleplaying Game followed Ghostbusters’ lead in using
movie stills for illustrations enhancing the rulebooks as well as
incorporating thematic text to encourage a cinematic style of play
emulating the films. Many fans hadn’t seen Star Wars movie
shots since their old trading card days; their pervasive presence in
the first edition rules helped rekindle their interest in Star
Wars and stimulate their imaginations about the possibilities of
roleplaying in that universe.
First edition included two books (288 pages
total), the main rules and the sourcebook, essential for providing
the stats for numerous ships, vehicles, droids, and other elements of
the Star Wars universe encountered in the game. Although
black-and-white throughout with spot full-color insets detailing
"in-universe” advertisements for the Imperial Navy, Incom,
Industrial Automaton, and other Star Wars corporations, it
relied exclusively on movie stills, with no illustrations for the
character templates. It still remains one of the stronger visual
presentations for the game line. The 176-page second edition
compacted rules and universe source material into one book, but its
reliance on original line art of varying quality (from mediocre to
excellent) and a dense layout (subheads were not well organized and
sometimes indistinguishable in magnitude from each other) did not
make it stand out from the avalanche of similarly sized roleplaying
game books flooding the market in the early 1990s. Graphically its
one saving grace over first edition was the inclusion of
illustrations with each character template. Second Edition –
Revised & Expanded (288 pages) was everything the previous
two editions should have been: full-color, comprehensive in coverage
of rules and universe information, and packed with color film stills
and high-quality, original color artwork.
Each edition focused on introducing new and
established gamers to roleplaying in the Star Wars universe.
Rules included hints on running games, getting into the mood of the
universe, many examples, pages of handy reference charts, and sidebar
suggestions on using props, sound effects, and Star Wars toys.
First edition’s overall gung-ho attitude and borderline corny
suggestions saturate the text like the enthusiasm from a ten year-old
surrounded by Star Wars action figures. Second edition
generally avoids this tone in favor of language more appropriate to a
roleplaying game manual. Second Edition – Revised & Expanded
found a pleasant middle ground, giving responsibility for in-universe
banter and suggestions to a crowd of original characters like General
Airen Cracken, smuggler Platt Okeefe, and Rebellion historian Voren
Na’al, who introduced new chapters and offered sidebar commentary
throughout the text (much like the Ghostbusters characters in
that game).
Each version had differing tactics for encouraging
play “right out of the box,” even if they didn’t come in one.
First edition included solitaire and group scenarios, plus a handful
of adventure ideas with outlines detailing each episode. These
appeared toward the back of the book more to illustrate the rules
established up front. Second edition buried its several detailed
adventure hooks amidst its gamemastering rules, but included no
moderate-length group adventure and no solitaire scenario. Second
Edition – Revised & Expanded displayed the solitaire
tutorial adventure up front for those just diving into the game, with
a full-length group adventure later on (and no list of adventure
ideas/hooks). The solo scenario, though, appeared in the book’s
introduction, before any rules chapters, along with an example of
play and a four-page player handout summarizing the concept of
roleplaying, basic rules, handy skills, resolving actions, Wild Die
mechanics, special statistics, and even in-universe slang.
The Star Wars Roleplaying Game set the
standard for the D6 System for almost 10 years before any new
developments or settings appeared.
From its origins as an engine for the licensed
Ghostbusters game to its long run as the core Star Wars
game system, D6 continued to refine itself as an easy system
linked to interesting properties that inspired its presentation.
Future developments brought D6 in different directions for
better or worse.
D6
Versus MasterBook
Before Timothy Zahn’s novel Heir to the
Empire renewed interest in Star Wars, and before the
strength of such fan awareness was apparent, West End’s sales and
marketing staff was convinced the Star Wars license was dead.
Roleplaying game product sales were good, but the company had already
embarked on games using a new engine: the rules set that would
eventually become MasterBook. TORG (1990) was the first such
release, followed by Shatterzone (1993), and ultimately
MasterBook itself (1994), with the Worlds of Indiana Jones
and Bloodshadows as initial settings.
This schism between a D6 Star Wars Roleplaying
Game and West End’s other game system occurred for several
reasons. In those days management and the design/editorial team
wanted a departure from a reliance on Star Wars and its game
system. They had stronger faith in their own original game mechanics
and an uncertainty/unwillingness to use D6 in any other game.
No doubt personalities were involved that reinforced this rift. The
design/editorial team at least (if not upper management) was
uncertain about the status of the D6 System as a rules set
apart from Star Wars. Did West End’s license with Lucasfilm
allow it to separate the D6 System game mechanics developed
for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game and incorporate it into
other original and licensed games with the Star Wars trappings
stripped out? (Ultimately the answer was “yes,” but the company
didn’t reach that conclusion until MasterBook had gained a
stranglehold on corporate affairs).
But the company slowly realized it needed to cash
in on its now best-selling game line – Star Wars – which
had introduced the D6 System to a large
consumer base of fans and gamers. With the resurgence in all things
Star Wars, a second edition of the game, mediocre sales of the
MasterBook lines (including disastrous sales for such licensed
media properties as Tank Girl, Species, and Tales from the
Crypt), and the inevitable change in design/editorial personnel,
West End determined it owned the D6 System mechanics apart
from the Star Wars license. At this time the staff made a
conscious effort to aggressively promote D6 as a house system.
The D6 System became the default rules set for new licensed
games, particularly Men in Black and Hercules & Xena;
no further games were released using MasterBook. Stat and
rules conversions from MasterBook to D6 became standard
handouts at conventions (though they wouldn’t be available online
until well after the company’s financial difficulties).
The
D6 System: The Customizable Roleplaying Game
West End’s staff realized it needed a core
rulebook for D6. Prohibited by time and finances from
launching a product on the scale even approaching any version of the
Star Wars rules, it assembled The D6 System, an 80-page
hodgepodge of rules, advice, and options for customizing D6 to
any game setting. The book served more as a D6 roleplaying
game toolkit than a full-fledged game system. It suffered from
cramming all the trappings of a complete roleplaying game –
chapters on character creation, combat, running adventures, and
gamemastering – while incorporating new developments into D6.
As such it included no sample settings or genre material.
Established Star Wars players seeking
guidance on translating their favorite game worlds to D6
snatched up the short print run and advocates of West End hailed it
as the beginning of a new campaign to promote D6 apart from
Star Wars, but the product failed to soar on its own without
an associated setting and an outstanding graphic presentation. It
still served effectively as the D6 core rulebook in the
absence of any other effort.
System
Innovations
The D6 System introduced several new
developments, most from the conversion of various elements from
MasterBook and the urge to address concerns with the mechanics
as presented in the Star Wars Roleplaying Game.
Several skill types required players to pick
specific fields. For instance, a character couldn’t have languages
5D or piloting 6D, but had to list languages: German 5D
and starfighter piloting 6D. Players could trade in initial
character creation skill dice to gain advantages, or take
disadvantages to receive more skill dice or offset advantages. The
core die roll mechanic remained the same, though the damage system
provided a “body points” option (similar to “hit point” rules
of traditional fantasy roleplaying games) in addition to the standard
“wounds” system. The rules offered a variant round structure
besides the traditional initiative-driven one: one in which actions
and resolutions were simultaneously or continuously resolved.
Two editions of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game
had cemented the Wild Die rules into the fabric of D6, and The
D6 System only reinforced its existence.
Since the Force was a concept owned by Lucasfilm,
non-Star Wars incarnations of D6 had to find a new term
for this popular skill roll boost. Force Points became Fate Points,
but still gave characters the same potential for over-the-top
cinematic accomplishments and multiple actions. Character Points
remained much the same as before, though their use was limited to a
maximum of two for any roll.
A “Supernatural Powers” chapter outlined rules
for magic, psionics, and superhero abilities. Brief sections gave
hints on incorporating them into character creation or advancement
and using them in the game. A handful of sample spells, psychic
powers, and superpowers provided gamemasters with handy examples and
materials for immediate play.
The D6 System offered no templates as
examples of possible characters or genres gamers could play. The
character creation section did, however, offer a list of various
character professions, including typical skills and a brief
description of each role.
Presentation
The D6 System was certainly not presented
as a product for novice gamers. The customizable aspect and lack of
setting geared it more toward established players who enjoyed
tinkering with system mechanics/options and tailoring it to their own
settings. The text lacked any tone associated with a style of play
because it was not inclined toward any particular genre. The D6
System was a roleplaying game manual, and its organization and
language reflected that.
Lack of setting direction also contributed to the
wide-ranging themes of the artwork. Although the quality varies and
most pieces relate to their associated text in some vague way, the
art reflected the book’s hodgepodge approach. As an interesting
aside, many pieces included representations of the art staff
(beheaded, attacked by a velociraptor, eaten by maggots, confronting
aliens) as well as the lead D6 designer at the time.
Further
D6 Iterations
Soon after the release of The D6 System West
End produced a swarm of licensed D6 games. None found the vast
fan and consumer base that fueled the Star Wars Roleplaying Game
for so many years. Each one promoted the core game and presentation
concepts that gamers had come to expect from D6.
Each game reworked the text to fit its genre but
retained most of the core rules with some variations. Players
resolved tasks by rolling a number of attribute or skill dice equal
to or higher than a given difficulty. In two cases – Hercules &
Xena and DC Universe – players used special dice with
four success symbols and two failure symbols, with a wild die using
signs that functioned as the dreaded one and exploding six. Known as
D6 Prime (and later D6 Legend), this simplified system
addressed the frequent complaint of having to roll and total too many
dice. Of course the Wild Die survived through every incarnation.
Characters Points functioned as usual and templates provided gamers
with ready-made characters, or at least ideas on creating their own.
Presentation values remained high, particularly on
the Hercules & Xena and Metabarons roleplaying
games, which included full-color rulebooks. Each game line adopted
its own tone appropriate to the license and tailored game terminology
to suit the genre. The DC Universe game in particular had to
accommodate a superpowers system that had no correlation in previous
D6 games.
West End’s design staff actively pursued popular
media licenses for subsequent D6 releases. Three notorious
licenses stand out that, for various reasons, never reached
publication: despite the release of a popular Mission Impossible
movie, management refused to pursue a related D6 game license;
interest in an X-Files license ended when the approvals
process began looking like a bureaucratic and creative nightmare; and
the Stargate: SG-1 game died (with half a draft of D6
rules already completed) when the company declared bankruptcy.
Despite these setbacks, West End continued releasing other quality
licensed D6 games.
Each game from this period deserves some note,
even if they contributed debatable degrees of innovation to the
overall D6 game engine.
Indiana Jones Adventures: Although
not a stand-alone D6 System game, Indiana Jones Adventures
was one of the first results of West End’s campaign to use the
marketing recognition the Star Wars Roleplaying Game had
garnered for D6. It broke the corporate mindset that non-Star
Wars licensed games couldn’t use the D6 System. This
supplement attempted to retrofit D6 to the most popular
MasterBook license (incidentally a successful Lucasfilm
license), with references to basic game mechanics from the D6
System: The Customizable Roleplaying Game. The 96-page book
relied on 12 pages of rules that organized skills under attributes,
offered a handful of new advantages and disadvantages, listed short
stats for various adversaries (from gangsters and Nazis to crocodiles
and snakes), and summarized stats on period weapons, armor, vehicles,
and adventure gear on several tables. Very little effort was made to
make it a complete, newcomer-friendly roleplaying game. The intent
was to provide all those Star Wars Roleplaying Game players –
who were undoubtedly also Indiana Jones fans – an avenue for
playing in that universe without the cumbersome and intimidating
MasterBook rules set. To complete the package and give gamers
a chance to run D6 characters in Indiana Jones, the
book also contained one introductory solitaire scenario, three group
adventures, four templates, a blank character sheet, and the
MasterBook-to-D6 conversion. (A proposal was actually made for
a D6 Indiana Jones Roleplaying Game core rule- and sourcebook
of the scale and quality of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Second
Edition – Revised & Expanded, but financial limitations,
schedule considerations, and marketing concerns prevented pursuing
this course.)
Men in Black Roleplaying Game: News
of a Men in Black film with stars like Will Smith and Tommy
Lee Jones prompted West End executives to make a bid for the
roleplaying game rights, with publication in 1998 around the time of
the movie’s release. The game book contained few innovations in the
D6 System, repackaging the rules and format into
the film universe, complete with solitaire tutorial adventure, group
adventure, the standard rules lineup, and a host of templates. In the
tradition of past licensed games, it contained movie stills, official
film image line art, and some original art, along with shots of
various West End Games staffers posing as men in black. A subsequent
Men in Black Introductory Adventure Game and an Alien
Recognition Guide were not worth the insane and often
contradictory licensing approvals hassle, and did not drive
satisfactory sales, so the game line was eventually dropped.
Hercules & Xena Roleplaying Game:
This D6 game cashed in on the popular Hercules: The
Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess syndicated
television shows. In the true spirit of the programs the rules
rambled on with a casual, often comic tone and the source material
offered genre-appropriate information on ancient Greece. Production
values were high, with the box packing a full-color Hero’s
Guide, two-color Secrets of the Ancient World sourcebook,
full-color gamemaster screen, and three slim booklets containing one
solitaire and two group adventures. Since the game pioneered the D6
Prime system, it included special dice with symbols from the
shows denoting successes and failures. Its publication in the first
half of 1998 ensured the game line’s death when West End shut down
in July, and planned (and in some cases, completed) supplements died
on the vine.
DC Universe Roleplaying Game: No
amount of new games, marketing, or sales could save West End Games
from bankruptcy in 1998, despite continued strong interest in the
Star Wars game (especially with the first prequel premiering
in 1999) and a fistful of hot licensed products. After a series of
purchases by French companies (Yeti Entertainment and later
Humanoids), the company became West End Games/D6 Legend. Its first
release was based on a licensing deal that began before bankruptcy,
but faded after a year or two beneath the strain of corporate strife.
The DC Universe Roleplaying Game and its several published
supplements catered to the superhero genre and fans of the comic
books. The game more effectively incorporated advantages and
disadvantages in the D6 System and explored the scope of
interpreting super abilities with the game engine. DC Universe
kept the D6 System alive despite West End’s corporate
troubles.
Metabarons: After its acquisition by
Humanoids, West End Games/D6 Legend produced a D6 game based
on the parent company’s hyped comic book property,Metabarons.
A pseudo space opera on the grand scale of Frank Herbert’s Dune
with gratuitous graphic violence and sexual content only the French
could condone, the Metabarons graphic novels were hugely
popular in France but only marginally accepted in America. The game
directly translated mechanics from the Star Wars Roleplaying Game,
adapting various game concepts such as the dark and light sides of
the Force to such Metabarons terminology as Aramax and
Necro-Dream. A hastily designed system to simulate the rather
ill-defined psionics shown in the comics encouraged gamemasters to
determine skill difficulties based on variables of what one wanted to
accomplish (range, effect, duration, number of people). An Honor Code
system helped define characters’ motivations in relation to the
universe. The rulebook followed Revised & Expanded’s
format, including full color throughout, chapter introductions from
in-universe characters, a solitaire tutorial adventure, and a group
scenario. A lack of available and approved source material on the
universe directly translated to a deficiency of such information in
the rulebook, though a setting sourcebook was later published in
France. The game did poorly in the United States, where few comic
book fans latched onto the Metabarons license. After
Metabarons released in 2001, interest in West End and
consequently D6 dissipated.
Psibertroopers: This stand-alone
product managed to carry the D6 torch a little farther. Having
left the hybrid Humanoids/West End Games, former owner Scott Palter
set out on his own, managed to obtain a license to use the D6
System, and pursued his own game universe through his company,
Final Sword Productions. With Ron Fricke he co-authored
Psibertroopers, the first of several planned releases in a
series called Dead Night of Space. The setting merged elements
of the giant mecha, psionics, and space opera genres, with universe
information and fiction vignettes. In the absence of an official D6
rulebook it contained an eight-page quickstart rules section up
front. Psibertroopers continued the tradition of including the
rules summary, a handful of templates, and two detailed adventure
hooks. It used the Honor Code system introduced by Metabarons
as a tool for classifying character motivation and further developed
the psionics system from that game, tailoring it to fit the Dead
Night of Space universe. Psibertroopers’ most
significant game innovation, the chesspiece goons system, defined
expendable adversaries as pawns, knights, bishops, or rooks, each
with predetermined target hit numbers, damage thresholds, and
attack/damage dice suitable to their levels.
A New
Beginning: D6 Adventure, Space, and Fantasy
In late 2003 Humanoids sold most of the West End
Games assets to Eric Gibson of Purgatory Publishing Inc. in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. These included much of “old” West
End’s non-licensed properties, including the popular TORG
roleplaying game, Shatterzone, and the D6 System
(rights to the cult favorite Paranoia reverted back to its
original creators).
Work began to develop The D6 System for
publication for both old West End Games fans and new gamers. The
approach consisted of three core rulebooks, each interpreting The
D6 System into a popular genre: adventure, space, and fantasy.
The company later released several supplements further elaborating on
game mechanics and settings for each genre.
System
Innovations
This latest incarnation of D6 retains the
core mechanics developed over the years: a basic die pool roll to
determine success or failure; Character and Fate Points to boost
rolls; the Wild Die; numerous customizable character templates. The
D6 System further refined the idea of advantages,
disadvantages, and special abilities, building them into a more
elaborate, point-based character generation system for those seeking
such structure. The systems for magic, metaphysics, and psionics drew
on previous mechanics, particularly those developed in the DC
Universe game and the general outlines from The D6 System
Customizable Roleplaying Game.
Two elements stood out in The D6 System,
though they weren’t particularly core concepts. D6 Space
offered a system for creating a ship based on mass and energy output.
The addition of energy units generated by a craft’s engine and used
to power various systems smacked of the old classic Star Fleet
Battles, but infused the system with a degree of realism (and
bookkeeping) for those who wanted it. Gamers who prefer the old Star
Wars style of quick-and-dirty starship action without keeping
track of energy units could easily ignore the system.
One page in each book offered a solution to one of
the core criticisms of D6 detractors: the game sometimes
requires players to roll and count too many dice. (Personally I’ve
never seen this as a problem – there’s something of a power trip
to rolling two handfuls of dice and waiting pensively as one counts
them to see if, or more frequently how much one achieves success.)
The “Die Code Simplification” tables provided two means of going
easy on the dice: roll 5D (including the Wild Die) and add a modifier
based on the large die code, or roll the Wild Die and add a
different, higher modifier. For instance, to roll 20D damage, roll 5D
and add 53, or roll one Wild Die and add 67. It still involved math
(sorry, folks), but effectively eliminated the “too many dice”
argument.
Presentation
Each of the three core rulebooks was a 144-page
hardcover. Line them up in order side-by-side and the covers formed a
contiguous triptych. Obviously elements such as layout and artwork
directly reflected each genre, and game mechanics (skill names,
magic/psionic systems, vehicles) were tailored to each setting.
Although each rulebook stood as its own game, they offered little in
the way of setting material.
The games nicely catered to both newcomers and
experienced gamers. A very short solitaire tutorial adventure started
each book after the perfunctory “what is roleplaying” sections.
Sidebars summarized basics of character creation, skills,
difficulties, and most elements needed to start play. A handful of
character templates in the back offered a few ideas for players,
though experienced gamers had everything they need to customize their
own. Individual chapters for character and combat options avoided
cluttering the main rules with variants. Charts stood out in sidebars
and forms for spell creation and starship construction helped
organize information.
Support
The D6 System
was the first West End Games release to finally enjoy decent web
support. The company experienced financial troubles just as the
internet came into its own in the game industry. From the mid- to
late-90s, a fan site called WEDGE (West End Dedicated Game
Enthusiasts) offered various game tidbits and the first of any widely
disseminated D6 materials. The site was infrequently updated
with fan-contributed adventures and rules variants, and served as the
first (and initially the only) place to find West End support on the
web. After West End’s bankruptcy, D6 material and its
variants increased on the internet, including a plethora of
unofficial Star Wars-related game sites and free fan games
heavily incorporating D6 elements.
West End Games’ last incarnation was the only
one to offer any reliable web support for The D6 System. The
company website finally provided free PDF downloads that included
rules systems reference sheets, character templates, blank character
sheets, and flyers on gamemastering, writing adventures, and
introducing people to roleplaying games. Such offerings seemed
mundane in this internet age, but remained key to satisfying a core
gamer base and attracting new players. In the years since numerous
fan websites and social media communities have brought D6
gamers together to create and share new material.
Epilogue
[Note: I wrote this epilogue in
December, 2015, as I revised the old article for uploading to a new
Griffon Publishing Studio website. The final paragraphs of the old
article have, unfortunately, become obsolete, but I wanted to briefly
address the “current” state of the D6 System in a vastly changed
landscape, both in terms of companies using the system and fans
sharing new material.]
The D6 System will never see the same sales
numbers as the Star Wars Roleplaying Game without a fabulously
successful and lasting licensed setting or two (and those seem hard
to come by these days). The game will never recover from the blow
dealt by West End’s bankruptcy in 1998 and the subsequent absence
of regularly released product using the game engine in the
intervening years.
The last incarnation of West End Games has since
faded from the game publishing landscape, but not before the owner
bequeathed the legacy of the D6 System to loyal gamers. Eric
Gibson of Purgatory Publishing released the system as OpenD6
under the Open Game License (OGL) – the same license that enabled
gamers and companies to release d20-compatible materials when Wizards
of the Coast relaunched Dungeons & Dragons third edition
in the early 2000s – enabling gamers and publishers the ability to
use the D6 System rules framework in their own original
creations. This generous move enabled several designers to create and
release new games under the banner of OpenD6.
In 2010 AntiPaladin Games released Mini Six,
a cinematic roleplaying game in only 36 pages distilling the core D6
mechanics into a concise rules set with five sample settings which,
despite most being only two pages long, managed to demonstrate how
gamers could adapt D6 to nearly any genre (something the
earlier D6 System generic rules sorely lacked). I briefly discussed Mini Six over at Hobby Games Recce before; it
remains available as a free PDF and still stands as one of the best
versions of D6 for experienced gamers to customize.
Wicked North Games adapted the D6 System
into its Cinema6 RPG Framework to produce two games, a fantasy
roleplaying game setting called Azamar (2011) and the
science-fiction, steampunk-western game Westward (2013); other
games remain in development. The company also took on the infrequent
publication of d6 Magazine (originally produced by fans) to
provide occasional new material for D6 gamers through free
PDFs.
Final Sword Productions released a D6 Epic
rules set, which it is using for an Honor Harrington
roleplaying game I’ve heard is under development; I regret I’ve not been able to find more
information about the company’s recent developments with D6.
In addition to these publishers creating new D6
material a host of fans have gathered on website and social media
platforms to help ensure the system’s legacy lives on for past,
current, and new fans. The internet has helped keep interest in the
system alive, supporting new publications as well as communities of
fans. Unfortunately the roleplaying game market has produced numerous
innovative games catering to different mechanics and styles of play.
The interest in “Old School Renaissance” retro-clone games has,
to some extent, increased awareness of and appreciation for the D6
System, but its viability as a commercially successful game
system remains in the hands of a few publishers who admire the system
and hope to cater to nostalgic fans.
