The Inside Scoop on Gaming

The D6-system is just what it says: The D6-system, used by West End Games in RPGs like Star Wars and Ghostbusters.

Nothing more, nothing less.

This makes this product as exciting as the average bag of carptenters tools. It also makes it as useful and versatile as a bag of carpenters tools. Or at least it does as long as you like the D6-system (where your skills and attributes are written as dice, like 3D6+2, and you roll that combination to see if you can roll equal or higher than a target number whenever you try something.), which I do.

On the back is to be read "The Customizable Roleplaying Game". I feel that this somewhat fails to capture what the book is about. The book isn't a roleplaying game, it's a book about making your own roleplaying game using the D6-system.

At first the game mostly stood there on the shelf. I tried to make some campaign out of it, but I didn't realy know where to start.

Then, a while ago one of my players suggested that I sat down and wrote a campaign in western-style (like Sergio Leone, Clint Eastwood etc). So I did. I began to write down what I wanted to include, what elements I wanted the characters to have, the feel of the game and so on. After that I looked at various generic (mostly Gurps) and other RPG-systems to see which one would fit in the best. But none of them succeeded in capturing exactly what I wanted. So, with nothing to lose I looked in the D6-book again.

Do you know what? It worked!

Since it is so very customizable, it was hard to make a campaign when I started from reading the D6-book and then tried to construct the campaign. But when I did it the other way, started with the campaign, the feel and the elements of the world and characters, and then used the system to fill in the blanks, it was wonderful. It fitted in VERY seamlessly and I didn't need to tweak any rule or any of the things I've written about what I wanted to include. It all worked.

What are the drawbacks then? Most Important: It hardly contains any advice on making your own campaign at all. It gives you the absolute core rules and some alternative rulings, and then lets you do the work. So, if you plan on using this, you may want to look at some books that concern campaign/ world building in different genres (for example Gurps Space (and others), Aria, Campaign Law (Rolemaster))

Second: It the rules are the CORE rules. Which among other things means that there are almost no predefined attributes, two different ways of solving damage capacity, three different ways to solve initiative and so on.

On the other hand, this makes it extremely easy to adapt to an existing world or campaign.

I would have given it higher ratings if it wasn't for the lack of hints, tips and guidelines in the book.

To summarize: This is not a good RPG in the same way that a bag of tools isn't a good carpenter. But, a good carpenter could go a long way with those tools, and a creative writer could go a long way with this book.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 3 (Average)

D6-system
Author: George Strayton Category: game Company/Publisher: West End Games Cost: 10 $ Page count: 80 ISBN: 0-87431-372-4 Capsule Review by Ulf Andersson on 09/09/98. Genre tags: none	The D6-system is just what it says: The D6-system, used by West End Games in RPGs like Star Wars and Ghostbusters. Nothing more, nothing less. This makes this product as exciting as the average bag of carptenters tools. It also makes it as useful and versatile as a bag of carpenters tools. Or at least it does as long as you like the D6-system (where your skills and attributes are written as dice, like 3D6+2, and you roll that combination to see if you can roll equal or higher than a target number whenever you try something.), which I do. On the back is to be read "The Customizable Roleplaying Game". I feel that this somewhat fails to capture what the book is about. The book isn't a roleplaying game, it's a book about making your own roleplaying game using the D6-system. At first the game mostly stood there on the shelf. I tried to make some campaign out of it, but I didn't realy know where to start. Then, a while ago one of my players suggested that I sat down and wrote a campaign in western-style (like Sergio Leone, Clint Eastwood etc). So I did. I began to write down what I wanted to include, what elements I wanted the characters to have, the feel of the game and so on. After that I looked at various generic (mostly Gurps) and other RPG-systems to see which one would fit in the best. But none of them succeeded in capturing exactly what I wanted. So, with nothing to lose I looked in the D6-book again. Do you know what? It worked! Since it is so very customizable, it was hard to make a campaign when I started from reading the D6-book and then tried to construct the campaign. But when I did it the other way, started with the campaign, the feel and the elements of the world and characters, and then used the system to fill in the blanks, it was wonderful. It fitted in VERY seamlessly and I didn't need to tweak any rule or any of the things I've written about what I wanted to include. It all worked. What are the drawbacks then? Most Important: It hardly contains any advice on making your own campaign at all. It gives you the absolute core rules and some alternative rulings, and then lets you do the work. So, if you plan on using this, you may want to look at some books that concern campaign/ world building in different genres (for example Gurps Space (and others), Aria, Campaign Law (Rolemaster)) Second: It the rules are the CORE rules. Which among other things means that there are almost no predefined attributes, two different ways of solving damage capacity, three different ways to solve initiative and so on. On the other hand, this makes it extremely easy to adapt to an existing world or campaign. I would have given it higher ratings if it wasn't for the lack of hints, tips and guidelines in the book. To summarize: This is not a good RPG in the same way that a bag of tools isn't a good carpenter. But, a good carpenter could go a long way with those tools, and a creative writer could go a long way with this book. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 3 (Average)