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First off, a bit about me. This is my first review for rpg.net. I have been a gamer for more than 20 years, and for the last four years have played and GM’ed with the same group of folks every other Sunday. We play a variety of different games, like DnD 3.5, Savage Worlds, 7th Sea, Tribe 8, and Silver Age Sentinels.
This is a playtest review of D6 Adventure, so I will be inserting comments about our experiences with the game as the review progresses. A lot of this and any review is opinion, so feel free to politely disagree, and constructive criticism of the review itself would be appreciated.
Part 1: Overview D6 Adventure is a hardbound 144 page book with a full color cover and a B&W interior. Illustrations are a bit sparse, but well drawn and well placed, in my opinion. Art is very subjective, but I like what I see in the book and on the cover. You may not agree with me, but there you go. The book is laid out like a set of files or a dossier, with file folder tabs at the top of the page, pieces of “tape” holding some of the pictures to the pages. Watermarks in the background of some pages look like pencil notes and doodles, and several pictures and text boxes look like they are stapled or paper clipped to the book. A sample of the layout and preview of the book can be downloaded here: http://www.westendgames.com/d6/weg51011samp.pdf Personally, I loved the layout, and thought it was very evocative of the genre.
The book seems sturdy, and has held together for the few months of page flipping and backpack bouncing that it has been subjected to. The only material flaw I can see is that for some reason the ink printed darker in the text around the illustrations. Not sure if this is just in my copy, but it is noticeable. The darkening does not make the book harder to read or use, but it looks odd.
The book is divided into 16 chapters, with a serviceable table of contents and index. The last 15 pages of the book have templates for PCs, some charts and tables, and the index. I will go over each chapter with a bit of detail below. I did not see a lot of editing, spelling and grammar errors. I almost never notice these type of errors, however, so there may be some there.
The back cover blurb suggests that D6 Adventure can be used to run any type of game from the Wild West to the near future, to super heroes, and I agree, with a caveat. This book is not a sourcebook for those types of games or adventures. It is a rulebook for them. There is only a small section of Gamemaster advice in Chapters 15 and 16, and these are not adequate to run the game without quite a bit of work on the part of the GM. Some people think of a generic RPG as having advice on setting and genre, but this one does not. It is a rulebook, first and foremost. This did not bother me, as I love creating settings and worlds, but it may not serve everyone’s needs. Purgatory has a pretty good sized list on their web page(http://www.westendgames.com/html/press18.html ) of D6 Adventure materials coming soon, and these will hopefully provide the setting and details many folks are looking for.
Playtest Overview: I am using D6 Adventure to run a 1930’s pulp adventure, with clashes against Nazis, the supernatural, and the occasional space alien. D6 Adventure has so for performed admirably for this type of game.
Introduction This first short chapter gives a quick overview of what the D6 System is, and how the dice are used. It also shows a sample character template, and lets you run the character through tiny solo adventure. One page of key terms for the system is also provided. The chapter is short and succinct. The core dice mechanic of D6 Adventure involves rolling a number of 6 sided dice equal to the skill or attribute your character is using. You total up these dice, and try to score higher than a target number set by the GM. It is a very easy and intuitive system, which can be picked up easily by newcomers and grognards alike.
Chapter1 Character Basics This is another short chapter, explaining the basic concepts of a D6 Adventure character. Characters are defined by 6 attributes (Reflexes, Coordination, Physique, Knowledge, Perception, Presence), with two optional Extranormal attributes, Magic and Psionics. The Extranormal attributes are only used in games where the supernatural is present. There are approximately 50 broadly based skills which the characters will use
This chapter introduces the three methods of creating characters, and explains the systems needed to do so. The simplest and most familiar from previous D6 games is to take one of the 10 templates from the book, add some dice to the skills, and you are ready to go. The other two systems are more complicated than I wish to go into in this review, but I have tried using both, and they seem well balanced and workable.
Playtest Overview: For the game I am running, I used templates from the book, with additional templates I created myself. My players are somewhat familiar with D6, having played it in Star Wars and a few short homebrew games of my devising over the years. Character creation took about 10 minutes for 6 players, which in my opinion is fantastic.
Chapter 2 Character Options Chapter 2 list Advantages, Disadvantages, and Special Abilities. This system goes a long way toward making the characters unique and distinct from each other. I personally did not care for many of the Advantages and Disadvantages. They did not feel “right” to me, for some reason. I think the problem is that both ads and disads seem very mundane, and they don’t add a lot to the system. The Special Abilities, on the other hand, are wonderful. They allow the GM to make aliens, monsters and low powered pulpish super heroes with ease. Many of the Special Abilities would be appropriate for PCs in a Doc Savage or Shadow type of pulp hero game.
Playtest Overview: We only used the items form this chapter that were on the templates in the back of the book, but they seemed to work fine, but again felt rather mundane for the high action pulp adventure I was running.
Chapter 3 Improving Character This section explains how to spend Character Points to raise Skills and Attributes. It also explains how to use them for Special Abilities, Advantages, and Disadvantages. Everything seems clear and concise.
Playtest Overview: I give out a lot of character Points. Our campaigns tend to be short and fast paced, so rapid advancement is fun and exciting. The default rule recommends that players not raise skills by more than 1 pip per adventure, but I waived this rule. Your mileage may vary.
Chapter 4 Game Basics Chapter 4 explains the basics of the system in greater detail than the introduction. Dice, notations and difficulties are all covered in greater detail. This is the clearest and best explained version of the D6 rules ever. How to generate initiative, how related skills effect each other, what actions you can perform in a round and multi-action penalties all get a thorough going over here. For the GM we have standard difficulties, how to handle unskilled attempts, difficulty modifiers, and info on gauging how successful a roll was.
Playtest Overview: I was already very familiar with D6, but this section helped clear up several cloudy rules and provided so guidance other iterations of the game had not.
Chapter 5 Movement An overview of movement for characters and vehicles, this short chapter explains several important concepts. The vehicle combat rules presented are considerably simpler than in Star Wars or Metabarons, but they provide a nice simple system for resolving vehicles fighting against vehicles.
Playtest Overview: Our first D6 Adventure session had several dogfights and some airship combat, and the rules worked fin.
Chapters 6, 7, 8, and 9 These fou chapters could have been lumped into one, in my opinion. Each is very short, and covers one specific aspect of combat for the system. The Combat chapter covers fighting at is basic level. Ranges for missile weapons are explained, as are defense, attacks, and multiple attacks. A short combat example could have been expanded, in my opinion. What is there does not explain more than the most rudimentary parts of combat.
The Damage and Healing chapters explain two different systems for tracking injury. The Wound system requires a Physique attribute save against the amount of damage done by the attack, and gives a slow death spiral as character become more injured. The Body Point system requires less rolls in combat, and no charts to look up, making it faster. An otional rule allows the wound penalties to affect the characters in a manner similar to the Wound system. I think most GM’s will appreciate the inclusion of two different systems to allow you to run the game the way you would like. The only downside is that the stat blocks for NPCs and creatures are a bit more complicated because Body Points and Wounds are included.
Chapter 9 is Combat options, and it gives us rules for automatic weapons, called shots, and creatures and vehicles of different sizes fighting each other. These rules seem very important to the game, and I would find it difficult to run a combat with just the basic rules from chapter 6.
Playtest Overview: I use the Body Point system for my game. The fights were fast and furious, even with the relatively unskilled PCs. The system works great for non-tactical fast paced combat. When using the Wound system in previous D6 games, I found it to be cumbersome and unrealistic, since characters with high physical attributes become very difficult to damage. I recommend the Body Point System.
Chapter 10 Example Skill Difficulties This chapter goes through most of the skills listed in Chapter 1 and gives greater detail and modifiers for these skills. I feel this information should have been listed with the skills themselves, so I would have to flip back and forth less. My guess is that it was done this way so that the players could read Chapter 1 without having to see the behind the curtain stuff the GM needs in Chapter 10.
There is plenty of detail here for the GM who does not know how to set difficulties for different situations.
Playtest Overview: honestly, I tend to make up difficulties on the spot and modify them as the game progresses, so I did not read this chapter thoroughly. I have never referenced it during play, so there is not a lot more that I can say about it.
Chapter 11 Magic This is the most difficult and involved chapter in the book. It is also one of the longest. The magic system presented is based on an older WEG product, Masterbook, which in turn was based on Torg. The spell system presented is extremely flexible and comprehensive, but has a fairly steep learning curve.
Basically, the spell caster decides what he wants the spell to do, and then uses one of four magical skills to roll against the difficulty of the spell. The difficulty is determined by adding and subtracting modifiers from the basic effect of the spell. The system is flexible and capable of handling a lot of different types of magic.
Some folks may want a more detailed system to explain how many spells a PC has and can learn than what is presented. I feel the magic is difficult enough to do that the system is fine as it stands. The Magic using PC will have to spend his skill and Attribute dice from character creation and advancement on the Magic attribute and the four magic skills. This makes him less effective in other areas, which seems like a fair tradeoff to me.
Playtest Overview: Magic does exist is the world I created, But none of the players chose a magic using PC. My experience with the magic system from playtesting D6 Fantasy gave me the impression that it was a good workable system, that only needed more examples to be perfect.
Chapter 12 Pre-calculated Spells This chapter has about 25 pre-made spells for those who do not want to make their own. They run the gamut from spells that make voodoo dolls to spells that create tangible food. A good collection of spells.
Playtest Overview: No one chose a magic user, so, no love for this section.
Chapter 13 Psionics Lucky Chapter 13 covers mental powers. Psionics are more rigid and well defined than magic. There are 10 psionic skills to be used under the Psionic Attribute. Each skill has its own rules, difficulties and modifiers, so psionics will require the GM and the PC using them to know this section pretty well to avoid time consuming page flipping during the game. The skills presented are evocative of the pulp and modern day horror/action genre, and the rules seem to present everything you need.
Playtest Overview: One of the players in my game picked a psionic character. The rules worked fine, although the first adventure did not have much psionic skullduggery for his character. Future episodes may expand on this.
Chapter 14 Equipment This chapter will no doubt be the most contentious of all the chapters in this book. The equipment given is generic enough for any late 19th through early 21st century campaign, in my opinion. Unfortunately, many gamers appear to be obsessed with gear and gadgets, and many will find this section lacking. In all honesty, there are not enough firearms or vehicles given for someone who is not familiar with D6 or firearms and vehicles.
For me, weapons in D6 should be chosen for their cool factor, not their stats. Small pistols do 3D damage, medium 4D, and large do 5D. If you want a 44 magnum revolver, 5D damage, boom, you’re done. Many folks, however want extensive lists of various guns and things. You will not find them here.
Vehicles also have a very short, generic list. Again, this is fine for me, but I expect to hear complaints for others who do not feel this is enough.
Another thing to mention at this point is the Funds system used for purchasing equipment. Instead of a concrete system of dollars and cents, D6 Adventure gives each PC a Funds score, based on his Attributes and skills. This seems to work for simple stuff, and for folks like me who really don’t care how much something costs. There is a simple conversion system to allow you to use real world dollars and cents, and you could always look on the internet or in catalogs for actual prices.
Playtest Overview: The PCs in the game I am running are part of a wealthy foundation, so I let them have whatever equipment they wanted.
Chapters 15 and 16 Gamemaster Tips and Adventure Tips These short chapters give us a brief overview of the genres the book expects to cover, some sample NPCs, animals and monsters, and brief adventure and GMing tips. You can also find information on how to reward Character and Fate Points.
Playtest Overview: I used the sample soldiers in this section for my Nazis in the game I was running, and they worked fine.
The rest of the book After Chapter 16 are 10 character templates, a blank character sheet, and several useful charts and tables to wrap up the book. The most notable tables are the die code simplification charts on page 142. On of the most common complaints about the D6 system is the large number of dice rolled in some circumstances. These two table present options that allow you to limit the number of dice needed to 5, or as little as one. Great idea, glad they added this.
The Grand Finale This review ended up longer than I expected, so hopefully you are still with me In closing, I would like to say that I really like this book. It is well presented, the rules are simple, but comprehensive, and at 30 dollars, it was not completely out of the ballpark for price. I give D6 Adventure a 4 in both Style and Substance.
Disclaimer: In the interest of being completely fair, and not being accused of being a raving fan boy, I need to acknowledge my connections to this book and Purgatory/West End Games. I received this book as payment for a short section I wrote for D6 Space, in lieu of cash. Also I wrote several thousand words for the upcoming D6 Fantasy Beastiary. Also I have playtested many D6 products. There. I feel better now.
If you have more specific questions about the game system, how adventure compares to Space and Fantasy, or anything else, feel free to post below!
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