D6 System 2E Coming Soon

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That would be cool, though I'd like a tiny bit of streamlining for the overall game. I do appreciate D6, wonder what they'll do with it.
 
Silverlion said:
That would be cool, though I'd like a tiny bit of streamlining for the overall game. I do appreciate D6, wonder what they'll do with it.
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The press release says that
We wrote the rulebook to present the updated D6 System as a series of "plug and play" modules. Rules are presented as discreet sections, so you can append, remove, or modify the existing D6 2e chassis with whatever best fits the games you want to run at the table.

The D6 system has always been a powerhouse for a variety of styles and our goal is to honor and elevate that as a core focus of the design process!

The current modules intended for the corebook are:
  • Core Rules
  • Advanced Rules
  • Fantasy
  • Superheroes
  • Science Fiction
Each of the above modules has various smaller sections and we'll get into that soon! We've got even more modules planned for stretch goals, as well as additional content and genre modules.
Click to expand...
 
I wouldn't mind seeing some of the streamlining from Mini Six (basically static defenses), but with the math adjusted to either be the average or favor just above it (rather than just below it as the current system does - which renders the game far too deadly compared to rolling active defense).

I also want a statistics chart to help with adjudicating difficulty. I've had to keep one printed out from Anydice handy and having one actually in the book would just be handy.

And, of course, I want a completely rewritten magic system because the one from D6 Fantasy was awful.

But after that, I think I'd just like to see what they do with it.
 
Savage Schemer said:
I wouldn't mind seeing some of the streamlining from Mini Six (basically static defenses)
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I use Static Defenses from Mini Six, and a lot of tweaked bits from the original generic D6 book from way back. I adjust things from game to game, but pretty much found my comfortable spot a while back. I'm only going to buy the new one if they have an open license on the system that I like, or manage to do tweaks that I like better than my own. I do the same thing with BRP. Ejected the magic system, and use my own variant of the Sanity rules.
 
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Savage Schemer Savage Schemer ...And, of course, I want a completely rewritten magic system because the one from D6 Fantasy was awful.

(Messed up the quote function and can't fix it)

Curious what is so bad about it? I have never got to try it.

Is it about play grinding to a halt as the wizard tries to do their sums?

I'm interested because I kind of like the idea of a more freeform magic system, which this seems to be.
 
Triumvir said:
Savage Schemer Savage Schemer ...And, of course, I want a completely rewritten magic system because the one from D6 Fantasy was awful.

(Messed up the quote function and can't fix it)

Curious what is so bad about it? I have never got to try it.

Is it about play grinding to a halt as the wizard tries to do their sums?

I'm interested because I kind of like the idea of a more freeform magic system, which this seems to be.
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I had two main issues with it:
first, it was an effects-based spell design system. this in itself isn't so bad in theory, but in practice it was an overly complicated and convoluted process for what it needed to be. See TBP's Simper Magic System for Mini Six (which also had a not great spell system) for an idea of how simple and elegant an effects-based system can be. This led to issue number two...
second, the target numbers for magicians ended up being bloated and unsatisfying in play. Not much more I can say to that expect that I never had a single player be satisfied with the resulting spell + TN from working through the spell creation worksheet.
 
Savage Schemer said:
I had two main issues with it:
first, it was an effects-based spell design system. this in itself isn't so bad in theory, but in practice it was an overly complicated and convoluted process for what it needed to be. See TBP's Simper Magic System for Mini Six (which also had a not great spell system) for an idea of how simple and elegant an effects-based system can be. This led to issue number two...
second, the target numbers for magicians ended up being bloated and unsatisfying in play. Not much more I can say to that expect that I never had a single player be satisfied with the resulting spell + TN from working through the spell creation worksheet.
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Hmm, thanks for your thoughts and for the link.

Glancing over D6 Space, I now remember something I didn't like about it - if I'm reading it right, Wild Die 1 = critical fail, and either cancels out the highest die, or the GM can impose complications. This will happen 1 time in 6, which feels a bit much. A 6 on the Wild Die is a "critical success" and means the die explodes; but in theory I guess you could still fail a high difficulty task with a "critical success", which seems odd.

I picked up Talislanta Savage Lands D6 version when it came out (but never played it alas). It has a symmetrical crit success/fail from beating or missing the target number by 10 or more. Criticals should happen less often, which feels right to me. Also, chance of criticals (either kind) is related to skill level, which also seems right.

So I hope they switch the task system over to something like the Talislanta version.
 
Triumvir said:
Glancing over D6 Space, I now remember something I didn't like about it - if I'm reading it right, Wild Die 1 = critical fail, and either cancels out the highest die, or the GM can impose complications. This will happen 1 time in 6, which feels a bit much. A 6 on the Wild Die is a "critical success" and means the die explodes; but in theory I guess you could still fail a high difficulty task with a "critical success", which seems odd.
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The Wild Die was a thing in Ghostbusters. It was added to Star Wars in 2e, and I think it was probably added there to add some swingyness to the rolls there since higher die codes would result in generally samey results.

But yeah, I think it probably works better in a comedic game.

I think maybe the Wild die would be better if it just indicated a possible complication on a successful roll without the added detraction of subtracting from the total. Maybe there's some version of the rule somewhere written like that.
 
This is great news! d6 always filled the niche of "simple generic" system, so I'm looking forward to it.

Triumvir said:
Is it about play grinding to a halt as the wizard tries to do their sums?

I'm interested because I kind of like the idea of a more freeform magic system, which this seems to be.
Click to expand...

I was trying to implement a freeform magic system predicated upon the notion of the weaving of elemental threads from the Wheel of Time books with a nod to the same notion from Earthdawn. I always found that descriptively very evocative.

While building the system, on the other hand, it became clear to me---I'm a bit slow---that there is marked difference for having "on the fly" spell construction as the rule and having a spell construction system. While theoretically it might be good to have a freeform magic system, it never really worked in practice unless you were stripping it down to a GM-adjudicated process where the powers themselves are fairly broad along the lines of "That's not a Walther PPK, it's a holdout or small gun so just use the rules for that".

Works for some, but not my cup of tea.

Anyway... Looking forward to it and seeing what it is done for it. Hopefully they'll deliver the fairly simple system coupled with as little hand-waving as permissible.
 
I’m curious why they needed to license the system from WEG when it was OGL’d years ago. WEG has existed pretty much on paper since Eric Gibson shut it down and opened up the system in OpenD6. I’m frankly worried (concerned might be the better word) because of how the Zorro RPG turned out.
 
Endless Flight said:
I’m curious why they needed to license the system from WEG when it was OGL’d years ago. WEG has existed pretty much on paper since Eric Gibson shut it down and opened up the system in OpenD6. I’m frankly worried (concerned might be the better word) because of how the Zorro RPG turned out.
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I'm not really clear on why a license was needed, either.

I never read through the Zorro RPG. What are your thoughts on it?
 
carpocratian said:
I'm not really clear on why a license was needed, either.

I never read through the Zorro RPG. What are your thoughts on it?
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Long story short, it's Not Recommended.
We had a discussion about it recently, you might want to find it:shade:.
 
I also find the licensing piece to be worrying, is the idea that it is no longer a ‘free system’ or were there system elements they wanted to use that weren’t included in the free license?
 
carpocratian said:
I'm not really clear on why a license was needed, either.

I never read through the Zorro RPG. What are your thoughts on it?
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Additionally, am I the only one who remembers that Zorro was supposed to be part of this D6 2E project? I could have sworn the KS page mentioned it.
Runs off to check...
Yep: "A swashbuckling and heroic roleplaying game using the brand new West End Games D6 2nd Edition system!"
 
Malckuss said:
Additionally, am I the only one who remembers that Zorro was supposed to be part of this D6 2E project? I could have sworn the KS page mentioned it.
Runs off to check...
Yep: "A swashbuckling and heroic roleplaying game using the brand new West End Games D6 2nd Edition system!"
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No, but I don't know what happened with this idea. I guess they decided to split them?
 
I'm no expert on why a license is "needed" for what is supposed to be an open system, but this may be of interest (it's the best I could find on the matter):

Who Owns OpenD6?
 
Now that the OGL wars have died down maybe someone should reach back out to Nocturnal Media to find out. I have no plans on publishing anything so it doesn’t really matter to me but I am curious if the old open license is still valid or if Nocturnal has revoked it.
 
Carbon Grey (2022) had the WEG trademark on its cover and used what it called a “magnetic variant”. It’s nothing earth shattering and it’s not any second edition of D6.
 
They’re the ones doing the Planet of the Apes game as well. Now this is series, we need to make sure there are no shenanigans that will stop the spread of the Apes!
Endless Flight said:
Carbon Grey (2022) had the WEG trademark on its cover and used what it called a “magnetic variant”. It’s nothing earth shattering and it’s not any second edition of D6.
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The D6 magic system was a slimmed down version of the fairly diagetic magic system from Torg and Bloodshadows. Basically, with the Torg/Masterbook engine swapped out for D6 mechanics. The result was unnecessarily complex, retained a lot of things from the source that were already problems, and retains non-functional vestiges. For instance, Arcane Languages in Torg were important for learning and using spells, and had pretty dynamic effects on spell design. In D6, they are bonuses to cast certain spells. Utterly superfluous. D6 magic also assessed punishing penalties for multiple actions for some kinds of spells.

They should have gone with something closer to Star Wars. The Force powers are a more traditional "spell list."
 
Way back in the day we used Decipher's LotR magic spells as a replacement. We loved the spells and it wasn't too difficult to port over the mechanics once we converted the difficulty and damage. We basically used the spell specialty as the spell skill. And using sorcery was like using dark side powers in SW.

I am very excited for this. Though I'm not huge on dice pools I always felt D6 was great for sci-fi games (probably because SW-WEG was my first) and look forward to having this updated. Though mini-six is great have wanted something a little more flushed out (though not overly complex).

Kage2020 said:
I was trying to implement a freeform magic system predicated upon the notion of the weaving of elemental threads from the Wheel of Time books with a nod to the same notion from Earthdawn. I always found that descriptively very evocative.
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Many moons ago I started a D6 version of Earthdawn because I was not a fan of the step system. And I thought someone did a Wheel of Time D6 online as well.
 
Which goes back to the WEG d6 license, have both Gallant Knight and Magnetic Press paid for it? If so does that mean the open license was revoked and no one can do anything with the previously open versions? Or are the previous Open d6 documents still ‘open’ and Gallant Knight and Magnetic Press are paying for the WEG name?
 
sharps54 said:
Which goes back to the WEG d6 license, have both Gallant Knight and Magnetic Press paid for it? If so does that mean the open license was revoked and no one can do anything with the previously open versions? Or are the previous Open d6 documents still ‘open’ and Gallant Knight and Magnetic Press are paying for the WEG name?
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Do you mean to imply said documents might be revokable:shock:?
 
When we say WEG, we mean Nocturnal Media, which is owned by the Wieck estate.
 
Triumvir said:
Have they said they are doing a new 2E version? I hadn't seen that.
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No. And I'm fairly certain that Carbon Grey was a one and done sort of deal.

sharps54 said:
Which goes back to the WEG d6 license, have both Gallant Knight and Magnetic Press paid for it? If so does that mean the open license was revoked and no one can do anything with the previously open versions? Or are the previous Open d6 documents still ‘open’ and Gallant Knight and Magnetic Press are paying for the WEG name?
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Again, I'm no expert, but I think it comes down to this:
  • OpenD6 is still open and remains so.
  • Both Gallant Knight and Magnetic Press are using the WEG logo and name (ie: the West End Games branding) in the books and/or promotional material
  • Neither uses OpenD6 branding
  • Therefore, I believe what they're licensing is the right to use/refer to West End Games in their text, book covers and marketing materials.
I could obviously be wrong about this as this is just what I think makes a degree of sense. But to my knowledge nobody from Nocturnal Media ever made any statements along the lines of revoking the OGL for OpenD6. Then, of course, Stewart Wieck who owned (and was as far as I know the only "employee") Nocturnal Media passed away, leaving any questions along these lines murky at best.
 
Gallant Knight signed a licensing deal with Nocturnal Media after the death of Stewart Wieck so someone, I assume Steve Wieck (he was certainly involved in getting the Aquelarre KS campaign fulfilled), was still working for the company after that point.
 
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