Rethinking D6

Back in the 1980s, West End Games created the “D6 system,”a role-playing game system that utilized a standard mechanic that could be transferred from game to game.

The system started with their “Ghostbusters” RPG, vaulted ahead by light years with its “Star Wars” game, got snazzy treatment with its “Metabarons” game and was recently re-issued in three hardcovers that each cover a genre of play —  “D6 Space,” “D6 Adventure” and “D6 Fantasy.”

I’ve looked over those books time and time again. Heck, I even was published in “D6 Space Aliens: Vol. 1,” a book put out by WEG.

But those recent books, “Space,” Adventure” and “Fantasy” and even the one I contributed to, all left me a little cold.

In my opinion, one of the biggest faults of the books were that theywere positively exploding with options. There were just too many, andit makes it hard for would-be Game Masters, much less players, tofigure out exactly which rules they were following.

WEG ought to think about popping out another book or two with very explicit rules on how to run a particular game. Maybe it could be combined with a setting or a theme.

I think a single, concise book would have done more for WEG than the three, near-identical, option crazy books they ultimately published.
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So why am I thinking about D6 all the sudden? Well, I guess the fall of Dungeons & Dragons’ two magazines, Dragon and Dungeon, have left me with out a much-needed influx of new gaming thought. I’ve always toyed around with the idea of developing a full-blown D6 game.Maybe the time is right for me to start.

All I can do is say “Stay tuned and see what pops up.”