West End Games d6 PDF's, FREE!

[Treebore]

I never saw mention of this here, so...

RPGNow.com - West End Games - - The leading source for indie RPGs

This is not the old d6 stuff, but their new versions of Fantasy, Adventure, and Space.

Still a lot of usable stuff, IMO.

 

[jdrakeh]

More importantly, all of these D6 System documents have been released under the OGL in their entirety, less trade dress and artwork (the license is appended to the end of each PDF). Note that the RPGNow documents do not have the license attached yet.

 

[vagabundo]

Having a look now.

How do these play? What is the systems strengths and weaknesses?

 

[Treebore]

Having a look now.

How do these play? What is the systems strengths and weaknesses?

Its best to just read through them and see for yourself. I don't know about you, but I have read plenty of people's "opinions" about how this or that game system sucked, and totally disagreed with them. I have also read about how this or that game system totally rocks, and I totally disagreed with them.

Which is why I no longer write or read reviews, and just find out for myself. So rather than risking following opinions that do not actually reflect your personal tastes and preferences, find out for yourself, especially since this time its free.

I for one am not someone who wants just one system to do everything, like GURPS, or like D20 tried to be. I have found that various gaming systems have made play noticeably better than it would have been with a "universal" system.

My two biggest examples for me were D20 Traveller versus the 2d6 system and D20 Rokugan versus the L5R Rokugan system. Then there is GURPS itself. Using the same basic mechanics for every genre was cool in some ways, but it also made everything too much the same.

So just check it out, you may find you like what it does, and you may not. Just don't let someone else make that decision for you.

 

[jaerdaph]

You can download these d6 books and more legally and for free, with the OGL license attached, here:

http://www.wegfansite.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1451

While the message board is a fan site, the linked PDF files are all stored on WEG's Web site. If you go to WEG's Web site and click on Forums, you are taken to this fan site anyway.

WEG has yet to release the equivalent of the d20 System license for d6 yet, however, which they mentioned they were going to do awhile back (which would allow you to claim compatibility and use a d6 logo etc.). The whole OpenD6 project seems to be in limbo...

 

[jaerdaph]

More importantly, all of these D6 System documents have been released under the OGL in their entirety, less trade dress and artwork (the license is appended to the end of each PDF). Note that the RPGNow documents do not have the license attached yet.

Sorry - didn't see that you linked this already.

 

[Hjorimir]

Thanks for the heads-up!

 

[Wik]

Awesome!

I just want to say here, for people that have no experience with the system, that the d6 system is a lot of fun. It has a lot of strengths, and while the main books can appear a touch confusing, they are actually one of the simpler systems out there once you get the gist of it. It is a game where the "action economy" of other systems is perhaps a bit less prevalent, since PCs can take as many actions per turn as they like (within reason, but higher level PCs essentially get more actions).

 

[El Mahdi]

deleted

 

[Wik]

I think it has to do with the fact that they released much of this information for free as a sort of "OGL" for d6, anyways. They really want the d6 system to be the next open game, which would be great in my book.

I think what WEG really needs to do is to rework the character design system - there's a lot of confusion there. Pare it down into a simpler method of character creation, and THEN start layering on the options, instead of the option overload presented as is. Also, the current rules are set up in a way that makes it hard to create a character with interesting options without GM supervision (ie, a lot of powers are sort of "negotiate with your GM what this power means").

The game is a grab bag of options, which is awesome - but some grounding of things would be great. The system is super simple, and in my mind, one of the chief problems of the d6 system these days is how it makes the system seem a lot more difficult than it actually is (the old d6 Star Wars system pretty much described all the rules in around five pages).