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Post by EricaOdd on Jun 8, 2017 10:16:04 GMT -8
After a brief discussion another thread I've decided to come here and post about that old standby West End Games Star Wars D6!
Share your nostalgia, thoughts, and memories about this awesome old system! To this day I still think it was the best treatment of Star Wars in a tabletop role-playing game ever.
The best in-game move I can think of while playing this system was done by our resident Jedi (of course). Some villain had tossed a thermal detonator at us and the Jedi lunged for it saying that he wanted to cut the fuse out of the detonator with his lightsaber. Failing that, he was willing to dive on the grenade and take one for the team. The GM called for an absurdly high difficulty number, something like 30 or 35, which was a lot in that system, and the Jedi threw out his dice... and just exactly made the roll! The thermal detonator fell inert the ground.
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Post by Probie Tim on Jun 8, 2017 10:30:47 GMT -8
Sadly, I never got to play this game. I picked up the basic rulebook at a garage sale a couple of years ago, and have yet to even read it. I am a horrible, horrible OSR correspondent.
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Post by EricaOdd on Jun 8, 2017 10:37:27 GMT -8
For fans of the system, at drivethruRPG you can get free versions of several D6 books in PDF!
There is Adventure D6, which is modern action-adventure, Fantasy D6, and Space D6. The Space book even has a chapter on what they call Metaphysics, which is pretty much how Star Wars D6 handled the Force.
There are also supplement books for these PDFs, such as Adventure Locations, Fantasy Locations, Fantasy Creatures, and Spaceships. Also free.
Just go to the drivethruRPG website or RPGnow and do a search on West End Games D6.
So, even if you don't own and can't find the Star Wars D6 books, you can get a reasonable idea of how it played.
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Post by Probie Tim on Jun 8, 2017 10:51:36 GMT -8
The generic d6 system which WEG put out (that which EricaOdd references above) is actually pretty darned good.
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Post by The Northman on Jun 8, 2017 12:12:23 GMT -8
I loved that system. Easily the most informative sourcebooks I've owned, even beyond the game.
We had a Wookiee go on a wild die streak and punch through a blast door that I *thought* had sealed the escape for my main villain.
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Post by EricaOdd on Jun 8, 2017 12:15:44 GMT -8
"Let the Wookiee win" is sage advice indeed...
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Post by EricaOdd on Jun 8, 2017 12:20:31 GMT -8
My favorite adventure for that system, and I can't recall the name of it, was the one where the characters were imprisoned in a Star Destroyer that suffered some sort of catastrophic event. It was basically "The Poseidon Adventure"... IIIIIN SPAAAAAAACE!
You get out of the detention block and have to work your way through a crippled Star Destroyer slowly working towards total destruction, fighting or allying with Imperials all along the way, and get out.
The only issue I had with it was that the characters just start out imprisoned. No player I know would go along with something so railroady, so you either have to force it on them or have them get captured naturally in the course of another game session. Also quite impossible because players have the "die fighting" mindset and never surrender. Also, given the cinematic nature of the game itself, it was ridiculously hard to really defeat the heroes.
So, great idea for an adventure, but getting it started was a problem.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 8, 2017 12:51:20 GMT -8
I picked up a load of the books a few years back that included the first edition unrevised rulebook that iirc didn't include the wild die mechanic. Ran a short but fun campaign inspired by the Rouge Squadron books though I have to admit the system didn't grab me in the way it seems to with many people.
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Post by Houndin on Jun 8, 2017 12:55:41 GMT -8
I still have several of my books, unfortunately not the core book. It was a go-to game with my dorm-mates in College. That and a marvel game, possible MSH, but For some reason I think it may have been a d6 game also. Recently I bought into the Breachworld kickstarter which is Minid6 I think, or possibly Opend6.
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Post by The Northman on Jun 8, 2017 19:48:41 GMT -8
So, great idea for an adventure, but getting it started was a problem. See, as long as you start the campaign there I think you're well within 'game concept,' as opposed to railroad. "Your character is imprisoned on a star destroyer. Tell me why.", is a hell of a chargen hook.
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Post by akavidar on Jun 8, 2017 20:31:38 GMT -8
So, great idea for an adventure, but getting it started was a problem. Knock out gas.
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Post by vyrrk on Jun 9, 2017 0:39:33 GMT -8
I really need to read these books!
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HyveMynd
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Post by HyveMynd on Jun 9, 2017 1:21:04 GMT -8
The West End Star Wars D6 game holds a special place in my heart for two reasons, one more important than the other. Firstly, it is among first games I ran for my friends back in high school. Like pack up my books and dice, head over to my friend's apartment, and GM for a group of friends in the apartment's common room. I don't remember much about the campaign, other than someone botching a roll and shooting out the stained glass ceiling of a space casino. More importantly though, the game indirectly showed my how important representation in media is. See, back in high school, my closest friends were African American. (OK. We were actually all mixed ethnicities, but I look white while they look black.) We also went to an art high school and were on a comic book drawing kick. So of course everyone drew illustrations of their characters on their sheets. When I collected the sheets to go over stats, I saw that all four of my friends had drawn black characters. No one opted to be an alien, everyone was human, and so it was dead obvious to tell their characters' ethnicities. This was back somewhere around 1995 or so. That made a huge impression on me. It showed me that people want to see representations of themselves in the media and entertainment they consume.
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Post by ericfromnj on Jun 9, 2017 3:25:54 GMT -8
Still my favorite system to run. I have a large bookshelf dedicated to all the books.
This RPG gave a lot of the terminology that is now considered canon in the Star Wars universe.
And I agree if you start the entire campaign with the players captured, it feels a lot less railroady.
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Post by EricaOdd on Jun 9, 2017 4:28:16 GMT -8
This RPG gave a lot of the terminology that is now considered canon in the Star Wars universe. It's alphabet, for instance. IIRC the Star Wars alphabet "aurebesh" came about in a WEG supplement. There were instances of those symbols used in the original trilogy, but they meant nothing. WEG were the ones to make an alphabet out of them, and it became so popular in the fandom that by the time the prequels came out even Lucasfilms was using it.
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