As I’ve said before old-school games aren’t just about derivatives of D&D.  One of those tried and try classics is the D6 system.

Like so many others, my first taste of the D6 system was West End Games original Star Wars RPG.  I’ve played each of later iterations of Star Wars RPG’s and I still think that the the original D6 version is the best. A close second comes in as the many home-brewed Savage Worlds versions found all over the Internet.

The D6 system all sorts of later licensed games including Ghostbusters, Men In Black, Indiana Jones, and Hercules & Xena. There were some financial and other problems in the past but in 2008 the system and most of the original d6 genre books were released under the OGL.

The D6 system is damned good system for cinematic games and it’s pretty easy. In a nut shell, roll a bunch of d6’s and total them up. You’re rolling either against a Target Number or an opposed roll (greater total succeeds). Your die pool is determined by your stats, skills, or any other genre quirk that may apply. This simple system also makes it very flexible and adaptable to variety of genres. It’s one of the old systems that you have to play at least once for the experience.

I do have to admit that my favorite version of the rules after the flood gates were opened is Mini-6 by Anti-Paladin Games. It takes the core of the d6 system and makes it quicker and simpler to play. And that’s a good thing. Cinematic games need to easy and fast to keep the focus on the action and not rules minutiae.

You can find free PDF’s of the various WEG Genre books over on DrivethruRPG. And if you want to listen to some cool Actual Plays of some these games then head on over to Wild Games Productions/Roll High or Die and listen to the Star Wars Fall of the Order Actual Play Podcast.