D6 and D20 differences

[blindworld81]

ive been looking all over online and i cannot find an answer that makes sense. basically here it is. what is the difference between d6 and d20 gaming. i have the d20 by wotc and was baffled with the d6 thing.

thanks
rich

[Ankhanu]

They're two completely different RPG systems set in the "same" setting.
As you're familiar with d20, let's highlight some base concepts of the system:
1) Rolls are based on using a d20 for most efforts; exceptions for specific weapon/effect damages and the like
2) Health/damage is measured in HP
3) Character roles defined by character classes and levels, defining the skills available to a character

d6 works somewhat differently; to contrast the above points:
1) Rolls are all handled with d6s
2) Health/damage is measured in levels (stunned, wounded, incapacitated, mortally wounded, dead)
3) There are no classes or character levels, extreme freedom in character design

There are additional differences in mechanics, but I suppose those are highlights.
Beyond the system differences, the setting is also different. d20 Star Wars is based on the modern canon, as modified by the prequels and other material published since 1998... while that seems minor, there have been some substantial changes to how rules relate to the setting. d6 Star Wars is based on the classic canon; drawing its view of the galaxy from, dominantly, Ep IV-VI... this has major ramifications, in particular, on the role of the Force and the importance of the Light vs. Dark side of the Force; it's a lot more strict in its distinction and punishment for wavering towards the dark.

There are many differences between them, I'm sure others will add onto what I've said.
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[masque]

You forget that D6 is a great system and D20 sucks.
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[Gry Sarth]

Yeah well, that's implicit.

Plus, D6 has the Wild Die, which makes just about any role an event in an of itself.

But to add some real content to the discussion, here are some main differences of the two systems:
- D6 character creation is extremely free, and the evolution is totally flexible and realistically gradual. D20 character classes are somewhat limiting, even with multy-classing, and the whole "leveling-up" thing seems quite fake to me.
- Combat in D6 can be extremely deadly, even for very experienced characters. Unlike d20, an experienced character is not necessarily more resistant to damage and, after 20 years of gaming, a character focused on non-combat abilities can remain just as puny as he was during character creation.
- In D6, the Force is HARD. I mean, "it will be a hard life" indeed. If you create a jedi character from scratch, don't expect to be doing those snazzy tricks until you have been playing for a long, long, long time.
- D6 is simple. Yes, there are a bunch of tables you can use here and there, but you are encouraged to speed gameplay by simply deciding on a difficulty number and going ahead. An experienced GM can keep the dice rolling at full speed.

Well, there are many, many differences beyond these. But one other that is really worth mentioning, is that the D6 Star Wars community is VERY united and very much into helping one another. I don't believe there is a single set of d20 stats that you can't find converted to D6, so even though D6 is not being published anymore, it doesn't mean you can't use all the latest Star Wars stuff in your game.
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[obidancer]

And the D6 community is very friendly, with each other and even with D20 supporters. At least it is on the Rancor Pit. Probably because most people that grew up on the D6 systems are now in their 30s and that make quite a lot of us more mature to deal with different opinions.

Also the D6 system, while kept alive by the communities, is now officially dead. So no official updates for sure. But that's also proves how much of a fun and efficient system the Star Wars D6 is. If almost a decade after its official death, it still attracts so many faithful players, it's because it is well worth it. Speed of actions, ease of rules, freedom of character creation and development, you'll find all that in the D6 system.
Mind you though. I said efficient, not perfect. Far from it. In my opinion, the way damages are handled isn't superbe. Better than HP, but still not great for my taste. Also, like Gry said, being a Jedi is super hard at the beginning, but once the progression reach a certain point, the character turns a bit too uber powerful.

Anyway, the Star Wars D6 is far from perfect (it might be why also we like it that much, we love tweaking it!), it's an EASY, FUN, SPEEDY system that lives a lot of freedom to players and Gamemasters at the same time.

[hisham]

Speedy is right. You can come up with an NPC mook in less than a minute and a moderately important NPC in a couple of minutes.
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In D6, of course.

[schnarre]

Not only is creating PCs & NPCs very easy, it also doesn't tend to have much "clutter": I can fit characters & their starting gear on 3"x5" index cards! The quickest I drafted a PC's stats was for a Young Senatorial (time: 48 seconds--I'll try to be that one of these days ).

For only a few bugs, the flexibility of it more than compensates (Grimace has a D6 Universe site as I recall--even 'Mechs from BattleTech, settings like Indiana Jones, etc... can be found there). I never cared for D20's leveling system, the need for lots of different dice (D4-D20), the lack of any real ability to pick up skills in a timely manner (again, usually restricted by level advancement)....I could go on for hours .
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[ifurin]

another big difference is d20 is based around character balance (people in-the-know can laugh now) and control. in the d20 system there are rules and tables for nearly every situation. while in d6 it's fast and loose. there's another difference between the two that is more about the mentality of the people who play the two systems. d20 is geared toward those who like/need rules to figure out what is going on. d6 players usually don't need that structure, they can get a "feel" for the situation and roll with it.

[Ankhanu]

[Doomhead]

Don't forget that D6 just rocks...
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[Sabre]

One thing that I noticed (and maybe it isn't true in the new version) is that D20 is very combat-oriented. You can't become, for example, a great scientist without leveling up and leveling up means an improvement in combat skills, HP/VP, and other factors extraneous to science. This applies to just about any non-combat skill. Also, level progression becomes more difficult as characters advance, and improving your character is confined. In D6, you can gradually develop your character in any area rather than making sudden leaps in many areas and your progress is not determined by (and can't be hindered by) choice of a lump 'class'. This ties in to the 'freedom' aspect mentioned previously, but for me makes characters more interesting and enjoyable to play.

My experience with D20 has been that the volume of rules required to do simple things such as create a character in D20 encourages rules-lawyering. There are rules lawyers in D6, but I've always been able to talk them down, and never had anyone quote me a rulebook in a session; whereas I once had a hardcore D20 D&D player quote me D&D rules in a BESM game. This could be an over-generalization.

[YodaWI]

I have never played a d20 rpg system, so I can't really comment on it, but to me, the biggest advantage of the d6 system, at least with Star Wars, is the ability to just play. Certainly the GM and PC's should know the rules, yet I think it lends itself to creating a character and then just playing. If you follow the golden rule, pick a difficulty, then roll and go, new players can jump right in with minimal 'training'.
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[blindworld81]

thanks again. like i siad, ive heard of d6 and all, but never knew what it was or how the mechanics work.


rich

[PsiberDragon]

Don't get me wrong.

I like d20 - for D&D ... of course, I STILL prefer 1st edition, but that's me.

I'm a MAJOR fan of games that let you customize your character. People tell me all the time: I can customize my Char in d20. And they're right - to a point.

The major difference is WHEN you can customize your character, and why.

In d20, you can customize your character when you've gained enough experience to "level" - i.e. when you can move ALL your skills/stats/attacks/etc at one time.

In d6, you can customize your character when you have enough points to advance any one, two, three, etc skills/powers/talents/etc., so the customization is more to your liking.

In d20, you gain enough xp, and you move up a level. The number of skill points you get is determined by the class you're playing - anywhere from 2+int bonus to 6+int bonus. So, if you're on the lower end, customization takes a LOT more thought. And if you're a fighter type, generally, you're gonna STAY a fighter type, or be some minor offshoot thereof.

D6, on the other hand, you get xp and change you SKILLS to suit you. Let's look at an example, shall we?

Luke Skywalker. Average moisture farmer from Tattooine. Knows a bit about moisture 'vaporators, droid repair, landspeeder ops and local knowledge. As he grows, he learns how to fly an x-wing, shoot a blaster, and use the force. He still knows about the droid repair and moisture 'vaporators, but he's added more skills, and improved them over the others.

D20: Luke started off as a "Fringer" (with one set of skills - 15 of them) and became a Jedi Guardian (with an entirely DIFFERENT set of skills - only 5 "transfer" from Fringer), and ended up as a Jedi Master (with yet ANOTHER set of skills - a good number of which transfer from both the first two classes).

Keep in mind: if you change classes in d20, any skill that does not carry over into your new class is NOT considered a class skill any more...

If you look at Leia, Han, Chewie, Lando, Anakin and Obi-wan, you'll see they all did the same thing... "changed classes" as opposed to "learned new skills".

To me, it's more about "I've learned x skill, so I can do better" as opposed to "I've gotten better overall, so I can get x, y, z skills"...

Again, it's just my thoughts, but there you have it. D6 seems more on character development, instead of "getting the bad guy so I can level up".
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[Esjs]

Unfortunately, I don't think your going to find any "unbiased" analysis on the differences of the systems here.

Here's something else to consider: IIRC the d20 system has you roll a single D20 (except for damage I believe) with modifiers to reflect your "bonuses" and whatnot in a skill. Nonetheless, your chances of rolling a 1, 10, and 20 are all equal.

In the d6 system, your outcome distribution becomes much more of a bell-curve. You are all probably familiar with the "craps" analysis, where with 2D6 you have more possibilities to roll a 7 (1-6, 2-5, 3-4, etc.) than a 12 (6-6) or "snake-eyes" (1-1).

When you graph the chances of outcome over the possible range, you get a "pyramid" looking graph, which is just a simple bell.

The more dice you add to the roll (as you do with increased skill in the d6 system), the more distinct the "bell" shape becomes.

I've modeled this with a computer program. The neat thing is that given multiple dice (of any shape or combination of shapes) the bell curve for the possibilities of outcome over the range of possible totals is always symmetric, centered on the midpoint of the range.

So what this means to me, is that the d6 system gives you more "middle" rolls than extreme rolls (extreme success or extreme failure), which I think is a more realistic model of chance with skill rolls.

*edited to fix spelling
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