How to convert d20 users to d6

[vong]

I am a big fan of D6. I love it, and think it has been awesome ever since I started playing / GMing it in highschool.

HOWEVER, all my friends are d20 Fantasy players. I am even currently playing a custom Forgotten realms game modled on Star Wars (Evil Emperor, Jedi like powers, Lightsabers, Darth Vader, so on and so fourth) so they all enjoy Star Wars.

However I have not been able to get them into d6 Star Wars. One player hates rolling 6 dice and adding them all up. All members have different level of knowledge of the Star Wars universe - so it is hard to gauge how much I should explain or not - one is lost or one is bored...

Another "note" is that your characters at game start (standard starting dice) are no where near the power level of the Heroes of the movie which tends to frustrate the players.

How is the best way to try to get everyone included in d6?

I will note, that my most successful attempt was a Clone Wars game - Everyone was Arc Troopers which I made myself and handed them pre-gen characters (at really high power levels mind you - they were taking on armies of droids - granted in hallways... but you get the idea)
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[shootingwomprats]

Well for one thing Vong it sounds as though your group is rather immature. And to quote one of my favorite comedians, "You can't fix stupid." Meaning you can't make them do anything.

You have already made a great effort. The introduction of the Star Wars theme into the current game of choice was excellent. You have also given them powerful pregens in an Era they are familiar with. Something I would have suggested.

Not wanting to roll d6's and doing the math? Really? That is what your friend is going with as his excuse? You can tell him my 11 year old could come up with a better excuse, like, "But math is soooooo hard!"

Sounds to me like you're playing with a young and inexperienced group. Meaning breadth of gaming knowledge. You have done all the right things.

If its something you really want to GM, tell them, "This is what we are playing on this day at this time, wanna play, be there." Beyond that, I don't know what to suggest. Why they do not want to play, lack of interest and no proclivity to learn another system other than D20 really limits you.

Perhaps a sit-down with your players and a group Pow-Wow. Express your desire to run Star Wars. Tell them you want to take a break from fantasy for a while.
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[cheshire]

I've heard some people say they don't like the time it takes to tally up the rolls, but there is a shortcut to that. If you're dealing with a large dice pool, then just group the results into 10's.

So, if I roll a 6, 5, 1, 4, and 2, then I just put the 6 and 4 together and scoot it off to the side (or the 5,1, and 4). you add up the remaining dice and come to 8. 10+8=18.
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[Darth_Hilarious]

The easiest way that I have found to convert players to D6 is to hide anything that isn't square!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
8)

[Quetzacotl]

[vong]

[Kytross]

D6 was built for roleplaying. Created for Ghostbusters, where there's much less combat than most movies (Hit them with the proton pack and then open the trap) and a great deal more roleplaying. Peter Vankman was the epitome of 4D Perception. Eigon was 4D knowledge and Ray was some combination between high knowledge and high Technical. Even Winston wasn't a 4D dex, 4D STR character.

D6 is skill based and allows you to make incredibly personalized characters. You're not restricted in skill choices by your class and you can build your character up the way you want them to be, with any skill you want them to have, over the course of the game.

D20, on the other hand, is streamlined down from D&D 1st edition, and those rules were modified from a large scale battle sim, armies versus armies.

I guess another way of comparing it is that perception in SW is one of the most useful attributes, but charisma in D&D is almost never used.

I don't know if that helps at all, but that's my 2 cents.

[Darth_Hilarious]

lol reminds me of a character i had for Ad&d...........waaaaaaaaay long ago

character had a 3 charisma..................was so ugly he could cure hiccups

[cheshire]

I would suggest if you REALLY wanted to convert this kind of character that you take a "week long retreat" model. Get a three day weekend, and rent a cabin WAY out in the woods, with your vehicle really only being the way of leaving.

When you do the meal planning, make sure that you plan something that is high carb and low to no protein. Over a number of days the lack of protein will inhibit brain function, making your friend more impressionable. Make sure you have a stash of beef jerky somewhere to make sure you keep your wits about you. Have sessions planned to go well into the night and events early in the morning. The lack of sleep will also make him more receptive to new ideas. Furthermore, caffeine will give him the impression of alertness, but recent studies have shown that caffeine has a mild effect on receptiveness to ideas. So... keep the pot of coffee going.

It helps if you have a group of people who are willing to help. Make sure you have a good group of people who will be willing to display positive feelings toward d20 at the outset, but as you begin to talk about D6, have them model positive behaviors, showing a receptivity to the D6 ideas. During such sessions as people are showing these receptive behaviors it is best if you "have a problem with the heating" and make it a little warmer than is normally comfortable.

Developing mantras to chant that are pro-D6 during your programming sessions... er... I mean... week retreat, will help.

By the end, if he is not more predisposed to D6, send him a brochure for our Community of Brotherly Love for the Holy Pipped Cube, and we'll make sure he gets his thinking straight.
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[atgxtg]

Converting d20 players over to D6 is not easy. I know, I've been dealing with trying to run non-D20 games for years with mixed results.

For starters d20 campaign tend to focus almost entirely on combat, where other RPGs tend to do other things. Often d20 players won't be at lal interested in story considerations role-playing and only care about character advancement, treasure and fights.

Im my experience about half of the d20 players will "get it" and adapt to the new playing style and enjoy all the new options that go with it. The rest will tend to be disinterred, bored, confused or angry. Things just don't work the same and they will want a reason to blame for that and will not accept that they are doing things "wrong". o if you try to convert them to D6, you can probably expect to loose half your group.

[DougRed4]

Loved cheshire's ideas. The only thing I'd add would be to go to a used droid shop and find yourself an old IT-0 interrogation droid, then see if you can inject them with a truth serum (or rohypnol or the like).

In all seriousness, perhaps you should schedule a single session - you pick the theme or time (something with a lot of action like the Clone Wars would work) - then prepare more "advanced" characters for them. Not starting out PCs, but advance them to more like the movie characters. Or simply use the source books and PLAY the movie characters (somebody takes Han, Chewie, Lando, etc.). Of course with more competent abilities, eventually you would want to put some decent competition up agains them.

Use such a game to "hook" the players on the system (because I think most people really like it once they actually play), and you might "convert" a few of them to try an actual campaign later on (which you could then set in any era, and use the "standard" starting PC level characters in).
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[garhkal]

[cheshire]

Seriously, though, there are probably a dozen reasons why someone would make a post-hoc rationalization of not wanting to switch systems. They'll latch on to any reason that sounds like a reason to explain a deep-felt aversion to something. The "I don't like counting all those dice" is probably just such a post-hoc explanation. And I'm not saying they're doing it deliberately... they just know they don't like the idea, they know there must be a reason for not liking the idea, so they gravitate to whatever reason sounds like a reason whether it gets to the root of the aversion or not.

Some people are incapable of loving one thing without hating another. You'll find tons of people who LOVE Star Wars, but hate everything to do with Star Trek. In the SCA there are heavy combat fighters that can't look at a rapier fencer without raising questions as to their parentage, sexual orientation, or minuteness of a select variety of external organs. Some roleplayers are little different. To them, there's a system that is the best most awesomest thing ever since the history of sliced awesome. Anything that isn't that pales in comparison regardless of setting, theme, or narrative style.

I'm not sure you'll ever "convert" the person to a D6'er. All you can do is ask them to see that different systems have different intent. They're not all trying to do what D&D does well, they're trying to do what THEY do well. There are some things d20 is great at, and some things it really isn't. If they want D&D in space... well... they have that. But that's kind of what you get without exploring any other flavors of the narrative styles that can manifest in other systems.
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[ExImperialInqyisitor]

Spec Ops is a great way to do it. Run a few of those missions with a lot of prerolls done then give them some leave put them in a cantina and see if they can find an adventure. If not have the next mission be directly related... Imperial Intelligence captured a rebel operative at the bar that they missed and now a Inquisitor is on planet to aggressively interrogate said agent. If they just hack and slash they find out the pains of 2 squads of stormtroopers firing together. If they step up best option is to kill the rebel operative.

I had an old GM that was notorious for rewarding us for good role-playing and really knew how to stick it to us this is a what I remember of the closing words of a game we were not taking seriously just focused on getting some new guns from fantasticTech....
"you have a moment of insight as you line up your shot. The rebel operative was the same Sullust that you saw in Atom's Place getting hauled away by those two constables that didn't quite look right. As you pull the trigger your head tells you your fulfilling Neuvea's last request but your heart tells you you murdered this being by your own lack of perception. As the bolt penetrates his eye you hear his last words. You don't remember the extraction but on the shuttle out you finally spit out, "Live fun fully, die proudly"
The rest of the squad looks over at you but no one comments either they had already translated it or never needed to in the first place.

Remember Neuvea became a rally call for months if not years after that I think it even grew to once every mission one of us could yell it for a automatic combined action
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"For over a thousand weeks, the Expanded Universe was the guardian of peace and justice in the Star Wars Universe. Before the dark times. Before the Empire."

[DougRed4]