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49-551: Characters in the D6 System are defined by attributes and skills . Attributes represent the raw ability of a character in a certain area. Most D6 System games utilize anywhere from six to eight attributes, though these can vary greatly in number and name by the game in question. Acumen, Intellect, Knowledge, Perception, Presence and Technical are examples of mental attributes; Agility, Coordination, Mechanical, Physique, Reflexes and Strength are examples of physical ones. Skills are

98-412: A character rarely rolls a check using just an ability score, these scores, and the modifiers they create, affect nearly every aspect of a character's skills and abilities. " In some games, such as older versions of Dungeons & Dragons the attribute is used on its own to determine outcomes, whereas in many games, beginning with Bunnies & Burrows and including more modern versions of D&D,

147-414: A character with a higher Average Speech Rate than Maximum Speech Rate. The first three editions of Shadowrun had three separate headings of Physical attributes, Mental Attributes, and Special Attributes, with three stats in each. With the six non-special attributes being Strength , Agility , Body, Charisma , Intelligence , and Willpower, and two of the three special attributes relating to magic and

196-427: A character. Soft statistics are those statistics which are generally cognitive in nature, and are often used to represent nonphysical characteristics of a character. Alternatively, instead of being mental statistics, they may also represent certain nonphysical effects on a character, as with attributes such as Luck , seen below. Sandy Petersen Carl Sanford Joslyn "Sandy" Petersen (born September 16, 1955)

245-426: A critical failure or complication occurs, usually with bad results for the character. Use of the wild die tends to make the game feel more cinematic . In order to increase their characters' effectiveness, players may spend character points and fate points. The exact number of character points that may be spent is limited by the quantity possessed by the character, and the situation that they are used in, with two being

294-557: A decade, West End Games published over 140 titles for the Star Wars Universe including a magazine, The Star Wars Adventure Journal . In 1996, WEG released The D6 System: The Customizable Roleplaying Game , written by George Strayton, which was the first core D6 System book not tied to a specific licensed or original property. Allowing total freedom to create any kind of roleplaying game through variation in attributes, skills, and every other game element all centered around

343-432: A level. Romero was ultimately happy with the results, so Petersen was brought on to production for Doom . The level from Petersen's interview eventually became E2M6. He was a fast level designer and produced all maps for the third episode of Doom , Inferno. Petersen designed 17 levels for Doom II , a little over half of the 32 total. An 18th, Dead Simple , was redesigned by American McGee before release. Petersen

392-614: A more common division of three, and used in the Cortex Plus game Firefly is Physical , Mental, and Social , but expands with the Storyteller System 's attributes. SPECIAL is an acronym statistics system developed specifically for the Fallout series , representing the seven attributes used to define Fallout characters: S trength, P erception, E ndurance, C harisma, I ntelligence, A gility and L uck. SPECIAL

441-666: A subsidiary of Humanoids Publishing. Most of WEG's earlier licenses were terminated at this point, but the reconstituted company acquired another one from DC Comics. This license resulted in a new Legend System game, the DC Universe Roleplaying Game , which released a few titles from 1999 until 2001. As Humanoids Publishing was the publisher of the Metabarons graphic novels, they utilized the D6 System to release an RPG based upon that setting. Ron Fricke and former WEG publisher Scott Palter 's Psibertroopers ,

490-496: Is a piece of data (a " statistic ") that describes to what extent a fictional character in a role-playing game possesses a specific natural, in-born characteristic common to all characters in the game. That piece of data is usually an abstract number or, in some cases, a set of dice . Some games use different terms to refer to an attribute, such as statistic , ( primary ) characteristic or ability . A number of role-playing games like Fate do not use attributes at all. There

539-511: Is an American game designer . He worked at Chaosium , contributing to the development of RuneQuest and creating the acclaimed and influential horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu . He later joined id Software where he worked on the development of the Doom franchise and Quake . As part of Ensemble Studios , Petersen subsequently contributed to the Age of Empires franchise. Petersen

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588-609: Is credited for work on Sid Meier's Pirates! and Sword of the Samurai . Between 1989 and 1992 he worked on the video games Darklands , Hyperspeed , and Lightspeed . He made some contributions to Civilization . Petersen was laid off in 1992 and was jobless for 5 months. He considered that period as one of the worst times of his life. Petersen was hired by id Software in August 1993. During his interview, John Romero introduced him to DoomEd and simply asked him to build

637-598: Is credited to Petersen, along with 7 levels. He left id Software for Ensemble Studios in June 1997. There, he worked as a game designer on several of their Age of Empires titles, including Rise of Rome , Age of Kings , and The Conquerors . During this time, he was a frequent poster on the HeavenGames forums under the username ES_Sandyman. He ran a popular series of threads, "Ask Sandyman", where forum members could ask him about anything they wanted. Petersen

686-436: Is heavily based on GURPS , which was originally intended to be the character system used in the game. Some games have used particularly complex systems. For instance, F.A.T.A.L. uses a system of five attributes with four sub-attributes each, resulting in twenty total statistics to roll. This system was criticised for its complexity and for the lack of correlation between related sub-statistics, resulting in oddities such as

735-444: Is meant to resemble a game of D&D so it uses the same statistics as above, whereas Monsterhearts , with its mix of teen drama and paranormal romance uses the statistics Hot , Cold, Violent , and Dark. Attributes are commonly referred to by a three letter abbreviation (Str, Int, etc.). Hard statistics are those statistics which are generally physical in nature, and are often used to represent physical characteristics of

784-572: Is no uniform consensus on what ability scores are, even if many role-playing games have them, but games that use them have a common theme. According to the BBC Cult TV website " All characters have Attributes — basic physical and mental abilities. " and in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game " Each character has six ability scores that represent his character's most basic attributes. They are his raw talent and prowess. While

833-580: Is then compared to a difficulty number, as with the other variants. A precursor to the D6 System first appeared in Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game , designed by Chaosium alumni Sandy Petersen , Lynn Willis and Greg Stafford , which was published by WEG in 1986. The following year, Greg Costikyan , Curtis Smith and Bill Slavicsek reworked elements from the Ghostbusters game into Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game . For

882-541: The average of health and dexterity. Hero System 5th edition has eight primary statistics, and a further five derived from them. Some game systems such as those using the Cortex Plus system or those Powered by the Apocalypse work on the basis that the attributes should emphasise elements of the setting thus making them different from game to game even within the same family. So, for example, Dungeon World

931-528: The "Septimus" product would not be released due to cost issues. In August 2009, West End Games released most of the 51000 series of D6 book with attached OGL license officially classifying them and the D6 System as Open under the OGL v1.0. This re-release was in anticipation for a formal launch of the OpenD6 website portal and workstation, meant to aid publishers and players alike in creating, archiving, and searching

980-450: The 21st Century . Petersen took a professorship at The Guildhall at SMU in 2009 following the closure of Ensemble Studios , where he taught several courses on game design . Petersen worked at Barking Lizards Technologies as their creative director, after leaving The Guildhall, and worked on their iOS release Osiris Legends . In mid-2013 Petersen led a successful Kickstarter campaign by his company, Green Eye Games, to produce

1029-614: The attribute Wits and Social Resistance being Composure . Some games think that attributes are not and should not be treated as entirely independent, and therefore make a lot of their attributes dependent on others. GURPS uses two levels of statistic: four primary statistics ( Strength , Dexterity , Intelligence , Health ) and four statistics derived directly from those Fatigue , which defaults to strength or health (depending on edition); Hit Points , which defaults to health or strength (depending on edition); Willpower, which defaults to intelligence; and Speed , which defaults to half

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1078-508: The attribute works with a skill to affect the overall outcome. There is no standard amongst role-playing games as to which attributes are important for the game, though there is a school of design which says you pick the attributes after you decide what the game is about. Dungeons & Dragons used six attributes (there were brief attempts to add a seventh, Comeliness , in Unearthed Arcana and Dragon magazine , but this

1127-583: The attributes, like Traveller (Strength, Dexterity, Endurance , Intelligence, Education , Social Standing ) or like Cortex System games such as the Serenity RPG and the Cortex Plus Leverage with Agility , Alertness , Intelligence, Strength, Vitality , and Willpower . Others use more, some fewer. Tri-Stat dX (including Big Eyes, Small Mouth ), as the name would suggest, uses three ( Body , Mind , and Soul ), whereas

1176-401: The better the character is at that skill or attribute. A character with a Strength rating of 4D+2 is stronger than a character with a Strength rating of 3D+1, for example. Character actions are resolved by making dice rolls against a difficulty number. There are two types of difficulties, standard and opposed. To perform a standard difficulty action, the gamemaster calls for the player to roll

1225-459: The board in 2019, but continues to do occasional freelance work for the company. Petersen is a practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , but sees no conflict between his faith and his design of games involving Satanic elements. While working on Doom , he said to John Romero , "I have no problems with the demons in the game. They're just cartoons. And, anyway, they're

1274-452: The boardgame Cthulhu Wars . Over US $ 1,400,000 was raised achieving over 3,500% of the initial target. This success allowed the creation of more figures (60), map expansions and additional scenario options. Green Eye Games also produced the unsuccessful kickstarter Cthulhu World Combat (iOS, Android, Windows, PSN, Xbox Live). In June 2015, it was announced that Petersen and Greg Stafford returned to Chaosium Inc. Petersen retired from

1323-595: The core mechanic of rolling six-sided dice against a difficulty number, the D6 System book shared as much in common with the role-playing game toolkit Fudge as it did with other universal systems like GURPS . WEG followed the D6 core book with Indiana Jones Adventures (a reworking of the earlier MasterBook setting) and the stand-alone Men in Black RPG . Another licensed game, the Hercules & Xena Roleplaying Game

1372-438: The dice for a certain attribute or skill. The value of each die is totalled and the pips are added to the die roll to get a total. This total along with any GM or system imposed modifiers is compared against a target difficulty number. To perform an opposed roll action, the two parties involved (usually the player and a gamemaster controlled character) both roll their appropriate skills dice, total them and any modifiers and compare

1421-407: The earlier PDF, covered wild west, pulp, espionage, low-powered super heroes, and other modern or near modern games. D6 Space shared much in common with the earlier Star Wars line, and detailed space opera and cyberpunk game rules. D6 Fantasy dealt with sword & sorcery, high fantasy and swashbuckling campaign models. Khepera Publishing's licensed D6 System super hero game Godsend Agenda

1470-476: The first licensed third party D6 System product, also saw release during this period. Humanoids began the process of releasing PDF format versions of many of the earlier WEG titles, converting some to the D6 System in the process. Humanoids released a PDF version of the Shatterzone Universe Guide containing an early version of D6 Space Opera . An initial PDF version of D6 Adventure

1519-477: The graphic novel series created by Hoang Nguyen. This title was published by Lion Forge subsidiary Magnetic Press under the new gaming imprint Magnetic Press Play. The game updated some of the core D6 rules and added a new set of rules as part of the "D6MV" (Magnetic Variant) System. Carbon Grey was nominated for an ENnie award for Best Production Value in 2022. Several other D6MV titles have been hinted at in 2023. Attribute (role-playing games) An attribute

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1568-589: The mathematically challenged" on WEG's own discussion forum. The Legend System has been utilized in the Hercules & Xena Roleplaying Game and the DC Universe Roleplaying Game . Other variants, such as those featured in the Star Wars Live Action Adventure Game and the Star Wars Miniatures Battles game, involve rolling a single six sided die and adding the result to a skill or attribute. This total

1617-497: The resolution system described above, which is sometimes called The D6 Classic System, though some variants exist. In one variant, The Legend System, instead of adding the die totals up, the dice showing 3, 4, 5 or 6 are each counted as a success. Use of a skill requires rolling a certain number of such successes. Pips are not used in the Legend System. This variation of the system was referred to, in jest, as "The D6 variant for

1666-413: The results. If the first party's roll is higher than that of the second, he wins the contest and the rest of the result is resolved. If the second party equals or exceeds his opponent's roll, then the second party wins the contest. One of the dice rolled for each skill or attribute check or for damage is considered to be the "wild die", and is treated somewhat differently from the other dice. This mechanism

1715-633: The studio sent Petersen to work temporarily at Rogue Entertainment , which was licensing the Doom engine to develop Strife . Romero also credits Petersen with coming up with the title for the Hexen expansion Deathkings of the Dark Citadel . When Quake was reformulated as a first-person shooter in late 1995, id removed Petersen from the Strife team to focus on the game. The revised Quake storyline

1764-420: The third being derived, this is arguably a six attribute system. The Storyteller System used in games like Vampire: The Masquerade took this one step further, breaking the attributes down into three by three classifications. Power , Finesse , and Resistance, and Mental, Physical, and Social , leading to nine different combinations each of which has a separate name with, for example, Mental Finesse being

1813-464: The trained abilities of the character and are associated with a specific attribute (e.g., driving, acrobatics, and climbing might be skills based on the Reflexes attribute). Each attribute and the skills under it are rated in values of Dice and Pips; Dice equal the number of dice rolled and Pips equal a one or two point bonus added to the roll to determine the result. The more dice and pips in the rating

1862-413: The typical limit. Each character point spent adds an extra wild die to one skill or attribute roll. A roll of one has no negative effect with wild dice generated from character points. Alternatively, a character may spend one fate point on an action. Characters have fewer fate points than character points, but the expenditure of them doubles the number of dice rolled on an action. Most D6 System games use

1911-420: The wealth of D6 rules and variants. Additionally, August 13, 2009, saw the long-awaited release of Bill Coffin's Septimus which itself was the first formal release of new material under the OpenD6 label. In April 2016, The D6 System, together with West End Games, was bought by Nocturnal Media . The D6 books were made available on DriveThruRPG , and development for the system was mentioned. In 2017, The D6 System

1960-438: Was added in 2nd Edition. If an initial six is rolled on the wild die, then the die "explodes", meaning you add the six to the total plus re-roll the wild die, adding the result to the total. You get to keep rolling as long as you get sixes. If an initial one is rolled on the wild die, you disregard both it and the highest regular die from the total, often making you fail. Then you re-roll the wild die. If it comes up another one,

2009-842: Was born in St. Louis, Missouri and developed a love for dinosaurs at age 3. He studied zoology at Brigham Young University and later attended the University of California, Berkeley , majoring in entomology . He became a full-time staff member at Chaosium in 1982. His interest for role-playing games and H. P. Lovecraft were fused when he became principal author of Chaosium's game Call of Cthulhu , published 1981, and many scenarios and background pieces thereafter. He authored several critically acclaimed RuneQuest supplements for Avalon Hill and Games Workshop . Petersen served as co-designer for West End Games 's Ghostbusters role-playing game. He worked some time for MicroProse , where he

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2058-489: Was changed to Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma, sometimes referred to as "SIWDCC". This change was made due to the addition of the thief class, which used dexterity as a prime requisite. The current "SDCIWC" sequence was introduced in AD&;D 2nd edition in an attempt to divide physical and cognitive traits into two groups. Many other notable games have followed suit while slightly varying

2107-574: Was licensed forward to Gallant Knight Games to publish a new edition for the system. GKG published a Zorro RPG that was based on the D6 System, which will continue to be finalized in D6 System: Second Edition. In 2019, Nocturnal Media signed a development license with Lion Forge LLC to create new titles using the D6 system. The first title released under this license was Carbon Grey : The Roleplaying Game in 2022, based on

2156-641: Was released as a rules lead in for the eventual re-release of Bloodshadows . In November 2003, shortly after the PDF release of D6 Adventure , the WEG assets changed hands once again. The new owner, Purgatory Publishing , re-released the game in the form of three hardcover rulebooks. The rulebooks, each written by Nikola Vrtis, were actually three separate games. Each shared the same core mechanics, but utilized different attributes, skill sets, equipment lists and power systems. D6 Adventure , an expanded hardcover release of

2205-422: Was released shortly thereafter. In 2007, WEG announced Septimus , a new standalone D6 System game with a setting designed by Bill Coffin and a rules system paralleling that of Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game . Near the end of the year, WEG publisher Eric Gibson tentatively announced that the D6 System would soon be adopting a free license. At the end of the month of March, 2008, West End Games announced that

2254-530: Was short-lived ). The six attributes used in D&;D are: These range from about 3 to 20 (depending on the edition). The original attribute sequence in D&D was Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Constitution, Dexterity, and Charisma in the original 1974 rules. This listed the three "prime requisites" of the character classes before the "general" stats: strength for fighters, intelligence for magic-users, and wisdom for clerics. The attribute sequence in D&D

2303-556: Was the executive producer for the 2011 film The Whisperer in Darkness which was nominated for awards at the Chicago International Film Festival and Warsaw International Film Festival . It was produced by H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society Motion Pictures in the style of a 1930s black and white horror film . In April 2011 he served as the publisher of horror magazine Arcane: Penny Dreadfuls for

2352-406: Was the last title released by the original West End Games before their bankruptcy, as well as the first to use a modified D6 System based resolution engine that would later be known as the Legend System. A half-finished draft of a D6 System based Stargate SG-1 role playing game remained unpublished as a result of the bankruptcy. Following the bankruptcy, WEG was merged with French company Yeti,

2401-504: Was then involved with The Ultimate Doom in 1995 as well as the R&;D phase for Quake . At the time, Quake was based on an id staff D&D campaign . Petersen was enthusiastic about the project, though he had not been a player in the original campaign as it was before his arrival at the company. With id Software's designers waiting for the Quake engine to be ready for its design team,

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