D6 TTRPG suggestions
I have a group of work friends where we were playing D&D 5e (pretty infrequently) for a year and a half. We've been on a long hiatus from TTRPGs since last year after a couple problems with the game came to surface that some of them didn't like. One of which is the 5e gameplay. Out of the 3 players, none had any hands on play experience with any TTRPG. I had extensive experience with 5e so naturally I was the GM and it was the simplest way to jump in a play with my solid grasp of the rules. One player in particular did not have experience with games (table top or video games) beyond a few simple card games and classic games like chess and was more there to be happy to socialize and have fun with a story. She had a lot of trouble grasping the rules and feeling comfortable with polyhedral dice sets. The other issue was mainly the infrequency of playing and the players remembering the story and previous sessions, so that isn't really related to the system.
Having said all of that, several months later that less familiar with games player came to me and said one of her main issues was she would get stressed when told to roll, then blanking on which dice is which and what she is rolling for. She thinks a big fix to this is playing a game "like" D&D 5e with story and socializing (a TTRPG), but with "normal" dice (D6's). Until then I had given up on the idea of a TTRPG with them but that reinvigorated me. I wanted to find a game that is D6's only, with simple enough rules for those inexperienced, but preferably with some numbers, crunch, and customizable characters to satisfy those with more gaming experience. Do any come to mind as favorites of yours that you'd suggest?
TL;DR suggest your favorite D6 only games. Preferably simple on the surface for the inexperienced, but enough numbers and customizable characters underneath to satisfy more experienced gamers.
Oh! GURPS! Please play GURPS, there are dozens of us XD
The base set is pretty large, but if you're just fooling around, the GURPS lite rules are 32 pages long and are compatible with the rest of the system. Mechanically, it's 3d6 roll under: i.e. if your skill in
Climbingis 11, then you need to roll three dice that add up to less than or equal to that. One potential downside is that it's a little harder to guess the odds of hitting a specific number, but having a printout solves that nicely imo.To pitch it a little more: GURPS is a system that you, as the GM, need to curate for your players. There are books covering everything from mechs to mages, and tommy guns to tomahawks. If you're into D&D, the Dungeon Fantasy books are decent, but as with everything else, you need to pick and choose what you want to enable. Generally, I'd suggest starting off with GURPS Lite, then pull in anything you feel is missing (e.g. equipment) or else homebrew it.
Combat can be anything from extremely crunchy (hit locations, crippling, long term damage, fatigue damage, and even sub-fatigue damage in order to make it even more granular) to extremely un-crunchy (I personally tend to run it this way; just make the players roll for a combat skill and determine outcomes based on degree of success).
My group's played a bunch of stuff over the years, but we keep coming back to GURPS! Especially if you want a system that uses a few D6's, it's a good one.
I just want to second in a more demonstrative way than just voting, that if you are looking for something that is fully D6, then GURPS is definitely the way to go. It is pretty straight forward if you play the light version, and you can add more and more as people get into it, because it is pretty modular.
Man I've only listened to a podcast that used GURPS, not played with it, but it keeps getting me interested. Hopefully someday I'll run it for a table of my own.
I'll second "powered by apocalypse" systems, gosh if I can't remember the ones I've played now though.
At my table, folks will ask what die that is, we'll hold it up and be like "this one" and offer it for them to roll. I like to set my dice aside at the start of a session: like, here's my d20 for nearly everything, here's my sword die, and over here is the divine smite pile.
Another option would be to make a simple "dice organizer" out of cardboard.
When you call out "roll a d20", all the less experienced player has to do is find the die labeled d20, roll it, and then return it to its space.
I've seen very experienced players, DMs, etc. use dice organizers like this. You can buy professionally made ones as well, but this is a really simple, cheap work-around.
My immediate answer is Tiny Dungeon 2e, using the Tiny D6 system.
Characters are basically an HP pool, a weapon proficiency, and a collection of Traits. Depending on what Heritage (their term for race/lineage) you choose, you start with a predetermined trait and 3 or 4 other traits of your choice as well as a starting max HP (goblins start with 4, treefolk start with 10, everything else falls in between). Weapons fit into three categories: light, heavy, and ranged. Light and ranged do 1 damage each, heavy does 2. A character starts with proficiency in one weapon category, and mastery of a specific weapon in that category. Magic relies on having one of two Traits (Spell-Touched, which is basically cantrips; and Spell-Reader, which allows for reading single-use scrolls with bigger effects).
A default "test" in Tiny Dungeon is a 2d6 roll. If you have disadvantage, you lose a die; if you have advantage, you gain a die. You succeed on a test if you get a 5 or 6 on any die. That means a normal test has a roughly 55% chance of success and a test with advantage has a 70% chance of success. Proficiency with a weapon category gives you a normal test, mastery of a specific weapon type gives you advantage. There is no critical failure or success by default, but there are optional rules you can add if you want.
Combat boils down to a few basic actions: move, attack, evade, focus, or do a specialized test (such as for magic). Characters get 2 actions per turn and can do any actions in any order as long as they're in range and their character is capable of said action. Magic, especially Spell-Touched, can be creative but by default works like a proficient ranged weapon in combat.
My friends love the system, so on weeks when we can't hold a regular D&D session because of missing members we'll often do a Tiny Dungeon one-shot. Because it's so rules-light, there's a lot of ad-hoc homebrew and collaboration between myself as the DM and the players. For example, my friend wanted to use Spell-Touched to immobilize a group of enemies. I gave the option of restraining one enemy or slowing an area, both instances would allow enemies to Test out of the restriction. When I have a player make an attack with magic, I ask them to describe the style of the attack, and I always get fun effects - a shadow mage who made an enemy's own shadow stab them in the back, a time mage who sapped a bandit's remaining lifespan, a classic firebolt, etc. I've also done some homebrew by stealing some ideas from games like Gloomhaven/Frosthaven regarding healing potions, poisons, and damage over time effects. Those have gotten tweaks as we see how players to them, and it's helped give them more options during sessions as well.
Tiny Dungeon is a great system if you just want to create a character in 5 minutes and play. It's also great if you want to use it as a base to build a more complex system. Outside of lacking specific trait descriptions, you can probably play it with the description I've given here. It's excellent for roleplay and storytelling, and if you're a collaborative DM I think you'll have a lot of fun with it.
I don't have time for a long post unfortunately, but I've been playing Monster of the Week with a few friends and found it really fun. It uses the 'Powered by the Apocalypse' system which in my opinion is pretty great if you want a tabletop game that still has some dice, but is more focused on collaborative story telling. Probably anything using the 'Powered by the Apocalypse' system would be similar in that regard, but MotW is the week is the only game I've played so far that uses it.
I played an e5 campaign a few years ago and felt like the complexity of keeping track of the rules got in the way of having a fun story experience as a new playing. So I feel your friends plight and wish you luck on your quest!
TL;DR play Fellowship or Grimwild if you want fantasy, or Blades in the Dark if you want something else.
I’ve been running Fellowship 2e recently which I really love as a system. This is also a Powered by the Apocalypse game which others have mentioned, you play it with 2d6. As far as PbtA games go this is my favourite system so far for generic fantasy games, however I would also mention Dungeon World as perhaps the closest analogue to 5E in the PbtA sphere, but in my opinion it is an inferior game. I have read but not run Chasing Adventure, and I would say it lies somewhere in the middle as it seems to me to have a slightly more D&D-like flavour than Fellowship without some of the shortcomings of Dungeon World.
I also really love Blades in the Dark, a system with a lot of apocalypse-DNA but its own resolution system based on d6 pools - you roll a number of d6 determined by your skill and other factors, and the highest number you roll tells you your result. Blades isn’t suitable for general fantasy - this is a game about a gang of scoundrels in a haunted city going on heists. It’s fun! But if you want more to do fantasy, I suggest Grimwild which I have played fairly extensively (as a player, not GM, but our GM really loves this system) as it retains many of the core mechanics from Blades while mixing in a bunch of fun new ideas, and is geared towards fantasy stories.
I have a few suggestions. Some are strongly genre-tied, some are not.
First Suggestion
I personally have the most experience with this one. I would classify it as medium-crunchy; there's certainly decisions to be made about character that are not insignificant, and there's new things to learn as the game runner, but I feel like it's worth it. It could probably be made to fit into a different genre, but it's very much a space opera kind of game from the outset.
Second Suggestion
I've never had the opportunity to play it, but I've heard good things about it. I'll have to think, but for now this is what came immediately to mind.