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.
Film Reroll by chance?
ETA: i'll plug it just in case, but they play the plots of movies in GURPS but they roll the dice will make them go fully off the rails. For example, in playing the movie Speed... They managed to stop it before they ever got to the bus.
Yup! Their Jaws episodes live rent free in my head, along others. Great show, need to listen to more of the new stuff. The recent ish peanuts episodes were great.
I struggle with some of the longer ones but Aladdin, Home Alone, and Indiana Jones are some of my favs. I think I remember fundamentally disagreeing with Joz on her Muppet Christmas Carol hot takes though. I've also enjoyed hearing Kara become more herself over time.
In case it helps, the GM I swap back and forth with has done some fun one shots with it, too, by using bang (wildcard) skills and a few pregen characters! That gets people moving really quickly, if you want to slip a game in. Your character can just be:
Then you can use the defaulting rules down from your bang skill or the appropriate attribute to cover for everything else, and you can pretty much get rolling in a few minutes of prep time (mostly spent between players discussing how their characters know each other and etc.). It's been good fun whenever we've done it!
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.
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've played Scum and Villainy a bit, which is basically Blades in the Dark in space. It's got all of the sci-fi tropes (from Star Wars, Star Trek, Firefly, Cowboy Bebop, etc), so if your players are sci-fi fans, it might be a good choice. With the right GM, it can be a very cinematic experience.
I can second that Scum & Villainy was pretty fun. I imagine that would be true of other Forged in the Dark systems too.
The rules are on the lighter side but I did still find the character options engaging.
A lot of the mechanics that are there are about keeping things flowing, rewarding some level of risk-taking and failing forward.
It plays a lot like an action movie, letting you jump right into the action immediately and then providing ways for your players to flashback to their earlier contingency plans, or why they happen to have exactly the equipment on hand they need.
And similarly, if weird fantasy as a genre appeals, The Wildsea does that nicely.
It uses more than d6s, but there's also Into the Odd or Electric Bastionland for weird fantasy.
Mythic Bastionland is superb too! I've run a handful of one shots recently and while I didn't do a full experience of exploring and multiple myths; I think I captured the heart of weird Authorian legend very well while compressing a myth to completion over a few hours. My players are willing when we have time and rotate a new game in to give it a full run which is good for me!
Oooh, somehow hadn't heard about this. I'm playing Electric Bastionland for the first time next week. If it's fun, I'll definitely check this out!
S&V looks really fun! I definitely plan to get around to playing it at some point.
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 5e 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!
My previous TTRPG group used Monster of the Week as a backup game for when one or more players couldn't make it to a session. It's very low prep; the GM basically just needs to pick a monster and cook up a quick story and it's good to go. Even introducing a new player is smooth sailing, as it only takes 10 minutes or so to create a character, even for players not familiar with the system.
If your group likes narrative-forward games then a Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) system would be an excellent choice as others have mentioned.
For another fiction-forward choice, there's Fate or Fate Accelerated. Technically, Fate uses fudge dice which have six sides but only three values: two plus, two neutral, two minus. To use standard d6 you convert: 5-6 to plus, 3-4 to neutral, 1-2 to minus.
For an interesting cinematic system where the GM never rolls any dice, Outgunned uses d6s, or any die with six unique faces. If the symbols/values on multiple die match, that's a success! For example, you might roll 5d6, and you'll be hoping to get at least three-of-a-kind (1-1-1, 2-2-2, 3-3-3, etc).
For a fun unique game, there's Eat the Reich where you play as a vampiric suicide squad deployed by the Allies to eat the reich. The players win if they manage to suck all of Hitler's blood!
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 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.
Edit:
I had a chance to think and another great one if you've got 3-6 players and you want a "pick up and put down TTRPG style" game is Betrayal at Baldur's Gate. This is well before BG3, but it's still an incredibly fun game that doesn't take long to learn and takes about an hour to play. Sometimes the game can drag on a little, but usually it gets started pretty fast. It is based on the game Betrayal at House on the Hill.
If you feel attached to DnD for some reason, play Dungeon World. It's a little janky honestly, it's not perfect. But as a narrative DnD it's a huge step in the right direction and if you are willing to step into the narrative mind set, rather than the traditional, hellish, planned, hours long, bumpy slog that DnD is then you could be on the road to never go back.
If you want something really out there then StoneTop. Which is made by some nerds and m at least one of made homebrew to make Dungeon World actually playable, and it shows how good it is.
I'm partial to Fantasy AGE. For people who have played D&D, the transition should be easy, but you can put away all the polyhedric dice and instead roll 3D6 vs target numbers. It adds a cool stunts system, which replaces the critical hit system of D&D, but is more versatile and flavourful, and also applies in non-combat situations. It has reduced complexity compared to D&D, which makes combat less of a slog. And it has an improved (in my opinion) XP system compared to D&D (especially 5e).
There are also licensed versions of the game for Dragon Age and the Expanse, in case you or your players happen to be fans of those franchises.
I'd like to give honorable mention to a system that uses D100 instead of D6: Call of Cthulu. It's a very intuitive roll-under system, and percentages are more relatable than the abstract numbers most systems use. The combat rules are a bit too crunchy for my tastes, but most published adventures are very combat light and instead focus on investigation and storytelling.
Okay, there's been a few days of great answers, so now I'm comfortable giving an off-the-wall answer that specifically doesn't meet the requirements that you gave, that it use only D6, but actually can help with the underlying issue, which is discomfort with the types of dice and what they mean.
Kids on Bikes is a pretty cool system where each character uses one of each: a D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, D20. Each of these correspond to the stats, which are Brains, Brawn, Fight, Flight, Charm and Grit, which roughly correspond to D&D abilities. If you put your D20 on Brains, then you are very smart, because you can roll up to a 20 on Brains checks; if you put your D4 on Charm, you are unlikely to rizz people, because you can only roll up to a 4.
One might ask, "Why would you recommend a game that explicitly uses every dice type for someone who is uncomfortable with variable types of dice?" and the answer is that it's kind of using dice, but with training wheels. If you are playing in the physical world, on your character sheet, you can physically place the die that you use on the corresponding stat. Instead of the DM saying "can you roll a D20 for me", they will say "Can you roll Grit for me?" The player would have the correct die on the grit section of their player sheet, and then roll it.
For the most part, we found that this removed anxiety around which die is which; people don't have to think "what is a D10 and why am I rolling it for damage, and why is it appropriate here?" they just have to have 6 dice on a piece of paper, and then roll them when called upon. The system is a lot simpler than DnD is; almost everything is some kind of contested roll or difficulty check, so if the joy in a game is in the minutiae of character creation, this isn't a good system for you or your group. But if you like fleshing out a character in broad mechanical strokes, and then focusing on story, this can work really well, and over time, can build comfort with the different kinds of dice. It's a good system for getting into TTRPGs.
With the popularity of narrative-focused games, I've been wondering about what's the best way to introduce TTRPGs. Personally, I originally fell into 4e because I wanted to run my own RPG with all the possibilities a video game could never simulate. Nowadays, Savage Worlds is the sweet spot for me.
Basically, I wonder whether narrative games actually are the easiest introduction point for people that grew up playing JRPGs and CRPGs or even war games.
Edit: Grammar.
Is Kids on Bikes built on Savage Worlds? I played the Savage Worlds version of Deadlines, and it used the same system of higher skill level = bigger die. It does indeed feel very intuitive.
No, but it was likely inspired by Savage Worlds since that was the first system to use bigger die for better skills. Savage Worlds can be a very tactical game with minis and combat and character builds if you want it to be. I think Kids on Bikes is more focused on the narrative and simplicity.
I highly recommend Lasers and Feelings (https://johnharper.itch.io/lasers-feelings) for a lightweight good time. That one page on the site? That's the rules. Can your character do a thing? Based on the narrative, character traits (race/role on the ship), and lasers/feelings score, you'll roll 1-3d6 and see how many successes you get. The person running it has to be comfortable with improv because they have to make up everything on the spot - no pre-planning NPC stat blocks or dungeons.
Others mentioned Powered by the Apocalypse and I've played a few games based on it and have liked them all.
I was primarily a D&D player and had to wrap my head around games being narrative-focused instead of action-focused - e.g., in D&D, when it became your turn, you chose what your character did based on a set number of actions you could take. Whereas in narrative-focused games, you decided what your character did based on what someone like your person would do in this situation, and if it happened to match one of the "actions", then there's mechanics - and if it doesn't, that's still a perfectly valid choice. I was looking at the PbtA "action" list trying to decide what my character was going to do and the GM said "no, just tell me what they do, and if it matches then we'll do that, but you don't have to choose from the menu." It was freeing, and if your players are not only overwhelmed by the dice size, but also by the technical list of actions, I highly suggest a more narrative-focused game. That way there's no worry about optimal strategy.
Age of Sigmar: Soulbound
I did about a dozen play sessions before our group fell apart and absolutely loved the game! The mechanics were really fun, especially for a novice like me. Before that I've only played ttrpg once - a one-off DnD session using OSE rules. I found it obnoxious and difficult to understand.
Both were done under the same DM with the same group. I did put in a lot more effort into understanding Soulbound though, but that's because it was actually fun to play, unlike the dnd session.
It's d6 only, but you will need a bunch of them - especially as you level up and become stronger, get better equipment, etc - you end up rolling more dice to do more damage. d6s are dirt cheap though, so I just bought like 20 lol.
Wish I'd seen this thread sooner, because a friend of mine recently introduced me to Public Access, and if you like analog horror/Twilight Zone/the SCP wiki, it's absolutely perfect for this.
It does depend a lot though on if you do like those things though, because it's not a setting-agnostic game. It's got a fixed setting (Deep Lake), and a fixed genre (analog horror). There are no combat mechanics (though if you want, you could still try), and there's no "Strength" stat. Still, if you do like that setting as I do, it'll do a way better job of it in exchange. Games that pick a niche and stick to it tend to be able to focus a lot better for it, and here, it shows.
I'm not sure how well it would or wouldn't do as a matter of being flexible across TTRPG experience, truth be told. Everyone at our table had done TTRPGs before, but Deep Lake was different enough that it took a moment to understand things anyway, so I'd imagine a brand-new player might have a similar experience. Character creation is probably more geared toward easy though, as there aren't a huge swath of build options. Rolling is always easy: Always 2d6, maybe one modifier, maybe roll a third d6 and drop lowest/highest for advantage/disadvantage. Nothing else. Most of our time was spent learning the game phases and when we could do what things.
I think my favorite part though is how collaborative the narrative is. D&D leaves everything that isn't a PC to the DM, which overloads them with work. Other games, like Daggerheart, encourage more participation by the PCs but don't explicitly request it — that helps, but doesn't solve it. Deep Lake will have the Keeper directly ask players to fill in blanks from time to time though. Occasionally even regarding other player characters! Not only do I love this for distributing the work and making it easier for everyone, I love it for character creation, since it's a lot easier to get a character started if everyone else at the table has to chip in one small detail. It gives me more material to work with going forward, and it means the other players are directly interacting with my character and developing more of a stake in them.
Can't say too much about how the game ends per se, as we haven't gotten that far at our table yet, but what I've seen up 'til now has been damn impressive. So thus far, I'm very happy, and can't recommend it enough. Easily my favorite TTRPG I've played yet.
I’m gonna come shill Dolmenwood…it’s not quite all d6s but they get used a lot 😄