An elegant dice mechanic with worlds of potential. Highly recommended for fans of games powered by GUMSHOE, One-Roll Engine, and the Apocalypse Engine.

An elegant dice mechanic combined with an innovative "story chapter" system of genre modification, this "Expanded Edition" of the D6xD6 Rules offers an incredible value for both one-shot and campaign play. Highly recommended for fans of games powered by GUMSHOE, One-Roll Engine, and The Apocalypse Engine.

This setting truly has the feel of a Sherlock Holmes novel. Trust me, I'd know. ;)

So I've been out of RPGs for a while and recently found a new group for D&D. I started getting ideas for a sci-fi campaign but didn't want a RPG with a preconcieved setting so I started looking for simple generic/universal systems, as we have some new gamers who were struggling with the table and manual diving required for 5e.

I grabbed a hold of D6xD6 and never looked back. There's only one stat and a damn simple dice mechanic for everything. Combat rolling is quick. Where initiative, hitting, and damage are usually three different rolls, in the D6xD6 system one roll handles everything! The expanded edition comes with a whole bunch of settings to run, or in my case, pilfer for other ideas. And if you need something extra, the rules are extremely flexible and hackable.

If there is one part that could be improved, it might be the experience system. I'm only at the beggining of the campaign I'm running, but it seems you can only go so far. To be fair, the system was originally intended for one-shot scenarios as per the author's description. This is a game for character tomfoolery and creating a story. NOT endless chart searching.

The simplicity of the system has been described on www.d6xd6.com as a "haiku" of a game. I disagree. It's a punk song. Simple, fast, furious and rockin' as hell!

The Hungry Dead is a collection of poetry and short stories that mostly hovers around the title’s stated theme. The excellent and evocative cover image shows a slightly decayed – yet no less well turned-out – young woman, a plate of brains in front of her, gold-plated knife and fork in hand. She’s daintily hoisting a forkful, lips parted in anticipation. It sets just the right tone for the collection. By way of full disclosure, I would add that a number of contributors to The Hungry Dead — including the publisher — are friends of mine, so take that for what it’s worth.

Of the fiction, several pieces are standouts: I readily devoured Stephen D. Sullivan’s “Tricks & Treats”. Exploring the origins of Halloween legends, it provides a creeping chill to freeze the blood. J. Robert King’s “Unlife on the Mississippi” brings humor and a clever concept to a rustic, American vampire tale. A Backwoods young man living in the Mississippi basin near Hannibal, Missouri discovers he’s suddenly become a vampire. He soon learns the how of it, and realizes the old adage that with great power comes great responsibility. Who knew it was so easy to create vampires?

Like all anthologies, this one is no less a mixed bag, though I can’t actually say there were any bad works here – only that some were more striking and thought provoking to me than others. The Hungry Dead is well worth picking up for horror fans of all stripes. There is very little here that will challenge the reader unduly, and a fair amount of reward to be had from its consumption.

I have purchased many of Lester's products over the years. They are always brimming with detail. This product is no exception. A lot is crammed into six pages here. Easily adapted to your favorite rpg system, but don't turn your nose up at the core d6xd6 system, it is a gem.

Very rich die mechanic that also allows for a very 'lite' rpg in terms of mechanical overhead but while still allowing for many character and tactical options.

In terms of my experience with rpg systems, I felt this system was beautifully simple. No erroneous elements, or features that felt like they were added last minute, and by means of a crowbar. There are few systems, in my opinion, that started out with such a strong, pure and simple core book, yet seem open and comprehensive enough to span as many genres as this one so elegantly does.

My reasoning is as follows: Recently, I've introduced a small group to the pen and paper rpg world (4-7 players in size); before then, they were all console or board game enthusiasts, and somehow had completely missed out! As I was the only one with any knowledge on the subject matter, I was voted to be GM. Knowing that they haven't had exposure to ANY rpg system, I decided to learn a new and simpler one to start them off (simpler to learn, not necessarily simpler to play). As we found out, character gen is fast, the rules are intuitive, and the system flexible...it was perfect for us.

My only concern is that GM's may find it tedious generating beast/monster cards for every possible creature they could meet. A handy addition may be a selection of cards in a similar format as the pc's cards, for beasts and monsters, so (along with a selection of setting and rough plot) players could jump straight in to a fairly 'seat of your pants' style, improv' session.

Cheers, -Billy

I haven't looked at D6xD6 yet, but this particular file gives a good compressed view of what I know of Seventh Crown. Hopefully the full blown Seventh Crown Setting comes out in the next year!

Ok, so I backed this on Kickstarter and I have played it. I'm giving it a middling score and would edge that closer to the good side. I like the concept of a stripped down, easy to learn and easy to use game system. My intention being to hand this off to an 11 year old boy to have his own special RPG he could learn on.
With that in mind, here's my review.

I found the overall idea of a central theme (Focus) to be a fun idea. And it works for the most part. I just found myself having to go back and re-read and re-read through the materials to pick up the actual "rules" of the game. I felt like I was gleaning a rule here and there. To that end I think a general rewrite to clean up the presentation of the material would really help.

The game itself reminded me somewhat of Megatraveller where two skill of your choice would be applied to make the basis of your dice checks. In this case D6xD6 presents the idea of an Occupation which allows you to dramatically speed up the character generation and really become whatever you want it to be and encompass. Coupled with focuses these become the basis of your dice checks. One persons Wizard may be able to do many kinds of magic by virtue of his occupation, while someone else's wizard may be "focused" on elemental magic and not competent with other types. Seems to me to be your choice.

To me this game is ripe for house rules. It is definitely not fully realized in terms of a catalog of monster, weapons, equipment, economy, etc which is to be expected since the game itself allows you to play any genre you want. In my opinion it relies on you as a GM to spend a fair bit of effort creating your enemies, equipment, and such if you're going to run a bit of a classic fantasy hack-n-slash. This is not a bad thing, just something to prepare for. Again the system is flexible enough to let you play on the fly but spending the time to develop your menagerie first. Conversely I think it would probably shine in terms of just role playing through a story.

Combat a little different and reminded me more of some of the modern video games. No hit points here. Just a scale that you go from Good to Bad to Worse. Different actions can push this up or down. It's a scale of effect. A powerful gun scales up the damage, a set of armor scales down the damage and if you end up taking a hit then you go from Good to Hurt to Really hurt, to :P

Visually the look feels very much like someone with photo shop decided to do most the art work. Not terrible but didn't exactly feel like it fit to me. I think the book would have been better served to find a local artist to do some simple pen drawings. Even to this day I still remember those simple Willingham and Elmore drawings in the basic D&D book that were simple but let your imagination fill in the gaps.

My overall impression is this game concept is good and definitely worth the money. You can easily modify it with house rules to make a game that really fits your style and you can play literally anything (just like Champions). In my opinion it wants a clearer terminology (dice rolls and dice totals), a cleaner presentation of the material, and some full blown examples of game play would be really nice.

I love this system. I remember its predecessor Zero, and this game goes beyond. It's actually very similar in the mechanics, but the addition of such a great mix of settings is just great. And because I have a copy, I get access to more and more settings as they are released. I'm in love!

Disclosure: I backed D6xD6 on Kickstarter.

I grew up playing AD&D, Gamma World, Traveller, Twilight: 2000, Shadowrun, Star Wars, Call of Cthulhu (all-time favorite!), and other RPGs. As a player I have come to dislike memorizing voluminous complex rules, drawing intricate plans for spaceships/tank platoons/etc on graph paper, and the "stat monster" approach which encourages players to obsess about experience points needed to reach the next character level or obtaining some magical item that will incrementally up their armor class.

What I value is storytelling, camaraderie, and any game that shares those goals. I'm happy to say D6xD6 is a such a game. The game's primary mechanism of "Focus" is unique, elegant, and deceptively simple. It makes for rich decisions during the quick character creation phase...do you want to be an incredible expert in one or two areas, a jack-of-all-trades, or something in-between? It feels equally rich when attempting tasks during gameplay. The dice rolling aspect is quick, fun, and suspenseful. While some reviewers commented it was a bit complex, I found it easier than adding up a laundry list of modifiers to my attack (for instance) while my opponent does the same with their defense modifiers, and then comparing results, calculating ripostes, etc etc. D6xD6 gameplay is fast, fun, and keeps the focus on the story.

Some RPGs lean heavily on the tone of their genre/fictional world to carry a player's interest, counting on that to plaster over mediocre game mechanics. D6xD6 is the opposite; at its heart is an excellent set of well-constructed rules that enable players to explore any genre or world setting they choose. I really like this approach and appreciate the variety of Worlds in the Core Book (with many more from famous fiction authors apparently on the way!).

One final thought for those of you reading these reviews while considering a purchase. It is impossible to fully understand and appreciate any game without playing it. You've probably found this in your own gaming experiences. Perhaps you've been surprised that a game sounded really cool but didn't feel right during play. Or maybe you thought the rules seemed a little complex but made so much sense during gameplay. Good game designers are familiar with this effect, too. It's why they don't just write a bunch of rules and chuck it out into the marketplace. They conduct extensive playtesting with real players, make adjustments to the rules, and do it all again.

Some reviewers have not played D6xD6, much less read the entire set of rules, but are sharing lots of opinions. Other reviewers like me have actually played the game multiple times and really enjoyed it. You decide which approach is right for you.

I have actually played this system a few times at the most recent Gamehole Con in Madison Wisconsin. I have no read every single word of the rules. I've read entire sections and then skimmed the rest. This systems claims 3 things at the outset:

• Five-minute character creation.

Verdict: True. We made characters for both games I played in. It was fairly simple and easy to understand.

• Quick-and-easy tactical combat rules.

Verdict: True. They do read as described. perhaps more importantly, when I had them described to me verbally in the games I played, I understood what I was told immediately and didn't need a full combat to figure out how things worked.

• Endless setting possibilities.

Verdict: True. They've already got a ton and after you've played it once, you can see how easily this system can be used pretty much anywhere. Magic adds a bit of thinking to it, but nothing insurmountable.

Likes: Lester has delivered on his promises. With one exception I'll note below, the writing is clear and concise. D6xD6 is a fine system and worth your time.

A few nitpicks:

The section "Dice: An Aside". I understand why it's in the book, but it doesn't read very well. There is A LOT of information crammed into 9 paragraphs.

I've looked at this PDF on my 3 work PC screens, my home laptop, my iPad, and my wife's Chrome book and the D6xD6 results (page 7) chart looks like it had colored shadow figures around the bars. It looks pretty awful, but I can easily read the chart.

The majority of the art is fine, although anything with blood added or 'zombified' is a bit weak, but doesn't hurt the rules at all.

Reading these reviews, I am concerned at how many say “I haven’t played but here is my review…” How can you review a game you haven’t played? A lot of these reviews are very critical of the art direction. I have to agree, the art direction could be better. Unlike these other reviewers I have played the game and let me tell you, it was an amazing experience.

Being a long time roleplayer, the major challenge I have is time. I never have the time to play as many games as I want. When I sat down with D6xD6 the first time I had only glanced over the book and wasn’t sure what to expect, but in 15 min I had a unique character that I built and I was invested in. Over the next 2 hours I was taken on the journey of my warehouse worker turning into a flattened ghost, discovering his new ghostly powers, teaming up with other ghosts as unique as he was, and doing everything in their power to save a bus full of children. I have had full D&D campaigns less memorable than that one session.

D6xD6 is a diamond in the rough. It is a simple system with surprising depth. The art doesn’t do the system justice but try it. It is well worth the small amount of your time.

P.S. I got angry and used my ghost powers to flip a bus. Enough said.

I really want to love this book. I am a kickstarter backer, and the author asked for an honest review.

I'm not particularly impressed with the layout, the fonts, or the art content. The photos don't follow any discernible theme, some are badly photoshopped, and add little to the content of the book. The nudity, while not offensive, seems out of place and unnecessary.

I've not run the system yet, so I can't really comment on that, other than to say it looks simple enough and is probably reasonably fun.