Starcraft D6: Basics & Game Mechanics

Starcraft
D6

Table of
Contents

Basics

Characters

Allies &
Enemies
Terrans
Protoss
Zerg

Guestbook

I. The Basics
This game is based on West End Game's D6 system, specifically its Star Wars Role-Playing Game. WEG's Star Wars is no long in print, but their brand new Metabarons game will provide you with additional info you might need. Go pick up a copy! If you have any questions or comments, please email me and I'll try to answer them for you.

GAME MECHANICS

The Dice
The system requires players to roll six-sided dice (D6), which represent a character's attributes and skills. When appropriate, the Game Master will tell a player to roll a number of dice equal to either the attribute or skill being used. The player rolls the appropriate number of dice, adds the values together and tells the GM the sum. If the sum is equal to or greater than the difficulty number (See below), the character succeeds. If it is lower, the character fails.

Example: Coburn is trying to walk along a thin ledge without falling. He has a Dexterity of 3D. The GM sets a difficulty number and then the player controlling Coburn will roll 3 dice and sum the results to see if he is successful.
Example 2: Coburn is trying to convince a militia officer to lend him his jeep. He has a Persuasion skill of 2D+2. The GM sets the diffculty and the player controlling Coburn will sum the result of 2 dice and add 2.

The Wild Die
Each player should designate one of his or her dice to be the Wild Die (it is helpful if it's a different color or shape).

Whenever the the Wild Die comes up with a 2,3,4, or 5, add the result to the other dice as normal. But, if the Die comes up with a 6, add 6 to the dice total and roll the Wild Die again and add the new value to the dice total. If another 6 comes up, roll and add again. This continues as long as the player continues to roll 6's on the Wild Die.

Example: Coburn has a Firearms skill of 4D. When he fires, he rolls 4 dice. His values are 2,5,3 and on the Wild Die, a 6, resulting in 16. He rolls the Wild Die again and gets another 6! The total is now 22 and he gets to roll again. This time, he gets a 1 and adds that to the sum to get a 23 for his shot.

If the Wild Die comes up with a 1 when a character is first rolling a Skill or Attribute Check, roll the Wild Die again. If the value is 1 through 5, remove the Wild Die and the die with the highest value from the dice to be added.

Example: Coburn is shooting again. He rolls a 2,5,6 and on the Wild Die a 1. He rerolls the Wild Die and gets a 2. He removes the Wild Die and the die that came up 6 and adds the remaining two dice together to get 7.

If the second Wild Die roll comes up to be a 6, then the character has Complicated. He or she has screwed up in a particularly bad way....perhaps dropping his weapon down into a sewer grating or twisting an ankle while trying to dodge. Complications should make a character's life more difficult, but never kill them outright.

Example: Coburn is running away from a pair of Hydralisks over rough terrain. The GM has him make a running roll with a difficulty of 10 to avoid tripping over some jagged rocks. Coburn, with a Running skill of 3D, rolls 3 dice. He gets a 2,3 and on the Wild Die a 1. He rerolls the Wild and gets a 6! He not only fails but Complicates. The GM tells him that he not only trips over the rocks can, but he drops his rifle into an inaccessible crack. He will be defenseless if the Hydralisks catch up with him!

The GM could have just as well said that Coburn got a muscle-cramp and is -1D to all Dexterity actions for the next 5 rounds, or that he is stunned for the next round. Anything that makes Coburn's life a little more scary.

Difficulty Numbers
When a character makes an Attribute or Skill check, they are usually rolling against a difficulty number. Difficulties are divided into the following catagories:

Difficulty	Difficulty Numbers	Description
Very Easy	1-5	Anyone should be able to do this most of the time. Example: Driving a car in moderate traffic.
Easy	6-10	Most characters should be able to do this most of the time, though there is still a change for failure. Example: Driving a jeep over mildly rough terrain.
Moderate	11-15	Requires a fair amount of skill and/or effort. Most unskilled characters will fail such an attempt. Example: Driving a jeep over rough terrain.
Difficult	16-20	Only highly skilled characters succeed at these with any regularity. Example: Zig-zagging a jeep through the middle of combat zone full of enemies.
Very Difficult	21-25	Even pros have a hard time pulling these attempts off. Example: Steering your car into oncoming traffic and avoiding collisions while at high speeds.
Extremely Diff.	30-40	Only the luckiest and most skilled are successful. Example: Jumping onto the back of an Ultralisk while it attempts to hack you apart.
Heroic	40-50	The stuff of legends. Example: flying a Wraith starfighter through the tunnels of a Zerg Hatchery.
Unearthly	50-75	A character must have advanced psionic powers to even consider the attempt. Example: Accessing latent psionic powers capable of destroying a capital-scale starship or entity.
Impossible	75+	Only rare beings of unique power will succeed. Practically godlike. Example: Using psionic skills to resequence the genetic code of another race.

Opposed Rolls
When a character is testing his or her Attributes or Skills against those of another (PC or NPC), the parties involved make Opposed Rolls. The one with the highest roll wins.

Example: One character tries to shoot another. The first makes a Firearms roll while the other makes a Dodge roll. If the attacker's roll is higher than the others' Dodge, then he hits.

Character Points
A character may spend his or her Character Points to gain additional dice during an action. They receive an additional die for each point spent. A character may spend up to 3 CP's per action or attack, and up to 5 CP's for any defensive action (Dodging, Constitution rolls versus damage, etc.). If the die purchased with a CP comes up a 6, the player may re-roll it and add the new value to the total (as for the Wild Die, though there is no penalty for rolling a 1). Though CP's may be used to augment an attack, they may not be used to increase damage.

Example: Coburn gets punched by a demon for for 23 points of damage. He rolls his Constitution of 3D and gets a 10. That's 13 points below the damage level, which is Mortally Wounded. Coburn's player decides to spend some Character Points. He spend one for an additional die and gets a 5, reducing the difference to 8, meaning Coburn's Wounded. The player decides to spend an additional CP and rolls a 6! He gets to roll again and gets a 4, which means his Constitution roll is 2 over the damage roll. Coburn suffers no damage from the attack!

Character Points may not be used the same around that Chi is used.

Chi Points
Chi represents a character's inner strength and (possible) cosmic "luck". When a character spends a Chi point, all skill and attribute dice totals are doubled for that entire round. Anything which is not part of a character (a weapon or vehicle), is not affected.

Example 1: Coburn is armed with a sword and is in melee combat with an Zergling. He decides to spend a Chi point one round. His Melee Weapon: Sword skill is normally 4D. This round, it will be 8D. He would normally do 4D+2 points of damage with the sword (3D for his Strength + 1D+2 for the sword). This round, his Strength will be doubled, for D6 damage, and then added to the damage for the sword, 1D+2, for a total of 7D+2.
Example 2: Coburn is firing his pistol at a Protoss Zealot and decides to spend a Chi point. His Firearm skill doubles from 4D to 8D, but the pistol's damage (4D) remains the same.

See Characters: Chi for rules about using and regaining Chi. Remember, Chi may not be used the same round Character Points are spent.

Effect Value
Some successes (and failures) are more dramatic than others. For each 10 points (round down) a character rolls over the base Difficulty for an action, he will have an additional Effect Value of 1. This may increase damage by 1D for each Effect Value or simply result in a more advantagous outcome.

Example 1: Cobrun is firing his pistol at a Protoss Zealot again. The Difficulty is 10. The player rolls Coburn's Firearms skill and ends up with a 31 (nice shooting). Because that is at least 20 over the Difficulty, he has an Effect Value of 2 and adds 2D to the damage roll from the pistol.

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