@@templarw20 Coynite. Possibly the most broken race in the game. Their battle armor is the only one that offers two full dice against energy weapons. And their stats rival Wookies.
@@Mr_Welch I had to dig to find where those guys were. I guess they were in the Darkstryder box? One of the few supplements I don't have (I'm not selling my set... I hope to run it at some point, with my custom timeline). Barabs have a slightly bigger footprint in the old EU, with a cameo in Zahn's trilogy. And the Barab Jedi in NJO was about the only good thing that came out of Del Rey's corruption of the setting (seriously... they messed up so much it made Disney's decision to axe the whole thing more a mercy killing).
@@templarw20 they were in several books as West End games liked to recycle material. Their original appearance was in Planet guides 3 and then in two of the aliens sourcebooks
As far as I'm concerned D6 Star Wars by West End Games is the ONLY Star Wars RPG. Trying to cram the setting into D&D is terrible as those rules are completely unsuited for Star Wars.
@San Shinobi We played the Edge of the Empire starter set and it was pretty fun and had a Star Wars (original trilogy) feel to me. That said, I'm still a huge fan of the D6 version.
@San Shinobi Strong disagree here. Gimmick dice are a plague. Struggling to remember what the funny symbols are and what their rules are for when they turn up isn't fun. It slows down the game. Lack of mechanical depth isn't fun either. D6 is way better. Has more versatility, and loads of fan made expansions.
The edge of the Empire series by Fantasy Flight games, if you can get over the wonkiness with houseruling, is pretty good all things considered. The gimmick dice are very useful for a GM who's hastily building the road before the players and for one who likes to carefully craft encounters. Especially since the gimmick dice themselves are easy to understand after a few rolls with them, explosions good, swords are criticals.
Just started the lengthy process of downloading pdfs of this game for a possible future group get together. holy... crap... You were not kidding about the amount of books lmao
I have almost a full collection of the WEG books thankfully. I am only missing about a dozen or less. Platt's Guides are good ones too. Plus the Bounty Hunter Galaxy guide. And as far as the Adventure Journals, I have them all. :D This is one of the best games ever.
The real shame is unlike a lot of old school RPGs and most modern ones you can't get legal PDFs of any Star Wars games. Not sure why they want to leave that money on the table. I'd buy a Humble Bundle/Bundle of Holding in a heart beat of any of the editions.
I actually remember the game we had going fir a while way back at the apartment you had in humble. Until you and that other fellow had a falling out. Even your brother was in it. It was a great game. How we captured that torpedo sphere I still don’t know Howe we accomplished that. Then kept taunting darth Vader and Thrawn to find us.
I grew up reading the imperial sourcebook as a kid. My dad is an avid wargamer and used the rebellion and imperial sourcebooks for a project of his. Years later I came across a Disney cannon sourcebook the imperial officers handbook and discovered that it copies much of its material from the old rpg sourcebook, it dumped the material necessary to apply it mechanically to any game but the organizational structures, stormtrooper types, equipment overviews, all that stuff is more or less a direct copy. I’m glad to see at least some of the old rpg material survived.
I've loved this game since I first met it it in '94, and of Star Wars since my parents brought my 1-year-old self to the first one in '77 (it apparently at least looked like I was paying attention ... while Dad held me, anyhow.) My first character was Ibo Aonar, smuggler captain and owner of the endearing Smoking Blaster (from the GMG.) The tales I could tell ... When I started running an annual SW game at MechaCon, I switched to the Saga d20 system, as 5e was all the rage, but I drew an awful lot from my WEG books; they just got the feel better. When Disney started up, I had alot of hope, and even enjoyed taking Dad to see TFA. I admit I teared up when, on our last trip to Disney World, I walked up to the Millennium Falcon. The moment meant alot. However, a week ago, I ran my first WEG Star Wars session in many years for one of my brothers, for whom I'd run before, my son, and a friend of mine who was born about 15 years too late for this game. They had a great time, so Star Wars in now in our regular rpg rotation, as the crew of the Profit Pilgrim try to make ends meet while scouting new potential markets for ComStar Home Furnishings and Appliances (scouting division.)
One of my favorite role playing games of all times. Started playing this with my buddies in Middle School. And yes I love the fact that there were no damned levels. I also love the fact that you didn't have to go and get any special dice. Just head to the store and get regular good old-fashioned dice.
Love your reviews, Mr. Welch. The West End games/Tie Fighter games/Del Ray books are the Star Wars I love. It's a treat to revisit that version of the Galaxy; thank you!
I love this RPG. A testament to West End Game's quality of development, is this RPG is the foundation for all of the EU. Every EU Author had it as reference material. WEG sadly is no more. A handful of years ago the owner table flipped and quit. He even took down his web site. However WEG did publish another D6 RPG, Space, and Fantasy D6. It's more of a generic RPG. Of only Disney did not ignore the EU, and this RPG. It's a gold mine for creating movies and TV shows.
There is a second generic edition in the works and there have been several D6 games that have come out in recent years including Vikingr (for roleplaying Vikings going on raids) and Zorro: The Roleplaying Game.
Good summary. I always loved the d6 system SW, especially the 2nd edition. I was disappointed that it was the 1st edition that got the anniversary re-release. I REALLY loved Rules of Engagement, like you. The modules were...pretty goofy. I have to point out, though, that what ruined the old EU stuff was Lucasfilm and the prequels, not Disney. Del Rey getting the license back from Bantam pretty much ruined the shared SW universe that the D6 game celebrated.
If you're interested I highly recommend downloading the free Star Wars d6: Revised, Expanded and Updated fan made books. It's a fan made re-release of 2E with every bit of errata from release to end of life for Star Wars d6. It doesn't add any new rules other than optional ones from other D6 products and gives rules and stats for eras like Legacy, KotOR and other EU material. And best of all it makes absolutely no mention of Disney's sequel trilogy.
@@DoctorEviloply It's probably in my various files somewhere. The different takes by different writers on the KotOR and TOR related stuff reminds me of the days when the prequels were coming out, and there was a d6 SW fan group where we argued over the stats of stuff like the Naboo fighters vs "modern" (OT) starfighters.
I love to re-watch this video over and over again. This is without a doubt one of my favourite all-time role playing games. This level of creativity and attention to detail in regards to the source material, sadly is a thing of the past it seems. This game spoiled me and ruined all other Star Wars RPG‘s.
Exactly. I have two complaints about FFG's re-release of the WEG game. 1) They only released the "core" and don't seem to be doing anything else, and 2) they did 1st edition, not 2nd. A friend showed me his copy, and he wasn't sure the edition, and I opened the sourcebook to the starships. "Yup, 1e. No hull and shield stats for the capital ships."
While I enjoy some aspects of the Fantasy Flight Star Wars RPG, the West End Games version remains the best. It was and is so good! Great review, man. Thank you!
16:15 that is such a nostalgia trip FUck. Remember the series of starwars books called "tales from..." yeah I had like almost all of them. I read the "tales from jabba's palace" until the cover disintegrated.. Weow. Thanks for reminding me of this.
Wow, this sounds amazingly built! And yeah, it's appropriate that a Star Wars RPG should focus on the characters. That's what made so many of the novels good. Just telling captivating stories in a universe where so many things are possible, but most people are already familiar with the basic workings (blasters are the common projectile weapons, jedi and the force exist, space dogfighting, very diverse aliens, but all near the same ground level [not like you *shouldn't* make an elven fighter, or orc wizard], droids have personalities).
My friends and I are currently playing the Fantasy Flight Star Wars game. I don't know about the D6 version, but I love this version because the dice mechanic allows for some pretty interesting storytelling and really allows you to feel powerful in a given skill if you're willing to hyperfocus (I'm playing a Twi'lek sniper, and our last game, I was rolling 7 or 8 dice for my attacks; it was glorious). Also, it allows for some pretty cool rollplaying and storytelling, although maybe that's just our DM Since Mr. Welch brought it up, I might as well talk about my opinions on the new trilogy. I've only seen "The Last Jedi," and it was OK. I had problems with it, but the my biggest gripe is with the trilogy as a whole: it reset EVERYTHING to the status quo of A New Hope. All the triumph and sacrifices of the original trilogy were undone. The Empire might have gotten a name change, but that's it. Remember that big party at the end of Return of the Jedi? Premature! Our heroes got their butts handed to them later. Nothing was accomplished long term. Why didn't they just make the Thrawn trilogy? I have only read the first half of the first book, and I can already see why it's remembered so fondly by fans. It's well written, and it does what a sequel SHOULD do: advance the narrative. The Rebels are now the ones in charge and the Empire is on the ropes. Thrawn is a VERY different enemy than Vader. Luke is on his own without Ben or Yoda and rebuilding the Jedi from scratch. And he isn't just remaking the old Jedi! This is especially important to me, because I'm one of those people who thinks the Old Order was screwed up and needed to be overhauled. And that makes sense in-story because Luke wasn't raised in that system. Of course, he'd do things differently! Even if the sequel trilogy had told a totally new plot, it still should have . . . well, told a NEW plot, not just rehashed the old one!
For all those who are struggling to find a used copy at a decent price there is D6 Space that is a retro-clone of Star Wars D6. I paid USD24 for a new hardcover book. There is also an adventures supplement by all the SW veteran writers called "Star System: Every Star A Destination" in softcover. Awesome way to get into SW D6 without paying through the roof for OOP copies.
im in a star wars d6 campaign right now on discord, we're new republic rangers hunting down imperial remnants...specifically we're going to have to tangle with the pentastar alignment
Probably one of my best table top experiences was was running a quasi-homebrew of this. Basically a story of unimportant characters at very important flashpoints just prior to A New Hope. Things like the Coruscant Imperial Academy mutiny and the assassination attempt on the Emperor were far more successful, or at least less disastrous, for those involved. The nature of the galactic Civil War became more like a Civil War then outer rim worlds rebelling. Little things the party did had far reaching consequences. Turns out changing Grand Moff Tarkin’s holonet broadcaster from Private to Public would do more than you think, like start a new phase of the Civil War in the core worlds. This all cumulated in a series of events, but the most impactful one was Coruscant descending into a civil war battlefield between crime lords that fashioned themselves as freedom fighters, Imperial senate loyalists led by Old Republic generals, ISB death squads, and fanatical emperor supporters led by Vader fighting in the streets. This all due to broadcasting Tarkin’s request to use the Death Star on Alderaan to the galaxy at large. After a “seemingly” successful attempt on the Emperor’s life, a huge blockade on the Death Star led by influential figures in the Senate, the deployment of the 501st on Coruscant as riot control, and the disappearance of Lord Vader the Empire descended into a war the style of the Clone Wars, only with the Empire’s perfected war machines. We puttered out as COVID happened, been thinking about brushing the dust off the game notes...
I only got to play this a couple times, but enjoyed it -- would love to replay this with a good GM (just picked up the old d6 core books a few months back)
Actually you don't even need to track the books down if you don't mind PDFs. D6 Holocron has pdfs of every book released for West End Games' Star Wars line. Obviously if you can track down physical copies go for it but pdfs work. There's even a fan-made revision of Second Edition R&E called REUP which includes stuff from the prequels and later EU material like The New Jedi Order so stat blocks for the Yuuzhan Vong.
"What he did to those troopers at the end of Rogue One was just him doing a light workout. If he wanted to, he could tear that ship apart" True, considering that in later-introduced EU/Legends continuity, Vader's Apprentice pulls a freaking Star Destroyer out of Orbit. It is nice to meet another that liked Rogue One, but Disney really has dropped the ball. I can count on one hand things I'd personally say they did ok, or even good on...and almost every one of those is hotly debated...or at least was until folks started walking away from Star Wars. Bright side is that the D6 system is still published, even as a generic thing, and there's a dedicated fan community still pumping out new material for D6 Star Wars.
If you want to get into D6 Star Wars, there is now another version of the game that is simplified. Mini-Six Bare Bones Edition. Its FREE! Just google search it and you can find the PDF directly, or go to Drive Thru RPG store and download it for $0.00 dollars. The West End Games guys were working on an tweaked version of their game that had a few fixes in it, but they knew their company was nearly dead soon, so they released what they had as a smaller game rulebook (just 35 pages) and has two variants of combat, and two variants on health damage. Technically the rules are meant to be generic and can do other settings like High Fantasy, Super Heroes, Cops and Robbers in the 1970's, steampunk Ghost/Monster Hunters in Victorian London, and other Sci-Fi settings like Star Trek or Firefly. But it also does Star Wars and has some included material on how to do that. The gameplay is simpler if you want it, Jedi are nerfed to be more playable, and unkillably tough guys like body builder Wookies in battle armor can be dealt with by using hit points instead of the traditional damage level states. And older source books can still be used if you want to go back to more complexity. I would say that you need a Game Master who is experienced as the rules even say they don't explain a lot of rules because they want to keep the page count down. However, for players this version is probably better for new players. It is less complex. Also, getting D6 Space would be a good idea as the two games are similar enough to be the simple and complex versions of each other.
Always great Welch. BTW, what's the current availability of the 2nd Edition Revised and Expanded book? I used to have the 1st Edition but I hear 2nd Revised and Expanded is the one to get.
I got my collection at just the right time i got the main book the sourcebook the imperial sourcebook the alien races book and the shadows of the Empire book all for 150 ish
What version were you playing? I ask because every version I'm aware of you do not roll attribute and skill it's attribute OR skill. The attribute forms the base skill and once the skill is advanced beyond that it then replaces the attribute. Is the method you described a house rule or were you just confusing it with Shadowrun/World of Darkness?
I had picked up the D6 manual PDFs some time ago for research material. Sure, a lot of it is outdated to hell (to personal taste. I like the prequels for their ideas, not the execution.) but there's a lot of useful material that's gone overlooked, like some specialist Imperial Army units.
No set schedule yet, but I have Aeon, 7th Sea, Paranoia, Iron Kingdoms, Twilight 2000, Traveler, Aliens, Mage, Silver Age Sentinels and GURPS planned so far.
Alright, sounds good to me! I appreciate the work that goes into finding and editing those images together but if you ever get tired of it, you might as well just record yourself talking to a camera (like the Gentleman's Guide to Gaming does). I'm usually not a fan of facecams but for reviews it's fine, as long as we have something to look at while listening :)
Gonna be running this soon, just finishing up a Cyberpunk 2020 game and going to be running this. I've run Edge of the Empire before and I found it alright but just... Not quite really 'good'.
Yes, WEG Star Wars is the ONLY Star Wars RPG. They built it from the ground up around Star Wars, unlike other systems that tried to shoehorn Star Wars into it.
Did not expect this video so soon! I have this version and some of the modules but my group played the Saga edition. Saga was great but suffered from the same problem level up systems suffer from. Flexibility. Though I did get creative a couple times.
Outstanding game and review. Found myself nodding in agreement through the nearly the whole thing. I never owned many supplements post the Bespin Galaxy guide though. That one just put me off. Now I need to go find some that you’ve suggested. Thanks!
It was a moon. Chewy had a moon fall on him, not a planet. A moon fell in him and then he was dead....I don't care what Disney has to say about it. Disney wars is not Starwars
Episodes Vii & Viii have done a good job get over it. How about submitting a constructive criticism or submit your own ideas. Would love to read all the scripts you have been working on. I was concerned about Disney but I've enjoyed all there offerings. More Star Wars is good. All the nay sating going on is rather boring Your griping in this video did you no favours Despite your complaining I persevered as I enjoy WEG D6. Some good info here , the childish outbursts over the new films is easy to ignore.
... stuff happens, but it's all over the place, and doesn't seem to have a focus. The original trilogy focused on two things: 1. The rebels' open fights against the empire. 2. Luke learning to become a Jedi. The prequel trilogy focused on galactic politics, expanding the lore through the films, and Anakin's journey. The new trilogy doesn't have much focus, besides the resistance vs the First Order. Although it attempts to focus on the characters' stories and journeys, it is split too thin among too many characters. They are trying to develop characters on both sides of the conflict, which is commendable, but it doesn't quite work as well. I don't think they use the stories they tell to give any true perspective of the characters' growth. "Rae gets some training, and Kylo has anger issues" is about the extent of it. I actually think that Luke had more character growth (or at least more change, not necessarily growth) than the other characters, *because of the context* we are given. I think it was actually fantastic the way they portrayed Luke's actions and Kylo's turn, by framing it through the eyes of different characters with limited information. It becomes so much more important (not in plot, but in characterization and content) when you first see it through the eyes of specific people. It has much more weight than it would have if it were first explained outright. Now the framing wasn't the best (we knew Luke wouldn't have just killed Kylo for petty reasons, and I feel they could have given Kylo a reaction or view of events that would mesh a *little* better with what the audience already knows inherently, but that's not really very important). However, we do not have a good frame to view any improvements that Rae has made by training. We don't see her learning lessons in patience or the values of specific training that displays the things Luke emphasizes in his training program. We don't see an improvement in her combat prowess, unlike with Luke in the original trilogy, because she already managed to defeat a nearly full strength Kylo in episode 7, while she had no training in lightsabers at all. In episode 4 A New Hope, we know that Luke isn't good enough to fight Darth Vader in a lightsaber duel, from his lackluster performance against the training drone. They don't even pit them against each other with lightsabers in that movie. There is no escalation, because we have nothing worthy to judge her performance against, before and after training. These new movies don't really consider anything from each other, besides basic plot points or results. They aren't showing growth across the trilogy. We don't even get to see Rae improving with the force. My suggestions would all be based around these things. Rewrite the plots, or more specifically, the framing, to show growth of key new characters, *across* the movies, so we can also have escalation of character interactions, not just plot points. That is key in a Star Wars movie. Characters cannot stay the same. They aren't *just* action movies. Don't have Rae and TR8T0R guy defeat Kylo in the first new movie. Maybe make it so she is close to Kylo and Han, and tries to intervene in a more openly hostile encounter, fail to save Han, but still escape with her own life. Especially don't have her use force suggestion out of nowhere. That doesn't seem like it would be a force power that would be commonly known to exist at this point, after the Jedi collapsed twice. And managing to use it without any force training at all is just absurd, and feels like it invalidates the previous movies, which indicate a large amount of training to become even mildly proficient in the mundane use of the force. Heightened and extended awareness seems more latent, and would be more acceptable. And in order for me to not laugh at Kylo, he needs to not be a mook. It'd be like if Darth Vader tripped on his cloak in episode 4, at any point he is seen. Fighting anyone at this point, they too become a mook unless they can trash him. I mean, why isn't he stronger with all the training both Luke and Snoke must have given him? How did he get defeated by a nonforce sensitive, and a non trained, sudden force user? Inattentiveness and over confidence has been seen to down other powerful force users, but not like this. He *should* be threatening, but unfortunately I cannot see him as such. This is just the start of suggestions I've come up with on the fly. They are mildly decent action movies, but they do a disservice to the storytelling of Star Wars in the past.
@@adamofblastworks1517 I really enjoy and agree with a lot of your perspective on the sequel trilogy. I liked this point a lot: They don't even pit them against each other with lightsabers in that movie. How many movies being made would have the courage to not have the main hero and main villain fight each other directly, especially when you consider at the time there was no guarantee a sequel would ever get made. And even in that sequel the hero loses.
Thanks for this vid, I was a play tester, then editor, and finaly contributor, West End Games.
Thank you for your service!
The mental image of a Wookie just standing there and telling the Star Destroyer to fucking bring it just made me laugh.
Barables. Stormtrooper grade natural armor, nearly as big as wookies. Don't shoot the 2+m tall lizard man, it just annoys them.
@@templarw20 Coynite. Possibly the most broken race in the game. Their battle armor is the only one that offers two full dice against energy weapons. And their stats rival Wookies.
@@Mr_Welch I had to dig to find where those guys were. I guess they were in the Darkstryder box? One of the few supplements I don't have (I'm not selling my set... I hope to run it at some point, with my custom timeline). Barabs have a slightly bigger footprint in the old EU, with a cameo in Zahn's trilogy. And the Barab Jedi in NJO was about the only good thing that came out of Del Rey's corruption of the setting (seriously... they messed up so much it made Disney's decision to axe the whole thing more a mercy killing).
@@templarw20 they were in several books as West End games liked to recycle material. Their original appearance was in Planet guides 3 and then in two of the aliens sourcebooks
What about scale? in terms of damage
"GOD! I hated Last Jedi!" Hahaha
This is still the version of Star Wars RPG I run. Love it.
As far as I'm concerned D6 Star Wars by West End Games is the ONLY Star Wars RPG. Trying to cram the setting into D&D is terrible as those rules are completely unsuited for Star Wars.
Agreed. I just re bought this game because honestly D20 systems kinda suck, particularly for cinematic style gaming.
@San Shinobi We played the Edge of the Empire starter set and it was pretty fun and had a Star Wars (original trilogy) feel to me. That said, I'm still a huge fan of the D6 version.
I still play the WEG revised 2nd edition to this day. Also use the OGL for D6!!!!! And set traps for the Rat in Diz-sneez francheese!!!!
@San Shinobi Strong disagree here. Gimmick dice are a plague. Struggling to remember what the funny symbols are and what their rules are for when they turn up isn't fun. It slows down the game. Lack of mechanical depth isn't fun either. D6 is way better. Has more versatility, and loads of fan made expansions.
The edge of the Empire series by Fantasy Flight games, if you can get over the wonkiness with houseruling, is pretty good all things considered. The gimmick dice are very useful for a GM who's hastily building the road before the players and for one who likes to carefully craft encounters. Especially since the gimmick dice themselves are easy to understand after a few rolls with them, explosions good, swords are criticals.
Just started the lengthy process of downloading pdfs of this game for a possible future group get together.
holy...
crap...
You were not kidding about the amount of books lmao
I have almost a full collection of the WEG books thankfully. I am only missing about a dozen or less. Platt's Guides are good ones too. Plus the Bounty Hunter Galaxy guide. And as far as the Adventure Journals, I have them all. :D This is one of the best games ever.
Thank you Mr. Welsh. You saved me tons of skimming and reading, just to know where things are.
Congrats man, you convinced me to buy this
Still playing it, campaign up and running. :)
Your contempt for disney era star wars is glorious my good sir
The real shame is unlike a lot of old school RPGs and most modern ones you can't get legal PDFs of any Star Wars games. Not sure why they want to leave that money on the table. I'd buy a Humble Bundle/Bundle of Holding in a heart beat of any of the editions.
I actually remember the game we had going fir a while way back at the apartment you had in humble. Until you and that other fellow had a falling out. Even your brother was in it. It was a great game. How we captured that torpedo sphere I still don’t know Howe we accomplished that. Then kept taunting darth Vader and Thrawn to find us.
Brian Dean that's because Tom was a little creepy and he had a problem with the color of my girlfriend.
The bit of the Wookiee armour cracked me up.
I grew up reading the imperial sourcebook as a kid. My dad is an avid wargamer and used the rebellion and imperial sourcebooks for a project of his. Years later I came across a Disney cannon sourcebook the imperial officers handbook and discovered that it copies much of its material from the old rpg sourcebook, it dumped the material necessary to apply it mechanically to any game but the organizational structures, stormtrooper types, equipment overviews, all that stuff is more or less a direct copy. I’m glad to see at least some of the old rpg material survived.
I still have this book, and it's excellent! I still imagine starship battles being called 'The Show' in universe.
I've loved this game since I first met it it in '94, and of Star Wars since my parents brought my 1-year-old self to the first one in '77 (it apparently at least looked like I was paying attention ... while Dad held me, anyhow.) My first character was Ibo Aonar, smuggler captain and owner of the endearing Smoking Blaster (from the GMG.) The tales I could tell ...
When I started running an annual SW game at MechaCon, I switched to the Saga d20 system, as 5e was all the rage, but I drew an awful lot from my WEG books; they just got the feel better. When Disney started up, I had alot of hope, and even enjoyed taking Dad to see TFA. I admit I teared up when, on our last trip to Disney World, I walked up to the Millennium Falcon. The moment meant alot.
However, a week ago, I ran my first WEG Star Wars session in many years for one of my brothers, for whom I'd run before, my son, and a friend of mine who was born about 15 years too late for this game. They had a great time, so Star Wars in now in our regular rpg rotation, as the crew of the Profit Pilgrim try to make ends meet while scouting new potential markets for ComStar Home Furnishings and Appliances (scouting division.)
One of my favorite role playing games of all times. Started playing this with my buddies in Middle School. And yes I love the fact that there were no damned levels. I also love the fact that you didn't have to go and get any special dice. Just head to the store and get regular good old-fashioned dice.
Love your reviews, Mr. Welch.
The West End games/Tie Fighter games/Del Ray books are the Star Wars I love. It's a treat to revisit that version of the Galaxy; thank you!
Great summary!
I agree its still the best Star Wars RPG out there.
Bravo bravo Mr. Welch out did yourself again love hearing your reviews!
And that was from 2 years ago haha
I love this RPG. A testament to West End Game's quality of development, is this RPG is the foundation for all of the EU. Every EU Author had it as reference material. WEG sadly is no more. A handful of years ago the owner table flipped and quit. He even took down his web site. However WEG did publish another D6 RPG, Space, and Fantasy D6. It's more of a generic RPG.
Of only Disney did not ignore the EU, and this RPG. It's a gold mine for creating movies and TV shows.
There is a second generic edition in the works and there have been several D6 games that have come out in recent years including Vikingr (for roleplaying Vikings going on raids) and Zorro: The Roleplaying Game.
I have quite fond memories of Star Wars d6. Also, had to pause and laugh at 12:45; was not expecting that image, but I like it.
Good summary. I always loved the d6 system SW, especially the 2nd edition. I was disappointed that it was the 1st edition that got the anniversary re-release. I REALLY loved Rules of Engagement, like you. The modules were...pretty goofy.
I have to point out, though, that what ruined the old EU stuff was Lucasfilm and the prequels, not Disney. Del Rey getting the license back from Bantam pretty much ruined the shared SW universe that the D6 game celebrated.
If you're interested I highly recommend downloading the free Star Wars d6: Revised, Expanded and Updated fan made books. It's a fan made re-release of 2E with every bit of errata from release to end of life for Star Wars d6. It doesn't add any new rules other than optional ones from other D6 products and gives rules and stats for eras like Legacy, KotOR and other EU material. And best of all it makes absolutely no mention of Disney's sequel trilogy.
@@DoctorEviloply It's probably in my various files somewhere. The different takes by different writers on the KotOR and TOR related stuff reminds me of the days when the prequels were coming out, and there was a d6 SW fan group where we argued over the stats of stuff like the Naboo fighters vs "modern" (OT) starfighters.
I love to re-watch this video over and over again. This is without a doubt one of my favourite all-time role playing games. This level of creativity and attention to detail in regards to the source material, sadly is a thing of the past it seems. This game spoiled me and ruined all other Star Wars RPG‘s.
Exactly. I have two complaints about FFG's re-release of the WEG game. 1) They only released the "core" and don't seem to be doing anything else, and 2) they did 1st edition, not 2nd. A friend showed me his copy, and he wasn't sure the edition, and I opened the sourcebook to the starships. "Yup, 1e. No hull and shield stats for the capital ships."
I love this version of Starwars rpg.
While I enjoy some aspects of the Fantasy Flight Star Wars RPG, the West End Games version remains the best. It was and is so good! Great review, man. Thank you!
16:15 that is such a nostalgia trip FUck. Remember the series of starwars books called "tales from..." yeah I had like almost all of them. I read the "tales from jabba's palace" until the cover disintegrated.. Weow. Thanks for reminding me of this.
Totally convinced me to pick some of these books! Thanks!
Played that blue elephant pianist from Jabba's airship in our campaign. Good times.
Wow, this sounds amazingly built!
And yeah, it's appropriate that a Star Wars RPG should focus on the characters. That's what made so many of the novels good. Just telling captivating stories in a universe where so many things are possible, but most people are already familiar with the basic workings (blasters are the common projectile weapons, jedi and the force exist, space dogfighting, very diverse aliens, but all near the same ground level [not like you *shouldn't* make an elven fighter, or orc wizard], droids have personalities).
When Heroes and Rogues came out, did blasting Ewoks get rid of Dark Side points? >;)
My friends and I are currently playing the Fantasy Flight Star Wars game. I don't know about the D6 version, but I love this version because the dice mechanic allows for some pretty interesting storytelling and really allows you to feel powerful in a given skill if you're willing to hyperfocus (I'm playing a Twi'lek sniper, and our last game, I was rolling 7 or 8 dice for my attacks; it was glorious). Also, it allows for some pretty cool rollplaying and storytelling, although maybe that's just our DM
Since Mr. Welch brought it up, I might as well talk about my opinions on the new trilogy. I've only seen "The Last Jedi," and it was OK. I had problems with it, but the my biggest gripe is with the trilogy as a whole: it reset EVERYTHING to the status quo of A New Hope. All the triumph and sacrifices of the original trilogy were undone. The Empire might have gotten a name change, but that's it. Remember that big party at the end of Return of the Jedi? Premature! Our heroes got their butts handed to them later. Nothing was accomplished long term.
Why didn't they just make the Thrawn trilogy? I have only read the first half of the first book, and I can already see why it's remembered so fondly by fans. It's well written, and it does what a sequel SHOULD do: advance the narrative. The Rebels are now the ones in charge and the Empire is on the ropes. Thrawn is a VERY different enemy than Vader. Luke is on his own without Ben or Yoda and rebuilding the Jedi from scratch. And he isn't just remaking the old Jedi! This is especially important to me, because I'm one of those people who thinks the Old Order was screwed up and needed to be overhauled. And that makes sense in-story because Luke wasn't raised in that system. Of course, he'd do things differently! Even if the sequel trilogy had told a totally new plot, it still should have . . . well, told a NEW plot, not just rehashed the old one!
Does using force lightning for a spot weld really get you a dark side point?
RAW any use of force lightning is a dark side point
I love this Star Wars rpg…you can grow your character however you like.
For all those who are struggling to find a used copy at a decent price there is D6 Space that is a retro-clone of Star Wars D6. I paid USD24 for a new hardcover book. There is also an adventures supplement by all the SW veteran writers called "Star System: Every Star A Destination" in softcover. Awesome way to get into SW D6 without paying through the roof for OOP copies.
im in a star wars d6 campaign right now on discord, we're new republic rangers hunting down imperial remnants...specifically we're going to have to tangle with the pentastar alignment
Probably one of my best table top experiences was was running a quasi-homebrew of this. Basically a story of unimportant characters at very important flashpoints just prior to A New Hope. Things like the Coruscant Imperial Academy mutiny and the assassination attempt on the Emperor were far more successful, or at least less disastrous, for those involved. The nature of the galactic Civil War became more like a Civil War then outer rim worlds rebelling. Little things the party did had far reaching consequences. Turns out changing Grand Moff Tarkin’s holonet broadcaster from Private to Public would do more than you think, like start a new phase of the Civil War in the core worlds.
This all cumulated in a series of events, but the most impactful one was Coruscant descending into a civil war battlefield between crime lords that fashioned themselves as freedom fighters, Imperial senate loyalists led by Old Republic generals, ISB death squads, and fanatical emperor supporters led by Vader fighting in the streets. This all due to broadcasting Tarkin’s request to use the Death Star on Alderaan to the galaxy at large.
After a “seemingly” successful attempt on the Emperor’s life, a huge blockade on the Death Star led by influential figures in the Senate, the deployment of the 501st on Coruscant as riot control, and the disappearance of Lord Vader the Empire descended into a war the style of the Clone Wars, only with the Empire’s perfected war machines.
We puttered out as COVID happened, been thinking about brushing the dust off the game notes...
I only got to play this a couple times, but enjoyed it -- would love to replay this with a good GM (just picked up the old d6 core books a few months back)
I see we share similar tastes in Star Wars material lol
West End Games is now launching a D6 System 2nd Edition on Kickstarter. Do you have a video coming covering your thoughts on the new update?
most over powered race-noghri
Actually you don't even need to track the books down if you don't mind PDFs. D6 Holocron has pdfs of every book released for West End Games' Star Wars line. Obviously if you can track down physical copies go for it but pdfs work.
There's even a fan-made revision of Second Edition R&E called REUP which includes stuff from the prequels and later EU material like The New Jedi Order so stat blocks for the Yuuzhan Vong.
The fans of the WotC version of the SW RPG seems to focus around the more explicit crafting rules from what I can tell.
"What he did to those troopers at the end of Rogue One was just him doing a light workout. If he wanted to, he could tear that ship apart"
True, considering that in later-introduced EU/Legends continuity, Vader's Apprentice pulls a freaking Star Destroyer out of Orbit.
It is nice to meet another that liked Rogue One, but Disney really has dropped the ball. I can count on one hand things I'd personally say they did ok, or even good on...and almost every one of those is hotly debated...or at least was until folks started walking away from Star Wars. Bright side is that the D6 system is still published, even as a generic thing, and there's a dedicated fan community still pumping out new material for D6 Star Wars.
If you want to get into D6 Star Wars, there is now another version of the game that is simplified. Mini-Six Bare Bones Edition. Its FREE! Just google search it and you can find the PDF directly, or go to Drive Thru RPG store and download it for $0.00 dollars.
The West End Games guys were working on an tweaked version of their game that had a few fixes in it, but they knew their company was nearly dead soon, so they released what they had as a smaller game rulebook (just 35 pages) and has two variants of combat, and two variants on health damage. Technically the rules are meant to be generic and can do other settings like High Fantasy, Super Heroes, Cops and Robbers in the 1970's, steampunk Ghost/Monster Hunters in Victorian London, and other Sci-Fi settings like Star Trek or Firefly. But it also does Star Wars and has some included material on how to do that.
The gameplay is simpler if you want it, Jedi are nerfed to be more playable, and unkillably tough guys like body builder Wookies in battle armor can be dealt with by using hit points instead of the traditional damage level states.
And older source books can still be used if you want to go back to more complexity.
I would say that you need a Game Master who is experienced as the rules even say they don't explain a lot of rules because they want to keep the page count down. However, for players this version is probably better for new players. It is less complex.
Also, getting D6 Space would be a good idea as the two games are similar enough to be the simple and complex versions of each other.
Always great Welch. BTW, what's the current availability of the 2nd Edition Revised and Expanded book? I used to have the 1st Edition but I hear 2nd Revised and Expanded is the one to get.
You have to get lucky. It's not cheap
@@Mr_Welch Dammit, I figured. I can find 1E all over the place.
Hahahahahaha!! I love the Coynites! Af' Harl!
I got my collection at just the right time i got the main book the sourcebook the imperial sourcebook the alien races book and the shadows of the Empire book all for 150 ish
re-enacting the original trilogy with your OC player characters seems like the funniest idea ever.
@Mr.Welch I dunno how you got Nicholas Cage to narrate your video, but very informative lol
Haha, I thought the same thing!
I remwmber really liking the generic versions of the d6 system. Though I also remember finding the health system a bit annoying.
What version were you playing? I ask because every version I'm aware of you do not roll attribute and skill it's attribute OR skill. The attribute forms the base skill and once the skill is advanced beyond that it then replaces the attribute. Is the method you described a house rule or were you just confusing it with Shadowrun/World of Darkness?
I had picked up the D6 manual PDFs some time ago for research material. Sure, a lot of it is outdated to hell (to personal taste. I like the prequels for their ideas, not the execution.) but there's a lot of useful material that's gone overlooked, like some specialist Imperial Army units.
Thinking about getting this. Any recommendations of first vs second edition?
Second edition is better. It just solved a lot of weird rules issues. There's not a lot of first edition material anyways
Thanks!
Cool reviews bro! What are the next topics on your mind?
No set schedule yet, but I have Aeon, 7th Sea, Paranoia, Iron Kingdoms, Twilight 2000, Traveler, Aliens, Mage, Silver Age Sentinels and GURPS planned so far.
Alright, sounds good to me! I appreciate the work that goes into finding and editing those images together but if you ever get tired of it, you might as well just record yourself talking to a camera (like the Gentleman's Guide to Gaming does). I'm usually not a fan of facecams but for reviews it's fine, as long as we have something to look at while listening :)
Gonna be running this soon, just finishing up a Cyberpunk 2020 game and going to be running this. I've run Edge of the Empire before and I found it alright but just... Not quite really 'good'.
Star Wars Episode 7: The Mary Sue Awakens. Yes, I saw Welch's Disney song version on LiveJournal. I stopped watching after The Mary Sue Awakens.
Yes, WEG Star Wars is the ONLY Star Wars RPG. They built it from the ground up around Star Wars, unlike other systems that tried to shoehorn Star Wars into it.
Did not expect this video so soon!
I have this version and some of the modules but my group played the Saga edition. Saga was great but suffered from the same problem level up systems suffer from. Flexibility. Though I did get creative a couple times.
So, if I'm understanding this correctly, this is the best Star Wars RPG...unless you actually want to play as the Imperials.
Is that correct?
Oh lord you have any idea how much time I spent as a tot (elementary) reading about FARSTAR and the giant fuking weird eldrich shit at the end?
Please do a video on the FFG Star Wars RPG!
Outstanding game and review. Found myself nodding in agreement through the nearly the whole thing. I never owned many supplements post the Bespin Galaxy guide though. That one just put me off. Now I need to go find some that you’ve suggested. Thanks!
Fantasy Flights game Edge of the Empire is great. No levels and the best feel of the three.
Like your vids, did NOT like Star Wars D6 as a system. Loved the first ed books with their adds to join the Empire and such.
Shadowrun Chummer?
It was a moon. Chewy had a moon fall on him, not a planet. A moon fell in him and then he was dead....I don't care what Disney has to say about it. Disney wars is not Starwars
PDF *cough* online *cough* most of all of it.
Waitaminute......why show ANY image from the crappy movies if there is loathing involved, don't even admit it exists (just vomm'd at the rey pic)
Came here for D6 nostalgia, all I got was bitching about a movie the guy didn't even try to understand. 0/10, would not watch again.
Episodes Vii & Viii have done a good job get over it.
How about submitting a constructive criticism or submit your own ideas.
Would love to read all the scripts you have been working on.
I was concerned about Disney but I've enjoyed all there offerings.
More Star Wars is good.
All the nay sating going on is rather boring
Your griping in this video did you no favours
Despite your complaining I persevered as I enjoy WEG D6.
Some good info here , the childish outbursts over the new films is easy to ignore.
... stuff happens, but it's all over the place, and doesn't seem to have a focus.
The original trilogy focused on two things: 1. The rebels' open fights against the empire. 2. Luke learning to become a Jedi.
The prequel trilogy focused on galactic politics, expanding the lore through the films, and Anakin's journey.
The new trilogy doesn't have much focus, besides the resistance vs the First Order. Although it attempts to focus on the characters' stories and journeys, it is split too thin among too many characters. They are trying to develop characters on both sides of the conflict, which is commendable, but it doesn't quite work as well. I don't think they use the stories they tell to give any true perspective of the characters' growth. "Rae gets some training, and Kylo has anger issues" is about the extent of it. I actually think that Luke had more character growth (or at least more change, not necessarily growth) than the other characters, *because of the context* we are given. I think it was actually fantastic the way they portrayed Luke's actions and Kylo's turn, by framing it through the eyes of different characters with limited information. It becomes so much more important (not in plot, but in characterization and content) when you first see it through the eyes of specific people. It has much more weight than it would have if it were first explained outright. Now the framing wasn't the best (we knew Luke wouldn't have just killed Kylo for petty reasons, and I feel they could have given Kylo a reaction or view of events that would mesh a *little* better with what the audience already knows inherently, but that's not really very important).
However, we do not have a good frame to view any improvements that Rae has made by training. We don't see her learning lessons in patience or the values of specific training that displays the things Luke emphasizes in his training program. We don't see an improvement in her combat prowess, unlike with Luke in the original trilogy, because she already managed to defeat a nearly full strength Kylo in episode 7, while she had no training in lightsabers at all. In episode 4 A New Hope, we know that Luke isn't good enough to fight Darth Vader in a lightsaber duel, from his lackluster performance against the training drone. They don't even pit them against each other with lightsabers in that movie.
There is no escalation, because we have nothing worthy to judge her performance against, before and after training. These new movies don't really consider anything from each other, besides basic plot points or results. They aren't showing growth across the trilogy.
We don't even get to see Rae improving with the force.
My suggestions would all be based around these things. Rewrite the plots, or more specifically, the framing, to show growth of key new characters, *across* the movies, so we can also have escalation of character interactions, not just plot points. That is key in a Star Wars movie. Characters cannot stay the same. They aren't *just* action movies.
Don't have Rae and TR8T0R guy defeat Kylo in the first new movie. Maybe make it so she is close to Kylo and Han, and tries to intervene in a more openly hostile encounter, fail to save Han, but still escape with her own life.
Especially don't have her use force suggestion out of nowhere. That doesn't seem like it would be a force power that would be commonly known to exist at this point, after the Jedi collapsed twice. And managing to use it without any force training at all is just absurd, and feels like it invalidates the previous movies, which indicate a large amount of training to become even mildly proficient in the mundane use of the force. Heightened and extended awareness seems more latent, and would be more acceptable.
And in order for me to not laugh at Kylo, he needs to not be a mook. It'd be like if Darth Vader tripped on his cloak in episode 4, at any point he is seen. Fighting anyone at this point, they too become a mook unless they can trash him. I mean, why isn't he stronger with all the training both Luke and Snoke must have given him? How did he get defeated by a nonforce sensitive, and a non trained, sudden force user? Inattentiveness and over confidence has been seen to down other powerful force users, but not like this. He *should* be threatening, but unfortunately I cannot see him as such.
This is just the start of suggestions I've come up with on the fly.
They are mildly decent action movies, but they do a disservice to the storytelling of Star Wars in the past.
@@adamofblastworks1517 I really enjoy and agree with a lot of your perspective on the sequel trilogy. I liked this point a lot: They don't even pit them against each other with lightsabers in that movie. How many movies being made would have the courage to not have the main hero and main villain fight each other directly, especially when you consider at the time there was no guarantee a sequel would ever get made. And even in that sequel the hero loses.
@@jimzecca3961 well they kind of were pitted against each other later in the trench run.