Character Creation Challenge 2026 Day 3: Mini Six

Mini Six is a descendant of WEG's Star Wars game via OpenD6.  So, if you like d6 dice pools, this is for you.  It is streamlined and flexible and multi-genre.  One of the cool things about this about this 36 page ruleset is that it has five mini setting at the back.  These range from fantasy to science fiction to TV.  They are all based, at least generally, on recognizable I.P.s and give you a good idea on how to mold Mini Six to the shape you want it.  The best part of Mini Six is that the PDF is free.  (I'm pretty sure I've said this all before but it's a cool game so is worth repeating.)

 

One of the settings is called Perdition:  Tales of Damn Fool Heroes. If the title isn't a give away it is an homage to Firefly.  Like the Star Wars RPG, character creation can be free-form or based on a template.  The templates included here, though, are essentially complete.  Attributes, skills, all of it are picked for you.  So what I did was leave the attributes but pick my own skills, similar to Star Wars.

 

So I present our pilot, Pettigrew Parsons. 

 

Name:	Pettigrew Parsons
"More speed?  Coming right up!"
Might:	2d+1	Agility:	2D+2
		Drive	4D+2
		Pilot	5D+2
Wit:	3d+1	Charm:	2d+2
Computer	4d+1	Persuation	3D+2
Navigation	5D+1
Static:	Dodge	8
	Block	7
	Parry	7
	Soak	7
Perks & Comps:		None
Gear:
Light Pistol, Cool Sunglasses

 

 

Mini Six: Bare Knuckle Edition

I'm often oblivious to things happening in the gaming world.  I'll get focused on one or a small handful of games to the exclusion of all others, even favorites.  Well, that has happened again.  AntiPaladin Games came out with a new version of Mini Six.  Eight months ago!  And Ray Nolan, the author, has been working on it and talking about it for at least a year!  Talk about head in the sand.

So what's different?  Mini Six: BKE is non-OGL.  It is not a complete game.  It is intended to be used as the basis for others to build their games on.  Thus, there is a lot left out like the mini settings.  And there is some changes.  I haven't read it yet so I'm not sure what has changed.  I'm still surprised there is a new version.

You can find it free at the AntiPaladin Games website.

Mini Six Again

 I was planning on creating and posting a Mini Six character today.  I looked back at my blog and realized I had posted a Mini Six character exactly 10 years ago!  It was a character for the Perdition mini-setting.  So here's a link to that character.  I'll create and post a new one in the next couple days.

https://dynastyzero.blogspot.com/2010/12/perdition-character.html

#RPGaDay Day 7: Favorite Free RPG

Day 7:  Favorite Free RPG

This is a tough one.  So I'm going to have to split it.

The first of the two:  Mini Six.  Light, flexible, uses only six-siders.  Comes with a bunch of mini-settings.  Love it.









The second of two:  Mazes & Minotaurs.  Faux Ancient Greece. Hoplites, Amazons, haughty nobles, Olympian gods, mythological creatures and other sword and sandal goodness.  Basic  D&D type game with some cool innovations.  Oh, and a random island adventure generator for your own Odyssey like experience.

Koschei the Deathless

Image from Spes Magna Games website.

Mark Chance of Spes Magna Games posted a really cool character from Eastern European folklore on his blog.  This villainous fellow is a sorcerous giant named Koschei the Deathless.  Not only did Mark write about him but he created stats for Barbarians of Lemuria, Mini Six and three other game systems.  And made it into a free pdf.  Find the post here.  Thanks, Mark!

Traveller or ....

Is it just me or is Traveller suddenly being discussed more on the blogs and on G+?  I seem to be seeing more posts and such about it.

Which is fine by me.  Between all the posts and showing my oldest son Firefly for the first time, I am really in the mood for some Traveller.  I got Traveller back in '82 I think.  (That picture.  Not my copy.  My books have rusty staples from a stint in storage and have the occasional grease stain from food.  The box top is flat and the box bottom is held together by yellowing masking tape.)  To be truthful, I didn't get to play it with a group that often but I got a lot of entertainment out of it nonetheless.  I spent hours rolling up characters (and watching some of them die [that's die as in death, not die as in dice]), creating subsectors and running a Free Trader between them solo, etc.

So, I reached for Traveller thinking it would be a good match for Firefly.  After all, I read that Jos Whedon had based Firefly on his Traveller campaign.  I fooled around with it a bit and started making a subsector intending to create a setting not connected to Traveller's official Imperial setting.

However, I've also been rereading and pondering Mini Six for the purpose of tweaking it for a sword & sorcery focused game.  (More on that in a later post.)  And what is tucked away in the back of Mini-Six?  A setting called "Perdition".  Firefly with the serial numbers badly filed off.

So, my conundrum is this:  Traveller or Mini-Six?  I think they would both do a fine job with a Firefly game but which should I choose?

I await your words of wisdom....

Perdition Character

I love me some Firefly. I thought it was really cool when I read Mini-Six and discovered they included a serial-number free setting called "Perdition". I've been thinking about trying to persuade my gaming group to give Mini-Six a try. Probably using the "Imperium in Revolt" setting because my boy would go for that first.

So, without further ado, I'd like to introduce:

 

Conrad Bane

Bounty Hunter

 

Might 3D

Brawling 4D

Stamina 3D+1

 

Agility 3D

Dodge 4D+1

Pilot 3D+1

Stealth 4D

Pistol 5D

 

Wit 2D+2

Tracking 3D+1

 

Charm 3D+1

Persuasion 3D+2

 

Dodge 13

Block 12

Parry 9

Soak 9

 

Gear

Pistol

Handcuffs

Mini-Six

AntiPaladin Games has revised their Mini-Six rules and posted it to their website. Mini-Six is a cool little generic D6 derived game that seems simple and flexible. You can find it at their website here.

Barbarians of Lemuria and Star Wars

As I have mentioned before my son wants to role-play in the Star Wars universe. So I got my hands on West End Games D6 Star Wars 2nd Edition Rpg. And it left me cold. After reading various posts on RPG.net, I determined that in my ignorance I had purchased the wrong edition of the game and sought out a copy of the 1st Edition. Ahhhh, much better. Easy, straightforward and even the perceived shortcomings of the game that I had read about didn’t bother me.

But…

As easy as the game is I kind of wanted something a bit simpler. So I cast about (immediately discarding any thought of using WotC’s Star Wars Saga Edition for this purpose) and hit upon Mini-Six. Wow, all the goodness of D6 distilled to its essence. Nice. I would have to throw together rules for dealing with the Force but that shouldn’t be a problem.

But…

I contemplate Barbarians of Lemuria a lot. It is probably the game I think about the most. And not just because of some of the illustrations. I mean, it is such a simple game. So very straightforward, easy to grasp and very flexible. So flexible in fact that there have been a couple of spinoffs for it. The similar but more traditional sword & sorcery setting found in Legends of Steel. The apocalyptic glories of Barbarians of the Aftermath. And the full automatic firepower of Dogs of War. I don’t have BotA or Dogs of War yet but plan on purchasing them soon. Yes, the BoL engine is very flexible.

Hey, wait!

Could I, perhaps, cobble together a Star Wars variant of BoL?

I actually think this would be very easy. It may have been done already but I’m too lazy to search around and find out right now.

How easy? Let’s try to stat up Luke as a beginning character as we are introduced to him in the first movie. (No, not episode 1. The first movie. The real Star Wars.)

Luke Skywalker
Young farm boy destined for fame

Attributes
Strength 0
Agility 2
Mind 1
Appeal 1

Combat Abilities
Brawl 0
Melee 0
Ranged 2
Defense 2

Careers
Water Farmer 1
Droid Mechanic 1
Pilot 2

Boons
Force Sensitive

Now, you can quibble with the details. I just whipped this up as an example to show how it can be done. He was already a pilot of some skill. I mean, you don’t just jump into an X-Wing and fly off. I didn’t really know what to do for combat abilities so I just threw some numbers down. If someone has a better example of Luke at this age, I’d be interested in seeing it.

Now, at the end of Star Wars he would’ve gained a level in melee combat and gained Jedi 0 as a career because of his training with old Ben. He is just starting to get in touch with his Jedi-ness but is still very much a neophyte. He has just enough power to help guide his shot into the Death Star (along with his piloting skill) and to use Force telekinesis to get his lightsaber at the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back. He can use it but it is still a strain.

I’d have to create a list of boons and flaws. Two obvious ones would be Force Sensitive and Turned to the Dark Side. The Force Sensitive boon would be a prerequisite for the Jedi career. And I think I would probably steal WEG's idea of Dark Side Points. Although many would think it fun to be a Sith and wreck havoc throughout the space-lanes I think that, for my son, showing that there are consequences for evil actions would be a good thing. If you turn to the Dark Side as a result of your Dark Side points you lose control of your character. The character becomes an NPC. And as he commented about Dark Side points in WEG’s Star Wars, “I think only Jedi should gain Dark Side points.” I have a tendency to agree so I think I would use that as a rule.

One aspect of this idea that I really like, and shows the strength of BoL’s career system, is Force powers. You don’t need to have a long list of Force powers. The player can simply propose an action, the GM decides whether it is appropriate or not, and determines a difficulty for it. The weakness in WEG’s Star Wars of having to roll multiple times for certain Force powers would be nicely circumvented.

Lightsaber combat would be easy too. I’d give Jedi character the option to substitute their Jedi career number in place of their melee number. The same with dodging/deflecting blaster bolts.

I’m actually rather excited about these ideas and may develop them further.


Edit: Hey! I just remembered. WotC is giving up the Star Wars license. Maybe Mr. Washbourne could acquire it and produce a Star Wars version of BoL!

Reading in Public

I read RPGs in public twice this week. Both times in restaurants.

The first occasion was on Monday. I was reading a printout of the rules for Mini-Six. The little silhouettes for the sample characters, creatures and vehicles caught a lady’s attention. She asked what I was reading and I replied that it was the rules to a game. She asked what kind of game and I replied a role-playing game.
“Like Dungeons and Dragons?”
“Yes. But you can use the rules for any setting you want.”
She smiled and nodded and that was the end of the conversation.

On Thursday I was reading the quick-start rules for Basic Role-Playing. Nobody noticed except for one of the people I supervise. He noticed the cover as I walked out and chuckled.

I chose these two specifically because they were printouts. If someone would’ve shown enough interest I would’ve just gave it to them to keep.