Introduction This is a review of D6 Adventure, one of the three new core rulebooks released for the D6 System by Purgatory Press / West End Games. The history of West End Games and the D6 System have been discussed in great length in other reviews and in the forums, so I won’t go into much detail about those things, since they have little bearing on this review.
First off, a bit about me. This is my first review for rpg.net. I have been a gamer for more than 20 years, and for the last four years have played and GM’ed with the same group of folks every other Sunday. We play a variety of different games, like DnD 3.5, Savage Worlds, 7th Sea, Tribe 8, and Silver Age Sentinels.
This is a playtest review of D6 Adventure, so I will be inserting comments about our experiences with the game as the review progresses. A lot of this and any review is opinion, so feel free to politely disagree, and constructive criticism of the review itself would be appreciated.
Part 1: Overview D6 Adventure is a hardbound 144 page book with a full color cover and a B&W interior. Illustrations are a bit sparse, but well drawn and well placed, in my opinion. Art is very subjective, but I like what I see in the book and on the cover. You may not agree with me, but there you go. The book is laid out like a set of files or a dossier, with file folder tabs at the top of the page, pieces of “tape” holding some of the pictures to the pages. Watermarks in the background of some pages look like pencil notes and doodles, and several pictures and text boxes look like they are stapled or paper clipped to the book. A sample of the layout and preview of the book can be downloaded here: http://www.westendgames.com/d6/weg51011samp.pdf Personally, I loved the layout, and thought it was very evocative of the genre.
The book seems sturdy, and has held together for the few months of page flipping and backpack bouncing that it has been subjected to. The only material flaw I can see is that for some reason the ink printed darker in the text around the illustrations. Not sure if this is just in my copy, but it is noticeable. The darkening does not make the book harder to read or use, but it looks odd.
The book is divided into 16 chapters, with a serviceable table of contents and index. The last 15 pages of the book have templates for PCs, some charts and tables, and the index. I will go over each chapter with a bit of detail below. I did not see a lot of editing, spelling and grammar errors. I almost never notice these type of errors, however, so there may be some there.
The back cover blurb suggests that D6 Adventure can be used to run any type of game from the Wild West to the near future, to super heroes, and I agree, with a caveat. This book is not a sourcebook for those types of games or adventures. It is a rulebook for them. There is only a small section of Gamemaster advice in Chapters 15 and 16, and these are not adequate to run the game without quite a bit of work on the part of the GM. Some people think of a generic RPG as having advice on setting and genre, but this one does not. It is a rulebook, first and foremost. This did not bother me, as I love creating settings and worlds, but it may not serve everyone’s needs. Purgatory has a pretty good sized list on their web page(http://www.westendgames.com/html/press18.html ) of D6 Adventure materials coming soon, and these will hopefully provide the setting and details many folks are looking for.
Playtest Overview: I am using D6 Adventure to run a 1930’s pulp adventure, with clashes against Nazis, the supernatural, and the occasional space alien. D6 Adventure has so for performed admirably for this type of game.
Note: Source: RPG

No related posts.