D&D6: D&D but you actually have fun now

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D&D6: D&D but you actually have fun now

Introduction

What are we all doing here ?

Hey y’all ! You probably know me in some way or another if you see this document, but here’s a quick little word:

It’s no secret I actually hate D&D as a system, the only reason I play it is because everyone does, so I decided it was finally time to do something about it.

I discovered MiniD6 a few years ago, and despite it being incredibly bare bones, it had a lot of elements I liked regarding what I want in a system, regarding player agency, immersion and fun.

To bridge the gap between all of you, that either played a lot of D&D, Baldur’s Gate or consumed other Forgotten Realms games, here is a rework of the Forgotten Realms setting, aptly named the Remembered Realms because I’m a great writer.

There are a lot of historical inspirations, inspirations from major fantasy works, and some games. (thank you Bannerlord for the faction names)

This system is still meant to facilitate dialogue between the Players and the DM, present a grounded universe that makes immersion easier (enemies die fast, and the Players should feel like danger is tangible, unlike D&D). And most importantly, it’s meant to be FUN for everyone involved.

With that being said, I (and other DMs playing) can’t be assholes that praise realism above fun. There are optional rules put in place for those of us that would want more in this regard, like body damage, survival rules and the like.

What the Players want should always be your top priority as a DM, and hopefully this system can cover the majority of player types you should have.

I’m aware that there must be some flaws in this system, and I’m open to any questions / feedback you might have !

Remember, it’s all fun and games,

Eli

PS: This game exclusively uses six-sided Die, because everyone has them and it’s easier that way ! Whenever you see D written this is referring to a D6, a six-sided Die.

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Intentions

Now, to go deeper into the “why” I did this:

When I discovered MiniD6, I was running a version held together by super glue, hope, thoughts and prayers. I was lucky enough to be the Dungeon Master to wonderful friends and players who were very understanding with the whole process.

But even with the dubious quality of my DMing, something great happened.

The players were scared of opening doors, every one stopped talking when they heard strange noises, and a very simple moment where they were supposed to walk by sleeping zombies lasted for about 10 minutes, with 4 Die rolls, and every one was holding their breaths.

After chasing that high for a while, I understood why this was the case.

They were fully immersed in the game, even though this was all theater of the mind.

Why ?

Threats mattered, danger was tangible, every hit taken or dodged was felt by the players.

The main reason for this is the Wound System, in my opinion far superior to standard Health Points. You never took 22 points of damage in real life when you fell down your bike, you can’t relate to points of damage. They’re great if you want to quickly see how much you can take before dying, but if you want to relate to your Character, and that’s the goal if you want your Players immersed.

Another point I want to bring to the immersion thing, is

Stats⁠

. I have nothing against the D&D classic of:

Strength

Dexterity

Constitution

Intelligence

Wisdom

Charisma

In fact you’ll notice that the Stats I’m using don’t differ that much:

Brawn is Strength and Constitution combined

Brain is Intelligence

Finesse is Dexterity

Heart is Wisdom and Constitution

Will is a great value to define to get a clear picture of a character.

The main problem I have with the D&D Stats is the granularity and the steps required to actually use them.

So, the stats in D&D go from 1 - 20 (pretty sure you die if one reaches 0), and the way they’re used, is that if you make a stat roll, you roll a D20, and add a +1 for every 2 points above 10 in that Stat.

ouch

And again, going from 1 to 20 is great to precisely say how strong your character is, how charismatic etc. But since ease of play is a criteria here, going from 1 to 3, with 2 being the human standard works great too. Two characters with 2D in Brawn won’t behave the same way, this is a roleplaying game after all, no need to put numbers on everything.

So, with fewer numbers, and clear ways to use them (Heart roll ? You have 2D, roll them), it’s easier for more types of Players to understand the difficulty of challenges, to get a grasp of what their character can or can’t do.

Little doses of realism, like the armor helping you reduce damage instead of making you harder to hit also reinforce the immediate understanding of the game’s rules, and makes everything feel “grounded”.

I put quotes around that word, because it’s often used and abused by people that boldly assume that realism is the only way to go when it comes to TTRPG. If you know me you know that I’ll always put the fun first. When I say grounded, I mean little mechanics that take their roots in real life, or an understandable fiction, and enhance the feeling of immersion. You can’t shoot a bow if someone grabs you, shields make you harder to hit, spells need incantations and exotic materials.

The other side of this coin is that we need to put the Players’ fantasies first too. And D&D is extremely bad at that.

You want to be a badass and strong archer ? Too bad, you have penalties to shoot people at close range, your strength doesn’t impact how far you can pull your bowstring, and you need feats to actually make it enjoyable.

I want the Players to be able to fulfill their roleplaying fantasies, especially the action ones as this is where I have the most experience.

Be a strong Knight, with arrows smashing on your plate armor ? Yeah

Be a nimble Assassin, stabbing your foes left and right ? Yeah good luck with that in D&D, come on over we have that.

Be a mighty Mage, tap into ancient powers beyond your comprehension ? No actually it’s a 4th level spell you c- Yeah we have that too.

If you want a more “gamified” experience, with spell levels, +1 swords, lvl 18 bards with 23 AC, and the like:

Play 5E. Or Pathfinder, Five Rings, SotDL, Worlds Without Number and a thousand others. They’re great.

They’re just not what I’m looking for.

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References

D&D5E, I wouldn’t be here without it.

Mount & Blade, for the epic medieval fights, and the sense of scale.

The Green Knight, for that grounded world with whatever the fuck that was.

Savage Worlds TTRPG and OpenD6, for the ease of play, and the intensity of fights.

The Witcher TTRPG, for the actual monster hunting.

Elden Ring, for its huge world filled with monsters, where not all hope is lost.

Battle Brothers and Wartales, for the gritty fights, and the Celtic / Middle-Eastern opposition.

Warhammer Fantasy, for the idea of the Heat in the magic system.

Caves of Qud, for the idea of drawing your magic from another dimension.

Dragon’s Dogma, for the Vocation idea, and fighting against huge monsters as a group.

Every western imaginable for the wonder of exploring the lands, whatever danger they may hide.

but mostly the Dollar trilogy, 3.10 to Yuma, and Josey Wales.

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Wait who are you ?

Hi ! First of all thank you for making it this far !

My name is Eli, I’m a game designer studying at GAMESUP in France, and I’ve been DMing since high school. I took settings from video games I like, movies, books, every things I could get my hands on and made those into scenarios and systems. I mostly played D&D5E, because of its popularity and ubiquity in the circles I was a part of. I always had a great time, but I’ve always wanted something more... fun I guess ? Consider this a summer project, I will be testing it with a bunch of people in the coming months, and making changes to it as feedback comes.

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