D6 Danger System
A downloadable game
The D6 Danger System is a quick, narrative tabletop roleplaying game for a group of two to five people with simple, player-centered mechanics. Designed by C. J. Koger, who has decades of experience in the roleplaying game space, the system is flexible enough to be used for different genres or settings. The system really thrives in a story where the players are competent butt-kickers, ready to take down their enemies and solve problems on the fly with wit, grit, and a bit of screw it. Within the game itself is everything you need to sit down and play right away, and it will continue to be supported with updates and separately available adventure modules.
Included are the pdf files for the full page layout and the A5 dark themed layout.
Download
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Development log
- Updates v1.2Apr 13, 2022
- Example of Play and Attribute ClarificationApr 11, 2022
- New Format AvailableMar 11, 2022
- Adventure ModulesMar 01, 2022
Comments
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I'm going to be running this for my group next weekend, but I'm still a little confused as to when a "Screw It!" roll would be used - can you provide a few examples where neither "Wits" or "Grit" would be used? Thanks! (Would this be better as a Development Log post?)
Tell you what, let me post a one page example of play I have tomorrow. I’ll add it to the main book downloads. I’ll do a devlog about it tomorrow as well. Thanks! Also, when are y’all playing this week, and do you mind shooting me a private message afterward to let me know how it went? I'd love to hear your player and GM feedback.
Cool - looking forward to downloading more content! :)
And sure thing, I'll get you some feedback after my game on Sunday night.
Look forward to hearing about the game! Devlog and example are uploaded.
Oh no! My session has been delayed due to Chocolate Rabbit droppings! ;) Turns out that Easter is not a good time to try and get people away from their families for a game. :D
Haha, I didn’t even put that together either. I had to push a game also that was supposed to be on Sunday. Haha. Enjoy your weekend.
In the What are the Dice? section, it says "If the Danger Die roll is equal to or higher than the <span class="fontstyle0" <than="" the="" <="" span="">Success Die </span>roll, the GM chooses a Complication" and then it also says "If you roll a Double, the same result on both dice, your Success or Failure is particularly spectacular."
So, if a player is rolling against an Attribute of 5 and scores a 4 on both dice, is that Spectacular Success with a Complication?
What if it's a score of 5 on both dice? Is that a Spectacular Failure with a Complication?
Am I correct in understanding that the dice mechanic has six types of results?
So there is never just a Spectacular Success or Failure? They are always combined with a Complication?
In the rules as written right now, that would be a spectacular success with a complication. I have gone back and forth a bit with that one, and have considered changing the Danger Die Complications to above and not equal to and above. In the end, I landed on how it is written now.
Do you have any advice on implementing HP/Wound recovery from playtests of the system? Have you established any best practices?
So, this is designed around a one shot story, so the HP and Grit you have is all you have. In between stories, if using the same characters, I would just have them heal up completely. There isn’t a healing system set up. If you wanted to add some one use mechanical items, like a medical kit or similar, that could heal someone in a limited scope, I would say go for if it fits your game.
I actually like the idea of there being no during-session healing - it sounds like that would add a certain amount of tension to the game. And for a multi-session game, campaign or otherwise, a downtime-refresh sounds appropriate, too (like a week or two of rest).
Can you elaborate on the design decision for assigning 15 points to attributes at character creation? Why not fewer or more points? Would different values be too swingy?
Using 15 points provided the best balance, especially since this was more designed for one shot games. You characters should be fairly competent at what they do. If you put 5 into everything, you basically pass any roll 2/3 of the time. At 6 / 5 / 4, you have 83% / 66% / 50 % pass rates, giving you something you are really good at, good at, and not good at. You could even go 6 / 6 / 3 if you were really min/maxing and be great at 2 things and terrible at one. Within a D6 system the percentages swing in bigger numbers with each point in a skill, and 15 points ended up being the ideal breakdown for me.
Did you try this with different size dice at any time? I wonder if it would be worthwhile using 8's as a max, or 10's or 12's?
I did look at doing it with d10s for a time. The range of the D6 works for me, and also I like that almost anyone has a couple of “regular” dice lying around they could use to play.
In regards to Wounds reducing a PC's Grit, is that a death spiral? Does the PC use the lowered Grit value when making a Grit roll from that point onward? Or is the player just tracking the wounds, effectively making a PC have 2 times their starting grit in HP?
I would say it is kind of a death spiral. The hit points reflect more of the superficial physical damage and exhaustion. Once you start taking damage to your grit, these are more serious wounds. And yes, that means that when rolling grit, you are rolling against whatever the current value is, even if that has been lowered by wounds.
Do you see this as a game that can support campaign play, or is it just for one-shots?
As it stands right now, it is definitely designed more as a one shot or short campaign game. It was designed around being a pick up and play, minimalist game system. Since it revolves around a narrative structure with a light resolution system, the largest hurdle is that there isn’t really a system set in place for mechanical character advancement or leveling. That is the thing that most people want in long term games.
I think I'd be happy with narrative character advancement - maybe allowing players to adjust or add to their character description as they <narratively> put in the effort to improve.
Of course, I'm assuming that Wits and Grit Dice Rolls are for skilled actions that fall under the purview of a character's description, and Screw It Dice Rolls are more for unskilled actions. (Is this correct?)
For example, this character:
"[Trevor] is a [law-abiding] [District Attorney], who used to be a [Boy Scout]. Always ready to [debate the finer points of law], [he] [encourages] the party members [to live up to his high standards]."
. . . should probably know nothing about how to pick a lock, and if he were in a desperate situation that required him to get through a locked door, "pick the lock" is probably not something that the GM should allow the player to roll for - even using Luck via his Screw It attribute would be strange. ("Break the lock" would be more in-narrative, though.)
Then, if [Trevor] survives, the player might narrate how [Trevor] starts taking some locksmithing courses at night school, adding that information to the character description. (Of course, in-game time will need to pass.)
Yes, that is a pretty solid take on how things work. I like that idea as well. The character doing work on down time to expand their knowledge and range of abilities and expertise.
Any word on the next two adventure modules you mentioned in your update?
Thanks for reaching out! I got tied up with some other work for my day job. I am actually sitting down and finishing up the first one right now as I type this. I'll have it out tomorrow. I am playing with a couple additional rules for the second one that I am currently play testing. After a couple more sessions it should be good to come out.
I'm looking forward to seeing where you take this system. Any chance that we'll get to see, or listen to, some actual plays?
I do have a one page example of gameplay I can load up later today to go along with the other files. I’d love to do some actual plays, and have reached out to some people I know about setting them up. Doing high quality actual plays takes a lot of time and effort, so it’ll be a project that might take a while.
Zombie Raid, the second adventure module is now live. There are a couple of new, simple mechanics to play around with in there.
There's no download button for Zombie Raid at the moment.
That was weird. Thanks for the heads up! It is fixed now.
This is fun… nice work! One suggestion: a pdf compressor. 57MB is pretty big :) https://www.ilovepdf.com/compress_pdf
Thanks for checking it out. It’s been fun to put together. Also, good heads up on the pdf size.
I have made good use of the PDF compressor, so thanks for the tip. I also added an A5 version in a dark theme that you can download as part of your purchase now as well.