TEXT: Any game using the D6 System follows the same basic principle: Roll a number of six-sided 
  dice equal to the characterʼs skill or attribute score. If the total generated equals or exceeds 
  the difﬁculty number, then the character succeeds. However, in each application of the system, 
  attributes, skills, and other character details are tailored to the genre of the game.
  Rolling Dice
  There are two types of dice used in the D6 System. One is a regular die, and most of the 
  dice you roll will be these. The other is a Wild Die. It represents all of the ﬂukes of nature and 
  chance. It allows even an incredibly incompetent character a chance to do something great. 
  The Wild Die should be a different color from the rest of the dice, so that you can easily tell 
  it apart. Most of the time, youʼll just add whatever is on the die as normal. But if you roll a 1 
  or a 6, something special happens.
  With a 1 result (sometimes called a “Critical 
  Failure”), that something is bad. Normally, you donʼt 
  add the 1 to the total. Instead, you take away the 
  other highest value that you rolled, though the rules 
  gives the gamemaster other options for what to do 
  with this roll.
  With a 6 result (sometimes called a “critical suc-
  cess”), however, that something is good. You not only 
  add the 6 to the total, but you also roll the Wild Die 
  again. (If anything other than a 6 turns up, even a 1, 
  just add that result to your total and stop rolling.)
  Making Actions
  Each player has a character with attributes and skills 
  that describe how well that character can perform vari-
  ous actions. What the attributes and skills are called 
  and represent depend on the genre and the gamemas-
  ter, though West End Games offers three suggested 
  attribute and skill combinations, one each in the D6 
  Adventure, D6 Fantasy, and D6 Space rulebooks.
  to do one action really well. When 
  a Fate Point is used, itʼs lost but 
  may be gained back at the end of 
  the game if used in a brave, heroic, 
  or climactic moment. 
  Getting Hurt
  To represent how much dam-
  age you can take, your character 
  has Wound Levels or Body Points. 
  Which one you use depends on your 
  gamemaster. 
  Wound Levels: When youʼre hit 
  in combat, you roll your characterʼs 
  damage resistance attribute (usually 
  Strength or Physique) while the attacker rolls damage. Compare the difference between the 
  damage and your roll on the “Wound Levels” chart. When your character has six wounds, 
  sheʼs toast. 
  Body Points: Players subtract the amount of damage the attacker rolls from the total number 
  of Body Points your character has (which were ﬁgured out when you created the character). 
  In games where characters ought to last a long time in combat, your gamemaster will have 
  you subtract a roll of yourcharacterʼs Strength 
  or Physique attribute from the attackerʼs dam-
  age total.
  Other Variations
  This sheet describes the “Classic” and most 
  popular version of the D6 System. One variant 
  called the Legend System is similar in most 
  respects to the Classic version except that it 
  uses the faces on the dice to represent success 
  and failure. You can ﬁnd out more information 
  about this version on our Web site.
  You can download free samples of each of the 
  genre rulebooks (which include an introductory 
  adventure), free characters, and more at 
  www.westendgames.com.
  How the 
  Game
  Works
  Related Skill Bonus & 
  Damage Bonus
  Gamemasters have the option of 
  rewarding great rolls. For combat 
  rolls that could affect damage, the 
  damage bonus equals the difference 
  between the skill total and the dif-
  ﬁculty divided by 5. For skill and 
  attribute rolls that could affect other 
  skill or attribute rolls, the related skill 
  bonus equals one-half of the skill 
  roll minus the total difﬁculty. For 
  example a gamemaster might allow a 
  Knowledge roll to help a piloting roll 
  (and the Knowledge roll would give 
  the piloting roll a related skill bonus). 
  The gamemaster can also employ the 
  value to determine how successful 
  (or unsuccessful) the character is at 
  the action, and thus what the role-
  playing results are. In either case, 
  the greater the difference between the 
  difﬁculty number and the rolled total, 
  the greater the success or failure.
  Wound Levels
   
  Damage Total ≥ 
   Resistance Total By: 
  Effect
   
  0 
  Bruised
   
  1–3 
  Stunned
   
  4–8 
  Wounded, 
   
   
  Severely Wounded
   
  9–12 
  Incapacitated
   
  13–15 
  Mortally Wounded
   
  16+ 
  Dead
  Permission is hereby granted to photocopy or 
  printthis pamphlet for personal or promotional use 
  only. This booklet is not for resale. © 2004 Purgatory 
  Publishing, Inc. D6 System, WEG, and West End 
  Games are trademarks of Purgatory Publishing, Inc. 
  Timothy Bradstreet
  Talon Dunning
  
  A die code, or value, associated with each of those attributes and skills indicates how good 
  the character is. The gamemaster informs the players when to roll the dice, and uses the rules 
  to interpret the die rolls to see how successful an action is.
  Die codes (1D, 2D, 3D, 4D, 5D, and so on) represent the number of dice you roll when 
  your character uses an attribute or skill. The die codes sometimes have a “+1” or “+2,” called 
  “pips,” after them. The numbers that show up on the dice rolled are added together; then you 
  add any pips to the entire roll as a bonus. 
  Example: SarʼJoanʼs Strength attribute is 3D+1, so if she tried to lift a box, her player 
  would roll three dice and add one to the total to get her score.
  Attributes, such as Strength and Knowledge, represent basic physical and mental capabili-
  ties. Skills are more speciﬁc applications of an attribute. For example, the skill dodge is a 
  more speciﬁc use of your characterʼs Reﬂexes or Agility (the attribute name depending on the 
  world youʼre playing in). All skills beneath a given attribute begin at that attributeʼs die code; 
  those in which the character has trained or has some experience are improved. If youʼre asked 
  to roll a skill your character doesnʼt have, ﬁnd out which attribute it belongs under and roll 
  that attributeʼs die code.
  Higher rolls are better. When your character attempts an action, the gamemaster might as-
  sign a difﬁculty number to it. At other times, the character competes against another character 
  at a task, so you need to beat one of his skill rolls in an opposed skill. Some tasks are easier 
  than others, and the gamemaster often wonʼt let you know what number you need to beat to 
  succeed. Sometimes a gamemaster will drop clues about a taskʼs difﬁculty (“Hitting that ﬂy 
  with your pistol at 100 meters? Thatʼs going to be tricky...”).
  Standard Difﬁculty Example: SarʼJoan wants to ﬁnd out some speciﬁc details about Nyles, 
  the planet sheʼs traveling to. Nyleʼs a pretty out-of-the-way system, so the gamemaster decides 
  that Amy (the player running SarʼJoan) needs to roll a 20 or higher for her character to ﬁnd 
  the information sheʼs looking for. SarʼJoanʼs planetary systems skill is 6D (respectfully high), 
  so Amy rolls six dice. She gets 25, beating the difﬁculty number. The gamemaster refreshes 
  SarʼJoanʼs memory about the information sheʼs seeking on Nyle.
  Opposed Roll Example: SarʼJoan is involved in a blaster ﬁght. Sheʼs shooting a traitor 
  whoʼs just shot at her and is dodging toward some important controls. The traitor makes a 
  dodge roll of 12: this is the difﬁculty number SarʼJoan must equal or exceed to hit the traitor. 
  SarʼJoanʼs ﬁrearms skill is 4D+1, so Amy rolls four dice and adds one to the total. She rolls 
  a total of 16 and hits the traitor. Since this is combat, and SarʼJoanʼs pistol does 4D damage, 
  Amy rolls 4D to ﬁnd out how badly SarʼJoan wounded the traitor.
  Your character can also perform more than one action at a time. Of course, since the 
  characterʼs concentration is split between tasks, there is a penalty: for each action beyond the 
  ﬁrst, you subtract one die from the normal total that you need to roll for each skill or attribute. 
  (Some special abilities allow you to get around this.) Thus, if you wanted your character to 
  perform three actions at the same time, you would roll two less dice for each score than you 
  would if you did each action by itself.
  Example: SarʼJoan hasnʼt managed to subdue the traitor. She decides to both shoot and 
  dodge. Since sheʼs doing two actions in one turn, each action is reduced by 1D. If SarʼJoanʼs 
  dodge skill is 3D+2, Amy rolls 2D+2 to ﬁnd her characterʼs dodge total and 3D+1 to get her 
  ﬁrearms total.
  Since the gamemaster keeps track of whoʼs doing what and what everybody needs to use, 
  you donʼt need to be too concerned about what to roll. If you have any questions, ask the 
  gamemaster.
  Improving Rolls
  In addition to scores for your characterʼs attributes and skills, she has Fate Points and 
  Character Points. You can spend these points in particularly difﬁcult and heroic situations.
  Character Points: When you spend a 
  Character Point, you get to roll one extra 
  die when her character tries to successfully 
  complete a task. You may choose to spend a 
  Character Point after youʼve made a roll (in 
  case itʼs an important roll and you roll very 
  low, or you want to improve your result). For 
  instance, if SarʼJoan tries to hit that traitor and 
  she needs a 10 but she only rolls a 7, she may 
  spend a Character Point and roll one more 
  Wild Die, adding the result to her skill total. 
  You gain more Character Points at the end of a 
  game for completing goals and playing well.
  Fate Points: When you spend a Fate Point, 
  that means your character is using all of her 
  concentration to try to succeed. You may 
  only spend a Fate Point before any die rolls 
  are made. Doing so doubles the number of 
  dice youʼd normally roll for one round and 
  one action only (though in climatic situations 
  your gamemaster may allow the point to affect 
  more than one roll). This allows the character 
  Standard Difﬁculties
  Automatic (0): Almost anyone can perform this action; there is no need to roll. 
  (Generally, this difﬁculty is not listed in a pre-generated adventure; it is included here 
  for reference purposes.)
  Very Easy (1–5): Nearly everyone can accomplish this task. Typically, only tasks 
  with such a low difﬁculty that are crucial to the scenario are rolled.
  Easy (6-10): Although characters usually have no difﬁculty with these tasks, a 
  normal adult may ﬁnd them challenging.
  Moderate (11–15): There is a fair chance that the average character will fail at this 
  type of task. Tasks of this type require skill, effort, and concentration.
  Difﬁcult (16–20): Those with little experience in the task will have to be quite 
  lucky to accomplish these actions. 
  Very Difﬁcult (21–25): The average character will only rarely succeed at these 
  kinds of task. Only the most talented regularly succeed.
  Heroic (26–30), Legendary (31 or more): These kinds of tasks are nearly impos-
  sible, though thereʼs still that possibility that lucky average or highly experienced 
  characters will accomplish them.
  Allan Nunis
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/D6 System/d6 How the Game Works.pdf