This interview originally appeared on Polyhedral Dreams on January 27th, 2010. There have been a couple small edits. → Continue
Category : D6, Interview, Microlite Games, RPG
Category : D6, Just my two cents, News, Reviews & Culture, Other Systems, RPG, Random musings
I usually don’t rant on my blog and I although don’t post my thought on the industry that often either, but there’s something that got my blood boiling. Perhaps you remember the Open D6 project, I’ve been posting about. Eric Gibson, current owner of West End Games, had a great idea: releasing the D6 System under an open license and creating a website where people not only can upload their custom rules but where you also can download a ruleset based on your wishes. You want a D6 ruleset suited for Fantasy, using Body Points and the D6 Legends dice mechanics? Just click a few buttons and you can download your customized rulebook or send it to Lulu for printing. That still is a great idea, alas the OpenD6.com website is still a placeholder site.
Over a year ago, Eric Gibson updated the WEG website for the last time and announced that the D6 System was going to be released under an open license. In the following months he repeatedly posted about his plans and ideas on various forums (mainly on then WEG Fan Forums). During last GenCon the first Open D6 publication by WEG was finally released: Bill Coffin’s Septimus (which had been cancelled once already and was considered vaporware at some point). And then Eric stopped communicating: No more updates anywhere. So, after several months, people assumed the project was dead, that something must have been happened to Eric or that the company must have gone bankrupt.
Luckily, Eric had already made the D6 rulesets available under the OGL some time ago (with the help of the fans I have to add) but the lack of a trademark license forbids the use of either the Open D6 or D6 System trademarks. So people invented new names to release their version of the D6 rules under the OGL: Six-Sided Fantasy and Mini Six were just two of the projects that were started while Eric was “incommunicado”. The latest project was the Open D6 Resurrection wiki, which I posted about just a few days ago.
And guess what, now Eric Gibson suddenly returns, announces that Open D6 is far from dead as a project and that he’s unhappy about D6 “fragmenting”. He also tells people that it was their fault if he seemed MIA since they didn’t try to contact him hard enough. When I (and other people) tried to explain to him that communication is key for any company, I was accused of “preaching” to him. Ok, perhaps I was preaching, but I am just concerned that Eric Gibson’s lack of communication with the dwindling WEG fan base will probably hurt not only the Open D6 project but his company West End Games in the long run. Communication with the fans is very important in this day and age, especially if you are an indie publisher. Sometimes even a short news post letting people know that a project is still alive is all what is needed. But nothing kills the relationship between a RPG company and its fans faster than being out of touch for too long. And I am pretty sure that I am not the only fan who feels alienated by Mr. Gibson. But perhaps he just knows best what’s good for his company.
Just my two cents.
The official Open D6 project may be dead (or at least of uncertain status), but there are still enough dedicated fans willing to resurrect the idea. One of those fans recently created a wiki for the so-called Open D6 Project Resurrection. But let the wiki’s creator speak for himself:
Open D6 was a project started by Eric Gibson the owner of West End Games as a means of making the D6 System more available and customizable to the fanbase at large. With the disappearance of Mr. Gibson from the professional arena for over half a year Open D6 Project Resurrection (also known as Open D6 Resurrection) takes the OGL and runs with it. This wikia is intended to be used as a compilation and resource center for materials created through Google Wave.
If you are a fan of West End Games’ D6 system, you may want to check out the wiki and perhaps even contribute an article or two.
Category : D6, Freebies, News, Reviews & Culture, Other Systems, RPG, Reviews & First Looks
In the last months I have posted several times about West End Games’ D6 System and the OpenD6 project. A few months ago, Eric Gibson, owner of WEG released the cinematic RPG from the ‘80s that powered the very successful Star Wars RPG series under the OGL. But alas he never released a trademark license of any kind, and the long-announced OpenD6 website is still MIA. So, the fans took over.
The first step was Sycarion’s Six-Sided Fantasy SRD. And recently AntiPaladin Games provided us with Mini Six, a rules-light version of said rules presented on just 8 pages (7 pages + the OGL).
The first two pages contain all the basic rules you need to play Mini Six, including character creation and combat. There is even a small list of perks and complications, that help to flesh out characters.
The next pages contain rules for vehicles (including stats for fantasy, modern and sci-fi vehicles), magic, a complete bestiary and optional rules like using Body Points instead of Wound Levels and a No Attributes Variant.
Antipaladin Games announced today on Twitter that they are going to release a better laid out version of Mini Six soon. And I applaud this, because the only thing that keeps Mini Six from being the perfect rules-lite game is the pretty basic and cramped layout. But aside from that I wholeheartedly recommend anyone to have a look at this fine game.
While WEG’s Eric Gibson hasn’t shown up on the WEG Fan Forums for ages and things are generally looking grim for the future of the OpenD6 project, a fellow RPG blogger has provided us with the Six-Sided Fantasy System Reference Document.
The Six-Sixed Fantasy SRD consists of several well laid out RTF files that provide you with all the rules necessary to run a fantasy game or create your own variant rules. Please note that all trademarked material and all references to WEG trademarks have been removed from the SRD.
Category : D6, Just my two cents, News, Reviews & Culture, Other Systems, RPG, Random musings
A long time ago Eric Gibson, current owner of West End Games, announced that he plans to turn the D6 System into an open system. I believe he made that statement in his first video update on the official site (which he posted in December 2008). While a lot has happened in the background this is still the latest news on the WEG site.
On GenCon this year, Bill Coffin’s Septimus made its debut as the first OpenD6 game and although this book is not listed on the WEG site, you can buy it through RPGNow and probably at other places as well. From what I’ve seen so far, Septimus seems to be a nice game, but I am pretty sure that most gamers are totally oblivious of its existence.
In the meantime a fan helped Eric to add the OGL to a couple of d6 System books that are now freely available:
- D6 Adventure (weg51011OGL.pdf)
- D6 Space (weg51012OGL.pdf)
- D6 Fantasy (weg51013OGL.pdf)
- D6 Fantasy Creatures (weg51015OGL.pdf)
- D6 Adventure Locations (weg51016OGL.pdf)
- D6 Space Ships (weg51017OGL.pdf)
- D6 Fantasy Locations (weg51020OGL.pdf)
- D6 Magic (weg51024OGL.pdf)
But if you don’t follow the discussions on the WEG Fan Forums you might get the impression that WEG and the OpenD6 project are dead. Several people including me tried to convice Eric Gibson to at least update the WEG site or setup a temporary site for Opend6.com, but alas to no avail.
Around GenCon, the OpenD6 web developer announced that the beta test should start any minute now. But as far as I know this beta test hasn’t started yet. The project still seems to be in limbo. The last thing I heard was that they still have trouble getting the servers up and running…
And if you ask me the whole project is much to ambitious for a one-man show like WEG. If Eric Gibson just released a D6 System SRD and a proper OpenD6 trademark license on a simple website, a lot of people would’ve already jumped on the bandwagon. Now only the few hardcore fans are still waiting for something that may or may not materialize. The rest probably already forgot about West End Games… which is sad.
What do you think? Is there still hope? Do you understand why Eric Gibson avoids making updates to the WEG site? As always I am very interested in your thoughts.
