Appleseed D6: Basic Rules

Table of
Contents

Welcome to
Olympus

The State of
the World

Game
Mechanics

The Basics (D6 Legend)
This game is based on West End Game's D6 Legend system, specifically its DC Universe game. I highly recommend that you pick up the DC Universe rules (available at game stores and the WEG website) to fill in gaps that I don't cover here. There are many differences between the Appleseed D6 Legend and DCU and I will try to point out where they pop up. As always, I encourage you to tweak the system in any way that works best for you. If you have any questions or comments, please email me and I'll try to answer them for you.

GAME MECHANICS

The Dice
The system requires players to roll six-sided dice (D6), which represent a character's attributes and skills. When appropriate, the Game Master will tell a player to roll a number of dice equal to either the attribute or skill being used. The player rolls the appropriate number of dice, counts the number of Successes and tells the GM the result.

Regular Die
Die Roll	Result
1,2	Failure
3,4,5,6	Success

Wild Die
Die Roll	Result
1	Critical Failure
2	Failure
3,4,5	Success
6	Critical Success

If the Success Total is higher than the difficulty number (See below), the character succeeds. If it is lower, the character fails.

Example: Kreiger is trying to walk along a thin ledge without falling. He has a Dexterity of 3D. The GM sets the difficulty number at 1 Success. The player rolls 3 dice and gets a 2, 3, and 5, resulting in two Successes. Kreifer traverses the ledge with ease.

The Wild Die
Each player should designate one of his or her dice to be the Wild Die (it is helpful if it's a different color or shape).

Critical Successes: Whenever the the Wild Die comes up with a 2,3,4, or 5, treat the result as if it were a normal die. But, if the Wild Die comes up with a 6, the player receives 1 Success and rolls again. On a 1 or 2, the player does nothing more (1's do not count as Critical Failures after the first roll of the Wild Die). On a 3-5, the player adds yet another Success to his total. On a 6, the player adds another Success and rerolls! This continues as long as the character rolls 6's on the Wild Die.

Example: Kreiger, a rookie cop in Olympus, has a Firearms skills of 4D. When he fires, he rolls 4 dice. His values are 2,5,3 and on the Wild Die, a 6, resulting in 3 Successes He rolls the Wild Die again and gets another 6! The total is now 4 Successes and he gets to roll again. This time, he rolls a 1. The 1 is counted as a failure (but not a Critical Failure) and he stops rolling with a final total of 4 successes.

Critical Failures: If the Wild Die comes up with a 1 when a character is first rolling a Skill or Attribute Check, roll the Wild Die again. If the value is 1 through 5, remove the Wild Die and deduct one of the Successes from the other dice (if any Successes were rolled). If the result of the second rolls is a 6, the character has Complicated. He or she has screwed up in a particularly bad way....perhaps dropping his gun down into a sewer grating or twisting an ankle while trying to dodge. Complications should make a character's life more difficult, but never kill them outright.

Example: Kreiger is shooting again. He rolls a 2,5,6 (2 Successes and 1 Failure) and on the Wild Die a 1. He rerolls the Wild Die and gets a 2. He removes the Wild Die and subtracts 1 Success, resulting in 1 Success remaining.

Example 2: Kreiger is chasing a fleeing mugger on a crowded street. The GM has him make a running roll with a difficulty of 2 Successes to avoid colliding with a bystander. Kreiger, with a Running skill of 3D, rolls 3 dice. He gets a 2,3 (1 Failure and 1 Success) and on the Wild Die a 1. He rerolls the Wild and gets a 6! He not only fails but complicates. The GM tells him that he runs into a homeless woman pushing a shopping cart. He not only stumbles to the ground, he drops his gun and it falls into a drainage pipe. If he catches the crook he'll have to subdue him some other way.

The GM could have just as well said that Kreiger got a muscle-cramp and is -1D to all Dexterity actions for the next 5 rounds, or that he is stunned for the next round. Anything that makes Kreiger's life a little more scary.

Boosting the Wild Die: Sometimes a characer will have some slight advantage over others. It may because of natural abilities, cybernetics, a piece of technology or just dumb luck. Whatever the reason, in the long run, the character has an edge over others.

In this game, that edge is represented by Boosts. Boosts give the character an increased chance to reroll the Wild Die. A character with one Boost may reroll the Wild Die when it comes up a 5 or a 6 on his initial roll only. Subsequent rolls of the Wild Die are treated normally.

Example: Kreiger is wearing Gasium armor, which is lightly powered and augments the user's Strength and Dexterity, Boosting all rolls made under either attribute. Kreiger is in a gunfight and attempts to Dodge (Dexterity skill). He rolls a 1, 3, 4, and 5 on the Wild Die. He gets to reroll the Wild Die, getting another 5. He does not roll again, and adds up his successes for 4 successes.

A character with multiple Boosts in the same area may reroll subsequent Wild Die rolls, once for each Boost. Thus, a character with 2 Boosts in Dexterity can reroll the Wild Die on a 5 or 6 on his initial roll and the second roll of the Wild Die, but not the third (when he may only reroll on a 6, as normal).

Note: Boosts are beasts of my own creation, added because I felt there were so many bits of technology that might give characters advantages. I didn't want to allow characters to just keep adding dice on top of their attributes, because it would quickly imbalance the game and characters would regularly be accomplishing impossible tasks. See by Design Notes for more commentary.

Difficulty Numbers
When a character makes an Attribute or Skill check, they are usually rolling against a difficulty number (Note: I think these difficulty numbers are two easy! I may recommend increasing them all by one after some playtesting. Let me know what you think).

Difficulty	Difficulty Numbers	Description
Very Easy	1	Anyone with slight skill should be able to do this most of the time. Example: Driving a car in moderate traffic.
Easy	2	Most characters should be able to do this most of the time, though there is still a change for failure. Example: Driving a car in moderate traffic during a rainstorm.
Moderate	3	Requires a fair amount of skill and/or effort. Most unskilled characters will fail such an attempt. Example: Avoiding jaywalkers who suddenly step in front of your car during a high-speed chase.
Difficult	4	Only highly skilled characters succeed at these with any regularity. Example: Driving through an intersection full of speeding cross traffic.
Very Difficult	5	Even pros have a hard time pulling these attempts off. Example: Steering your car into oncoming traffic and avoiding collisions while at high speeds.
Extremely Diffiult	6	Only the luckiest and most skilled are successful. Example: Sharpshooting through a tiny hole in an enemy's body armor at 30 meters.
Heroic	7	You'd better be skilled and lucky, and even then it's no guarantee. Example: Successfully landing an Olympus Troop Transport (those bee-like things) when all power has been cut.
Unearthly	8	Only the most highly skilled and/or cybernetically enhanced characters will succeed. Example: Jumping from one building to another (as Briareos does in B1:V1 against the hit squad in the badlands).
Legendary	9	A character must have advanced cybernetics and godly skill levels to even think about accomplishing such a feat. Example:
Impossible	10	If the character succeeds, it's not unlikely that supernatural forces are at work. Example:

Opposed Rolls
When a character is testing his or her Attributes or Skills against those of another (PC or NPC), the parties involved make Opposed Rolls. The one with the highest roll wins.

Example: One character tries to shoot another. The first makes a Firearms roll while the other makes a Dodge roll. If the attacker's roll roll results in more Successes than the others' Dodge, then he hits (see Actions and Combat for more information).

Character Points
A character may spend his or her Character Points to gain additional dice during an action. They receive an additional die for each point spent. A character may spend up to 3 CP's per action or attack, and up to 5 CP's for any defensive action (Dodging, Strenth rolls versus damage, etc.). If the die purchased with a CP comes up a 6, the player may re-roll it and add the new value to the total (as for the Wild Die, though there is no penalty for rolling a 1, other than it is a Failure).

Example: Kreiger must leap from the ledge of a building to a hovering helicopter. The GM sets the difficult at Very Difficult (5). Kreiger has a 5D in Jumping and rolls the dice. He gets a 3,4,1,4 and on the Wild Die a 2 (3 Successes and 2 Failures). He decides to spend some CP's to avoid plummeting to his death. He spends one and rolls a 6! That's one success and he rolls again, getting a 3. He makes the jump!

Character Points may be used at anytime, even for the same action as a Chi Point (though the extra die is added after the base dice are doubled. See below).

Chi Points
The world of Appleseed is firmly based in reality (Shirow goes to great pains to make his machines, politics, and characters realistic), but it is still a heroic fantasy in which both protagonists and villains alike perform nearly superhuman feats.

In this game, Chi represents a character's inner strength and the extent to which they can tap into personal energies to produce heroic results. When a character spends a Chi point, all dice on his next action are doubled. Anything which is not part of a character (a weapon or vehicle), is not affected.

Example 1: Kreiger is in hand-to-hand combat with an terrorist thug. He decides to spend a Chi point one round. His Martial Arts is normally 5D while in the Matrix. For this action, it goes to 10D! For purposes of damage, his Strength remains the same, but he may add extra dice from his Effect Value.
Example 2: Kreiger is in a firefight with an enemy and decides to spend a Chi Point. His Firearms skill doubles from 4D to 8D, but the damage from the gun (5D) remains the same (though there's a chance for a great Effect Value).

See Characters: Chi for rules about using and regaining Chi.

Effect Value
The difference between the number of Successes a player rolls and the Difficulty Number is called the Effect Value (EV). EV's are a measure of how successful a character's attempt has been (or, in some cases, how dismal the failure turns out). In combat, the character rolls one additional damage die for EV point. In non-combat actions, EV's can indicate the speed, grace or ingenuity with which a character succeeds. See Actions and Combat for more information.

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