THE CONCEPT OF S6S

When I started this project I had one thing in mind, simplicity.  I'm an avid roleplayer but now only get to play on-line and it struck me that I didn't really want to have to sit by my PC surrounded by reference books while playing or DMing a game. So many games require you to buy heaps of rule books, equipment and accessories. I wanted to do away with this and create something that lets us roleplayers enjoy ourselves with the minimum of effort and expenditure (ie for free!).

My initial concept was to base the system around 3 fundamental things:

1) Simplicity (quick and easy to learn and play)
2) Fun (!)
3) The humble d6 (inexpensive and readily available)

THE CONCEPT OF RISK

Rules are the one thing that binds most RPGs together. They all have rules for combat, rules for magic, rules for skills etc etc. Although obviously necessary, I wanted to come up with a common factor for all of these sets of rules and came up with the Risk. A common concept in many real life industries.

For S6S purposes a risk represents the chance that any given action has of succeeding.

Mundane actions, such as walking along a path, do not have a risk attached to them. However, if the environment in which you are walking changes, let's say you are now walking along an icy path, a risk will be attached.

The risk will feature heavily in every game, but how do we quantify it? Well, the DM simply makes it up! He decides, given all of the aspects of the action and the environment, just how big the risk should be. This value is compared against a simple formula, relevant to the situation, which will always include a random element (the d6!).

THE CHARACTER CONCEPT

Obviously, the aim of the game is to act the role of a character in a make-believe world. I like the idea that a character should be free in what he does. I have adopted many concepts from other games and left many more by the wayside. S6S does not use alignment rules and it does not use the strict class rules of other games but it does use level rules as this gives players a sense of achievement.

The way in which S6S 'measures' a characters physical and mental faculties introduces a concept familiar to most as the class concept.

The four Attributes that describe a character are:

Warrior: This attribute accounts for physical strength, face to face combat, resistance to poisons, military leadership etc.

Rogue: This attribute accounts for senses, agility, fast talking, seduction, surprise and sneak combat etc.

Wizard: This attribute accounts for intelligence, affinity for arcane magic etc.

Priest: This attribute accounts for piety, affinity for divine magic, social skills etc.