Solo Engine RPG Battle Royale Week: Epic D6

Alright. This is going to be the most ambitious test yet. As you can see from the title, I have five Solo Emulators capable of generating scenes (Epic D6, Mythic GM Emulator, Oculus Trifold, Covetous Poet, and Tiny Solitary Soldiers) that I will be play testing. The idea is to have a contest of what is the better system. This is going to be a week-long thing, so for the rest of the business week, I will be taking a look at a different Solo RPG system.

The RPG I’ll be doing this experiment on is a simple one: Snakes on a Plane by Deacon Blues. The scenario there is fixed. You’re on a plane. And there are snakes. I’ll have the same setup as well so as to present the same scenario to the Emulators. The only difference is in the random events. For a good measure, I’ll ensure any condition that results in random events will be met, for example, double numbers will always result in a random event in Mythic, regardless of current Chaos Factor. This is to ensure maximum randomness and shows me just what will be curvebally enough.

Let’s play! My character will have average stats and his goal will be the same: Protecting a witness for a trial. I’m only going to go through five scenes for each emulator or if my character/escort dies. I’m demoing the engines, not doing a full blown campaign or session. Let’s start off with the Epic D6 System from No One To Play With. For reference, all story-based talk will be in italics and all mechanics-based talk will be in normal.

The Epic D6 System has the same ebb and flow of Mythic. Chaos Factor, yes/no questions, and random events. However, the difference is the fact that you use a number of D6’s to add to the answering of questions. It’s a tad confusing to me, but I’m gonna try and sum it up. Forgive me if I butcher the summary.

To answer a question, you need to roll 5d6. You add more based off the Chaos Factor (going from 0 dice to 4 dice) and the odds. The odds and Chaos Factor cancel each other out (for example, if you have a Chaos Factor of 3, but odds of No Way, they cancel each other out). You need to roll a minimum of five, though it could also become six if you have a Chaos Factor greater than zero.

After rolling your dice, you make a hand of five dice and count the odds and evens from that. You count up the results based off the difference between odds and evens and that is how you get the result. I’ll deviate from this system and count the difference from the entire roll, though for now, this is a trial-by-fire, so let’s just do this!

Jack Jackson was in the airplane, waiting for the time when it landed. Sitting next to him was a witness, who he had sworn to protect. However, they weren’t the only ones in the row of seats. There was a third person by the window seat.

The Epic System encourages the use of Rory’s Story Cubes, or something of the like, for answering complex questions. So, we’ll be doing Tangent Zero’s Zero Dice system.

Results: A creepy, head-hunter-style mask and a snowflake.

I just gotta ask… Is there any way that airport security screwed the pooch?

[Odds: No Way. Roll… 3, 3, 1, 5, 4. Yes]

Jack can’t believe it when he saw a very shady man in white hair look at him with a sinister smirk.

This dude’s getting tazed. I’m rolling my Cool for this one.

[Cool Roll: 4, 1, 3, 3, 6]

I don’t seem to have successfully tazed the dude, but does anyone detect my hostility?

[Odds: Very Likely. Roll… 1, 2, 6, 4, 3, 1, 4. No.]

That’s… weird.

Jack tried to attack the man with his tazer, but he missed. No one bats an eye, not even his witness.

I guess that’s a good place to end the scene. We bump Chaos Factor up to 1 and begin from there.

Chaos Factor: 1

NPCs: Witness, Shady Man

Threads: Protect Witness, stop Shady Man.

SCENE 2

Rolling for scene alteration, which is the same as asking it a 50/50 question.

[Odds: 50/50. Roll… 5, 5, 6, 4, 5, 1. No, but…]

Guessing that’s enough for a twist. I wish to confirm this though by adding in two ‘twist dice’, which determines if a twist ensues or not.

[Twist Die Roll: 4, 5. No twist]

Alright, so we’re good.

A flight attendant passes by and asks the three if they are alright.

I’m gonna see if Jack is snapping at Shady Man with a Cool Roll.

[Cool Roll: 1, 2, 1, 4, 3]

He is not.

“How can I be?! Don’t you see there’s a freaking TERRORIST on this plane!?” Jack said.

I’m going to roll to see if his charm helps influence the flight attendant.

[Charm Roll: 4, 1, 4, 3, 3]

Nope.

“Sir, I’m going to have to ask the authorities to restrain you.” The Flight Attendant said.

I’m going to see if they already know about Jack’s escorting of the witness.

[Odds: Very Likely. Roll… 2, 3, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 4. No, but…]

[Twist Dice: 4, 1.]

They don’t, but they’re happy to investigate the shady person just to calm his nerves… Twist dice work a bit like Mythic’s own way of getting random events: you have to have matching numbers equal to or less than Chaos Factor. For the sake of pure curveballs, I’ll have every matching number result in a twist.

The scene will end with the guards escorting the shady suspect away. Does this conclude the “stop the shady man” thread?

[Odds: Somewhat Likely. Roll… 2, 4, 2, 6, 5, 3, 6. Yes, but…]

[Twist Dice: 3, 5. No Twist]

It opens up a whole new can of worms which I will have to figure out next scene. Chaos Factor goes up because we nearly got arrested.

Chaos Factor: 2

NPCs: Witness, Shady Man, Flight Attendant, Security

Threads: Protect Witness

SCENE 3

Scene Roll time.

[Odds: 50/50. Roll…6, 4, 5, 6, 6, 5, 6. Yes, but…]

[Twist Dice: 6, 6]

Alright, that I consider a plot twist. They have a chart that says what the meaning of the event is has you roll a D6 and then a D2 or D3 depending on the options. I’ll go with D3, roll extra.

[Event Focus: 4, 1. NPC Action Positive. NPC is… Flight Attendant]

[Event Meaning: The Gemini Sign and one of those Trumpet Horns]

Hm… From my interpretation, we find that there’s another Flight Attendant who is exactly like the other Flight Attendant.

Jack had to rub his eyes because he saw someone who looked just like the flight attendant. She announced to him that they nabbed the shady guy and that he was about to unleash snakes on a plane. She thanks him for stopping the crisis from happening.

… Guys, I think I just ended the game. Wow. Well, rules say that I have to keep it to five or less scenes for the sake of speed, so I’ll end that session there.

My thoughts on the Epic D6 system are that it’s a pretty good system with a unique way of getting an answer, but I find the rules to be a tad complex or hard to understand. Fortunately, I think I managed to get the rules patted down and managed to make a fun experience, so it has a bit of a steep learning curve. Roryb Bracebuckle, if I messed up the rules in anyway, allow me to apologize. Tomorrow it will be the Mythic GM Emulator’s turn.

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