D6 Storytellers Play Report

Today I played my D6 Storytellers with my daughter.
It was a bit rough. Honestly, because I wasn't prepared for the genre that my daughter wanted to play. I let her pick the genre and character style she would like to be. She chose to play a Zombie Apocalypse game and her character was this Half-Human Half-Zombie character. It was pretty basic character concept. Pistols and a knife to start with. Her first character died pretty quickly. Exploding Dice can be very brutal at times.

So we started over and started her in a different situation. She was lost in the woods running from some wild dogs. The dogs had Tracking 3 (3d6) Skill but giving that she was a half-zombie I determined that the dogs would need an 8 to find her. And they were successful. As they got closer to her she decided to climb a tree. Since she was just starting out she didn't have any Trained Skills. She rolled a 6 on her Anything Skill which means the die exploded and she was able to learn the climbing skill (which she did). Since she was climbing a pretty standard tree all she needed was a 4.
While she was in the tree the dogs were clawing and jumping up at her. She took her pistols out and shot at the dogs. She killed one instantly and the others ran away scared. She JUMPED out of the tree (needing a 4 for a successful landing and missed by 1) so she twisted her ankle and took 1 Minor Damage.
Then the Zombie side took over and she ate the brains of the dog which actually healed her 1 Minor Damage. Unfortunately, the gunfire attracted some zombies and she had to fight off some zombies. Apparently, according to my daughter Zombies are brainless which is why they want to eat brains. So she couldn't feast on the zombies. After realizing gunfire was a terrible idea she hid in a tree and waiting for daylight.

Once day came she continued through the woods and made her way to a town. The houses looked to be in really bad shape and she was nervous to explore the area. Eventually she went into one of the houses and heard some movement upstairs. Scared, she ran out of the house but was shot in the shoulder from the person that was upstairs through a window. She quickly turned around and fired and hit the man in the shoulder causing him to hide back in the house. She took off back into the house and rushed upstairs. After testing the doors and finding one was locked she assumed he was behind that door. She kicked down the door and the man was on the other side of the door with is rifle waiting for something to come through. They both shot at the same time but the man missed but she nailed him right in the chest killing the man.

*This is when it gets dark*

She was briefly relieved when she noticed he was dead and she didn't take a hit. But that was quickly over once two girls (6 and 13) started crying and screaming, "You killed my dad!" My daughter's face was priceless when this happened. The older girl charged her with a knife and she tried to stop her by trying to grab her arms but failed and took a blow from the knife. The girl attacked again but this time she was able to grab her arms. She tried to talk to her and calm the girl down but there was nothing she could say to calm this girl down. Which is understandable giving that this person just killed her dad in front of her and her sister. So the girl, after yelling about how she is just like the people that killed her mother, went at her again with the knife. She took another blow and eventually took out her own knife and trying to stop the girl she killed her (Exploding Dice is brutal). The little girl was going crazy, screaming, crying and holding her head in the corner of the room. She tried to calm her down. The girl wasn't even listening. The girl had a small bag on her and in it she had a gun. The girl pulled the gun out and began to hold it against her head........ugh....My daughter's character was too slow and couldn't stop the girl before she took her own life.

My daughter's reaction, "Wow. Well, I don't know these people. I want to eat their brains." And when she tried to heal from feeding on these people I was so thrilled that every roll, three of them, was a result of a 1. I was like, "Well, you did some terrible stuff so I am glad you got all of those 1's."

The gunshots attracted more zombies and she had to fight her way out of the house and back into the woods. This time she was using her knife. We stopped shortly after this.

What I did wrong?
A lot. I wasn't prepared for a survival/apocalypse genre. There are some serious rule changes that need to be made for this kind of genre. Damage needs to be more lethal. Either I need to change the Storyteller's damage table or have "set damage" for items + Storyteller's skill. Example, a shotgun is 2d6 + Storyteller's shotgun skill. Modifying the damage table would probably be better. Instead of 4 minors, 3 moderates, 2 extreme and 1 death. It might need to be changed to 2 minor, 1 moderate, 1 extreme and 1 death. Exploded Dice is very lethal but it should be for this genre. Also, resources such as ammo, food and water need to be worked into this genre. Maybe something like when resources are being used the Storytellers need to roll a 1d6 to see if there is any left (needing a 4 or more).

I am still looking for people who are willing to test out this game and give me feedback. The link to the blog post about it (with download link) is at the top of this post.