Project 5.5 - System finalists

After going over options in my head for...well, months now...I have finally narrowed the choice for a set of rules to serve as the basis for Project 5.5 (a wargame using bulky MOTU-style action figures) down to two.

The first option builds from my last contender post, which was...wow, way back in 2019...taking the game in an OSR direction using Swords & Six-Siders as a model (although I'll probably end up going with a more freeform "OSR but only using d6s" style).  The lean toward this choice comes from the free and open nature of various OSR products produced under the OGL, the quantity of OSR resources to draw from, and the fact that I can pair this effort with work I have done and will do on Light City, which I really need to spend a little time on at some point.

In addition, as James from James Mishler Games and Adventures in Gaming v2 was kind enough to point out when I asked for info on the origin of 1d6 skill rolls in D&D, d6-only resolution was there from the very start, on page 9 of OD&D's third booklet (The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures).  There's something very clean and simple about taking the approach originally used for dealing with doors and applying it to all rolls in the game.

However, there's another great option that I just can't quite shake.  Starting with the fact that this might be my favorite RPG of all time...

...and that it was used to later create this game, another great one...

...and then the fact that there is already a miniatures system based upon those rules, which I very handily have a copy of...

...AND the fact that even the minis system has been released under the OGL (you can find it HERE)...

...and, well, that's a tempting way to go.  Also, the next RPG I plan to run (hopefully starting next week!) is a semi-homebrew setting using semi-homebrew rules based upon Ghostbusters and its descendant Mini Six...which means that going this route could synthesize a couple of my gaming projects much like Light City and Project 5.5 could mix in an OSR approach.

At the moment, I'm leaning OSR.  But that could change at any time.

I'm thinking.

Rules option #2: Swords & Six-Siders (and the OSR as a whole)

Another strong option as a framework to build a MotU-inspired miniatures game on top of would be something in the realm of the Old School Renaissance.  No matter how far I stray in my interests, there are a few foundations I always seem to come back to, and the OSR is one of them.  This blog, in fact -- while all over the place at times -- was started with a thought that it would fit into the OSR community.

Since using huge D6s is one of the details I'm looking for in the rules, one of the obvious candidates would be Swords & Six-Siders, which sports a strong OSR feel while keeping all rolls down to a single D6.

I'm sure there are other D6-only OSR efforts out there that follow in the footsteps of classic editions of D&D...this is just the main one I'm familiar with.  And while I've never played it, it looks both solid and fun.  (I'm also a fan of the generic OSR house rules for D6-based combat given in this blog post over at The Bogeyman's Cave.)

Some big advantages of going this route include the use of the OGL (and S&SS has an accompanying license, I believe) and the huge amount of material that's out there to steal use.  I could probably even leverage some of the work I put into Light City, my little Swords & Wizardry Light superhero project (that also got a LOT of material added by Justin Isaac).  After all, superhero fiction is sort of the third foundation holding up the Masters of the Universe property, along with pulpy science fiction and fantasy.

On the other hand, I probably don't want to use granular hit points in a big outdoor minis game...and I think that going this route might tempt me to also make use of a giant D20 for combat, rather than just the D6s.  That could end up being some combination of expensive and a hassle.

Still...all in all, it's a nice option to consider...