WEG d6 the Lost

A number of years ago the OSR community managed to convince One Bookshelf, the owners of DrivethruRPG and the soon to be redacted RPGNow, to create a category for OSR games, systems, etc with-in the site, seperating it from the d20 systems category of the time.  ON top of this, popular rulesets within the OSR like Dungeon Crawl Classics, Labyrinth Lord, & Swords & Wizardry
were all given there own sections within that category.  This helped fans of individual rulesets – yes the OSR as a whole is largely interchangable, but AAC is better damn it! – to find and support their ruleset of choice far more easily (as a note, GL Games did see a sales increae for a time after this occured) which in my opinion helped to grow the audience, the contributors, and the digital head space of the OSR.

Looking at that today, I noticed that another area of interest to me WEG d6 System (Open d6) gaming is in far more dire straits on sites like Drivethrurpg.  Part of this is because of the popularity of d20 style systems and story system like PotA and FATE.  The other is that DTRPG lumps the vast majority of d6 systems into a single category, making it difficult – damn near exhusting really – to find any settings, sub-systems, etc of the WEG d6 system.  Looking at the category you see the hottest sellers are as follows:

1. Wraith and Glory:  Core Rules
2. Wraith and Glory:  Dark Tides
3. Fragged Empire:  Core Rule Book
4. Wraith and Glory:  Blessings of the Unheralded
5. Fragged Empire:  Protagnoist Archive 1
6. Fragged Empire:  Antagonist Archive 1
7. Tiny Frontiers: Mecha and Monsters
8. Get Funky
9. Unbound Rulebook
10. Gorean Adventures 06: The Green Island

Out of these 10 (again the “Hottest” or best selling) only two are of the WEG d6 style (Unbound and Gorean Adventures).  Fragged Empire and Tiny Frontiers are 2d6 systems with modifiers and Advantages and Disadventages(ala 5e) while Wraith and Glory is  a Warhammer 40k system that looks like more like a Storyteller (White Wolf) game using d6s.    This mix of systems leads to, as stated, confusion to the consumer as finding a WEG d6 game is dependant on three things that may not be obvious depending on the seller.

• The Open d6 logo
• Mention in the content blurb that it is Open or WEG d6
• A Full-Size preview with the OGL for Open d6 plainly seen

Given that these may not be apparent and that the final one requires the consumer to both know what they are looking for leads to eventual abandonment of the search and the continued obscurity of the WEG d6 system.  As of right now, DTRPG has multiple d6 style system entries, none of which leads directly to the Open d6 system and all of which can be confusingly used in place of another.  This is something that does need to be cleaned up because right now systems like Fragged Empire and Tiny Frontiers which are 2d6 systems are listed in the more generic d6 systems instead of the more appropriate 2d6  (xd6) category.

So, what can be done about it?  One thing is to contact DTRPG and ask if streamlining the d6 categories is possible and if they can do it.  Another is education, id you are a d6 creator, familiarize yourself with the DTRPG categories, look at what is in each and place your product accordingly.