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I was going over the D6 System Book on a whim to learn a new system, just to see how it handled things compared to systems I do understand, and while I was looking through it was largely simple... except for one aspect.

When I was looking at the weapons chart I saw that weapons had a speed attribute and a Damage attribute, and while the weapons like swords and axes and the like seemed fine, the weapons such as fists, and daggers (which seem to me like they'd be easier and faster to use) seemed to have a slower speed for some reason.

What is this?

Why would a dagger or your own fists take longer to use than something like a Baseball bat, a Battle-axe or even a sword?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ @HeyICanChan I edited the question. Based on the table screenshot, I determined that it's the original OGL commonly referred to as the "D6 System Book". \$\endgroup\$ – SevenSidedDie Jan 29 '18 at 7:48
  • \$\begingroup\$ I've got a guess as to why, but it's only by analogy to contemporary systems that marked short weapons as having a worse speed adjustment. The actual reasoning is absent from D6 books I'm familiar with. Perhaps the original Star Wars D6 said more, but I don't have that. \$\endgroup\$ – SevenSidedDie Jan 29 '18 at 7:50
  • \$\begingroup\$ @SevenSidedDie As an OGL product, would it be possible to link to it in the question? \$\endgroup\$ – Hey I Can Chan Jan 29 '18 at 7:50
  • \$\begingroup\$ @HeyICanChan The PDF itself is around online but posted complete, i.e., with Product Identity intact, contrary to its OGL. So I can't really bring myself to link to one of those. And there's no OGC-only SRD that's 1:1 equivalent with the original OGL book that could be used as a reference for a book-based question like this. (It's analogous to D&D 3.5e PHB scans being posted and no original matching d20 SRD existing.) \$\endgroup\$ – SevenSidedDie Jan 29 '18 at 16:48
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Simulating Reach

Swords and longer weapons tend to have longer reach and thus can threaten an opponent with fists or daggers before they can close the distance.

When simulating unarmoured duels in Historical European Martial Arts, if combatants are equally skilled, the one armed with a weapon that has longer reach tends to have an advantage in the match. This is because the combatant with the longer weapon is able to strike at the other person BEFORE the other person can.

For a more detailed lecture I recommend you check out Matt Easton of Schola Gladiatoria, HEMA instructor: https://youtu.be/9qJBGlChcXU

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