Mini Six is a generic rules set that builds on the West End d6 system, best known from their 1987 Star Wars RPG. Instead of fixed values, attributes and skills are defined by pools of dice that players roll against difficulty ratings.
Because there’s no built-in setting or genre in the core rules, I’ll need to establish some kind of context for the character I’m about to create. We haven’t done anything in the modern spy/action genre yet, and it’s got plenty of real-world referents so I won’t need to describe a whole lot of worldbuilding for the character to make sense. So let’s build a secret agent.
We start with Attributes, of which there are 4: Might, Agility, Wit, and Charm. I have 12 dice total and can assign from 1 to 4 dice to each of them. I can also split a die into three “pips,” each of which represents +1 to a roll. So I can have an attribute (or skill) at 1D+1 or 1D+2, but the next step up from that is 2D.
Obviously, all four of these attributes are useful to a secret agent, but something in me rebels against just putting 3 dice in each and calling it a day, so I’m going to move some points around. Might interests me the least, so I’ll buy it down to 2D+1 and put the two pips saved somewhere else. I opt to put both into Agility, which is now 3D+2. Wit and Charm are each a respectable 3D.
Next I get 7 dice to assign to Skills or buy Perks. Each Skill is linked to an Attribute that is its default value, and I can’t buy spend more than two dice on any given Skill. Might skills include most forms of hand-to-hand combat as well as things like lifting or stamina. Agility skills cover anything that mostly involves physical coordination, aim, or small motor skills, including stealth, most types of ranged weapon use, dodging and driving. Wit skills tend to rely on either general intelligence or specific knowledge (but not too specific, this is still kind of a generic game) so things like computers lockpicking, medicine, tracking, or languages. And Charm skills are all about personality and social and abilities: persuasion, command, courage, streetwise, etc.
As a spy I’m going to need a mix of combat skills, sneaky skills, and social skills. The table in the rules document has a non-exclusive list, and a good set of spy skills might include:
Might: Brawling, Knife, Stamina
Agility: Athletics, Dodge, Pick Pockets, Stealth, Throw, Drive, Pistol, Pilot (whoo boy, that’s a lot)
Wit: Languages, Lockpicking, Computers, Search, Repair, Navigation, Tracking, Medicine
Charm: Command, Courage, Diplomacy, Persuasion, Seduction, Streetwise
I think I’ll need to narrow this down, and even then I’m sure the list will be longer than seven. If I try to avoid violence I can focus on being sneaky and charming: Dodge, Stealth, and Drive off the Agility list; Lockpicking, Search and Computers off the Wit list; Persuasion and Streetwise off the Charm list. That’s eight; breaking some up into pips might actually leave me something left for Perks. 7 dice = 21 pips; the rules don’t say I can spend less than a whole die on a Skill, but the sample characters are built that way, so I’m going to do it too.
For Agility I want to emphasize Stealth, and I’m going bring it up to 5D at a cost of four pips. Dodge and Drive get two and one pips respectively, bringing Dodge to 4D+1 and Drive to an even 4D. Seven spent; fourteen left. Search gets a whole die at 4D, Lockpicking gets two pips at 3D+2, and I’m going to leave Computers alone. Twelve pips spent. Streetwise and Persuasion each a whole die, rising to 4D. I’ve spent 18 pips, which leaves me with exactly one die to spend on Perks.
There aren’t a lot of Perks available at that price, but I can take Attractive (which lets me double one roll per session that takes advantage of my looks), Favors (I can call in a solid from a contact once per session), or Recall (which—again once per session—lets me remember anything that is supposed to have happened to me in detail, as described by the GM). I’m going to go with Favors, because it’s so flexible.
I can also take Complications for my character, which bring no benefits during character creation but can generate extra experience points as they arise during play. I’m going to take Unlucky in Love and give my character the unfortunate habit of falling for suspects or sources who turn out to be treacherous.
This brings us to Gear. I can give my character one item related to each skill that I spent dice points on. Which will leave me unarmed, so I’m going to have to plan on improvising or stealing weapons in the course of my spying. (OTOH, I don’t have to worry as much about being frisked for weapons, which is a small consolation.) Unfortunately, most of my skills don’t lend themselves easily to gear. Drive and Lockpicking are obvious, and that will give me a cool sporty spy car like an Aston-Martin or somesuch, in addition to a professional-quality set of lockpicks. Stealth and Search are less obviously tool-reliant, but I can justify something like an evidence collection kit and a suit of quick-change clothes (reversible coat and hat, that kind of thing). Streetwise and Persuasion I’m not even going to try to rationalize gear for.
So here’s our stat block for Shiro Tanaka, field investigator for a fictional top-secret Japanese counterintelligence agency:
Might 2D+1
Agility 3D+2; Dodge 4D+1, Drive 4D, Stealth 5D
Wit 3D; Lockpicking 3D+2, Search 4D
Charm 3D; Persuasion 4D, Streetwise 4D
Perks: Favors Complications: Unlucky in Love
Gear: Lockpick set, cool sports car, evidence collection kit, quick-change clothes and valise
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