When comparing The Pool vs Open d6, the Slant community recommends Open d6 for most people. In the question“What are the best tabletop RPGs?” Open d6 is ranked 22nd while The Pool is ranked 34th. The most important reason people chose Open d6 is:
Open d6 includes rulebooks for Fantasy, Adventure and Space settings.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Rolls are made to resolve intent not actions
Instead of rolling to perform actions such as swinging a sword, rolling is used for resolving intent with descriptions of actions left to players and GM to describe.
Pro Includes rulebooks covering the more common genres
Open d6 includes rulebooks for Fantasy, Adventure and Space settings.
Pro No special dice required
The game can be played with common six-sided dice.
Pro A simplified variant, called Mini Six, is available
Mini Six is a fan-made variant of Open d6 that aims to be a distilled version of the Open d6 system.
Pro There are theme-related books available to start various types of games
D6 Space is West End Games old "Star Wars D6" game with all of the licensed Star Wars names removed. It's a stand alone complete game.
D6 Fantasy is a standalone ruleset for running a D&D type game with the D6 system.
D6 Adventure is a standalone ruleset for using the D6 system in a Wild West, spies, or modern adventure game.
All three have supplement books (Spaceship design, magic, aliens, etc).
Pro Each rulebook has a good introductory section
Cons
Con Monologue of Victory may stop any GMs plans
The Pool includes a system, called the Monologue of Victory, that allows a player to take over narration of the game in the event of a successful roll without the GM being able to interfere. As such using the system for complex plots may be difficult, because the player may remove an essential part of the story without knowing it.