Microlite20 : the smallest thing in gaming

MeepoDM said:

Feats, shmeats, I just don't want to shortchange my monsters with weenie attacks!!

Click to expand...

That's why I'm saying, everyone with an attack bonus of +6 or higher could have Cleave and everyone with +11 or higher could have Great Cleave. Instead of tracking separate bonuses and what not. You don't need to call Cleave or Great Cleave or add feats to the game, just use the mechanic.

Your the DM, how do you cheat your monsters?

player1: hey how does the umber hulk get to attack twice?
player2: ya, not fair!
DM: oh you are right, he gets three attacks! thanks!

Meepo, trust me on this. Try the combat using single attacks in a round. If Mr Owlbear gets 2 claw attacks for +9 melee (1d6+5) and bite +4 melee (1d8+2), choose which to use and do just that attack, then move on.

Your players are happy because their turn comes round quicker and they aren't just watching you roll dice. You're happier because you don't have to keep all those numbers and bonuses in your head, freeing up your time to inject some role-playing into the combat. Hey, when was that last time that happened?!

I've finished the first session of Chicken Royale, and I'm beat! Went well, but we left it where Todd Dreamspirit (Agent 311, native American Tough Hero) had been cpatured and about to be encased in liquid diamond. The other heroes (Mari something-or-other, Jack Honour and Edgar Collins, Agents 134, 221 and 310 respectively) are planning to break him out using by using pieces of the diamond coated chicken (did I mention that?) to cut their way into Colonel Anders' base.

More details tomorrow...............

Roll 4d6, drop lowest dice. Total remaining 3 dice and allocate to one of the stats. Repeat for remaining stats.

Click to expand...

*** seems I was wrong, hmmm, out of body experience, ignore me ***

Well, looks like my PbP game using m20 is getting off the ground, got 3 character made of it already and at least 1 more planning to after the holiday. A pretty good start considering our forum is nearly exclusive to D&D 3.5, so thanks for putting this out and helping me get a game going. So with luck, you will have some comments from my group regarding the rules soon.

Great!

I'll do a short write-up of last night's game later today too.

Just a variant suggestion. I have not played/run this yet as I just stumbled accross it the other day. Seems to be a fine light system - and very compatable with all the existing d20 material - which gives it a huge boost in my eyes. One of the nice things because of that you could actually switch back and forth between the two systems in the same adventure, maybe just using the full d20 rules vs. the BBEG. Not sure I would ever do this because of the HP translation problem, but still a tribute to the compatibility of the systems.

On the Rogue I have read some feel him a little under balanced. I was thinking a +1 Suf per 5 levels might help the class similar to the other classes little boosts. I'm mildly leery of doing this because of the effect on the sneak attack so maybe just apply it to skill rolls only. This would help the class truely be the skill miester.

Interesting thought. I'm sure it could be possible to switch between d20 and Microlite20. I'll think more about that, thanks Hmmmmmmm..........

As regards powering up Rogues every five levels, they do get +1 sub (and all other skills) every single level so they should always have the edge anyhow. There's nothing wrong with a little buffing here and there though. I'm going to work on adding more House Rules into the Macropedia tomorrow, so I'll drop this suggestion in then.

Last night's Microlite20 Modern game ("Codename: Chicken Royale") was a blast. The players spent a lot of time in-character, and very, very little time bothering with the rules at all. In total, we had about 20 skill checks and three combats (two minor, one big) in about four hours of gaming, so rules-light was definitely the way to go. The rest of the time it was role-playing all the way.

It's been a while since I ran a game set in the modern age but we dived in. I told the players that they were Agents for MI5, fresh out of training. They generated characters and I asked them to describe where they were in the UK. Todd (native American living in London) was rock climbing in Wales. Edgar was in the weapons range, Jack was in a Casino, losing. Mari was...errrr....with someone.......

Their cellphones beeped, a coded message instructing them to report in, immediately. They all make their way to MI5 HQ where D (their section Head) is surprised to see them. There's been no call-in. All MI5 agents are similarly in the building, all at the same time.

That's when large firetrucks pull outside and start spraying the doors and windows with liquid diamond. No, really. MI5 is paralyzed, all UK-based Agents snared in their own building.

The four characters manage to get out thanks to a handy ventilation shaft, completely against orders.

Anyhow, to cut a long-ish story short before this turns into a Story Hour; Colonel Samuel Anders has stolen the process to manufacture a form of liquid diamond that hardens on contact. With it he can both destabilise the world economy and create military-grade armour and weaponry, all at the same time (bwah, ha ha ha, etc). The adventurers confront him first in a restaurant (hence the diamond coated whole roast chicken - the secret's in the formula, dontcha know!). He escapes in a diamond-coated limousine, they trace him to his coastal hideaway, his beautiful guardian Angel (imagine Halle Berry with membranes under her arms so she can glide) captures Todd - wherein this session ended.

Now I've got to figure out what's going to happen next week!

I played it straight using Microlite20 Modern, just making up the stats for the bad guys as I went along. I'd got nothing in front of my except a rough plot outline, some notes about Cool Stuff (like the diamond limo) and the Microlite20 rules. It was all I needed to run the game. There were no rules questions, no fights over interpretations of AoO or whether this or that was in range. It just.....worked.

Now you know

EditorBFG said:

That's why I'm saying, everyone with an attack bonus of +6 or higher could have Cleave and everyone with +11 or higher could have Great Cleave. Instead of tracking separate bonuses and what not. You don't need to call Cleave or Great Cleave or add feats to the game, just use the mechanic.

Click to expand...

WAIT A SECOND!!! That might be one of the best ideas for a M20 house rule that I have seen yet! I peronsally do not like multiple attacks, seeing as the combat round is supposed to be abstract, where there is supposed to be swings and feinting and parries and such, and not (1 roll = 1 swing). I know some of you guys that want to keep M20 close to d20 would like to keep the additional attacks. For me, I am seeing M20 as its own game so I am not concerned about loosing some d20isms. This fits me perfect.

If the attack bonus is +6 (or optionally any fighter), and the attacker drops or slays a foe, he is granted one additional attack against another opponent in melee weapon striking distance that round. If the bonus is +11 or better (or +6 for fighters), as long as the combatant is dropping foes, he can continue attacking others until one does not fall to the might of his weapon.

I am going to give this a shot. I think I would like this better than keeping track of the whole +12/+7/+2 scheme. Plus, as greywulf says, one attack roll speeds up play.

Dropping into the Macropedia, with minor wording changes here.

I'll playtest this too - it might work very well for Conan-style "against the hordes" style games, in particular.

I've changed the wording to make this a melee only option until I've playtested it - I'm not sure of the idea of a guy with a longbow being able to drop infinite goblins in a single round