Microlite20 : the smallest thing in gaming

kroh · Nov 2, 2006

the teeny system with a stellar personality

You are Genius...WEll, Genius besides Wulf!

MeepoDM · Nov 2, 2006

Thanks

I should have said BIG personality, catchier!

MeepoDM · Nov 2, 2006

Anyway, you mentioned iconic monsters. Are you including D&D specific monsters that don't appear in the SRD (like Displacer Beasts, Umber Hulks etc.) or just SRD beasties? I'm have to admit I don't know what the legalities are with a free fan-made product.

bytor4232 · Nov 2, 2006

I found the SRD in MySQL format, so I loaded it into MySQL at home. Here are a couple of txt files I generated in a few minutes using Perl and DBI:

SRD Monsters
- Only the stat blocks are included. No description at all.
SRD Spells
- I included the Cleric and Wizard lists at the top of the file.
- I only selected the bare minimums, and the short description in the query

I made the files as small as possible. I'd like to trim them a little more, but I'd rather work on "Microlite"-ing them.

I'll work on picking a few more monsters for the Microlite20 MM. For now, I hope these txt files help!

bytor4232 · Nov 2, 2006

After we get 30 monsters picked, maby then we can work on 30 spells for a Microlite20 Spellbook? What should the format be? I would propose just one line per spell, but thats just me

bytor4232 · Nov 2, 2006

greywulf said:
UPDATE: The site is up is full glorious minimalist retro technicolour. Only without the technicolour.

I do so love your website! Retro minimilist websites rule.

bytor4232 · Nov 2, 2006

greywulf said:
Which critters do you want to see?

I think we should keep the list in the under-10 CR range.

I can help stat these later, but the ones I think we HAVE to have is:

Animals - use generic stats, i.e. small, medium, large animal. Gotta have badgers and wolves!
Kobold - It isn't D&D without kobolds.
Monsterous Insect - centipedes, spiders, and scorpions. Might be able to make generics for these
Darkmantle - Another D&D signature creature
Elemental - Another "generic" creature
Gnoll
Troglodyte
Stirge - I can live without this one, but they are one of my favs.
Snakes
Velociraptor - Also called Deinonychus. Gotta love Dinos in every adventure!
Wraith
Troll
Basilisk
Wyvern

greywulf · Nov 2, 2006

bytor4232 said:
I found the SRD in MySQL format, so I loaded it into MySQL at home. Here are a couple of txt files I generated in a few minutes using Perl and DBI:

Great minds think alike

I used the mysql SRD too, picked out a sample handful and ran:

mysql -u root -p srd35 -e "select name, hit_dice, armor_class, attack from monster where name in ('Ankheg','Bugbear','Centaur','Choker','Dire Rat','Gargoyle','Hill Giant','Stone Golem','Griffon','Grimlock','Ogre','Owlbear','Rust Monster','Shadow','Stirge','Troll','Wolf','Wight','Zombie','Red Dragon, Young','Earth Elemental, Large','Gold Dragon, Old','Goblin, 1st-Level Warrior','Hobgoblin, 1st-Level Warrior','Hellhound','Kobold, 1st-Level Warrior','Demilich','Orc, 1st-Level Warrior','Human Warrior Skeleton','Werewolf, Hybrid Form','Human Commoner Zombie') order by name" > m20monsters.txt

I dropped the .txt file into OpenOffice, pretified it a little and removed the chaff, then exported a .pdf.

Here's the resulting first draft of the Microlite20 Monsters Manual

I prefer to stick to SRD monsters only due to legalese. I see you've included a few critters I missed (how could I possibly miss the wyvern? Dang!), but it's a start. One Page. 30 monsters. Not bad.

Let me know what you'd be happy to lose from this draft, and what you'd swap in instead. I tried to include quite a lot of 1HD critters, then at least one each of 2HD - 8HD. I dropped a couple of really powerful dudes (Old Gold Dragon, Demilich) in there just because I could, and it's fun to test out M20 20th level battles

Let me know what you think.

Cheers, all.

bytor4232 · Nov 2, 2006

Wow. Thats a pretty impressive job there. Isn't SQL grand?

I like the results alot. However, we have to squeeze the Wyvern in there somehow. How bout loosing the Owlbear in liu of the Wyvern? I love the Owlbear, thou. Man, tough decisions.

Now we need to decide on spells. What are the absolute must-have spells? It would be nice to keep it to 30 wizard and 30 cleric spells. Plus, how do you format it?

greywulf · Nov 3, 2006

Cool! I'll see what I can do. I might lose the Old Gold Dragon and Demilich and include the Wyvern and 'raptor because I love those.

And spells will be the next project, promise!