Microlite20 : the smallest thing in gaming

[MeepoDM]

As to the races - I'm surprised that no one has commented at all on my definition of Dwarf, Elf and Halfling. I guess folks like their Elves clever, wise and magical (Tolkeinesque) rather than agile, unhealthy and kinda weedy looking (D&D). All I can say is GOOD! Heck, it's easy enough to change around, and fiddle with the numbers anyhow. And race creation is Dead Easy too - just try not to give more than a total of +2 away. +1/+1 to two stats, or even -1/+3 might be ok. Anything else becomes Rules Bloat, and we wouldn't want that

I'll bite. I think the way you did races was nothing short of brilliant. Honestly! That was one of my pet peeves of D&D, keeping up with all the race abilities on top of the skill/feat/class abilities. You've created a system that is not only more simple than Basic D&D, but really boils it all down to a single and logical stat change with a pinch of role-playing for flavor. I've often thought of doing something similar.

Nothing new from me today; I'm going to run the Temple of K'thu'uk tonight and feedback tomorrow. If it goes well, I'll post it up for everyone then!

Can't wait to see it. I'm holding off on my adventure because I want to see how the official one looks so I can steal its formatting for myself

 

[MeepoDM]

Can I get a critique?

I'd love to give one, but honestly, I'm too big of a fan of the way the system sits now. To many things were shaken up in your version for me to comment objectively.

 

[bytor4232]

There's no way I'm going to add in everyone's suggestions to Microlite20, though an UA-style pocketmod of House Rules will come round the corner sometime.

Sadrik; it's good to see the changes you've made, I'm glad you like it. I must admit, some of them aren't to my taste (Agility /and/ Athletics as a skill? Why?), but each to their own Again, some of what you've done might find it's way into the House Rules .pdf. As to save DCs for spells - I like that they don't scale. Call me kooky, but I reckon 20th level Magi should be able to call down the thunder and all that anyone can do is run for cover, not make some dum-ass Reflex-save and still be in the same spot. High-level magic should be feared, not brushed away because of a good save. But hey, what do I know? Again, if you don't like it, change it - there'll probably be House Rules about this too, to suit every campagin level.

Now that we're an "official" RPG we need to be careful of feature creep. I've seen too many systems fail because they tried to include too much. As it stands we should try to keep Microlite20 as what it is, a fast, fun, lite system for teaching and playing one shots.

I do love the idea of an UA suppliment. It will be cool, as long as its compact like the rest of m20. Two pages max

I'm tempted to put Fighter getting +1 attack/damage at 1st, 5th then every five levels, into canon. It's a good call, and enough folks are using it to make it official.

Similarly with Sneak for rogues. Add Subterfuge rank to Damage if you attack following a successful Sneak (sub+DEX, or whatever applies in-game). I'll playtest some more tonight.

Let me know when you make these changes and I'll kick out the PocketMod. I think we should include a rule on "Turning" too. Something simple that doesn't require a lot of changes. I was thinking aloung the lines of DC = 10 + Monsters HD like Darryl suggested. Make the turning bonus based on cleric level maby? Or even Cleric Level + Mind?

All in, it's a great addition to the Microlite20 family. As you said, the formatting needs a little work, and I'd like to see some equipment in there, but you've got the groundwork down pat.

The formatting needs a lot of work in the m20 Modern. I see a lot of redundancy and there is far too many classes. I'd like to see this included as a suppliment to m20, rather than a fork of an already great system.

Bytor, a thousand thanks for the reformatted Microlite20 core. I did notice one minor layout flub - the line about poisons has a strange split in the middle. It's no biggie, so I'll upload it as is now, and it can be fixed later. I'll work the changes to Fighter, sneak attack for Rogue and a few words about spells in the near future to the full size doc and we can change it then. I've uploaded your version over mine at http://home.greywulf.net/m20/downloads.html.

Crap. I can't believe I missed that formatting error. I worked that doc over for an hour!

Let me know when we fold in the new features for Fighter and Rogue and I'll kick out the new doc.

 

[greywulf]

Bytor, I agree. Modern should just add on to Microlite20 as a supplement, not duplicate anything.

Don't worry about the formatting for the pocketbook just yet. I'm going to playtest the Sneak and Fighter rules tonight with my group. I'll add them in if we're happy then upload a new core. That'll probably be tomorrow.

Thanks, all - and thanks for the kind words bout my classes, Meepo. I'm glad little minds think alike

 

[bytor4232]

Let me know when you make these changes and I'll kick out the PocketMod. I've gotten pretty fast at it

I think we should include a rule on "Turning" too. Something simple that doesn't require a lot of changes. I was thinking aloung the lines of DC = 10 + Monsters HD like Darryl suggested. Make the turning bonus based on cleric level maby? Or even Cleric Level + Mind?

None of my players have ever turned anything, so my opinion is weak on the subject.

 

[MeepoDM]

I've been toying with the idea of making it work like a spell, with the "level cost" for HP's being the HD of the undead critter. Namely because I didn't want to give the Cleric another (free) ability.

But that's as far as I've gotten.

 

[bytor4232]

FYI, I mentioned earlier that I played the game with my daughter. She rolled up her own character, writing down the stats and assigning equipment, etc. She did most of the work by herself, and she's only six. That to me is a testament to the simplicity of the system.

I'm going to submit to game roleplayingtips.com later today. I want to work out the exact details of the email I'm sending. Any suggestions as to the wording?

 

[greywulf]

I think we should include a rule on "Turning" too. Something simple that doesn't require a lot of changes. I was thinking aloung the lines of DC = 10 + Monsters HD like Darryl suggested. Make the turning bonus based on cleric level maby? Or even Cleric Level + Mind?

I agree, we need something. My inclination is to make it a 1st level spell as that automatically limits the number of times a Cleric can turn stuff without adding in any new mechanics to the game.

Either that, or a Cleric can Turn Undead a number of times per day equal to his 2 + Level + MIND bonus. I always thought it silly that a 20th level CHA-16 Cleric could only Turn Undead that same number of times as a 1st level CHA-16 Cleric unless they used a Feat slot.

Use Magic Attack (Level + MIND bonus) to attempt to turn. DC = critter's current Hit Points. Brandishing a Holy Symbol adds +4 to the Turn check. If the DC is exceeded by 10 the critter is destroyed.

 

[greywulf]

FYI, I mentioned earlier that I played the game with my daughter. She rolled up her own character, writing down the stats and assigning equipment, etc. She did most of the work by herself, and she's only six. That to me is a testament to the simplicity of the system.

I'm going to submit to game roleplayingtips.com later today. I want to work out the exact details of the email I'm sending. Any suggestions as to the wording?

Cool! It's great that Microlite20 is working like this for you. Children have more imagination and ability to grasp stuff than any adult I know. My own 5 year old and 8 year old can run rings around me, so I'm glad you're introducing her to gaming. Keep up the good work

I dunno what to suggest for the wording for roleplayingtips.com as I'm a bit too close and biased to offer a review. The only thing I can suggest is write about how it works for introducing gaming and it's a system designed to emphasise role-playing over and above rules-playing by cutting the rules down to the absolute minimum while still being able to use the resources of d20. That's what I'd do, anyhow; I'm sure you can think of something a lot better

 

[MeepoDM]

FYI, I mentioned earlier that I played the game with my daughter. She rolled up her own character, writing down the stats and assigning equipment, etc. She did most of the work by herself, and she's only six. That to me is a testament to the simplicity of the system.

That's excellent!!! I did read your post earlier (and was jealous) but I had no idea she was so young. That is just amazing! My oldest is 3, but I've already got him ID'ing monsters for me out of the Monster Manual. So I'm lying down the groundwork for a future roleplayer, I hope