Microlite20 : the smallest thing in gaming

[kensanata]

rycanada scenario reminds me of my old Io 3 adventure where the computer goes nuts:

The story centers around a paranoid Computer that took over the space-side resort Io III. The resort resembles a giant wheel about 1200m in diameter. It rotates around itself once every 8s and produces a pseudo-gravity of about 1.0g at the rim. The space station is run by The Computer gone nuts. The Computer is collecting all the guests in the hall.

The goal is to return The Computer to normal functioning. While trying to achieve this, the robots sent out by The Computer and his servants have to be evaded or eliminated. Most rooms provide some suggestions for traps that player characters (PCs) might want to use against the electronic minions. This battle is complicated by other factions trying to take over Io III. Possible endings are the expulsion of the PCs from Io III by the winners of this battle, or the PCs siding with a faction and winning themselves. Possible follow-ups include trying to reestablish peace and order, trying to get away while being pursued by space cops and NPCs introduced in this scenario, or returning to the normal space-time-continuum, should the PCs end up being abducted into faery.

Yes, it was inspired by Gatecrasher.

 

[WSmith]

TWF I think should be Fighter & Rogue only... but honestly, I don't think TWF rules need to be in the core (I avoided them in Rank20) because you can have perfectly good fantasy games without them, and I find it impacts the design of regular fighting in order to accomodate TWF.

While I personally would agree with you, I have found that many, many players in this day and age like two-weapon fighting type characters, enough that I would venture to say this small passage should be enough to satisfy them without too much bulk to the core rules.

 

[greywulf]

I kinda agree with both of you. Kinda.

I felt that if I'd left TWF out, too many people would have asked for them. So, I stuck them in and it gives a nice power-boost to Fighter and Rogues. For the sake of a few extra lines of text, I felt it was worth the inclusion.

In a similar vein, here's an extract from one of our Microlite20 sessions many moons ago:

Mark: Can I use the two-weapon fighting rules when I'm wielding a quarterstaff?
Me(DM): How many weapons are you holding?
Mark: Um.....one.
Me: OK. So what's your next dumb question going to be?



I then explained that when his to-hit bonus gets to +6 he'll get multiple attacks anyhow and I don't care which end of the staff he uses. He was happy with that, and we moved on.

Interestingly (well, interesting if you're a geek like me) there is an important difference between d20 and Microlite20's TWF rules; under M20 only light weapons can be paired, with the exception of the rapier which is given honourary light status. With d20 there's no problem pairing a longsword and shortsword. I avoided that on purpose for M20 as it adds a whole new layer of complexity and IMHO is less realistic. Longwords are HEAVY.

Followers of Miyamoto Musashi might disagree however, but his Niten-ryu fighting style of using the Daisho together was very rare, and demanded extensive training and strength. I'd judge that more suitable to higher level Fighters who use their multiple attacks to mix Katana and Wakizashi strikes. I'd give them a +1 to attack because of the uncommon style, rather than use M20's TWF rules.

For example, a 6th level Fighter with STR16 would have attacks with his Daisho at +11/+6/+1 (including the +1 for being a Fighter, and another +1 because of the funky fighting style) provided the attacks were spread between his katana and wakizashi in any combination.

In contrast, using 2 wakizashi (unthinkable and an insult to nobility everywhere) he'd have +8/+8/+3.

Hope that makes sense

 

[WSmith]

Not sure why, but on my OSX 10.3.9 the PDF is corrupt. The number of pages is there, the logo is there, but the characters themselves are either garbage or empty boxes...

If you are using Preview, this happens for some reason. I had the same result, but opened it with Acrobat Reader and it displayed fine.

 

[WSmith]

I felt that if I'd left TWF out, too many people would have asked for them. So, I stuck them in and it gives a nice power-boost to Fighter and Rogues. For the sake of a few extra lines of text, I felt it was worth the inclusion.

Pretty much what I thought, too. I like that only light weapons can be used for two weapon fighting. It reminds me of OAD&D, where your second weapon could only be a dagger or hand axe, but with a tad bit more flexibility. Ahhh yeah, good stuff.

 

[kensanata]

Hah! I was not the first to bring up Niten-ryu! When one of my players mentioned it, I told him that nobody had ever really mastered this style ever since.

 

[greywulf]

Hah! I was not the first to bring up Niten-ryu! When one of my players mentioned it, I told him that nobody had ever really mastered this style ever since.

Funnily, I though of you when I wrote that Geeks together, eh?!

In other news: I've given Microlite20 an optional Simplified XP System after one of my group wanted to see how he could remove CR/EL from D&D. I seemed a good fit for M20 as well for peeps who want something a little more fine-grained (and old-school) than M20's EL system.

Comments, as ever, yadda yadda.......

 

[kensanata]

Actually today two of my non-fighter players complained about the (only) fighter in the group being too powerful. Anybody else with that impression? In my Japanese setting, this samurai has an excellent family heirloom katana he uses with both hands, getting an impressive katana+9/+4 (1d10+8) as a fighter-3.

 

[greywulf]

To pull others into the discussion; I added this Comment to yours on the thread about the CoreRulesRevised in the Macropedia:

I’d say the Fighter-3 shouldn’t get the +1 for focus on both attack and damage. Choose one or the other; I’d suggest damage as he’s already got a +1 to attack from the katana being masterwork. Oh, and that damage shouldn’t be doubled - STR only, so it should be d10+7.

The Fighter should also be limited in some other way if he’s focusing on the katana. Say, he refuses to wield any other melee weapon if he loses the ancestral katana. Now, wouldn’t that be a cool thing to happen next scenario, not that I’m putting ideas in your head or anything……..

 

[Darrell]

Hello, all. I've finished (at least tentatively) the microlite20 campaign setting I was working on. It was too big to post on this thread, and I'm too techno-illiterate to know how the m20 wiki-thing works yet, so I've e-mailed it to greywulf. Whenever he puts it up, let me know what you all think.

'wulf, it's headed your way.

Regards,
Darrell