Microlite74 Ultimate Edition - Hanging Strong as a Best Seller at RPGNow

Its always nice to see games with the Old School vibe hang tough in the RPGNow sales rankings (currently sitting at #5 overall) Right now, that would be Microlite74 Ultimate Edition (PDF and EPUB versions) Now, Microlite74 and its various versions are an interesting experiment in sticking close to the 3x SRD while trying to stay true to the feel of the original rules. How well it does that is a matter of personal opinion. Suffice to say, Microlite74 Basic was one of my inspirations when I put together Swords & Wizardry Light - its not easy taking the 3x SRD down to 20 pages, which ML74 Basic did.

Needless to say, I'm surprised that Microlite74 Ultimate Edition goes far in the other direction - 384 pages. Holy shit.

Microlite74 comes in three other flavors - Basic, Standard and Extended. All are PWTW, so you can peek before plunking 10 bucks down for the Ultimate Edition.

From the Extended Rules blurb:

The Microlite74 Extended rules are based on the 1974 0e edition of the world’s most popular fantasy roleplaying game with its supplements and material from 0e magazine articles, some 0e third party material, some of the house rules the author used in the 1970s, and selected ideas from other roleplaying games. These rules are not intended to be a clone of the 0e rules, but rather a conversion of them to a rules-lite D20-based system that encourages old-school play without strictly old-school rules.

Microlite74 - Tastes Great! Less Filling!

When it comes to the OSR style games, I think Microlite74 frequently gets overlooked. It isn't a direct port of any of the original D&D rulesets - instead, it's roots are in 3e, condensed down to their most basic rules into the original Microlite rules, then flavored and mixed with some Old School sensibilities. Oh, and you won't be finding it at RPGNow. They are free (donations appreciated).

The latest edition and its various versions are available here: http://blog.retroroleplaying.com/

They are going thru final proofreading, which you, the good reader, can help with. I'm currently looking at Microlite74 Extended. Clocking in at just 381kb and 28 pages, it's amazing how they have squeezed a complete reworking of the original boxed set and the supplements into 28 pages. It's not OD&D, but it has much of the feel of OD&D.

I don't think it would work well as an introductory RPG, but in the hands of experienced gamers looking for a smaller ruleset to get their game on, this should work remarkably well.