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Update (19 Jun 23):

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As many of you know, my wife has had MS for about 20 years now. It has gotten to the stage where helping her takes a lot more of my time that it used to. This means visits to this board have become few and far between. I'm looking for a couple of members willing to help moderate this board. Note that if your idea of good moderation is anything similar the way boards like RPG.net are moderated, do not bother volunteering. Good moderation isn't about forcing your opinions, ideological positions, or biases on members via your power to gag and ban, it is about being helpful to all members (even those you don't like/disagree with), cleaning up after spammers, and enforcing the rules with the lightest hand possible and only doing so when the rules are actually broken. If you are interested in any message board moderation position on any board because of the supposed "power" it will give you, you are (IMHO) the wrong person for the job. If you are interested, PM me. It may taken quite a while to reply, unfortunately.

Microlite2020?

A place to share your rules-lite RPG ideas and designs.


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sycarion
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Re: Microlite2020?

Post by sycarion »

randalls wrote:

They will be gone (at least in initial playtest versions, if not having them breaks things they will probably have to return in some form). I just haven't edited all references to them out of the draft rules yet. They should be mostly gone in Draft 2 -- mostly because I'm sure I miss at least one somewhere. I'm horrible at anything resembling proofreading. :oops:

Thanks for letting me know. I thought I was missing something.

After seeing what you are thinking, I'm impressed and willing to give it a try and see what playtesters think. However, I will want to impress on players in the rules that their GM can and should change the lists of free background selections for each race to fit their campaign -- that the ones listed in the rules are just an example designed with a bog standard RPG fantasy world in mind.

Thank you for the kind words. I wish that I had playtesters for all the crazy stuff I come up with.

In regards to the free 3 point background, I agree 1000%. I was trying to do bog standard for the basic rules. It should definitely be made more clear that the GM may have his own backgrounds for race depending on the setting or genre.

My only concern is that the Cleric has two special abilities instead of one. Maybe that is not a big deal and it is just me.

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randalls
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Re: Microlite2020?

Post by randalls »

Here is the second extremely early draft of Microlite2020. Changes from Draft 1: [MAJOR CHANGE] Sycarion's ideas for Racial backgrounds/Class Stat bonuses replace former rules, Optional Rules section added, Appendixes for Equipment, Monsters, and standard spell lists added, other minor changes.

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Microlite2020-Draft02.pdf
Very early Microlite2020 Draft (version 2)
(303.78 KiB) Downloaded 381 times
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RandallS
Playing and Gamemastering Tabletop RPGs Since 1975
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Re: Microlite2020?

Post by sycarion »

randalls wrote:
Tue Sep 10, 2019 1:48 pm

Here is the second extremely early draft of Microlite2020. Changes from Draft 1: [MAJOR CHANGE] Sycarion's ideas for Racial backgrounds/Class Stat bonuses replace former rules, Optional Rules section added, Appendixes for Equipment, Monsters, and standard spell lists added, other minor changes.

Oh wow! Thank you. Did they playtest well?

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Re: Microlite2020?

Post by randalls »

sycarion wrote:
Tue Sep 10, 2019 1:53 pm

Oh wow! Thank you. Did they playtest well?

I haven't had a chance to playtest them yet, but they look workable enough to run with. That is, I created a few characters and had them make skill rolls, fight, etc. and nothing was obviously broke. My current campaign is reaching a pause point -- probably late this month --and when it does we'll switch to M2020 and see how it does in real play. I'm hoping others will playtest it as well. That's one reason for making the drafts available.

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Re: Microlite2020?

Post by Snorb »

Draft 2 looks cool; I do like that skills have been replaced with Backgrounds (though you know you're gonna have one player protest "But I have a Soldier background, why can't I add that to my attack roll?" =p

Main question is can you boost a Background over 5 points when you level up, or is +5 the highest you can go?

And second question, would a chart of backgrounds by character class be something worth adding in? (Like, "If you can't think of a background, roll 1d20 and look at the appropriate result in your class's column on the table.")

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Re: Microlite2020?

Post by sycarion »

Snorb wrote:

Draft 2 looks cool; I do like that skills have been replaced with Backgrounds (though you know you're gonna have one player protest "But I have a Soldier background, why can't I add that to my attack roll?" =p

Main question is can you boost a Background over 5 points when you level up, or is +5 the highest you can go?

And second question, would a chart of backgrounds by character class be something worth adding in? (Like, "If you can't think of a background, roll 1d20 and look at the appropriate result in your class's column on the table.")

I get the sense that it can go over 5, just that you can't start greater than 5. I would imagine that 10 to 15 might be the cieling.

One of the things I like about Randall's background/skill redo is that its possible to have higher level play that is still challenging. M20 as written broke down around levels 8 to 10.

Yes, you will always have the min/max person, but I might allow it for a non-fighting class. If the player spends points to improve soldier, they short change their ability to grow or develop skills in their chosen class. A former soldier turned mage is interesting, A character that is trying to be a fighter/mage is not.

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Re: Microlite2020?

Post by Vanya »

Just my two cents, but I would go ahead and rename Hit Points and Body points.
Maybe...
Hit Points into Stamina Points
and Body Points into Health Points.

Otherwise, it looks pretty good so far.

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Re: Microlite2020?

Post by randalls »

Progress Report:

I'm working on Draft 3 at the moment.

The major change is to Initiative as tracking who goes when when their are a lot of PCs and monsters is more of a pain than it needs to be for an otherwise simple game. I'm currently trying comparing initiative rolls to a flat monster Initiative based on the monster's HD. Those PCs whose Init roll beat the monsters go first, then the monsters, then the PCs who failed to beat the monsters. Fighters get a level-based bonus to their Initiative rolls.

I'm also trying to give each class two major powers.

Finally, I'm rereaing all the posts in the original ENWorld Microlite20 threads (2000+ of them) for ideas.

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Re: Microlite2020?

Post by Snorb »

Hm. The new initiative change sounds like Numenera's initiative-- you succeed on the roll, you go before your opponents. If not, you go after. Maybe if the PCs roll initiative every round, it might make combat a little more hectic.

As for class-specific stuff, here's my two commons on the matter-- feel free to pick and choose whichever ones feel appropriate!

Fighters: Second Wind (immediately heal 1d10 + Fighter level HP, usable 1/day?), Weapon Specialization (every even level, +1 to attack rolls and +2 to damage rolls with one specific weapon, you the player choose, this can cap out at +3/+6 per weapon over the course of your career, or you can just say "I'm specializing in armor" and gain a Defense bonus 'cause I'll totally let you), Bravado (tag one enemy after a successful or failed melee attack roll, tagged opponent gets -2 on attack rolls that do not include you as a target, mark lasts until the end of your next turn and you only get one active mark at a time)

Thieves: Backstab (reach out and touch someone. In the back. Of the head. Does additional d6s of damage (or triple damage??), requires an ally to keep the unlucky bastard busy), Underdog (you gain a Defense bonus if the party is outnumbered, capping at +4(?) but this would make your Defense go up and down like a yo-yo as pals and baddies drop dead), Agility (you gain an additional bonus action that can only be spent on movement)

Clerics: Channel Divinity (deity-specific effects, along with Turn Undead and healing), Divine Smite (holding your deity's favored weapon? Enjoy better damage dice or additional fun effects!)... actually, I guess this is kinda like some kind of cleric/paladin hybrid?

Mages: Magic Missile (come on, this is a classic, EVERY wizard worth his spellbook should have this as a damn cantrip!! If that's a bit overpowered, there's always Eldritch Blast), Mage Staff (craft one of eight staffs based on the magic schools, gain effects while you're holding the staff, and you only get one staff, at least you can summon it at will), Metamagic (alter spells)

And for the love of Batman, please do for mage spellbooks what the D&D Next playtest promised (and I'm still irritated about that it's gone.)

And for character classes less commonly-seen beyond the Classic Four!

Alchemists: Alchemical grenades (boom! or brrr! or zaaap!), Chemical Resistance (resist poison and/or acid damage?)

Brawlers: Brawling (there's no finesse to it, you just beat people up), Dirty Fighting (open-palm face slaps, tripping a monster and kicking him while he's down, the Moe Howard Special, and the time-honored Kick-to-the-Balls no Jutsu!)

Psychics: Mind Thrust (melt brains! Make orc heads explode like in Scanners!) ...and other classic psychic powers such as pyrokinesis, cryokinesis, apportation, mind melding, psychic healing, astral projection, psychic empathy, telekinesis, and psychic blades (yes, the soulknife was my favorite classic psionic class, why do you ask?)

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I wrote stuff:
The ArrrPG - A game about pirates.
Nakama: A Game of Magical Girls - A game about being Sailor Moon ripoffs PARODIES.
Intervigilum - A PbtA-ish game about being knights against the Dark.

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Re: Microlite2020?

Post by Vanya »

I like the new initiative idea.
Maybe include an optional rule where initiative is just 10+DEX and only roll a DEX check in cases where multiple characters have the same initiative?
Could make things run a smidge faster.

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