The second “release candidate” version of Microlite74 3.0 Swords & Sorcery is now available for download. As I mentioned in a post a few days ago, people with far better proofreaders skills than mine found a large number of errors in the first release candidate. Many of these errors were nothing more than places where text had been copied from standard M74 and I had not noticed references to magic-users, clerics, etc. Oddly, I noticed and fixed some of these while not even noticing others. I hope I have caught most of them this time around. I’ve also added dinosaurs back into the monster list, however, in a simple way. There are states for various general classes of dinosaurs instead of 30 or 40 entries for specific dinosaurs.

Except for typos (of which I am sure there are more) the rules in second first release candidate are in (what I hope will be) their nearly final form. This means they are ready for you to download, proofread, math check, playtest, and the like. Please report any typos, places where the rules aren’t clear, or where they seem broken in play so I can fix typoes (of which there are probably a large number) and take a second look at any troublesome rules. I do not plan to add any more rules or make major changes to these rules — assuming, that is, there are no more major rules problems or omissions found by readers. The third release candidate will include a section on “swords & sorcery” and well as updated designers notes along with corrections to the rules from proofreaders. With luck, there will be no need for a fourth release candidate. I am still hoping for a final release sometime in September.

You can download a free PDF copy of Microlite 74 3.0 Swords & Sorcery Release Candidate 2 from Mediafire:

• Microlite 74 3.0 Swords & Sorcery Release Candidate 2 (PDF, about 462K)

Please post comments and correction below or send them via email to m74ss AT retroroleplaying.com. Note that this address will only be valid during August 2011.

[Real Life Note: We are dealing with a very sick 16.5 year old dachshund at the moment, so if I do not reply to comments and emails as quickly as you might like over the next few days, please forgive me.]