When I announced this project, I figured it would only take a week to ten days to do as the material was written. All I had to do was strip out the campaign specific information (aka the “product identity”) and reformat. Unfortunately, seasonal allergies and other real life things conspired to give me little free time — at least little free time where I felt good enough to work on it. However, almost a month after I announced this “quick” project, it is finished. Microlite74 Special Version I is ready for download.

To recap, this project started last month when I was offered a $100 donation to the RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund if I would piece together various rules from the different Microlite74 rules sets and companions (and customize them slightly) for a specific GM’s campaign world. I decided that the customized version of the rules was interesting enough to stand on its own without the 20 pages of private campaign material and Microlite74 Special Version I.

This special version of Microlite74 is designed for a campaign world with only two deities (a Lord of Light (order) and a Lord of Darkness (chaos) who oppose each other. Magic is both common and rare in this campaign world in that about 25% of the population have the ability to use Minor Magic at will (including all characters and NPCs with a class level), but arcane magic is otherwise limited to long, complex, and costly rituals. Clerics have limited spell-like abilities called prayers. True magic Items are almost non-existent. What true magic items do exist are created by the GM as needed and are always one-of-a-kind. Magic items created by binding spirits to material items are more common.

The campaign these rules were designed for was centered around a large decadent empire which which was starting to fall apart at the seams while its borderlands were breaking away or were being overrun by subhumans and monsters. The central portions of the empire were ignoring the problems. The Church of Light was aware of the problems but its influence on the imperial government had been reduced by scandal after scandal. In the borderlands, however, the Church of Light was often the only institution able to see beyond local issues. The campaign world was early renaissance, at least in the central parts of the empire, but hand guns and long guns were never invented.

You can download your free copy of Microlite74 Special Version I from Mediafire. It’s 24 pages and about a 1.15 meg PDF.

Download Microlite74 Special Version I

If you like this free RPG, please consider a donation to the RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund.