I’m happy to announce that final “silver” version of Microlite81 Complete 1.0 is finished at last and is now available for free download. I’m also pleased to say that I managed to limit the page count to my goal of 128 pages (the same length as B/X) after all. If you read my last post you saw that I was afraid it might go to as many as 144 pages. Thanks to discovering that I had some unneeded blank pages at the end of the file and a bit of rearranging things, I was able to keep the page count to the original 128 page target. Due to all the artwork, the file size ballooned from just under 2 megs in the last release candidate to 17.2 megs.

In case you haven’t read my blog in a long time and have no idea what I’m talking about, Microlite81 Complete is a greatly expanded version of Microlite81 (a Microlite20-based version of B/X) designed for those who are less familiar with roleplaying games and those who simply prefer more complete information in a larger book to minimal information in a shorter book. Microlite81 Complete is intended to be standard Microlite81 with more complete descriptions of spells, monsters, and magic items and a few extras like an example of play and instructions for GMs which will hopefully make the game more friendly to players with less experience with old school gaming. Microlite81 Complete also allows the GM to select which version of the “core game rules” to use (the standard B/X-like rules from Microlite81 or the B/X-like rules with the author’s house rules from the early 1980s added as in Microlite81 Extended).

Microlite81 Complete is the third game of four planned in the Microlite81 series. The first two, Microlite81 and Microlite81 Extended have already been released. The fourth game in the series, Microlite81 Advanced, in about 80% completed and I hope to have it out by the end of the year. Microlite81 Advanced uses the Microlite81 rules with the spells, monsters, and magic items from the first edition (circa 1978) of the world’s most popular fantasy roleplaying game. This will provide rules for one of the most common styles of play in the early and mid-1980s, adding 1e classes, spells, and magic items to the B/X rules.

I’d like to thank all of those who have supposed Microlite81 with money for the Microlite81 RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund drives last year, as well as with ideas, with email messages, and with proofreading comments. I’d also like to thank Kevin Crawford and his artists (not to mention those who funded his kickstarters) for donating a great deal of art from several Sine Nomine games to the public domain so that those of us with no budget for art can use it.

Microlite81 Complete is now available for free download in PDF format in the Microlite20.org download area. Here is direct download link: Click Here to Download: Microlite81-Complete-Public-Beta.pdf.

As usual, Microlite81 Complete is a free game: it is free to download, free to use, free to print copies of, and the text (except for a few proper names) is open game context under the OGL.