The Microlite74 Ultimate Edition is now available on DrivethruRPG/RPGNow in a digest and epub combo format — perfect for printing out or reading on a tablet. Like the Extended version of Microlite74, the rules of the Microlite74 Ultimate Edition 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. However, this Ultimate Edition combines the rules from Microlite74 Extended with the additional rules from first, second, and third Microlite74 Companion volumes, full treasure listings, some new additional rules, a sample setting, and several short location-based adventures in a digest-sized book.

This book contains the complete rules for the Microlite74 Ultimate Edition, including:

• Simple Character Creation Rules: Roll 4 attributes and select a race, class, background, and alignment.
• Standard Classes: Fighter, Ranger, Paladin, Monk, Magic-User, Illusionist, Cleric, Druid, and Thief.
• Many Optional Classes: Barbarians, Swashbucklers, Necromancers, Beastmasters, Monks, Shamans, Delvers, and many more.
• All the standard races plus many optional races.
• Simple and fast-playing combat system that tracks physical damage (aka body points) separately from luck/skill/fatigue (aka hit point) damage.
• Hit points recover with a night’s rest. Spells cost hit points to cast. Actual wounds recover more slowly.
• Rules for hirelings, monster reactions (not every monster wants to fight), morale (not every monster fights to the death), and more.
• Many optional rules: use none, some, or all.
• A complete list of spells, monsters and treasure.
• Gamemaster section with setting design information, advice, and a small, ready-to-use hexcrawl setting and three simple location-based adventures ready to drop into the sample setting or use in your setting.
• Compatible with most other 0e based games and adventures — as well as many designed for B/X, BECMI, and 1e.

You receive two files: a standard pdf and an epub file. The digest-sized pdf is 384 pages and is suitable for printing or for easy reading on a tablet. Unlike the “Condensed Type” editions of Microlite74, this pdf is formated in a single column and uses a larger typeface to make it easier to use on a tablet. The epub version of Microlite74 Ultimate Edition contains tables and many epub readers display tables in a single column unreadable mess. Epub reader software designed to display epub3 files usually have no problem with the tables. Calibre displays this epub file well on Windows PCs and Gitden reader displays it fine (if slowly) on android. There is an IOS version of Gitden Reader for Apple devices, but it has not been tested. Note that tables in epub files do not adapt well to small screen devices. Note that the epub file is not as “pretty” as the pdf version as the epub format was simply not designed for complex layouts, but it is usuable on devices able to handle the epub3 format.
You get both the digest-sized pdf and the epub version when you buy the digest/epub version of the second edition of Microlite74 Ultimate Edition for $9.95. A “pay what you want” version without artwork will appear at a later date. I can’t be more specific as converting digest format to two column format is a real pain and requires taking time from other more interesting projects. (I’m not good at layout and as I find it much more boring than playing or writing games, I never seem to get much better at it.)

You can get a copy of the new second edition of Microlite74 Utimate Edition on its page on RPGNow.