Shortly after I finished the original version of Microlite74 a couple of years ago, I started work on a different way to do “old school” in Microlite20. I even mentioned the game a few times in the forum and on my blog: Microlite20 OSS — where OSS stood for “Old School Style.” Where Microlite74 was an attempt to do “old school” by recreating the 1974 0e edition of the world’s most popular fantasy RPG in Microlite20 terms, Microlite20 OSS was intended to encourage the “old school style” in the much more standard 3.x edition base Microlite20 was written for. It other words, Microlite20 OSS was intended to allow old school style play with most the 3.x SRD stuff standard Microlite20 supported. The project was forgotten as my wife’s cancer treatments took a bigger and bigger toll out of out lives.

Microlite20 OSS is the equivalent of the Core Microlite20 rules. It includes the four standard Microlite20 classes (Fighter, Rogue, Mage, Cleric) and depends on the 3.5 Fantasy SRD for monsters, spells, treasure, and the like. This allows the actual rules to fit on the front and back of a single sheet of paper. Unlike standard Microlite20, Microlite20 has no specific skills. Instead players are expected to think like adventurers, tell the GM what they are doing and the GM decides if it will succeed in the situation, taking into account the character’s class and background. Die roll guidelines are provided for cases where the GM decides a random roll is needed to determine success or failure. This game includes several pages of notes on old school play designed to help both players and GMs adapt to playing “old school style.”

You can download a free copy of version 1.0 of Microlite20 OSS from the box in the right sidebar.

An “advanced/expert” version of Microlite20 OSS including classes and races from the Expert Rules for Microlite20 is also available under the Advanced Microlite20 OSS name.