Greywulf's Lair

I am happy to announce that Microlite20 has a new owner. I received a whole load of enquiries regarding the rights to M20, and want to thank each and every person who took the time, thought and care to make an offer. If I could cut Microlite20 into tiny word-sized pieces so you could each own a part of it, I would.

Of course technically I could have done just that, putting Microlite20 into the public domain or granting shared ownership to the collective fanbase. I could, but feel that Microlite20 is a project which needs a leader. It needs a benevolent dictator who can control the core of the system and act as the centre for all the many directions which Microlite20 can take (indeed, has already taken). Any number of people who made offers could have taken on the role, and this made choosing one out of the many a particularly difficult decision. It’s certainly not one which I took lightly.

So with immediate effect, Microlite20’s new owner is Seth Drebitko. Through our back-and-forth emails, he impressed me by asking the right questions about the game and the microlite20.net site, and with the direction he wants to take the game. It’s a fine balancing act to be able to keep something the same yet also improve upon it, and feel that Seth is able to do what’s needed to make Microlite20 (the site, and the core) the best it can possibly be.

I trust you will wish him well and hope you look forward to the future. Now I can take a back seat and let someone handle the driving in my stead, I’m looking forward to it very much indeed.

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This is probably the most difficult post I have ever had to make, so I’ll come right out and say it: I’m selling the rights to Microlite20. This is everything – the rights to the name, the system, my claim to the game, the domain, the files, everything. Make me an offer.

But first, I guess it’s better if I explain why.

Microlite20 as a game is something I came up with way back when as an experiment to see whether it’s possible to reduce Third Edition D&D/d20 SRD into its purest form. The goal was a game that is fully playable and compatible enough to D&D to work with published adventures and monsters, yet be simple enough to fit in your back pocket. I wanted to create a system that would provide a core foundation and a spark that would ignite the hacker/gamer in all of us – a basic system which invited (nay, demanded) customization, tweaking and all sorts of fun invention.

I think it’s fair to say that (with a lot of help, support and encouragement from countless others), I succeeded.

I have taken the system as far as I want to go. My own group haven’t played the game (nor even expressed an interest) in over a year and that has lead me to have no further emotional investment in the game. I’d much rather it be in the hands of people who are just as excited in the game as I was right at the start.

Along with the rights to Microlite20 there’s the domain microlite20.net which I own and is registered until 11 May 2010. The site itself is hosted at mochahost.com and all domain costs are included in the fees (also paid up until May 2010). The site itself is stable, though the (very active) forums are a problem – they’ve been targeted by spammers so much that I have entirely locked down new registrations. Whenever I open it up just to activate a new user who has requested it, I end up spending half a day clearing down 200+ new fake signons and 2000+ spam messages. If you have recently requested a forum account over there and it’s not been activated yet, I apologise and that’s the reason – it’s a horribly soul-sucking experience.

And before you say it, yes – that IS with captcha in place! If I had the emotional investment in Microlite20 to fix it, I’d export the forums, burn them to the ground and start again. But I don’t.

That’s what’s on offer. Microlite20, the site, the domain, the files and all rights thereof. The only thing I ask if that my blog at http://blog.microlite20.net can remain as an archive for 6 months – I’ll move my day-to-day blogging over to my own site at http://greywulf.net. As Microlite20 was released under the OGL, I expect any future rights-holders to also adhere to the terms of that license for the core rules themselves.

I would love Microlite20 to find a good home – a small publishing house would be ideal – and in the current climate I’m realistic to know that selling Microlite20 isn’t going to mean I can retire and live a life of luxury any time soon. Seriously, if the best offer I get is ten bucks after a couple of months, I’ll take it. If multiple parties are interested in Microlite20 I’ll be in touch with all of them to see who can make the best all-round offer.

This is your chance to actually, totally and legally OWN the rights to your own role-playing game. Not the PDF, not a copy, but the copyright itself!

If you’re interested, mail me – greywulf(at)gmail.com.

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If there’s one this I love, it’s people. Especially people who take the simple (like Microlite20), and make it into something wonderful. Gunsmoke & Goblins (tiny pdf download) by bd_art, is just such a flavour of wonderful.

Here’s the one-line pitch: a 5 page Microlite RPG of cowboys & injuns D&D style (and d20 compatible), all wrapped up in hilarious Wild West dialog.

Pure, free, brilliance.

And it inspired me to make this…………

DAZ Studio, no postwork.

Any excuse for a render, I know :)

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