Why (not) Microlite?

That's a very good question.
I started playing with AD&D first edition a long time ago and when AD&D 2nd edition came out I tried to like it but quickly came to the conclusion that things just weren't holding together well (not to mention that horrible Monster Manual binder thingy).  There were too many tables to check and every game mechanic was on a different chart.  Not a game went by without something to argue about or something to look up.  I tried to play Role Master and it was great stuff but much too cumbersome for my style of play (loved those critical tables though!).  I eventually built my own system based on percentile dice and a power ranking system somewhat like the Marvel superheroes system "Universal Results Table".  That worked well for a couple years but the largest issue was that i had to convert every thing into this system; every game supplement, every published module, every damn Lizardman.  I played some other games and eventually stopped playing as life intruded and people lost touch.  No more role playing, it was all I could do to get a board game in every now and then.  I did look at 3rd edition when it came out and heard about the OGL and heard about the screwage and the bloat and just shrugged and played me some Puerto Rico.

Well now there's blogs and there's people posting things up that are interesting and fun.  Now I hate me some blogs (I was a WIKI and forum-man from way back and I don't want to hear about your cousin's soup recipe) but dammit I liked reading some of them ones about gaming.

About a year ago I ran across the Microlite site put up by greywulf and I really really liked what he had done.  Here was the core of a system that you could fit on a couple pages and still manage to run a comprehensive game.  And the best part was that it was really simple to modify a whole swath of d20 material to use in the system.  You could do it on the fly!  Well I had missed the d20 train but I hadn't missed the fact that there was a metric fuckton of modules and supplements out there using it.  I printed off a copy and started a game with my kids and it was just great.  I'm still running that game and it's still great.


But maybe it could be greater...

• Microlite changes magic to a point based system and I really like that, however it means if you simply pull spells from the SRD you are going to run into some problems because those lists are based on an interval system and not a points system.
• Microlite has pretty loose combat rounds, I think I'd enjoy a touch more structure.
• Microlite classes are basically the same as SRD classes without skills or feats and with very stripped down mechanics, I think they could be a bit more defined for the system.
• I like a critical table (blame Role Master) but just a little one (blame Role Master).
• Dammit druids should be hedge magey magic users and not clerics!

So that's why I am modding the Microlite even though I think it's great.