When comparing Microlite20 Purest Essence vs Savage Worlds, the Slant community recommends Savage Worlds for most people. In the question“What are the best tabletop RPGs?” Savage Worlds is ranked 2nd while Microlite20 Purest Essence is ranked 54th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Easy to start
If you are looking for a game like DnD, but much easier - try Microlite20 Pures Essence with Ultimate Fantasy supplement.
Pro Rules will be familiar to any veteran D&D player
As Microlite20 is a stripped down version of the d20 SRD with the same classes, races, items and abilities, it will be easy to understand by anyone that has previously played a D&D game. Especially D&D 3.x.
Pro Compatible with d20 SRD
Any material written for the d20 system can be used with the Microlite20 system. All creatures, items, monsters, spells, etc from any d20 SRD licensed resource are compatible with the Microlite20 system.
Pro Clear writing
The writing is very terse and to the point. There's very little in terms of fluff. As such the rules are easy to comprehend and reference.
Pro Simple rules allow easy customization
m20 remains compatible with the d20 SRD, but rules are lite enough that adding modifications to the system is trivially simple.
Pro Fast-paced play
Pro Generic rule-set
The rules cater to multiple genres, and offer additional rules for GMs (or players) to create their own races, powers, etc.
Pro Companion books with expanded rules to support 4 major genres
Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horrer, and Super Heroes. Each of which can be portrayed in a basic sense with only the core book.
Pro Classless
( Not a Class Based System ) This is also listed as a con, but it can be very refreshing to build you character from scratch. You can make whatever sort of archetype you like, and many are available pre configured for you.
Pro Easy to learn / teach
Pro General machanical similarities to d20, d6, and conventional RPGs
Cons
Con Combat can potentially get stale
Due to the fact that combat is simplified to just 3 variables (AC, HP and attacks) a less experienced DM runs the risk of creating repetitive combat.
Con No combat rating guidelines
No guidelines exist in the game to advise the difficulty of combat encounters. It is generally assumed in the rules, that the opponents will be reasonably proportional to the narrative situation, and that players will use ingenuity, retreat and avoid combat, or muster the villagers into a militia using the rules for Extras (mooks) as necessary.
Con Medium complexity
Straddles the space between lightweight games like Fate, and heavyweight games like d20 System.
Con Classless
Characters are developed completely independently of any sort of D&D-esque class framework. This allows players to make more free-form characters, but as a result characters which are less focused may be generally weaker. The book does provide a number of "archtype" partial-builds, which can generally serve as an alternative to classes, and Savage Rifts offers the Iconic frameworks, which more closely resembles classes.