Over on bluesky, Zenopus Archives posts a new favorite Holmes/OD&D house rule: "...that thieves can fire into melee without penalty; i.e. no friendly fire". This is a great rule and keeps positioning thieves as a specialists in combat. While they still could use a spear in the second rank, thief PC could be out of rank acting as scouts/recon- this rule allows them to use that position and further encourages the *risk* of breaking rank.
Death, Taxes, & the City Guard: Blog of Forlorn Encystment summarized some very nice rules buried in the AD&D DMG about the city guard having indentured magic-users, taxes on goods, and highlights that by applying taxes- your PCs will try to find ways around them, which is fun. Also this is an excellent reason to have a thief be connected to a guild- black market downtime. Good to note too His Majesty the Worm incorporates a 50% tax rate for this very reason!
Megadungeon Zine (n.): Casey Garske of Stay Frosty fame has put out a new megadungeon 'zine Oubliette using Google docs, public domain art, and his own pencil art. Two issues so far with "0" being a small player's guide and "1" being the first level of the dungeon. I love this old-school G+ energy. We need some more of it in the space. The early old-school scene has a lot of these sorta 'zines and I try to collect as many as I can. It's a lot of similar energy found in many Appx. N Jam entries.
And speaking of megadungeons, Castle Kelpsprot is being put out by The Dododecahedron. Yet another to check out and apparently it already has hundreds of rooms keyed.
Mouth of Mormo: Speaking of dungeons, Goblin Punch released a new, free dungeon which comes in a highly annotated form filled with DM advice. In particular, I love: In my games, characters are required to have character goals. Why do you adventure? Why risk your life to search for gold in these horrible tombs? Character goals must be something that can be solved with money; otherwise, why is this character an adventurer in the first place?
Speed Dice for Fast Combat: A-new-to-me-blog, Light From the Far Horizon, has an interesting combat system where a weapon's damage die (the speed die) is rolled for the to-hit. If you are a lower roll than your target's roll, you strike them first before they strike you, but armor is ablative. However, two-handed weapons have to roll above the target's speed die. Sheilds get their own speed die, which you have to beat as well to strike. Its seems like a lively and interesting system.
d666 Dungeon Dressing Table: Who doesn't want a table of "stuff you'd expect to find in a dungeon" to "gonzo/anachronistic mythic underworld bullshit"?
