I have just finished my very streamlined, new OSR ruleset. I needed to make something I could fit on two sides of paper in order to be able sneak-attack unsuspecting people with it. I will launch one of these sneak attacks on work colleagues, former students of mine, strangers and the service users I currently support any day now. They have no idea what is coming.
I'm really pleased with how the rules turned out. I've distilled David Black's incredible work even more, I've incorporated some ideas from earlier rules-light systems I've written and I've got some good old Swords and Wizardry in there too. I'm really looking forward to trying this out. It was important for me that it was very readable for new players. You want people to look at the page, grasp all the information and feel like it's a place of fun rather than intimidation.
In other news I'm still into minis and neo skirmish games. I'm still working on making my own paper minis and fighting a dirty battle on the kitchen table. The week before last I discovered the concept of One-Scene-Dungeons. Yes, that's right. Not One-Page but One-Scene. Wow thank you Mastodon - more to come on this later. And finally I have been trying without success to start a mature RPG club here in Lincoln. I've been regularly posting on the Reddit LFG thread, I also went on Facebook posting on a community page, but so far only one person showed vague interest. Maybe my pitch of 'looking for middle-aged bastards to play retro D&D at the pub' could be worded better. I dunno. Will keep trying. Until the group is established I still have my one-page sneak attack to use.
I appreciate the 80's grim-dark of John Blanche more and more with every passing moon.