DCC: Random ideas.

Stinkor from Masters of the Universe, in DCC stats.

Init +3; Atk Claw +3 melee (1d6+3); AC 18; HD 3d10; HP: 20; MV 30’;
Act 1d20; SP gas cloud; SV Fort +5, Ref +3, Will +2; AL C.

Stinkor is a competent warrior, but his greatest asset is his foul stench. Anyone attacking Stinkor in melee combat must make a Fort save vs DC 15 or be at -1 to hit rolls.
Once per combat (appx 10 minutes) Stinkor can generate a toxic cloud, 12' in diameter. Anyone in the cloud must make a Fort save vs DC 18 or be incapacitated for 1d4 rounds. The cloud lasts for 1d6 rounds. The cloud gives a -2 penalty to ranged attacks against targets in the cloud. Un-dead and mechnanical creatures are unaffected by either the stench or cloud.
Stinkor wields his natural razor-sharp claws and shield, and wears a breastplate with an integrated breath mask. Stinkor is immune to his own stench, but is susceptible to his own toxic cloud effect. The breastplate give him immunity to his toxic cloud, immunity to non-magic gas effects, and +2 to Fort saves versus magical gas effects.

2nd Edition: Dance with Death

Unlike previous editions, 2nd Edition focused on settings and characters, and continuity of characters. While it was, and still is, amusing and fun to have a D&D campaign with frequent mortality, (and I like it in Dungeon Crawl Classics) it's not so conducive to a lot of 2nd edtion games. There have been various house rules and official rules and optional rules to tamp down on the lethality of D&D, like the -10 hit points rule, or making death saves, but really all these rules are saying that we don't necessarily want characters to die when they're knocked down to 0 hit points. So why not just say that? There's an excellent aphorism "Don't call for a die roll unless you're willing to accept the result"
If a character is reduced to 0 hit points, they fall down and are no longer a participant in the combat unless they get healing. That character is not dead, but badly wounded and can be tended after the encounter ends.
So what about save or die? I'm not too concerned about effects like petrification, which is curable. I'm tempted to say that any instant death effects reduce the character to 0 hit points, and the aforementioned "fallen down" rule is still in effect.
That leaves disintegration. Well, my thought is to keep it rare. I still believe in having some monsters and abilities that are very dangerous, but not something for the characters to encounter in every adventure.

2nd Edition: Dragonlance

It's almost redundant to say that Dragonlance was both a megahit that rejuvenated TSR, and a point where Dungeons & Dragons made a turn away from it's previous tropes. Unlike modules like Keep on the Borderlands or Tomb of Horrors, the story was the focus of Dragonlance. Notably, this was around the time Bothered about Dungons and Dragons was putting pressure on TSR, and Dragonlance offered a setting that got away from the amoral gathering of treasure, the slaughtering of monsters, and the references to demons and devils. This asthetic would find their way into 2nd edtion as well. I'm not saying that Dragonlance was created in response to the criticisms against D&D, but it certainly was a convenient world for TSR to distance itself from those criticisms.

Unfortunatley, the original Dragonlance modules also removed a lot of the open ended gameplay. DL1 was certainly not a terrible module, but it was very linear. On re-reading my copy, I noted the use of the march of the Draconian army as a tool to herd the players to the ruins of Xak Tsaroth, and a pretty heavy hand in the resolution of the combat with the dragon Khisanth.

I lost interest in the Dragonlance modules after D3, Dragons of Hope. All the Dragonlance modules up to that point were pretty much similar in structure and play. There's a few interesting ideas, like the use of discrete events along with locations, or the politics of the refugee caravan, but these ideas, to me, were not fleshed out or used as well as they could have been. 

And then the novels came out. It was clear to me, even then, that Dragonlance was a much better series of novels than a series of modules. Later on, Dragonlance would get setting books that didn't tie into an overarching plot, and so become much more palatable as a game world. I think it's fair to say that Dragonlance was a kind of precursor to the settings that would come during 2nd Edition.

2nd Edition: The Companion

One thing that popped into my head today was the companion character. Usually an exotic humanoid or beast that shares some kind of close bond with the character.

Often the companion can only speak or communicate with the patron character. In the case of Chewbacca, no one seems to understand his specific language except for Han and C-3P0. Even if others could, they often go through the patron character since their bond means that the patron is more trusted.
Sometimes the patron can even see through the companion's eyes, or listen through their ears, in the case of The Beastmaster.

And the companion is often not human, or even one of the usual demihuman races, but something more strange and unusal, in the case of Dragonbait from the Forgotten Realms.

Game thoughts: My opinion is that the companion should be an NPC under the control of the patron character's player. This would make them synchrynous in how they and their relationship are played out. Plus the companion may be a beast that wouldn't be much fun playing all the time, like Kodo and Podo from The Beastmaster, but fun to pull out when a key needs retrieving or a bad guy needs distracting.

Thinking on it, we often 'adopted' interesting NPCs, making them companions to our regular PCs in our AD&D games. There were the henchmen rules, but we didn't necessarily think of it in rules terms. More like "This guy/girl/furry thing is cool. Let's take him/her/it with us!"

2nd Edition

I'd say everything's been covered regarding the OSR and editions of Dungeons and Dragons that run from the "White Box" up until AD&D. There's not a ton of stuff on 2nd edition, and since that's the edition I spent a lot of time with, I thought I'd start up some thoughts on the subject.

MTV played music videos instead of fake reality road trip shows, we watched Thundercats and Transformers and Star Wars. Our magic wasn't from a Dying Earth, but from a galaxy far, far away, or a land inhabited by Nelwyns. And we inherited D&D from some guys in Lake Geneva, who packaged their strange game with the funny dice, and sold at the corner hobby store, or the Sears catalog.

We didn't have a clue how the game was 'supposed' to be played. Sure, there were the books listed in Appendix N, and the examples of play, but we tossed the rules that didn't make sense at the time, and stuck our own "Appendix N" in there, of battle cats and skesis and luck dragons. I plan to post much more on the subject as I put my thougths together while creating my own 2nd edition style campaign setting, tentativley titled "Palace of the Sun and Moon".

Note that a lot of my 2nd edition inspiration comes from before it was published, as the media and games that influenced my tastes and found their way into my D&D campains predates 2nd edition by roughly a decade.

Interesting Environments

Warehouse
This room is full of boxes and barrel and bags of stuff. Every combatant is considered to have cover for ranged attacks. Whenever a combatant misses in combat, melee, ranged or damaging spell, there is a 1 in 6 chance of breaking a container and releasing it's contents into the room. Roll a 1d6 for what type of contents-
1. Oil. This barrel is broken open and the floor becomes coated with flammable oil. Any fire attack or spell has a 1 in 4 chance of igniting the oil. The fire will cause 1d3 damage to every combatant in the room on the first round, 1d6 damage on the second round, and 1d10 damage for the rest of the turn. At then end of the turn, the fire dies out.
2. Flour. A bag of flour explodes and coats the room. Sneaking rolls for theives is at a DC 20 for the rest of the combat, and invisible creatures lose their invisibility advantage for the rest of the combat.
3.  Apples. A barrel is broken open and it's contents of apples spill onto the floor. Each round, every combatant must make a Ref check vs DC 15 or be off balance, suffering -2 to attacks and checks that require movement or dexterity. A critical 1 on the Ref check indicates that the combatant has fallen prone.
4. Molasses. This barrel is broken open and spills it's contents of sticky molasses on the floor. Every combatant must make a Str test vs DC 15 or be off balance, suffering -2 to to attacks and checks that require movement or dexterity. A critical 1 on the test indicates that the combatant has gotten molasses all over their weapon and suffer the -2 to attacks (non-cumulative) until they spend a round wiping the molasses off.
5. Grain. This sack is punctured and it's contents of grain spill onto the floor. There is no effect on combat unless combatants can think of one. (The grain is fine for flinging into an opponents eyes)
6. Empty crate. Aside from wood fragments and splinters, there is no effect on combat.

Interesting Environments

Some environmental effects for DCC/D&D type games.

Mage Crystal
This room is lined with Mage Crystal, a bluish crystaline mineral that had odd effects on magic. Whenever a spell is cast in this room, or within 100' of the crystal, roll on the following table.
Mage Crystal effects- 1d6
1: Spell is absorbed by the crystal and has no effect.
2: Spell targets caster, for good or ill.
3: Spell targets a random target, for good or ill.
4: Caster is at -1d3 for spell check roll.
5: Caster is at +1d3 for spell check roll.
6: Every living creature within 20' of caster must make a Luck save vs DC 10 + Caster Level, or suffer a minor corruption.
Mage Crystal is rarely found in mines and caves, and is sometimes harvested and used by various persons. There must be at least a total of 10 cubic feet (can be spread around) of Mage Crystal for the effects to happen. Having a chip or stone of Mage Crystal on one's person does not affect spellcasting.