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That thread reads a lot like this thread - and some folks there did a lot more digging and found no reference earlier than 2007 - and their source points it towards rpg.net.

Interesting. I can't tell, but Hriston could be right. The game itself that he's playing in that thread was released in 2017. He couldn't have reviewed it in 2005.

Searched through a few other D&D-related usenet groups. They were very small, and none had any references to "hobo" at all.

The problem with this phrase is that it's somewhat derogatory, and not likely to find it's way into a published source. Not finding any reference to it in Dragon magazine wasn't terribly surprising for me. And I'm not suggesting that it doesn't go back decades, but I'd like to at least try to...

I found "Murderous hobo" from 2009, and "murder hobo" in 2013. I'm going to see if I can find of D&D-related usenet groups to search through. If I can find even 1 reference to "murder hobo" prior to 2007, at the very least, I've disproved the article I linked in the first page.

All right, I've got my friend within WoTC sufficiently intrigued. He's going to do some digging. :)

I happen to agree Azzy here. There is zero evidence that this phrase appeared anywhere before 2007. Google agrees with me, though their search only goes to 2004. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=%22murder%20hobo%22 -- appears zero times until 2007, when it completely peaks...

I happen to friends with the guy who's in charge of analytics at WoTC. Maybe I'll ping him to see if they can dig through their own archives.

Why Dark Sun? Does it mention murder(ous) hobos somewhere?

And lawyers. Or were they accountants? No, lawyers, I think.

I don't know if it qualifies as a houserule, but when I was in high school, some friends of mine believed that weapons made of charcoal were the only appropriate weapons for fighting demons. I still don't know where that one came from...

Ok, I figured out I could search usenet via groups.google.com I searched "rec.frp.games.dnd" This is what I found that was relevant: The phrase "Murder hobo" doesn't actually appear in this group until 2013, although "Murdering hobo" is REALLY, REALLY close (from 2009). Happy to search...

Anyone know how to do a usenet search? Apparently, I'm too stupid to figure it out.

Hmm, that's an interesting take on it. That gives the paladin son a chance to actually redeem him, not just kill him and bury him. I'll have to think about that some more. It's all the more interesting when you consider I'm planning on having the PC compete in a joust against his own brother -...

Essentially, over the last several decades, his house has slowly lost money since trade routes have shifted over time. His children more or less abandoned him, and he sees his family's name as a mockery among all the other nobles in the vicinity. Since his kids clearly aren't stepping up to see...

I'll give Mummy lord another look. The CR is pretty high, but I could probably work with that. I wanted to avoid creating something brand new, since it just felt like I was overlooking something simple here. Ghostly possession is an interesting idea here, but the noble's goals in undeath are far...

Lord Mommy? Does it attack with wire hangers?

As I much as I tend to hate this kind of "woke culture" kind of stuff, I tend to agree with the sentiment that "Barbarian" tends to have pretty negative connotations to it, and even if you look at the dictionary definition of barbarian, it's pretty awful...