Cantrips?!?
I actually have about five dozen "new" AD&D spells sitting in my personal database, but
 I'm not going to share those until I buy the entire Wizard's Spell Compendium, and make
 sure none of my creations are redundant with those hundreds of spells that are now official.
 Publishing such spells would be a real waste of your time (and mine). So until then, I'm
 going to waste our time by publishing some spells I'm sure won't be redundant, because
 they're only meant for AD&D First Edition campaigns. That's right: I'm putting a bunch 
of cantrips on the Web. I have no shame.

For those you who weren't paying attention in the 1980s, just can't remember, or aren't even 
old enough to have been there the first time around, cantrips, in the AD&D First Edition,
 were zero-level magic-user (and/or illusionist) spells. (Characters could choose to memorized
 four cantrips in lieu of one first-level spell and cast two cantrips per round.) Cantrips had
 very minor effects, but they could be useful if a player was clever enough.

For some reason, cantrips amused me, so I wrote some. Here they are, along with some general 
notes on zero-level spells.

(In AD&D Second Edition, zero-level spells have gone the way of the thief-acrobat and the 
Hierophant Druid, subsumed into one first-level spell. Cantrip requires players and Dungeon 
Masters to wing it when determining the limits and effects of cantrips. If you hate winging 
it, you can always use these cantrips (and the official ones, of course), as guidelines for 
what the cantrip spell can do.)

Please keep in mind that I was 16 (at most) years old when I wrote these, so some of the 
prose may seem stilted. (Not to mention some of the ideas being just plain silly.) Rather 
than rewrite everything, I'll occasionally throw in a "10 Years Later" section to try to 
explain what I was thinking.

New Cantrips List
Bloodtype 
Blunt 
Call Toss 
Clot 
Clue 
Cobweb 
Cointoss 
Evil Eye 
Eyeglow 
Fade 
Hone 
Pop 
Scarab 
Windspeed 
New Cantrip Descriptions
Bloodtype (Divination)
Type: Useful 
Area of Effect: One sample of blood 
Casting Time: 1/2 segment 
The bloodtype cantrip allows the caster to determine what kind of creature (and what sex of 
creature) a sample of blood came from. If the caster has sampled a specific creature's blood 
before, he may compare samples to determine if blood came from a specific creature. The caster
 must be reasonably familiar with the type of creature whose blood is sampled; if for instance,
 the caster does not know what a beholder is, then bloodtype is completely useless on beholder
 blood. The somatic component of bloodtype is the act of touching the blood; the verbal 
component requires invoking the names of obscure magical hemogoblins.

(10 Years Later:

Boy, did my spellchecker hate that joke. 
I added three Divination cantrips, because the rulebook cantrip list didn't have any. I 
actually considered adding Divination as a new Type, but finally decided that Divination 
cantrips all belonged in the Useful group.) 
Blunt (Alteration)
Type: Reversed 
Area of Effect: One blade 
Casting Time: 1/2 segment 
This is the reverse of the hone cantrip. Casting it will dull a blade slightly. While it has
 no effect on combat, it may effect small tools' ability to cut as well or lower the sale 
value of a blade. The caster must slide the blade against a smooth surface while saying tsk,
 tsk several times.

Call Toss (Divination)
Type: Useful 
Area of Effect: One coin 
Casting Time: 1/10 segment 
A cantrip of this sort allows a caster to predict the result of a random coin toss while the
 coin is still in the air. It will also reveal if a coin is "loaded" or in some other way 
modified to create a result. If both cointoss and call toss are cast on the same coin, they 
cancel each other out. will wipe both sides of the coin clean. Like cointoss itself, call
 toss will not work on magical coins. The verbal component of this spell is the word kallngit,
 spoken while pointing at the coin.

Clot (Alteration)
Type: Person-affecting 
Area of Effect: 1 wound 
Casting Time: 1/2 segment 
This cantrip is used to stop a wound from bleeding. The spell does not cure any damage, but 
does prevent any furthur bleeding damage such as that caused by a Major Wound (Wilderness 
Survival Guide, p.70). It also reduces the chance of infection by 5%. The verbal is the magic
 word porbaybi. The somatic component is moving the hands as if wrapping the wound with a
 bandage.

(10 Years Later:

A cantrip that's completely useless in campaigns that don't use the Wilderness Survival Guide.
 I don't even think I used the WSG that much. 
Originally, I put this in the Useful cantrips, but then realized that none of the original
 Useful cantrips were intended for use on a person. 
Does this cantrip step on the toes of clerical magic? Maybe, but then, so does Ressurection.
 I figure if it doesn't actually restore hit points, it's consistant with precedent.) 
Clue (Divination)
Type: Useful 
Area of Effect: 20-foot radius 
Casting Time: 1/3 segment 
This cantrip is used by mages to help them find some vital tip-off that they may have missed. 
The spell gives the caster a +1 bonus to any one ability check (usually Intelligence or Wisdom)
 to notice something. The somatic and verbal component is the caster "holding" his chin with his
 thumb and fore-finger while invoking the elemental reedir-watson.

(10 Years Later: Some of these verbal components are just too precious, aren't they? I was
 just trying to follow Gygax's lead. Honest.)

Cobweb (Evocation)
Type: Personal 
Area of Effect: 1 square foot 
Casting Time: 1/3 segment 
A cantrip of this sort creates a small patch of webbing as would be made by a common household
 spider. The webbing is thin, will not obscure vision unless cast directly on someones face, 
and is easily torn. It may stop very small insects, and serves as a possible counter to cantrips
 such as bee, bug, or gnats. The verbal component (the magical word sharl-et) is verbalized as
 the caster spreads his hand over the area to be cobwebbed.

Cointoss (Aleration)
Type: Legerdemain 
Area of Effect: One coin 
Casting Time: 1/10 segment 
This cantrip allows the caster to control the result of a cointoss. It will not work on a
 coin that is in anyway already magical (even a Nystul's magic aura will disrupt the spell).
 The caster must point to the coin in the air while stating the result s/he desires.

Evil Eye (Charm)
Type: Person-affecting 
Area of Effect: One person 
Casting Time: 1/2 segment 
This cantrip allows a caster to put an small, but intimdating charm on his victim. The subject
 of an evil eye receives a -1 penalty to any morale checks made in the 10 minutes following the
 evil eye. A bard's singing will instantly negate the effects of this cantrip.

(10 Years Later: evil eye was part of an attempt to add some "witchy" spells (to my campaign) 
that were based on Medieval European witchlore. I like my campaigns to seem "Old World", you 
know?

Evil Eye didn't have much to do in a standard AD&D campaign, but if I'd been running a 
Ravenloft campaign, I'd probably have had it affect Fear or Horror checks instead of morale.)

Eyeglow (Illusion)
Type: Minor Illusion 
Area of Effect: Caster 
Casting Time: 1/10 segment 
This cantrip causes the caster eyes to glow with an earie yellow light for two seconds (1/3 
segment). It has no ill effect on the caster or anyone else, but may cause some to believe some
 other spell has been cast.

Fade (Alteration)
Type: Reversed 
Area of Effect: 1 cubic yard 
Casting Time: 1/6 segment 
This reverse of the color cantrip bleachs out the color of an object. Such an effect lasts 
30 days. This cantrip will also instantly negate a color cantrip. The caster of this cantrip
 must act as though s/he is sprinkling something on the item to be affected while saying a
 magical word such as klorox.

(10 Years Later: This is a reversed version of an official cantrip. I probably wrote it as an 
exercise in game logic. I did that a lot back then.)

Hone (Alteration)
Type: Useful 
Area of Effect: One blade 
Casting Time: 1/2 segment 
This cantrip will sharpen a dull blade, including all swords, daggers, spear-heads, etc. It
 gives no bonus to hit or damage, it merely simulates normal upkeep of a blade. The caster
 must slide his finger across the blades edge while verbalizing a shish sound.

Pop (Evocation)
Type: Haunting Sound 
Area of Effect: Special 
Casting Time: 1/4 segment 
This cantrip creates a small "pop!" noise where the caster points. The pop can be heard for 
10 feet in all directions. The caster must vocalize a very small pop noise of his own while 
pointing to where he wishs the sound to originate from.

Scarab (Necromancy)
Type: Personal 
Area of Effect: One insect 
Casting Time: 1/2 segment 
This rare example of a necromantic cantrip creates a semblance of unlife in single dead beetle.
 Necromancy is a difficult school of magic, and this cantrip is notoriously undependable. The
 undead scarab has 1 hp, moves 2 feet per round, and only remains animated for 1d6 hours before 
crumbling to dust. The scarab is easily turned; any character with a holy symbol can chase the
 undead insect away, and any cleric can destroy it with a turning attempt.

(10 Years Later: I've never been really happy with this spell, but I really wanted a necromantic
 cantrip in the spell list. After all, how are magic-users going to learn about necromancy?)

Tarnish (Alteration)
Type: Reversed 
Area of Effect: 1 object 
Casting Time: 1/2 segment 
This reverse of the shine cantrip causes small amounts of rust and/or tarnish to appear on an
 object. While not affecting an items usefulness, this may lower its monetary value. The caster
 must pretend to spit on object to be affected, then say the magical words oxy-day-shun.

Windspeed (Divination)
Type: Useful 
Area of Effect: 0 
Casting Time: 1/2 segment 

A cantrip of this sort is used by a magic-user to determine the speed of the wind in his area.
 Upon casting windspeed, the caster is mentally informed of the wind's speed (in miles per 
hour). The somatic component of the cantrip consists of the caster touch his index finger to 
his tongue and holding the finger up to the wind. The verbal component is Hmmmmm.

(10 Years Later: I wanted some low-level weather magic in the spell list. Funny how I can 
always remember my agenda, but not the original intent.)

Appendix 1: More Sources for Cantrips
The original 74 AD&D cantrips by Gary Gygax appeared in his "From the Sorceror's Scroll"
 column in Dragon Magazine, issues 59, 60, and 61. They were reprinted in Best of Dragon
 Volume 3 and Unearthed Arcana.

Another 9 cantrips (created by Ed Greenwood) appeared in Dragon Magazine issue 100, in the
 article "Pages from the Mages V", and were reprinted in the original Forgotten Realms boxed 
set. (I have no idea if they're in the new boxed set.)

Although clerics and druids were never provided with zero-level spells in the official 
rulebooks, Arthur Collins introduced 12 orisons in "Cantrips for Clerics", Dragon Magazine 
issue 108.

I could never think of any good orisons to add, but Rick Reid added 12 more druidical 
orisons in "Cantrips for Druids -- Naturally" in Dragon Magazine #119.

(In other words, a whole lot of people put a whole lot of work into an obscure corner of the
 AD&D rules that was closed off from the game a few years later. We old-timers were weird 
that way.)

Appendix 2: Advice on Cantrip Design
In my old AD&D campaign, I actually allowed 1st level PC magic-users to start the campaign 
with one unique cantrip (researched during their apprenticeship), because I was trying to 
get the players familiar with the spell research rules. To help myself out, I made a list of 
design principles for cantrips, provided below for your convienence. (The first three were 
actually stated by Gary Gygax in the original cantrip rules; the others are my own 
extrapolations.)

Cantrips are short range; 1 scale inch at most. 
Cantrips always allow a saving throw if used against a person. The saving throw always results
 in total negation of the cantrip. 
Cantrips don't need material components. I don't know why, they just don't. (My scarab cantrip
 walks a fine line on this rule by destroying the subject of the spell as a side-effect.) 
Cantrips are easily trumped. Most of my cantrips are blocked or easily defeated by "real
 spells". 
Cantrips are inflexible. The can produce only one effect, whereas "real spells" can provide
 some choice (Compare, for example, the one-trick Haunting Sound cantrips to flexible illusions
 like Audible Glamour.) 
Cantrips are non-reversable. Reversed version of cantrips must be researched and learned as 
separate cantrips. (Compare hone and blunt.) 
Cantrips are level-independent. Designed for use by zero-level characters, cantrips' effects 
don't improve with caster level. (Actually, several of Ed Greenwood's cantrips do improve with
character level, but I still didn't allow it for PC-developed cantrips.) 
Cantrips are rules simple. If you need two paragraphs to explain the cantrip, it might be too 
complex. 
Cantrips are magically simple. A cantrip may only use one school of magic. Even normally 
conjoined schools (like Conjuration/Summoning or Enchantment/Charm) are separated in cantrips. 
