Castle Xyntillan: Introduction and rules

In the coming months I will be keeping a record of my new OSR campaign: a series of expeditions into Castle Xyntillan. The Castle Xyntillan module was written by Gabor Lux (Melan) in 2019. It's a "funhouse" megadungeon, designed according to the old-school principles and mostly inspired by the 1977 module Tegal Manor, published by Judges Guild. It's a huge and deadly complex, with traps and monsters hidden around every corner. It's also very humorously written; the whole castle is filled with silly haunted house stuff that fans of the song (and meme) "Spooky Scary Skeletons" will almost certainly appreciate. 

The module is designed to be compatible with the OD&D (specifically Swords & Wizardry), but I will run it as a Basic D&D campaign, using the Old School Essentials (OSE) rulebook. Because OD&D and Basic aren't too different, the modules needs little to no conversion to play it as such. We will use the Basic rules mostly as written, with just a few house rules. Two of these are:

1. 
     We use the D6 Thief skill rules, as written in the first issue of Carcass Crawler, released by Necrotic Gnome in 2021. With these rules the Thief class trains it's thievery skills quite a bit faster, and can actually decide which ones it wants to train first. When hiring thieves as retainers, I made six different skill distributions, which can be randomly picked using a D6. This way some thieves you hire will be trained in climbing, others in opening locks, moving silently etc.
   
   
2. 
     We also use the Item-Based Encumbrance rules, as written in the second issue of Carcass Crawler, released in 2022. This system is not only a great middle ground between the basic and detailed encumbrance rules in OSE, but also comes with a very elaborate character sheet, available as a free download at the
   Necrotic Gnome website. 

    

All sessions will be played in person, at the table. Inspired by other accounts of Castle Xyntillan campaigns, every session will be one expedition to the castle. The expedition always starts in the nearest town called Tours-en-Savoy and, before ending the session, the players are supposed to return there as well (if they survive, that is). So, instead of a fixed group that travels around a world map, the players form a kind of adventurers' guild based in Tours-en-Savoy, with the composition of the expedition varying every session. This way players can join the campaign in a drop in/drop out manner, following the guilds advancements in the castle by reading this blog.

I look forward to the first session with much excitement, but I'm also wary. Ever never ran a campaign this close to the Basic rules before. I wonder if the players will enjoy playing the race-as-class characters with 4 or 5 HP as much as I would. And to make matters even worse: I will force myself to strictly adhere to the dice by doing all wandering monster rolls and combat rolls openly. This way I can't secretly save a player from dying, which I sometimes have a habit for... Still, I'm sure everyone will have a good time, hopefully creating longstanding memories of how their beloved characters died hilariously. 

Merijn