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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/Zarvox1234321 on 2023-09-20 22:46:02.

Within the past 6 months I’ve become aware of OSR and have found it to solve most of my issues with 5e. Because of my own limited time and the inconsistent schedules of those who would play at my table, I’ve decided to run an open table(in-person only), wherein I schedule based on my availability and whoever wants to can show up to play.

I’ve recently run my first session under OSE(Winter’s Daughter) and am looking to sink my teeth into something bigger, so I plan to run Tomb of the Serpent Kings. In the interest in maintaining some degree of verisimilitude, I plan to run it as a traveling guild of adventurers looking for treasure in dangerous places. Wherever the game takes place, the camp is not far so the rationale is that for each session different PC’s might show up from that nearby camp and the PC’s that aren’t present are simply resting there.

All that being said, the advice I’m looking for is:

What’s a good in world “reason” for why the PC’s need to leave the middle of a dungeon when our real world time is out? Or is there a better way to handle this?

I was thinking of having some sort of “message board” where players who have been to an unfinished dungeon can leave a few notes or warnings to new players that show up.

I’m considering having a direct correlation between real world and game time. A consequence of this is players can explain what their characters are working on in that time and dungeon areas that may have been cleared may be repopulated in rational ways(e.g. the corpses of the goblins you killed have attracted ghouls to eat them). What are the benefits and pitfalls of this and are there any recommendations on how to run a game with this time mechanic under the open table style I mentioned above?

Are there any other explanations or gameplay mechanics to help this open table style make sense in world?

Thanks in advance, everyone. This subreddit has been a fantastic source of information and inspiration!