Castle Kelpsprot is a work-in-progress megadungeon capsule game that I will begin running this October. For a little more background, see my first post on the project.
Today I’m excited to show off the player’s guide I wrote for the game. The target audience is pretty much just the players who will participate in the campaign—likely one or two dozen people, as it’ll be an open table campaign that I intend to run for quite a long time.
You can view the player’s guide on Google Drive or download it directly below:
Anticipated Questions
Where are the rules?
These are all of the rules the players will need to participate. They may discover additional rules during their exploration of the castle. I plan to run Castle Kelpsprot HUDless, so the game’s minimal mechanics will remain behind the screen, so to speak. I hope for players’ engagement with the game to be as diegetic as possible.
What’s the deal with origins and habitués?
There’s more to origins than their opaque names. Each origin offers a brief background on how that character arrived at the castle. Each origin also includes questions to prompt the player to think about their character’s goals and point of view. Finally, origins determine a character’s starting rank in swords and sorcery as well as any unique abilities or favor they begin play with. Habitué origins are reserved for players who become regular participants in the campaign.
What the hell kind of gonzo FKR nonsense is this? Is this even OSR?
I dunno—it’s a bit experimental, but players familiar with old-school principles should be able to find their footing just fine.
May I join the campaign?
Probably! Castle Kelpsprot will be an open-table game, and I hope to maintain a roster of 8–16 players during the course of the campaign. I’ll give priority to people I’m familiar with, but I aim to run 4–8 sessions per month at various times to accommodate players in different time zones. Barring any unexpected delays, the first session will take place this October. Feel free to reach out on Discord (dododecahedron) if you might be interested!
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