Mega Dungeon Mondays

As most of you have probably encountered, trying to schedule players is a WILD pain in the WAZOO!  Our old school group has been talking about playing again, they did however want more of a story based adventure.  Which is fine, however that precludes everyone showing up, every time.  Which means the whole thing would probably fall by the wayside.

My alternative, which is something I've been talking about for a LONG time (even on this blog) is to run a open table mega dungeon.  There's no story, other than the one that comes from play.  The players have already created some 4th level PCs, and everyone is going to get a 1st level peon (provided they have a decent Charisma).  This serves 2 purposes, it beefs up the party for when I have a few less players at the table and it gives the player a second PC to play when there's eventually dies a horrible death.

I'll be running Whitebox FMAG for this game for a few reasons.
1.  It's easy to grasp especially when playing an open table game.
2.  A friend of mine sent me 2 copies of the book, which is wonderful! One for me, and one for the table.

I intend to use the following death rule:  When a character's hit points are negative the amount of their level they must make a saving throw.  On a fail they die.  On a success they are reduced to -1 HP and are unconscious, unless they receive some help they will die in 2d6 rounds.  (or something like this.. I haven't decided).

I've long suggested that I will run "the endless tunnels of enladin" as it's a straight forward adventure.  However I've been thinking about Venger's "Liberation of the demon slayer".  Which I intend to re-read and see if it'll work.  Or even possibly "Temple Of Elemental Evil" (which was just updated with a better scan!).

Alternatively I can just draw up my own dungeon.  Random idea I had prior to completing this blog post (started at 9 am and now it's 3 pm).  Draw up one level at a time, have a starting "home base" dwarven city underground where the PCs can rest up once in awhile.  First adventure:  A research mission of dwarves are lost in the caverns, go find em!

Now here's the thing I gotta figure out, and it might possibly help you out as well.  What happens when a new player shows up? How do we explain his/her disappearance? 

Disappearance Explanation Table (1d6) 
1.  Fell into a void/alternate dimension.
2.  Ill for days, barricaded in a previously explored dungeon room.
3.  Taken hostage by a group of evil humanoids, managed to escape
4.  Out hunting/gathering food for the adventuring party.  (Add extra rations)
5.  Went back to town to purchase a few extra supplies
6.  Fell under a sleeping potion. Woke up disorientated but unharmed.

New Characters Table (1d4)
1.  Was adventuring with another group, the lone survivor.
2.  Captured and escaped from humanoids.
3.  Heard about the party going into the dungeon, came to find them and help.
4.  Stumbled into the party while trying to find their way out.

Note: If you have a few other ideas for these tables I'd love to hear em.

As a side note, I have written about 6 pages of a "event based adventure".  My question is, can a adventure be truly Old School/OSR if it's event based? And can an event based adventure not be a railroad?