Expedition Logistics

Changes and extensions to general OSE game rules
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Reducing Logistics and Pre-Planning

Goal: To go from everyone sitting at the table and "ready to play" to actually being on the adventure in 10 minutes or less

This is going to be accomplished by taking a "worry about it if and when it matters" approach using the following steps. While not completely true to the OSR ideals, the goal here is speed to fun and not slavish adherence to the rules

Basic Concept
The DM can make the game as hard as desired, whereas players can only make the game so easy on themselves. Therefore, in the name of speed of play, the DM will make the game somewhat easier on the players by allowing them to defer as many logistical decisions as possible. And when it does matter, the players will decide the details - right then, when it actually matters.

On a broader note, the excellent Blades in the Dark RPG has this to say about planning:

Your crew spends time planning each score. They huddle around a flickering lantern in their lair, looking at scrawled maps, whispering plots and schemes, bickering about the best approach, lamenting the dangers ahead and lusting after stacks of coin. But you, the players, don't have to do the nitty-gritty planning. The characters take care of that, off-screen. All you as players have to do is start executing their plan.

This is the philosophy behind these rules.

Step 0: Decide on a Destination

Do this before the game
Estimate the amount of time the party will be gone
This step is assumed to take none of the player's 10-minute time budget

Step 1: Buy Personal Gear

Personal gear like rations, torches and the like is, well, personal. Characters need to buy what they are comfortable carrying
Speeding this up or hand-waving it away both reduces the player's agency for their character as well as eliminates the important resource management part of the game
Focus on the critical things your character is personally carrying: rations, light, expendable items (ammunition, healing kits), personal treasure or items and core gear
Consider what you want to absolutely have on hand should any pack animals or porters be lost or your character gets separated from the party
Consider leaving some spare encumbrance weight to pick up useful items or treasure you may find along the way
This step can be done in advance assuming Step 0 was completed before the game.
The time this takes is dependent on the players but it is believed that this effort should take the less than half of the 10-minute time budget if deferred to the night of the game

Step 2: Hire the Help

Again, this is player-dependent, but the cost of help is well-defined (see Hirelings) and players should not gnash teeth over this - bring along who you think you need
Consider buying or bringing along a Pack Animal to take advantage of the significant logistical benefit they provide - but don't worry about what they carry yet (more on this below).
The Referee should generate or maintain a list of available help prior to the game night as part of the game prep - make it easy on the characters to hire the available help!
The Referee will note the current gear of each hireling. This will typically be the essential gear needed for their role including weapons, armor, personal camping gear and a small amount of (emergency) rations and light. These things are not managed by the players at any time. Of course, players may upgrade this core gear if desired before leaving for an expedition, but they need not manage these details
Hirelings will have a small stock of suitable expendables that meet their role: guards will have arrows and healing kits, torchbearers will have torches. Players are free to buy extra such items for their hirelings but instead are encouraged to use a pack animal to manage these logistics and saving the things the NPCs are carrying for emergencies.
Hirelings will take advantage of the logistical benefits of a pack animal if possible to ensure they are not overburdened and in general will be equipped no heavier than and likely lighter than the PCs that hired them
Hireling loadouts will need to be decided once it matters - maybe when entering a dungeon or ruin, as light and encumbrance will matter in these cases and the pack animal (if any) is not present, but do not worry about it at this point
This effort should take the remaining 10-minute time budget

Step 3: There is No Step 3

Do not decide what the pack animal is carrying
Do not decide on party order while marching in the wilderness
Do not decide on the order of watches
Do not decide on the order of dungeon travel
Leave on the expedition

Pack Animals

Bringing along a pack animal provides a tremendous logistical benefit: the players can decide what is on the animal when it matters
Before leaving on the expedition, the players need to define if the pack animal is "encumbered" or "unencumbered" as this determines the animal's move rate and will define, in advance, the max load it can carry for this expedition. The players will also need to set aside a portion of their funds to later equip this pack animal with needed gear
Assuming the characters have money available and the items(s) are reasonable in terms of availability and quantity, the players can assume their characters have planned ahead and can simply 'purchase' things needed for their expedition when it matters and add these items to the pack animal's list
Great candidates for this include: spare camping gear, a spare weapon or two, extra rope, extra rations and light, spare armor, animal feed, common tools (shovels, pick or wood axes), tarps, spare firewood and other things commonly available to adventurers
The encumbrance of the pack animal matters and as items are added to it, the animal will become burdened. Such burdens are in addition to other assumptions the players make, like using the pack animal for carrying heavy armor not worn during wilderness travel. Pack animal encumbrance will be tracked (and will likely increase) as the expedition continues and the player's load it up with needed items
Bring along a second or third animal if desired. This increases flexibility and total weight available for handy items as well as room to store treasure (or bodies) for the return trip
When a pack animal is lost or killed, things known to be on that animal are lost and of course, the party loses out on the logistical benefit it provided
Losing a pack animal should be a cause for concern - the only light, food, tools and the like the party will have left are those carried by the characters or other pack animals
Make sure your character is self-sufficient to some degree in their personal gear. Counting on a pack animal to carry treasure, food, light and ammunition may make managing your character easy, but if it is lost, you only have what is on your character sheet

Wilderness Encounters

Do not define the marching order during wilderness travel
Should an encounter occur in the wilderness, the players will decide the marching order or who is attacked unless the Referee has a reason to single out a particular target
The players will also determine the order/formation of the group should they be attacked. There is no need to think this through in great detail, an optimal arrangement is likely obvious for a given situation
The Referee may choose a target based on certain criteria (the griffons attack the mule! or the kobolds target the wizard that ensorcelled them last time!) but this will likely be a rare occurrence
The party is free to direct the attack or arrange the party in the most beneficial way for the given encounter
Yes, this means the players can have a random ambush target NPCs or heavily-armored fighters over weaker members of their expedition. Let's say it is because they know expeditions are dangerous and have planned things through accordingly and therefore are constantly moving their formation to best take advantage of the terrain and evolving situations
If a mule is lost (a dragon makes off with the mule!) and multiple pack animals are present, fictional positioning, the players or some random method is used to decide what gear was on the mule that was lost
This is a good reason to bring along a few heavily-armored fighters - they can take the attacks and allow the party to keep its weaker members out of the way

Watches

Do not define the watch order or who is on watch
Should an encounter occur during the night, the players define who is on watch when it it matters
Such designations need to be reasonable (not everyone is always on watch), but the party is free to optimize - pick the toughest 2 fighters or whatever. Another reason fighters are great to have
The players can define who has light and where it is placed after deciding who is on watch

Dungeon March Order

The players define who is going into the dungeon and who is staying behind
The players decide who is carrying light. The light-bearers are assumed to be positioned optimally as the party explores to shed light where needed
If an encounter occurs, either fictional positioning (e.g. the fighter knocked down the door, so he has to be up front) or the players will define the party order
Again, choices need to be reasonable and be respectful of the room/area shape, the light available and other truths, but otherwise the party is free to define this
Should a trap be triggered, the party decides who is affected, again being respectful of fictional positioning and sources of light

NPCs are People Too

Despite the above, the rules regarding excessive NPC deaths are still in effect - if too many NPCs die on your expeditions, no one will join them
The party therefore needs to show restraint in how they target ambush attacks, set watches and marching or battle order. Positioning NPCs in harms way while the characters always cower behind them is a sure way to have no one available to join future expeditions
Keep fictional position and reasonableness in mind when using the above mechanisms and everyone will benefit - the DM, the players, the characters and the NPCs

Players - Use the Dice

Given that NPC's are People Too, it may be in your best interest to use the dice and disclaim decision-making when making your decisions
Randomly determine who is attacked or what gear is lost, randomly determine who is affected by a trap or who happens to be on watch
Players are free to build the pool of possible candidates and/or decide the odds in these cases
Adding PCs into these calculations, excluding some NPC's for having shouldered their share of the horrors and so on shows the Referee and the NPCs that you value the lives of your henchmen and are not intentionally always putting them in harm's way
Keep fictional positioning in mind - what has already been decided has been decided! We may elide details until they matter, but once defined, they become a part of the game world and cannot be ignored

Referee Has Final Say

The Referee has final say over any decision the players make regarding the above, though countermanding their decisions is against the spirit of this approach
This approach will only speed play if it is beneficial to the players, so the Referee should allow the players significant latitude in their decisions above
The Referee can always make the game harder, so allowing it to run in a smooth, beneficial way for the players and their characters in these instances does not cheapen the game overall