The start of gaming sessions can often drag on. We’ve all been there-everyone drags their feet, and eventually the group gets started an hour after the game was supposed to begin. That may have been fine in the college and high school days of all day gaming marathons, but as adults with jobs and families, gaming time is precious. We want to spend it actually playing the game.
Starting the game quickly requires players who are ready to play. Manage downtime actions over email or forums. Make sure Cheetos and Mountain Dew are at hand on game day, dice and character sheets are out, and you have properly prepped for the evening. Then sit down and play.
This style of play lends itself to more cinematic games. In my experience, however, cinematic games work for short 3 or 4 hour sessions-you can get to the meat and potatoes of game play, which is what you really want anyways. You may lose some of the smaller details, but in sessions where I have done this, it wasn’t anything that was missed. This may not work for all groups. Your players need to be open to being thrown right into things at the get go.
Here are a few suggestions for starting the game:
- The group offended some minor noble with his own mercenary force. They are on the run and come across the adventure site.
- The players have set up camp for the night. At second watch, the encounter begins and draws them into the game session. Getting sucked into the Feywild is always hilarious. See “Hellboy: The Corpse” for a good faerie game session idea. If you don’t own the comic, buy it. It’s 0.25$
- The first words out of your mouth at the beginning of the game are “Make a will save”. Failed players start out unconscious, drafted into the penal legion after a night of hard drinking and off to serve as cannon fodder for the local city state. Those who made the save are chasing after their doomed companions. Be sure to run in initiative order to keep the separate parties playing the game at the same time.
- The players find themselves in the middle of a battle. Give them a short intro, and start the game.
These are just a few examples. Make sure that you keep the intro short, sweet, and relevant. This is not an exercise in dramatic narrative-remember that this is a participatory medium. So keep it short, Shakespear.
You can also start off with a skill challenge. This way, the players feel like they have had more effect on the start of the game, rather than being railroaded into a situation of your choosing.
