One of the flaws I have seen in Organised Play adventures (such as the D&D Adventurers League) is this: Starting the scenario with a wide-open question and no set goal.

For instance, you start in a town’s marketplace. Or a tavern. And the next question is “what do you do?”

What is missing here? An immediate goal for the characters! Why are they in the marketplace or tavern? Assuming the player characters will immediately stat role-playing is not good. While you might think it opens things up, there are two flaws with the approach:

• It assumes the players enjoy self-directed role-playing
• It takes valuable time away from the play of the rest of the adventure – and time is limited

One variant of this is “You are meeting someone, but they have not turned up yet”. You are delaying the start of the adventure and often making some types of players feel uncomfortable.

And it can be even worse when one or two players are great at self-directed role-playing… but the rest are not. The rest of the players are waiting for things to happen, and the spontaneous role-players are monopolising the DM’s time.

And assuming the DM is excellent at this style of play can also be flawed.

It may be a superb tactic for your home game, but there are limitations on Organised Play. Get things moving!

The Mission Briefing

One of the classic ways of starting an adventure is for the sponsor of the party to explain what the party needs to do, then take questions and explain further what is required.

Briefings often require large sections of boxed text. While I fully support reducing the amount of boxed text the DM needs to read, when you are setting the tone of an adventure, you can go slightly longer.

That said, I prefer to use a relatively short opening statement, then present the rest of the critical points in dot point form. Dot points are typically more accessible for the DM to understand and allow a more free-flowing question-and-answer style.

One aspect of the mission briefing is that it allows the players to role-play, both with the patron and each other. It gives them a chance to establish their characters, even if the rest of the adventure has scant opportunities for role-playing. I am indebted to Claire Hoffman for this advice.

One trap that you might fall into is requiring the players to ask the patron a question to gain something essential to the quest. I have run more than one adventure where the players neglected to ask where their destination was! Check to see that all crucial information is given out by the patron, with only material that enhances the quest without being necessary is in a Q&A section!

Starting with a Bang

Another method is to start with a triggering event. You are in a market when goblins attack! You see guards chasing a boy with the cries of “Stop Thief!” You are in a town when a volcano starts to explode!

The advantage of this is that it gives the players something to react to immediately.

The drawback is occasionally the players do not bite. In this case, remind them gently that they want to play the adventure, so they should get on with it and play!

The trick with this method is that you need to introduce the goal of the adventure shortly after (or at least keep everything in “players react to trouble” mode).

The other consideration is that it helps when the actions of the party are apparent. If you do not account for an obvious reaction, then the adventure may be in trouble. If the party see a thief running away, then consider what happens if the party aid the thief and what happens if another party capture the thief!

In Medias Res

Literally, “in the middle of things”. This technique is like “starting with a bang” but begins the story in the middle. In this case, the players have already started a mission, but the action picks up when it gets interesting.

The drawback of this is that you have to loop back to explain what is going on.

The advantage of this is you miss a lot of boring parts.

As I have noted before, one of the creative ways of handling this is with a script the players read that gives them the basics of the mission before providing a situation for them to solve, but you can make it simpler. For instance, consider this: “You are infiltrating an Imperial base to find the plans for a new secret weapon when a group of stormtroopers comes around the corner. What do you do?”

Where is the Patron?

Although I dislike it when you are just in a tavern without a goal, if you are in a tavern actively searching for your contact or patron, it is a completely different kettle of fish.

That way, you can start with a role-playing scene and meet some important NPCs. Meanwhile, the players have something to search for. Where is the patron? Why are they not here? The players can ask questions of the patrons and learn things that become important later.

Final Thoughts

While the structure of any role-playing game adventure is crucial, it is doubly so in an Organised Play scenario designed for a slot of limited duration. There is a greater need to direct players, so they always have somewhere to go and a goal to complete.

If you go with one of the action introductions, you still need a quieter time later where the role-players in the group can contribute. Is the adventure structured like a James Bond movie which begins with an action scene then goes to the briefing that clarifies what you were doing and then reveals that your discoveries drive the rest of the adventure? Or do you keep the plot going but provide a range of encounter styles?

There is no one way of handling it, but it is certainly my preference to use a mission briefing of some sort – unless the story dictates otherwise!