NOTE: The article below has BONUS ADVICE not included in the video, so it's worth your time to read and watch both.

3 Easy Ways to Start Your Next Game (or Kick Off Your Campaign)

The first way to start your Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition (5e) or TTRPG game is to start with ACTION, either right before or right in the middle of an action scene, just like a James Bond movie. The second way is you could start directly at the ADVENTURE LOCATION; just skip all the boring stuff of meeting in the tavern or whatever. Instead, you begin by saying something like, "You stand before the door to the dungeon!" (or wherever the adventure takes place), Finally, the third way lets you get a little role-playing in before the action. It's called the "ORDINARY WORLD," and it gives you a chance to see a snapshot of what the characters' lives are like on a normal, average day right before the catalyst happens, which is whatever the call to adventure is.

Why Start With Action?

Using Action to start your adventure (especially for the first session of your campaign) is good for your game because it allows you to introduce a bunch of NPCs, factions, and/or world-building right away. Plus, for players who are new to the game, or veterans playing a new character class, they just get thrown in. They gotta figure out how to do whatever their character does, and what role they're going to take in combat. It's a crash course in how to familiarize yourself with the game, and it can be a very effective way to learn the combat system if you're not familiar with it.

If you're new to Dungeons and Dragons 5e (5th Edition), then you'll want to grab copies of the three core rulebooks:

• Player's Handbook
• Dungeon Master's Guide
• Monster Manual

There are other books and adventures, but those are the three main books you'll need to get started (plus some special dice).

Waking Up With the House On Fire

So let's dive in! The first easy way to start your DND game is with ACTION. Let's say the characters wake up. They're in their home village or city, a campsite, it could be anywhere. But they are in what they thought was a SAFE place. And then, all of a sudden, they're attacked! Now that could be an invading army. Maybe it's the neighboring tribe or village, or whatever it is. The bad guys come in, you can hear scary stuff going on, people screaming, and carnage. Stuff catches on fire!

Countdown to Danger

And then you add a COUNTDOWN. It's like, "Okay, you just woke up. This is what's going on. What do you do?" And then you give the players a countdown. The countdown is literally you counting down from a number, let's say "10", and the players are free to do whatever they want until the countdown hits zero. At that point, they encounter the bad guys (or natural disaster, or whatever catalyst you want to use). If it's bad guys, they come busting through the door and combat begins. If it's a disaster, the house catches on fire, gets ripped apart by a hurricane, collapses in an earthquake, gets flooded, etc.

Raise the Stakes

If they're in their home village, there could be STAKES CHARACTERS involved. Stakes characters are NPCs you use to raise the stakes (like John Wick's dog, or Luke Skywalker's aunt and uncle). These NPCs should be family, friends, lovers, a pet, anyone they love and care about. Do the characters stay to fight and defend their home? Or do they try to get their loved ones out? Do they just run off and ditch the stakes characters? There's only a few options, and the players only have a limited amount of time to make their choice... then whatever happens, happens!

Raise the Stakes Higher

Some possible options for stakes characters in this Action start are to be killed, captured, missing in action, or in league (or in love) with the villains. Those the PCs save (or who survive on their own) are likely to be distraught and demanding. They may blame or shame the PCs for not doing enough to save the rest of the NPCs, or beg them not to go off in pursuit because "We've already lost too much, we can't lose you too!" In other words, this creates the perfect opportunity for some tense (and intense) roleplaying if you're into it.

Fun With Factions

So the invading army or natural disaster start would be one way to open with action. Another way to do it would be if all the characters have decided to join some sort of organization, or a faction within that organization. And maybe that organization decides to have an initiation that is a combat, and you have to stay within a certain area. But maybe there are no rules within that area and may the best player win. And where you place--assuming you're not killed, but if you're knocked out, defeated, or surrender--then what order that happens in could determine your rank within the organization. Obviously, you don't get to be the boss, but your rank is decided within that class of new recruits.

The James Bond Cinematic Opening (aka "In Media Res")

Another option would be if the characters, they all know each other and they've gone on other adventures prior, you could have like the James Bond cinematic opening where it's the END of whatever their last mission was (the boss fight, escape, or other exciting climax). And then after the end of that cinematic mission, they return to town, or report to their employer, and they get some kind of reward, and then they get their next mission. That also fulfills the same function of starting with action. In Latin, this type of opening is called, "In Media Res," which translates as "in the middle of the action". That means authors have been using this trick to start their stories for millennia. Why don't you try it in your next D&D or TTRPG game?

The James Bond cinematic opening eliminates the awkward first mission where everybody's trying to get to know each other. Instead, you start with something like, "You just defeated the villain's plan. You're all jumping out of the window as the villain's lair starts to collapse. You land on a sled, and speed down a snow-capped mountain. How do you defeat the villain's minions who are pursuing you?" And now your players feel BADASS when they're just starting! Because as a GM, that's what you want to do. You want to make your players feel BADASS, and the scene feel BADASS. And as a bonus, you get to bring your world to life too!

Skip the Tavern, Go Straight to the Dungeon

And that takes us to the second way to start your DND 5e game: ADVENTURE LOCATIONS. You begin by briefly telling them the events that led them to the location, but then automatically just putting them in the location where the adventure begins. This is right outside whatever dungeon, castle, lair, or wilderness area you set up in the backstory. The characters have already prepared for the adventure.

For example, they've followed the rumors to locate an artifact of great magical power (for whatever reasons you set up in the backstory, like to save their village), and now they are standing in front of this massive stone slab door. It's locked, but the rogue knows how to unlock this ancient door. He tampers with the mechanism and it starts to slide open revealing a stone staircase... At this point, you set the scene by saying something like, "You smell the rotten stench and decay of what's inside as it wafts up your nostrils... This place is old, covered in cobwebs, and it's freezing--far colder than it should be this time of year. Behind you, you hear the howls of the beasts that have tracked your scent and you must descend the stairs before the beasts catch you!"

Add a Timer (Tick... Tick... Tick...)

To ratchet up the suspense and decrease hesitation (or the urge to short or long rest), you can add a TIMER. For example, you could say, "After opening this thing, the rogue tells you guys that this thing is the opening mechanism is on a timer. It seems like we only have a few hours of this thing being open."

Enter the Ordinary World (or "The Calm Before the Storm")

The third way to open your Fifth Edition D&D game is with the "ORDINARY WORLD." This is what you'll see in most movies (other than James Bond). You'll see the main character introduced in his ordinary world where maybe he's like some schlub who has a crappy life, crappy job, just ordinary, normal world, right? And then, all of a sudden, the catalyst happens, the call to adventure. Right before that though, there's a little foreshadowing that's like a "be careful what you wish for" kind of thing. This is where a secondary or stakes character--a friend, family member, rival, or some other NPC--comes in and has a brief conversation that foreshadows what's about to happen.

The NPC could say, "It's too bad that you decided to do this (whatever the player's current job is). I know your dream was to do that (their ambition to be an adventurer), but it's much safer to do this, and you should be grateful that you're here and safe with us. You made the right choice." And then the player character walks out the door and all hell breaks loose.

Not instantly, but quickly. It could happen on the way to work, or to get water from the well, shortly after they arrive at their job, that sort of thing. And then AMBUSH! That's when the invading army could come through, or maybe there's somebody who needs help? For example, what if the characters stumble across a traveler who needs help? Wouldn't that would be a more interesting way than "the wizard walks into the tavern and decides to hire you"? And what do the players do? Do they provide that aid and take the injured man back to their home? Because it turns out he's actually being pursued by some horrible people or monsters, and now the players have placed all their NPC friends and family in danger!

NOTE: If the ORDINARY WORLD sounds like it only works for the first session of a new campaign, that's not true! While that's it's best and most obvious use, you can use it whenever there is DOWNTIME in your campaign. For example, the characters are all living their normal lives between adventures when WHAM! Something happens. The bad guys they thought they defeated show up, seeking revenge. Or new enemies appear. Or NPC friends or family come to them with a problem. Or there's a natural disaster, war, famine, drought, or plague. You get the idea.

The ORDINARY WORLD works whenever you want to advance the timeline. It's a wonderful way to put the players in touch with who they are as ordinary people, not as adventurers, and helps ground them in the day to day reality of your campaign setting.

How to Speed Up a "Slow Burn" Start

If you're feeling like these Ordinary World ideas are "slow burn" starts, you can take change it up and do it like this: "A month ago, it was the harvest, and you all had this wonderful celebration, and the priest did the rituals..." So now the players know where and what their home base or community is like. You're setting up and giving them an area that's almost a character in itself. And then what you do is say, "That was three months ago, but two weeks ago, the grains all started to rot. Three days ago, a strange traveler was seen that came through your town and was very interested in all the children. One day ago, all the children went missing. Now you're out in the woods trying to track them. You just found one of the children's missing shoes, lying in a ditch with traces of blood in the grass. What do you do?"

That kind of background gives everyone a TIMELINE, and that's a fun thing to do because you get to do a little bit of info-dumping (but in a good way), and then you ask this QUESTION that you want the players to ANSWER. So it's a wonderful way to hear about their ordinary world without having to actually role-play any of it and risk slowing the game down.

Another Timeline Example

Here's another timeline example: "Four months ago, you got married. Two months ago, a huge earthquake hit, opening up a huge pit in the old cemetery outside of town... After that, you started seeing shadows in the corner of your eyes and you don't know what it was. And every time you see your wife smile, the visage of her being dead flashes before your eyes. One week ago, you stopped looking at your wife altogether. Now you are in this tomb trying to lock your wife away in this crypt below and perform a ritual to seal away the undead spirit that has resided in her, but she's fighting with you, begging, pleading, and telling you you're wrong. It's you who is possessed. You have gone insane. What do you do?"

That's another example of a killer timeline. You can do whatever you want in yours, but the one thing--the most important thing you need to communicate to your players is--they need to understand that whatever happened, it went from a NORMAL situation to an EXTREME situation. And the best part is, it didn't have to take very long for you to say that and get them into the ACTION.

A Man Walks Through the Door With a Sword...

In Raymond Chandler's famous pulp fiction essay, The Simple Art of Murder, he admitted the way he keeps the action going when he gets stuck is for a man to walk through the door with a gun. Obviously, we're talking about a Dungeons & Dragons (DND 5e) fantasy world here, not a hardboiled detective story, so all we have to do is change the man's gun to a sword, crossbow, or magic wand. Honestly, it doesn't even have to be a man (or a woman). It could be a monster. And it doesn't have to be a combat encounter. It could be a ghost or injured NPC begging the PCs for help.

The man with the sword is a "pattern interrupt" to jolt the players out of whatever rut or indecision they're stuck in. It forces them to act (or interact) with the adventure plot in a new way. That could be combat, but if it is, make sure it advances the plot and isn't just some pointless wandering monster. Maybe they kill the guy with the sword, but they find a clue on him, a note from the villain, or a map to the next location or whatever, or what if it's a folded up wanted poster with the PCs' faces on it?! Wouldn't that be fun? Basically, what we're saying is that as soon as your game starts to feel boring, throw in some PLOT-RELATED ACTION, and the problem is solved.

It can be a smart idea to wait to hear what the players come up with as to who the sword guy is, or who sent him, or what him showing up now means. Whatever they come up with doesn't have to be wrong... If it's crazy, clever, or twisted enough, it might be better than anything you could come up with! If that's the case, then make the players be right (or partially right) because that's more fun. They'll feel smart, like they've figured out your evil plan and never realize they're writing it for you. Haha!

In Conclusion

Don't be dull. Dull is the kiss of death in role-playing games. So for an unforgettable adventure, start your next game with action. If you are starting in an inn, light that inn on fire! Or have it surrounded by zombies... or attacked by pirates! Or maybe a dragon?! This is Dungeons and Dragons, right? So there's a dungeon underneath that inn, and above you is a dragon attacking. You gotta get down in that dungeon!

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