In Medias Res: A narrative work beginning in medias res (Classical Latin: [ɪn ˈmɛdɪ.aːs ˈreːs], lit. "into the middle of things") opens in the midst of the plot. Often, exposition is bypassed and filled in gradually, through dialogue, flashbacks or description of past events. For example, Hamlet begins after the death of Hamlet's father. Characters make reference to the King's death without the plot's first establishment of said fact. [Wikipedia]
RPG scenarios tend to start with a prologue. Delta Green, Esoterrorists and similar often begin with the agents' handler - Ms. Green, let's say - explaining the basic plot, location and suspected opposition forces in a briefing. That briefing might take place in some nondescript government offices, a cheap motel room, an airport conference room - bland, inoffensive, non-threatening.
In fantasy settings the trope is 'we all meet at a tavern.' There is a brief moment when the group is not a Group. They meet. In a tavern. Awkwardness ensues, introductions are made, then off to fight the whatever-it-may-be.
This made a certain amount of sense before session zero became standard. Players often created their characters on their own and brought them to the table. The tavern was the first moment the other players got to meet Humphrey Gobbletoes, Halfling Rogue and fetishist. However, if everyone made their characters together in session zero then most of the players should have an idea who their fellow characters are.
When possible, I prefer starting with action.
Touch of Evil, Orson Welles
Starting with action in a TTRPG context has special challenges. In a film, there's usually only one or two main characters so the focus can be on them from the moment the film starts. In a TTRPG setting there can be six or more main characters, so the focus has to be split six ways.
Consider Akira Kurosawa's Stray Dog (1949), a crime thriller set in post-war Tokyo (or, as Kurosawa would have put it, modern day). It tells the story of green recruit Homicide Detective Murakami, whose police-issue Colt has been stolen by a pickpocket while Murakami was on a crowded bus. The plot opens with shamed and fearful Murakami admitting to his boss that his gun has been stolen, and he has no excuse for what happened.
You couldn't do the same thing with a group of six. Either five characters stand off to one side while one of them admits the deed, or all six have their Colts stolen - which might work in Toon, but not elsewhere.
No, whatever the situation is all the players have to be in it up to their necks. That means they share the scene, whatever it is, and it has equal weight for all of them.
Equal weight is key. If there is a physical threat, it hurts all of them. If there is a problem, it affects all of them. Otherwise some players begin the plot less invested than others, and if they start that way they will probably stay that way.
They don't have to have the same goals. A zombie scenario can start with a bunch of cops chasing a bunch of bad guys into the cemetery, abandoned warehouse or what-have-you. The cops and bad guys start with diametrically opposed goals and might end the scenario trying to meet those same goals. But the problem is the zombies, and it affects all of them equally.
Let's talk about some possibilities and map them to GUMSHOE titles.
Night's Black Agents (Vanilla). Opening Location: Airport. Task: Snatch Job. The agents are tasked with bringing in, alive, a person of interest to their employer. Opening Moment: the Snatch went ahead as planned and they have the person of interest. Unfortunately whatever means they had in mind to subdue or render the target unconscious didn't work (let the players say why that happened) so the target is very much alive and kicking. Starting Heat: 4, increasing to 6 if the target gets a chance to yell.
Night's Black Agents (Dracula Dossier) Opening Location: Abandoned Castle, possibly even Castle Dracula. Task: Recovery. The agents are tasked with obtaining an item of importance to Edom and returning it to their employer, whoever that may be. Opening Moment: the agents are precisely one room away from their prize when they realize heavily armed OPFOR got to the castle first and are searching the place. The OPFOR may be a rival agency (Edom, Israel's Sayeret Aluka, the US' Find Forever team, similar) or may be a vampiric Node, but either way a head-to-head is inadvisable. First because it's dangerous, and second because even if it works the armed forces of whichever nation the Castle is in will descend on the place guns blazing if large portions of the Castle go up like a C4-inspired volcano.
In both instances the key thing is to give the agents a job to do and an immediate threat to deal with. Sure, there's an employer. We don't need to know who that is in the opening scene. It may already have been covered in session zero; the agents are all working for, say, the Mysterious Monseigneur. Or it may be left undefined, to be determined later in a flashback. The point of this scene isn't to dump a few tons of exposition. The point is to get them into the action by getting them into the core activity of the game. Since the core activity is thrilling spy stuff, hit them with thrilling spy stuff.
Bookhounds of London. Opening Location: small village outside London. This allows a fish-out-of-water comedy element. Task: looking for rarities at a house sale. Opening Moment: The Hounds are out of their element in a village on market day and have just spotted a rarity - Thomas Browne's Religio Medici (Religion of a Physician, unauthorized edition 1642 with additions not sponsored by the author) using scientific imagery to illustrate religious truths. The village doctor had a copy, somewhat foxed but well worth repairing. Apparently the old fellow recently keeled over and his replacement is clearing out his belongings. Some seedy looking oik also eyes the manuscript, for unknown reasons. How to get the book from the new doctor without running foul of the oik? There's the rub.
Again, giving the characters something to do but this time there's no potential combat (unless someone punches the oik). There is a prize on offer and if they're successful they take away the prize - though they may earn themselves an enemy. The oik could be a nobody, a necromancer, or anything in between. It pays the Hounds to be a little cautious, but too cautious and they'll lose the prize.
Mutant City Blues (PI) Opening Location: the local precinct. Task: bailing the client out of the drunk tank. Opening Moment: when the PIs realize they have to get their client out of the precinct with as little fuss as possible. It's not often you have to bail your client out of the drunk tank but so far this case is a real winner, all right. You endure the cops' jeers and throw a few back of your own, as you lead the Long Journey's bassist out the back to avoid the press. Turns out that wasn't such a smart call, as the girlfriend's lying in wait with her new toy on hand to film the whole thing. What's a struggling PI to do?
The characters have something to do, and it's not immediately about Mutant Powers - but depending on the skill set the girl friend, her new toy, or any of the media out front might have superpowered ways and means of making this even more complicated than it already is. We haven't discussed why the PI is working for the bassist because we don't need to - not yet, anyway.
One last pitch.
Esoterrorists. Six people on a subway train. A house husband. A teenager. A retiree. A cop. A cheating girlfriend. A thug. The train stops ten minutes out from the next station. The Train Operator's announcement is a garble of static. The lights go off.
Short, simple and to-the-point. Some of these six are going to end up recruited into the Ordo Veritatis. Some may end up dead. The next few hours will be make or break - and unforgettable.
Enjoy!
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