How To INSTANTLY Engage your players 

That sounds awesome!

I love this idea!

YES EXACTLY! Picking and setting a tone is important to pull this off, that's why the song choice is so impactful.

@@goblinsalvagerites That seems to be a bit of a struggle for me, though. Maybe I have the wrong taste in music in general, or just don't stumble upon suitable gems. I use - if I have enough time to prepare - soundtracks for sessions, though. Instrumentals first and foremost, as lyrics tend to be quite distracting, in my opinion... Not the same, but works for setting the mood.

THIS SOUNDS FUCKING EPIC!

Thank you! We really think frameworks are important, they help us communicate these ideas in a way that people really understand. What's your next cold open going to be about?

​@@goblinsalvagerites We have in our campaign this underground like second city underneath current one, where unlicenced fights take place. And these are no usual fights but beast arena fights where different creatures, monsters and sometimes people fight to death. Only elite have access to this place: pirate captains, kingpins, corrupt dukes etc. and lots of really dark schemes take place there. So party wanted to destroy the whole thing and they made alliance with 3 different factions: bandit gang, adventurers guild and vikings pirate crew, there was great very tense negotiation part of session where party just did their best to bring these 3 VERY different groups to cooperate. And here we are - on the very next session these HORDE of misfits and losers will fight the worst scumbags of the city in underground caves and arenas, however I was afraid they would spend half of session trying to figure out how to split groups and where to send forces instead of actually exploring the place. So yeah, my cold open will be just setting the scene in the middle of a fight with something already going off the original plan, just you know SHOVE THEM INTO THE ACTION FURNACE immediately!

Love it! 🤣

Thanks! We hope you found something you could use.

Considering it should helping you designing compelling starts for single adventures, I'd say after. But it might be a good idea to adress the idea of 'in media res' starts during a session zero, checking the waters if your players are OK with it. Starting off the deep end can be seen as taking away player agency - as you throw them into danger without THEM making the deciding step to bring them into said danger. This may lead to 'Hey, if we had a say in it, we never had alienated THOSE guys who now giving us a hard time. Not a big thing, and from experience, once announced, most players are cool with this kind of style - as it's incredible dynamic. You also should make sure, your PCs have a compelling reason, why they are IN the mess they find themselves. For example - I did this for 'Vultures of Shem' the introductionary adventure in the Conan RPG sourcebook - which itself doesn't give a good hook for players to BE at the given place (a certain battlefield) so I gave them a shor introduction mail, where I explained how they arrived in the city, were introduced to the Prince leading his army helping his cousin etc etc. A bit personalised so every character had some kind of a reason to be there: "Your mythical mentor spoke in your dreams, telling you to go to Koth as something strange begins brewing there." "You are a soldier of fortune - and fortune had it, that the local Prince is in search of able bodied soldiers. You and your skill may even grant you being a Seargeant if you are quick." and so on...

Definitely after session zero, This is a way to design a single session of the game you'll be playing with your players. But definitely shouldn't be overused, because it can get pretty tiring if done in succession. One in every five or six sessions is probably a good mix.

If I'm understanding your question right, it's whenever you feel you can get the highest amount of player buy-in for the idea. If your players like surprises, then spring it on them in medias res. If your players are control freaks about their own character agency, then give them a heads up before you prep for the session so you don't waste all that energy. I don't feel it's fair to ask a GM to declare every tool they want to use during the Session Zero. That's feels controlling to me. At the same time, players shouldn't have to sign off on a campaigns worth of GM tricks before session one. It comes down to reading your table so you keep the Feelbadz to a minimum.

Yes and no. A good session zero should be the place for you to explain narrative devices like this to players. That's also a good time for you to learn how "gamey" your players perceive a TTRPG to be. A good GM should ask players if they are limiting themselves to the abilities on their character sheet. It sounds like in your case, the players are on the y-er side of the spectrum, which is totally fine. These narrative tools may be a little jarring for them specifically, but once they open up to the ideas of improv, they'll have a good time.

@@goblinsalvagerites Actually 3/4 of the group were ~23-30 including me. One forever DM who's never played paladin and two new guys who've only played 1-3 one shots prior. They were and still are pretty bad at the game and at improv. We ended up moving to FATE eventually because of how slow our combat was. Suits me, I liked the roleplay more anyway.

That sounds like a great fit for FATE. @@CoffeeMaus