Often as not our session's start with the players being offered a job, and them then deciding to take it or not; then doing some leg work and then the actual job. So last nights game we started after all of that when things go wrong. So what about you? have you started a session at a nontraditional point?

Sure. I've done In Media Res, and said, "OK, show me how we got here!" in flashbacks, then finished play going on from the middle. That can be lots of fun!

My sessions start at the begining of the game. Often establishing information/shots will be done for each character to give them a little more depth. Then they will be introduced to the rest of the group.

For one shots I almost always start in the first likely high-action scene. Not always, but almost always. Sometimes I literally start in media res and do flashback scenes, but mostly I just think "what's the first time the shit could potentially hit the fan" and then figure out the shortest way to get them into that scene without causing too much confusion. I find it is a good discipline because it gets you away from trying to explain things (the setting, the mission, etc.) before hand. Instead, you have to work the reveals into the scenes themselves and players get to make it happen, rather than having it handed to them in a boring explication.

The begining of the campaign the players decide how the session starts. When the game starts moving along it depends on how the previous session ended.

Regards,
David R

A few years back, I ran a miniseries of games set in the Farscape universe. Since most Farscape episodes began in media res, I chose to do this for the Farscape sessions, too. I would narrate a bried set-up of the players in the middle of something, they could decide why they got there and kept going. It was rather fun, but very challenging to set up.

Many times, the games I run are one long story, so end of sessions are often a pause button and the next one is just un-pause and resume, maybe with a time jump.

Even in on-going games, I try to start every session with a high-energy scene of some kind. Either its a kick-in-the-door combat scene or its some kind of shocking news/event. E.g. you can be hanging out on the street when a stagecoach rolls by ... on fire! BAM. You're into the game.

OH! I should have mentioned this before. This is EXCELLENT advice for starting every session and it comes from a totally different context. As a teacher, I learned the value of the "soaker activity" in the classroom. It is a fantastic skill to have if you have a particular social group that is hard to focus at the beginning of the night.

The Challenge
In a nutshell, all your students come into the room with distractions. They were talking to a friend on the way in. They just had a fight with their girl/boyfriend. They are txting. Etc. etc. etc.

The Goal
Somehow you have to turn them into "blank slates" ready to learn. You have to get their attention and drive out all that other stuff. You have to cut off conversations cold, get them to put down their phones, etc.

The Solution
The "soaker activity" is any kind of activity (not necessarily related to the subject) that has two distinct features: it's fun/engaging and it has a clear ending. People have to want to jump into the activity and the activity itself needs to signal when it is over in a very clear way.

I'll give examples in a minute, but what the soaker activity does is get everyone actively focused on the same thing. And when it's over, it's like a mind wipe. The activity drove out the distractions they entered the class with and the activity itself has no residual distraction element built into it because when it's done, it's done.

Example
I used to bring "Crack the Case" cards into class. They were from a parlor game. Each card had a cryptic line that outlined a mystery/murder. "Charles was found dead with a pole in his hand and a broken neck." The players (everyone except the person with the card) get to ask Yes or No questions until they think they have figured out what happened. They propose a solution and if they are right, they win. Game over.

In Roleplaying
I have tried several activities in role-playing. A five-minute filler boardgame, like Tsuro, is a good soaker activity. If you want the activity to feel more RPG-related you can do something like have everyone create one NPC or evil agency for the campaign. Or you could have everyone generate a "backstory" element (e.g. "You 'owe' the PC on your left something; what is it and why?" Or you could do a "trailer" in the mode of Geiger counter, creating little vignettes that you have to pay off sometime that night or in the following weeks.