Hook 'Em Fast with In Medias Res

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Jun 20, 2025

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Never Say, "Do You Go There?"

The April sun awakens the sleepy hamlet of Dunshore. Inside the Lazy Sow Inn, an old man wipes the bar he’s cleaned more than a thousand times. In one corner, an achingly beautiful girl of 17 quietly sweeps the floor. In another corner, three adventurers break their fast.

Randarr, the dwarf, angrily saws a thick ham steak. Truth be told, he was rarely angry, yet most perceived his manners that way. Trayla, the elf, serenely nibbles a waycake while contemplating the mass of green leaves on her plate. Harper Lown, the human, slowly downs honeyed breakfast ale. It tingles his throat and crisps his senses. It has been a long week.

The homey scene shatters as a child, no more than ten, crashes into the inn. Eyes wild and seized by a great panic, he stops in the middle of the hall, gulping air.

“Pray, child,” cries the old innkeeper, “what is wrong?”

“Goblins… orcs have assaulted the wall in the west quarter! It is ablaze even now!” responded the terrified boy.

“May the goddess protect us!” screamed the girl as the broom fell from her trembling hands.

The adventurers look at each other. There is a pause…

From out of the ether, there is a disembodied voice which says in an annoyed lilt, “Do you go there?” The scene is broken.

Back to Reality

The inn shimmers away. In its place is a murky table littered with Mountain Dew bottles, Domino’s pizza boxes, Dorito bags, and dice… lots of dice.

Anyone who has ever been a Dungeon Master or a Game Master has uttered those four words in a moment of frustration. You’ve painted the scene. You’ve given the players a hook, but they don’t take the bait.

So, you break the scene, wondering if they will join the game. Why didn’t one of the players have their character stand up and shout, “To the wall, my friends! We must defend the town!”

It’s easy for the GM to think the players don’t want to play or are just being difficult. But before we jump to conclusions, let’s examine this situation a bit.

Why Players Freeze

First, the players may not have honed their improvising skills to a certain level yet. It may not occur to them that the ball is in their court and they need to go to the wall to fight the goblins.

So, it is our job as Game Masters to help. Taking the example above, it is a common way many gaming sessions begin. But it doesn’t really help the characters.

By beginning in a quiet, relaxed setting, the players usually think they are supposed to talk or plan something or just have conversation in their roles. So when the action hook begins, there will be some confusion.

Also, players can experience choice paralysis when a chaotic scene suddenly follows a quiet opening. Should they protect the innkeeper and his granddaughter? Should they go fight? Should they flee the city to fetch reinforcements from the fort two miles away?

Start in the Middle of Things

To avoid this confusion and keep the game intact as much as possible, begin in medias res. In medias res simply means “in the middle of things.” It is a literary term for starting your story in the middle of the action. Instead of starting in the inn, place your characters on the wall in the middle of the attack. Give them no choice but to defend themselves and the town.

Don’t worry, you’re not railroading. Asking the dreaded, “Do you go there?” is.

Action Helps the Players

Commencing in action also helps the characters bond and gives the players a shared experience right from the beginning. Once the battle is over, present players with choices. You’ll find they are in a better position to act, and the story should be rolling by this point.

Never say, “Do you go there?” Think ahead. Help the players understand how to contribute to moving the story forward. Try in medias res. You won’t regret it, and your players will love it.

If you’d like to read more of my thoughts on running games, check out my book: The No-Prep Gamemaster: Train Your Brian to Run Tabletop Roleplaying Games.

Paperback Now Available on DriveThruRPG

The paperback is now on DriveThruRPG: The No-Prep Gamemaster 2nd Ed.

Amazon Paperback Price Increase

In one week, I’ll have to raise the price on the paperback of The No-Prep Gamemaster.

The price will increase from $9.99 to either $10.99 or $11.99. The Kindle and audiobook prices will stay the same.

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The Screening Room

Game Masters can draw inspiration from movies to create better, more engaging sessions.

Runaway (1984)

Written and directed by Michael Crichton (The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, Westworld), Runaway was overshadowed at the box office in 1984 by megahits like The Terminator. It earned $6,770,587 against an estimated eight-million-dollar budget.

The film also suffers from police procedural clichés and offscreen plot hand-waving. Unrealistic situations tend to pull the viewer out of the movie, such as a cold-blooded murder in the middle of a crowded restaurant that somehow draws no reaction.

Runaway does have an interesting premise that shows off Crichton's imagination. In this near-future world, robots handle everything from housework to construction labor. But an evil maniac starts reprogramming these helpful machines into murder bots and invents a heat-seeking missile handgun while he's at it.

The movie is a fun, if flawed, watch. Like a lot of old sci-fi, it’s loaded with lessons for running D&D or any RPG. It sparks some cool setting ideas and also shows a few things not to do.

Runaway is free to watch on Tubi.

P.S. Tom Selleck never uses that awesome gun from the poster.

Runaway Links