In my current Blades in the Dark game, I started to post preludes in our Slack channel a few days before the game. These preludes are short narrative pieces, centered on one of the characters, and convey some information to the players about the upcoming session. It is not the first time I have employed this technique, but I have not done it in a while. So I thought I would talk about it today.
The Prelude
By definition, a prelude is: an action or event that serves as an introduction to something more significant. In RPG terms, it is a small scene that acts as the introduction to the session. Typically, the scene is a short narrative piece that the players read; however, there may be cases where this is an actual playable scene between the GM and one or two players. For simplicity, let’s stick to a short narrative piece.
What Does a Prelude Do?
There are a few things that a prelude will do in your game. The first, and most obvious, is that it introduces the coming session. The second is that it can convey information. Third, it is a form of metagame (the game outside of the game), which is a tool for creating emotional investment. Fourth, it helps to get the game started.
Let’s talk about each of these in more detail:
Introduction of the Coming Session
The prelude introduces the coming session. It is a free scene to frame out the coming adventure. It helps set the tone, set up the first scenes at the table, and foreshadow things to come in the game.
Conveying Information
The prelude is a place where you can infodump useful information for the session. You can name NPCs, provide facts that might be commonly known, etc. By including information here, the players arrive at the game with that information, without you having to do it at the table.
The Metagame
Preludes are playing the game outside of the session, which is a great way to build engagement in the game between sessions. If you release your prelude days before your session, then your players are engaging with it and thinking about the game before the game starts. It can often be a struggle to get players to think about the game outside of the session; the prelude is a way to jump-start that process.
Getting the Game Started
You can use the prelude to get out of the way of slower narrative parts, and let you start the game closer to the action. You can have a prelude that describes the characters facing down their enemy as the enemy monologues (infodump), and then when you start your session, you can go in media res, and jump right into an initiative roll for combat, which will make the start of your game far more exciting. This also works great for things like missions and heists, where the prelude can infodump some of the more common facts, allowing the game to start closer to beginning the mission or heist. This is how I use it for Blades.
Creating A Prelude
Now that we have discussed what goes into a prelude, we can look at how to create one. My personal favorite for this is a small piece of flash fiction, just a few paragraphs long. I like this form for a few reasons. One, it’s not too much work to prep, and you can make them entertaining. I will always work as much information as I can into the prelude so that I don’t have to find ways to inject that information into the session.
Once you have your prelude set, you need to get it to your players. In this day and age, you most likely have an electronic forum where you can share this — Discord, Slack, Group Chat, etc. Drop it into that. The more important consideration is when.
You want to do it a few days before your session, so that people who do not check the Discord all the time will have time to check it before the game. At the same time, you do not want to do it so early that everyone sees it, and then enough time passes to forget what was written…that will undo all the benefits of the prelude.
I find two days before the session is nice. It is within the window where people start checking the group chat heading into the game, far enough out from the game that if someone were to post a question about the prelude, I would have time to answer it, and close enough to the session that people will remember it.
Prelude vs. Recap
These two things are different. The prelude is the introduction to the coming session, while the recap is an infodump about what happened last time. It is possible to do both of these online, but it’s more work for you. If you want to use both a recap and a prelude, I would do your prelude online, because it builds engagement, and do your recap while people are setting up for the session and getting settled in.
Recaps are good to do in person because if there are questions or discrepancies, the group can address them in real time.
The Man Stepped out of the Shadows…
The prelude is a simple tool that can help start your sessions. It is a bit of extra work to create, but it has a number of benefits for your session and your campaign. It is not something you need to use every game, but like any good spice, its occasional use spices up your upcoming session.
Do you employ a prelude for your game? What form does it take? How often do you use them?