Plan one good evening of play

Before opening lots of panels, write a short promise for your campaign: "We are helpful adventurers protecting a small river village, and our choices will change who trusts us." A clear promise helps you choose what belongs in the first session.

For Willowmere, prepare these five things:

1. A visible problem: the village beacon is dark, and travelers need it to navigate the river after sunset.
2. A reason to care: each character knows someone in the village, needs to cross the river, or has promised to help a traveler. Let players choose their connection.
3. Three places: Willowmere Dock, Old Bridge, and Bellkeeper's Chapel. Put one map in each scene.
4. Three people: Nessa the ferrymaster wants the beacon restored; Orrin the messenger needs help crossing the bridge; Tamsin the apprentice is using the missing lens to signal stranded travelers from the chapel.
5. A meaningful decision: return the lens immediately, finish the rescue first, or organize a way to do both. Prepare consequences for each, rather than requiring one correct solution.

Have a brief conversation with the group about tone, topics to avoid, session length, breaks, and how anyone can ask to pause. For this example, suggest hopeful adventure with environmental danger and no graphic injury. Ask each player to bring a character willing to cooperate. Decide how you will handle a missing player and where you will arrange the next session.

Do not make essential information depend on a single successful dice roll. If players inspect the beacon, they find that the lens has been removed. A roll can reveal extra detail or affect time, noise, or a complication; it should not erase the only route into the adventure.