Structure

Regardless of whether you use an adventure starter or a custom adventure, the first adventure will generally follow this structure in play:

• 1) Start with the setup, in which you ask a bunch of loaded questions that provide context and establish motivation. This might include a love letter or two (see Writing).
• 2) Then set the scene, zooming in on a particular place and time in the village. You'll frame the scene, ask more questions, and make some homefront moves that show off the town and explore relationships.
• 3) Once the scene is established, drop the hook. Show signs of trouble, reveal an unwelcome truth, offer an opportunity, tell them the consequences, etc. Spend a little time seeing how the PCs and NPCs react.
• 4) Assuming the PCs take the hook, they'll make preparations: they'll Chart a Course, Outfit, Requisition, recruit followers to join them, etc.
• 5) They will likely travel towards the focal point of the adventure. The journey will likely be an adventure itself. They might even be forced to turn back, letting the opportunity slip away or the problem get worse.
• 6) The journey (probably) leads them to the resolution of the adventure: the danger or opportunity that spurred them out the door in the first place. They explore, talk to NPCs, sneak, fight, make a daring escape, etc.
• 7) Then there's the aftermath: the journey home, the triumphant (or notso) return, the reactions of their friends, family, and neighbors, and a return to day-to-day life. But there will be questions unanswered, threats still at large, further opportunities to explore—the source of future adventures!

Of course, the PCs might not take your hook. Or, they might get distracted by something that happens on the journey, and decide its more important than whatever you expected the focal point to be. That's all fine! Follow your agenda and principles, make moves, and keep asking them what they do.