Spontaneous adventures

An adventure might start mid-session, with no chance for you to prep. This can happen when…

... the players launch an expedition on their own initiative (to pursue a steading improvement, to unlock an arcanum, to investigate a site, etc.);
... a player's move prompts you to present a threat, an opportunity, or a requirement, and you present one that spurs an expedition;
... it's time to make a GM move, and you announce trouble or offer an opportunity or otherwise drop a hook, and the PCs act on it; or
... a player rolls a 6- or knowingly invites trouble, and your hard GM move manifests as a crisis or kicks off an expedition.

Don't panic. Run the game. Frame scenes. Manage the spotlight. Follow the core loop. Zoom out into loose play and identify the next scene or situation. Ask questions and build on the answers. Take a quick break if needed to collect your thoughts. Respect your prep, especially your threats. Exploit the setting guide, use it to improvise.

If you and the players want to cut to the action, then frame the next scene with PCs already on the adventure. Then, ask questions to establish what led them here and what's already happened. Have them Outfit retroactively, and go!

If a spontaneous adventure doesn't wrap up by the session's end, cool. Now you have time to prep! See "Between sessions" on Between).

Vahid and Caradoc surprise me with their trip to the Ruined Tower, but no problem. They Chart a Course, and I use that move and Book II*'s entry for the Flats to plot out the trip. They head out, and I use impressions and questions from* Book II*, like, "What do wise travelers do to keep pack drakes away?" They arrive and we take a quick break. I look up the Ruined Tower, make some notes, and run the rest of the adventure from there.*

In the second spring of our game, a "family" of "laborers" moves to Stonetop from Gordin's Delve. Vahid suspects that they're agents of Mutra the Teeth. Caradoc goes to spy on them, but rolls a 2 and I opt to capture him. "You hear something about Mutra being unhappy, and then there's a noise behind you and WHUMP everything goes dark."

It's getting late, so I hard-frame the next scene. "Rhianna, Vahid, Blodwen... it's morning the next day. You're trudging through the Great Wood. Blodwen, when did you notice that Caradoc and Morwenna were missing? Rhianna, how'd you figure out that the laborers took them? Vahid, how do you know that they're heading for the tomb?"

They answer my questions, retroactively Outfit, and hatch a plan. Vahid has his wind-spirit take Caradoc a message: "Make camp at the old greenhouse. We'll find you." We cut to Caradoc getting the message, then trying to trick his captors without getting Morwenna killed.

We end there, and I prep the rest of the adventure before the next session.