Here is a quick guide to how to start the first session of your game, and special materials to prepare only for the first session.

Step 1 - Summarize The Fronts

First, before the players build their characters, give them a brief summary of what the world is like and what is going on in it. Focus on what makes the place and moment in time where your game is set different from other campaigns which might be set in this world. All the information you give them should basically be public knowledge in the world. Try to summarize it into six bullet points, which you can explain in a sentence or two each, and prepare these bullet points ahead of time. Keep it short! 

Step 2 - Character Building

Now, help the players build their characters. It is a good idea to be familiar with the character building rules ahead of time, so that you can give informative instructions and answer questions easily. 

If you like you can encourage players to decide quickly by offering to let them change anything they like about their character between the first and second session

Step 3 - Character Bonds

Now, determine how the characters know each other. It is important to start the game with a conception of this to avoid players questioning why their character should be invested in the same things which the rest of the group is. Furthermore, these bonds connect the backstories of their characters, and can lead to a more interesting dynamic between their characters. 

Prepare a list of six bonds, arrange the players in a circle, and have each player roll a dice to determine what their character’s relationship is to the player-character on their right. The bonds can be any possible connection between persons that would cause them to be invested in the fate and cares of the other, and ideally which also connects them to the campaign’s world. After the bonds have been determined, the players can fill in the details of their shared history together. Bellow are some generic examples of bonds. It is good to modify them, to give them a more direct connection to your game and a more specific character.

1. You are siblings

2. They saved your life

3. You were co-workers

4. You are friendly rivals

5. You are indebted to them

6. You are bound together by a shared secret

Step 4 - A Dramatic Start

To get things going quickly, write a sentence or two which communicates the situation the players find themselves in. This is for your use, not to read to the players. That situation should be dangerous, introduce the world, and leave the players with a quest related to one of your adventure fronts. Here are some examples:

1. The players are on a small ship in a dangerous storm in the Eastern Sea. If the cargo is lost (it will be), they will have some serious debts to repay to Inigo Salieri, a powerful merchant in the republic of Genola. 

2. The players are lost in Blackwood, when they come upon a young priest being attacked by a werewolf. After being saved, the scientists hires them to guard him, for he is sure the werewolf was sent to sabotage his sacred mission.

3. The players wake up in the dungeon of a flying castle, high over the serpent’s coast. They have been kidnapped by the conniving cloud giant Boreyolus. 

After the players are done character building, start narrating the situation described in the sentence prepared.