First two weeks: one map, one clock, one reaction table

Day one

Pick one complete rules booklet. Key eight to twelve rooms or a tight cluster of hexes. On the same sheet write torch duration, ration cost, wandering-check interval, and a 2d6 reaction table.

Do not outline a continent or buy a shelf. The first night only needs a door, a light source, and something that might talk.

Pick a scope

One dungeon level or one wilderness cluster. Two factions with wants that overlap. Decide out loud whether gold-for-XP is in force. That choice is a dialect, not a test of faith.

If you cannot describe the night’s geography in one sentence, the scope is too big.

Teach the table

Graph paper, marching order, who holds the lantern. Give hirelings names and a morale score before they enter the dark. Then use reaction in the first occupied room so the procedure is felt, not lectured.

Mapping is a player skill here. If nobody is drawing, stop and hand someone a pencil.

After session one

Ask three questions: what burned the torch, who ran (morale), which empty rooms they skipped. If a call came up twice, it becomes a dated line on the house-ruling sheet.

Week-two homework: look up the one procedure that confused people in a public reference, then decide whether it stays as written. Memory is a bad binder. Next: Guides for clocks and faction sheets, Glossary for the words.