I’m about to start a Rebel Crown  campaign, and I’m having some trouble imagining the first session—specifically the first Sortie, or at least the initial play hooks / Sortie opportunities to present to the players so they can decide which Sortie to undertake.

The rulebook says to create the details of the Domain after the first session, which suggests that the first session should be very “open” and flexible, able to support all possible future developments of the campaign (for example: not locking the party into political alliances or specific rivalries with one faction or another, since choosing which factions to ally with seems—if I understand correctly—to be part of the players’ freedom of action and agency in Rebel Crown).

On the other hand, the rulebook doesn’t provide any real “starting situation” or concrete suggestion for the first Sortie—apart from the fact that the game begins in the Sedgelands.

Because of this, as I said, I’m finding it a bit difficult to picture the first session and the initial Sortie opportunities to offer the players.

How did you deal with this “problem”? Concretely, what did you present to the players at the start? How did you kick off the campaign?

If you want to make the domain before play that's cool, too.  We started making it at the end of session because we playtested a lot at conventions and holding off let us get into the action sooner. 

To launch, I would say - you just landed in the sedgelands with a mercenary levy (worry about paying them after the sortie) and here are the three factions you know here.  Maybe tie each to how one of the retinue might know them.  Then ask what faction they want to appraoch and how.

You can see three examples of a session one here: /t/953982/actual-play