1st time DM Seeking Session Zero advice

[SkipSandwich]

Hello Playgrounders!

After a long absence from gaming, I've finally received the opportunity to put a table together, however, 2 of my prospective players have never played a tabletop rpg before, and the 3rd player (my wife) has only limited expirence as a player. Furthermore, while I have by far the most experience in Playing a game (by about 20 years, on-and-off), I've never actually DM'd before.

I would like advice on what sorts of questions I should be asking as part of our "Session Zero" communications, especially given that since I've been playing tabletop games since my brother introduced them to me when I was 7, I honestly can no longer remember what being a new player was like and don't want to risk overwhelming my 2 new players with too much right at the start.

Systems I'm comfortable running and have books for: 3.5 (SRD + Complete Series), d20Modern(all spats!), True20 and Fudge/FATE

Thank you for your assistance!

[GilesTheCleric]

Do you have a plan in mind for your game? Are you running a sandbox, prefab adventures/ adventure paths, etc? If you haven't already decided, you could ask your players what they expect from the game, and what types of games they like to play. Ask them if they want to all build characters together with you, have characters built for them, or perhaps if they want to do a few "trial" sessions to see how the game works before properly playing.

If they're all quite new to TTRPGs, I do recommend thinking about your system. 3.5 is great (my personal favourite), but there's something to be said for easing folks in. MTG always recommends teaching nothing more than the absolute basics you need in order to start playing, and I think that's a useful method here, too. Using a rules-lighter system like 5e will also help once you need rules; don't even be afraid to start them on the beginner box (with simpler rules than the full release) then move to the full ruleset once everyone gets the hang of it.

In terms of actually running a game, it's similar to running a meeting, I think, so if you have experience with that, then you can apply the same principles. I like to start my games with a recap, typically led by the players. Anything they don't recap, I make a note of (perhaps they didn't think it was important enough, or didn't notice) and mention it; at the end of the session there's a post-game chat about the game, plans for next time, houserules, etc. I also post a summary of each game's plot, loot, and xp afterwards. In the summary, I like to write actively, describing what the characters did that was heroic ("Beowulf jumped off a cliff onto the dragon that the party encountered, and made chili of its neck with his zweihander").

If your players want to get an idea of what a game is like before actually playing, you could check youtube. There's plenty of channels that host TTRPGs (Geek and Sundry is a popular channel, and there's others like itmeJP; Spoony Experiment might be a bit biased for newcomers).

[SkipSandwich]

@GilesTheCleric

Thanks for the quick feedback!

I don't yet have any specific plans for the game in terms of theme or setting, I will say that I do have a homebrew science-fantasy setting i've been working on for a while as a way to 'scratch the trpg itch' since my last group disbanded about 6 years ago. I've been developing it in the True20 system (which, if you are unfamiliar, is a d20 derived system that uses only a single d20 for each player and no other dice for action resolution).

I'm not super married to the setting through and I feel confident enough that if my players said they wanted to run a more 'traditional' fantasy campaign or something like super-spies or 'buffy the vampire diaries of new blood' I could put a rough campaign framework together within 2 weeks or so.

I guess I really have a couple of specific goals for the 'pre-game questionaire'

1) Figure out what genres/themes they are most interested in incorporating

2) Figure out which of the systems I have enough familiarity with would best create the kind of game they want to play

one of the new players is a co-worker of mine, and this game would also be the first time we've really hung out outside of a work context, so I really don't have any idea what would most appeal to him

the other new player is my wife's best friend, who is also our roommate. I've known her for quite a while and can quite comfortably say that she would be all over anything to do with outer space and/or pirates (she actually has a webcomic she draws where the characters are all anthropromorphosized stars)

My wife has some prior experience playing 3.5, and prefers simple characters that don't require a lot of bookkeeping or complexity beyond "I hit it with my axe", she gets enough of that as-is by managing the household finances.

I am a habitual powergamer and have trouble turning off my "Play to Win" instincts, and from prior experience through other games, my wife knows to run at the first hint of zombies in any game I play. (Apparently the 6th time I curbstomped the entire board in Betrayal on House on the Hill as the betrayer for the zombie scenario was the last straw, we now re-roll that haunt unless it's somebodies first time playing and I am NOT the betrayer, just so the survivors have a chance of winning)

For this reason I actually hope the feedback points towards a more social intrigue game then straight up combat, so I don't accidentally end up getting too into things and wind up trying to backpeddle out of a potential TPK scenario. Any tips in that regard would be greatly appreciated as well.

[Quertus]

What people want out of a game isn't just setting - but don't expect them to be able to articulate their actual desires. Assuming your many years of experience as a player were under multiple DMs with multiple styles, I assume you can appreciate this.

You could run a few sessions with throw-away characters as an introduction, and plan for a second "session zero". This will allow you to get a feel for the group, give them a feel for gaming, and give you a set of common experiences from which to base the conversation of what they want, based on what they liked and didn't like about the game. Build one-shots (or even half-shots?) of different aspects of the game you or they are interested in trying - combat, intrigue, mystery, puzzles, etc. Perhaps even finish it with a, "and now you are going to die to my zombies" scenario - which may or may not be a dream. When all is said and done, have them give feedback on what they thought they wanted vs what they received.

As to preventing the TPK... one thing you could do is run through things by yourself first, using sample characters on par with the party (or even photocopies of the PCs), to make sure the balance is right. You could also offer them advice on builds to prevent the accidental PC death (although no one ever seems to take me up on the idea of buying amulets of emergency healing :smallfrown:). Or, if the party likes that style, you could just admit you're going to TPK them - a lot - and make bringing in new parties or mass resurrection an expectation of the game.

[Uncle Pine]

I've found myself DMing for a group of 5 people who never played D&D 3.5ee before (even though one of them played World of Darkness before, so he wasn't completely new to tabletop games) and since I already knew the kind of campaign I wanted to run because I playtested it with another group I decided to run a quick "tutorial adventure" so that the group could start the real campaign already knowing all the basics.
The "tutorial campaign" spanned two sessions and was placed in Rotut, an expy world of Kanto from the Red and Blue Pokémon games: the players explored the region up to the first "Major Dictator" (= Brock) and defeated him. Each of them won a slotless +1 luck AC badge they got to keep in the real campaign and appreciated the in-depth tutorial.

[Chester]

Here's an idea: Use "Session 0" to develop backstories to give some depth.

Then run a simple encounter for the group to "figure out" their PCs. Maybe fighting a group of goblins or the like. Something easy. This encounter won't matter, but it gives a chance for the players to learn. No story, no particular world--just a straight up fight to learn mechanics.

It also allows you to figure out what the players are into, work out kinks in the system before it really matters, etc.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Don't use 3.5. Just... Don't. It's an expert level system with way too many moving parts for a lot of people. Unless they really enjoy mechanics, they can get confused and frustrated and stop playing RPGs altogether.

Fudge might be the best option you mentioned, having the fewest rules of any of them (I think). Fate isn't bad either, especially the newest edition. Aspects can be counterintuitive, but they're also good for prompting roleplaying. If nothing else, I'd use their method for backstory creation.