"Session Zero" topics of discussion?

[Asdfpie]

Hey All! Welcome to my thread. Thank you all very much for coming.

I'm about to start another campaign, and thought that it's probably a good idea to have a Session Zero, where we could discuss topics like how high they want the risk of death to be, how often they want to meet, etc, etc.

I'm a rather versatile DM, if rather lacking in experience; any of you have any things that you wished you would have known about before you started a campaign, any good session zero topics, or any good homebrew rules to ask the players beforehand?

Also, should we roll characters at the sessi0n, or before? After?


TLDR; What should I know about my players before I start my campaign?

[MrStabby]

Yeah, type of game - not just lethality but style and pace.

Expected levels to reach and any houserules.

What material can be used to build characters

Stance on evil characters, teamwork and time in spotlight


A chance to take in backstories so you can adjust your world to accommodate them.

A chanse for players to take in your world so they can adjust backstories to accommodate.

Character aspirations, so you can work their goals into the campaign.

That's all I can think of for now.

[2D8HP]

Well, you can read up on two particularly dim and difficult players (I'm one) at these two threads:

What should I do about this player? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?378556-What-should-I-do-about-this-player&highlight=what+do+do+about+this+player)

PC "Back story", why is that a thing? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?493730-PC-quot-Back-story-quot-why-is-that-a-thing)

[KorvinStarmast]

I'm about to start another campaign, and thought that it's probably a good idea to have a Session Zero, where we could discuss topics like how high they want the risk of death to be, how often they want to meet, etc, etc.

I'm a rather versatile DM, if rather lacking in experience; any of you have any things that you wished you would have known about before you started a campaign, any good session zero topics, or any good homebrew rules to ask the players beforehand?
(1) I recommend that you begin with low key social stuff, meet and greet, sharing with each other what characters people are interested in playing.

You also need to establish that you are the DM and a few things are important for play to be fun. One is what to do with a rules confusion/conflict when it arises in a game. It's going to at some point, 'tis the nature of the beastie.

There is an outline here (http://rpg.stackexchange.com/a/73853/22566) about how you will resolve emerging rules questions during play. It's best to have that established before play.

Also, should we roll characters at the sessi0n, or before? After?
Yes. :smallbiggrin:

Do you want to take an active part in their character creation or not?

Given how communications work these days, I'd suggest that you contact each person ahead of time and ask them to come to the table with two tentative character ideas for this game. That will make it easier for the group to put the party together. You may also want them to look at the PHB and figure out their background before they come to the table. It allows a little bit of narrative interplay of "here's who I am" not just "this is what class I am playing."

TLDR; What should I know about my players before I start my campaign?
How many have you gamed with before?
How many have played D&D before?
Significant scheduling constraints.
How many days per week/month everyone can actually make it.

[gfishfunk]

Personally, I prefer to sit down at a table and TELL my players that they have a common backstory and they already trust each other. When they object, I tell them that this is a team game and the players are a team. I ask them to work together to create backgrounds that are interwoven.

When that doesn't work, I make suggestions for how they know each other previously.

When that doesn't work, I tell them in session 1 when they encounter each other something like, "PC1 you see PC2, who you are familiar with and have known for quite a while from<reaching into PC1 and PC2's backstory>."


Stance on evil characters, teamwork and time in spotlight

A chance to take in backstories so you can adjust your world to accommodate them.

A chanse for players to take in your world so they can adjust backstories to accommodate.

Character aspirations, so you can work their goals into the campaign.

Evil characters and good characters alike: throw out some hypothetical situations. I recently had an all-good campaign and someone was playing a very chaotic good-ish character styled after the punisher. Some of the other players had issue with rampant killing.

Also, I would prepare a three sentence description of the type of plot and world that you are running, then adjust as necessary if players want something a bit different. If you are planning on a straight dungeon crawl, let them know especially.


You also need to establish that you are the DM and a few things are important for play to be fun. One is what to do with a rules confusion/conflict when it arises in a game. It's going to at some point, 'tis the nature of the beastie.

. . .

Do you want to take an active part in their character creation or not?

Given how communications work these days, I'd suggest that you contact each person ahead of time and ask them to come to the table with two tentative character ideas for this game. That will make it easier for the group to put the party together. You may also want them to look at the PHB and figure out their background before they come to the table. It allows a little bit of narrative interplay of "here's who I am" not just "this is what class I am playing."

These are also good point: is PvP allowed? Is betrayal allowed? Can players hide money and treasure from each other?

Also: LISTEN. What your players describe their character concepts as will give you a good idea of what kind of fun that are interested in.

[smcmike]

Personally, I prefer to sit down at a table and TELL my players that they have a common backstory and they already trust each other. When they object, I tell them that this is a team game and the players are a team. I ask them to work together to create backgrounds that are interwoven.


This seems like a good idea. Individual backstories, without any connections, can leave the DM to do a lot of heavy lifting to tie the group together, or can make the fact that the characters stick together seem very artificial. Strong bonds allow for more interesting character conflict

[Specter]

The most important thing is to establish what kind of campaign it will be, what everyone will be playing and what each person won't tolerate.

After that you give the warnings:
- People may die irreversibly (seriously, I've lost friends in RPG because they thought their snowflake character would never die, MAKE IT CLEAR NO MATTER WHAT)
- I'm always open to criticism, but without your input I will continue doing whatever I think is right (this makes sure they tell you what they want to change or shut up without complaining).

That's it, I guess.

[ad_hoc]

Establishing group norms is very important.

You should discuss what each of you consider to be good and bad etiquette.

Specific to D&D you should discuss things like how to handle rules disputes and how much how your role as DM interacts socially with the other people.

For example, in session zero I talk about how I might prod people who are experiencing analysis paralysis to come to a decision. I think it's important to have a discussion about it so we can talk about how it isn't about being bossy, it is a matter of respect for the whole table.

We also talk about absenteesim. In our group as long as you send a notification before start time, not showing up is not considered rude. In other groups it might be.

[Asdfpie]

Whoa, thanks for all the great suggestions!
I'm gonna need a bit to process all of this, but really- you guys are awesome.

[alkatrazjr]

The biggest thing I like to discuss at these meetings is were on the "sandbox/railroad" spectrum they want the adventure to be.

[Biggstick]

When that doesn't work, I tell them in session 1 when they encounter each other something like, "PC1 you see PC2, who you are familiar with and have known for quite a while from<reaching into PC1 and PC2's backstory>."

Evil characters and good characters alike: throw out some hypothetical situations. I recently had an all-good campaign and someone was playing a very chaotic good-ish character styled after the punisher. Some of the other players had issue with rampant killing.

Also, I would prepare a three sentence description of the type of plot and world that you are running, then adjust as necessary if players want something a bit different. If you are planning on a straight dungeon crawl, let them know especially.

These are also good point: is PvP allowed? Is betrayal allowed? Can players hide money and treasure from each other?

Also: LISTEN. What your players describe their character concepts as will give you a good idea of what kind of fun that are interested in.

All of this and then some. Forcing the PC's to have had some sort of interaction with each other in the past is a great point of immersion into the story. It's even better if you put two unlikely people together and tell them that they somehow know each other from their past. Examples include: a Baker and a Bounty Hunter, a Criminal and a Guild Artisan, an Urchin and a Noble, etc etc. You only need to link the PC's to one other person, but it definitely gets the creative juices flowing when your Players have to figure out how they have previously met or interacted with one another.

Rampant killing brings up another good point. A session 0 is a good time to set hard limits for the players. If Players are uncomfortable with anything at all, this is the point to bring it up. It also gives you as the DM an idea of when to fade to black. I'll throw up a spoiler right quick to describe a couple situations that players might find uncomfortable and you'd find yourself fading to black.


How far is comfortable to go for your group when one of the PC's says they'd like to seduce the barmaid?

How are children treated? Both during combat and out of combat.

How are dead bodies of both friend and foe treated? (This includes Necromancy)

The varying shades of sexuality between anyone and anything. (LGBQT, and any other acronyms I might not be including)

Sexual Assault and Rape?

Treatment of certain types of humanoids or creatures as lesser beings.

Looting and Pillaging.


Now these include some situations in which you might quickly describe to what you intend for the group to infer as the BBEG. As long as you know the limits before hand, you won't have an uncomfortable situation on your hands down the line.

The PVP point is a great one, as is the personal greed/hiding of treasure from your other allies. These are things that should be discussed in the session 0.

Another point would be how you tend to come to your rulings. Let the PC's know if you tend to play more RAW, more RAI, Rule of Cool, etc etc. Level expectations and what not is also important. Character generation too.

Coming to the table with a handout for your expectations might help the Players too, and give them some talking points as to what they want out of the game as well.

[ZX6Rob]

I like to get a group together in a social context, like at a restaurant or a bar. Then I anticipate spending about 20-30 minutes talking about the game. That's actually pretty much it.

Prior to the session, I will have about 3 different themes/ideas to riff on, and I'll introduce them in the order that I want to run them. "So, guys, the next campaign -- how about this: you're all treasure hunters, part of a sort of guild of diggers-for-hire, who explore ancient ruins and look for lost artifacts on behalf of wealthy patrons. Does something like that grab you?" If they hem and haw a bit, I'll introduce the next idea. "All right, how about this one: you're all part of a crew of airship pirates, trying to do the right thing while skirting the edges of the law. You'll have to scrimp and stretch your resources, and you will frequently be on the wrong side of the law. Does that sound more like what you'd like to play?"

I can generally gauge the level of excitement of the group, and when I've got them interested in the campaign and -- this is the important bit -- have got them to buy in to the backstory, then I turn them loose. I send out an email with a list of rules for character creation (standard array, PHB/SCAG/EE allowed, UA/DMG/DM's Guild pending DM review), a link to my house rules and changes (which you can peruse below, should the mood strike you), and ask everyone to send me an email in a week with their character at the appropriate level. If they want to produce a backstory, that's fine -- I ask they keep it to a paragraph or smaller. The story's what happens in the game, not before. Instead, I ask each person to simply think about and have at least one reason for their character to be going along with the group and the premise. I don't want to play the "what's in it for me?" game every time Chad's character, Darkwind Nightcloak the Brooding Assassin, doesn't feel like going relic-hunting because it doesn't jive with his quest to avenge his family's death at the hands of the Orc Chieftain Gorog Bloodknuckle.

I don't need to be there for character creation -- if people have questions, I just ask them to email me or call me. I don't want a lot of backstory, because it almost never comes up organically in-game. In the past, whenever a player has handed me a six-page novella for their backstory, and I've tried to introduce some of the characters they wrote up in-game, the response is almost universally, "Who's that, now?" Once the first session rolls around, I have a brief (3-5 sentence) introduction to the campaign, explaining the premise once more, and then I usually start right in with a scene that provides some action, which helps get people into the game right away.