First module in the group

[Dungeon-noob]

So, next Saturday is session 0 for OotA, and as the person who's read&proposed the module and has DMing experience and availablility, i get to run it. Now, this is the first time i've run a proper D&D module, and i'm kind of wondering what is important to adress in session 0 (we usually don't really do a dedicated chargen session). If the playgrounders could give some suggestions in terms of general advice or module specific parts that i would need to get out of the way now, i'd greatly appriciate it.

[ElChad]

Session 0 is a good place to explain to your players the overall themes, style and what to expect of the adventure. This can help them when creating their characters and avoid players from making characters that do not fit the story at all. It also helps determine the tone of the story. Will you run it with humor? Completely serious? Set expectations in Session 0. If everyone is on the same page for an adventure, the smoother it will be.

For example, if your character a character is coming to the table want to play a barbarian princess turned pirate who is chosen to unite her people, you can tell them that the quest takes place in the Underdark, and that uniting her barbarian tribes will not be actually possible and there will be no pirate ships in the adventure.

[Telok]

Out of the Abyss? Ok, from missteps that I've gotten to play through:

1. Emphasize that they don't have to escape immediately. Make sure they know that they have time to explore, plan, and prepare. Ours said "escape now", so we did, and it went half way to killing the game.
2. Explain how you're handling stealth, light, food, and gear. If you're going to ignore food & light while having the gear of defeated foes be useless, tell them ahead of time.
3. Talk about how you're handling ability checks, character knowledge, and information gathering. It wasn't until after our game died and I read the adventure that I began to understand that the DM had misapplied antimagic and the fuzz mist effects, and done so inconsistently. We just thought he was being a lol-random ****.
4. Talk about (or at least think about) how much you want to integrate the npcs, how to do so, and how that may affect encounters.

[Dungeon-noob]

Thanks, that is good feedback already. Any particular areas i should be worried about, or any tips on how to handle certain rules?

[Man_Over_Game]

Thanks, that is good feedback already. Any particular areas i should be worried about, or any tips on how to handle certain rules?

Stealth can be incredibly weak at times, which is a shame for a lot of adventures. Specifically, moving into the Line of Sight of any creature who has valid reason to see you (as in, they aren't blinded or distracted) immediately removes you from Stealth. You can pop from Cover to do something (like Attacking) which doesn't remove you from cover, but this is nearly impossible to do with a melee attack.

In other words, in 5e, there's no such thing as engaging from Stealth into melee combat.
Although, if you want to change that, you can read the link in my signature.

The Gloom Stalker Ranger is particularly good in this campaign, having a lot of dark areas and fighting lots of creatures that rely on Darkvision to see. Additionally, you might use a decent amount of magical Darkness, so be prepared for any Warlocks that have Devil's Sight to see more than the rest of the party.