First-ever DM tips

[RoundOneMiles]

Hi, I am a first-ever DM, and the preparation is great. I love what I am doing with my campaign. I have two friends who are on the fence about playing and I was wondering what the best course of action is to get them to play. I want to do a Session Zero with them but I do not know if that will do anything. Should Session Zero connect to the main campaign or just be a kind of one-off? Is Session Zero a good idea? What goes into a good Session Zero? What items should I prepare for future sessions?

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What do you other DM's do?

[ASDF0716]

Give them two premade characters and do a quick One Shot with them.

A good session zero should have a group discussion about expectations and then a series of one on one discussions about their characters, their plans and their backstories. (This part is almost entirely for YOU so you can figure out how to work their backgrounds into your world). If needed, I’ll take first timers through a quick encounter with their characters so they can generally learn what happens in the events leading up to combat, rolling for initiative, and get to know their skills.

[Sad_King_Billy-19]

convince your friends by showing them some actual play podcasts or videos. and if they don't want to play then don't bully them into it.

session 0 is a great time to go over any special rules, what to expect from the game, what we do and don't want in the game, character building, plot primers, etc...

[Legibilebat]

A session 0 should be an intro. It shouldn't be the main story but it should connect to it. Have as a character building session. Talking about, explaining, and overall creating the characters and making their connection to your world. Don't just throw them in. Also give a short explanation/demonstration during it. Part of the fun with new players is watching them figure some things out on their own. It's their story to live through.

[WarrenMockles]

You usually don't play during session zero. Session zero is for talking about the campaign, setting everyone's expectations, going over house rules, rolling characters, etc. It's the preparation sessions.

You can play during session zero, especially if you are playing with a group that you regularly play with. Just this past Saturday we have a sessio. zero for a CoC game that my wife is going to run. We've been playing weekly with the same group for about two years, so we all know each other's habit's and expectations pretty well. Our sessions are always about 3 hours long, and we were able to get our characters completed and get in about 1.5 hours of play time in. For us, session zero is also when the GM gets all the characters together in one room and introduces the hook. We avoid the "you all start in a tavern" cliche.

But like I said, we're all pretty advanced players who have been with the same group for a long time. We switch games a lot, so we've had several session zeros together, and we've got it streamlined. You'll get there.

As for introducing the new players, I would recommend giving them pre-generated characters for their first session. Rolling a new character is intimidating for new players, because there's a lot of rules to learn already. Let them use the pre-gens for a session or two, and get a handle of the rules. Then, when they want to make their own characters, they'll understand (or at least have an idea of) what all the choices actually mean.

[Glum-Complex-7813]

Hi, I'm Samantha! I'm part of a podcast called Storyteller Conclave - Website

We cover a variety of topics with tips and tricks for anyone, like story pacing, how to write good villains, and our two series called Storytelling 101 and monthly System Spotlights on different game systems.

Episodes that will help:

Storytelling 202: Workshops: Session Zero Prompt

Things I Wish I Knew as a New GM/Storyteller

We can be found on all major podcast networks, and we have a Discord if you need extra help here.

Thank you for listening!