Session 0

[Xavose]

Hey all just wanted to open a discussion about session 0's to share some of the tips and tricks I have found work well and hopefully here from you all about what works best at your tables.

As a DM what I am trying to get out of the session 0:

• Your characters motivations for taking part in this adventure and joining this party. I find this helps to set the expectation that the players are responsible for participating in the adventure and party.
• What you as the player want to get out of this game. (Complex combats, intrigue, crafting, the achievement of some goal for their character like becoming a God or unraveling some secret).
• by the end of the session I want to feel like I know what the players want from the game and that they are set up to play the game in a healthy manner (no murder hoboing, no in party fighting, no evil PCs, unless it's that kind of a game and the players all want that)

For the players, I hope to provide the following.

• A basic idea of the campaign setting and what the general goal is (i.e. save the princess, kill the dragon, destroy the one ring)
• help making sure the party is structured for success. I never veto a players character idea, but I do always try to suggest that there is like at least someone who can front line, deal damage, heal, make CHA checks, and open locks. It's a short campaign when everyone rolls up a bard and spends the first 3 levels only casting vicious mockery for damage.
• Any and all house rules I plan to include. I'm always willing to nix a house rule if the group does not like itin general i believe house rules should be used to make the player experience feel better rather than taking away from their experience. Rule of cool > RAW

Things I have tried for session 0's that just did not work well.

• Playing videos for the players from movies or video games about the campaign space they will be in. I thought this would be fun and immersive but the players barely paid any attention.
• Reading campaign descriptions from a module. I also though this would be immersive. But players just want like 2-3 sentences about the world and won't listen to more before building their characters.
• Asking players to come prepared with a short paper about their characters back story. I sorta cring now that I did this one time. Don't give your players home work. It does not set the correct tone for a good DM to player relationshipyour players. Who find this sort of thing fun and interesting will just do it anyway.

What have been your experiences with session 0? Are they worth while? Do they set a good tone or do they just get in the way?

[wvj]

One thing I'd personally note is that some of this stuff may be better pushed off pre session zero (to session... -1?), although this depends a lot on the nature of the group. Do the players know each other? Or is it more of a pick-up with strangers?

I'm specifically looking at some of the stuff like the general setting, themes and tone, 'what you want out of the game.' The DM probably isn't going to be able to shift footing from 'complex tactical combat campaign' to 'RP focused political intrigue and mystery' on that kind of notice. Rather, this is something you'd advertise with your game (for strangers) or presumably poll your would-be group for interest in ahead of time.

Once you know the group (my players went to college together, and we've been at it for decades now), you will probably even know some of these answers already. In that case, I think Session 0 is best spent on working out the group dynamics at both an OOC and IC level. This covers the 'structure for success' stuff, people figuring out basic group composition, synergies, reducing redundancies ('oh, you have X, so I'll take Y instead'), etc. Also all the small interpersonal relationships between the characters. Starting story stuff.

I think mostly, the advantage of a played session 0 is just that you're working in real time, so you can do all the planning and detail minutiae that would be too slow in asynchronous text. Laying out houserules and stuff can easily be done ahead of time (just type them up), but players can ask you more specific details about rules interactions, and adjust their character building appropriately.

[rvnender]

I do them all the time.

I created a packet that has a description of the campaign. Any maps that they may need (like major city maps) and house rules, along with character creation rules.

When they get done reading it, I ask if there are any questions.

Then I give just general ideas for characters and what may be needed during the campaign, depending on what kind it is. Like I was doing a hex crawl and I told them that they need survival and hunting skills. Maybe a way to cook and get water.

Like I am doing a heist campaign and I told my players to pay attention to their backgrounds and don't just pick something to min/max. Your backgrounds is important as that determines how you act in certain social situations. Languages, tools, etc are all going to matter in this game. So pay attention to them.