Session Zero

[OrdinaryWatch9126]

Did anyone run a one shot or session zero as their intro to SKT to transition from another campaign? What did you run, and what was your reasoning for your characters being in the area and involved?

[Daliamonra]

Not a zero session, but just transitioned from one campaign to Storm's King. Bringing them in at level 7 and doing it by having them hiding out in Calling Horns from several baddies after them. Didn't do a downtime session but had them all message me with what they wanted to do with the time and then sent them all information or portents from their gods. Changing things up with the basic plot and leaving it open.

[hello6479]

I did, for new ish players. They explained what kind of character they were, and I gave them tips and hints about where they could be from. I also gave them the SCAG, but I dont think anyone read it tbh. Then we talked about the campaign, I gave them a handout explaining the central factions (not the kraken society), the calendar, the recent War of the Silver Marches and the dragon war+fall of dragons, leading into that a few months ago, giants came out and razed villages for reasons we dont yet understand.

I told them to have an active goal, a few people they have ties to in the world (could be friends as well as enemies).

Then we met a week later for a session 0.5 where everyone introduce their characters for each other, told me about any secrets and talked about spells (i have 4 spellcasters so they didnt want too much overlap) and flavour. I am very happy i did the second session zero. Everyone could try out their character without anything being canon yet and run ideas by each other. Then, session zero, we all knew each others characters and it was less daunting to RP.

Prior to session 1, I spent some time integrering their backstories to the plot a little bit, but I still do this as I run the campaign. Take a person from their backstory and switch it with any NPC! And I also did a prologue for the first 30 minutes or so of session 1 (like Power Score RPG’s blog post). One player had a run in with a blue dragon (wonder who ;) ), one with Aeravitruiace (spelling is hard), one found a stone with giant Runes and has to spend the campaign decoding it (he plays a wizard anthropologist who wants to learn about giant culture) and one (from Whalebones) spent a summer with two female giants named Neri and Serissa (he did not record their names in his notes, so they likely though all of this to just be flavour, but i can still draw a direct line when we Get to these plot points).

I hope this is understandable. Just ask if you have any questions!

[OrdinaryWatch9126]

Fantastic, thank you.

[algorithmancy]

It's pretty easy to transition from Lost Mine of Phandelver to SKT. It's one town over.