Sept 16th, 2020
A companion concept to the Campaign Information Sheet I talked about last time, is Session Zero. With a badass name like that, it must be cool right? Well, I mean its ok if you think that, but not really? But also, kind of? Most players likely think of the first session of the campaign starting when the Designated Talky Human starts describing the situation at eh start of the night. And they would be right, at least partially.
More accurately, throughout most of my storytelling career I never used a Session Zero; mostly because I had never heard of it. But once I learned exactly what it was, it quickly became my standard operating procedure as it works far too well.
None of this, of course, addresses the burning question: what is a session zero?
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Session is the term typically used for the four hours on game night everyone sits around the table and says words at each other and drinks Mountain Dew. The time may be different, Mountain Dew may not be involved, but at its most basic; it is your group being together for a scheduled thing. Technically a group of you playing Halo online is a Halo session. Going out for 'fresh air,' also called a session on occasion.
The first part of a campaign, when those level one characters are let loose into the world, is the 'first session.' Pretty basic info so far, don't worry I'm getting to the informative part. Sheesh, so impatient today.
Session Zero is a time for the storyteller and the players to hash out what exactly comes next. The storyteller, you presumably, is at this point officially the Designated Talky Human and this is the time for you to lay out the baseline rules for the adventure. This is a great chance to put that Campaign Information Sheet to good use right at the start.
The rest of Session Zero deals with helping your players and listening to what they want to create and what sort of campaign they want to play. Depending on how you create your campaign, this can be quite different. Future articles will detail different methods of campaign creation but for now let's focus on the generalities:
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Game System - typically this will not be an issue as most gaming groups stick to one system. Still, always a good idea to be clear on what will be happening.
Style - In most cases, the game system will also define the style, but in some cases, and with some particularly creative storytellers, even Dungeons and Dragons can be used as a futuristic science fiction dystopia. A clear description can help players avoid choosing the fletching skill when guns are everywhere. Its not useless, but it might not be what the player would have wanted had they known.
House Rules - this is the part of a Session Zero that is as crucial as it is both overlooked and necessary. Things like what happens when a stray dice rolls off the table or lands on an angle in one of the three holes in your notebook. Are drinks allowed at the table? Will there be scheduled breaks for snacks, smokes, or anything else you all want to do? All a great thing to be hashed out now, before all the adventuring starts.
Cell Phones - if your players are anything like mine, you need a good cell phone rule. Whether its a simple please or a particularly strict 'phones in the bowl' policy, hash it out now and with everyone all at the same time. It will help later if you need to enforce the rule.
Campaign Synopsis - part of the information sheet if you go that route, but even if you don't use one a brief rundown of the adventure can be instrumental in helping your players make their characters.
This part can be a lot of fun. Put on your best movie narrator voice and throw a little oomph into your voice acting. Really make this a fun and memorable experience; "In a land without sun, the only goal is to bring back the light..." "What they didn't know was the shifting madness beneath their feet..." All sorts of fun times are possible here.
Character Basics - from generating stats to which skills and feats are needed, having a specific time to deal directly with your players without needing to hold the reins of the story in check can be greatly beneficial. Assisting the players create the characters is excellent for sneakily gathering information, more on that in the next article.
Character Motivation - decide how the characters know each other and how they came, or will come, to be adventuring together. Having your players design their characters together can really assist in having them all work together as a team. Nothing is worse than a character without any reason to be travelling with the others.
Along with motivations, players can add in flaws, beliefs and any of the myriad other shiny details that really make a character amazing. There are tremendous resources in this regard online, just google 'how to make interesting characters' and pick and choose any number of fun quirks.
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While there are likely many more things that can be brought up in a Session Zero, at this point they can be reasonably vague depending on what your table and your players are like. Beyond this point, you will have to do your own research. Just remember that this session's goal is to lay a strong foundation for the rest of the campaign, if you finish everything up early, you could do a small intro scene as well.
Or maybe run that new player through Orc and the Pie? Hey look!
But ultimately, it is all up to you. Make your Session Zero work for you.
The next few articles will deal with how to create the campaign you will present to your players.
Good luck.
Eric
This time I googled 'session zero ideas', here's what I got:
http://dmsworkshop.com/2020/03/06/session-zero/ -> the rules vs fun section here is great, I should have written about that