Guide to Having a Great Session Zero

January 21, 2019

Why a Session Zero for a New Campaign

Getting players on the same page about how a game is going to be played, etiquette for this particular gaming group, and how their characters will be interacting with each other is maybe the single most important step for setting yourself up for success in a stress free, enjoyable game with other players.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time on player drama threads, trying to help folks out…  I’d estimate over 80% of the time people have a sour taste in their mouths about their experience playing a tabletop RPG game, the underlying cause is friction with the other people at the table.  Almost always, the reason behind this is that players had misaligned expectations.

What is a Session Zero

A session zero is time spent getting on the same page about how the game will be played and what kinds of characters the players will be bringing into it.  It includes both practical / housekeeping topics as well as more creative, character building alignment focus areas.  Here’s our overview of a solid session zero plan

  • Table Rules
  • World and Setting Orientation
  • Character Building
    • Character Creation Guidelines
    • Fitting in With the Story
    • Fitting in With the Rest of the party

Table Rules

Getting on the same page about how you will be interacting as players and GM(s) with each other is hugely important.  If you are playing with an existing group, this section may be kind of “old news.” For groups that are forming I’d recommend that the GM fills out the answers to the questions below for how they see the game being run, and then allow flexibility for player ideas and feedback to adjust as you like.

  • What are our rules of etiquette?
    • Being on time
    • Sharing the spotlight
    • being ready on your turn
    • Are electronic dice rollers / apps acceptable?
    • Are phones and laptops allowed at the table? How about multitasking at game and doing other things when it is not “your turn?”
  • When will we be playing, how will we handle scheduling?
  • What is the rating of our game?  PG, PG-13, R?
  • What is the “style” of the GM regarding system rules?  Sticks really close to rules as written? Loosey goosey? Somewhere in between?
  • Any homebrew rules?  For example, will you be awarding hero points for great role play?
  • How will XP be generated? When can players expect to level up? For example, can you level up in a dungeon?
  • Will combat take place with minis & a grid? Theater of the mind? Something else?
  • How are we handling snacks?
  • What is our stance on kids at or around the table?
  • Is alcohol allowed? Other substances?

World & Setting Orientation

Consider keeping your world setting on a shared document such as a Google doc, or wiki page. Obsidian portal has a cool wiki system that’s specifically geared for keeping your campaign content organized.

  • Is this a pre-written adventure or is it homebrew?
  • What kind of setting is it?
  • What is the main problem that adventurers will be trying to solve?
  • Any cool lore to get to know before the game, or before character creation?
  • What kinds of characters work well with this kind of setting?
  • How common is magic in this world?
  • Are there any guns? Any other technology level considerations?
  • Any special consideration to deities? Any custom pantheons being used?
  • Should players expect the story to be a bit more “railroaded” In terms of choices, or more sandbox / open world, or some combination of both? Somewhere in between?

Character Building

Character Creation Guidelines

Practical stuff for everyone to be on the same page about

  • What system are we playing?
  • Will alignments be important? Are all alignments allowed?
  • Character Starting Level, gold, equipment
  • Allowed sourcebooks for creating characters.  Official books only? 3rd Party publishers?
  • How about custom races, classes, spells, items?
  • (Check out our Character Creation Guide for more details on this)

Fitting in With the Story

Here’s one where if we don’t get on the same page ahead of time, we can create some problems and frustration that can be easily avoided.  With the cool character concept that the party is creating… how does this fit into the story… and does this type of character fit well?  For example, if the game will be a high intrigue, spy and subterfuge type of game, and your character is playing a meat head that only wants to smash things, this could create a problem. Consider the background and story outlined above and create a character that has some tied in reasons for adventuring based on the world they are in.

Fitting in With the Rest of the Party

It’s awesome when everyone around the table has something that their character is best at.  Consider roles like being sneaky, bashing things / being able to take a hit, being able to nuke stuff, healing, and socializing.  There’s a traditional kind of tank / healer / damage dealer / controller party makeup that’s become common from video game RPG’s.  Don’t feel like you need to make a party that has each of these rolls filled necessarily (although it’s definitely not a bad thing) the more important thing is to ensure that everyone has something that they are best at.  This will allow for good sharing of the spotlight in game.  Even if two characters are very similar, find a way to make each one special.  Let’s say your party has two barbarians from the same tribe, that are brothers… maybe one of them specializes in shield use, takes a ton of “meat shield” kind of specializations and serves as the party’s immovable wall… maybe the other is a fast, dual knife wielding skirmisher that gets in close and eviscerates the baddies.  While both are combat focused barbarians, they each fill a different specialization.  The worst thing is when you build a character that you’re excited to play and then the “specialness” is in competition with or overshadowed by another character that’s better than you at it. Questions to spark creative thinking here:

  • What is my character best at?
  • What is my character the worst at?
  • What makes my character truly unique?

Why is your Party Adventuring Together?

Consider party dynamics from a character story and motivation perspective.  This is so important.  Create characters that will work well with the other members of your party.  Remember – this is a team sport.

  • What is our bond with each other?
    • Characters don’t need to be best friends, but they should have some reason for working together.  It can be as simple as them all being hired as mercenaries by a common PC or NPC.

The DM can provide some guidelines that may help the party’s reasoning here.  Consider things like:

  • Your characters must be of evil alignment as they will be orchestrating a crime spree
  • Your characters should have a motivation to join the crusade and fight demons
  • Your characters will be on a pirate ship, they should probably know how to swim.

I hope that you can implement an awesome session zero when you’re getting ready for your next campaign and that it can help, as we like to say at Cloud 9 Tabletop: “Elevate. Your. Game.”