Not next week, but soon. I will be running DnD5e in a homebrew setting in which the universe is made out of numerous continents floating through the void. My players have expressed a desire to be members of a traveling circus so to navigate they will most likely have a ship or a zepelin capable of cosmic travel.
Not this week.. Gotta do a little more world prep so I have a big sandbox available to the players. Not so much prepping a ton of adventures as figuring out where the coastlines and mountain ranges are. I'll be starting a campaign in a couple of months.
I, personally, like to place session zeros in some sort of celebration be it a holy-day, fair-day, wedding, or any sort of gathering. This allows a concentrated and compact immersion into the culture and plenty of NPCs to interact with to lay the foundations for what is about to come. It also allows things to be changed without upsetting the world because "That only happens at this festival". It gives both opportunity and flexablity.
In 40 years I have never run a session zero. I have also had a few campaigns flop right out the gate. A correlation perhaps. Thanks Guy still learning great stuff.
I've run prologues before and had session zeros too but have never played a session zero AS a prologue. All the seeson zeros I have experienced have been group discussion and brainstorming PCs, character and group dynamics, player expectations, PC ambitions and all that stuff that needs discussing and helps keep the group all on the same page when the game begins. Testing stuff sounds good but I'd rather know my players and learn before hand if they wanted to try it in the first place. One shots would seem to me to be a good way of testing ideas instead of preloading my campaign with (possibly incorrect) expectations. That just me though.
Couldn't have better timing Guy, running my first ever session 0 tomorrow! Bought your book, it's helped immensely get over the fear of how to get started in the scary world of GMing. Thanks for everything and for this series.
thx a lot. i've run my first session of my campain today, as a first time gm and as been gooing really really good. thanks a lot for all of your conseils :D
I like the idea of throwing out ideas you want to incorporate into your campaign (like showing off the toys in your chest) and see what players pick up on and want more of. All session zeros I've experienced focus on character creation and not on roleplay or setting (aside from establishing the most basic of information like maps and cities). I've tried approaching the other players and trying out some roleplaying concepts, like you've advised to do in one of your previous videos, but those attempts were always blocked off with 'I don't want to spoil my character or meta-game, you have to find out through playing in real sessions'.
I /try/ to run a session zero. I usually end up with at least one player who wants to go from "I don't have a character concept" to "there are numbers on my sheet" in under twenty minutes and then jump right into the plot, and who will just leave if they're "done" first and don't want to wait for everyone else... Probably the thing that ticked me off most about the last campaign I played in; that player bullied the GM into starting before everyone even had their character sheets filled out ("you can finish fleshing them out later"), and I ended up spending three months doing everything Because Plot Says So because I hadn't been given a chance to figure out /why/ my character was going on the adventure in the first place.
My experience with a session zero is more in lines with... some sort of prologue to the campaign. Anything that is "changed" can then be related to whatever the prologue is, since most campaigns I've been in or DM'd were a post catastrophe for the characters, be it their home is destroyed by raiders, our world is completely altered, or the world literally ends. With more mundane campaigns I've had, session zero is more based around a single town or area that might not be important in the long run and gives an opportunity for me to change the world outside of it without it being jarring, and to also change the town itself by having some drastic change to it (like a change of mayor, a bandit attack, etc).
I tend to not have players play their character in session zero, cause if they think of something else they want to play they feel committed already, and if pressed otherwise they feel pressured to change. Having them play minions of the bad guy, the heroes who failed before, their parents/root NPCs to tie backgrounds to each other, ect. Things that drive narrative without railroading characters proper
I'd really like to do a session 0 (and maybe after that a session 0.5 to talk with the players on how their characters fit the world or do that on session 0)... I'll really have to encourage my friends to play and organise a place to play, won't I?
A Session zero, not this weekend, but soon. I plan on doing an intro event before the players make their characters. I want to run a dark campaign and don't want them to make characters more suited for a standard d&d environment. Dark, gritty, and high magic. I fear I may have bitten off more than I can chew. But, I have decided that sessions should have no more than three or four players besides me at a time until I get the hang of this. Then comes the "beta" testing. Let's see how many bugs we find.
You're talking about session one. Session zero is about finding out about the expectations of your players, which setting etcetera so the GM knows about the constraints outlining session one.
No matter the session, no matter the setting, no matter the lore, no matter the campaign, I have a player who always plays as the same thing, even if it doesn't fit the world at all. Although it works for our DnD sessions, it doesn't make sense for our apocalyptic sci-fi games or others. He's always a drunken dwarf Viking warrior with the voice of Brian Blessed, who pisses on everything (He does it nearly every turn) and constantly tries to murder anyone and anything that gets in his way, even if they're the NPCs. How do I tell him there's no way his character fits here?
Overrated, spelling is. In the campaign I'm currently GM'ing, I ran mini session zeros for each character, establishing each of them in the world, playing through the events (from their perspectives) which lead to the party meeting. It gave me a chance to touch on 7 different settings/cultures & back stories before their stories merged. It was made easier for me by players being added to the campaign over 3-4 months. Some "great ideas" I had just didn't work or didn't add much, so I let them fade into the background. It will be nice to have all those settings ready to revisit when the characters get around to it, explore how things have changed since they left, etc.
So my players just angered Baba Yaga in CoS. They are high enough level to face Strahd, which is 7th, but they are all fairly new and have been getting wrecked. Should I start to pull my punches or what? So far there has been 6 character deaths, 3 revivifies cast.
Not doing a session zero as much as a campaign zero kind of. The players are planeskippers trying to fix worlds that are at the brink of destruction, so they don't stay long at a place but long enough so they get the idea of the place, so for the next campaign they can find out what places they'd like to play in :D
My players don't even have characters yet, nor do most of them know how to make characters. So I don't know how I'm going to be running any kind of in-world game for them when they don't have characters. I thought that was the point of session 0, making characters, setting expectations about the campaign, and going over any house rules. Is this thought process backwards??
I want to do a session zero. But i dont want the PCs to use their characters. So they can taste the world to fit their actual character best. And for me to test my world’s “culture” if you could call it that. Also i cant wait for my pcs to make characters because otherwise we will never start.
That's a cool idea. Make players be NPC'S for a day to let them explore the world without consequence to their later character. Or as a twist, maybe it does have consequence, especially if you have them play one of their character's bonds
Something I saw on reddit was to let players take control of an important NPC during a historical moment in the world. That way, they can be involved and have a stake in the story and a kind of understanding
I feel like this is not a proper session 0, a session in which players and GMs set boundaries, discuss expectations, the social contract, and build characters. Session 0 is meant to talk about all the "adulting" and "mature" stuff like what the players and GM want out of the game and what they don't want, what they expect and what they don't expect. You shouldn't really be "roleplaying" in a session 0 in my opinion. though that's all this is, my opinion.
So um.. can we like leave this stupid town and all of its political drama? I just want to go to a dungeon, fight monsters, avoid traps, and get phat lootz, thanks. Also fast travel so we don't have to roleplay during the trip.
Are you running a Session Zero this weekend? Let us know in the comments below!
Not next week, but soon. I will be running DnD5e in a homebrew setting in which the universe is made out of numerous continents floating through the void. My players have expressed a desire to be members of a traveling circus so to navigate they will most likely have a ship or a zepelin capable of cosmic travel.
Going to be 3 weeks from now
@@Srksius2802 that sounds like fun, good luck ~B#
@@brinnar.2732 thanks ^_^
Not this week..
Gotta do a little more world prep so I have a big sandbox available to the players.
Not so much prepping a ton of adventures as figuring out where the coastlines and mountain ranges are.
I'll be starting a campaign in a couple of months.
"I'm sure it won't matter." The final words of every GM ever.
I, personally, like to place session zeros in some sort of celebration be it a holy-day, fair-day, wedding, or any sort of gathering. This allows a concentrated and compact immersion into the culture and plenty of NPCs to interact with to lay the foundations for what is about to come. It also allows things to be changed without upsetting the world because "That only happens at this festival". It gives both opportunity and flexablity.
So it's like Chrono Trigger? I like that
I'll pinch that idea. Cheers.
Watching this episode was the right choirce
"Standard 4 hour length"
I am woefully underprepared.
In 40 years I have never run a session zero. I have also had a few campaigns flop right out the gate. A correlation perhaps. Thanks Guy still learning great stuff.
I've run prologues before and had session zeros too but have never played a session zero AS a prologue. All the seeson zeros I have experienced have been group discussion and brainstorming PCs, character and group dynamics, player expectations, PC ambitions and all that stuff that needs discussing and helps keep the group all on the same page when the game begins. Testing stuff sounds good but I'd rather know my players and learn before hand if they wanted to try it in the first place. One shots would seem to me to be a good way of testing ideas instead of preloading my campaign with (possibly incorrect) expectations. That just me though.
This was perfect timing! I'm doing it tomorrow, I've been painting my dungeons and anviling my world for weeks now. Amazing advice as usual Guy!
Couldn't have better timing Guy, running my first ever session 0 tomorrow! Bought your book, it's helped immensely get over the fear of how to get started in the scary world of GMing. Thanks for everything and for this series.
He may be fascist or whatever, but he's a darn good DM.
@Fagus Grandifolia I'm not defending anyone. I'm just stating facts. Or is this your first time trolling?
So? Bard Character Singing Choices? Very cute!
Thanks for this, Guy! You rock!
HOW TIMELY! I was hoping you were going to cover this topic soon. Love your content as always. Thanks for the help Guy!
This is REALLY good advice! I've always seen videos about the importance of S0, but few lay it out. Kudos!
Guy, have you lost weight?? You look great in that outfit!!
@Fagus Grandifolia what the hell?
@@buttonmasher7615 yeah lol
Cured leather is very slimming.
thx a lot. i've run my first session of my campain today, as a first time gm and as been gooing really really good. thanks a lot for all of your conseils :D
Those Choirces are extremely important
I like the idea of throwing out ideas you want to incorporate into your campaign (like showing off the toys in your chest) and see what players pick up on and want more of.
All session zeros I've experienced focus on character creation and not on roleplay or setting (aside from establishing the most basic of information like maps and cities). I've tried approaching the other players and trying out some roleplaying concepts, like you've advised to do in one of your previous videos, but those attempts were always blocked off with 'I don't want to spoil my character or meta-game, you have to find out through playing in real sessions'.
I /try/ to run a session zero. I usually end up with at least one player who wants to go from "I don't have a character concept" to "there are numbers on my sheet" in under twenty minutes and then jump right into the plot, and who will just leave if they're "done" first and don't want to wait for everyone else...
Probably the thing that ticked me off most about the last campaign I played in; that player bullied the GM into starting before everyone even had their character sheets filled out ("you can finish fleshing them out later"), and I ended up spending three months doing everything Because Plot Says So because I hadn't been given a chance to figure out /why/ my character was going on the adventure in the first place.
Sounds horrible. :c
Oh hey it's the leather outfit you were talking about on the After Dark show!
@Fagus Grandifolia You do know he isn't even American and doesn't touch politics, right?
@Fagus Grandifolia It's the only time you ever get any.
My experience with a session zero is more in lines with... some sort of prologue to the campaign. Anything that is "changed" can then be related to whatever the prologue is, since most campaigns I've been in or DM'd were a post catastrophe for the characters, be it their home is destroyed by raiders, our world is completely altered, or the world literally ends. With more mundane campaigns I've had, session zero is more based around a single town or area that might not be important in the long run and gives an opportunity for me to change the world outside of it without it being jarring, and to also change the town itself by having some drastic change to it (like a change of mayor, a bandit attack, etc).
Oof, bringing modern politics into a D&D channel. Big oof
This is awesome, thank you!!
I AM running a session 0 this weekend. Though likely with different players than i will run my regular game with.
Hey guy i know I'm late but loving this series just like all your work
Not gonna lie, I just started the players in my campaign naked in the woods. But im also doing survival for a good first part of the campaign.
I tend to not have players play their character in session zero, cause if they think of something else they want to play they feel committed already, and if pressed otherwise they feel pressured to change. Having them play minions of the bad guy, the heroes who failed before, their parents/root NPCs to tie backgrounds to each other, ect. Things that drive narrative without railroading characters proper
I watch for the intros, but I stay for the info.
@Fagus Grandifolia So...that's random.
currently binging your videos as i'm going to GM a Monsters of the Week group 😥 i have... no idea what i'm doing but these videos certainly help!!
It's so upsetting when the little things get in the way of world domination.
Excellent thank you
I'd really like to do a session 0 (and maybe after that a session 0.5 to talk with the players on how their characters fit the world or do that on session 0)... I'll really have to encourage my friends to play and organise a place to play, won't I?
Session zero, yes I need tips on this (lots of tips) thankyou ~B#
A Session zero, not this weekend, but soon. I plan on doing an intro event before the players make their characters. I want to run a dark campaign and don't want them to make characters more suited for a standard d&d environment. Dark, gritty, and high magic. I fear I may have bitten off more than I can chew. But, I have decided that sessions should have no more than three or four players besides me at a time until I get the hang of this. Then comes the "beta" testing. Let's see how many bugs we find.
You're talking about session one. Session zero is about finding out about the expectations of your players, which setting etcetera so the GM knows about the constraints outlining session one.
No matter the session, no matter the setting, no matter the lore, no matter the campaign, I have a player who always plays as the same thing, even if it doesn't fit the world at all. Although it works for our DnD sessions, it doesn't make sense for our apocalyptic sci-fi games or others. He's always a drunken dwarf Viking warrior with the voice of Brian Blessed, who pisses on everything (He does it nearly every turn) and constantly tries to murder anyone and anything that gets in his way, even if they're the NPCs.
How do I tell him there's no way his character fits here?
Overrated, spelling is.
In the campaign I'm currently GM'ing, I ran mini session zeros for each character, establishing each of them in the world, playing through the events (from their perspectives) which lead to the party meeting. It gave me a chance to touch on 7 different settings/cultures & back stories before their stories merged. It was made easier for me by players being added to the campaign over 3-4 months.
Some "great ideas" I had just didn't work or didn't add much, so I let them fade into the background.
It will be nice to have all those settings ready to revisit when the characters get around to it, explore how things have changed since they left, etc.
So my players just angered Baba Yaga in CoS. They are high enough level to face Strahd, which is 7th, but they are all fairly new and have been getting wrecked. Should I start to pull my punches or what? So far there has been 6 character deaths, 3 revivifies cast.
Not doing a session zero as much as a campaign zero kind of.
The players are planeskippers trying to fix worlds that are at the brink of destruction, so they don't stay long at a place but long enough so they get the idea of the place, so for the next campaign they can find out what places they'd like to play in :D
this is so cool!
How did you raid my dad's closet without him finding out? And where's the ball gag?
Just kidding, Guy. It's my MOM's outfit.
My players don't even have characters yet, nor do most of them know how to make characters. So I don't know how I'm going to be running any kind of in-world game for them when they don't have characters. I thought that was the point of session 0, making characters, setting expectations about the campaign, and going over any house rules. Is this thought process backwards??
I want to do a session zero. But i dont want the PCs to use their characters. So they can taste the world to fit their actual character best. And for me to test my world’s “culture” if you could call it that.
Also i cant wait for my pcs to make characters because otherwise we will never start.
That's a cool idea. Make players be NPC'S for a day to let them explore the world without consequence to their later character. Or as a twist, maybe it does have consequence, especially if you have them play one of their character's bonds
Something I saw on reddit was to let players take control of an important NPC during a historical moment in the world. That way, they can be involved and have a stake in the story and a kind of understanding
Why are you wearing S&M gear?
I feel like this is not a proper session 0, a session in which players and GMs set boundaries, discuss expectations, the social contract, and build characters. Session 0 is meant to talk about all the "adulting" and "mature" stuff like what the players and GM want out of the game and what they don't want, what they expect and what they don't expect. You shouldn't really be "roleplaying" in a session 0 in my opinion. though that's all this is, my opinion.
You forgot to remove your BDSM
outfit :P
Yeah, much less armor than BDSM outfit. :P
It's us that forgot to put ours on.
@@cattrucker8257 hahahahaha
First!
@Fagus Grandifolia What, Drew Richards or the guy who made this video?
kinky outfit tho
So um.. can we like leave this stupid town and all of its political drama? I just want to go to a dungeon, fight monsters, avoid traps, and get phat lootz, thanks.
Also fast travel so we don't have to roleplay during the trip.