I would consider myself a pretty experienced DM. I have run a game almost every week since 2019. I have largely been playing with the same group that I discovered D&D with. Because of that, we all discovered the game together for the first time.
But soon, I am planning on running a 2nd campaign for a few people that I haven't ran the game for. (outside of a oneshot with a few of them). They are all great friends of mine and they also know each other pretty well but it will be the first time I play D&D with this group. We have been prepping stuff for the game over the past month and this weekend, we are planning to do a session 0 to discuss all of our expectations for the game. The thing is, I have never really ran a session 0 before. And because of that, I would love some advice on what I should discuss with my players.
Two of my players are quite experienced. One, my wife, has been a player in a few of my oneshots as well as a player along side me in the game of a mutual friend. Anther is an old friend I recently reconnected with that has ran their own game for a while and has played in other peoples games before. And two more that are basically new to the game aside from a few oneshots.
I intend to discuss the following things with them, but id love to hear any other things I should add to this list. - The levels I intend to run this game to. Im not planning to run this game all the way to level 20 but instead plan to run it to somewhere around 8th or 10th level. Perhaps when we get there we choose to go beyond that. But I want to manage expectations.
- Certain senstitive topics such as violence and sexuality. As it comes to violence I have nearly no cap to what I am comfortable with outside of sexual violence or unnecessary cruelty. However, sexuality and romance is not something I prefer to run in my game. I have no issues with my players romancing each other but I prefer to not involve myself in that.
- I also want to go over some homebrew rules that I implement in my games
(one this we already discussed was the game world and the general idea of what this campaign is going to be about. This was needed for character creation. Which is something that we are already largely finished with.)
Are there any other other things I should discuss with my players?
You probably know this but it's worth saying out loud - but make sure that your players can air their concerns and red lines. You may be fine with anything but sexual violence and romance, but they may not be able to cope with explicit torture or references to Nazis.
Establish safety cues. What can players do to indicate that something is uncomfortable for them? Sounds silly, but if something is unexpectedly making you uncomfortable, then it's actually quite hard to communicate that in a clear and considerate manner. Have a way of giving a cue so people can stop and then discuss it in an open and considerate manner.
Talk about tone. Slapstick? Horror? Lord of the Rings? How players behave, what jokes they make etc really affect tone. Now's the time to establish what tone you want.
Obviously, scheduling.
DM style. I prefer players to narrate PC actions. It sounds surprising, at least to me since I'd have thought that this was core to the game, but I've yet to meet another DM who doesn't routinely tell me what my character does or feels. For me, even things like how an action performed is for the player. "I jump down with my sword swinging...I rolled a 15". "You hit and you kill them. What happens?". "My sword plunges...". I'll narrate how the monster reacts and, if appropriate, how that affects the player, but the player reacts is down to the player. I don't give elaborate kill scenes, they do. Many DMs don't do that, so I have to explain it in session zero. Explain your style so they understand what you expect of them.
Go through the optional rules. Mention any standard rules that you're dropping. Mention any modification to extant rules or mechanics. I've talked about this several times on the forum before, but don't neuter spells on the fly. One thing that annoys players a lot is allowing investment into something that you've decided shouldn't pay off. If you really don't like something and you've only just realised it's a problem, then allow it in that instance, then work with the player outside of the session to let them reinvest in something else or otherwise make a reasonable compromise. Ideally though, declare it in session 0. Don't like that Knock effectively bypasses all locks? Fine. Ban it or modify it in session 0 if you can, not when they're in the middle of escaping from prison and had set up a plan to get through a door using the spell.
Set up player expectations. Do you want their level progression given to you in advance so you can support it narratively? Do you want session reports? Do you want someone to bring snacks? Organise bookings? Who provides the minis? Is payment of any kind involved (snack fund, book fund, etc)? How do you communicate outside of sessions? Do you want requests for magic items? How deep do you want backstories to be? Will they be involved in the story and can players expect you to try and resolve them?
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
This is the kind of situation where you have to seriously ask yourself - “Do I actually need a session zero?”
Session Zeros are useful when playing with strangers-but they are an imperfect tool. They often involve conversations which might touch on personal trauma, and often can create problems down the line. For example, they might impede something which organically grows from the campaign because someone said “I don’t like this”, even if, as the game developed, that person’s mind has changed. Or there is the “you didn’t bring this up in session zero, therefore it is your fault you are upset because you didn’t realise something might be a problem weeks and weeks ago” problems that can occur.
With strangers, those issues are eclipsed by the need to get everyone together and manage expectations - but you are not playing with strangers. When playing with existing friends, you already know one another—know what kinds of topics might be uncomfortable for them, know what kinds of humour folks laugh at, and should feel comfortable enough with one another that people can have post-game “hey, that made me uncomfortable” conversations in a mutually respectful manner.
Additionally, you as DM should be comfortable enough with them that you can talk about homerules and campaign lengths with relative ease through general pregame conversation, without dedicating substantial time where you could be actually playing D&D. Furthermore, since you know these people, you should have a general idea as to their mannerisms—meaning you are well-equipped to use your own insight to steer the campaign away from anything which seems to be causing distress.
Now, to be clear, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have any discussions before the game - “we’re only going to level X” and “here are my homerules” are things players should know about before conceptualising their characters. But there are ways to do that other than a true Session Zero.
Any class/race "cheese" combinations off the table?
As Linklite mentioned, tone is very important to discuss, and I'd also add on top of that genre. Will this be horror, pulp mystery, high magic, low magic, technologically advanced or not, explorations of new frontiers?
Will there be dungeon delving and lootng / "classic" DND action, or will things be more story focused?
How much will you follow a set story (homebrew? adventure book?) And how much will you have character backstory influence the game?
Edit to add one more that I found really useful - of the three pillars of DND (combat, roleplay, exploration), have everyone rank their favorites. This can be a fluid scale for people that like them all, but maybe one slightly more than the others.
New players often have ideas about what they can do. Edge Lords who don't want to do anything the Party wants to do, Rogues that steal from the party, Fighters that were raised by wolves and ruin all social encounters, etc.
My point is that the Players should create PCs that WANT to do the adventure. Just showing up and saying no to what you have planned is not an option. Everyone at the table is responsible for helping everyone else have fun.
THis is a challenge for me because I don’t usually run for folks beyond my major circle. Nevertheless, I shall try:
A rough idea of what the first adventure is about, and the kind of story it is. I don’t give away plot points, but I will explain the whole goal of the adventure. I don’t do “ratings”, but I do give content warnings.
Heroics: what constitutes them.
Character Death & Consequences: Death is a real thing in my games, even though I have ways to mitigate it some of the time. Death should usually advance the story is my feeling, and bring emotional weight and depth — but folks have to be part of it. So we talk about death, reincarnation, resurrection, death saves, last minute escapes, and so forth.
PCs should be characters who are involved in the story, not oppositional to it.
Role Playing do’s and dont’s.
What constitutes fun. This is really the tone of the game — I prefer To go by genre mostly, but like with my next game that has a campaign that includes like a dozen genres, that won’t fly. But I also talk about practical jokes, about table jokes, and about role playing. Also, “gags” and how long a laughter session can go on for.
How to handle disagreements about rulings.
Attendance, how to handle characters with missing players. Session length, end a session rewards, frequency, scheduling
Any sensitive content in the game. As an example, my world’s goblin will eat people right there on the battlefield. The origin story for all “half-orc” involves non-consensual sex.
In my case, I usually have a gazetteer or chapbook about the world. I combine Zero and Character Creation, so as we go I point out areas of the chapbook of interest to that character they are developing. I never use pregen characters unless explicitly asked for one.
Alignments. This, again, feeds into role playing. I don’t care if someon wants to be evil, bu they can’t be the evil the players are fighting, and they can’t be disrupting the flow of the game. (OTOH, I use a different alignment system now, so meh)
I answer any and all questions — and there isn’t a set aside time for it.
Homebrew. There are “standing Rules” that apply across all the DMs of our little group, and then there are individual rules that all of have specific to our games. Additionally, two of us are famous for the crunchier games we have, where there is a lot of homebrew. I am one of them, and I usually hav a reference book for all of it because I let them know they are allowed to hold me to the rules.
Player storylines: I usually have a few ancillary player storylines in my campaigns. Some are created by the PCs, others are created by me. We talk about who wants one and who doesn’t the responsibilities and risks associated with hem, and stuff like that.
Multiple characters, multiclassing — I have a rule that multiclassing should be done *in play* or *in game*, not off camera. Pretext is fine — it isn’t about stopping them — but it has to be role played and run through. This literally dates back to the era of 1e Bards, so for my long time players it isn’t a big deal. When we have someone new join, it becomes a bit of a challenge.
Minmaxing (I don’t allow dips). I am fine if Players want to do it, but usually minmaxing comes at the cost of role playing, and I am a big fan of role playing.
Quirks. That RP thing means that some players will develop somatic quirks they use — gestures and tics the help stay in character. Some are disruptive and annoying.
If in person, food and drinks, interruptions from kids.
Virtual (Zoom or Teams): interruptions, potty breaks, messaging stuff.
Retcons/Rewinds: these can happen. Especially in situations where their actions result in a TPK (generally speaking, I avoid TPK at all costs, even fudging dice).
Duels and Disagreements
Cool Downs and High tempers
”free Counseling” — I happen to be a therapist on occasion (not licensed where I live), and sometimes it happens that folks will ask me to talk through things. So we have rules about that because I don’t think I am very good at it any more (closed my practice over 20 years ago, lol).
Straight Role Play: usually the last thing, we just do a bit of straight role play. It usually follows the next bit.
How everyone meets. This one is one we added a while back, because it gets everyone on the same page, and now I don’t have to come up with how they meet, lol — I make them do it. As a role playing activity and to get familiar with their characters and sometimes make minor changes. No rolls, no game stuff. Pure mind play.
I will note as well that we usually have two session zeros, lol. Because we do cover a lot and we do it while creating characters simultaneously — either in person or virtually (mostly virtually these days). They can be pretty wild sessions, as most of us have known each other a long time, and because we are all creating characters together there is a lot more meshing and trade offs for better party builds.
I do not allow solo creation for the most part unless it is coming into an existing game after a death — new folks joining in progress get a separate session zero. Some of this is the house rules and homebrew stuff, but mostly it is to rehash the original session zero.
It also prevents things like having a player create a lycanthrope character for a world where lycanthropy is a fatal disease, lol.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
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Dear peoples of the internet,
I would consider myself a pretty experienced DM. I have run a game almost every week since 2019. I have largely been playing with the same group that I discovered D&D with. Because of that, we all discovered the game together for the first time.
But soon, I am planning on running a 2nd campaign for a few people that I haven't ran the game for. (outside of a oneshot with a few of them). They are all great friends of mine and they also know each other pretty well but it will be the first time I play D&D with this group.
We have been prepping stuff for the game over the past month and this weekend, we are planning to do a session 0 to discuss all of our expectations for the game.
The thing is, I have never really ran a session 0 before. And because of that, I would love some advice on what I should discuss with my players.
Two of my players are quite experienced. One, my wife, has been a player in a few of my oneshots as well as a player along side me in the game of a mutual friend. Anther is an old friend I recently reconnected with that has ran their own game for a while and has played in other peoples games before. And two more that are basically new to the game aside from a few oneshots.
I intend to discuss the following things with them, but id love to hear any other things I should add to this list.
- The levels I intend to run this game to. Im not planning to run this game all the way to level 20 but instead plan to run it to somewhere around 8th or 10th level. Perhaps when we get there we choose to go beyond that. But I want to manage expectations.
- Certain senstitive topics such as violence and sexuality. As it comes to violence I have nearly no cap to what I am comfortable with outside of sexual violence or unnecessary cruelty. However, sexuality and romance is not something I prefer to run in my game. I have no issues with my players romancing each other but I prefer to not involve myself in that.
- I also want to go over some homebrew rules that I implement in my games
(one this we already discussed was the game world and the general idea of what this campaign is going to be about. This was needed for character creation. Which is something that we are already largely finished with.)
Are there any other other things I should discuss with my players?
Sincerely,
A tired DM
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
This is the kind of situation where you have to seriously ask yourself - “Do I actually need a session zero?”
Session Zeros are useful when playing with strangers-but they are an imperfect tool. They often involve conversations which might touch on personal trauma, and often can create problems down the line. For example, they might impede something which organically grows from the campaign because someone said “I don’t like this”, even if, as the game developed, that person’s mind has changed. Or there is the “you didn’t bring this up in session zero, therefore it is your fault you are upset because you didn’t realise something might be a problem weeks and weeks ago” problems that can occur.
With strangers, those issues are eclipsed by the need to get everyone together and manage expectations - but you are not playing with strangers. When playing with existing friends, you already know one another—know what kinds of topics might be uncomfortable for them, know what kinds of humour folks laugh at, and should feel comfortable enough with one another that people can have post-game “hey, that made me uncomfortable” conversations in a mutually respectful manner.
Additionally, you as DM should be comfortable enough with them that you can talk about homerules and campaign lengths with relative ease through general pregame conversation, without dedicating substantial time where you could be actually playing D&D. Furthermore, since you know these people, you should have a general idea as to their mannerisms—meaning you are well-equipped to use your own insight to steer the campaign away from anything which seems to be causing distress.
Now, to be clear, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have any discussions before the game - “we’re only going to level X” and “here are my homerules” are things players should know about before conceptualising their characters. But there are ways to do that other than a true Session Zero.
Exp or milestone leveling?
Any class/race "cheese" combinations off the table?
As Linklite mentioned, tone is very important to discuss, and I'd also add on top of that genre. Will this be horror, pulp mystery, high magic, low magic, technologically advanced or not, explorations of new frontiers?
Will there be dungeon delving and lootng / "classic" DND action, or will things be more story focused?
How much will you follow a set story (homebrew? adventure book?) And how much will you have character backstory influence the game?
Edit to add one more that I found really useful - of the three pillars of DND (combat, roleplay, exploration), have everyone rank their favorites. This can be a fluid scale for people that like them all, but maybe one slightly more than the others.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
New players often have ideas about what they can do. Edge Lords who don't want to do anything the Party wants to do, Rogues that steal from the party, Fighters that were raised by wolves and ruin all social encounters, etc.
My point is that the Players should create PCs that WANT to do the adventure. Just showing up and saying no to what you have planned is not an option. Everyone at the table is responsible for helping everyone else have fun.
Good luck!
THis is a challenge for me because I don’t usually run for folks beyond my major circle. Nevertheless, I shall try:
A rough idea of what the first adventure is about, and the kind of story it is. I don’t give away plot points, but I will explain the whole goal of the adventure. I don’t do “ratings”, but I do give content warnings.
Heroics: what constitutes them.
Character Death & Consequences: Death is a real thing in my games, even though I have ways to mitigate it some of the time. Death should usually advance the story is my feeling, and bring emotional weight and depth — but folks have to be part of it. So we talk about death, reincarnation, resurrection, death saves, last minute escapes, and so forth.
PCs should be characters who are involved in the story, not oppositional to it.
Role Playing do’s and dont’s.
What constitutes fun. This is really the tone of the game — I prefer To go by genre mostly, but like with my next game that has a campaign that includes like a dozen genres, that won’t fly. But I also talk about practical jokes, about table jokes, and about role playing. Also, “gags” and how long a laughter session can go on for.
How to handle disagreements about rulings.
Attendance, how to handle characters with missing players. Session length, end a session rewards, frequency, scheduling
Any sensitive content in the game. As an example, my world’s goblin will eat people right there on the battlefield. The origin story for all “half-orc” involves non-consensual sex.
In my case, I usually have a gazetteer or chapbook about the world. I combine Zero and Character Creation, so as we go I point out areas of the chapbook of interest to that character they are developing. I never use pregen characters unless explicitly asked for one.
Alignments. This, again, feeds into role playing. I don’t care if someon wants to be evil, bu they can’t be the evil the players are fighting, and they can’t be disrupting the flow of the game. (OTOH, I use a different alignment system now, so meh)
I answer any and all questions — and there isn’t a set aside time for it.
Progression — level advancement, milestones, experience points, magic items, magic use.
Homebrew. There are “standing Rules” that apply across all the DMs of our little group, and then there are individual rules that all of have specific to our games. Additionally, two of us are famous for the crunchier games we have, where there is a lot of homebrew. I am one of them, and I usually hav a reference book for all of it because I let them know they are allowed to hold me to the rules.
Player storylines: I usually have a few ancillary player storylines in my campaigns. Some are created by the PCs, others are created by me. We talk about who wants one and who doesn’t the responsibilities and risks associated with hem, and stuff like that.
Multiple characters, multiclassing — I have a rule that multiclassing should be done *in play* or *in game*, not off camera. Pretext is fine — it isn’t about stopping them — but it has to be role played and run through. This literally dates back to the era of 1e Bards, so for my long time players it isn’t a big deal. When we have someone new join, it becomes a bit of a challenge.
Minmaxing (I don’t allow dips). I am fine if Players want to do it, but usually minmaxing comes at the cost of role playing, and I am a big fan of role playing.
Quirks. That RP thing means that some players will develop somatic quirks they use — gestures and tics the help stay in character. Some are disruptive and annoying.
If in person, food and drinks, interruptions from kids.
Virtual (Zoom or Teams): interruptions, potty breaks, messaging stuff.
Retcons/Rewinds: these can happen. Especially in situations where their actions result in a TPK (generally speaking, I avoid TPK at all costs, even fudging dice).
Duels and Disagreements
Cool Downs and High tempers
”free Counseling” — I happen to be a therapist on occasion (not licensed where I live), and sometimes it happens that folks will ask me to talk through things. So we have rules about that because I don’t think I am very good at it any more (closed my practice over 20 years ago, lol).
Straight Role Play: usually the last thing, we just do a bit of straight role play. It usually follows the next bit.
How everyone meets. This one is one we added a while back, because it gets everyone on the same page, and now I don’t have to come up with how they meet, lol — I make them do it. As a role playing activity and to get familiar with their characters and sometimes make minor changes. No rolls, no game stuff. Pure mind play.
I will note as well that we usually have two session zeros, lol. Because we do cover a lot and we do it while creating characters simultaneously — either in person or virtually (mostly virtually these days). They can be pretty wild sessions, as most of us have known each other a long time, and because we are all creating characters together there is a lot more meshing and trade offs for better party builds.
I do not allow solo creation for the most part unless it is coming into an existing game after a death — new folks joining in progress get a separate session zero. Some of this is the house rules and homebrew stuff, but mostly it is to rehash the original session zero.
It also prevents things like having a player create a lycanthrope character for a world where lycanthropy is a fatal disease, lol.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds