I love that Ambon’s only contribution was questioning AED. It feels very in-character. He’ll just never use his monk abilities and it’s fine lmao. He’s roleplay only
It's difficult to squeeze everyone in doing something - but I ensure that everyone is at least mentioned and has, at least one line of dialogue (or some kind of action).
Similar to Thorrison - he basically only yelled that the Manticore was coming (I didn't do anything with him attacking or anything) and that the manticore wasn't in the forest (a reference to when AEDorsay asked me in the thread why a manticore would be in the forest, and I said I never said he was in - only his tail spikes had thumped on the ground).
Things the story established..
IAmSposta is not a great bard for inspiring
Sirtawmis has hang ups with people's names
AEDorsay is smarter than everyone else, but still makes mistakes
deadpanC_C is banished
theology of bagels actually did some healing
Amnon_Balderk knows about Zen and Ki and thinks Sirtawmis has bad energy; and lost his own Zen when the trees caught on fire
midnightplat attracts the spikes of manticores
Wysperra has explosive potions and doesn't know when to let go of Thorn Whip
quar1on knows the difference between beacon and bacon
Antonsirius loves bacon
thorrison is a great tracker and brings trouble to the party
ChoirOfFire seems to be a paladin that knows what they're doing
The_Summoning_Dark is ... a .... slow.... talking.... tortle....
BoringBard knows how to properly inspire his party it seems...
I like the letter Y because it has different sounds and when you say it, it is a word.
Others have covered session 0 pretty well. Character creation can be before, during, or after.
Plan a simple encounter - interaction with an NPC or puzzle. Make it something which requires a skill check or two to resolve. Give the players a chance to roll dice.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
For session zero I think it might be good to demonstrate through play one of your weirder house rules or play philosophies. Like if you want to really push that some things don't require rolls, you should organize a chance to show it by having them deal with a simple scenario. There won't be time (and it would be chaos) to do more than probably one, and it probably comes towards the end of the session, after which it might be good to give them a chance to recalibrate -- maybe they didn't really understand this when they made their character, and now they kinda want to change something.
I'm running my first session zero on Monday. (I've done session zero questions before in PbP format, never a dedicated pre-campaign meeting.) Naturally, I've been thinking a lot about how to guide the conversation and orient my new players to the group, and it got me wondering:
Is there anything fun or unusual you do in a session zero? Assume all the house rules/character design/expectations/table etiquette/scheduling is already accounted for.
infamously, have a hellacious dinner party consisting of at least nine courses, with goodie boxes that are all themed to the inner party. I did a "mid campaign" one last year and spent like 200 bucks on the goodies alone. Cooked for a week straight (while working), so it was all prepped and ready to go in sequence. I came to hate my melon baller, but I got the almost last laugh when it broke.
Almost because I had to buy a new one.
Was a huge pain for the gazpacho, too -- I made "eggs" from gelled cucumber juice with yolks of dyed juice, and the noodles were all vegetables. I basically made it look like a dish of ice cold ramen, but it was actually gazpacho. Second time I'd ever made that particular way, and it was the hit of the party. (theme was "don't always believe what you see")
That was also when I learned that quail eggs don't make very good deviled eggs.
This sounds amazing. Next time I run an in-person campaign, I shall strive to be this extra.
I love that Ambon’s only contribution was questioning AED. It feels very in-character. He’ll just never use his monk abilities and it’s fine lmao. He’s roleplay only
It's difficult to squeeze everyone in doing something - but I ensure that everyone is at least mentioned and has, at least one line of dialogue (or some kind of action).
Similar to Thorrison - he basically only yelled that the Manticore was coming (I didn't do anything with him attacking or anything) and that the manticore wasn't in the forest (a reference to when AEDorsay asked me in the thread why a manticore would be in the forest, and I said I never said he was in - only his tail spikes had thumped on the ground).
Things the story established..
IAmSposta is not a great bard for inspiring
Sirtawmis has hang ups with people's names
AEDorsay is smarter than everyone else, but still makes mistakes
deadpanC_C is banished
theology of bagels actually did some healing
Amnon_Balderk knows about Zen and Ki and thinks Sirtawmis has bad energy; and lost his own Zen when the trees caught on fire
midnightplat attracts the spikes of manticores
Wysperra has explosive potions and doesn't know when to let go of Thorn Whip
quar1on knows the difference between beacon and bacon
Antonsirius loves bacon
thorrison is a great tracker and brings trouble to the party
ChoirOfFire seems to be a paladin that knows what they're doing
The_Summoning_Dark is ... a .... slow.... talking.... tortle....
BoringBard knows how to properly inspire his party it seems...
Don’t worry. I absolutely loved it! Amnon in this world is very different from the original character that I played!
As a little gift to you all, and as a teaser for what is to come, here are some excerpts from the Anything BUT the OGL story. It's less based on our thread and more based on the characters we've all developed as part of this thread. Still, I think you can expect some of our jokes to leak in. Let me know if I've used the right pronouns for each character! Also, in this iteration, I've decided that Quar1on is not just a gnome, but is an autognome...
Silver light pouring from the gate illuminated the rough-hewn room around the party. Sposta grimaced as it grew brighter and shielded his eyes from the otherworldly radiance. Nearby, A.E. Dorsay was busy weaving a spell around the group, hoping to protect them from the dangers of planar influence. Sir Tawmis and Amnon Balderk stood back from the gate, keeping watch at the door. Midnight Plat was busy rifling through the various desks and cabinets left by the previous denizens of the room, who now lay on the ground, nothing more than skeletons corroded by the repeated exposure to planar light. While all this was going on Deadpan C.C. had begun to walk, trancelike, toward the gate, enraptured by its pulsating and brightening glow. Sposta noticed and leaped toward the bulky leonin, but it was too late. Deadpan was no more, vanished into the vile radiance beyond the gate.
- - - - - - - - - - -
On the other side of the dungeon, a massive cube of viscous ooze was bearing down on the prone Quar-1ON. The warlock desperately hurled eldritch blasts into it, but to no avail. He shielded his face, expecting his doom, but instead, he felt large hands lifting him to his feet. Opening his eyes revealed his savior, Choir of Fire, the well-armored tiefling, who currently held a greatsword coated in the slime of the cube. A few paces down the hall he could see more of his companions, Thorrison and Drakenbrine, fending off a variety of other oozy beings, these ones smaller and black as night. The hefty giff repeatedly shot his Quar-1ON-sized gun into the oozes, but it was passing through and having little effect. Drakenbrine had more success, his spells sending the swift creatures into flame before they could reach the huddled group in between Quar-1ON, Choir, and the other two. There, Theology of Bagels was chanting a prayer to his god and laying his hands on Wysperra’s side, desperately trying to heal the diminutive artificer’s burns. Slumped against the wall were two other victims of the acidic monsters. Anton Sirius and Summoning Dark were bandaged and moaning in pain at their wounds. Running back and forth between the two groups was the ironically self-titled Boring Bard, who carried his lute and was frantically playing a tune that was barely managing to throw back the oncoming siege of humanoid oozes from behind Choir and Quar-1ON.
Q: What's the best letter in the English alphabet? Also, what's the best letter in the Dethek (dwarf) alphabet? Are they the same? (Dethek is basically a font.) For me, it's probably... T, and "J." (Idk how to show the letter here.)
I like "S" and "Z". "S" for a multitude of reasons, one being that it is often associated with reptiles, and I love reptiles. "Z" because it is the twenty-six letter in the alphabet, and 26 is my favorite number. I also like liking "S" and "Z" because they feel similar and different at the same time. Similar opposites.
I have no idea what my favorite letter in the Dethek alphabet would be, I would have to interact with it to accurately draw a conclusion.
Since we asked what is your favorite letter in the English alphabet, I will ask:
I'm running my first session zero on Monday. (I've done session zero questions before in PbP format, never a dedicated pre-campaign meeting.) Naturally, I've been thinking a lot about how to guide the conversation and orient my new players to the group, and it got me wondering:
Is there anything fun or unusual you do in a session zero? Assume all the house rules/character design/expectations/table etiquette/scheduling is already accounted for.
I have only been a part of one session zero, and I wasn't even playing in the campaign. I was just helping a whole new batch of friends who didn't know how to play Dnd make characters and attempting to explain the rules. The friends that I play with are relatively inexperienced, but we show them how to play as we go through the adventures. We know each other well enough to know what is expected and if we have a new houserule to introduce, we just explain it at the beginning of the session, no need to set aside a whole meeting for it.
I just remembered, actually I was in one session zero awhile ago. We were going to play a one-shot set in the real world, and the DM had a system of creating character sheets that he had to explain us through. We pretty much just created a character sheet for our real selves, though it wasn't entirely accurate.
Since we asked what is your favorite letter in the English alphabet, I will ask:
Question: What is your favorite number?
5.
Followed by three and seven, in that order.
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
Q: What's the best letter in the English alphabet? Also, what's the best letter in the Dethek (dwarf) alphabet? Are they the same? (Dethek is basically a font.) For me, it's probably... T, and "J." (Idk how to show the letter here.)
I like "S" and "Z". "S" for a multitude of reasons, one being that it is often associated with reptiles, and I love reptiles. "Z" because it is the twenty-six letter in the alphabet, and 26 is my favorite number. I also like liking "S" and "Z" because they feel similar and different at the same time. Similar opposites.
I have no idea what my favorite letter in the Dethek alphabet would be, I would have to interact with it to accurately draw a conclusion.
Since we asked what is your favorite letter in the English alphabet, I will ask:
Question: What is your favorite number?
33, followed by 9, and then 3. 8 is also a number I enjoy, though it doesn’t fit the established pattern.
Since Drakenbrine doesn’t have that many lines in the anything BUT the OGL campaign, I thought I’d do a cutscene on his great great grandfather.
the year is 1985. A dwarf wearing a tweed three-piece—a Brooks Brothers sack suit cut with patch pockets, pleated trousers, and a high-necked waistcoat, is picking himself up after falling down a precarious slide spike trap. “Snakes. Why’d it have to be snakes?” After grabbing the hat that fell off his head, he continues to explore the tomb he finds himself in.
“And to think this is all for a stupid religious book. It’s absurd, that’s what it is.” While he is talking to himself, he accidentally steps on a trigger, causing the ceiling to slowly lower. “Ah, (GP)!”
He runs toward the other end as fast as he can, barely making it. He is prepared to sigh his relief when he realizes his hat fell off.
And so, just like any tomb raider, he put his hand in danger over a piece of clothing.
*tell me if you want part 2*
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Hi, I’m DrakenBrine, here’s my Sig and characters
It's difficult to squeeze everyone in doing something - but I ensure that everyone is at least mentioned and has, at least one line of dialogue (or some kind of action).
Similar to Thorrison - he basically only yelled that the Manticore was coming (I didn't do anything with him attacking or anything) and that the manticore wasn't in the forest (a reference to when AEDorsay asked me in the thread why a manticore would be in the forest, and I said I never said he was in - only his tail spikes had thumped on the ground).
Things the story established..
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
I like the letter Y because it has different sounds and when you say it, it is a word.
Others have covered session 0 pretty well. Character creation can be before, during, or after.
Plan a simple encounter - interaction with an NPC or puzzle. Make it something which requires a skill check or two to resolve. Give the players a chance to roll dice.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
For session zero I think it might be good to demonstrate through play one of your weirder house rules or play philosophies. Like if you want to really push that some things don't require rolls, you should organize a chance to show it by having them deal with a simple scenario. There won't be time (and it would be chaos) to do more than probably one, and it probably comes towards the end of the session, after which it might be good to give them a chance to recalibrate -- maybe they didn't really understand this when they made their character, and now they kinda want to change something.
This sounds amazing. Next time I run an in-person campaign, I shall strive to be this extra.
Don’t worry. I absolutely loved it! Amnon in this world is very different from the original character that I played!
As a little gift to you all, and as a teaser for what is to come, here are some excerpts from the Anything BUT the OGL story. It's less based on our thread and more based on the characters we've all developed as part of this thread. Still, I think you can expect some of our jokes to leak in. Let me know if I've used the right pronouns for each character! Also, in this iteration, I've decided that Quar1on is not just a gnome, but is an autognome...
Silver light pouring from the gate illuminated the rough-hewn room around the party. Sposta grimaced as it grew brighter and shielded his eyes from the otherworldly radiance. Nearby, A.E. Dorsay was busy weaving a spell around the group, hoping to protect them from the dangers of planar influence. Sir Tawmis and Amnon Balderk stood back from the gate, keeping watch at the door. Midnight Plat was busy rifling through the various desks and cabinets left by the previous denizens of the room, who now lay on the ground, nothing more than skeletons corroded by the repeated exposure to planar light. While all this was going on Deadpan C.C. had begun to walk, trancelike, toward the gate, enraptured by its pulsating and brightening glow. Sposta noticed and leaped toward the bulky leonin, but it was too late. Deadpan was no more, vanished into the vile radiance beyond the gate.
- - - - - - - - - - -
On the other side of the dungeon, a massive cube of viscous ooze was bearing down on the prone Quar-1ON. The warlock desperately hurled eldritch blasts into it, but to no avail. He shielded his face, expecting his doom, but instead, he felt large hands lifting him to his feet. Opening his eyes revealed his savior, Choir of Fire, the well-armored tiefling, who currently held a greatsword coated in the slime of the cube. A few paces down the hall he could see more of his companions, Thorrison and Drakenbrine, fending off a variety of other oozy beings, these ones smaller and black as night. The hefty giff repeatedly shot his Quar-1ON-sized gun into the oozes, but it was passing through and having little effect. Drakenbrine had more success, his spells sending the swift creatures into flame before they could reach the huddled group in between Quar-1ON, Choir, and the other two. There, Theology of Bagels was chanting a prayer to his god and laying his hands on Wysperra’s side, desperately trying to heal the diminutive artificer’s burns. Slumped against the wall were two other victims of the acidic monsters. Anton Sirius and Summoning Dark were bandaged and moaning in pain at their wounds. Running back and forth between the two groups was the ironically self-titled Boring Bard, who carried his lute and was frantically playing a tune that was barely managing to throw back the oncoming siege of humanoid oozes from behind Choir and Quar-1ON.
I like "S" and "Z". "S" for a multitude of reasons, one being that it is often associated with reptiles, and I love reptiles. "Z" because it is the twenty-six letter in the alphabet, and 26 is my favorite number. I also like liking "S" and "Z" because they feel similar and different at the same time. Similar opposites.
I have no idea what my favorite letter in the Dethek alphabet would be, I would have to interact with it to accurately draw a conclusion.
Since we asked what is your favorite letter in the English alphabet, I will ask:
Question: What is your favorite number?
I have only been a part of one session zero, and I wasn't even playing in the campaign. I was just helping a whole new batch of friends who didn't know how to play Dnd make characters and attempting to explain the rules. The friends that I play with are relatively inexperienced, but we show them how to play as we go through the adventures. We know each other well enough to know what is expected and if we have a new houserule to introduce, we just explain it at the beginning of the session, no need to set aside a whole meeting for it.
I just remembered, actually I was in one session zero awhile ago. We were going to play a one-shot set in the real world, and the DM had a system of creating character sheets that he had to explain us through. We pretty much just created a character sheet for our real selves, though it wasn't entirely accurate.
5.
Followed by three and seven, in that order.
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
33, followed by 9, and then 3. 8 is also a number I enjoy, though it doesn’t fit the established pattern.
13 or 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510 etc.
Hi, I’m DrakenBrine, here’s my Sig and characters
I am The Grand Envisioner!
Yay! A fellow 13 fan! Far and away my favorite number. Second fave is 7 because of how I draw it.
I appreciate 13 because it is half of 26, and 26 is the best.
I think 69 is a nice number.
What, why are you laughing?
4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42. They are all nice numbers.
(Still haven’t seen smoke monsters, I am moving slowly.)
It’s weird that I asked this question since I despise math.
I feel like that's a reference to something but it's Lost on me...
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
I am surprised there's no "42" - no Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fans here?
For myself, it's 7. Because it has significance to me in several ways.
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
Since Drakenbrine doesn’t have that many lines in the anything BUT the OGL campaign, I thought I’d do a cutscene on his great great grandfather.
the year is 1985. A dwarf wearing a tweed three-piece—a Brooks Brothers sack suit cut with patch pockets, pleated trousers, and a high-necked waistcoat, is picking himself up after falling down a precarious slide spike trap. “Snakes. Why’d it have to be snakes?” After grabbing the hat that fell off his head, he continues to explore the tomb he finds himself in.
“And to think this is all for a stupid religious book. It’s absurd, that’s what it is.” While he is talking to himself, he accidentally steps on a trigger, causing the ceiling to slowly lower. “Ah, (GP)!”
He runs toward the other end as fast as he can, barely making it. He is prepared to sigh his relief when he realizes his hat fell off.
And so, just like any tomb raider, he put his hand in danger over a piece of clothing.
*tell me if you want part 2*
Hi, I’m DrakenBrine, here’s my Sig and characters
I am The Grand Envisioner!
#FeedCreativity
I say do it if you're inclined!
This thread is a fun place to do just that.
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
That meant what did you think of it?
Hi, I’m DrakenBrine, here’s my Sig and characters
I am The Grand Envisioner!