We’ve completed the session zero and have scheduled the first session of the new campaign I’ve been working on!

Moving forward, these posts will be called “Roguelike Recap” and will discuss the sessions of the campaign.

For now, let’s talk about the session zero!

A session zero is meant to prepare everyone to participate in the campaign. This is the time to discuss expectations for the campaign and answer any questions. Some DMs have people create characters during the session zero, others have players create characters beforehand.

For this campaign, I prepared a player handout and asked players to create their characters before the session zero. The player handout contained expectations for the campaign, character creation information, and information about the campaign’s setting.

We discussed expectations and safety tools we would use during the campaign. So, we talked through using the X card and Stars & Wishes. I also established the schedule for sessions and the policy for what happens when someone can’t attend a session.

Everyone already had their characters created, so we had fun chatting about them! This also gave us some time to clear up questions people had about their characters. A few of these players are playing classes they haven’t played before, so this was a great way to clarify some things.

The last thing I did was read a bit of microfiction I had written to give some hints about the mystery behind the plot. This encouraged players to get ready for the first session!

I think the session zero went well! It didn’t take longer than an hour and a half or so. We start the campaign in full next week!