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Our Session Zero Manifesto - 2026 Edition
22 Plays6 days ago
Daryl, Nick, & Robert are back with an updated take on our Session Zero Manifesto. After another year at the table, we talk about setting expectations, aligning playstyles, and making sure everyone’s on the same page before the dice start rolling. A quick, practical chat on why Session Zero still matters—and how it can make your whole campaign better.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
with the coachman D20 Radio. at Your game is rolled.
00:00:17
Speaker
How will We Roll Gaming is dedicated to spreading enjoyment of great role-playing games. We hope to bring you insights into games you may not have played, tips to be a better game master and player, and share us stories of momentous events at our tables.
00:00:29
Speaker
Every game is a new story to tell. I'm Daryl. I'm Nick. And here's Robert. And this is How We Roll.
Discussion on 3D Movies
00:00:43
Speaker
Welcome to the How We Roll Gaming Podcast and welcome to 2026, everybody. we we made it. We made it indeed.
00:00:54
Speaker
we We are in the future. Where is the hoverboards? Well, Bob Zemeckis took them all. Bob's and Matt just took them all.
00:01:05
Speaker
We'll work towards it, don't you worry. where with wi with with Which with his Jaws are we on now? We are on Jaws 37.
00:01:16
Speaker
And the so the shark still looks fake. Obviously. has to. It's 3D again as well. Yes. yeah Yes, it's 3D again, but it's the good 3D. It's like you the the Avatar 3D that was actually pretty decent.
00:01:40
Speaker
haven't seen it myself, but I'll take your word for it. Avatar 3D, when they're in the Fire Nation? No, the first one was in 3D. When I saw the first one in theaters, I actually saw it in 3D, and it was really good. i and The 3D does hold up.
00:01:57
Speaker
Even in home. i I haven't even thought about trying to watch it in 3D at home. but Yeah, I've never tried that before. like when yeah When we went to see the first one yeah near the end when you know the the D-bag humans have have attacked Home Tree and there's all of the embers that are floating to the ground and stuff...
00:02:22
Speaker
like That looked like it was all around you. ah The embers floating down. and Solid 3D work. Yep. yeah because the the The trick to good 3D is you don't try to do you know the the shock of having something come like straight at the camera.
00:02:42
Speaker
You know, like Jaws 3D. You don't do that. You just you you layer the environment. So you feel inside there, instead of the shark, just slowly, just like very obviously.
00:02:59
Speaker
Slowly approaching, and then like the mirror break effect. but yeah
Celebrating Two Years of Podcasting
00:03:04
Speaker
We are in our second year now of the podcast. And they said it wouldn't last.
00:03:12
Speaker
They said it wouldn't last. We have some stuff on tap for this year that's going to be pretty awesome. We intend to compete with the Creepcast.
00:03:26
Speaker
I don't know what that is. so I do, but I'll i'll let Nick's doing it. yeah who on ki We're not going to beat that. I'll take your word for it. um
Game Store Adventure with Nick and Robert
00:03:38
Speaker
So I know that right after Christmas, my son and I ran into Robert at our friendly local game store during their sale.
00:03:48
Speaker
Yes, you did. Two for one deal. Love those deals. Yes, their buy two, get one free sale. Yes, I love their buy two, get one free sale.
00:04:00
Speaker
what What all did you get, Robert? i Just to get caught up, I got the 26 D&D player manual and the monster manual. A few more Star Wars books. And then what what else?
00:04:13
Speaker
Oh, and I also got the Daggerheart core and box set. It's a solid box set. haven't got it by myself. It really is. You've shown it you sign it to me, Daryl. If I can get my hands on it, I'll probably definitely add it to my collection.
00:04:30
Speaker
oh And the Random Encounters book for Game Masters. That's also really good. Really good. ah did Did you end up not getting Arkham Horror? Oh, yeah. I got that, too.
00:04:43
Speaker
Oh, good good, good, good, good. Yeah, we we need to finally get Arkham Horror on the table this year. We really do. um That's a solid all. yeah it was Yeah, I got got six, got two free. So it was good deal.
00:04:56
Speaker
Yeah, i I didn't get too much. I did my big spending with them the week of Thanksgiving. the The week of Christmas, I just got the new D&D starter set.
00:05:12
Speaker
ah Because all of the reviews that I've seen are, it's a great value for the money. And it is because... Yeah, they upped the price from like 20, 25 bucks to 50, but you get a lot in it now.
00:05:27
Speaker
um And also the new Arkham Horror settings but setting book, um Welcomes to Kingsport, I believe it's called. And see, now now I need to actually look it up to make sure that I'm giving the right name for it, because otherwise it's going to drive me crazy. And since we know people who worked on it, they will If they're listening, they'll be screaming at me that I got the name wrong if I got the name wrong.
00:05:54
Speaker
So I just. Yeah, because I know the core book has, of course, Arkham, Innsmouth, Dunwick, Providence, I think. I think there's a fifth one. It's most of the East Coast, really. No.
00:06:09
Speaker
Not welcome to Kingsport, dreams of Kingsport. Yeah. and There we go. There we go. that I knew you had the town right, but I didn't think you had like the the title right. yeah i would I knew I didn't have the title right.
00:06:23
Speaker
but I knew you had the town right. The town right is like, yeah, yeah Kingsport. And then for the third item, um we our son got a a Lego set.
00:06:34
Speaker
He got the leg Star Wars Lego Acclimator. or No, we mean we bought that for him for Christmas. I forget which set he got. for ad Still, the Acclimator a big one. that that's very very bad No, the Acclimator always... It's still fairly big.
00:06:53
Speaker
Most of them aren't that wide. and And we're both looking forward... Since we neither of us has room for the Ultimate Collector's set Venator, we're looking yeah forward to sometime in the next month or so, they're releasing a Venator at that same scale as the Acclimator.
00:07:12
Speaker
In the same series where they put out the Tantive IV and the smaller Star Destroyer and the smaller Millennium Falcon. Yeah, we're we're looking forward to the Venator. Because at first he was like, well, then we'll have to fight over it. And it's like, why don't we just both get one?
00:07:31
Speaker
Oh, yeah. We could do that. ah
00:07:38
Speaker
so Sometimes I kind of feel like like Hank Hill. That boy ain't right. and say that about a lot of things. And we use it in our games, too.
00:07:51
Speaker
Yep. Yep. Anything noteworthy for you like that, Nick? ah just ah ah Just had a great new year. gave a i was very happy that you guys liked the gifts I got here this year.
00:08:09
Speaker
Yes. yes Nick bought us all new cars, everyone. Very much. Least above Yep. yep
00:08:22
Speaker
No, no, we we had, Nick had gotten himself a new lap desk for his laptop, and it was delivered during one of our game sessions, and we all, half-jokingly, were talking about how you ordered enough for the whole group, right? And well, so for Christmas, he did. Yes. I did, but maybe because like I didn't realize how good of a lap desk it was.
00:08:46
Speaker
when i When I opened it up, I was like, yeah. It was a good surprise for all of us. And thank you again. Not only had I been looking at getting myself a new lap desk. It was also relatively inexpensive. So it wasn't a huge block setting in the brink to get literally five lap desks.
00:09:08
Speaker
Well, not only you know had I been looking at getting a new lap desk myself already anyway. But as I was going through my Amazon list the other day, i told you this this weekend at the game.
00:09:23
Speaker
That very lap desk is the one that I had picked months ago before yours was delivered. Oh, and I just bought it yet. I told you it was like literally typed in lap desk on Amazon. was like, I was like, well, I got to need one due to my new setup of my house.
00:09:43
Speaker
of my living room. So like I needed one. So like, all right, i I'll go with like the typed in Amazon. First thing that came up, Oh, that's a reasonable price came in. It's like, no, this is actually really good.
00:09:58
Speaker
Yep. Although I, I am going to have to slap a sticker on, on mine since we have two in the house. And that was, you know, our son was like, well, why they're, they're the same.
00:10:13
Speaker
design and saying it's like yes but inevitably one of them will get beaten up more than the other as always we want to let you know about one of the other great podcasts here on the d20 radio network and every time this is our spotlight podcast i have to take a deep breath because it's a long title the wondrous atlas of creation's destiny an exalted podcast that's what times best
00:10:43
Speaker
And the Wondrous Atlas covers the lore and setting of the Exalted RPG. Each topic is split into two episodes, one to cover the lore of a given subject and the and the other discussing ways to use it in the game.
00:10:56
Speaker
An incredible resource and great podcast to listen to. Yep. So head to your favorite podcast outlet of choice and check out the Wondrous Atlas of Creation's Destiny.
00:11:12
Speaker
Gesundheit. You can make a game out of it. Yes. we We can make a drinking game out of it. I'd win. You win every drinking game, Nick.
00:11:25
Speaker
Yeah, very much so. but um are we So are we ready to dive into our our subject? We are ready. So
Session Zero Manifesto Update
00:11:36
Speaker
early last year, early in the podcast, we We did an episode on our Session Zero Manifesto. And you can always go back and check that episode out in our in our back history. And that would be episode... ah Taking a quick look here.
00:12:05
Speaker
it was our sixth episode. Episode six. Yeah. our Session Zero Manifesto. And during that conversation, we talked about how, as groups evolve, Session Zero can evolve. And so we decided that as long as it is pertinent and relevant, every year we would update our Session Zero Manifesto.
00:12:29
Speaker
So this is the 2026 update of our Session Zero Manifesto. Now, and As we dive in, i do want to mention, you Robert mentioned the game just a few minutes ago.
00:12:45
Speaker
I've mentioned it several times, but with the release of Daggerheart, Critical Role's Darrington Press went a step further than most other RPGs, if not every other RPG. And in the book and on their site,
00:13:06
Speaker
They've got resources dedicated to Session Zero. And I was reading through them again the other day before this episode. Pretty good, pretty concise. It's about you know four to eight pages somewhere in there in the book. They've got downloadable resources for Session Zero. And a lot of what they're talking about are a lot of the things that we talked about in our previous Session Zero manifesto.
00:13:33
Speaker
And again, Cessna Zero isn't a... It's been a concept that's been passed around. It's become more mainstream as like more YouTubers have and D&D content creators and Game Master content creators have talked about it. Yes, because it's always important to be prepared and to be on the same page as your players and GM as you go forward. Yeah.
00:14:02
Speaker
It's just that Jackerheart is one of the first that really made it codified into its actual rule set. But they're not the first nor the only because there's multiple systems that also been including the concept of a sets in zero.
00:14:19
Speaker
Right. And you you not only want to make sure that you're on the same all on the same page, you want to gather those expectations from your players.
00:14:31
Speaker
and from yourself as the GM, to make sure that everybody is expecting the same kind of experience from the game. ah For instance, if someone walked in and say say we were starting a new campaign in the How We Roll group for bra Call of Cthulhu.
00:14:54
Speaker
or no let let Let's not say Call of Cthulhu. let Let's not say Call of Cthulhu. Because that's a more known quantity. Let's say Arkham Horror.
00:15:07
Speaker
We're getting an Arkham Horror campaign going, let's say. It's less of a known quantity. It's a brand game that we know, but it does have the advantage of we know each other, but also we know the setting, sort of.
00:15:26
Speaker
Well, what i where i was what I was thinking of is you have a new player coming in And yeah know we have had a new player who's been in the the past couple of months of our games. Yes.
00:15:41
Speaker
And so we let's say we have this same new player coming in who doesn't know Arkham Horror. doesn't know what to expect and ah they are based on past interactions with us they're expecting shenanigans and a little bit of wackiness and that's not what Arkham Horror is about now you can have shenanigans and wackiness because our friend GM Chris at Gamer Nation Con last year ran Arkham Horror
00:16:19
Speaker
with the pre-gens being the Scooby gang from Scooby-Doo. Yes, and even in a horror-type genre, there is still scenes of comedy.
00:16:30
Speaker
Like, alien aliens, there's comedy. And, like, The Thing, there's comedy. There's always limited comedy, but it doesn't override the horror. The levity helps...
00:16:42
Speaker
build the scenario in those... And when we discussed about like horror games and stuff like that, a moment of levity and shenanigans helps sell the horror vibe.
00:16:57
Speaker
Right. You have to have that moment of slight release so that you can then start ratcheting the tension back up.
Setting Expectations in Session Zero
00:17:08
Speaker
You want to give that little bit of a breather.
00:17:10
Speaker
Yeah, but if, say... This new player was thinking it's going to be the same atmosphere and direction as our Fallout RPG game, where the game is designed to be over the top, extreme, and very funny that wouldn't fit in this type of game.
00:17:29
Speaker
Right. um Or like we're going to finally, in a couple of weeks, get Star Trek Adventures on the table for us, which I'm looking forward to thinkingguing Now, even if you have a group of players who are familiar with Star Trek, you still have to set the idea of tone because are we playing original series?
00:17:57
Speaker
Are we playing Next Generation, which has a different vibe to it? Are we playing Deep Space Nine, which has the best vibes?
00:18:10
Speaker
a more serialized vibe and a slightly more serious vibe overall, or are we in what some people refer to as new Trek where, ah for instance, what,
00:18:29
Speaker
I don't have a problem with this, but one of the complaints that I've heard from people regarding Strange New Worlds, which is an awesome show, is that the characters speak in far too contemporary a language.
00:18:45
Speaker
They're used to Star Trek having a certain rhythm to the dialogue and a cadence and... not speaking in present day idioms and things like that. Whereas the strange new world's characters do frequently use present day idioms.
00:19:07
Speaker
And so we're, you're setting that tone. like yeah We're not even talking. They're talking a lot, like in contemporary, like actually taken into the lores. Like they're actually talking like outdated slang.
00:19:24
Speaker
Right. but with so you It's kind of funny. That all goes into that all goes into setting the expectations. But wait, wait. what What if we want to do Voyager and two of us become weird lizard monsters?
00:19:40
Speaker
Well, are you what happens if we're doing Voyager? What happens if we're doing Voyager and two of you... become fused into one new unique Gestalt being and um the captain decides to just murder you in cold blood to get the two other crew members back.
00:20:01
Speaker
Well, then that's going to be an interesting story point. Yep. that That was an episode. i believe you. There are many episodes of Voyager that is like, that was an episode. Before they're thinking.
00:20:17
Speaker
but But the good thing about Voyager is by the time of the next session, none of what happened in the previous session matters because there's very little episode-to-episode continuity and consistency. ah Yeah, it's like New Planet every week. All all of that is our hopefully fun way of of just talking about the different levels of setting expectations. You're not just setting tone you're setting the flavor of... thing of a We were talking about Fallout earlier, and like Fallout can be either deadly serious or wacky.
00:21:01
Speaker
Or wacky nonsense. It can be both. You can have some serious moments. But it's more like... We're currently in the wacky area, but you can...
00:21:16
Speaker
because of the nature of the setting and story, it can become more serious. We're in the wacky area, but stuff didn't get real this weekend when we played with one party member's hand being bitten off.
00:21:33
Speaker
Yes, but we also had the other one where our vault characters didn't know what caps were as currency, so we kept so my character kept trying to pay with money, and people were like, this is useless. I'm like, no, it's money.
00:21:48
Speaker
Both worked in the same scenario, but that's because both extremes exist in in the story of this thing.
00:21:59
Speaker
It'd be different if, say, if we were in a Delta Green session, well, Wackenage would usually be met with the hard wall of seriousness.
00:22:12
Speaker
Yeah, i don't I don't think you're going to fast talk the Cthulhu spawn into sparing you. Or if we want to go with another, as we record this, still in the headlines, pop culture property. If you're doing a horror game, is it outright horror? Is it a a supernatural horror thing like like, say, The Thing, which does have some punctuations of wackiness?
00:22:42
Speaker
Or is it Stranger Things? Where you have, you're delving a lot on the characters that's punctuated with horror. And you have, you know, fun kids on bikes, one of whom has lived her entire life being tortured in a lab.
00:23:03
Speaker
And weird, weird flower monster thing. Yeah. all All set in the 80s at the height of the Cold War. You can always blame the commies. You're setting up that tone for it. Now, one of the other things that we mentioned doing in session zero in our previous episode that seems to have been gaining popularity and to clarify, we are not taking credit for this.
00:23:36
Speaker
We are not the first ones to do this. We're not the first ones to say this, but we just, happened to mention it at a time that it has started rolling is the dagger heart session zero chapter mentions running a quick intro adventure yeah during your session zero personally that's actually harin since i've done introductory games my quote unquote session zero always includes like a
00:24:10
Speaker
starter adventure. A prologue, if you will. Yeah. yeah the What we call the 0.5 session. Just because not only it helps get the players involved in like the mechanics of the game.
00:24:28
Speaker
Right. It helps establish the mechanics, and not only does Daggerheart mention it in the core rulebook, Just a couple of months ago, Ginny D did an entire episode about doing this.
00:24:46
Speaker
And I was like, hey, wait. I recognize that idea. Again, it's not an original idea. it's It's a thing that's been around in in the tabletop community.
00:25:02
Speaker
Yes, and barring like one system... system It's almost so almost something you can always have. like I think the closest we've had to not running a point session 0.5 was Legend of the Five Rains, because that thing took like four and a half hours to make your characters.
00:25:21
Speaker
Amazing character, but it's like that was but in the in of itself, that the the it sort of made up for it because of how deep that character build area is.
00:25:32
Speaker
Yep. And once we get a couple more sessions under our belt, We need to do one of our spotlight system spotlight episodes on Five Rings.
00:25:44
Speaker
Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Because we definitely want to play a nudge instead of that. It's this month. so yeah What else have we come to over the past year?
00:25:58
Speaker
give or take, since our Session Zero Manifesto episode that we have wanted to bring up as an update to Session Zero. I
Logistics of Session Zero
00:26:08
Speaker
know throughout the year there's been stuff that's like, hey, we should mention that in our update.
00:26:13
Speaker
And we didn't have the next document. I have something personal for me. and think I'll start because I have just a pretty basic one.
00:26:24
Speaker
Basically, in a Session Zero, you all talk about the universe, what you're expecting, what vibes you want, what things you don't want to come in. then a very simple one, it's kind of a top of scheduling. It's just where you guys are going to meet, where are you going to play this.
00:26:39
Speaker
Like in our session zeros, it's pretty known that we go to Nick's house. But then there was one time I ran my first, my first campaign in star Wars to where it was at Nick's house.
00:26:51
Speaker
But just because it was kind of rewrite it to where it would be at my house or my parents' house at the time. It was convenient at the time that like everyone knew at, you could just easily on the meetup, just click my house.
00:27:08
Speaker
Exactly. So when you get together, you need to discuss, okay, this is where we're goingnna this is how we're going to do it, probably when we're going to do it. But now, where are we going to do it? Is there a big enough place?
00:27:18
Speaker
Who owns the place? What are we going to do for food if we go long? Just a simple thing like that. Like, where are you going to play yep are Are we doing it at our friendly local game store? Are we doing it at another gaming venue? Are we doing it at somebody's house?
00:27:34
Speaker
If we're doing pizza, are we doing ah are we going to all chip in, or does one person pay pizza? Yes, and based even where we're going to get the pizza, because we did transition from one pizza place to another over time.
00:27:50
Speaker
Yep, b because the first place was really expensive. Oh, so expensive. It was really expensive. And they're no longer existing anymore. so so they fully mean, they were a ghost. Well, the the first first place doesn't exist yeah anymore.
00:28:07
Speaker
Yeah. the The ghost kitchen that you started using, I'm sure, is still around. Likely. But they're they're no longer like even even even remotely possible to get get in expansively.
00:28:22
Speaker
Yeah, very much so. Yeah, just a simple thing like that. start off a little, now we can move on to Nick. What I was going to say, it's like, especially since I'm running i Delta Green and horror in general, knowing sort of sort of like hard limits on like scares of like disturbing elements is a good thing for me to know.
00:28:53
Speaker
And it's something that if you're running like horror or games that have like gore or elements like that, you should let your players know, like all right, we might experience something that is this beyond disturbing.
00:29:10
Speaker
Where is your limit? Yeah, and we mentioned that in the original episode, that you you set standards for content, what people can and can't deal with,
00:29:22
Speaker
um what they not only what they can and can't deal with, but what they will and won't deal with. Yeah. Basically what they can stomach.
00:29:34
Speaker
Yes, because I actually remember, because it kind of shocked me for a minute when we were doing the cyberpunk session last time, and Nick asked, I gotta ask, are those drawn to size? And I was and i was looking at it, and I was like, oh, no, no, no, that's not a child. i I'm just bad at drawing.
00:29:51
Speaker
yeah Like, and didn't personally offend me, but I was like, I just need to recognize, like, okay, what am I looking at? But also for those that I knew like, someone like like Betsy, Betsy has a great deal of, like, I would probably feel upset if if if it's... Yeah, that was one of the lines in the start anyway, so as I had to make sure, like, no, no, no, I just am bad at, like, scary people that are normal person. I have no sense of scary That's either a normal person or a midget. That's it. because i And we even made fun of the we even like made light of that when you had the really long guy.
00:30:31
Speaker
Yes. Very much so. I we did what i did like have to ask, like just to make sure that we're we're looking at this properly. But it's like, this's that again, that's not a problem to ask your your DM, like, sort of like put a like a, like, timeout. like Can we ask a question about what's what scene we're looking at?
00:30:55
Speaker
Yeah. Exactly. but I think that's something worth mentioning because we, I don't think we explicitly stated the, the first episode in last year's manifesto, that you want to make sure that your players know that it is okay to bring up concerns, questions, things like that. you You don't want to be that GM from a GM horror story, from an RPG horror story, that is like, no, this is the adventure that we are playing. and this is how we are playing it, problematic elements and all, deal with it or there's the door.
00:31:41
Speaker
Do not question me. That is the reason why the Assassin's Hero has, like as we described in the previous episode, talked about limits and hard stops. is like The players are still allowed to... like If the DM is skirting those skirting around those, or pushing the limits...
00:32:04
Speaker
The players do have the agency to say, hey, remember Assassin's Era. This is not the agreement that we made. Yes. and i that That's possibly something else that you could do.
00:32:20
Speaker
um i haven't seen anything formally suggest this anywhere, but I'm sure someone has somewhere. But once you come up with all of those agreements...
00:32:32
Speaker
what Once you come up with all of those agreements in session zero, a make sure that the players have access to all of those agreements, whether you post it online, whether you pin it in a Discord, put it on a website somewhere where you're keeping all of your campaign information, or just plain jot it down in a Word document and print it out and give it to everybody the first full session.
00:33:03
Speaker
It can definitely help. that That might not be a bad idea, and that might be something that I do with the next campaign that I start, is after we do Session Zero, put down all of the agreements from Session Zero.
00:33:19
Speaker
We have a pretty general, I'd say as the How We Roll Gaming group, general like limits and stuff like that that. It sort of evolves based on the campaigns.
00:33:33
Speaker
since we know each other, we could, it's a much more malleable, but especially if you are doing games with people that you don't know as well, and always understand and respect the limits.
00:33:46
Speaker
And it's always easier to do so when you put it down on a paper. Right. I mean, we, we had been reached out to, and we just never took them up on it yet. And they're now looking for a new venue, a new physical location. But one of the local local gaming venues had reached out to us about if we wanted to run any of our games there. And I had considered doing like a three, four hour per week or every other week, weekly or biweekly session there on like, say, Wednesday nights or something.
00:34:22
Speaker
um just ah Just to kind of you spread the how we roll gaming love. Those would have been people that weren't part of our core group. So... Once they land again in a new location, if we take them up on that, then yeah that's definitely something to consider.
00:34:44
Speaker
Put down the agreements and guidelines and make sure that everyone has access to it. And also that's helpful then if you have a new player come in mid-campaign, you can direct them to give them a copy if it's a hard copy. point them to the pinned post on discord, point them to the website and say, Hey, I know you weren't here for session zero, just so you know, here are all of the guidelines that we've established. If there are any no-go subjects or anything like that for you, please let me know now and we can amend the agreement to accommodate you coming in as a new person. And even then that's,
00:35:32
Speaker
There should always be like, I'm not sure this is like, since we're talking about mostly Assassin's Zero, maybe in the future we should talk about like how integrating new players into an established group.
00:35:48
Speaker
We did that. Yeah, we did that last year. Yeah. But there's always there's always room to like look into that, into the future. Okay. And I think a good addition to all that is that can also coordinate resources because Daryl and I are kind of, well, I'm kind of spoiled because Daryl and Nick have every book known to planet on these topics, on these campaigns that we play, but not every group is going to have that friend that owns every 50 books of of the same topic. And then the previous versions and the future versions that you're going to have to be like, okay, playing this we're playing this game. i have maybe this player book.
00:36:31
Speaker
my GM book. So you can't see that one. So we only have like one book. So who else may be interested in getting another book? So we at least have two at the table so people can look over them.
00:36:41
Speaker
Cause sometimes we coordinate, I know in fallout and you got his, and then your son brought his just so we had two to go through. And I'm planning on getting my own. yeah And i when you do you bring up your Arkham one, I know a book I can bring just, just be safe. yeah Yeah. I,
00:36:59
Speaker
Delta Green. I think we each have have a Delta degree Green handbook between all of us. yep Robert, the reason I have all of those is because no one has staged an intervention for me.
00:37:11
Speaker
ah This carries over from decades of being a comics collector. I get very completionist. I can do that.
00:37:22
Speaker
I can do that sometimes. tactically Technically, I have turned this into my career. So i if I can, and thankfully to the things how we roll, I can write up some of it as a tax expense. I was like that with Legend of the Five Rings. I was like, I need every single book.
00:37:42
Speaker
It's not an addiction. It's a tax expense. I am fighting the urge since... what we're going to be playing Star Trek Adventures in is second edition. And I only have two books, the core rule book, the ship source book, and the starter game, the beginner game for first edition.
00:38:05
Speaker
When I walk into stores, now that I know first edition is out of print, I resist the urge to buy the first edition books. just to be a completionist, like I have them all in PDF thanks to Humble Bundle.
00:38:23
Speaker
And I'm going to have Shout out. Oh, Humble Bundle. Shout out. yeah And I'm going to have to make conversions from first edition to second edition anyway to use any of that information.
00:38:37
Speaker
i don't need physical town the book. You could do so much work, Dale. You could be so miserable doing that. Yeah, but I do that too because I'm like, I got this PDF, but it's much harder to scroll through all those pages than just having a physical one where i can do this.
00:38:53
Speaker
Oh, yeah. There's so much love and care. It's also just fun. Yeah. flip the page But steering the... There's something special about flipping through RPG book.
Sharing Resources in Gaming
00:39:10
Speaker
this back to Session Zero, though, that is something to establish at Session Zero. ah Part of why I have all of the Star Wars books is... After playing a session or two using the current system at NYX, I decided that you I had been in the process of planning a campaign that was going to use the old West End system.
00:39:38
Speaker
And then I played a couple i played a couple of sessions using the current system at My son got involved and learned that system. I'm like, well, he was going to play in the other one too. So let's just make it simple and do that. So partly I was buying all of the books because I was going to be, I was going to be running it too, but there is something to be said. I'm steering it back to topic after steering off topic when I steered back.
00:40:07
Speaker
With the, with the With the Star Wars system, really, a player only needs the core rulebook if they want to have a book.
00:40:21
Speaker
yeah But what can be helpful is yeah, there's there's Yeah, there's a very good chance that the GM will have most or all of the pertinent books. But say, if you're playing a smuggler for Edge of the Empire, then it makes sense if you're the player and you have a copy of the core rulebook to get a copy of the smuggler book.
00:40:48
Speaker
Yeah, flying casual. As well. Yeah. Because then it has the extra specializations. and it Again, that does help. Motivation, backgrounds, stuff like that.
00:40:59
Speaker
Theoretically, if your client if your if your GM has, quote-unquote, in this system, the core rulebook for Edge of the Empire, then a much easier investment for the player would be like, get your specialization book, and you could borrow and but that's the core rulebook to help establish. And that's where I was going with this. you know you At session zero, you can set as the GM...
00:41:28
Speaker
the for one of a better term expectation these are the books that i have for the system uh let let's say and not not to pick on robert but robert mentioned that he doesn't have all of the star wars books where we do robert ran a star wars game from home so it would be perfectly reasonable to say, since he didn't have access to your books or my books while he was running that campaign from home, I have the core rule book for this system and I have this book and this book.
00:42:05
Speaker
I do not have the specialization career book for your character's career, Nick. So if you would like that book, you can purchase that book and bring it in, but you don't need to buy the rest of the books.
00:42:23
Speaker
And just as you could also, you could also advertise that in sort of like a pre session zero, like ideas, like when you're putting that out there, it's like, I have this types of books. If you have additional material, you could ask them, say like, if you have a additional the material, feel free to bring that.
00:42:44
Speaker
Some players may want to, want peruse that, including the GM or other players. Yes. And then We'll say this one is from usually for the campaign systems that have a good maybe over five type of books like D&D and Star Wars. There are some some universes that are still like singular at most, maybe three main books. like Cyberpunk pretty much only has one core rule book. The rest is just fluff, additional stuff you can buy or attach to yourself.
00:43:17
Speaker
Walking Dead, I think, is still one book about Still one book. One book, yeah. Walking Dead is still the core rule book. Yeah. Delta Green really is just the core book and the Handler's Guide, which is the GM book. The rest is actually just additional information, usually for GMs.
00:43:36
Speaker
Instead? other for most ventures there is one Mostly Mostly adventures and campaigns. There is one softcover book that is more player focused. More player agencies. Yeah. the yeah ah For like government agencies. like The lion's ear of it is like a adventures and campaigns.
00:43:59
Speaker
Right. What we're talking about here is more for like Star Wars, D&D, Legend of the Five Rings because... You have to really dig in to find some specific things. it's like, oh, you want to play that clan? Well, it's in this book. so Fallout and Aliens, they have they only have two books respectively. have post-core rulebook that have like different character archetypes and options.
00:44:24
Speaker
It's still very useful. Daggerheart, I think, only has one book still. Yeah, Daggerheart only has the one, but they've announced their next book. I believe them. But it's still important. and think no either way like Understanding who has what and being honest with that in your assessment here. was like If you have books, let them know that like I have this many books.
00:44:49
Speaker
If there's additional books that you may have or you already are interested in. get Come with those? Basically, we could summarize all of this as setting up what resources are readily available and that the players may want to get for themselves.
00:45:08
Speaker
But speaking
Affiliate Link Mention
00:45:09
Speaker
of obtaining PDFs, just you plug, plug, plug. We do have a DriveThruRPG affiliate link. So if you should you know avail yourself purchasing resources through DriveThruRPG, affiliate link in the notes, ah feel free to use our affiliate link and you know give us a few pennies here and there to help keep the podcast Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
00:45:36
Speaker
Yeah, you know, wink, wink, nudge, nudge. We're asking them to help out the podcast. and Yes. And then i think another thing that's important in the session zero is, especially as a GM, to just clear out and say, hey, we're playing this game.
00:45:49
Speaker
It's a universe that's new to me as well. So I don't expect to be the rules lawyer that knows everything. I'm going to make mistakes. Feel free to call me out on it.
00:46:01
Speaker
I'll call myself out on it because my example was in the last Cyberpunk game we session we played. I had a mad guy who I incorrectly read the stats wrong.
00:46:13
Speaker
So he was dodging pretty much every attack until I realized, oh, no way. That skill stat already factors in this other stat. So should have just been adding that one. And I made that much harder than it should have been. And I was like, I'm sorry. That's my bad. it wasn't you guys. It was entirely me.
00:46:33
Speaker
It is a fair mistake ah when you look at the sap locks, but we did feel the burn. And I was like, I'm going to kill you guys for like 15 wounds free of charge because that was my bad.
00:46:46
Speaker
Well, and I'll put this out in the verse now. When we play Star Trek in a couple of weeks, I have never GMed Star Trek Adventures. I've definitely never i've never GMed or played 2nd Edition.
00:47:01
Speaker
And I've never GMed any iteration of Modiphius's 2D20 system. I've only played it in Fallout. So I will be learning along with all of you.
00:47:15
Speaker
Again, that's basically what this part also is like. Part of Assassin's Zero is often like, yeah, sometimes Assassin's Zero is the same for the GM too.
00:47:28
Speaker
And they should be honest with that. Basically say we're working together. We're new with this. Let's be on the same third level. fun Exactly. That can also be the same for basically saying, hey, when I run encounters or when you have action scenes where it's like turn based.
00:47:49
Speaker
Feel free to let me know afterwards if you need me to scale back the fight like that was too hard, too difficult. Or you got bored. Tell me what could have done better.
00:48:00
Speaker
Or we got stuck in in an action and consequence loop. Yeah. We'll freely admit we were kind of missing someone for that. But this is more like when I did the terror droid fight and you and you kind of agreed where I was like, maybe I gave it too much armor and stuff. yeah that one Yeah. There's always... recordinging I'm never going to forgive you for killing my boy.
00:48:27
Speaker
Yeah. That was just critical. i was Cess and Zeros are meant to like create the also tos create the the sort of background between like the behind the scenes, between player and CM dynamic.
00:48:47
Speaker
When can you... like so i voice my concern now, or would it be better to talk afterwards? Should, because again, like that there's possibly like players would be like, we don't want to like interfere with what's going on, but we see a problem. The more I think about it, the more I'm liking the idea of putting the agreement out there where everybody can see it after it's all come to agreement in session zero.
00:49:16
Speaker
Especially with, with things like that, You brought up the Discord pins. Pins have been very useful in all of our games so far. we're We're sharing resources and sharing resources and even this would be very good if that.
00:49:33
Speaker
Or just having a, if you're just a group that's beating every so often, having like a ah seat that you can put out in the middle that everyone can look at. I mean, you can, there's there's plenty of free websites out there for managing campaigns that you can use and put the document there as well.
00:49:53
Speaker
Yeah. If you're running an online game, ah good an online game or an in-person game. shared Google doc. Yeah. There's ways to make sure that everyone is aware of what is expected.
00:50:07
Speaker
Sort of a code of conduct. Yes. And in fact, Another thing you can think on on Zestand Zero is kind of like in a video game. How difficult do you want any types of fights to be?
00:50:21
Speaker
Not just universe-wise to where like in Delta Green Arkham Horror it is stacked against you because these are literal monstrosities and you're just the average Joe. just How difficult do you want this to be? Do you want it to be nail-biting to where you're worried just one bad roll can kill you?
00:50:40
Speaker
Or do you want to be more freeform to where kind of the heroes fighting off waves you'll still take hits from time to time but there's no real danger of you falling do you want this a story mode basically for yeah do you want the story mode or do you want the dark soul mode are you in a a standard action adventure movie or are you in a realistic movie where actions have realistic consequences
00:51:13
Speaker
Yes. And that can vary by player, but it's like you could then meet in the middle where you want to with the players. Does getting knocked out 15 times in a season by being hit on the head like happened to Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer cause no damage?
00:51:32
Speaker
Or does it cause a traumatic brain injury? Mm-hmm. Yeah, like certain systems are coded into like alien. If you get hit hard, like... the by Alien Walking Dead, you're squishy.
00:51:47
Speaker
Yeah. But say but but it's saying like in a D&D game, you have a varying amount. of like You could be at level one just slaughtering ah an army of goblins.
00:52:01
Speaker
Or one goblin could get lucky and one shot you with an arrow. It's more like D&D, Star Wars, Cyberpunk. in a way you can kind of balance that out depending on the encounter.
00:52:16
Speaker
That's basically like how ah tough do you want this to be? And not just in combat, maybe just life in general. Like in Cyberpunk, you also have to worry about your money because you have bills to pay.
00:52:27
Speaker
Well, would you want me to like maybe raise raise the bills higher? Because maybe there's a bad like there's um me even a worse recession one month. Star Wars, there's entire systems about like repairing your ship. It's like, heck, it's pretty pricey.
00:52:45
Speaker
Yeah, what one of the sidebars in the Edge of the Empire core rulebook is keep them hungry. And there's an entire fan supplement that has been out for years called Operational Costs.
00:52:59
Speaker
That is all about... it is It's all about keeping them hungry. Yeah. Basically, do you want them to feel the sting of the economy is a real thing? You're not just swimming in currency. It's like you actually have bills you need to pay. It's like you have credits. It's like, well, guess what? You have credits, but also you have to pay the docking fee. You got to pay the docking fee. You got to also repair the ship. The ship's going to take time to repair. You got to fuel up the ship.
00:53:25
Speaker
and Fuel prices are pretty high in the Outer Rim. Hmm. You've got to fuel up the ship. You've got to stock the ship with provisions because you you're still eating while you're traveling.
00:53:37
Speaker
You've got to buy up that toilet paper because the fresh as refreshing is a thing. So basically you could make it a lot more crunchy or not crunchy. Part of that is discussing what the players and you want to do. You could even be the dreaded D&D group that's like, weight's actually a thing.
00:53:56
Speaker
You've got to watch your weight. yeah Or yo oh you have a bag of holdings. It actually has a limit for once. It's like, yes. Or, you know, you... It can hold everything to a certain amount of weight.
00:54:13
Speaker
You could be in a Star Wars game where you have to meticulously track the the components to repair your damaged capital ship and all of the credits that you have and the inventory of support craft and everything that's on board and and have spreadsheet after spreadsheet after I'm sorry, I'm having a traumatic flashback. are I don't know if that's far orbit or that one campaign you keep talking about and space station. now
00:54:44
Speaker
No, it's not far orbit. that's right that's it The space station, the the six month space station. Yes. Or even the dreaded Maybe gravity belts are rare now in Star Wars and not everyone can just get one.
00:55:00
Speaker
They pulled it out of the book that it was originally published in. I believe them. so maybe I should start making a GM roll. No gravity belts.
00:55:11
Speaker
okay i It's in Odd Dudes. It's available to me. It only works in shortfalls. Longer, or higher, the battery runs out shortfalls.
00:55:24
Speaker
I did over the master test. like Eventually the battery's going to run out if if you if you're falling so long enough. Which is even more fun. It's like you're falling in slow motion and then suddenly the gravity turns back on. Then suddenly you go Wile Coyote.
00:55:38
Speaker
Yep. What else did we want to amend onto our Session Zero manifesto? I think this is a good amount of like amends and sort of extrapolations of what we've already talked but I think yeah the last thing I'll say is kind of more what a GM can tell a player. It's like, don't feel worried if you haven't hashed out an entire backstory in the beginning.
00:56:04
Speaker
Sometimes you make it up as you go along the way, because I know in Critical Role's campaign, too, my favorite character was Nott. And Sam Regal has said that yeah he created her backstory throughout the game. He didn't have it already in the beginning.
00:56:20
Speaker
ah stra on That's like Session Zero is usually functional around the GM, but the player should always feel that they have a voice.
00:56:31
Speaker
They should be able to ask a question. They should able to like make a suggestion. and say like The GM said is ultimately the arbitrator, but is not the end-all, be-all. They are the dictator. On a final light note for GMs directly,
00:56:49
Speaker
Make a table of names. Because eventually the players will ask a random NPC you created, what's their name? Yes. that That's more a GM tool than a session zero tool, but yes. Get it early. True facts.
00:57:07
Speaker
Very much. get Get a table. Just a bunch of random names. I three cheat in Cyberpunk. I'll actually go into the actual 2077 game and just scan random people because they have all the unique names. I'm like, oh, that's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. so Somewhere on my laptop, I have a spreadsheet that I started for Star Wars names for NPCs and for rebel ships and smuggler ships and imperial ships.
00:57:41
Speaker
Yes. It's kind of session zero, kind of GM tool, just Get some type of list or spreadsheet. Yep. I have 30 NPC names for Morgantown alone for Fallout.
00:57:56
Speaker
But all of them are variations on Slim Shady. No, I actually made certain that they weren't. Was Beryl one of them? Yes, was Beryl one of them?
00:58:07
Speaker
Actually, here's my secret. You're always angry? Yes. But my secret was most of them are Skyrim NPCs. Nick.
00:58:20
Speaker
Plagiarist. You're going to be. It just works. Oh, you just had to go there, Nick. Todd would be proud, Nick. what But I mean, he's giving us an opportunity to bully him for not being original.
00:58:34
Speaker
OK, Nick. If we take the detail that Todd is talking about and multiply it by 16, what's the result?
00:58:48
Speaker
It's 16 times the detail. Yes, but I want the product of that, not the equation.
00:58:55
Speaker
The answer is 76, your favorite game.
00:59:00
Speaker
Oh, let's see. Well, that's proper bullying because that's math. yeah But Nick now has a shirt that says spread math love.
00:59:11
Speaker
And he's wearing it right now. And we have the pictures to prove that he has this shirt. And little does he know. that Maybe that's incentive.
00:59:25
Speaker
I posed. Maybe that's incentive to get people to sign up for Patreon. We'll put the pictures of Nick in the Spread Math Love shirt behind the Patreon wall.
00:59:36
Speaker
It may be the first time people have seen him other than his face if they go to the website. Yeah. and No, no. Still put the pony face over at me. is like Oh, I know what we can do, Daryl.
00:59:50
Speaker
In our merch store, you can now start doing shirts or mugs with calculator themes. Well, see, I have to be careful that I don't get in trouble and get a cease and desist from my day job about that.
01:00:03
Speaker
ah adbacacy Because he works you work for big math. Okay, then fine. you You use the abacus. No one copyrights that anymore. does it I'm pretty sure there's still a Pythagoras cult out there.
01:00:17
Speaker
nick Nick wouldn't know because, well, he hates math. Except for spreading the math love. oh Yes. Oh, man. I really, I need to find out if the marketing person has gotten the the coloring sheets made of a squirrel with a calculator.
01:00:37
Speaker
All right, that's that's proper bullying. I feel attacked right right in my soul. Nick, you've told us that you sold your soul years ago. Milhouse has your soul. You sold it for a dollar. So is this you can't feel that pain in your soul. Milhouse might.
01:00:55
Speaker
i think I think that's our cue.
Episode Wrap-Up
01:00:58
Speaker
That is our cue. believe Nick. It's our cue for me to say, check out our website at howwerollgaming.com. And on that website, you'll find information about our current campaigns, which I need to get updated our podcast archive and links to our merch store, which yay us, someone other than us bought merch from our merch store on Christmas day before the sale ended and bought one of our, uh, uh, Santa Claus is coming to town. i knew it i knew it would be that one, but the sweatshirt, not the t-shirt.
01:01:34
Speaker
Oh, nice. so Oh, that's surprising because i think i thought I knew who it was, but it might just be someone I don't know then. But we we do want to thank you for being the first person to make that order. I'm i'm hoping and presuming that you heard about it from from ah the podcast as opposed to just stumbling across the shirt listing.
01:01:59
Speaker
ah through a web search, but thank you for your order. Thank you very much. ah You will also, in addition to the link to the merch store, find links to all of our social media.
01:02:11
Speaker
Yes, and you can also directly support the show through Patreon. Just go to patreon.com slash howwerollgaming and you'll see there are the different membership tiers we've listed starting at just $2 a month with special recognition on our Discord server and higher tiers giving you on-air credit and discounts on said merch store.
01:02:29
Speaker
Finally, if you have any questions you'd like us to answer, topics you'd like us to cover, or even submit your own RPG Glory story, see us on email at podcast at howweroll.com. No, howwerollgaming.com.
01:02:44
Speaker
Sending it to podcast at howweroll.com will not put that email to us. Or it'll get somewhere else we don't know. Howwerollgaming.com. Podcast at howwerollgaming.com. The glasses on the profile.
01:02:58
Speaker
The glasses on my... On my picture, are die for jokes. Bad eyesight. But we want to thank you all for listening and for joining us again in 2026. And we look forward to a great year of episodes. We have a lot of fun stuff planned and we hope that you will join us for those.
01:03:20
Speaker
but Special guests. Very fun. Very excited. Yes, we will have special guests. All kinds of stuff. But until then, as always, hey am Daryl.
01:03:31
Speaker
I'm Nick. And I'm Robert. And this is How We Roll. This episode of the How We Roll Gaming podcast is copyright 2026, How We Roll Gaming, LLC.
01:03:45
Speaker
All games and associated intellectual properties are copyrighted their respective owners, and How We Roll Gaming makes no claim of ownership by discussing them here.