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Our Session Zero Manifesto
10 Plays29 days ago
Session Zero may not be the most memorable part of a campaign, but it's vital to setting the stage so that everyone has a great time. Daryl, Robert, & Nick discuss the elements that make up a successful Session Zero.
https://howwerollgaming.com
GamerNation Con X
https://tabletop.events/conventions/gamer-nation-con-x
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Transcript
Introduction to How We Roll Gaming Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
How 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 or player, and share stories of momentous events at our tables.
00:00:12
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.
00:00:24
Speaker
Welcome back to the How We Roll Gaming podcast. We are glad to have you all back again. You just heard us in the intro say it, but this is Daryl. is Nick.
00:00:36
Speaker
And I'm Robert. And for this episode, as we've promised previously, we're going to talk about something that's become increasingly important in the RPG world. But before we do that, what all have we been doing gaming-wise? what This weekend, I know the big thing that we have is we will be having our playtest of one of our Gamer Nation Con games.
00:00:59
Speaker
Indeed. Led by our very two GMs here. Yes, and and I have recruited a friend of mine from work who has never played the system in question that used to be in one of my Star Wars campaigns.
00:01:14
Speaker
He's planning on coming. Last I heard, he actually asked me the other day, yeah so when are we meeting Saturday? i was like, it's all in the meetup info that I sent you, but one o'clock at Nick's. Unless he he flakes on us, he should be there Saturday, and we're going to reach out to a few other
Gamer Nation Con Details and Plans
00:01:30
Speaker
people. You'll be sure that he doesn't go to to the Anti-Nick to have the same address as me.
00:01:36
Speaker
But he might have more fun at the Anti-Nick. what am I saying? That's crazy talk. Well, no one's come back from the Anti-Nick, so we're not entirely sure. Maybe they haven't come back willingly because it is more fun over there.
00:01:48
Speaker
Or they've been eaten. He could have strippers and drugs, Nick. You have not carried through on the promise of strippers and drugs. I'll keep my dice, thanks. Anyway, yeah, we're prepping for that.
00:02:00
Speaker
We talked a lot about it last time, but just putting it out there again, Gamer Nation Con is coming up in Plano, Texas, the first full weekend in April. Plenty of tickets are still available. We will put a link to the site in the show notes.
00:02:16
Speaker
We are running a three-part mini campaign that each of the three of us hosting, talking to you right now, will each be running a part of. And then Nick and I are going to be running a side-by-side game where what happens at one table affects the other and vice versa.
00:02:36
Speaker
In the alien RPG system. And eventually they will all come together for terror and screaming and all that good stuff.
00:02:47
Speaker
And for out there, I'll be there doing likely pickup games, either at the venue or what I bring with me. And I'm going to just, I am hopefully going to have I'm be putting a table with Robert at a MVG game.
What is Session Zero and Why is it Important?
00:03:05
Speaker
For today, know, We are going to be, like i said, diving into a big thing in the RPG world. It's grown more important over recent years, and that is Session Zero.
00:03:19
Speaker
We are going to build be delivering our how We Roll Gaming Session Zero manifesto. That won't be necessary. We need a statement, not a manifesto. Oh, you hush, Tarkin.
00:03:30
Speaker
We're getting a manifesto, or at least that's what makes for a catchier episode title. It is true. Sounds more sophisticated. Yes. First up, there's a question that if you've never heard of a Session Zero before, that you're probably asking, what is a Session Zero?
00:03:49
Speaker
So, buy the book, and this is the actual de definition that I found online, and paste it into the show notes. A Session Zero refers to a preliminary meeting in tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, where players and the Dungeon Master gather before starting a campaign and to discuss and establish key aspects of the game, including character creation, setting details, campaign tone, and expectations for gameplay, essentially setting the foundation for a cohesive playing experience.
00:04:20
Speaker
It's a collaborative planning session to ensure everyone is on the same page before the actual campaign begins. Well, there we go. That's session zero. Okay, thanks for listening to How We Roll Gaming. And credits.
00:04:32
Speaker
Bye-bye. Or is there more to it than just that definition? No, there is very much more. and We are having ad revenue revenue on this, right?
00:04:43
Speaker
Yeah, we we have no ad revenue yet. Yeah, it's fine. We we we haven't even you know talked about the Patreon that's already live. If you wanted that just a simplistic statement, I sometimes compare Session Zero to the trailer before a movie.
00:04:59
Speaker
Or pitts the pits meeting for for a movie? I would say it's somewhere in between the two. your Your pitch is what got everybody to show up, but now you're brainstorming what the trailer is going to be because the trailer gives you the preview of the movie.
00:05:19
Speaker
The trailer is what our little bonus that we throw into Session Zero is, but we'll talk about that later. Which is why I personally call what I run Assassin's Hero. I call it Assassin's Hero 0.5. Yeah.
00:05:36
Speaker
But we'll get into that as we've sort of adopted that as sort of how we run Assassin's Hero. Yeah, we'll discuss our approach to Assassin's Hero. Yeah, we have that as its own section marked down. Once again, Nick is reading ahead.
00:05:49
Speaker
This is becoming a running theme. You can't read past the manifesto, Nick. That's why it's a manifesto. big question then is yeah we're stressing that it's important.
00:06:00
Speaker
Other sources online stress that a session zero is important. So why is a session zero important? I think the short version of that is it makes sure that everybody's on the same page in all aspects of the campaign.
00:06:15
Speaker
It kind of sets expectations for players and the GM and everybody that's going to be there in the room alike. And it helps everybody coordinate to balance out the group and make sure everyone gets a little something to do every time.
00:06:30
Speaker
Yes, and if had to do a comparison, don't know his handle, but there is a YouTuber that will take, like, games that are coming out, and he has this series called Wait Before You Buy. Session Zero is a wait before you play. Here's the details, kind of what it's going to be about, what it's going include. If that's not your cup of tea...
00:06:53
Speaker
you might want to skip it. I have an example of I was invited to a campaign that didn't have Assassin's Hero. Oh, no. but Let's just just send that straight to Crispy.
00:07:06
Speaker
Oh, no. it You say that, but it it that comes comes later, and were we were in that campaign. But was like, a player of mine invited me to their campaign And just gave me very little to go on before, like, the first session.
00:07:28
Speaker
Wait, are you talking about what I think you're talking about? And i was like, oh, I want to play this, like, fun, quirky, ah sort of, like, magician character. You are talking about what I think you're talking about?
00:07:42
Speaker
Here we go again. And I was like, oh, this would be fun. Arrive at session with, like, Three different character concepts, but the main one was like, and I even told the DM, I would really like to play this magician character.
00:07:56
Speaker
And he explains the concept of the campaign. He's like, well, that has no place here whatsoever. In fact, 90% of what I have made here, i have to i can re-fluff maybe one of them. so your GM was like, hmm, that's a good character concept. Let me check my notes.
00:08:15
Speaker
No. Oh, they didn't even have the date that they said, like, that That's a cool idea for the campaign, right? Yeah, it it's easy enough to say, that is a really fun idea. I'm just not sure it fits what we're doing in this campaign.
00:08:31
Speaker
Luckily, I had multiple ideas. and was like And even then, I had to reflavor that one that I was playing because I didn't know more.
00:08:42
Speaker
i was part of that campaign, too. What would have made a session zero really helpful there is session zero setting the tone of the campaign that there's going to be, for want of a better term, a lot of granular tracking of group assets.
00:09:04
Speaker
As well as the type of characters expected for it, which is more martial and military-based. That I kind of gleaned just from the concept, because...
00:09:19
Speaker
you know it It did have its roots in the Clone Wars. So that I kind of figured. but i guess that might have been kind of like how he approved of my character content. Right.
00:09:31
Speaker
And what would have made that setting the tone much better is i might not have stuck around. i I ultimately had fun with the campaign but there were elements of it that I had to forcefully wring fun out of it.
00:09:56
Speaker
By having a Session Zero that sets the tone, it would have been easier for me to say, you know what, this is a really awesome concept, but the way it's going to be played, I don't think it's for me.
00:10:08
Speaker
Everybody that's playing, have fun, peace out. And I will say this, as speaking from a player perspective, on the hindsight... had known, you shouldn't feel pressured to two play a game at all. So that's that's just a big thing. Even if Assassin's Zero is like, you're not vibing with it, you're valid in order to just like, you seem like good people. This game doesn't seem like right for me. Yeah.
00:10:39
Speaker
yeah Exactly. And then you're both what you described also brings up a good point as a GM. You can say the settings, But then also say what it's going to be like. Don't assume that when you say the settings, your players will be like, okay, so this is a action campaign with nitty gritty details. I get what you're putting down. No, actually put down what you want to put down.
00:11:01
Speaker
Right. You got to, you got to let a little bit behind the curtain. So, because that's part of being, and and we mentioned that with the game as it, you got to, you shouldn't have everything behind the curtain.
00:11:14
Speaker
You got to, work back and forth because it's collaborative storytelling. Yeah, because if you just say it's a fantasy world, well, that could mean anything. This could be Lord of the Rings. This could be Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones. Yeah, that could be anything from the D&D cartoon a Game of Thrones.
00:11:39
Speaker
To Star Wars, to Star Trek, to Lego Star Wars. Yeah. All of them are the same, fit with the same bubbles, but it's like different strokes for different folks.
00:11:51
Speaker
Very different experiences. Point one. Introduce the system. Usually when you're starting a campaign, the choice of the system has already been made, right? you know You're getting together. This is session zero for our D&D campaign.
00:12:07
Speaker
This is session zero for our Star Wars campaign. As someone who's introduced many people to RPGs, I've had the very embarrassing question where they said, like, that's that sounds cool, Nick.
00:12:20
Speaker
What's an RPG? Well, it's a rocket-propelled grenade. But I'm assuming you mean the other one. If you don't come to my game, I'm going to use the RPG on you. No, no, no, no.
00:12:31
Speaker
We don't need ATF coming to Nick's house.
00:12:35
Speaker
That's true. You've got that system already figured out. You might have players who are intrigued by the setting and the game concept, the campaign concept, but they aren't familiar with the system that you're playing.
00:12:50
Speaker
The mechanics, the rules. the Right. And that's a perfect time in a session zero for a quick overview of how the system works. you A short primer on the mechanics.
00:13:03
Speaker
What kind of strengths and story beats and game beats it leans into. All of that good stuff. you know like Alien. Okay, Alien. We're playing in ah
How to Introduce RPG Systems During Session Zero
00:13:16
Speaker
campaign setting, so it's not quite as deadly as cinematic mode, but it can still be deadly.
00:13:24
Speaker
And it's a simple d6 system. You're just rolling for sixes. Those are successes. And you can push and add some negative dice that have successes, but on the face of the one, you panic that can have negative effects on you and or the rest of the party. You are squishy, but it's because it's a primarily horror franchise, so death is expected.
00:13:51
Speaker
Or on another example, the Avatar RPG. It's a simple system. You go in-depth with your character creation. It's very imaginative and story-based because it's it's also a D6 system, but there's only two D6.
00:14:06
Speaker
That's all you roll, always. And when you fight, you don't you get types of attacks, but you get to describe how the attack works. And attack and fighting isn't very long. It's very short-paced because it's fast-paced because it leans.
00:14:23
Speaker
Their strength is in the story. How you make the story, how you develop your characters, how you develop the group. That's what Avatar focuses on. Avatar is very dice-lite. I think even like our even the the base game, we maybe be rolled dice twice or two times. The only time we think we ever rolled dice a lot was...
00:14:46
Speaker
during the small fights, or just when we wanted to look around. And how much fun have we all had with that campaign? Oh, I've been bugging Nick to bring a session back.
00:14:58
Speaker
It's coming soon, once we figure out the March schedule. Soon as not now.
00:15:08
Speaker
Well, it's going to be March in two days. Now, this could also be a case when you're introducing the system... All of you may be new to the system.
00:15:19
Speaker
See also our avatar campaign. oh We were all new to the system. None of us had played it before. You hadn't run it before or played it.
00:15:31
Speaker
i have spent a lot of time working through it. And I even admitted when I part of like Assassin's zero or like a test of a game in general, be honest with your players. is like, I'm new to this too.
00:15:46
Speaker
Yeah, you were very honest. You're like, this is what's going to lay down. We got these pre-agens. I got this adventure sheet. I'm not going to follow it, but we're going to take stuff from it to make our adventure.
00:15:57
Speaker
It's very different from me, but I felt like I watched enough to be like, okay, I can at least roll into that, and I feel i' trust in the players, but Sometimes so you got to be honest.
00:16:10
Speaker
Part of it is being honest as as it as a game master to be like, I may not know all the rules. I may not be a master of the system. But we had fun and we even made Darth Vader.
00:16:22
Speaker
That's right. That is the simplest aspect of a session zero. Introducing the system to everybody, getting a feel for how... how comfortable everyone is and how familiar everyone is with the system that you're playing.
00:16:40
Speaker
And again, that goes back to our DM episode. does put like It does put a little bit up more on you, but if you're honest with your players, they can be more forgiving.
00:16:51
Speaker
Because now we get into the meat of the bones. The tone.
Setting Campaign Tone with Movie Ratings
00:16:56
Speaker
Yes. Our point to what what I have labeled red light, green light.
00:17:02
Speaker
now you're Quite literally in some cases. Yes. You want to set the tone of the campaign. An easy way that I've found to do that is, and everyone kind of has a common frame of reference for it, is to borrow the MPAA movie ratings.
00:17:18
Speaker
Will the campaign pain be equivalent to a PG? PG-13? An R? If it's an R, is it a hard R? Is it an NC-17? We've never gotten there, and I hope we never do.
00:17:32
Speaker
I mean, that all depends. There's a reason i chose NC-17 and not X. Because a certain industry co-opted the legitimate X rating and necessitated the creation of NC-17.
00:17:46
Speaker
That just means that it's extremely mature themes. Yes. And of course, whether the only example of proper NC-17 is Snow Girls, and that was a really great showing. There's others, but I can't think of them off the top of my head.
00:18:03
Speaker
But, you know, there are people who, and and we're not talking necessarily gratuitous sex. There are people who enjoy that level of hardcore, mature gaming. her yeah It's the closest you can get to just the dark stuff in real life.
00:18:25
Speaker
Right. And that's not everyone's flavor, and that's why you need to be upfront, like, It's not mine, I know it definitely wouldn't be Betsy's, just given what she does for work.
00:18:37
Speaker
And now that I think of it, using this example, I might start on my um session zero postings on our meetup.
00:18:49
Speaker
I might just slap an MPAA rating logo on the posting image. not not Not a bad idea.
00:18:59
Speaker
Yeah, that's actually better it that's a good idea because it can also help me decide sometimes, okay, what really is the tone of my campaign, like, just in general. And again, yeah tone can change, especially if you don't establish tone.
00:19:17
Speaker
But that that's for stories about, like, how to deal with certain things when the story changes. I think you recognize what I'm talking about, but we're not going to there. yeah But we love the hopeless situation warriors.
00:19:32
Speaker
Oh no, that's a that was completely different. Wait, you might not have been even there for that one. Yeah, maybe not. i don't know. the ah The other thing too is, yeah, you're absolutely right.
00:19:44
Speaker
Tone can change. And even though we're using a movie rating system, because people are more familiar with that, I liken that occasional shift in tone to TV series.
00:20:01
Speaker
And a lot of people more often will compare an RPG campaign to a TV series than to a movie. And some series do have, especially in recent years, like certain audiences would be advised.
00:20:16
Speaker
Well, you have... For like an episode. Well, if you look back at the, i won't say golden age, but if you look at, say, the 80s era of TV,
00:20:29
Speaker
sitcoms frequently had a very special episode. Yes. Where the comedy was mostly out the window and it was a very dramatic episode where one of the regular characters or one of the prominent supporting characters was going through something really, really deep and harrowing.
00:20:52
Speaker
But it's ah that's more for describing ongoing campaigns. but Right. Right. and In Session Zero, you are basically describing, like, what would be the... The default.
00:21:04
Speaker
Would be, like, here's where, as you said, sitcom, and maybe say that there might be a couple very special episodes, depending on characters and story beats.
00:21:17
Speaker
Yeah, because even in Hopeless Situation Warriors, there's comedy, but there is still, okay, serious problem here. We gotta do something. So probably a really good TV example of this kind of occasional shift in tone because the tone, the default tone, fits your average RPG campaign.
00:21:42
Speaker
And that's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. is This is true. It's action-adventure. With some comedy. with you know It's generally light action-adventure. Occasionally go into drama or melodrama, but...
00:21:57
Speaker
such as when Angel turned evil after sleeping with Buffy. There's death, there's destruction. There's death of of characters, but you have that main through line of a fairly light action adventure, but in season five, you get the body, which is probably one of the absolute best TV series explorations of grief and loss that I have ever seen.
00:22:28
Speaker
I will agree. will agree if you haven't seen it. It's such an impactful moment, but it is not the norm. And then you go another season down the line and you have Once More With Feeling where you embrace the cheesiness of the musical.
00:22:47
Speaker
In one of the best musical episodes of any series. And all of this... within the framework of an action-adventure campaign. A great example is our ah Whisper-based campaign.
00:23:00
Speaker
We've had a lot of... I agree with that, yeah. We've had a lot of like fun, like general like rebel accident-adventure hijinks. Yeah, we've had our escapades, we've had our Serious moments. We've had our depressing moments with certain characters.
00:23:19
Speaker
and Characters that had to go through like a full depressing arc and was possessed by evil. And the whole time when one character had to reveal themselves as a traitor and they were... But they weren't actually a traitor, but everyone felt betrayed.
00:23:36
Speaker
And one of our characters is near the end of basically a finding-himself character arc. Also, only thing is like ships being thrown around by a sentient piece of armor and capturing capturing grand admirals on the average.
00:23:54
Speaker
And are the one character that does not have a secret that is trying to unravel all the other secrets. Honestly, I think that that does fit the example of you never know what you're going to get.
00:24:06
Speaker
But it's all part of the same story. But none of it feels like it's disconnected because it's all sort of wrapped around that stuff. Yeah, it's always in the one central location. and That helps, too.
00:24:19
Speaker
Now, this setting of tone is not a one-way street. It's not the GM getting up and lecturing everyone about this is the tone of the game.
00:24:30
Speaker
Another thing that you want to do here is find out if there's subject matter that any of the players might object to. Exactly. And any and all topics are fair game for a discussion like this because every everyone has their own trigger issues and what might seem... Their own objections.
00:24:53
Speaker
What might seem trivial to one player could be really important and a no-go topic for another player.
00:25:05
Speaker
And we've we've mentioned in several episodes that, yes, it's fun to listen to RPG horror stories, but too many campaigns generate horror story by not having these limits and boundaries in place.
00:25:20
Speaker
and And I'll admit... Or ones that go with the, okay, you may object it, but the majority is fine, so majority rules. Right. But sometimes there was...
00:25:33
Speaker
And you were part of that campaign, but I can't recall if you were exactly for that. So, again, not to make this a horror story, but there was a character and player that did a torture scene for an enemy combatant.
00:25:48
Speaker
And it was like, okay, I'll let them go. But they were a little bit too descriptive for the players. And at that point, I said, for that campaign, after that, we are not going to do descriptive things.
00:26:02
Speaker
torture scenes. Yeah, I've heard this story, because you said the player really went into character. Well, the player and it felt like less like, oh, he's in character, like, that no, he's digging back into his that's that's a whole story. Yeah, this was turning into, is there something you need to tell us? but We've done torture scenes since, but I've since like been like, okay, we're just turned into the sense of like, okay, at a certain point we cut to black And we let the dice decide.
00:26:33
Speaker
Yeah, because going back to Wizard of my character there was in a torture scene. But it was more fade to black, come back. I look beat up and dehydrated rather than you go in and say everything that happened to my character.
00:26:48
Speaker
yeah Given just the inherent nature of Walking Dead, in my Walking Dead campaign... There are moments that I know I am probably sneaking right up on some people's boundaries, but I try to leave everything implied because this is a world that has become horrible because it's Walking Dead.
00:27:13
Speaker
And on top of that, for my How I Run Alien series, Is it body horror, gruesome gore, and death? If I had to say, like, if you wanted to, like, put in... Put a hard R on how I run Alien.
00:27:29
Speaker
It That's part of the very genre, and I'm trying to capture that. It's going to be gross, it's going to be disgusting, and the offering will come for you, Robert, one day.
00:27:45
Speaker
And... And I try to do much the same with Walking Dead, because anyone familiar with the TV series, let alone the comic series, knows that, yes, you you have this post-apocalyptic survival storyline that is the backbone of the series,
00:28:08
Speaker
And every so often, as the characters get into a new location, they see things that they're like, oh, oh, that happened here.
00:28:19
Speaker
yeah And then, you know, further down the seasons, it went from tyrant to cannibals to basically people going back to the primal era. All of which was in the comic.
00:28:38
Speaker
Heck, one of the most fascinating looks of that is the Fallout TV show, if you haven't watched it. it's like It has a family that decided to end themselves before the bombs drop.
00:28:50
Speaker
But also has wacky stuff as well. Because it's Fallout. Because it's Fallout, but it can still you can still you do the inverse. You could have a wacky fun adventure and have serious moments. And you can have serious moments in what would be more...
00:29:09
Speaker
wacky and silly franchise you know you have to understand and make the metric between you and the players and what you feel comfortable with you know if it were translated into rpgs i know what would be an nc-17 game the boys the but yeah the boys would be an nc-17 game oh very much so yes very much yeah Probably Invincible, too. Well, maybe Invincible would be hard. Invincible would probably be closer hard R because of the bend towards the storyline and characters.
00:29:45
Speaker
The Boys is the tips over that edge and Relis is it.
Handling Mature Themes in RPGs
00:29:51
Speaker
I don't know if either of you have seen Free League is, in the next month or two, launching a Kickstarter for an Invincible RPG.
00:30:01
Speaker
It's free league. I'm backing it. It's free league, yeah. like it's It's free league, and it's a property I like. I'm backing it. And they've been batting 10 out of 10s every single time.
00:30:15
Speaker
Fair enough, Nick. And they're all fair enough. Back on track again. I'm not sure I would run one, but it's like, oh, they support it. Back on track again, though, ah if you do have a campaign that is dealing with a lot of mature themes and might have some pretty serious red lights, you might also want to consider some kind of system that lets players signal that they're getting uncomfortable or that something has crossed the line for them.
00:30:49
Speaker
I abandoned it because I felt it was a bit too juvenile, but I used to have these two lightsabers. One red one and one blue one that you could put on like your finger, like finger pointers.
00:31:01
Speaker
If you feel like someone is like is going a bit too far, you put on the red one and you point at them. Or if someone says like they want to like make a point, they put on the blue one on their finger and they raise it up.
00:31:13
Speaker
That wasn't a great system, but it's... it gets into It was like when I was starting i was starting out at DMing. And a system like that can be as simple as what you did. It can be as simple as just speaking up.
00:31:27
Speaker
There could be some kind of physical indicator like the lightsabers. ah Just you know maybe a little you know little flags or whatever. and When we kicked off Robert's cyberpunk campaign, I found a Wi-Fi enabled table light that can change colors.
00:31:46
Speaker
was really cool. And distributed the control link to everyone. Because, especially at the very beginning, we had some brand new players to the group. So it's always conceivable that... Cyberpunk can very much run the gambit up to, even exceed...
00:32:09
Speaker
to NC-17, but can still be popular into like RPG-13. Right. And I definitely knew that going in because I was like, okay, I'm going to play it like Cyberpunk. It is not going to be a fun, it'll be, a well, it's a fun world, but it's not a fun world for your players.
00:32:27
Speaker
And there's a lot of things that even you are personally uncomfortable with elements of it. And it's entirely possible when you do have new players in the mix or If we go back a couple episodes, if you have a brand new group of players, most of whom may not know one another, they may not feel comfortable speaking up.
00:32:50
Speaker
They might want to be anonymous. And so that light, when we play Cyberpunk, it starts off on green. Everybody has the link to control it so they can log in on their phone And if they're saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is getting too much, they can change the color of that light to red.
00:33:14
Speaker
Has it happened yet? No. there nobody doing um Yeah, I'm trying tohe to hit everyone's wishes. Yeah. Probably down the line, there may be an maybe a time, but we'll see. Mm-hmm.
00:33:26
Speaker
Just to hit back onto the DMs to feel like, don't feel like this is like a limit on you and your storytelling. You are in a collaborative storytelling environment, so you do have to sacrifice some control for that, but it's ultimately for the betterment of your players.
00:33:44
Speaker
If they feel comfortable exploring the world that you make, they're going to want to explore it more. They want to do more. They'll post limits more, but If they hit a a limit they don't like, then they're going to not really like the place they're going.
00:34:00
Speaker
Right. I would say of all of the elements of a session zero that we're going to discuss, this is the one that you don't want to rush through. Yes, because we can say this is the one and you that causes the most horror stories.
00:34:19
Speaker
The most horror stories, the most conflict between not characters, but players... as As people, as DM player react relations is where this breaks down.
00:34:32
Speaker
Yes. Because you're basically, because either the player or the DM is basically telling the other people, I get this bothers you, but honestly, I don't care.
00:34:43
Speaker
Or the player excuses it and usually uses a lot of similar excuses. But if the DM accepts it, then that's a red flag for the players in that group to be like, well, then that's not a good environment.
00:34:59
Speaker
As much as we like to idealize our current amount of Session Zeroes, take as much time as you need. If it needs to be like this part of it, working that stuff out, that can be the whole Session Zero.
00:35:13
Speaker
Yeah, because we like, because at least with us, because we know our players very good. We can kind of, we can tell... what's good and what isn't good just by, because we know these people. And even if new ones, we have enough people to convey that quickly.
00:35:28
Speaker
And that's why we're able to do this partial gameplay during it. But if you need the whole time to just sit down, take six hours to discuss the plays, figure out the do's and don'ts, do it.
00:35:39
Speaker
It will save you immense headaches later. Now, have have we gotten all of the all of the deep, super serious parts of Session Zero out of the way?
00:35:51
Speaker
Yes. I believe we have. I think it's time for a tone shift. It's time for a tone shift. Not just in the game, not just in the Session Zero, but in our conversation. Next up, character creation.
00:36:04
Speaker
and Now, this is what normally... like This is going to take usually a third or half the time. Yeah. Depending on how... How much you know about the people, how much they know about the system.
00:36:15
Speaker
yeah Honestly, the this could be the complete antithesis of what we said about how it's time for the tone and stuff. This could, in fact, be the lion's share of ah the Assassin's Zero.
00:36:30
Speaker
Right. yeah Exactly. And it's perfectly fine for players, especially ones who are familiar with the system and familiar with the group that they're playing with. to come in with a character or several characters to session zero, but it's also fine and sometimes expected and almost always a lot of fun for all or most of the party to build their characters as a group.
00:36:56
Speaker
I've never released it, but I honestly, for certain campaigns I'm planning for the future, I would probably ask you guys to make characters as a group in the future for like for ideas I have.
00:37:09
Speaker
What I tend to do for your games, Nick, is I have a character idea. Depending on the system, I'll build it out, but I don't have it set in stone for myself until we get into the session zero.
00:37:24
Speaker
Or I'll think of an idea of like, okay, this is what I'm doing, and this is what I'm thinking I want to do in this setting.
00:37:34
Speaker
But there's one that i am thinking of like being like, I'd prefer you all work together. No, no, we get that. We're just saying that there's there's a middle ground, too, between those players who come in with, I have three characters all ready to go. Which one am i goingnna which one do you want me to use?
00:37:53
Speaker
And coming in with absolutely nothing set up. you know there's There's middle ground. of a But also part of Assassin's Zero is you've got to prepare for someone when you Either you know or don't know coming up and saying like, so what do I do?
00:38:09
Speaker
yeah Or you could have that player that comes in and says, okay, here's my character. When I die, this is my next character. When
Balancing Character Roles During Creation
00:38:19
Speaker
I die again, this is my next character.
00:38:21
Speaker
um only that is You know who you are. You know who you are, Nick. very very Very sneaky of you to say that. But as I said, like we do get new individuals, like especially using sites like Meetup or Roll20 and other sort of online sites as well.
00:38:41
Speaker
You occasionally find someone that's... Find a rando that wants to join in and has... No knowledge and literally is like tabula rasa. just i yeah Can you pass me a character receipt?
00:38:53
Speaker
And that should not worry be like the biggest stumbling block. Yeah, the and I think the most reasonable we all have is August. ah yeah cause August will come in and be like, okay, this is what we're playing.
00:39:10
Speaker
I see the book? Okay, I'll do this. And he even asked in Cyberpunk if you ever want to come back. And he was like, okay, my handle name.
00:39:21
Speaker
What's a good handle name? was like, ah these are so many examples they gave. And he's like, yeah, I'll take that one. As a DM, you should never be afraid to have a new player, especially at Cessna Zero. That's honestly the best time to have a newbie come in.
00:39:37
Speaker
I'm thinking in particular, Nick, in terms of the character creation parts of things and balancing, trying to balance out the group and, new players versus experienced players and players who know one another versus who don't want to know one another. Well, it's all part that. Well, what I was about to say is I'm thinking specifically of, in my head, of the most recent time you had a Session Zero for the Cursed Uprising campaign.
00:40:12
Speaker
Oh, yeah. And the reason I say that is... i don't remember if you were there for that or not, Robert. I remember he was. He wasn't in Robert. He has been there, I think.
00:40:24
Speaker
There were nine people at Session Zero. Half of them were brand new to the group. Half of them had never been to one of our games before. Nick can attest to this.
00:40:34
Speaker
A lot of us who were experienced players kind of took a step back as the new players were creating their characters, because at that point, most of us had played a lot of the different character types in Star Wars.
00:40:51
Speaker
And these new players were coming in, you know, really excited. you know Carrying over from a previous attempted uprising, I had a particular character and I had the group's ship.
00:41:03
Speaker
You know, Nick, let me just bring the ship on over. One of the other new players is like, I want to be the pilot. I want to be the pilot. So I stepped back. I told her, hey, you know what?
00:41:16
Speaker
That's awesome. You take smuggler pilot if you want. I will take the smuggler scoundrel. I own the ship, but you fly it for me.
00:41:27
Speaker
Yeah, that's great. And we had that kind of ebb and flow. To help everyone slot into the positions that they wanted. The kind of character that they wanted. admittedly, I didn't necessarily want... I didn't say this because I was rude.
00:41:44
Speaker
I didn't want nine players. And also knew that nine players would be... There's too many cooks in the kitchen. Yeah, but how how long did that nine players last, Nick?
00:41:57
Speaker
The nine players lasted session zero? Yes. Yes. And I can attest to this because I've had two session zeros. One of them I had nine.
00:42:09
Speaker
Another one I had 11. And I was internally screaming like, why? Well, like I assume it's a it's just the Robert Charm.
00:42:20
Speaker
Well, we'll test it when I unveil my Legend of the Five Rings campaign later. We'll see if this still holds. If we get over six, I'm i'm correct. That'd be three for the three. I'll take it, because you were right, Daryl, that one with 11 people dwindled down to six or five the next session.
00:42:41
Speaker
don't think that's an ideal number. who's like Yes, very much so. Most of the new players we never saw or heard from again, and Drifting towards horror story things, the rest of us, once the new players left, the rest of us did not communicate effectively as to how we were going to redistribute some of the essential tasks but it's within the group.
00:43:09
Speaker
And that did lead to that did lead to you player conflict. When that happens... you know it's It's worth having you know a a refresh of some of the Session Zero things just to make sure that every everyone is still on the same page.
00:43:30
Speaker
But part of character creation is that balancing, especially initially. like There's plenty of games that have like that you can you can multi-class, you can go into different careers, you can follow different tech trees.
00:43:46
Speaker
So everyone can follow, but when you're doing Assassin's Hero, you get that moment where everyone's like, okay, here's where I'm going to start as. That helps the DM and helps the players know, like okay, this is my spot where I need to go.
00:44:02
Speaker
like suppose so like it starts everyone on an even plane. Yeah, and Daryl's example with the woman who wanted to be the pilot, even though he had the ship, Daryl could have just said, okay, but I'm also a pilot.
00:44:14
Speaker
and And then there's two roles of the same thing. But Daryl points to you. You were matured. just saying, all right, then I'll go and discount drill. Spoiler alert, that pilot role is where the conflict came in, where the player conflict came in.
00:44:29
Speaker
We've sensed that. And part of that was because we were part of the teething issues of being online. Yeah. Yeah, it was shortly after session zero that the world shut down.
00:44:43
Speaker
which And I came in the picture. Well, you're you're one of the good what one of the good examples of that. And the other ones are like players that were used to playing in person didn't get used to playing online.
00:44:55
Speaker
This whole thing of working on characters together can help balance out the roles and the skills among the group.
What is Session Zero.5?
00:45:03
Speaker
But i'll don't tell the players this, but if they're listening to this, I guess it's too late.
00:45:10
Speaker
It also kind of works as some pre-game team building, which is always a plus, especially if there's a lot of members of the group who aren't familiar with one another.
00:45:22
Speaker
oh they have like something that they can latch onto, to ideas. like Even the... yeah secret to the DMs. like If you're seeing them working on the characters and they're like coming off ideas, you can see the little idea on how they're connected. That might be a secret tool you can use later.
00:45:41
Speaker
yeah but it it helps them. They're not playing yet, but they're already becoming a team. Because they're bouncing ideas off of one another and coordinating who's going to do what.
00:45:54
Speaker
Who's holding the big gun? Who's being the talker? Who's the sneaky one? Who's the getaway driver? even Even if they don't even like talk with each other, if they're all in the same room, their hearing is like, okay, that person's specking into this.
00:46:09
Speaker
They're pointing points into that. Well, I want to make sure that we have this in here. and That's why I want to give kudos to The Walking Dead because they understood that and went the distance with the roles you can be as a survivor.
00:46:24
Speaker
is there Because it's very obvious to players, okay, if you're the if you're the homemaker, you try you kind of keep the good gift. The outcast, you're the good sneaker.
00:46:34
Speaker
If you're the soldier, you're going to be the fighter. If you're the doctor, you're the healer. And just how you take all those characters, bring them into a group, and help survive this apocalypse.
00:46:46
Speaker
Yeah, like, and that's kind of the makeup, like, if your average Z&D group is a sneaky rogue, a strong fighting person, be them barbarian or fire or pious knight, someone that can heal with magic, or someone that can fire magic missiles.
00:47:05
Speaker
Now every everyone has their characters ready. And here's where we come into our personal twist, if you will, on Session 0. The Session 0.5.
00:47:18
Speaker
The one where everyone thinks we're done, but you're like, about that. yeah there's There's no problem with you taking as much time as you want on the these previously established points. you could You could honestly and some may even advocate for like having like two sets in zeros if you need to like make everything work together.
00:47:40
Speaker
there's no there's no yeah There's no right or wrong way. You're not going to find our twist in most of online Session Zero guide that I've seen.
00:47:51
Speaker
or any of the official books that say it. Right. But what we like to do is we we do like to have a little bit of actual gameplay in our session zero to close it out.
00:48:05
Speaker
Think of it as kind of a prologue to the campaign. you You've just spent a couple of hours doing, for want of a better term, paperwork and administrative tasks.
00:48:16
Speaker
Paperwork as well as like discussing... triggers and problems and like setting boundaries and explaining the lore and the world and the... You set the world, made the characters, set up the goalposts of what to do and what not to do.
00:48:35
Speaker
Right, so how about at this point we all do what we came here to do, even if just for a little bit, and roll some dice. Talk and make a story. Exaggerated voices in in a fantasy world.
00:48:49
Speaker
Now, I usually try not to do anything especially major. you know You do the perfunctory getting the band together meeting if they're not an existing group already.
00:49:02
Speaker
If it is an existing group of characters, you're establishing where they're coming from and where they're going, that kind of thing. Yeah, or it's a group by circumstances. Yeah. It's what I would call, like for video game people, it's the tutorial level. Yeah, you give them...
00:49:20
Speaker
A relatively low-stakes combat encounter. And I say that it's a relatively low-stakes combat encounter, and the last Session Zero that I ran for Walking Dead, I killed Nick in Session Zero.
00:49:31
Speaker
And then my first Session Zero... that's just And in my first Session Zero, they were escaping a prison ship that was hurtling towards a shield gate and would kill them. Totally low-stakes. But the idea is to basically like have them...
00:49:44
Speaker
Have them interact with each other in character. Have them make checks. Have them have a little bit of combat where they can test out those those fancy abilities build these or skills that they thought, like, oh, that's a lot better than I thought it would be be an actual rolling.
00:50:02
Speaker
Have them roll the dice and see, like, explain the system, like, an hour or five ago. like that's what he means when he added this modifier or that's what that dice face means yeah it's a great way to let the players test drive their characters that they just made yeah the beautiful show don't tell yeah it's like at the end of that like they could be like oh, that's great. Or they'd be like, hmm, maybe this isn't the character i want to play.
00:50:37
Speaker
don't want to step on, so but that that could still fit the similar role in the group. like It also lets you see, like oh, we've all played different types. like That's how those interact with each other. like Maybe I want to be something similar to that, but I don't want to step on someone's toes.
00:50:54
Speaker
And also, if you, if the GM in the group is new to a system and they Doucher Moles may even find, okay, I know the rules say this gives you this or this does this, but I don't think it meshes well, so we'll just not, we'll forgo that rule in the future. All we're going to house rule this. Yeah, we're going to house rule this.
00:51:16
Speaker
And house rules are best, like some people say like that should be in Sensor Zero and that makes sense to a degree, but house rules can also prop up at any time, be it from players or GMs or just in general.
00:51:33
Speaker
So it's there's no hard limit that. That could be a discussion and of itself. I just, it's something that I've picked up from you, Nick. You're the first GM that I have ever seen before.
00:51:44
Speaker
do a session zero that way and i loved it and so i have borrowed it for every campaign that i have run since your place or at mine and i'll i'll give my exp explanation for it i'd played in several games before done the equivalent of a session zero even though that wasn't a term when i was learning the game it's relatively recent probably has been done before but not in anyone that I played with before.
00:52:13
Speaker
Sess and Worn, we're building characters and we're discussing the lore, the concepts and stuff like that, taking notes. And like, and we leave. And it's like, okay, I'm i ready to play though.
00:52:26
Speaker
i talk but i talked with these guys for about like three and a half hours. And it's like... Nick, were you channeling your inner Ian Malcolm? You are going to actually...
00:52:37
Speaker
play a role-playing game at your role-playing game session, right? but Basically. It was like, you have the dice right there, and oh, you're just packing those up right now, and and were go we're leaving now.
00:52:53
Speaker
So I'm just going to hold on to this until three weeks later and be like, all I want to swing the sword. You just gave the perfect segue to... But that's the reason why i do my Assassin's Heroes.
00:53:12
Speaker
No, you spent your time doing the homework, or you listened to the lectures, you did the stuff, you spent this time with these people, probably ate pizza with them, because...
00:53:24
Speaker
It's a role-playing game. You always eat pizza with if a role-playing group. Pizza or chicken. But either way, you you want to play around with this new character. want to interact with Crogdod the Barbarian or Raphael the Jedi Knight and like talk with them and see them like do something cool and fire your blaster or fire a fireball.
00:53:47
Speaker
Or fill the accountant. Yeah, either way, just live in that world that you spent together with these people, like, working to it. Because it's also good for you guys to learn the system, especially if you're new, and encourage you for, as you said, what comes next.
00:54:07
Speaker
We've hitched you on, made sure all the safeties are good, now get on that rollercoaster. And next comes the bane of most RPGs existence.
00:54:18
Speaker
Don't say it. The greatest killer of the murderer of all campaigns. um We gotta say it, Robert. Scheduling. Oh.
00:54:30
Speaker
So, saying like hey before everyone leaves session zero, coordinate scheduling the next session.
Coordinating Schedules for Future Sessions
00:54:41
Speaker
set the expectation for how frequently you expect the games to run, and coordinate together to get an idea of everyone's availability to make sure all of that gels.
00:54:56
Speaker
Get them schedules. There's going to be those people online are going to put in the comments and be like, oh, well, why didn't you just put that in in the invitation? it's like Because if we are meeting for the first time for an RPG,
00:55:10
Speaker
I don't know what Nick's schedule is or Robert's schedule is, and neither of you know what my schedule is. Also, no one knows everyone's schedule. Everyone has their own schedule. It's better to just, like, ah establish that there.
00:55:24
Speaker
And have everyone present to discuss it. And even if you can't discuss it there. Then, like right to then, exchange contact information.
00:55:36
Speaker
Join a Discord group, meetup group, Facebook group. Exchange phone numbers for texting. And hey, for everyone out there who is paranoid about, well, I don't want this random stranger to have my phone number, Google voice numbers are free. This is true.
00:55:54
Speaker
And you can text through them. And it will work on your regular phone. It will pop up as a message in Google Voice on your phone, just like a text message to your main number.
00:56:09
Speaker
We are in a modern world with a lot of different ways to communicate with each other. Scheduling has has murdered... millions of good games just because people couldn't coordinate well.
00:56:23
Speaker
We live in the 21st century. We can at least do better better than the 80s. You can at least return a text. Right? I mean, how do we organize scheduling recording the podcast? I am looking at our private channel in the How We Roll Discord server as we record this.
00:56:43
Speaker
And we say, we can do this time or this time. We use meetup.com to coordinate that. And if not, we put that also in the Discord. And then we contact people either over Discord or over the phone if we do know the phone numbers or DMs over across Meetup or Discord.
00:57:02
Speaker
Now for a for a safe, happy, and healthy gaming experience, also remember that your players are not going to be beholden to show up just because you scheduled. There may still be a one-off schedule conflict.
00:57:17
Speaker
And so that's fine. Accommodate that. Now, if they no-show every single time, then you've got a problem. But be relaxed about, ah you if if Robert can't make it to a Walking Dead game, that's fine.
00:57:34
Speaker
i can I can come up with a way to you move his character offstage For the session. We just ran into that this past weekend with my Star Wars Rebel Yell game.
00:57:47
Speaker
You know, Daryl, I think that's a good idea for a potential episode of ours. Shuffling players off? Dealing with... Or dealing with absent players.
00:57:58
Speaker
but That's what I meant. Or more broadly, ah retooling sessions when things aren't ideal. I am once again having deja vu for this past weekend's Rebel Yell game.
00:58:14
Speaker
Well, then you have top, then you have content for the next session down the line. Yes. The main idea here is that scheduling in the past would be like, oh, I didn't care. My voicemail is, it's overflowing. I wasn't there to pick up the pay phone. The mail lost it. It's like,
00:58:37
Speaker
We live in a modern era. We can communicate with each other way easier. Just be amenable and accepting that sometimes things don't go right.
00:58:48
Speaker
It's not a means where it's to end a prospectively great experience for you and your players. know And that about sums up scheduling. I mean, there there's not much to the scheduling point, but the scheduling point is an important one.
Conclusion on Session Zero's Importance
00:59:05
Speaker
It's sort of an overarching thing that ah glory stories don't exist because scheduling fell through or in the millions. And those are the real tragedies.
00:59:15
Speaker
But I think we've hit everything. Is there anything that either of you have thought of that we want to include in the manifesto? Well, I do have some problems with the Industrial Revolution, but someone else said it better.
00:59:31
Speaker
Well, I think we are good then. now think we're good to leave it here. Unfortunately, we have recorded this to audio and to video rather than scrawling it in barely legible handwriting on many, many pages of a dollar store journal.
00:59:49
Speaker
We may have done this whole manifesto thing wrong. It's okay. we'll get We'll get the secretary to write it up. Okay. I thought we were supposed to record this on to Slate. No, you just scribble it you scribble in the in the journal.
01:00:03
Speaker
You gotta have a few coffee stains here and there. I think we did a great job of explaining the importance of Assassin's Hero as well as our, wouldn't say improvement, our version of the Assassin's Hero. There's no true, proper Assassin's Hero.
01:00:18
Speaker
It's largely going to depend on the group. But big picture, you want to hit those points. And we gave our um addendum and flavor to it.
01:00:30
Speaker
Right, and if you've got the time in your session zero to throw that little first mini-adventure in I heartily recommend it because... We may be at anecdotal, and but it has worked out well for us.
01:00:48
Speaker
Or if you have an idea of what you want to do afterwards, try it out. See if it works for you. Yeah. Zach, put that in and and a comment or any other interaction. and Or you could send us an email about it at podcast at howwerollgaming.com.
01:01:07
Speaker
And it could be something that we include in a future episode where we say, this listener had this awesome idea for inclusion in a session zero and we're going to add it into our session zeros going forward to see how it works. or if you had a positive experience using this base method or our method as well include that and in an email message and we could discuss that.
01:01:36
Speaker
Right. Exactly. Not just email. You can check out our website at howwerollgaming.com. And there, not only will you have that way to contact us through email, there's a contact form.
01:01:51
Speaker
You'll find links to all of our socials, information about our current campaigns, and a link to our merch store that will help us keep producing the podcast, help defray some of those costs there, because you know it's a capitalist society. are you going to do?
01:02:06
Speaker
Also, feel free to comment and share our YouTube channel. Like and subscribe. ah Yeah, don't forget to like and subscribe on the YouTube. Do all the YouTube things.
01:02:19
Speaker
It helps us to defeat the true antagonist of all of all things, the algorithm. Ooh, the algorithm. I'm scared.
01:02:30
Speaker
it changes just as much as we do. And if you have any questions that you'd like us to answer, topics you'd like us to cover, or just you submit ah an RPG glory glory story or an example based on a topic that we've talked about, shoot us an email at that email address that I mentioned, which is podcast at howwerollgaming.com.
01:02:55
Speaker
Or any cool ideas and concepts, and we will we totally not steal them and use them later. Or if you have your own story stories, we may share them in in the in an episode down the line. Yep, but that is it for this episode.
01:03:13
Speaker
ah We will let you get back to everyday life, just as we are about to get back to everyday life. I don't want to go. I want to stay in the RPGs. ah We still have to sign off.
01:03:24
Speaker
Yep, we do. people So, thanks for listening again, and as always, i am Daryl. I am Nick. And I am Robert. And this is How We Roll.
01:03:38
Speaker
This episode of the How We Roll Gaming podcast is copyright 2025, How We Roll Gaming, LLC. All games and associated intellectual properties are copyrighted by their respective owners, and How We Roll Gaming makes no claim of ownership by discussing them here.