EN World system agnostic Session 0 guide

OUTLINE


GROUP STRUCTURE

• System
• Schedule
• Location
• Social contract
• GM expectations
• Player expectations

GAME STRUCTURE

• Setting
• Theme
• Tone
• Length
• Rate of progression
• Allowable sources

PARTY STRUCTURE

• Group identity
• Character creation
• Party roles
• Player roles

MISCELLANEOUS

• House rules, rulings, variants
• Verify and finalize session 0 settings

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DETAILED


GROUP STRUCTURE

System: What game will you play?

Schedule: What time and date will the group convene?

Location: Where will the group meet?

Social contract: Something something words

GM expectations: What does the GM want from the players? What does the GM want to give them?

Player expectations: What do the players want from the GM? What do the players want to give the GM?


GAME STRUCTURE

Setting

Theme

Tone

Length

Rate of progression

Allowable sources


PARTY STRUCTURE

Group identity

Character creation

Party roles

Player roles


MISCELLANEOUS

House rules, rulings, variants

I'm soliciting suggestions for the questions and topics that should appear within a session-0 guide. I know there are several guides out there already, but I don't think I've seen any groupthink-derived ones, and I think it will useful for the community. Feel free to add/edit/remove/elaborate on points as the guide grows. I'll check in regularly to maintain the thread.

This is a really great idea. Some points I'd like to add, but I'll put them here first for discussion. First up, social contract. I'll also include a couple sample bits.

Social Contract
This should include behavior for the group:
"leave the play area cleaner then you arrived", "alcohol is/is not okay", "need to keep down the volume after 10pm", "we order pizza, let us know if you want to be in", "we play down one player, we cancel down two", "anyone can veto a new player"

The DM's expectations of the players about the game:
"if you don't agree with a ruling, bring it up. But I may make a a call just to keep the game moving and we can discuss offline", "in combat be ready to take your turn", "no phones at the table", "I find it's a better table experience with everyone roughly around the same power level - if you lag to far behind or are too far ahead of the pack I'll ask you to tune/detune your character", "one warning for cheating, and then out"

What the players should expect from the DM:
"This is going to be a heroic, high mythical game. It will be full of shades of grey and Faustian choices. It will be RP heavy and we'll be spending a good amount of time on exploration and social encounters, so I give out XP for milestones and good RP instead of defeating encounters.", "I expect death to be rare, but it is not off the table. But it will either be meaningful, or a combination of both poor planning and bad luck. New players will come in one level behind, replacement characters come in at 1st.", "I roll in front of you. Feel free to look at my dice and take what you can from it - your characters can judge lucky blows from solid hits.", "I like magic items, so there will be lots of them, but they will not be customized for your character - use them if you can, figure something else if you can't."

Character & Setting Creation can be fairly intertwined.

Setting Creation
Depending on the the DM and the system, creating or some fleshing out of the setting (world, town, whatever) with the player, and how it relates to their characters may be part of the character creation process.

Some systems have ornate systems for creating fronts, for connecting characters to things important (positive and negative) in the setting including NPCs and other characters.

Other have options for it. For example, 13th Age can easily have organizations and places in the world fleshed out from character's Backgrounds and their One Unique Thing.

Some FATE-based games have characters creating shared parts of their background, creating a relationship, texture, and referable shared backstory before the first session.

Character Creation
Even for settings that don't have mechanical connections between the characters and the worlds can still benefit from being created together during a session 0. The chance to riff off each other on ideas for background and if characters have met. Conversation about team synergies as well as making sure there are no unintentional holes or multiple characters who step on each other's toes. "What do you mean we're both 'the best pickpocket in the land'?"

Blue said:

This is a really great idea. Some points I'd like to add, but I'll put them here first for discussion. First up, social contract. I'll also include a couple sample bits.

Social Contract
This should include behavior for the group:
"leave the play area cleaner then you arrived", "alcohol is/is not okay", "need to keep down the volume after 10pm", "we order pizza, let us know if you want to be in", "we play down one player, we cancel down two", "anyone can veto a new player"

The DM's expectations of the players about the game:
"if you don't agree with a ruling, bring it up. But I may make a a call just to keep the game moving and we can discuss offline", "in combat be ready to take your turn", "no phones at the table", "I find it's a better table experience with everyone roughly around the same power level - if you lag to far behind or are too far ahead of the pack I'll ask you to tune/detune your character", "one warning for cheating, and then out"

What the players should expect from the DM:
"This is going to be a heroic, high mythical game. It will be full of shades of grey and Faustian choices. It will be RP heavy and we'll be spending a good amount of time on exploration and social encounters, so I give out XP for milestones and good RP instead of defeating encounters.", "I expect death to be rare, but it is not off the table. But it will either be meaningful, or a combination of both poor planning and bad luck. New players will come in one level behind, replacement characters come in at 1st.", "I roll in front of you. Feel free to look at my dice and take what you can from it - your characters can judge lucky blows from solid hits.", "I like magic items, so there will be lots of them, but they will not be customized for your character - use them if you can, figure something else if you can't."

Click to expand...

Thanks for kickin' things off, Blue

In the last block (what players should expect from the DM) you wrote a number of items that I think should appear as items on this list rather than GM fiat. Stuff like themes ("Faustian choices"), rate of progression (milestones), and so on. Not that it's unusual for a GM to decide some things in advance of session 0 - I've never started a new group not knowing which system I was going to run, for instance - but in the future, more detailed version of this guide, I think we should avoid implying in our examples that any particular aspect of session 0 is automatically GM's choice.