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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fenris-77" data-source="post: 7975094" data-attributes="member: 6993955">My biggest concern in session zero is the pitch for the campaign and securing player buy in. I want to make sure they know what the plan is, what kind of game it's going to be, and any idiosyncrasies about my DM style. I always do that before character gen too. If I'm going to run urban intrigue I want the players to know that, or if the campaign is going to take place mostly in the jungles of Chult with only the occasional glimpse of civilization, I want them to know that too. If a player makes an urban focused character for a wilderness game I want want them to have done that on purpose for the fish-out-of-water thing not because they had no idea what the campaign was and now their character doesn't get to do what he does best.One of the other important things I take care of in session zero is working with the players to see what parts of their backgrounds and story they actually want, or might want incorporated into the game, if there's an opportunity. I don't want to reference three pages of cramped hand written life story, I just want some bullet points I can crayon onto the back of my napkin next to the campaign map and some smears of yesterday's egg breakfast.The last thing I really like to spend some time on in session zero is to talk to the players about how they see their characters, and what sorts of things they really want an opportunity to do with those characters. Sometimes that's the obvious stuff, but sometimes you get some solid gold stuff you never would have thought of otherwise. Items two and three above are mostly about ensuring that I understand the characters my players have drawn up beyond simply looking at their stats. I find I plan and execute better that way, and least form a player enjoyment standpoint.</blockquote>

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