Starting a new campaign: Session zero

[OnlineDM]

I recently started a new campaign and put up a blog post about the experience. I'd like to hear how other people handle the beginning of a new campaigns.

In the past, since the folks I've played with all use the 4th Edition Character Builder software, everyone has created their characters on their own at home with little coordination. I know that this is not the norm for older editions, so I decided to try a group character creation session.

We're starting the ZEITGEIST campaign, and I sent everyone the Players Guide a couple of weeks in advance and a reminder a couple of days in advance to at least glance at the guide.

We sat together around the table. I described the world of the game. I went through the real character "hooks" for the setting - the eight campaign-specific character themes. Players started talking about themes that appealed to them.

We moved on to talking about classes - did people already know what they wanted to play? What sort of roles did they want to fulfill in a party? Was there a race that seemed like a lot of fun to them?

We rolled up ability scores using dice (old school by 4e standards). Players started riffing off one another, helping each other pick classes and naming their characters. We started drawing connections between the characters, figuring out how they might know one another.

And then we stopped. Everyone had enough to go on, and they all planned to use the Character Builder for these new characters. They're spending the time between session zero and session one refining things, picking feats and powers, etc. We then put those characters aside and played an abbreviated session with the characters from our wrapping-up campaign, so we could still scratch the gaming itch for the day.

I liked this approach, and I think the players did, too. They seem much more energized about this new campaign and their characters than I think they would have been if we had rolled things up separately.

How do you like to start a new campaign? Do you do a "session zero" that's dedicated to character creation? Do you start the campaign the same day? How much does the particular game / edition you're playing affect the approach?

 

[Gilladian]

I sort of do similar things with character creation. As an old campaign winds down, I start throwing out suggestions for a new one (I'm always the DM). This last time, I suggested either Kingmaker or Dragon's Delve (the dungeon-a-day massive 20 lvl dungeon). They seemed more interested Dragon's Delve, though I've left a bunch of sandbox material from Kingmaker dotted around...

Anyway, they all had time to start discussing characters and choices. One player called dibs on a fighter, while another chose wizard. A third decided that since he'd never run a cleric, he'd try that. And the fourth agreed he'd run the rogue, and be a grippli, since it was the biggest change from his previous lion-man barbarian he could envision.

Before the character creation session, I worked with two of the players on their character backgrounds, and got some ideas going. I gave everyone a handout from the D-a-D website, modified for my campaign setting, that outlined the town, the dungeon history as they knew it, etc... and a couple of generic adventure lead-ins.

By the end of character creation, we knew who had arrived in town recently, who lived there, how they met, what the cleric was "up to", and a number of other things. We play exclusively 3.5, and always roll stats, 4d6 drop the lowest... We did jump directly into play, because at that point I feel going back to an old game just knocks people out of the mindset. Character creation took a full session, yes, but it did include a good bit of "introductory roleplay", so there was no feeling of "we didn't get to play". The next week, they were ready to go shopping and then head off for the dungeon...

 

[delericho]

In my most recent (3.5e) campaign, we had a full char-gen session. The players were all present, and we stepped through char-gen from start to finish (mechanically speaking). We then had a high-level discussion about how each of the characters fit in to the setting (Eberron), the campaign, how they knew other PCs, and what their individual goals were.

For the current (4e Dark Sun) game I'm playing in, we had the same sort of discussions via the message board on our Meetup site. The DM then went away and created the characters using the Character Builder. This worked okay, especially since it's intended to be a short-lived game, but I think I'll be resisting it in future - some of the characters are rather better optimised than others.

 

[BriarMonkey]

For as long as I can remember, we've done a character generation session.

Some were more in depth than others, depending on the system, but there was at least one session where we set up the general premise of the campaign (even if it's a sandbox), and crafted characters. The session was as much about answering questions about the campaign as it was figuring out what the party was going to look like. The GM fielded any questions that the characters needed to know (such as what type of enemy would be appropriate for the ranger's favored enemy; appropriate languages; starting knowledge and locale; etc.), and the players worked amongst themselves to figure out any cross-character dynamics.

Depending on how long it took before people were comfortable with the characters, that first session normally also included an intro to the campaign - most often with the characters meeting (if not already done) and getting their first adventure hook (which sometimes included their first combat).

For some who were more meticulous, or slower, they would finish their characters up between this and the next session.

With the second session, the GM normally gave a quick check over the character sheets (you would be surprised how often people would forget to do things like note what languages their character knew) and make notes for himself about the characters (like noting thier saving throws for those times when the players didn't know what was happening).

Then it was on to the adventuring.

 

[SkredlitheOgre]

Up until my Pathfinder campaign started (about a year ago), we had always done a CharGen session. While I generally enjoy these, playing GURPS Supers with 800 points got time consuming. I started running out of places to spend points.

Anyway, we usually do the same thing you talked about: we play off of each other and help each other out, complimenting each others abilities. Except for the one player who played the exact same character over and over. We just 'complimented' around her.

When we started PF, I let everyone roll of their characters on their own time, but they had to email me the general idea of their character and anything specific about the character they wanted me to know. Everything else was fine when we started.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I've never done a ChaGen session on either side of a screen, though I do try to give my players a heads-up on major campaign features to aid in player brainstorming.

However, I HAVE worked with other players so our PCs could have linked backgrounds. Off the top of my head, I've played one of a pair of identical twin sisters, the midget Half-giant (only 6'5") who was best buddies with a dwarf who was unusually large (an imposing 5'5"), the slow-witted but physically impressive warrior sidekick of a manipulative thief*, and the servant/lifelong buddy of the wastrel son of a wealthy merchant.









* decades later, I had a similar dynamic in a V:tM game, with me playing an insane but powerful Brujah who hung with another player's Brujah lowlife who used him as a weapon...against other vampires, mainly. Think of a twisted version of The Tick & Arthur.

 

[.5 Elf]

Well since I am starting a new campaign this is relevant to my interests.

I just cooked up this pdf based on some of the questionnaires that have been circulating around EN world for some time. it is also a downloadable link on the Bad Wrong Fun site in the 1st Adventure Log.

Here is an pic of it for those who like to look before they leap.

Enjoy

 

[tuxgeo]

Well since I am starting a new campaign this is relevant to my interests.

I just cooked up this pdf based on some of the questionnaires that have been circulating around EN world for some time. it is also a downloadable link on the Bad Wrong Fun site in the 1st Adventure Log.

I tried the link and got an "Error 403" message, which suggested that I should log in first. (Couldn't get the PDF.)

 

[.5 Elf]

I tried the link and got an "Error 403" message, which suggested that I should log in first. (Couldn't get the PDF.)

You tried the link here or on my site?

I just tested the link here and it works fine for me?

*Edit*

Logged out of my site too and it worked fine there in the Downloads section as well as the Adventure Log - try again? perhaps?

 

[Elf Witch]

I tried the link and got an "Error 403" message, which suggested that I should log in first. (Couldn't get the PDF.)

Same thing happened to me as well.