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Message: <blockquote data-quote="OnlineDM" data-source="post: 5748244" data-attributes="member: 90804">I recently started a new campaign and put up a <a href="http://onlinedm.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/campaign-session-zero-group-character-creation/" target="_blank">blog post</a> 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?</blockquote>

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