BookTenTiger
He / Him
Well I've finally done it. After moving to Atlanta 18 months ago, I've finally found some folks who want to play D&D! I am very excited and wanted to post some initial thoughts here. I'll also be posting some house rules I'm considering.
The players are all brand new to TTRPGs. Two of the players are my coworkers, and two are their significant others. For the first time in my gaming history the majority of my players will be women!
We have done two introductory sessions with premade characters. In the first session, they explored an old tower, seeking out a cure for a mysterious Curse of Crows. In the second adventure they rescued a kidnapped band of musicians from a gang of goblins and their pet cockatrice. Everyone had a good time, and by the end of the second adventure they were talking about creating character backstories and playing in longer adventures.
I brought up a dream of mine: creating a campaign setting together. And they were into it! We talked about picking out monsters, environments, adventure ideas together...
Well, that was a few weeks ago, and now that the holidays are over we are coming back together for our official Session 0!
Here's what I'm thinking for a general Session 0 Plan:
1) First we are going to flip through the Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master's Guide and talk about the kinds of classes and races we want to play, the kinds of foes or challenges we want to face, the kinds of adventures we want to go on, and any optional rules that sound interesting.
2) Inspired by Ironsworn, I created a series of questions to guide our campaign creation process. You can see it here (and feel free to copy it). There are questions on Gameplay (tone, risk, level of tech), Setting (environment, power structure, common folk), Magic (arcane, divine, primal), and Threats (danger level, mortal foes, supernatural forces). As we discuss and answer the questions, I'll sketch a map on grid paper.
3) The final three questions are all about the first adventure: where it takes place (home town, big city, etc), how the characters are connected (friends and family, all know the same NPC, etc), and the motivation for their first quest (treasure, rescue, etc).
4) Once we are done with the campaign setting, it'll be time to create characters. Since these are brand new players, I'll want to provide a guiding hand. I think I can more easily manage two at a time, especially since I have two Player's Handbooks.
5) While I help two of the players make characters, the others will be creating our starting town! I created this Settlement Character Sheet with lots of options to choose from. Two players will complete the front of the sheet, and two will complete the back.
6) By the end of Session 0, we will have a Campaign Setting, new characters, and a starting town! If there's still time, I might do a little practice combat encounter so the players can try out their characters.
So those are my initial thoughts for my Session 0 tomorrow! Soon I'll post the House Rules I'll be using.
The players are all brand new to TTRPGs. Two of the players are my coworkers, and two are their significant others. For the first time in my gaming history the majority of my players will be women!
We have done two introductory sessions with premade characters. In the first session, they explored an old tower, seeking out a cure for a mysterious Curse of Crows. In the second adventure they rescued a kidnapped band of musicians from a gang of goblins and their pet cockatrice. Everyone had a good time, and by the end of the second adventure they were talking about creating character backstories and playing in longer adventures.
I brought up a dream of mine: creating a campaign setting together. And they were into it! We talked about picking out monsters, environments, adventure ideas together...
Well, that was a few weeks ago, and now that the holidays are over we are coming back together for our official Session 0!
Here's what I'm thinking for a general Session 0 Plan:
1) First we are going to flip through the Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master's Guide and talk about the kinds of classes and races we want to play, the kinds of foes or challenges we want to face, the kinds of adventures we want to go on, and any optional rules that sound interesting.
2) Inspired by Ironsworn, I created a series of questions to guide our campaign creation process. You can see it here (and feel free to copy it). There are questions on Gameplay (tone, risk, level of tech), Setting (environment, power structure, common folk), Magic (arcane, divine, primal), and Threats (danger level, mortal foes, supernatural forces). As we discuss and answer the questions, I'll sketch a map on grid paper.
3) The final three questions are all about the first adventure: where it takes place (home town, big city, etc), how the characters are connected (friends and family, all know the same NPC, etc), and the motivation for their first quest (treasure, rescue, etc).
4) Once we are done with the campaign setting, it'll be time to create characters. Since these are brand new players, I'll want to provide a guiding hand. I think I can more easily manage two at a time, especially since I have two Player's Handbooks.
5) While I help two of the players make characters, the others will be creating our starting town! I created this Settlement Character Sheet with lots of options to choose from. Two players will complete the front of the sheet, and two will complete the back.
6) By the end of Session 0, we will have a Campaign Setting, new characters, and a starting town! If there's still time, I might do a little practice combat encounter so the players can try out their characters.
So those are my initial thoughts for my Session 0 tomorrow! Soon I'll post the House Rules I'll be using.