The unpredictable session zero

We can (and probably should) prepare for our session zero. Session zero is the kick-off for a campaign, the session before the first session. But while we can prepare a lot of things which we’ll talk about below, character and party creation led by the players will remain largely unpredictable. And that is part of the excitement of a session zero. It’s like a writers’ room. We get together with the players and collaboratively build characters, worlds, and stories.

What we need for session zero

There are a couple of things we can prepare for a successful session zero, even though the process itself will remain elusive until the players start making characters.

• Theme of the campaign
• Motivation of the party
• Character secrets
• Safety tools

Everyone will have their own kind of list like this one. But these four steps should give us a solid foundation to streamline our writers’ room session zero.

Campaign themes

What’s the campaign about? What is the central tension of the campaign world? What will be the feeling of the campaign? Swashbuckling naval exploration? Old-school dungeon crawling? Political intrigue? Telling the players what the themes of the campaign are let’s them build fitting characters. A cursed pirate character will have fewer connections to an Underdark campaign. A rabbit person looking for a way back into the Feywild might derail our intrigue-at-court campaign vibes.

When players know the theme of the campaign before they build characters, they can build characters better suited to the campaign.

Party motivation

»Your character works together with the other characters to…« I have used this formulation for almost every session zero I’ve run. We tell the players what motivation to build into their characters. It’s not railroading, it’s not taking away agency. Like the campaign themes, this allows all the writers in the writers’ room (e.g. players in the session zero) to work together more smoothly from the beginning. We set our writers/players up for success by telling them why their characters work together. It’s on them to figure out how to build a character around the party motivation.

Character secrets

I’ve previously talked about handing out character secrets before a session. We can do the same during a session zero. Give each player a piece of information which involves their character in the adventure we are planning to run. Again, we do this before the characters have been finalized to give our writers/players more to play with during the writers’ room/session zero.

A version of character secrets are character connections. We can invite players to think of connections in the backstory of characters before the adventure begins. Are some characters siblings? Former lovers? Ran away together? Protected each other? We can have players roll on a list of possible character connections to establish pre-existing ties between characters.

Here’s a character secret generator to get some inspiration for character secrets: Character Secret Generator.

Safety tools

There are many safety tool options out there. I like to use lines, veils, and a verbal X-card. By talking about safety tools with our players before the game begins, we create trust. We let the players know that any concerns will be heard. This is their game as much as ours, together we can make it fun for everyone.

Running a session zero

There’s no fixed dramaturgy to a session zero. No template for how it’s going to go. Remember, we can think of session zero as a writers’ room. Writers’ gonna write, but all else is uncertain. Here’s a couple broad steps which usually happen during my session zeros:

• The DM introduces campaign themes, party motivation, character secrets and safety tools.
• Players build characters.
• We play a short adventure, often a single encounter.

There are other bits and pieces. For example, at various points during the session zero, I will go around the table and have everyone give an update on their current character building process. This allows for constant feedback, building connections between characters, and tying characters to the campaign.

However, the three elements, DM introduction, character building, and introduction adventure always take place in my session zero.

Facilitating the writers’ room

There’s a few things we can do to create the writers’ room atmosphere in our session zero. The goal is an open, collaborative setting where players talk freely, build connections, and inspire each other. Here’s what works for me:

• Facilitate Connections. We can get up and walk around the table. Suggest connections between characters where they make sense.
• Encourage Cross-Talk. We want players to freely talk with each other. But not always as the group as a whole. Encourage players to talk in smaller groups of two or three to deepen individual character connections.
• Adapt! The writers’ room includes us as the DM. We provide character secrets and encourage character connections, but we also need to be ready to adapt them. If a great new idea arises in a session zero, we should be ready to incorporate it into our campaign.

The unpredictable creativity of session zero

There’s something exciting about session zero in particular. For me, it’s the writers’ room atmosphere. The creative uncertainty of new characters being born, of a campaign world being filled with life, and of unexpected twists and turns in the process. Embrace the creative chaos of session zero as a writers’ room.

We guide the players with themes, motivations, and secrets, but we also let them explore freely in our session zero writers’ room.