New Campaign Who Dis

Session Zero and First Play Session

2025-04-27

Contents

1. Intro
2. Session 0
   • Agenda
   • Why play D&D
   • Logistics
   • Safety
   • World Building
   • Character Creation
3. Session 0.5
   • Setup
   • Situation
   • Solution

Intro

Started a new D&D campaign last week. It was super fun!

I bought all of the new 5.5e rulebooks, and they look mostly familiar but with a few changes that I think are going to be really fun. (I’ll have to write about my thoughts on 5e vs 5.5e at a later time, maybe after we’ve played a few sessions.)

We’re playing in person, which I’m stoked about. Face-to-face 3d just hits different. Better engagement, better banter without the imperceptible video conference delay.

We kicked things off with a big session 0 and then a “session 0.5” or “halfshot” (as opposed to a oneshot) to roll some dice and play for a little bit.

Session 0

Session zero is when you have the meta-conversation about governance and playstyle, and when you establish how rulings are going to go and decide what kind of behavior and content is and is not welcome at the table.

It is very important!

Especially in a group like this. I have four players. Two, I’ve played with a bunch over the years. The other two I have never met. One of them has played a fair bit of D&D, and the other has never played a ttrpg! So we needed to establish some expectations and group norms.

I made a “slide deck” ahead of time. That is, I made a few headings and a few dotted lists to organize my thoughts¹. I did not have a screen or a projector, so I did not present the deck.

But we basically followed the agenda nonetheless.

This all took about two hours, probably most of which was character creation.

Here are the “slides”:

Agenda

• Why play D&D
• Logistics
• Safety
• World Building
• Character Creation
• Everything Else
• Halfshot?

Why play D&D

• To feel things deeply
• To create awesome stories with friends

How?

• By putting characters in interesting predicaments
• And seeing what they do

The most important thing to me is that everybody have as much fun as possible.

Logistics

• Cadence / Scheduling
• Session Length
• Location

We agreed to play at H’s house every other week for ~3 hours.

Safety

• VCR Rules: Fast-forward, pause, or rewind/redo for pacing and safety
• X-Card: The safe word is “X-Card.” Normalize it. Use it often.
• Lines: Hard No
• Veils: Soft no, “fade to black”
• EXERCISE: Write down your Lines and Veils

World Building

• Yes Please
• No Thanks

I forget where this exercise originally came from, but I call it a “World Palette.” The group collaboratively makes a list of stuff they would like to explore and experience in the game, and things they would rather not.

This helps establish a tone (serious but lighthearted) and a sort of setting: heroic fantasy vs grimdark vs science fantasy, etc.

Character Creation

• Ability Scores: Standard Array

• Sources: PHB 5.5 + Approved Source

• Trinkets: I love the D&D trinkets table and was glad to see it made it into the 2024 rules. They are so weird and gross! My players ended up with a glass vial filled with nail clippings, a metal can that has no opening but sounds as if it is filled with spiders, a gemstone that looks like a lump of coal when examined by anyone but you, and a bag containing forty-seven teeth (one of which is rotten).

• Connections: Go two turns around the table creating connections between the characters. Questions are like, “Choose one player and ask them why your character trusts theirs with their life,” and, “Ask another player what lesson your character learned from theirs.” This was very fun, and was the first thing we did that felt like play involving our characters.

• Sequel Rule: Pretend this game is the sequel to the movie of your origin story. You all know each other and trust each other. You’ve got some backstory together.

Session 0.5

What follows is a quick play recap. This was all improved on the spot, but loosely follows the start of my gamebook, Cornquest².

Setup

Tis the eve of the annual Corn Harvest Festival in Blue Harbor. The corn-ival is in full swing. Barbarian and Artificer hit up the food stalls and partake of some tamales from Tito’s Tamale Tavern. Bard and Monk enter the corn husking competition. The decimate the competition but not in the way you might think: Monk ridicules an elf child until they cry, and then notices that the gnome is cheating! The contest halts so the allegations can be investigated. They don’t “win” but they get participant ribbons.

Situation

Jermaine’s mill has been overrun with snats! (Snake-rats: long neck, venomous bites.) Production and delivery of corn meal has been halted, making it impossible to meet the demand for tamales and other corn treats.

Solution

Bard and Artificer pied-piper half the snats away from the mill and through town, kicking off a new and beloved tradition: the Running Of The Snats. They ultimately deliver the snats an Unethical Wizard’s tower for experimenting on.

Barbarian and Monk smoke out the other half of the snats and discover Jermaine’s jealous brother, Marlon, has been letting them into the mill on purpose. He never gets a turn at operating the mill, sad face, pouty face. They broker a truce between the brothers and deliver a sack of corn meal to Tito, saving the corn-ival and saving the day!