ketherian
Hi all.
So, in surfing the net (as I am want to do), I came across a new gaming term: "Session 0".
It took a bit of digging, but this seems to be the new nomenclature for a "Pre-game" (as we old foggies called it). I've always done a pre-game with my campaigns. I try to gather the players together, get them enough information to understand the world they'll be playing in and help them figure out how the party fits together and in the world. I'm rather surprised this is treated as a new idea (by some of the article's I've read at least) and find it even stranger that some seem to see this as a way to limit player's potential characters.
So, I'm curious. Do you run a Session 0?
Can it be lethal (a la old-school Traveller)?
What are your goals as a GM in a Session 0?
As a player, have you ever been through a Session 0? If so, what was your opinion of it.
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Ketherian
"Signs & Portents":http://swtwc.obsidianportal.com
Comments
part of my motivation for using a site like Obsidian Portal is to give players a "pre-game" orientation / reading assignment, rather than spend a lot of time going over the setting at the start of the first session
as life has progressed, you get out of college, it's harder to schedule game sessions... have tended towards char-gen being a pre-game homework assignment for the players (though this turned out to be somewhat disastrous in the last game I ran... a D&D one-shot for three new players... one guy made a chaotic evil character, ignoring my advice... and his girlfriend made a hermaphrodite character, which had no real effect on game-play, but was a random thing to have come up half-way through the first session... suffice to say... lesson re-learned, going back to 1-on-1 character generation / review sessions)
not that familiar with Traveller - so.... out of morbid curiosity, how exactly can pre-game sessions be lethal in that system?
I admit, a lot of the games I'm in the Session 0 is either one-on-one or (more likely) by email/chat these days. And the first group meet-up I tend to have with gamers (as a GM or PC); there's not always a lot of gaming happening. It's more of a meet-and-greet than a gaming session unless the group is really serious about it all.
Traveller was notorious for killing player-characters in the pregame. There were tables and tables that randomly generated stuff for your background (wealth, skills, adventures, ...). And in these adventures (in which you got skills, treasure and more) you could die. Frankly, it was a precursor to the Central Casting (from Task Force Games, (C) 1988) that I adore. So the adventures (whether you role-played them or just took the table results) ideally generated an incredibly rich and detailed background--assuming you survived.
Your previous game sounds rough. How long did it run?
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Ketherian
"Signs & Portents":https://swtwc.obsidianportal.com
Signs & Portends, Dwarves of Lost Koldukar, In a certain realm
IIRC, Traveller had the same kind of death as the fighter? In some battle somewhere your ship gets blown up and your character gets a post-humous promotion and you start over.
And with all the tables and intricacies, I've found that group generation as a player group helps to keep the group to one that will at least usually cooperate and not have several people who will just out right shoot, stab, fireball the others on sight. My group has issues.
~Weasel0
A Parade of Black | ShadowRunHack |
Where I play with CSS code
twigs
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
@Basileus - I didn't know that about Fate Core. I've had friends saying I should look into that game for ages, but I never have. Now you've given me reason to -waste my weekend when I should be working on my game- spend some time researching this further. Thanks!
@twiggyleaf - that's kinda what happens with me/my games/games I'm in; regardless of how much time we spend online trying to get things done, I always default to one-on-one sessions to assure things get done. Of course, getting folk together for that one-on-one time isn't always possible. Even though everyone's in the same city (and a short public-transit ride away), skype and google hangouts are my main means of doing this sort of paperwork.
#Tau_Cetacean - ouch! It held together longer than I would have though. Wow.
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Ketherian
"Signs & Portents":https://swtwc.obsidianportal.com
Signs & Portends, Dwarves of Lost Koldukar, In a certain realm
* It encourages your players to create pre-existing bonds between their characters, giving them reasons to already want to work together.
* It prevents the "I know what you said, but I went ahead and made a CE character anyway who is going to backstab/sabotage the rest of the table" scenario.
* It gives the GM loads of character-driven story hooks, so the game will be specifically important to the PCs and their goals.
I've done this with my last three campaigns, and it has worked very well for us. For a specific example, I knew one campaign would start out with an earthquake that caused the PCs to be trapped in a tunnel. I told them to come up with reasons why they were in that tunnel in the first place. It worked fantastically.
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And "Traveller is still around":http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/rpgs/traveller.html, and it's also still pretty damn awesome. Players can start with a concept of what they want to do, but the odds of actually making it to that goal during character generation are pretty low. But that's actually the awesome; coming up with the complications and reasons for directional changes is a _blast._
Ptolus, City by the Spire - 2016 Campaign of the Year
"Please pay attention very carefully, because this is the truest thing a stranger will ever say to you: In the face of such hopelessness as our eventual, unavoidable death, there is little sense in not at least TRYING to accomplish all your wildest dreams in life." - - Kevin Smith
Ultimately, since most of my games pull heavily from character backstory, I use session 0 for pre-game world building and to create my starting point.
As Always,
_~Mae_
~Mae
CotM Selection Committee
Ptolus, City by the Spire - 2016 Campaign of the Year
"Please pay attention very carefully, because this is the truest thing a stranger will ever say to you: In the face of such hopelessness as our eventual, unavoidable death, there is little sense in not at least TRYING to accomplish all your wildest dreams in life." - - Kevin Smith
A Fate game is a bit different as Character creation is an interactive procedure between players. Now, my groups skips the City Creation phase, that is still the pervue of the GM. Though players do contribute a location specific to their character, well if they want the extra Fate point for it they do.
Having a formal Session 0 outside of a Fate game though, would probably bore me. When I'm at the table, I wanna game. And me, and the rest of my players, well, we are more interested in playing characters we like than in what might provide party balance. Even when playing D&D. If no one wants to play a cleric or healer, oh well. The DM tones down the combats, runs an NPC cleric, or we all stock up on potions and such and suffer the consequences.
Keelah Se'lai,
Keryth
"Shadows Over New York":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/shadows-over-new-york
"2013 Campaign of The Year":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/2013-coty-shadows-over-new-york/
"Campaign of the Month July 2013":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/shadows-over-new-york-julys-campaign-of-the-month/
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twigs
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
It's also a really sneaky way to see if players get along and can work together over simpler things.
Whenever I've rushed it, I've had problems as a GM. Admittedly, I don't have a "regular group" to roleplay with. There's always someone new (often multiple new someones).
I don't think there's really a standard Session 0 or pregame. It depends too much on the people, the game system, and the chosen world and adventure types.
Signs & Portends, Dwarves of Lost Koldukar, In a certain realm