Session Zero

"Jesus, am I playing an RPG or signing a pre-nup?"
* Pre-nups are targeted for just two people, and marriages are still complicated things.
* Now imagine a relationship where you have 4 to 7 others, and then restrict all people in that relationship to seeing each others maybe 1 to 4 times a month and those times are then limited to 3-6 hours? During those hours, everyone is there to achieve, or progress, towards some sort of fictional goal collective goal, arbitrated by only one of those relationship members. Outside of these sessions, contact between these people may be a rare occurrence due to these people living separate lives.
* Point being, social dynamics are not easy. Even if you have a good set of friends, if you fail to have a session-0 before your campaign starts, the DM will be spending the next 12+ sessions of the game covering and explaining all the things that could have been covered in an hour of Session-0.
=== Setting expectations? ===
* Roleplay / combat / exploration are the three pillars of RPGs. Roleplay-heavy / combat-heavy / etc. can mean very different things, so be specific:
** Some dungeon delvers would say a game is 'roleplay-heavy' if it involves basically any roleplaying at all outside of the random banter, or interrogation, that might occur creatures leading up to combat.
** Theater kids might consider a game 'combat-heavy' if it has a dungeon every ten sessions to break up the angsty crying or heavy political intrigue.
** Personally, I tend to open up for plenty of time to roleplay, but aim to have at least one combat encounter per session, not always, but there will never be two sessions without combat. Combat will also happen way more often if having entered a dungeon.
* How deadly is the campaign? Is death possible at all, how possible is it - does it happen as a result of a simple bad decision making, sprung on them out of the blue, etc? Should players bring a back-up character sheet with them? And how easy is resurrection?
** Personally, I feel the game benefits from death being ever present, I don't give plot armor for any reason, but I do not actively try to kill the players and try to be as lenient as humanly possible, within the scope of the situation, to avoid player kills and TPKs. That being said, I never fudge dice and if fighting intelligent beings, hungry animals, or walk straight into a trap capable of killing you, you will die. I generally try to clearly project any increased likelyhood of danger or death well in advance, to the extent the characters in questions would pick up on it.
* Narrative style: Linear / non-linear / sandbox. 
** Linear meaning that there is a causality between the order of events; X happened, therefore Y happened and then if X & Y happened, Z happens. All linear adventures have non-linear bits to them (Baldurs Gate 3 is a linear adventure).
** Non-linear is where X, Y and Z can happen in any order and there is nothing necessarily linking them together (this is most exploration video games, where each region have their own story and you can visit them in any order without it affecting anything).
** Sandbox adventure is where there are no predetermined events. There are no X, Y or Z. The story happens when the players make a choice to do a thing, there are (at least initially) no overarching plot.
=== Player Behavior, Game Behavior & DM Expectations ===
* Alcohol: Alcohol is always welcome, just know your limits.
* Cellphones & Digital Devices: Generally keep phones and tables out of sight, but the occasional class feature check cannot be avoided in the beginning.
* Player Attention: Let other people have the spotlight without disruption, you will get your turn. In combat, ensure you are somewhat ready when your turn comes around, if caught with your pants down with no idea what is going on, you will take the dodge action and be skipped. Even out of combat I use hourglasses to keep the pace when time is a critial factor.
* Unannounced dice rolls: Dice rolls that affect the game needs to be prompted by the DM - a casual dice roll that lands on a nat-20 won't magically be your next perception check.
* Player Vs Player: 
**Dice rolls cannot be used to persuade fellow PCs - despite this, a friendly agreement in the moment can allow for this anyway, but you cannot force another player to see your course of action as the right one.
**Unless all are in agreement of its entertainment value, tension between characters should be avoided. We are here to have fun. 
**Small scale arm wrestling confrontations (or similar) are fine and can create fun moments.
* PC Secrets: 
**Players can keep all the secrets they want, but secrets tell a great deal about the backstory of the PC and as such, should be shared with the table at some point, otherwise they bring no value. 
**Players should avoid keeping secrets from the DM as I can't make your sweet, well thought out plan come into existence if I do not know it - want to capture a lord by positioning him under a chandelier that is about to drop, then I need to know this is what you are going for, otherwise he might just boingly step to the other side than what you had hoped for.
* Player Expectations, Types, Goals & Diversity: What happens when one players expectations ruins the fun of another player? Does every player at our table need to be there for the same reasons as ever other player? Is it ok for that Tim is only here for the sweet loot & EXP, while Mary is here to role-play her snow-flake? Ann is just here to 'kill shit', while Steve has brought a completely min/maxed PC to the table, & poor Billy, he is here just to hang out with is friends & have pizza. - we are here to have fun, but some may have different ideas of what fun is. Similarly, talk through the goal/theme you would prefer; want to solve a crime/transporting stolen goods/clear a dungeon/save a town/take down a corrupt politician/want the full sandbox experience with finding your own adventure and making a name for yourself from the ground-up?
* Player Time Investment: How much time do you want to dedicate to playing and especially for the character creation. I've tried everything from just creating the character-sheets and off to the races (create the character as we go), to meticulously crafting each character and their background, from which the entire campaign was then build from, after which the players were paired up and their stories interwoven with an interductory session-0.5, where a several hour 'scene' played out for each pair to establish those charaters to the rest of the group. Similarly, scheduling - do we play ad-hoc/once a month/bi-weekly/weekly?
* Player Agency: Depending on the choices you make and paths you choose there are a slew of ways for you to intermittently lose control of your character - you might become possessed by objects, curses, enemies or even your own patron, contract lycanthropy (become a werewolf), become petrified or be faced with save-or-die spells/circumstances. Players (veteran or not) may actually welcome & want this kind of thing interactions, while others may not.
**How much players can sculpt the world is entirely dependent on how much time they dedicate to understand it - you can create new NPCs, areas, cultural landmarks, or even entire towns all by yourself, which I will make permanent parts of the world, as long as you match the tone of the world and it makes sense for the region. Have a talk with your DM - You are always welcome to make up as much as you want, but if it doesn't fit, then it will be seen as little more than your character misremembering things or having a lively imagination, and NPCs will likely correct you.
* Game Balance & Fairness: Depending on the specific requests for the game setup, I normally run a very sandboxy campaign, where players can stumble into the Ancient Red Dragon's lair at level 1 if they so please. Lethal dangers are not hidden away, more often than not, they stand out starkly from the background. Outside of this, I strive to balance each encounter to what makes sense - raiding an encampment at lvl 2; don't expect it to be empty except for two lonely orcs for some strange reason. Gather intel before you get butchered. Also check out the House Rules for specifics.
* Rule Debates: I generally prefer to make quick rulings to keep the pace of the game, then verify post-session. Some rules might have to be looked up in case of critical outcomes - generally I very much prefer 'Rules As Intended' (RAI) to 'Rules As Written' (RAW)
* Meta-knowledge: Using meta knowledge (knowledge from outside the game) is generally frowned upon, but almost all challenges and monsters will be custom made anyway, so won't do you much good.
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* Min-Maxing: Going back to player expectations above, I've seen many games ruined by imbalanced team compositions, where some play to be part of the story and others 'play to win' - both extremes can have a negative impact on the group; a snowflake character riddled with fear and build on niche spells and crappy attributes will do as much damage to the balance of a team as a min-maxed multiclassing palading with 20 in Cha from lvl 1.
* Murder Hobos: From experience, mindless slaughter creates more problems than it solves (see also the character creation section on character tropes to avoid). But if this is what the group wishes, we can make a campaign around it. A word of warning, the general areas of the world are part of a functional society, and as such, has wanted posters, guilds, communication infrastructure and investigators, making heinous acts a potential death spiral depending on how brazen you are.
*Player Discomfort: Any topics off-limits? If so, they will be entirely avoided or simply included in the list of anything that we obviously don't want to play out at the table, such as brothel visits, where we simply skip forward in time. 
=== Game-style, Character Lifestyle ===
* Type of Game: I generally go for a very open sandbox game, but have seen this lead to 'choice overload bias' several times, where players had a hard time making a decision/choice due to being presented with numerous options of leads to follow/opponents to face/people to help/challenges to solve. Alternatively, we can go for a more rail-roady gameplay, with a rail-road that leads to a sandbox, or a sandbox where players can jump on & off the railroad only at certain points, or something else entirely. 
**The players are a tiny cog in a greater machine. The overall game progresses whether you partake in it or not. If hiding out in a cave for a month, you can be damn sure the bad guy will take the chance to swoop in and find that remaining magical item he needs to complete his ritual / take down the barrier of a targeted sanctuary, or similar. 
**The story narrative will be whatever fits the group, but expect a city centered adventure to include some aspects of politics and conspiracy, while a more off-the-grid setting will involve much more combat, mystery and light survival aspects.
*PC Experience: Milestones. I generally try to tie in personal progression and story progression, meaning that if you use most of your time durdling around by spying on/stealing from every single freemen in town, neither you nor the plot progresses. However, if you use your time effectively, making alliances and friendships (or enemies), researching in the library, creating new story lines, investigating leads, eliminating enemies where they might hide, you will see swift progress.
* Campaign Length: From experience, unless we are specifically striving for a fast-paced campaign with lots of time skips, don't expect your character to be able to reach level 14 or similar if we start at lvl 1. If you are new to the game, maybe consider a small, isolated mini campaign to get a feel for the game.
* In-game Adventurers: 'Adventurers' are seldom looked up to in the general term and have a slew of names depending on the circumstances:
**Saint: An adventurer of great renoun or one admired by a region or city. These names are often attached to a city name or a deed done in the past.
**Adventurer: Self-explanatory. Most often meant as a compliment, denoting a certain amount of skill or proficiency in a set of skills that often lies dangerously close to a profiency in killing.
**Sellsword: Generally used for mercenaries. Carries a sour taste for an adventurer. These are often in the service of a guild, especially a smaller one not connected to the clergy. More positive variations include ‘big game hunters’, ‘witch hunters’, etc.
**Spook: Traveller earning coin by fulfilling bounties from slaying or capturing foes of the night. Can be a well meant title to announce that these people are here to solve problems and scare off the dark, or a derogatory term to indicate that they are here to stir up trouble.
**Highwaymen: Could be anyone, someone going from A to B. Often a neutral, if low socially, term.
* In-game politics & factions: The Union (generally simply referred to as 'Alera') is a federated realm by the consolidation of the six ranges that make up the southern part of the continent Alera. In practice it is an oligarchy controlled by the nobility. On paper it is a republic. As such it has lots of political intrigue, hidden agendas and infighting in the shadows. Despite this, most towns, factions and guilds go about their daily lives without being actively involved in these power plays.
* Start/Standing: Where do you want to start? - 1st level, or perhaps at a higher level? If higher level, flush out the backstories; are these characters members of a town? a guild? a religion? How long have they been members? How did the character get their higher levels? During this time, have these character somehow earned some minor notoriety? Similarly, we can move the timeline back some years to a violent, more magical time, or we can play out decisive moment in the history of the world that led to this moment in time, and who knows, maybe change something fundamental in doing so.
*Starting bonus: I generally have all PCs start with a full hit die of additional health (noone likes dying to a stray boss crit at the end of session 2). In addition, I allow all PCs to pick a free Feat from the homebrewed ones, just to put some mechanical connection to their backstory (see Feats below).
* Character Context: You backstory, proficiency and origin will feed into a lot about what what you as a character knows. E.g; A goody2shoes would never know anything about the criminal underworld or gang affiliations dispite having 20+ Int.
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*Feats: I love feats and have created a slew of them throughout the years (link), often created specifically for a player as a reward for character progress. That being said, some feats are just plain busted and I prefer players to stay away from these (Great Weapon Master, Sharpshooter, Lucky, as well as the 'Polearm Master+Sentinel'-combo).
* Mounts & pets: Mounts and pets are lots of fun at the table, both for me to roleplay, but also for the players to interact with. However, keep in mind that any mount or pet that actively partakes in combat will be as much of a target as any NPC or player. Bonus: as long as you don't make me go out of my way research the mounted combat rules, I won't go out of my way to help your mount find an unfortunate death. 
=== The DM ===
* DM Style - As a DM, what is your style? Are you a RAW or RAI type DM? Do you prefer to improvise or prepare? Do you like making rulings on the spot & looking them up later, or would you rather pause the game & look up the rules? Do you like home-brewing & having home-brew content, or do you prefer to minimize home-brew? Do you prefer story over mechnics? Do you want ROLL-play or roleplay? How do you prep for a game-session? Share with your players your preferences as a DM.
* Player Absences - You may want to discuss with your players, how many players get to be absent for the session before the game is canceled that night? What is the min amount of people you will DM for in a session? What happens when too few players show up? Maybe the players that do show up get in some 'down-time' play that can provide minor benefits or perhaps progresses some down-time activities that had going on? Maybe you can do a one-shot you been planning for? What is your backup plan; play board-games, video-games? watch movies?
* Player Narrative Authority - Do you allow your players to have some narrative authority in your game? How much say do you allow in your game/campaign, for each player? For example; Can the Cleric player create the deity she follows & you as a DM allow her to decide what her deity personality, attitudes, domain, & etc? Or does she have to select a deity from the book? Does the Goliath have a tribe/herd? Who is the leader of his Herd? Does the Paladin follow a specific sect or order? Maybe the Fighter is the son of a Farmer? So now there is a whole farm in your game that, when the party arrives at, the Fighter player now becomes an assistant DM. This can go a LONG way to allowing your players feel ATTACHED to the game setting.
* Pet Peeves - This is where you can discuss your own personal pet-peeves. Things about the game that really bother you as a DM. It is ok to have them, even though you may would rather avoid them. Just remember that when discussing them, your coming from a place of kindness & doing so to inform them so to avoid issues later on.
* Ethic Concerns & Topics - Racism, Prejudice, Slavery, Sexual Assault 
=== Races & Classes ===
* Races Allowed/Disallowed - Are there any races you disallow? Do you allow Flying Races? Do you allow home-brew races? What if the home-brew race was a home-brew of Kinder? would you allow that? Do you allow Unearthed Arcana Races? Elemental Evil Races? Sword Coast Adventure Guide? Volo's Guide? What about the Magic The Gathering Unearthed Arcana Races? Maybe you will some races with a minor tweak to them?
* Tweaking/Reflavor Races - Can PCs make minor tweaks to a race? Can PCs reflavor a race to be a different race? Do you allow PCs to play races they home-brewed themselves?
* Classes Allowed - Are there any classes you disallow? Do you allow home-brew classes or only home-brew classes from Mat Mercer & Sterling Vermin? Do you allow Unearthed Arcana classes/sub-classes, the Unearthed Arcana Mystic? Sword Coast Adventure Guide sub-classes?
* Tweaking/Reflavor Classes - Can PCs make minor tweaks to a class or subclass, if it fits a certain theme that you as the DM can agree with? Can PCs reflavor a class to be a different theme, such as a Bard reflavored as Pro Wrestler? Do you allow PCs to play home-brewed classes or sub-classes?
== Possible game alteractions (if the table wants to) ==
=== Proficiency - variant ===
Usually proficiency adds a flat bonus to skills/saves/tools/weapons. Where ability score bonuses usually reflect natural talent, proficiency reflect training
* Remove proficiency bonus for all proficient skills, and instead roll a dice in its place (expertise rolls double the dice) - Lvl 1-4: d4, 5-8: d6, 9-12: d8, 13-16: d10, 17-20: d12.
** This adds randomness to skills and allows for epic failure and clutch wins where no such thing was expected. - reflecting that you may have a lot of training climbing rope, but not one covered in oil, hanging over a lava lake. Or may have read a shit-ton of books, but ancient ritual ceremonies of a godfearing people living in the dessert, maybe not - or maybe this was a particular topic you found great interest in during your youth. 
== Game details - if already familiar with the game, no need to read further ==
=== Crits ===
* Critical Hits: I like crits to feel like crits, so upon a critical strike, instead of rolling damage twice, you deal max damage on the first roll and then roll as normal for the second.
** Untested alternative: Crits deal full damage, but you also get an aditional action (unclear whether this should allow a spellcaster to break the spell casting limitation) 
* Critical Success/Fumbles/Fails: I normally play RAW, so no critical fumbles, and critical success is only possible on attacks, not skill checks. Nat-1 on attacks is auto fail no matter the modifier, while on a skill checks you can still succeed if your modifier is high enough.
=== Sneaking ===
* Stealth: Raw; You get advantage on your first attack while being unseen and unheard (aka hidden). If you have something to hide behind where it wouldn't be obvious where you were, you can attack - move - hide. This gives you advantage on your next attack so long as the enemy can't beat your hide-roll with perception (If you attack and dont move, or attack and just move, then you're no longer hidden as people know where you are). - Contrary to RAW, if taking the hide action with unoccupied, nor distracted opponents, who's attention you've caught and who are able to see you, they are allowed a free perception check instead of using passive perception to oppose your hide-roll (Dexterity (Stealth) check), see same text under House Rules.
*Unseen vs Hidden (RAW): If you cannot see the target you wish to attack, there are two scenarios. In both you attack with disadvantage:
**Not hidden (unseen): When you attack a target that you can't see, but know where they are hiding based on memory or smell/hearing, or similar. - Target completely obscured in bushes/tall trees/darkness/magical darkness/etc.
**Hidden (hidden and unseen): When you attempt to attack a target that you cannot detect and don't know the loaction of, you need to guess and attack blindly, if the target isn't in the location you targeted, you automatically miss, but the DM typically just says that the attack missed, not whether you guessed the target's location correctly.
**Remember: an attack reveals the position of the attacker.
=== Illusions ===
* Illusions range from completely busted to largely useless at different tables. I would recommend a conversation with your DM and let them know how you see your character functioning to make sure you both agree on what is reasonable.
Mechanical discussions:
*You need a place to hide, can you make an illusiory box and hide inside it? If so, can you see out?
*How is the illusion anchored? If making an illusory barrel to hide in onboard a ship, does it drift away, fixed in space, when the ship sails / is it anchored to its geographical place relative to the ship / is it anchored to the floor board that it stands on, so you technically can pry up the floor board and move the illusory barrel around? - what happens then if you break/burn the board.
*If someone is fleeing towards a door and you make an illusion of a wall in its stead. With an average intelligence, the target decides to simply push through the sudden dubious wall. Would this be considered an 'object interaction' or an 'action'?
*As illusions are permeable/untenable in the physical sense, would an arrow, stone, fire bolt or similar, passing through it, count as clear evidence that it is an illusion?
* You stand in a dark hallway, light a torch and make an illusory wall blocking the path. Putting the torch through the illusion to the other side of the illusory wall, does it plunge you back into darkness? / do you see a flicker of light shining through the wall? / is the hallway perfectly lit from the tourch, but without any signs of the torch except for the reflected light on the walls around you, indicating the direction of the hidden light source? (In these scenarioes we ignore the fact that illusions (in most cases) become transparent when you know its an illusion)
** Similarly, you enter a room with a single torch as its only light source. Casting an illusion over the light source, does it plunge the room into complete darkness? If you know it's an illusion, does it become transparent and therefore light returns to the room, but only for you? - if so, can you cast an illusion on a torch, inform your party of such and now have party-only lightsource that noone else can see unless they successfully investigate the illusion?
* A creature with blindsight will see an illusion as much as anyone else, but will one with tremorsense see it? - sound is inherently a vibration by nature, but if one makes an illusion imitaing a bell ringing, even if done on a bell, the bell still doesn't ring, the sound just originates from that area. So can you trick something that sees in vibrations, by imitating these with sound?
*General considerations: (considering an about average intelligence):
**If everyone is fighting and trying not to be stabbed to death, stopping to look at a random illusion 20ft away is basically committing suicide.
**If a creature can touch an illusion and is willing to do so, it would generally be an 'object interaction' instead of an investication check (action), to determine that it is an illusion.
=== NPCs/Creatures ===
* NPCs: NPS are not omnipotent and may lie or pass on false information, or simply not know any better based on their world view and understanding.
*Vendors: Prices can vary a lot depending on the location and what is locally available (both artisan skills, as well as raw resources), as well as their relationship to the PCs (-50%->+300%+). Some might haggle, while others would distain any attempt of such, and would prefer to kick the PCs to the street rather than have them insult his/her craftmanship's worth. Given the worth that is tied into the generic shops, it is generally considered a phenomally bad idea to try and rob stores, especially high-end ones.
=== Magic Items ===
I generally run with a very low quantity of magic items, given their impact to the world at large if taken outside of the adventuring context (at the end of each campaign I generally try to figure out what happens with the magical objects found). The most common magical objects are consumables enchanted with single or limited use capabilities. To find more powerfull magical items and find them more frequently, one needs to delve into the past, either literally, or through dungeons and ruins. If desiring a more magic-heavy setting, we can have a talk and see what we can do about it.
*Attunement/Identify: See Identify. In general, most item information is relvealed upon attunement, however some of the most powerfull ones have several tiers that needs to be unlocked through actions. Here neither the actions or what they unlock is revealed.
* Magic Resize: Do wearable items auto-magically resize to fit their wearer? Generally no, but there are amazing smiths that can resize them for you, for a hefty cost of course. 
* Materials: Magical items are not the be-all and end-all of equipment customization, there are a slew of materials to consider when wanting to create, repair or optimize an item.
=== Spells & Spell Effects ===
* Additional/Customized spells - Generally I don't allow the spells from the 'setting' books due to power creep (e.g. Silvery Barbs..), but ask you DM.
* Spells Vs Environments - Do spells work differently in different environments? Do fire spells work underwater? what about lightning spells underwater? Do ice spells work on the Plane of Fire? - so far I've never had to account for this, but we can talk it through if need be.
* Spell Abuse - Lots of spells are (per RAW) very open-ended and are subject to abuse if you want to be a dick about it. If this happens, we'll take it from there. - In extension if this, align how Speak with Animals work; some expect every animal they find to be perfectly sensible, talkative, corroporative and have solid logic, as well as essentially work as intelligent spies, while others expect animals to be just that, animals, where you generally would get simplistic reponses (such as nods/shakes of the head for yes/no, or taps, or other gestures, to indicate numbers), or some variation of "food" repeated over and over, or get simple bits of information if you're persistent enough to get the animal to engage in conversation.
* Spell Casting & Juggling - I do not keep track of player hands and what carries components/spell-foci/weapon/shield/spellbook, but I do expect that you know to keep a hand free for somatic gestures (either being free, or having your focus in it). I do enforce spell-casting rules via RAW reg. targeting etc. - if a spell targets a creature specifically, it cannot target a door.
* Material Components - Spells requiring (priced) material components, do so for a reason. Sometimes you'll experience that these components are scarce or restricted. I.e. you won't simply be able to deduct 50gp for that diamond you need for Chromatic Orb - simiarly, materials, such as diamonds or precious stones are very rare given the tremendous value they hold as they literally unlock the possibility of being resurrected.
* Spell Tweaks - See Spell Alterations