Session 0

Session 0 is my favorite name for that special opening game session where no actual play takes place, but rather players sit about with furrowed brows, either painstakingly building their character or looking bored while waiting for others to finish. There are occasional outpourings of excitement (players gushing details from their character's "deep backstory" or the DM spouting tidbits about their "custom setting"), but on the whole it is the least engaging session of the coming campaign.

I don't aim to change that. It is, perhaps, the way it must be. But, I DO aim to make sure Session 0 isn't a waste of time, that it gives a solid foundation necessary for a successful long-term campaign. 

Here's what I do.

0) Have the Players Read the Relevant Rules

This is labeled "0)" because it is the step BEFORE Session 0.

Players need to know the basic rules of the system you're using.

Don't make them read every little submechanic, and CERTAINLY don't ask them to read up on the various character build options - but they should know how stuff like fighting and magic work.
This will, ideally, save a LOT of time you'd otherwise spend repeatedly explaining basic rules to puzzled players trying to build their characters.
Not all your players will read the rules. This is not the end of the world. Still, ASK THEM TO.
Not all your players will remember the rules they read. This is fine. Still, REMIND THEM to try looking rules up before asking you.

1) Explain the Campaign Premise

Every campaign has a premise.
Every one.
Even if it's just "yeah, you guys are a band of pseudo-medieval fantasy types who got lost in the woods and find themselves in a strange place. It's got lotsa fairies and trolls. You need to figure out how to get back to where you came from - and I doubt the trolls are feeling helpful."

So, you need to LAY OUT what the players can generally expect from the campaign - both in terms of setting (likely allies and enemies, character options, tech level) and tone (mood, flavor), since these may be important for players to account for in step 2).

OBVIOUSLY keep any mysteries or plot twists to yourself. BUT you don't want players showing up to a police drama/horror campaign set in a remote area of Alaska with a character who reads like a gay ex-SEALS Arnold Schwarzenegger.
^ That literally HAS HAPPENED to a friend of mine - while DMing his first session :(

Sometimes, the DM has ideas for MULTIPLE campaigns they'd like to run. If this is you, don't be afraid to bring those options before the players, explain their premises, and have them decide which they'd like to play!

2) Build Characters

This follows on pretty straightforwardly from 1).
DO NOT be afraid do disallow character classes or builds, whether on mechanical or tonal grounds. (I always ban druids from my campaigns, for example - for BOTH reasons.) Character classes should fit the chosen setting. It's part of the storymaking aspect of roleplaying games - a character with no place in the setting sticks out like a sore thumb, breaks immersion, and makes it difficult for the world to interact with it.
DON'T ask for a "backstory." They are 1) time-consuming to write, 2) not fun to read, 3) always forgotten about or contradicted, and 4) not desired by many players. All you and each of your players need to know about their character is WHO THEY ARE and WHAT THEY WANT. These can be very simple things. (That being said, if some screwed-up player wants to write out a "deep backstory," shrug and let them. And then read it when they're done, and try to incorporate an element or two into the campaign, because you are a kind and caring DM and they put in all that effort and care. But DON'T YOU DARE put the idea to make one in their head in the first place.)

Now - and this is THE MOST IMPORTANT PART - an aspect of what each character "wants" must tie in with the campaign premise. That is, each character must have a reason that they are part of the campaign, and that they band together as a party to rise to the challenges they face. Characters without reason to be there just end up as a drag on the campaign - the player will always have to be justify why their character is still part of the party, given that what their character wants has no connection to the goals as a party as a whole. Characters without reason to be part of the party are POISON to a successful campaign. Make sure you establish each character's reason during Session 0. Don't approve a player's character until they have such a reason.
[Edit: I actually just read The Angry GM's article on this bit. If you want a lot more detail on specificity on what to go for in getting a party together and keeping it together, check it.]
[Edit2: most of the stuff I write is more for GMs, but here's something for players: if your GM isn't doing a good job requiring characters to have a reason to be part of the party, get it together yourself and start proposing common goals or means or motivations to your fellow players. A friend and I recently had to do this for a VERY directionless campaign that basically several odd characters dicking about independently until we realized the DM had no plans to do this for us, we had to do it ourselves.]

3) Decide on Play Schedule

Doesn't have to be set in stone for the long term - but you at least need to know when your group is meeting next. This is the best time to establish that, and explore expectations for the continuing schedule for the group.

I like to run weekly games with short sessions. Some groups may do better with longer sessions, or less frequent games. See what's best for your players.

That's it.
All in all, it should take around two hours. Perhaps one, perhaps three. (It will take more like three hours if your players don't know the rules to the game system you're using, or if you're having the players choose from among multiple campaign options.)

A Few General Tips
Be friendly and welcoming. Encourage players to make connections with each other. (Might also be helpful to encourage their CHARACTERS to be built with connections, too.)
Provide snacks, or delegate the task of bringing snacks to a player or two, even if it won't be a customary fixture of following sessions. Snacks alleviate boredom, which is something that Session 0 is especially vulnerable to.
Keep the group spatially together. Not necessarily at the same table, but definitely in the same room. (I like a room with couches more than a room with tables for Session 0, but this is just a personal preference thing, haha.)
Feel free to experiment with the ambiance by altering lighting or playing music, but it's probably just BS tomfoolery to do so. (But hey, a certain kind of player digs that effort.)

Go start that campaign.


(Reader: what does your Session 0 look like?)

The Social Beast: Choosing a Table

I consider myself to be a successful DM. I could spend my time expounding upon why I think that, but the more important question is what actually makes my campaigns successful. If I had to choose one thing, it definitely wouldn't be my impeccable planning, my massive amount of effort, my unshakeable charisma, or my top-notch minis and props. (I have none of the above, haha.)

The single most important thing I do to make my games successful is choosing players.

I know many GMs advise prioritizing an open and welcoming table that anyone can join - and there's definitely something to that. A friendly and welcoming atmosphere IS important - which is why it's important who's at the table, who creates the atmosphere. A GM has a DUTY to be selective as to his or her players, as it is a vital factor in determining how fun the game actually is, which is, of course, the POINT of these games. To be fun.

I'm gonna try to give a brief rundown of what to look for (and what to look OUT for) in potential players, but the truth of the matter is, I choose players mostly by feel. It works really well (after years of DMing, I've NEVER had a player leave from strife or even lack of interest), but just makes it hard to quantify in a blog post - but here it goes anyway.


Things to Look For:

1) Rock-solid reliables. People who aren't afraid to make commitments, and who stick by them. It's key for any long-running campaign (weekly, monthly, whatever) that a consistent group of players be able to get together at fairly regular intervals. Long lulls and interludes dull interest and engagement, and missing party members tug at the fabric of the story. When you invite prospective players to your table, try to stick to people who can plan on being there regularly.

2) Imaginers. You want people who do more with their minds than browse social media, watch sports, and get wasted. Not that there's necessarily anything WRONG with the above - just that a person who doesn't bother engaging their imagination on a regular basis won't get much out of a tabletop RPG, for reasons that I hope are obvious. Look for people who read a lot, who discuss unusual topics, who have a variety of free-time activities.

3) The shy. I might be exceeding my self-mandate here - to give you guidelines for assembling the best table you can - but there might be something important here. I've seen tons of people normally thought of as "shy" or "friendless" really find their place at a gaming table. It makes social interaction easy, because it removes the sometimes-crippling focus on YOU as a person. You aren't YOU anymore - you're Bugaboo the Ranger, or Smervia the Bard, or whatever. People with social insecurity and anxiety often make really great players, because the game gives them an opportunity to be part of a group without regard for their appearance, race, occupation, sexuality, mannerisms, or fears. Some people really need that in their lives, and it might be something you can offer. (Still, take the following section into account, too.)


Things to Look OUT For:

1) Controllers. Players who constantly criticize the decisions of the GM (or worse, other players), just because they would've done differently. The core of tabletop RPGs is the making of meaningful choices in a shared fictional setting, and a player who acts as if the choices of others must conform to their own eats at the very core of the game.

2) Attention whores. Anyone who's always fishing for attention or causing drama in the social world has no place at a gaming table. If all they want is always to be at the center of the action, it will make it difficult for more self-controlled players to participate in the common game. Worse, attention whores will often CREATE conflict just for the spotlight-time it brings. You don't need that at your table, or in your life.

3) Lone wolves. By this I don't mean your garden-variety loner, who merely prefers to keep his or her own company much of the time. I mean the kind of person who doesn't give two farts about cooperation or common goals, but just wants to generally exercise their fictional freedom without regard for its place in a group context.

...) It would be a waste of your (and my) time to go through the more obvious warning signs in prospective players (verbally abusive, chronic anger issues, antagony with an existing group member...), so I'll just say: don't invite anyone to your gaming table who you wouldn't invite to your dinner table.


Reader: tell me about the best person, and/or the worst person, you've ever had in your gaming group. What was (or should've been) the clue as to how they'd do at the table?

On Beast Races

Lizard-people. Bird-people. Rat-people.

Y'know, "beast races."

Obviously they are well-attested in many modern fantasy games (and other media, too), but they have a LONG history. We have wolf-people ("werewolf" is just Old English for "wolfman") from medieval Europe, horse-people (centaurs) from ancient Greece, and scorpion-people from janking Akkad (like, y'know, around the time and place of THE DAWN OF CIVILIZATION ITSELF). And I'm not even GETTING into Celtic or Norse or Egyptian or Indian or Native American or Mesoamerican or Central Asian or Sinic mythologies (mostly because I don't know as much as I'd like, haha). Suffice it to say that beast races have been an important presence in storytelling in most times and places.

JANKING SCORPION MEN

Perhaps this points to something really compelling about the concept. Are there echoes of humankind grappling with its origins, or with its worst ("bestial") tendencies, or instead showing a sort of appreciation for nature (and oneness with it)? I dunno, ask a mythologist. There sure are some gameable concepts here, though, whether they are true in our reality or not. In your campaign:
1) Are humans (or humanoids at large) in danger of partially reverting to animalistic ways (and, indeed, animalistic bodies!)
2) Are certain groups of human(oid)s somehow enriched or elevated by gaining some semblance of animal shape?

3) Are the "beast races" reminders of the uncomfortable past of the human(oid)s?

Given these thoughts, it may surprise the reader that I've NEVER used a member of a beast race in one of my campaigns. No werewolves, satyrs, gnolls, centaurs, lizard-men, kenku, yuan-ti. Worse, I couldn't give you a solid reason WHY. Maybe I just don't want to embark on a path to which I see no end - ferret people, antelope people, centipede people, penguin people? The dizzying array of possibilities - many of them ridiculous, some of them great - is simply too deep to plumb. Maybe a drive toward a "naturalistic" aesthetic keeps me from exploring ridiculous hybrids - but what place does "naturalism" have in fantasy settings fraught with magic and the supernatural?

I guess the takeaway from this is that if you're going to make beast races a part of your game world, play it to the hilt. Think of how the physical (and perhaps psychological) differences of these peoples would affect their society and culture. Explore existing mythologies and the beast races present in them. Use beast races as indirect commentary about our own origins, or our deeper tendencies. (And, I'd be tickled pink to see penguin people or antelope people crop up in a reader's campaign. I dare you to do use one! Tell me how it goes. Also, Reader, tell me your favorite gaming encounter with beast races, if you've had one!)

Antelope people?

ADDENDUM: as best as I can foresee, I won't ever make beast races an integral part of my own campaigns. BUT, I could foresee them used in a specific adventure or two - perhaps as the consequence of animistic shamanism in some especially magical wilderland, or of ever-popular mad wizard experimentation. I will let you know if I ever try this.