Session Zero Topics

Summary

My GM style is loosy-goosy, as described by Mike Shea from Sly Flourish, or as others might call rulings over rules. Which means that I will follow the rules as close as possible, but I am flexible enough to come up with rulings on the spot rather than stop the session to go flip the pages of a rulebook.

I also try to accommodate new players, and even experienced players, when trying to understand how things work, what happened in the last session and what the PCs already know about the situation at hand. For reference, watch this episode of Dungeons and Drag Queens and the way Brennan Lee Mulligan helps the players, that's the good stuff.

In the following sections I describe my approach to several aspects of the game.

Safety Tools

Lines and Veils

"Lines & Veils" is a tabletop role-playing game safety tool designed to establish boundaries and ensure player comfort. "Lines" are absolute limits, representing topics or themes that players do not want included in the game at all, such as graphic violence or sexual assault. "Veils" are elements that players are okay with including but prefer to handle off-screen or fade to black, such as romantic encounters or intense gore. By openly discussing and agreeing upon these boundaries before gameplay, "Lines & Veils" promotes a safer, more inclusive gaming environment where all participants feel respected and comfortable.

For more information, click here.

X-Card

The X-Card is a technique for moderating content while playing tabletop role-playing games, also known as a safety tool. Gameplay pauses when a player touches a card marked with an X, enabling the group to remove any uncomfortable material from the narrative and/or address players' mental and emotional wellbeing.

For more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Card

Dice Rolls

I like to use the GM screen for most of my dice rolls, but would roll them in the open depending on the occasion, specially if I want to favor suspense over surprise on the scene.

Also, I sometimes will reveal the Armour Class of a foe or the Difficulty Class of a check, even though some might argue that it breaks the immersion it is also another way to favor suspense and create tension.

Advantage from Background & Tools

Backgrounds and toolkit proficiencies can provide advantage if the player describes their influence over the thing they're trying to achieve. Proficiencies in certain skills, however, already have their proficiency bonus applied to them. Let's not stack them. 😉

Cinematic Advantage (Rule of Cool)

Want to have an advantage on an attack roll? Try adding some flourish to it!

When the player describes their attack and movement giving it a cinematic flourish, I might ask for a skill check and award a success with advantage. Some examples:

• The fighter leaps from the balcony, swings from the chandelier and lands on the back of the ogre plunging their sword onto the creature's back
• The rogue steps onto a chair, then the table, and bounces off the wall stabbing the thug with their daggers

Passive Scores Matter

The three passive scores (Perception, Investigation and Insight) will be used not only in passive checks, but also as floor for active ones. Even though the 2014 D&D rules don't state it plainly, Jeremy Crawford has spoken about this and stated that's the intended use of these scores.

This means that if a PC has Passive Perception of 16 any rolls that are lower than that are discarded and the passive score is used.

For more on this, check this article out.

Hidden Doors and Traps

When trying to detect hidden things I will ask for a Wisdom (Perception) check, which will show the thing in some way, but in order to analyse it I will ask for a Intelligence (Investigation) check. For example:

A Perception check to find a secret door. If it's locked, Intelligence to understand how the lock works and what you need to disarm it (Arcana check to dispel or a Slight of Hand to pick).

The same applies to traps, Perception will reveal them, Investigation to understand how they work and how to disarm them.

An important note: If there's no time pressure or risk involved, there's no need to make a check to find a trap or hidden door, you just find it after some time has passed.

Fail Forward over Fumbles

Critical fumbles have been a staple of TTRPGs for a while now, but even though they can be fun and render some memorable moments, several Nat 1s in the same session can bring the morale down.

To address this, I tend to favor failing forward over fumbles. This means to actually stay in the fiction: the PCs are adventurers, with proficiency on several skills, and sometimes it doesn't make sense for them to fail miserable.

A good example was given by Matt Coville:

The barbarian leaps over a chasm but fails. Instead of dropping to their certain death, they manage to grab a hold onto the chasm wall, but they're not out yet.

They spot a root coming out of the wall and down on the floor of the ledge above, they try to reach it, but fail again. This time this means that they grab the root, but it was not properly secured, and it starts to detach from the floor and wall.

The barbarian now tries to climb faster than it is detaching, and they fail again! Which means that they make it to the top of the ledge, only to realise that they dropped their shield in the process.

Tactical vs Theatre of the Mind Combat

Combat is one of the foundations of D&D since the first edition, and so is battle maps. I suppose everyone comes to the table thinking of using miniatures and a gridded map, which is fair, I also enjoy it and I have several digital resources for it (and a few physical).

But I'm also open to using Theatre of the Mind or Zone Based combats in smaller encounters. They are faster to setup and to run, and also foster the imagination of the whole group.

Alternatives to Inspiration

In my experience the Inspiration mechanic never really worked. Either I would forget to award it or my players would forget they have and would never use it. There are a few alternatives from other 5e systems that I would like to try:

Tales of the Valiant's Luck System:

• Every time a character misses an attack or a saving throw, they gain one luck point.
• They can only hold up to five luck points. If they gain a sixth luck point, they roll 1d4 and that's how many luck points they have now.
• They can spend one luck point to get +1 to a D20 roll after they roll.
• They can spend three luck points to re-roll a d20 check.

Bob Worldbuilder's Hero Coins:

• Give every player 1 Hero Coin at the beginning of the session
• Players can earn more Hero Coins by doing epic things, like helping their allies
• Any player can spend Hero Coins to re-roll an attack, ability check, or saving throw. They must use the new roll
• Players can exchange 5 Hero Coins for 1 Big Coin
• Players can exchange 1 Big Coin for an automatic success
• Players can exchange 5 Hero Coins for 1 GM re-roll
• Players must spend all Hero Coins by the end of the session, or lose them

Character Death

I am not an adversary DM, I root for the player characters and I want the group to succeed. However, that doesn't mean that I keep the training wheels on, not at all. I believe the best way to make the game fun is to properly challenge the party, and that means death is a real possibility.

That being said, I know the impact a character death can have on a player, so I also try to be mindful about it. I will check with the group in case there's a higher risk of death.

Character at the table vs. on the sheet

I don't care about what's on your character sheet, I do care about how you play your character.

Alignment, personality traits, bonds, etc. I won't hold you accountable to any of those, what matters it your PC's actions.

I will, however, reach out to players if they start to "deviate" too much from their character sheet, just to make sure that they're aware of the fact and maybe they want to update the character sheet to reflect how their character actually behaves.