This week marked the first full session of Falling Stars and I have to say the first session was amazing. The role playing and the way the team gelled together was impressive. I had created a few encounters that should have been difficult and I was happy with how they plowed through it.
More importantly, the storytelling really flowed well, and I think it had a lot to do with the One-on-one Session Zero work we did.
Step One: Background
The first thing I did was have a clear idea of where I wanted the setting to be. I had been reading a lot of Forgotten Realms Wiki and really enjoyed the Selgaunt setting. So I created a Google Form for my players. Here is a screenshot of the start of it:
In it, I gave them the following:
- Set the stage for the setting
- Provide a link to the article for each location (in this case Selgaunt and The Pirate Isles)
- Some ideas of races and background
- Instructions, if they wanted a race or background not listed, tell me how they got to Selgaunt
I also asked them some things I learned from a few videos (I’ll link as many as I can remember at the end).
- What is your characters back story? This doesn’t have to be a written story. You can just list some bullet points or random ideas.
- If your character is not from one of the three cities above or is of a different race, how did they get to Selgaunt?
- Your character is willing to die to be an adventurer. Why?
- What does your character hate of fear?
This helped set the stage before we even did a Session Zero.
What They Gave Me
What I got in return from this was great. Several of them gave me full on written background. I loved it. I immediately got to work preparing a Google Doc for each of their Session Zero. I listed clarifications I wanted. I put things I wanted to confirm with how it would fit into the world.
Sharing Game Mechanics
One of the other components I had in these sheets was game mechanics. I’m not using a crazy amount, but it was important to me to be on the same page. Now, this can be done at a table, but I find I get more open conversations one-on-one. Like does the gunslinger want to track ammo when I don’t want to for conventional weapons? Or are we looking for gritty damage?
I even came up with a fun mechanic for “back attacks.” Basically if you are in melee, you can roll a Dex 15 to position yourself behind the enemy to get advantage on the attack.
Working out these mechanics one at a time actually helped me realize others I hadn’t thought of. I would then share it with the people who already had their Session Zero, and fortunately there were no objections.
Game Play
For this setting, PCs were going to be recruited to join an adventuring league. We chose a specific setting they arrived in at the end of their backstory.
Two of the players decided to be best friend pirates now homeless since their captain was captured. So we did their Session Zero together. Another had taken a job at a tavern to earn money while searching the town for information on her parents.
Each presented a unique opportunity for an introduction to the level 17 cleric that would recruit them. The pirates showed their nobleness by intervening in an exceptionally unjust robbery. The cleric saw this, thanked them, then proceeded to engage them to see their combat prowess.
The bartender was faced with trying to save a rich group of youngsters who had stepped into her dangerous bar. She used a great deal of strategy and magic to defuse the situation.
The nice thing was that each player felt they had an open space to fully role play their character first to create a feel for them. For me, the DM, it also helped me lock in how to create role playing opportunities that fit these characters.