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May 16, 2012 -- 8:38AM, mortaine wrote:

when the Season 9 forum becomes available

I sent a message to WOTC-Trevor asking him to set one up for us.

I don't think the 0 session is a bad idea, but there needs to be some structure to it.  I would suggest the following:

*the module come with a brief introduction of the module, both in the background leading up to it, and the themes the adventure will revolve around.  For example, I would have said this about Phantom Brigade:

"A new beginning, a fresh start, that's all that you want.  So when you heard that a new town was to be built along a trade route, and anyone willing to help settle it would receive land and money from the kindgom's rulers, you jumped at the chance, and headed for Hammerfast, with the few meager possessions you have on hand.  The Phantom Brigade is a story about legacies, some good, some bad.  The past returns to haunt the present, and your resolve will be greatly tested- the weak of will and faint of heart need not apply."

*a brief questionnaire, to help people flesh out their character.  This is a RPG after all.  Nothing too involved, just enough to get people thinking about their motivations and goals.  Have the questions be multiple choice, and, once done, the DM has a key where he can look at what people answered, and then present the player with a card saying (as an example): "YOU ARE A DEFENDER.  You strive to protect others, often at the sacrifice of your own safety.  You hate bullies, and when others attack your allies, you are quick to retaliate."  The card will suggest a class (Knight or Cavalier), and give a few tips on how to be more effective (what Feats to choose, etc.).

*A quick level one encounter that gets the players into the action, lets them get a feel for what their characters can do, and brings them together as a group.  They can freely use Daily powers or Action points, it's not intended to be a hard fight, just a shakedown for the real encounters down the road.

*Wrapping up, have a quick Q&A if a player feels their character didn't do that well, about how they can tune it for session 1.  Then, cookies!           

I actually like the session 0, but it's basically a big party at the shop.

I'm organizer emeritus again this season (I help the coordinator, but am not actually the person doing the work most of the time-- it's his show this time). Yesterday, we had two DMs with laptops who could help with character creation on DDI.

The organizer quickly made up a queue of players who still needed to make characters. We worked one-on-one with each player to make their PCs. When one player was done, we moved onto the next. As we helped each player, we would ask them "well, what do you like doing (class)? Ok, who were you before you were an adventurer (theme/background)?" And so forth.

As we worked, we would make suggestions based on what other players had made "oh, you know if you take this option, it'll go nicely with his character, and I think you'll end up on the same table a lot this season...."

In some cases, we knew there were players who were more familiar with a particular class. When our 12 year old wanted to make a vampire, I called over Dan, who usually plays them, to give her suggestions and pointers on how to play it.

Session 0 does several things for us, and I hope it doesn't go away. First, it gives our organizers an opportunity to make a transition from one person to the next. Second, it gives our DMs a break. DMing is hard work, and if you're usually the one performing that role, it's nice to have a week where you didn't have to pre-prep the adventure.

It also gave the coordinator a chance to talk to the season DMs and give them some information, including logistics about July 4th and how we're going to handle the adventure.

Finally, it puts some flexibiliity into the schedule. If your shop hates Session 0 and is going to be closed on July 4, then you could have run Session 1 last night, and be on the same schedule as everyone else on July 11.

I think if your complaint is that it's chaos and there are too many questions, that's a good indicator that your players have questions that they need to have answered. If there is no dedicated "ask the DM" time, then when can they bring those questions up?

Hey, since we're still waiting on the Season 9 forum:

Did anyone else get a weird number of fortune cards this season? We got twice as many of the 40-point rewards as the 20-pointers. 

Is there a World Game Day at GenCon this year?  West Wall is drow themed, but it looks like its chronology wouldn't fit between Web of the Spider Queen and Council of Spiders.  I didn't see anything on the event list that looked like Game Day.

Frankly I don't really buy into the "us 1st level idiots are going to treasure hunt in the Underdark!" motif.  So, I'm injecting them into the story in a different way.

Spoiler: Show

I avoided the session 0 doldrums by changing up the module.  Since they gave us these Ruby Medallion of Lathander awards, I had them on escort duty to bring the maker of them to the Twisted Tower to meet Elminster.  They each got  a geased Medallion as their reward for the guard duty.  Naturally, the Drow came to carry her off into the night.   I simply used the session 1 encounter and set it as a raid on their camp (using the camp map from Crystal Caves) rather than the tavern.    Now they have a grudge against those bastards who carried off their benefactor.  The Medallions also provide a more plausible mechanism for Elminster to contact them, rather than a Sending from a total stranger epic NPC to some random noob adventurers.  They  will pick up next week at session 2, combined with their own motivation for seeking the Twisted Tower.   I'm not all that worried about synchronization, as I've never had anyone drop in who had been playing encounters elsewhere, but we can resync by skipping July 4th, or I might add an extra encounter with some non humanoid underdark nasties (this season is a little monotonous and monochrome with Drow in nearly every fight) in the middle.

I really like the themes this season. One of my players is running a goblin underdark outcast Cavalier of Pelor.   Hilarious!