Before the first adventure
Run a session zero that gives your campaign a good start
A session zero gives you and your players time to agree on the game you want to play before the campaign begins. It helps you catch mismatched expectations, discuss boundaries and build characters who have a reason to adventure together. Those conversations are much easier before someone spends hours on a character or arrives expecting a completely different kind of evening.
Start with the game you want to run. Is it serious, silly, full of political intrigue or an excuse for reckless adventure? As the GM, set those expectations before anyone makes a character. If you are planning a serious campaign built around roleplay and political choices, a joke character who steals from the party and refuses every adventure can make game night hard work.
Your enjoyment matters too. You are putting time into preparing and running this campaign, and keeping it going is difficult when you dread the next session. Be clear about what excites you, invite players who share that enthusiasm and listen to what they want to bring. I have adapted this guide from the session zero notes I use for my own campaigns, with an invented Greyford example and a free checklist to help you agree on a game you all want to play.
Set the tone of the game you want to run
Give players enough detail to decide whether the game appeals to them. Name the rules, the likely schedule, the tone and the commitment you are asking for. Save the long history of your setting for people who want to read it.
Be direct about the characters and behaviour that fit. You can welcome humour while asking players to take the story seriously. You can allow selfish or reluctant characters while expecting them to cooperate and accept a reason to join the adventure. Say where your limits are before players spend hours on a concept you cannot use.
Send this short pitch before you meet, ideally while finding players. Ask what appeals to them about it. If someone wants a chaotic comedy game and you want a patient political drama, it is better to find that out now. Look for players who are excited to help make the kind of game you want to spend your evenings running.
Work with the group to decide where the campaign begins, how their characters fit into the world and why they want to adventure. Bring your ideas, then ask what would give each character a reason to get involved. They might be looking for someone, chasing an opportunity or helping a place they care about. Agree those connections together so the opening adventure gives everyone something to act on.
The examples below use an invented town called Greyford after a flood. Use them as starting points for that conversation. Your group might choose a different home, problem or reason to travel together.
Explain what that tone means during play. Greyford can have funny conversations and eccentric neighbours while the flooded homes still matter. If you want the townsfolk’s worries about their homes and livelihoods to carry weight, ask for characters who will engage with those concerns. That is a preference to discuss with your players. Someone expecting constant slapstick should hear it before building a character around it.
Open the free session zero checklist builder and choose the topics your group needs. Bring those questions to the conversation; leave room to change the answers together.
I recommend reserving at least 30 minutes at the end to start playing the campaign. Give the characters time to meet, speak to each other and find their first real hook. For a two-hour session zero, the running order below leaves 90 minutes for discussion and half an hour for play. If character creation or a conversation needs longer, extend the session or arrange another meeting rather than rushing people through it.
- 0–15 minutes: campaign pitch and what each player enjoys.
- 15–30 minutes: house rules, schedule and practical agreements.
- 30–45 minutes: themes, boundaries and how to pause or change a scene.
- 45–70 minutes: character goals, reasons to join and party connections.
- 70–90 minutes: open questions, read back shared agreements and take a break.
- 90–120 minutes: begin the campaign with introductions, roleplay and the first adventure hook.
Greyford After the Flood Game: D&D, a short campaign with the option to continue. Tone: hopeful adventure, local mysteries and occasional danger. Characters: people with a reason to help Greyford and work together. Proposed schedule: alternate Fridays, 19:30 to 22:30, Europe/London. Please bring: one thing you want in the game and one question about it.
Turn preferences into decisions
Ask each person what they hope to do in this campaign. Follow broad answers with a concrete question. Someone who wants more roleplay might mean speaking in character, making difficult decisions or having their backstory matter.
Go around the table and ask what people enjoy most, what they want more of and what they would like less of. Leave time to answer rather than working through the whole agenda yourself. These answers give you something useful to prepare and let players help shape the campaign.
In our Greyford example, Maelis wants to negotiate with rival groups. Toben wants risky journeys and tactical fights. The GM offers a first adventure with a flooded crossing and two groups arguing over the remaining boat. Both players get something to look forward to, without the GM promising every session will have the same mix.
If you are running a published module, explain its limits as well. You can adapt scenes to what your players enjoy while asking them to make characters who want to explore the adventure you have agreed to run.
In my Icewind Dale campaign, I made that clear during session zero: if your character wants to leave the Dale, they can, but their journey will happen off screen. You can bring in a new character in the meantime who wants to take part in the adventure here. We are playing a module, so I want players who are interested in exploring it. Setting that expectation early gives everyone a clear starting point for their character.
Keep those preferences beside your campaign notes. After a few games, our guide to understanding table participation can help you check whether players are getting the opportunities they asked for. Ask them directly as well; a word count cannot tell you whether someone enjoyed the evening. A player who becomes much quieter over several sessions may be starting to disengage, especially if they also miss games or stop joining conversations between sessions. Treat that change as a reason to check in early, before they drift away from the group, rather than proof that they have lost interest.
Settle the rules and practical agreements
Settle the practical questions while everyone is present. Agree a finish time, a break, how much notice to give when missing a game and how many players you need to go ahead. For an online group, write down the timezone as well as the hour.
Explain house rules before players choose abilities or equipment that depend on them. Give an example of how a changed rule works, then write down the agreed version. Also decide how to handle a disputed ruling during play and when you will revisit it, so one rules lookup does not swallow the evening.
Discuss how dangerous the campaign is and what happens if a character dies. Agree whether replacement characters join at the same level and how you will bring them into the story. Make the expectations around theft, sabotage and player-versus-player conflict explicit. Check that everyone wants that kind of game before allowing it.
Choose how much bookkeeping serves this campaign. Tracking food and supplies can create useful choices in Greyford when the shops are flooded. If the group dislikes counting rations, agree how you will handle scarcity instead. The important part is knowing what players will actually need to track.
- Which character options, house rules and levelling method are we using?
- How do we handle rules disagreements and correcting an earlier decision?
- How do character death, replacement characters and party conflict work?
- Are we tracking supplies, encumbrance or other survival details?
- What happens to a character when their player is absent?
- Where do we post cancellations, questions and shared notes?
- Does anyone want help with character creation or the Discord setup?
Give everyone a way to pause
Consider a card anyone can tap or hold up when something makes them uncomfortable, with an agreed chat signal for online play. Stop or change the scene without asking them to explain why. You can also agree on a separate “above table” signal to pause the fiction and talk as players when something needs clearing up. Practise the signals during session zero so everyone knows what happens when they use one. Anyone can step away for a break, too.
Agree what happens when someone misses a week. Does their character sit out, or can another player run them? If they stay with the party, can they spend limited resources, make important decisions or die while their player is away? I do not want to pull my punches in an encounter because someone is absent, so I would settle those expectations up front. Get the player’s agreement before handing over their character. If they are uncomfortable with the usual risks, agree a way for the character to sit out rather than deciding in the middle of a dangerous fight.
Agree which themes belong at your table
Name the themes you expect to bring into the campaign. A survival game might involve hunger, exposure and scarce supplies. A political game might involve betrayal, prejudice or abuse of power. Horror could mean unsettling mysteries, graphic violence or fear of losing control. Be specific enough that players can tell you which parts they want to explore. Agree which topics are off limits because someone is uncomfortable with them, and keep those subjects out of the game.
I ask what should stay out entirely, what can happen off screen and what people would enjoy exploring. Those answers can differ within the same theme: someone may enjoy a ghost story but want to leave body horror out of the game. A broad agreement to play horror does not answer every question you will meet later.
Give players a private way to contact you before or after the conversation. They can name a limit without telling the table why, and nobody needs to describe a personal experience to justify it. Do not put someone on the spot by asking them to explain their answer while everyone waits.
For Greyford, the group wants desperate rescue missions and arguments over supplies. They agree to keep descriptions of injury brief and leave harm to pets out of the story. The GM can still make the flood dangerous through blocked roads, damaged homes and difficult decisions. These are example agreements; your group may choose different limits.
If you would like to record the adventure, discuss it with your players during session zero and agree who will receive the recap. For Recap Raven, the privacy policy explains how recordings are handled, and the Discord recording guide covers setup once everyone is comfortable with it.
Recording can take some of the mental load out of remembering names and keeping notes, giving players more room to enjoy the scene. Recap Raven is a privacy-first option that deletes audio after transcription. Its recurring Free plan includes five Standard sessions in the first 30 days, then two every 30 days, each up to three hours. If that fits your group, you can keep using it at no cost. Ask your players before bringing it into the game.
Give characters a reason to care and stay together
Ask why each character is here, what keeps them in the setting and what would persuade them to help. A reluctant character can work well if the player gives you a reason they will eventually say yes. Agree that everyone brings someone who can cooperate with the party; repeated refusals leave the rest of the group waiting for the adventure to start.
Ask for one short-term goal, one longer-term goal and an unresolved problem. The problem could be a debt, a fear or a past mistake. Keep these brief enough to remember. A page of biography is harder to use during prep than a specific person the character wants to find.
Build a shared history before the opening scene. Ask how the characters met, what they have already survived together and why they still travel as a group. Give each player a connection to another character. They might have guarded the same caravan, escaped a collapsed mine or pooled their last coins for a room.
In Greyford, Toben rescued Maelis and her tools when the workshop flooded. Maelis later talked the watch into letting him cross a closed bridge. Toben trusts her judgement; she feels she owes him. They arrive with something to talk about and a reason to help each other. That helps the game flow. As a GM, getting a group to leave the tavern can feel like pulling teeth if nobody has a reason to adventure. Agree those reasons together before you start, so you can spend the session playing instead of persuading the party to take part.
Secrets and personal trinkets are optional. If you use secrets, offer them once character concepts are clear and let players ask for a different one privately. Agree whether secrets may create party conflict. Nobody needs to reveal theirs during session zero, and a secret should leave the player room to choose what happens next.
Match the backstory to the starting level
At level 1, I ask players to think of someone only a little more capable than an ordinary person, with most of their adventures still ahead of them. If a character was the king’s grand wizard, ask how that history fits the abilities they have now. A good explanation might make it work, but agree on the expected experience before play. At level 5, a character should already have done something meaningful. Work together on what they achieved and how it connects them to this campaign.
Leave at least 30 minutes to start the campaign
Get your players into roleplay as soon as you have settled the important agreements. Meeting the other characters and taking part in the opening scene helps them connect with the campaign and gives them something to look forward to next week. Remind them that it is still fine to change their character. Sometimes 30 minutes of play shows someone that an idea works differently at the table than it did in their head. Give them room to refine it before session one.
Read back the agreements and confirm the next date before you start playing. Put the shared version somewhere players can find it. I use a dedicated rules text channel in Discord, so everyone has one place to check our house rules and table agreements. Schedule a brief check-in after the first couple of games to ask whether the campaign feels like the one everyone agreed to play.
We have created a free session zero checklist to help you prepare for your next campaign. Choose the topics your group needs, then copy or download your checklist to bring to session zero.
Our campaign: We want more of: We would like less of: We will leave out or keep off screen: To pause a scene: Schedule, timezone and finish time: Absence and minimum-player agreement: Rules and character options: Character death, party conflict and retcons: Recording and recap-sharing agreement: Each character’s goals and reason to take part: Our characters stay together because: Secrets or personal hooks to discuss privately: First session date: Questions we still need to settle:
When the first adventure is over, use our next-session prep guide to turn what the players actually did into a plan for the next game.
Sources and method
Sources checked on 20 October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a D&D session zero take?
I suggest two hours: 90 minutes for discussion and at least 30 minutes to start playing. Your group may need longer, especially for character creation. Give important conversations enough time and preserve the opening play time. The free checklist helps you see which decisions are still open.
Do experienced D&D groups need a session zero?
Yes, if the campaign, schedule or group expectations have changed. Familiar players can keep it short, but check that everyone wants the proposed tone and has room to raise new boundaries. A player who enjoyed your last campaign may want something different this time.
How do I discuss boundaries during session zero?
Describe the themes you expect to include, then ask what should stay out, what should happen off screen and what players want to explore. Offer a private way to answer without asking for personal explanations. Agree how to pause a scene, and make it clear that limits can change after play begins.
Can I use this session zero checklist for other TTRPGs?
Yes. Adapt the rules, character options and campaign pitch to your game. Scheduling, boundaries, character goals and party connections matter across systems. Keep the questions that help your group and leave out topics your game does not use.
Once your group is ready to record, invite Recap Raven free and let the next adventure come with a player-safe recap.
Free Tier includes 5 Standard sessions in your first 30 days, then 2 every 30 days, each up to 3 hours long, with best-effort multilingual support. A title, short summary and scenes, with basic AI and standard transcription quality. Premium adds richer recaps, PDF exports and GM insights; Memory plans add campaign Ask.
