A session zero is the meeting before the campaign starts. No dice, usually no combat, and it is the reason some campaigns run for four years and others fall apart in February.
What happens in one
- The pitch. The DM describes the world, the tone, the system, and what the campaign is actually about, in enough detail that you can tell whether you want it.
- Character creation, together. Not five people building in isolation and meeting as strangers — characters built in the same room so the party has reasons to be a party and the DM has hooks to pull on.
- Backstory, and what the DM will do with it. This is where a good DM asks the clarifying questions that turn three paragraphs of history into plot.
- Expectations. How much combat versus roleplay. How lethal. Whether the party can turn on each other. What happens when someone misses a week.
- Boundaries. The content people do not want at the table, agreed openly, plus a way to flag something mid-session without a discussion.
- Logistics. Night, time, length, platform, what happens when quorum fails.
Why it matters more than any other session
Almost every campaign that dies dies for one of three reasons: the schedule was never really agreed, the players wanted different games, or somebody was uncomfortable and did not have a way to say so. All three are session zero problems, and all three are cheap to fix in advance and expensive to fix in month five.
It also fixes the quieter failure, which is a party of five characters who have no reason to travel together and a DM holding five backstories he cannot use.
How to run a good one
Come with the pitch written down. Ask every player what they want out of the campaign and write the answers where you will see them again — that list is your prep guide for the next two years. Ask about content boundaries plainly rather than apologetically; done matter-of-factly it takes four minutes and nobody is embarrassed. Agree the schedule last, in specifics, including what the table does when only three people can make it.
Then, and this is the part most people skip, write the whole thing up and post it where the table can read it. A session zero nobody can refer back to is a conversation, not an agreement.
Session zero as a buyer's tool
If you are considering a paid game, session zero is also your free look at the DM. You get to see how they run a room, whether they listen, and whether the game they describe is the one you want. Every Crit Fails campaign starts with one and we do not charge for it, because a session zero you paid for is one you feel obliged to say yes after.
How joining a campaign works → · Learn to run one →
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Tell us what you want out of a game and we will point you at the DM who runs it. No charge to talk, and no charge until you have sat a session zero.
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