We had the last space filled yesterday. I also have someone interested when I posted it on the local Facebook group but she couldn't make today's session. I'm going to try to meet up with her before the first game. I can handle a table of five players but no more than that. I also have a feeling that one of the current players might not be that reliable. It's just a vibe I'm getting. I hope I'm wrong.
As always this session is a lot of discussion. I went over my House Rules with everyone and explained some of the ones that were vague. No one had questions or wanted changes but again, Session Zero.
I always need to get contact information - name, email, and phone. This time I added a couple of things because there's a lot going on with my Twitter GM groups about consent forms. No, it's not what you think. It's finding out if there's specific words and/or situations that people don't want in the game. For me it's less of a problem since I'm not the GM acting out my prurient fantasies with the players but I agree that it's showing respect for them. I didn't have time to print one up so I wrote out the sheets while I was waiting for people to show up.
Then we got to stats. My method is one I stole from a GM I had before and tweaked until I liked it. It's a stat block rather than a point buy or 'roll and assign' method. As always the players found that it gave them a lot more options. One was very frustrated because the numbers didn't give him the character he really wanted but he could make several other kinds. That's the way the stat block works. It builds a character, not just a bunch of numbers.
They were a bit confused when I had them roll up birthdays. We did the random age thing as well as the height and weight but I take it a step further and have them roll up their birthday on the FR calendar. It's why I have a 30 sided die in my box. FR months are all 30 days long, if that wasn't clear. Now everyone has an actual birthday and I feel that helps with immersion.
I was the only one with physical books and the limitations of using PDFs became very clear as people were squinting at screens. After a game or two we'll have everything we need either in the books or printed out. At least I will. I will encourage (or shall I say "encourage") them to use the books/printouts rather than their phones and tablets when looking up things. I try to keep the electronics away from the table. It's even in my house rules.
After puzzling over the stat blocks and consulting many books here's what the party looks like at this point. The next post will have the character names as well but for now I was happy with as far as we got. We're starting at Level 2 so they're not quite as squishy but still very fresh.
Lesser Aasimar Druid (Note 1)
Gnome Rogue/Swashbuckler
Human Ranger
Sun Elf Druid
This is an interesting mix. There's not a healer in the bunch. Nor is there a tank. I'll be reading over those character classes in the next week so I can start figuring out how best to craft encounters. I see more dungeon work and less city work here. I'm fine with that one. Then again druids in the city can be amusing.
The reason we ended up with this mix is because I tell my players to play the character they want, not the one they think needs to be included. Hence no one feeling obliged to be a cleric or a fighter. Playing a character you don't like lessens the fun all around.
Since they're second level they would have at least one tasty item from previous adventures. I told them to get their basic equipment (nothing masterwork or magic) at no cost. They'd have all that. Using the loot tables I gave them their starting money (in whatever form they want to convert it to) so they're not poor.
A funny thing. I gave them an appropriate amount of money. One of the players got a little snippy, saying it wasn't much. I replied that it was more money than most of the people they encounter would ever see in their lives. He didn't snip after that. Players forget that they're freaking RICH compared to most of the population at large.
I need to work up magic items for everyone. I'm going to be leaning heavily on the healing magic so that they can patch themselves up reasonably well. Everyone will have a different kind of item with different levels of usage. I think it's a way to get around the lack of healing spells in the group without making it too much. No one gets something that will always heal them all the way back. There will be limits.
I also stressed the backstory aspect. One page isn't much to ask and I bribe them with saying they'll get something extra based on that backstory. It gives me a chance to get them another feat, some skill points, an item, whatever. They have stuff from before they joined this party. I keep stressing the need to be more than just some numbers on a page. Even if that's what the base really is.
Forgotten Realms gives players even more freebies. Everyone gets a bonus feat based on what region they're from as well as some extra equipment. We got through that as well. Of course one of the players wanted a feat that wasn't on their list. It makes sense that he would want it and I told him to convince me that he should have it with his backstory. He's fine with that one and so am I.
We ended with people still needing to fill out their characters since there's a hella lot of numbers in 3.5 but we got the core of everything down. I repeated that they can contact me with any questions they have and I'll check in with them later this week to see how they're doing. I need to know what regions they all chose so I know where to plunk them all down to start the campaign. So far they're spread pretty much from one end of the continent to the other. I can work with that.
Here's what Session Zero tends to look like after things get rolling. A table full of books, dice, paper, pencils, and whatnot. The actual gaming table will be larger.
Session Zero is over for this group. I'm hoping that they reach out to me with questions and I certainly plan on reaching out to them. And I really, really need to find my notecard holder since I love me some notecards.
Note 1 - Aasimars are not a playable race in my games because they're LA1. I don't allow level adjusted races. But there's a Lesser template to take out the level adjustment. I think it's a little cheesy because the stat changes are both pluses and there's some abilities they keep from the original race. I gave a tentative agreement with my final one coming after I've read over the changes thoroughly and possibly underpowered it more. The player is fine with discussing it and seems pleased that I'm willing to consider it and see how it goes. I'm hoist by my own petard because this comes from the books and I opened up the races and classes to all published books.
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