A Session Zero is where you shape the campaign before the dice ever hit the table. It’s the moment everyone agrees on what kind of story is told, the types of characters they’re bringing, and how the group wants to play together in terms of interactions. It works to prevents misunderstandings, mismatched expectations, and some classic character meltdowns! Think of it as the prelude of the book for your entire campaign.
Get your notebooks handy, because here is a streamlined guide that focuses on clarity and depth.
Start With the “Pitch”
Introduce your new players what kind of world they’re entering into. It doesn’t need to be a huge lore dump, just the essentials. Describe the tone, the general setting, and the style of play you’re aiming for. Let them know whether this is a high fantasy, gothic, or Homebrew world, and whether it’s designed to be a heroic adventure, gritty survival story, political intrigue campaign, or something in between. Players don’t need encyclopedic detail, they need a direction to point their creativity in during character building so that you as the DM can help guide them.
This is also the moment to be honest about the campaign’s emotional range. If the story will touch on darker themes, say so. If you want a lighthearted romp, make that clear too. Everyone should know what they’re signing up for.
Boundaries and Safety Expectations
Every table has topics that are fine and topics that are off‑limits. Session Zero is where you talk about them openly. You don’t need to turn it into a lecture or an in-depth story, just ask what people want to avoid and what they’re comfortable with. Some groups prefer to fade to black on romance, and some don’t even want violence to be too graphically described. Some want horror but not body horror or other, certain types.
The point isn’t to sanitize the game. It’s to make sure everyone can enjoy the story without worrying about being blindsided by something that would make them feel uncomfortable.
Table Rules and Etiquette
This is where you explain how your table functions. Not in a strict or authoritarian way, just clear expectations so everyone knows how to be a good player in your world.
Talk about attendance, how you’ll handle missed sessions, how you want rules disagreements handled, and what you expect from players in terms of engagement. If you prefer people to track their own inventory such as food and ammunition, or keep phones off the table, say so now. It’s much easier to set these expectations upfront than to correct behavior much later.
This is also the time to clarify whether PvP is allowed, whether evil characters fit the campaign, and how character death will be handled. These topics can derail a game if they’re not addressed early.
Author’s Note: This is also a good time to decide how the players themselves will interact during the campaign. If someone calls people names all the time and others may not like that, the issue may cause animosity down the road that affects the rest of the group.
Set The House Rules
Every DM has tweaks to the system, and we covered many of them in our recent post Home Rules. Maybe you use flanking, or maybe potions can be drunk as a bonus action. Perhaps you’re using milestone leveling instead of XP. Some of the more common house rules involve spells or abilities that are banned, actions that are off limits, etc. Whatever your adjustments are, lay them out clearly and explain why they exist.
Players need to understand how the game at your table differs from the books, if it does, and the earlier you establish this the smoother the campaign will run.
Build Characters Together
This is one of the most important parts of Session Zero: Don’t let players go off on their own and build characters in isolation, especially new players. Bring everyone together and talk through concepts, rules, and roles as a group. This prevents the party from ending up with four edgy loners and no healer.
Encourage players to share their ideas, find connections with each other in the world you’ve created, and build characters who actually want to adventure together. Backstories don’t need to be novels, a few strong hooks are enough. What matters is that the characters fit the tone of the campaign and have reasons to stay with the group.
Party Bonds and Shared Goals
Once characters exist, help the players tie them together. They don’t need to be lifelong friends, but they should have some kind of shared history or mutual interest in the adventuring you’re about to undertake together. Maybe they survived a battle together, or maybe they’re all in debt to the same guild…whatever it is, it doesn’t have to be strangers meeting in a tavern.
The goal is usually simple depending on your campaign: give the party a reason to cooperate! When players understand why their characters stick together, the campaign becomes much easier to run and the players themselves usually stay more cohesive.
Scheduling and Logistics
This is the least glamorous part, but it’s essential. Decide how often you’ll play, how long sessions will run, what platform you’re using, and how you’ll communicate between sessions. Make sure everyone understands what happens if someone can’t make it.
A campaign lives or dies by logistics more than anything else.
Author’s Note: The Exiles used a system of strikes. If you missed two sessions in a row without prior notice, you were out until you spoke with the DM.
End with a Hook
Before everyone leaves, give them something to look forward to. A rumor, perhaps? A printed and weathered adventure posting? A mysterious letter? Or, if it’s ready, maybe even a short introduction to the adventure to give them just a taste so they want more. Anything that sparks curiosity and makes Session One feel like it’s already in motion.
Turn your Session Zero into exciting momentum!
Final Thoughts
A good Session Zero doesn’t guarantee a perfect campaign, but it gives you the strongest possible foundation, and sets some really important expectations. It creates trust, clarity, and shared purpose — the three things that keep a group together when the story gets messy or the dice get cruel. When everyone understands the tone, the rules, the boundaries, the game becomes easier to run and easier to enjoy for everyone.
Before the monsters, before the quests, before the drama, the group sits down and chooses to build something together. Consider this your party’s first victory, and consider making it a Dinner & Dice session!
