I have never gotten any useful information out of a session 0 that I haven't been able to get from a simple primer emailed to me.>Ask what the goal of the campaign will be>"Oh I'll figure out something based on your backstories">Ask the other players for backstory ideas>They can't think of anything without more information about the goals or details of the setting>Ask for more details about the setting>"Oh I'll flesh that out based on what you guys are interested in">People throw out random words, phrases, themes out there. DM writes them down>People end up just discussing what classes and races they're playing>End up spending a few hours to understand that I will, indeed, be able to play a class and race from the book>Fuck off and wait another week or two for the game to actually startWho came up with this? It's retarded, there is no value in wasting my time like this.
>>93239223>this meeting could have been an emailhas been true every time I've played with non-dogshit playersthe only time session 0 has been necessary is when I'm playing with attention deficit retards who have to have me (or whoever else is running) to tell them in person, because they won't read a fucking thing you send them
>>93239223I agree, this definitely happened.
>>93239276Every session 0 usually ends with a player pamphlet being sent out anyway, so what the fuck was the point even.
Another pathetic attention-seeking thread on nu-/tg/.
>>93239223Find me 3 other players who can read a one page email, learn basic system mechanics and fill out a character sheet on their own and I'll run you a no session 0 game.I mean I won't, I don't run online, but you know what I mean.
>>93239223>not using session 0 for establishing a code of conductAnon, this is not ok. Very problematic.
>>93239223What you describe is the result of a dogshit DM, not session zero being bad in concept. In your totally not fake greentext, the core issue is not that the questions are bad, but that the GM is unable to answer any of them because he wants the players to write the campaign for him. If you already have a campaign concept in mind, session zero is enormously helpful because it makes sure that everyone leaves the session understanding what you have in store and what they should be expecting at the start of the game. When starting a new campaign I pretty much always just flat out tell the players what the first adventure will be and its up to them to come up with PCs that would fit into that adventure. "You are sky pirates who have been jailed by a small kingdom, when the king offers you amnesty in return for lending your piracy skills to his effort to reclaim something that was stolen from him by an enemy kingdom". You want to play a funny little gnome man whose gimmick is that they are an OCD librarian? Doesn't sound like a sky pirate to me, make something else. The campaign has a starting point and tone, and its up to you to make something that fits in. Now lets talk about your options...
>>93239377Counterpoint: Going over things with your learning disabled players individually one-on-one both increases the likelyhood they'll retain the information, and means you don't have to do the tardwrangling (always required to get them all together at the same time) for a non-session.
>>93239223>my shit DM and shit group had no ideas or plans or any interest in the game at all and that means that talking about the game is inherently bad>>93241368If you can't get a player to show up for a non session good luck getting them to show up for real sessions consistently. Session 0 is useful for that reason alone, it filters out people who are too busy or non committal.
>>93239223Depends on the game you're playing. D&D? It's mostly about the players getting together to make a party and everyone getting hyped about the character that they want to play. Some other games (and I'm thinking VtM specifically), they might have background elements that specifically need to be worked into the story (like merits about who their contacts are).It's also a chance for the GM to set expectations for what kinda game he or she wants to run. What rules are gonna be relevant? What languages should characters take? Is it ok if my character wants to... and then you can throw that player a bone in the first adventure.Session 0 can be a waste of time, an necessary part of making a coherent party, or chance for players to get hyped, or an opportunity for GMs to set expectations. Like virtually everything else regarding ttrpgs? You get out of it what you put in.
>>93240781The gnome concept would be kino for a sky pirate game unless it was trying to be embarasingly edgy
>>93241913Not a lot of overlap between the sort of person who dedicates their life to keeping a specific room full of books in perfect alphabetical order (sub-sorted by date of original publication) and the sort of person that spends their time flying around ambushing people to steal their cargo and picking fights
>>93240781>You want to play a funny little gnome man whose gimmick is that they are an OCD librarian? Doesn't sound like a sky pirate to meYou kidding? This sounds like the exact kind of motherfucker who would raid sky-rate ships for their books and gold to fund the purchasing of more books.
>>93241965> anon brings brass knuckles any time he visits the public library, terrified that today is the day that Old Miss Weathersby is going to rob him at knifepoint
>>93241986You're an idiot. I bring old tomes with me and leave them as an offering to avoid the shank. The book crooks have my number on that one.
>>93241933Obviously their library is on the ship, and they're looting for magical books to increase their knowledge and power.
>>93239223I believe you that you've never had a good session zero, but I also believe you've never had a good gamemaster or grouo of players. Like all tools, this is one that works well when the players using it are good. It's a bit like giving a nailgun to someone. If the person has no understanding of how to use a nailgun, they might blunder into using it properly but equally might cause more problems. I'm not saying they're gonna stab their own hand but they could VERY EASILY end up with a bunch of badly bent nails because they don't understand the proper form for using the gun.
>>93241933What, you think pirates don't need a quartermaster just because their ship can fly around?
>>93239223all meetings could be an email or remote session, but if someone is bringing pizza to the session 0, I'm in. It's a brainstorm hang-out, if they didn't make it fun (and you wanted it to be fun) you could have brought the pizza.Its better than getting rail-roaded down some lame story that the dm wanted but no one else did, or having that awkward moment where the weak-ass autist just couldn't handle that roasts the games. And dont even pretend it wasn't you
>>93239223I run session 0 as an online chat group for players to coordinate backstory and character concepts after I've sent them that primer and talked to them individually to set expectations. It kind of needs to be at the same time because I expect them to coordinate their characters within some basic guidelines.
>>93239223>"Oh I'll figure out something based on your backstories"Sign of a retarded GM. GM should be giving the party an impetus to be a party, unless they unanimously agree to know one another in character before the game starts and sort that out. What the nogames on /tg/ don't understand is that games work better with the party having a call to action, it just need to be flexible and able to change later. Don't say "kill the dragon" say "deal with the dragon problem". Leave it to the party to figure out how that happens. They still have a say and they aren't wandering aimlessly.>They can't think of anything without more information about the goals or details of the settingYes, that's why you have a brief primer and session 0 is there to fill in any gaps or help elaborate on things that you didn't want to force the players to read 30 pages of lore for. It lets you flesh out the setting for the players in small chunks as they want/need the info.>"Oh I'll flesh that out based on what you guys are interested in"Sign of a shit GM #2 aka a "Sandbox" GM (or as I like to call it, Litterbox because it's full of shit). He doesn't want to put in the work to make a setting or give you anything to work with.>People throw out random words, phrases, themes out there. DM writes them downand that's three strikes for the shitty GM.>People end up just discussing what classes and races they're playingHYTNPD&D? or its clones?>End up spending a few hours to understand that I will, indeed, be able to play a class and race from the bookOkay then stop being an autist and start the conversation. "Hey guys this is what my character is like what are yours like", it's that easy. Honestly this ought to come first and influence your race/species/ancestry and class/job choice.>Fuck off and wait another week or two for the game to actually startJesus christ your GMs suck.
>>93254385>Jesus christ your GMs suck.Most GMs suck. I think Session 0 advice sets up a lot of GMs for a failure to launch.
