Tomorrow evening I’m kicking off my first campaign as a DM! The campaign will be set in Eberron.
As I mentioned in another post, I’ll share the details of each adventure in pairs. The first post will be a behind-the-scenes look of what I prepared for the adventure. The second post will be a recounting of the events as a story.
This post is my prep for our first zero session.
Usually, when players say zero session they mean a pre-meeting where everyone gets together and discusses their expectations and ground rules for the campaign. In addition to this, I’m doing something a little different.
Zero session structure
I split the party into smaller groups and I’m having each of them do a mini session before the campaign begins. These sessions are only an hour or two. I’m preparing a traditional encounter for each mini session, but I’m also going to spend some time digging into a few events from each character’s backstory.
For the backstory scenes, I’m going to let the player build their own encounter. I’ll ask them to pick a moment from their character’s life and we’ll flesh out who was there and what was going on. Then we’ll role play the scene a bit to see what happens.
Establishing their character
My main goal is to give everyone a chance to get used to their character in a less intimidating space. I’m hoping that having only 1 or 2 people around will make everyone feel more comfortable getting into character and trying out voices. All of my zero sessions are focused on encouraging role play and communication between characters, rather than challenging them with combat.
I’m also allowing players to make tweaks to their characters after the zero session in case anything didn’t turn out how they anticipated.
Making the backstories more real
Having the players reenact moments from their back story is going to be pretty experimental. My hope is that it will give them a better understanding of how past events have shaped their character.
I’m also hoping that it will generate a few good NPCs, plot points, etc. that I can call back in the campaign.
Hitting the ground running
My other hope is to build momentum for the campaign. Each zero session is designed to give the players a chance to bond. These relationships, combined with the practice role playing their characters and the fleshed out backstories, should give everyone something to work with when the whole party gets together.
The first zero session is for 2 characters:
I chose these two players because I saw a chance for an interesting shared goal between them. Cara is the daughter of an airship trading family and wants to have her own airship. Lyundefin wants to build the world’s greatest traveling library.
In the zero session, the characters will find an ancient artificers book that contains the blueprints for a larger-than-normal airship, one that could serve as Lyundefin’s traveling library. Building the airship will require lots of questing together.
The setup
Rowen Shorthammer is a minor noble in the city of Korranberg. Rowen is young – 63 years old – but became the family patriarch when his parents were killed suddenly on an expedition to Xen’drik. Rowen is earnest and trying his best to live up to the family name. He’s in way over his head.
In the hopes of proving himself, Rowen gathered his family’s minor fortune to fund an expedition deep into the heart of Xen’drik. The expedition was successful, but Rowen was betrayed. Another noble, Furrug Powderstone, paid off the band of mercenaries who ran the expedition and they gave Furrug all of the artifacts they recovered. Furrug is vicious, but also a bit bumbling. This zero session isn’t meant to be mechanically challenging, so we’re dealing with minor nobles and petty squabbles.
Rowen, desperate to reclaim his family’s wealth, has put out a call for a rogue to help steal all the artifacts back. We’ll begin with Cara responding to the call.
Rowen outlines the mission: break into Furrug’s house and steal back the artifacts. At some point he will let drop that the artifacts include a bunch of rare, valuable books. Lyundefin will overhear this and join in.
Rowen has no money to pay, so he offers that each member can keep one artifact as payment. He’ll give the adventurers a bag of holding to place the artifacts in. He’ll reclaim this after the mission.
If asked, Rowen knows:
The theft
There are 2 guards who can be found at the local bar. If appropriately persuaded, they will reveal that there’s a third guard patrolling inside the walls. They’ll also let slip that 2 chefs were recently hired and are working in the house for the next few days preparing a feast to celebrate Furrug’s “discovery” of many Xen’drik artifacts.
The names of the 3 human guards:
The elven chefs:
The house itself is two stories:
1st floor
The fence around the house is 12 feet high. There’s a shadowy alley on the right that is hard to see into.
In the living room, there’s a knight statue. A DC 16 perception check will reveal that there’s no dust around the knight. A DC 10 perception check reveals that the chair closest to the knight is a bit further back than the other one.
If we need some excitement, one of the chef’s in the kitchen might poke their head into the library during the burglary.
Turning the knight towards the staircase reveals a secret chamber under the stairs that contains the artifacts. The artifacts include:
2nd floor
The second floor has a DC 10 lock on the balcony window. The bedroom dresser has 20GP hidden that can be found with a DC 15 investigation check.
The office desk is littered with logistical details of Furrug’s business. The book shelf has a bunch of books on noble lineages, the cost of various items, and currency conversions.
Under the rug is a loose floorboard revealed by DC 15 investigation. DC 10 if the players are being thorough. The floorboard is trapped. DC 10 to detect, 15 to disarm. If the trap goes off it does 1d4 damage and makes a loud noise. Under the floorboard are papers that prove Furrug stole from Rowen.
That’s all for now! I’ll follow up in a couple days to say how things went and talk about the next zero session.
