It has been over a year since I've run D&D for anyone, and it had been years before that. My tools are rusty and my skills are blunted, but the act of scraping those tools back into service will also sharpen those skills which are so integral to not only our bi-weekly Nerd Poker, but in oh so many other aspects of life.
And so begins what hopefully will be a rewarding D&D campaign, not just for me but especially for my players. Finding a consistent group large enough to make the work that Game Mastering entails worth it can be tricky, especially now that most of us are real life adults with jobs and schedules and responsibilities.
Three out of five of my players are essentially new to D&D; one played under me for one session a year ago, and another has played a bit of different systems which are hard to compare to D&D 5th Edition. The third is completely new to this, and that's as exciting in itself as having a chance to whet the role-playing whistles of the others. I am confident that once the dice start rolling that I can live up to his enthusiasm!
So today we all gathered for Session Zero, a planning session that precedes Session One so that everyone can benefit from creating their characters all together, whether they collude or not. It was also a chance for them to ask me about the setting I've drawn up (and 1/5 had actually read the handout I had typed up and sent out online a couple weeks ago, which worked out perfectly since it gave me a chance to read it to them and have it fresh in their minds). The questions they asked helped me to flesh out some of the grey areas in my world's history and social structure, which was immensely helpful.
They got to think about where they fit in the world at large, and not necessarily with each other. There's no guarantee that these adventurers would know one another; in fact, it's probably for the best that they don't.
The idea that they don't necessarily know each other is really the best way to go when you are talking about 1st level characters. 1st level characters would have no adventuring backstory to speak of - the most my players brought to the table is a brief story as to why they've taken up the task in the first place, and those stories are great. I will save sharing this for another date. A prepackaged backstory is all well and good for higher level starts, but the beauty of level 1 is that backstories are earned rather than written.
As we wrapped up and I began to set the stage for session one, the most I gave to them for certain is that "Work has dried up in Uscos, and you have just crossed into the outer territory of Abranel, the world's trading city and the nearest place that may promise a living." For all they know, they're just murder-hoboes crossing paths for the first time. Session one will initiate the party.
So who are these travelers? Here are the player characters for The Rivers of Dragonhearth:
- Gront Rishnog, a Half-Orc barbarian - played by Justin
- Brunhilda Skarsgaard, a Human fighter - played by Jess
- Casimir Delavert, a Half-Elf paladin - played by Bill
- Elzameer Wright, a Half-Elf bard - played by Norah
- Page Greenleaf, a Human rogue - played by Mike
I will save you details on each of them until we begin playing. All player characters are a work in progress, and name-rank-and-serial-number is all that is needed for now. They have the beginnings of personalities, but nothing needs to be written in stone until the dice start rolling and monsters start dying. In their heads (as well as mine) it's only theory at this point, but action will be the measure of what works and what can change.
My friend Bill, who is not only one of the best Game Masters I've played under (and I've played under some phenomenal Game Masters in my day, and occasionally still do even if it means a road trip) but also one of my players, routinely keeps campaign blogs to share After Action Reports and campaign lore. This is my attempt to do the same. This will be a clearing house for musings, history, society and game stories from this D&D campaign: The Rivers of Dragonhearth.
Character creation took from Noon until 2:30, and since I had set an end time of 4pm I decided to save content for our first full session - not only to avoid Draconis Interruptus, but also to begin soaking in all of the information I have on my players and their characters so I can begin factoring that in to my thinking. We reconvene on July 10th, and the virtue of Session Zero is that they will be ready to hit the ground running with a general sense of who they are. My job will be to make it all worth it for them, and I can finally say that I feel up to the task!
