A Different Session Zero || Dramatic Campaign Introductions 

Where have you been hiding Zipperon? Glad I stumbled upon your hidden lair. Lots of great content. Also, lots of sweet tie dye tees and a super wicked hat!

"My character is the world." As a DM I found that profound.

I love how the content of your channel is story driven rather than most d&d channels about min maxing or ranting over rules. Good job and keep it up!

Just did this kind of session 0 with my players- IT WENT REALLY GREAT! BEST SESSION 0 EVER

Dungeon World has all of these session zero character ties and bonds baked into the core rule/building of the game.

Bonds and Conflicts are part of a system I'm working on. The game gives you Fortune points to influence a roll. A person you have a Bond with can offer to give you a point once a game. But a person you have a conflict with can steal one once per game.

How have you slipped under the radar? "The lie you tell yourself" This is the question I've been looking to pose to my players without knowing it for so long. I've been making characters like this and not realizing that this is why I find them so compelling, I just couldn't put my finger on it. The lies can be simple, like "good things happen to good people" (therefore I am good, or therefore I am bad, both interesting), or incredibly specific "if I hunt down the avatar then my father will be proud and loving." Will be taking a lot from here, I've been trying to pose a lot these questions to my players, but haven't found phasing that hits the nail on the head like that.

I saw this video through Reddit, I really enjoyed it! I love your use of history! You have my subscription, sir! Keep up the awesome work!

Though I dunno how popular this might be, I found one trick to make my characters more well-rounded is to consider combining attributes from different backgrounds. For instance, an Aasimar is a demi-celestial, so add an ideal and flaw from the Acolyte background, or try combining one with one from their main background. "It is the duty of the strong to protect the weak" might turn into "our gods have given each of us a strength to be used in the service of others" then "I look down on the weak" would become "I have no tolerance for those who demand of others strength in belittling ways" the DM could then introduce conflict by simply having the group need to gain the graces of a Noble Karen.

I work pretty hard on these videos and I'd love to know how I can improve. Please let me know your thoughts!

What Poe needs is good writing not appallingly bad writing to support an agenda that needed to be binned! Sorry had to be said.

Great videos!! As a DM, your channel is an invaluable resource, even though I have been DM'ing for years and years! Great work!

Once again great content, I’m definitely subscribing

You and matt coville have the best DM advice on RU-vid Thanks

It's really cool seeing how far your delivery has come from these old videos. The content holds up but you've become so much more comfortable in front of the camera. Can't wait to see how far you'll keep going

you like both Lindybeige and matt colville? me too, nice

I love your thoughtful advice its seriously the best and your players are blessed by an endowed dm , but it's also daughnting for a beginner dm. It's so many concepts. Will you make a beginner dm video to teach dm's to get started crawling before walking and running. That would be fantastic. And I bet you would wicked advice in a for players video

Your channel has a lot of actually actionable advice that goes beyond the simple general advice. Great stuff

About to start a new homebrew campaign at level 5 so I've been revisiting some of your videos. The interactive faction cards and multi-faceted flaws are gems. Also, your breath control and presentation of your videos has improved so much over the last few years, it's good here but your on a professional level now.

Very helpful! Will include aspects of this in my game!

Subbed after watching your video about diversity and this. Excited for you to make more stuff dude!

Vall a Herbalist who was banished from another world. A malformed wood elf exiled by her tribe, she rebuilt her life once only to witness her son's death twice and then banished unable to check on her grandson whose stuck with a guard of dubious merit as his sole protector. Of her group there's Pixie whose both dangerous and frightening to her nearly killing her with a miscast spell, there's Alwyn the gnome a race she's heard about but never met so is naturally curious, finally there's Sanguine a Tiefling whose the most worldly wise of the group she suspects they're very similar as he's concerned about a family member too. But Vall's difficulty lies in rebuilding her life on this new world as she desperately tries to find a way to contact her grandson to make sure he's ok.

This was really good and I took a couple of solid ideas away from it. Mt friends and I are playing a campaign with rotating DMs, building onto each other's arcs. My character needs to flesh out and I will be using your character sheet idea to build a lot more depth.

Awesome vid as usual. Have you done a video on some of your notes? I’d love to see some of your writing and how you prep/plan!

Man this is some killer DM advice, I've heard similar stuff about the party should have bonds with eachother, but I love how much detail you give to this advice. I love the bond&denial sheet you layed out. This really lays out just how to go about this. Thank you!

so your players worked out character backstories together as well? And worked alongside one another to fill out the 'true' character sheets? Otherwise how could they give detailed relationships/wants?

Grea tips here!

Commenting for the algorithm

May I post this to a Facebook group specifically designed to help DM's with info and sheets? I of course will give you credit and also link to this video. I recently used your character sheet and holy crap did it make a positive impression in my group! This is what I part of what wrote in my homebrew Character Creation: Character creation is not about putting numbers on a stat sheet. I believe in letting the math be a mechanic and not what defines the character in the game. Character creation is the act of creating a person who is able to interact with the world around them, and in turn have the world impact them. First, what is your characters greatest desire, fear, secret and regret. What do you want? What do you fear? What is your secret you keep from others? And what is your biggest regret? Relationship to (blank) is: The cliché first meeting is at an inn, you all bump into each other and rush off to adventure! Sounds great, but would you ever do that in real life? Dungeons and Dragons is a game of fantasy storytelling, but there is some level of believability as well. Besides, this puts too much pressure on players to come up with a quick reason you are willing to take that risk. Answering the questions is a way to pre-start the campaign with the other players. Maybe you were friends, or rivals while growing up? Or maybe you have adventured together before. Having a reason to be where you start and with whom you start with breaks the cliché, even if the characters do start at an inn, at least you know each other. That leads you to what do you want from them? Another adventure? Respect? Love? A debt they owe you? The idea is to build connections BEFORE you meet up at the inn or other location. The lie I tell myself? What is it your character doesn’t want to admit to that forces them to lie to themselves? Maybe they believe a loved one will return, when deep down they know that they are gone forever, or maybe they believe the king is benevolent rather than a tyrant, because your military or citizenship duty is to hold them in high respect. What I think I want is… Power, money, love, respect? What item, power, or position does your character outwardly want? BUT… What I actually need is: Your character might crave power to defeat an evil, but what they really need to do is forgive, or help someone else take the throne, or to let go. Maybe your character is in love someone who will not love them back, what you need is to find someone else. Ouch, but it is true. And if you do not wish to look, that might be the lie you tell yourself. Bonds, Bond x2 and Bond x5. Bonds are what hold your character to the world and are of great significance. This could be home or a parental figure. Due to the recent history, it could be a soldier that saved your life and you owe a debt to, or a friend who lost their way. Something that glues you to another person or object. Bond x2 and x5 are even more powerful, deeper, and the most meaningful bonds to your characters. The multipliers are in game XP rewards for completing them in some form. Nice. Think of them as milestones for your character’s story. And finally, a quarter page block for your background. This is to help fill in whatever gaps you wish to add. You’ve now made a full-fledged character. Congratulations! Now onto the number and mechanics. If there is anything here that you do not think represent you properly, I will be happy to change it.

Wonderful advice! I I really enjoyed this video and the ideas you bring for a session 0. Having connection and a cohesive party is key to any strong beginning. Im look forward to your cheerful advice and patiently wait for more content! If you find the time and want to support another up and coming D&D group check out Hot&Dicey a new actual play 5e podcast. Come along for the ride and laugh along with us in our fully edited episodes! Cheers.

As soon as you mentioned it I saw it. Your style is very Matt Colville. That’s not a bad thing either.

let's see... 4 yrs ago; 3 yrs. ago; 2,1, 10 months, 1 month... It looks like RU-vid algorithm only releases you out of its dungeons on a yearly cycle. found you about a month ago. I like your style of videos. I especially like the index cards and tokens. it helps me organize my thoughts too.

3D6 in order. Roll a bunch of potential characters and pick the one who is the most interesting.

Wow, great content! What do you think of generating characters via lifepath in a session zero?

What are the 'bonds' on the character sheet you linked to? Some of them have x2 and x5.

Awesome video! I can understand why no Noble, but why no acolyte?

Read a few books on fiction writing? I do like the idea of awarding experience based on personal goals. I tried the personality based proficiency from the DMG but that did not turn out well. Right now, I only award experience for making discoveries about the world and don't give out awards for combat at all. And I've made a system to let players manipulate some game mechanics based on their character's personality. Which also works nicely with madness and influence from magic items. I'm getting a more personality driven game but actual positive or negative change arcs are still out of reach.

Cool and interesting, well delivered. Used Colville enough to get attention but not to much and kept it about your stuff. I would advise to make shorter talks, you seem to be running out of breath and just edit the whole thing more 'colville style'.

Why GMs should always create the characters.

One tip : Take a better pacing in your sentences. You're out of breath out of excitement and intensity (or maybe something else). Very good and informative video nonetheless. Cheers.

Lots of players play D&D (and others) because they want to do 87 points of damage in a single hit. Trust me. There are plenty of such power gamers out there. None of my players are those people because I don't choose to play with power gamers to be fair, my games are not conducive to them, so power gamers get bored quickly in my campaigns.

Not gonna lie, your method might make it easier for the DM, but it’s kinda an asshole approach. Like, do it my way or you can suck it. It works if you’ve got a compliant party, but not if you have a full range of people. But then again, that’s just my opinion 🤷🏽‍♂️