CoD 1: Session 00

 Much information existed on how to run a session zero as a game master (GM), but this list from Reddit seemed very comprehensive. My experience though was that at least 75% of a session zero was on social boundaries, limits on character creation, and a million game mechanic questions that inevitably got forgotten. SoloRPG’ing meant most of this went away and we could focus on describing the world and premise of the campaign.

Saying that, I thought it would be good to go through some of the topics on the list in general as a precursor:

Campaign premise

I had thought of the promise when considering on becoming a GM. To minimise lore and run adaptable campaigns with least prep, the premise was for the campaign to be set on a newly discovered island, where a mysterious cave was found. The Cave transported characters to different planes, or alternate realities, in order complete (or fail) a pre-define but unknown mission before allowing whoever entered to return out of the cave. The location was unknown ahead of time to maximise randomness, and ranged from just a dungeon to an entire world. The ‘Empire’ sent a governor to develop a settlement there for access and transport ng valuables brought out of the Cave back to the continent. Logically others would want a piece of the pie, therefore I had a merchant family establish itself on the island from the start to ‘aid’ the settlement’s growth. Therefore, any adventurers would have to balance the goodwill of both factions to do anything in the settlement, while surviving each dive into the Cave. 

From a GM POV, this allowed a lot of flexibility on scheduling, easy initiation, and a base of operations for characters to return. Especially if actual players come and go. The opportunities for longer term campaigns to have PCs develop the settlement/affect the factions also would build attachment to the game.

From an author’s POV, the premise itself established a central conflict already in the home setting. The two clearly opposing factions, the risks of the going into the Cave, and whatever got rolled up for each Cave mission were all conflicts that might lead a story. 

The World

If the campaign were ran as a normal DND game, this campaign would take place in Faerûn off the west coast of Waterdeep on the Sword Coast. This gave ease of background setting and mutual understand of the world. Saying that, considering we had novelization in mind and I had no interests in researching all official lore details, I would change many aspects in my solo play through. To simplify, sometimes I would use official DND names for record (eg spells) and sometimes I would use simple substitution of established concepts to something original (eg Waterdeep would be called the Capitol in the story). 

For those familiar, Waterdeep was a complex metropolis with its own politics and culture. However, as a rule for world-building, there was no need to pad out every detail of the world unless it affected the PCs. For this campaign, they might never return to the continent. All readers/players needed to know was it was a central political hub with big lights. If the need to mention or refer to it came up however, I would flesh it out then. This was the crux of SoloRP’ing, because better still, I could pose any required question to Mythic. 

Technology level and magic

A good gauge was always whether guns were allowed. I may allow flintlocks, and there were definitely cannons, but I would consider magic had hindered scientific advances in some areas from how we knew them in our human history. Why develop medicine when a Cure Wounds spell would suffice? 

On magic, no one would be surprised at adventurers knowing spells. DND characters range from level 1 to 20, and so would their rarity. If everyone could cast the Wish spell, the world would end. Common magic artefacts were just that - common. Therefore this world could be considered relatively high magic.

GM Style

The campaign would be kept light on adult themes. If it were a movie, it would be a 15 in the UK and maybe a R in the US. Never NC-17. This campaign would be mostly family friendly, with swear words here and innuendos there. I had no fascinations with Grimdark and no PCs would start off evil alignment. 

Rules lawyering

I would apply rules during my own gameplay, with mundane house rules as I understood it (eg Matt Mercer’s bonus-action-to-feed-potion rule). I would document any juicy details for the actual play report (eg how I dealt with Nat20s), but would not document all rolls or actions. Deaths would be permanent but per any good GM, the campaign would not make sure-death scenarios. However, there would be no balance if one PC always got downed if the dice gods hated him. This was part of the fun and tension. However considering I was inexperienced in making level-appropriate encounters, if the party was to be annihilated, I might attempt a reasonable rescue without Deus Ex Machina.

PC creation, and secrets 

All PCs, and key NPCs, will have secrets and motivations not shared with each other. The main PCs (three in this game) starts off with one main thread related to their background. (N)PCs may kill, loot, or even love each other dependent on their motivations and dice. Mythic is a system that stressed the most logical conclusions, and therefore my advice for both authors and GMs was to develop your NPCs. Make them breath, as they could blow on surprising dice outcomes. (N)PC backgrounds and motivations would only become apparent as the sessions continued, as per how an actual DND session would be if you were not the GM.

When it came to character creation, apart from the PCs, I had went to the trouble to creating character sheets for key NPCs, thinking it would come in handy at some point (eg versus deception checks). I had taken liberties to strengthen some up, such as max HP increase each level or additional feats, but stayed within confines of the system. The PCs would start relatively vanilla, but might include some homebrew to make things more interesting. 

Levelling up

As a player, I prefer milestone to experience based levelling up. For novelization, unless your novel was of the LitRPG genre, the power of the DND system would not extend that far though. If I were to be a GM, and now for SoloRP, my rule for levelling up would be milestone in theory but RP in actuation. For example, if a party won a hard fight and resting, in usual games they would level up after that long rest. In this campaign, PC level up if they could provide a reason. A Paladin would not suddenly be able to cast a spell and learnt a new fighting style after waking up. Instead, maybe he had to go back to the town and meet his mentor, who would teach him the new tricks. At least, maybe his deity came to him in a dream during the rest to teach him. I saw how characters strengthens up as a significant  campaign aspect that could not be waved away, and this mechanism made perfect opportunities to elaborate on backstories. 

That’s it for the preamble as there is no point in going to the nth degree here. I will make individual posts if there’re interests in the process and use tags to denote actual play of the campaign and side notes. It’s time to set off for Session 1.