Latest / Bards and Barrels / S1 Ep.11 - Session Zero

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S1 Ep.11 - Session Zero · Bards and Barrels

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Bars and Barrels, the podcast for Dungeons and Dragons players, new and old.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Brett Miller, and I'm joined by my friends and co-hosts, Phil Bloom and Ross Cruz.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be exploring the world of Dungeons and Dragons in each episode, sharing our experiences, and offering tips and advice for those who play and run this classic game.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: So whether you're a new player just starting out or a season dungeon, looking to get a new perspective on things, cards and barrels has something for everyone.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: So sit back, grab a drink, and join us as we rumble for initiative and embark on this epic adventure.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, fellas, we are back, and we're talking this one about something that not every group does.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: A session zero.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Ooh, I love a session zero.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: I do too.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's a mistake not to have one.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: I have learned to appreciate it.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: The first time going into one, I was kind of like, do we really need this?
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: But so fill us in first, Ross.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: What is a session zero?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: So a session zero is where you're going to sit, well, a DM will sit down with their party and then start talking about uh expectations for the campaign, how often you're gonna get together, things of that nature.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh one thing that uh I'm gonna let Phil actually talk about here is something that there's always been a general thought that you bring your character to the session zero and then you introduce and talk about how they fit.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna let Phil take it from here because he and I both agree on uh a different approach to that.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I feel like you know, the way I've always come in, honestly, to any campaign, whether as a player or as a DM, is you know, when we get ready to do session zero, typically everyone shows up to the table with a character already.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: There might be some chatter kind of going on during creation of, hey, I'm thinking of doing this, hey, I'm thinking of doing this.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: So not everyone, as we've talked about before, you don't end up with an entire party of bards.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I think I I would like to shift away from that and actually use more of my session zero to help people to help the party build characters that fits into the campaign or into the world.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: So as a DM, I like to use session zero as an opportunity to share details about the world kind of the pieces of the world that you need to know about.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um I've been you know reading through some different material on DMing, just trying to kind of hone my skills, and you know, there's this idea of sharing truths about your world.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think that that's something that you know, as you share those in a session zero, it can be inspiration for players as they're building out their characters to connect their character into one of those truths in the world.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, especially if you've got something significant, right?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: So we talk a lot about magic and you know, playing in Faroon in this kind of typical setting for Dungeons and Dragons.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: But what if you're playing in a session where uh you know the entire you know world has been cut off from deities and you suddenly have no such thing as divine magic?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: How do you play a cleric then?
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so like those types of things can completely impact how you would potentially build a character.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_02: So that's something that I'm gonna change when I run a session zero is I'm not gonna ask characters to come or ask players to come to the table with a build character.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: I think another aspect of that is building a party that supports itself.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: So veteran players may have like specific characters that they want to play, and then then it becomes more about story base at that point.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: But at least for your first couple sessions, you know, you want to make sure you have a healer in the party, you know, that you have some diversity across the board.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: And doing building your character at the table in session zero is gonna help you do that because you can talk through that.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like if I know Brett wants to be, I don't know what that was, it was a late pop.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: The tab clicked.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know what that was.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: I I I just think Phil's popping two fist and beers over here.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's what's going on.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: I know as much girls are for that.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but but I I I think it just allows you if if this is your first or second campaign with the group you're playing with, it it allows you to build a party uh that's not gonna pigeonhole yourself into some troubles down the road.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: So you make sure you have a healer or whatever you need.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: I will say, Phil, I've sat through with some of your session zeros when we've had characters basically ready to go, and it almost ended up like, eh, we're kind of ready to just start.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why are we still doing a session zero?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm ready to just jump into session one.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: And and I think you miss out on a huge opportunity when we do that to bond a party together, too.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: So sure, it's one thing to bring your characters together and say, hey, you guys are in a tavern, or hey, you meet outside of this, you know, whatever place, you meet outside of a temple, or you're in a marketplace, or something like that, which are a lot of how most of the published adventures start.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: But by doing a session zero, talking about the world, letting the characters build, I can't keep referring to the players as the characters, letting players build their characters organically in your world, you also open up the bond options for them to be, you know, siblings.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe they served in a military group together, maybe they serve a common patron or, you know, some sort of a guild.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_02: You can kind of open those doors up to make a more natural connection between the players that I think is better than throwing everybody in a tavern together and then each of you coming up for a reason for why you're there.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: If you are a veteran group of players going from one campaign to another, there's probably an argument to be had that you don't necessarily need a session zero if you've been playing together.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: Keep in mind that we're doing this for players who are doing this for the first time.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: You're coming into your first session, or maybe your set not first session, but your first campaign or your second campaign.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: This is a way for you to get acclimated for what you're about to do.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are a new player and your dungeon master says, Hey, I want to have a session zero, what do you need to bring to that session?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: What do you need to have prepared walking into the room or dialing in onto the remote call for that session?
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: So uh truthfully, uh, I have an argument to say nothing, but I'm hesitant to say that I think you should have a concept of maybe a character you'd like to build.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um now it is gonna depend on your session zero, because if you're walking into a session zero and your DM wants you to bring a character, obviously do your work and kind of leave some room to tie your character to the world.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: But if not, you know, have an idea of what character you'd like to play, at least a class, probably, um, more or less.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_02: But beyond that, you know, a place to take notes, um, whether that be electronic or paper.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: If you're a writer, that's fine.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_02: Because they're probably gonna give you some you know information about the world.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna talk about um expectations.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: So be prepared to answer the question of you know, hey, when you sit down at a session or when you're playing in a campaign, what's the part that interests you?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: You know, what what do you well I mean, kind of what do you hope to gain out of DD?
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_02: What's fun for you?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: So that way your DM can help create sessions that are going to be fun for you to play.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think one of the things you, Phil, asked us before we started one of our campaigns was uh if you're what's uh what style of play do you want?
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want to be more focused on the role-playing, the fighting, the social encounters?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and there's even like an exploration aspect of that too, right?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like, are you the type of person that you go into a world or you go into a dungeon and you have to explore every room, you know, and turn over every chair and every desk, and that's fine.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: But as a DM, that helps me know okay, how what level of detail do I need to prep?
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like are you gonna go to how much are they gonna push me?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: Correct, and open every book and look for something in the book because I need to have some you know things to play there.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: If you're not those styles of players and you may not even hit every you know room in the dungeon, I don't need to spend a ton of time prepping those, you know, minute details.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: I think a another thing, and and Phil, I think you use this for the group that the when you started DM for some people that you didn't know was you had a survey that you gave people and it was it was less about styles of play and things, it was more of like what kind of content are you okay with?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: Which I wouldn't add anything to what either of you said, other than maybe do a self-check.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like what kind of content are you okay with being in a campaign?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then if you come to the table with that and you can express concern or support for one direction or another, that helps the DM know, hey, maybe I need to lay off on the gore or something because you're not a big fan of that.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: So when people die, we just don't explain things like that or or however or describe things like that or however that would be.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: That would be the only thing I would add to what either of you said.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I agree with that because you know one of the tools you can use as a DM to get the group storytelling going is as simple as asking people to, you know, you're you're you're delivering the final blow to a you know bad guy, right?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: What does that look like?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: Well, if you're not comfortable, you know, potentially describing a finishing blow, obviously I'm not gonna ask you that.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I I need to know.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: You know, that's important.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: It it you still have that, right?
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_02: Because I I think we should we should we'll totally post that like everybody and it's I I did not create it, so we'll figure out where it got it from and we can post that.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: I would also say having an exp expectation of um how much people are really interested in role-playing and getting into their characters, you probably won't know that a lot until you get into your campaign, but that might be somewhat of an idea of where you can get a feeling for your party on is this person gonna talk in a voice?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Is are they going to lean in heavily to I'm gonna do what the character wants or I'm gonna play a character.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: I almost think that's one of those ones where it's it's it's important for the DM to say that.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's like yeah, there is no expectation for you to do that, but if you would like to do that, I'm not going to stop you from doing that.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: And and again, it's just being clear with your players.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And those things can change over time too.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: As you get used, like I would say jumping in the first time, first session to a character, it is hard to do that.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: After you've played one character for a while, you get a good feel for that character, and you might be able to start doing some of those extras, like talking in a voice, positioning yourself like, I don't think my character would actually do that.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: You can step into your character a little bit more once you get a feeling for them later on.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, one other thing that I remember what we touched on was any sort of house rules that our campaign was going to be playing under.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: So one of those things could even just be what content are you willing or are you able to pick from?
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of DD content out there, a lot of supplemental books that you could be able to build your character off of, but maybe your DM doesn't want to allow certain things.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and there's there's so many different ways or levels that you can restrict your party.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think that's a really important one that you hit on, Brad, because something can really significantly change how a campaign functions.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, one that always comes to my mind when you're doing character build is you know, am I going to allow players to pick a race that can fly?
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_02: Because that completely changes combat encounters, uh, traveling requirements.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, there are a lot of things that change when all of a sudden some of your characters can fly.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: That's a big one.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Guns is another big one.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: That especially with critical roles additions to the game, they lean into that heavily.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it if you've watched a lot of critical role, you might, or Voxmach and I, you might be assuming that's normally part of the game.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: It may or may not be part of your campaign.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: And just to specify, it's not the gun itself that's the problem.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's keeping track of ammunition.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's like it's like a bow wielder.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's like if you have six six arrows, that's a lot easier to keep track of than if you have 34 bullets in your pack and you shot 20 of them, but I forgot to keep track of that.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's it's a lot of that boils down to as well.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: And this would be something you cover in session zero is how closely are you gonna track that?
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: Another one of those rules would also be like, uh, are we gonna count it as an action to draw a weapon or not?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of that is dependent on the DM.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: Is it is it worth you know slowing down the play to worry about things like that?
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: And that would be something that you would talk about, and it also makes it a little less stressful on people if they don't have to remember things like that.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: I will say, just to back up here for a second, you were talking about how you were like, well, maybe we shouldn't have people flying in a specific campaign.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I want everybody to know out there that Phil said in our campaign that we could not fly, and then he net reneged on that, and then we could fly.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: And by the end of the campaign, I think two of the four could at least fly for sure.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: It was a mistake to let you fly, but it's fine.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: Lesson learned.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, we don't have to talk about that again.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: So uh another rule I think that gets thrown out a lot too is encumbrance.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: So basically, how much weight can you carry?
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's a real pain in the ass for the DM to have to keep track of.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: And unless you're playing in a campaign that has giants and there's gonna be a bunch of giant loot, you know, it doesn't really matter that much.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: Because what ends up happening instead is DM gives you a bag of holding, and you just shove all your crap in a bag of holding anyway.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Food is another one that food you can deal with.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: We never do, but it's like that's one of those things that if you're going into a campaign, you should at least have somewhat of an idea of do I need to care about this or not?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, uh, it comes down to style of play, right?
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh most of the time as a DM, I don't want to spend time prepping a session for you guys to go forage.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't feel like you would really enjoy a session where you went to go forage.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_02: Now, maybe if you got attacked, sure, you know, we could make an encounter out of it, and I could do that, but I just I operate under the assumption that your characters can provide rations for themselves.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: And and I'm a little curious, if you're listening to this and you have an opinion on this, it I my guess is that players in their the for sure their first campaign through their first probably several campaigns aren't gonna care about these things.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: As you've been playing for a long, long time, do you begin to care about those things?
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's like that's the level up where like I'm so proficient in all these other things where I know my character so well that I have to that that's the added challenge for me is keeping track of all these other things.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, maybe not, but I'm just curious if that's the case that's out there.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a veteran player, drop us a comment on Facebook, let us know uh your experience playing some of those things, especially if you've played maybe some of the previous editions of DD, how does that factor in?
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like we're playing 5e now.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: How does maybe 2e affect some of those things?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I think what it boils down to, and that's why I'm really curious about hearing from veteran players, because it's like if you're a new player and I'm asking you to learn this character, but I'm also asking you to keep track of how much you're carrying, make sure that you're eating, make sure that you're getting the correct amount of sleep.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: Not that you do that, but I'm just starting to be really nitpicky here.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's too much for a first-time player to really like hone in on for that first campaign or even your first couple campaigns.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's like just just get used to playing the game first.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: I would say the last big thing in session zero that every every single campaign needs to talk about before they start is a an expectation of what is the schedule going to be that you're going to play.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: How often are you all anticipating being able to play?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: You can shoot for more often than you actually are going to, but have a realistic conversation and how often are we going to get together?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_02: So I there are a lot of facets that go into scheduling as a whole, right?
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_02: So as Brett mentioned, you know, frequency is one piece of it, right?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_02: But duration, like how long are your sessions gonna be?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: Are you gonna play a two-hour session every couple weeks?
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna play a four-hour session once a month, you're gonna get together one Saturday a month and play 12 hours, you know.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: What does that look like?
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna marathon play, which is fine.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_02: And every group I think will find their own cadence, but those are two pieces of it, and then beyond that, you know, method also there.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: Are you playing in person?
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: Are you playing solely online?
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: Are you playing mixed?
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: And making sure that everyone has access to the way that you're going to be able to play.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: I think that a lot of that goes into that decision.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: And also, what amount of prep work do you need to have as a player between sessions?
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Some DMs might want you to do a little bit more preparing before a session than others.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: And having that having that laid out in front of a campaign starting is a good way to get everybody on the same page before you jump in.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I think I think all of those have present their own challenges, right?
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like if you're playing online, you still have to work around everybody's schedule.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: If you're trying to get together, that you have the added aspect of not only are we working around your schedule, but can we all get into one place at the same time?
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: So one of the things that I'm curious about from your guys' standpoint is what do you do when you know four out of the five people in your party can make it?
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: I you want to take it first?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oof.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: It depends on how how much of an issue it is.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: If it's once in a blue moon, sure.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: You guys can play or you or if it's once in a blue moon, maybe just reschedule it.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: If it's uh twice a blue moon type of thing, uh maybe it's the type of thing where the party of four goes off and does a random encounter to kind of fill time.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: You still get together or you still get to maybe do a little side quest mission that doesn't necessarily progress the main story, but you can do something else and still have fun, still get together, but you're not missing out on having everybody there.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think, Ross?
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think it depends a lot on where you're at and whatever story it is.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: If you stop a previous session and in like in between combat rounds because you've set three hour sessions, you really can't do the next one with somebody missing.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's a little hard to explain why they're not there.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: If you're in between things and you can logically explain that hey, they stayed behind and you can continue on, sure, great.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Also, your storyline.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you're at a high point of a of the story and you're about to go up against the big baddie, you probably want everybody there, just alone to be able to have some extra uh extra fighters to in the going into that battle.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think I think you hit it on the head, Brett, is it's frequency of how often you play.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: If you're playing weekly, it makes it a little easier to do that.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like just to say, hey, this person can be out for this one depending on where you're at in the story.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: If you pay play once a month, oh goodness, it's probably easier just to reschedule that one session than to try to figure out a way to make it work without somebody.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: I definitely think that the frequency plays into it, and you're right.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: I it's interesting.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_02: I I actually fall on the other side of the spectrum there, and like if I was gonna miss a session, I would just tell someone to play my character for me.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I'd trust somebody to play my character for me.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_02: You just you tell them don't kill them.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_02: Don't let my character die.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: Don't die.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: Best advice in DD ever.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: But I like it too because it also a lot of times it will force someone to play maybe a character type that they haven't played before.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's interesting.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: Makes sense.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_02: But that's uh I wasn't able to make game night at the bookstore last month.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_02: So obviously as DM, we had to switch it up.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_02: But in theory, as a player, even though we only meet on a monthly frequency, that's probably what I would have told them to do is hey, you know, you guys meet, like, don't reschedule someone play my character for me.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: Don't kill me.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: I I think you made me think of another good point though, too, is like it depends on your party size.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: True.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: If you only have three people in your party and one's gonna be gone, whoo, that puts you in a lurch.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: If you have you're dealing with a party that might have eight people in it and one person or two people gone, three people gone, you're probably still okay, depending on how you're scaling things.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, one other thing that we've done, us as a group, is sometimes when we've had somebody gone, we just do a one-shot.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is a separate campaign.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Let somebody else DM for a session.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: We were meeting about like once a month, once every couple weeks, and that was okay for us to kind of skip a session, still get together, still, still get to play DD, but not in our main campaign.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: That was another way for us to kind of get around that.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I I definitely think that I think it was you that mentioned this, Brett.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_02: Like there are pivotal moments in a campaign, and there are certain things that we know we won't move forward with until we have everyone, and those are perfect use cases to put in those one-shots.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Other final thoughts, session zero, it is a big benefit, um, I think overall.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_02: I've got one more piece that I like to put into mine, and we'll see what you guys think.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_02: So basically what happened now, right?
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: We finished everything up.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_02: I still want to run a teaser or something, so that way people get to roll their dice.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: Just like a real quick getting you into the story.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_02: One single encounter to pull the characters into the campaign.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: I would agree with that.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's a good way after you've talked about all these things.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: It it would feel awkward if you didn't do it, right?
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's like you've talked about all of the what characters you're gonna play.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: You may have built characters, you've talked about all the rules that you're gonna do.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's like to end that there's nothing better than to like roll the dice, let's do something, let's get everybody together.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then you can go back and potentially adapt some of those character features if you learn something is not working, you can learn realize it before you jump into a full session.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Other final thoughts.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I I I a hundred percent agree that a session zero is needed.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like it's almost like if you're on the fence about doing it, just do it just to talk things through as a party.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: If you're a more veteran party, maybe you don't need it, but I would say for sure, if you're a if you're a beginning party, especially if you have a beginning DM, get together, talk things through, and make sure everybody's on the same page.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: That that's really what the session zero is for.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: I would say it's definitely worth it.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you're playing for the first time and your whole party is playing for the first time, it may be a couple hours of a session.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you've played a whole bunch, it could be 15 minutes.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: Depending on how established your characters are going into it and what you're looking at doing, uh, it can be pretty flexible.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I do think if you're coming into a session zero and you know that you kind of have a mixed um play level of your party too, if you're coming into that as an experienced player, you know, come in graciously, help your DM kind of navigate these different pieces, especially if you're building characters in that session.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because it will shorten that uh session for you.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_02: It won't be quite so long if you got some additional help there.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna wrap it up there.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: If you have ever played in a session or gone through a session zero with a party, or if you're heading into your first session zero, uh drop us a comment on Facebook.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: We're at Bards and Barrels.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Let us know your feedback on what you would do for a session zero.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: What do you need to look at heading into a campaign?
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll catch you again next time.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is Bard and Barrels.