What is Session Zero?

The short answer

Session Zero is a meeting held before the first session of a tabletop role-playing campaign. The players and the game master agree on the tone of the game, what content is welcome and what is off the table, who the characters are, and what everyone hopes to get out of it. No adventure happens yet. The point is that when it does, nobody is surprised by the kind of game they are in.

What a Session Zero covers

• Tone and genre. Grim or light, slow intrigue or constant action, how funny, how frightening.
• Limits. Themes that should never appear, and themes that can appear but stay off-stage. Tables often call these lines and veils.
• Characters. Who each person is playing, what they want, and why they are in this story.
• The world. Where the story starts and the few facts everyone should know.
• Difficulty and stakes. Whether characters can die, and how hard the game should push.
• Practicalities. How often to play and for how long.

Why it matters

Most campaigns that fall apart do so over mismatched expectations, not bad dice. One player wanted a political thriller and another wanted to fight monsters. Someone was blindsided by a theme they would have asked to skip. Twenty minutes of talking at the start prevents most of it.

Session Zero when you play solo

Playing alone doesn't remove the need. It changes who you are talking to. With a journal or an oracle, you are setting expectations with yourself: write down the tone, your limits, and what your character wants before you roll anything. With an AI game master, you are briefing the one running your game, and a clear brief makes a large difference to what you get back.

How Orpheus does it

Every new Orpheus campaign opens with Session Zero: a short conversation with the game master about your character and the kind of story you want, before the adventure starts. Before that, a short setup asks for the world (a name, what it is about, its genre, tone and setting), anything the game master should keep in mind, including themes you want and things to avoid, and how challenging it should feel.

Session Zero doesn't use up a free account's story turns, within a daily cap. The help center has the details.

Five questions worth answering first

1. What does my character want badly enough to cause trouble?
2. What kind of ending would feel right: triumphant, bittersweet, or open?
3. What should never appear in this story?
4. How much should the dice be allowed to hurt?
5. Who is the first person my character already knows here?

Need a premise to bring? There are 48 campaign ideas to borrow, and the glossary explains the other terms you'll meet.