Session Zero Checklist for New DMs

A session zero should cover tone and genre, safety tools, schedule and logistics, character ties, your house rules, and a starting pressure for the campaign — all before the first die is rolled. It is the meeting you hold before the real game begins: no combat, no rolling for stakes, just the group agreeing on what kind of game you're all about to play.

New dungeon masters often skip it and pay for the omission three sessions later, when it turns out one player wanted gritty survival horror and another wanted a comedy heist. Run a good session zero and most of that friction disappears before it ever forms. Here is what to cover.

How do you set tone and genre?

Before anything else, decide together what the campaign feels like. Heroic and hopeful, or morally grey? Combat-heavy dungeon crawls, or intrigue and roleplay? Comedy welcome, or played straight?

You don't need a thesis — a few reference points usually do it. "Think The Princess Bride with more goblins" tells everyone more than a paragraph would. Write down what the table lands on so you can point back to it when you're prepping.

What safety and comfort tools should you use?

Even light-hearted games drift into heavy territory. Agree in advance on subjects the group would rather keep off the table, and adopt a simple in-the-moment tool — many tables use "lines and veils" (hard nos versus fade-to-black) plus a quick signal anyone can use to pause if a scene gets uncomfortable. This isn't about killing the mood. It's the thing that lets people relax and lean in, because they know there's a brake.

What logistics kill campaigns if you skip them?

Most campaigns don't die from bad stories. They die because nobody could agree on a night to play. Settle the practical questions now:

• How often, what night, how long per session?
• In person or online, and on what platform?
• What happens when someone can't make it — do you play on, or postpone?
• Snacks, house, hosting rotation?

Five minutes here saves a group-chat death spiral later.

How do you tie characters to the world and each other?

This is where the campaign actually gets its hooks. Ask each player for a character who is connected to the world and to each other — a debt, a rivalry, a shared hometown, a reason these people travel together. A party of strangers who "meet in a tavern" gives you nothing to pull on; a party with ties hands you plot for free.

Build the characters together at the table so people can link backstories as they go. Hand everyone a clean sheet and walk through it as a group — our DnD Character Sheet keeps abilities, background and features on clear, labelled pages, so even first-timers can follow along instead of getting lost in a rulebook. Make a note of every tie the players invent; those are your first three adventures.

How do you set expectations about the rules?

Tell players how you intend to run the table. Are you running rules-as-written, or happy to make rulings on the fly to keep things moving? Is this a tactical game where positioning matters, or a loose one where you'll hand-wave the grid? Players relax when they know the kind of game they're in.

If casters are at the table, this is also the moment to mention that you'll be using Spell Cards so spell turns stay quick — and to encourage everyone to read their own cards before the next session.

A villain or a pressure, even a vague one

You don't need a fully-formed antagonist before session one, but you want a direction. Some force pressing on the world — a rising cult, a failing harvest, a noble overreaching. It gives the early sessions a current to swim against, and you can sharpen it as you learn what the players are drawn to.

The session zero checklist

Run down this list and you've covered the essentials:

• Tone and genre agreed and written down
• Safety tools chosen and understood by everyone
• Schedule, platform and absence policy settled
• Characters built, each tied to the world and the party
• Your rules-of-the-table expectations stated
• A starting pressure or villain in mind
• Sheets and spell cards in hand for next time

Then play

Session zero shouldn't take the whole evening. Forty-five minutes of this, and you can roll straight into a short opening scene to end on a high. If you've never run a self-contained adventure before, the natural next read is How to Run Your First One-Shot — a one-shot is a low-stakes way to practise everything you just agreed on. And to keep your casters' turns snappy from the very first fight, see 5 Ways to Use Spell Cards at the Table.

A campaign built on a good session zero is one where everyone showed up wanting the same game. That's most of the battle won.