What should I do for a session 0 for a group of totally new players...

>d20 System?
Yeah

Man if this is the kind of innocuous shit that sends you into a seething rage, I can't even possibly imagine what your life is like and how exhausting you are to the people around you.

Great post

I try

You fool! Session 0, Agency and Storyline are forbidden words around here.

Tard Wrangler NPC.
chances are your players are gonna do something real stupid, best thing you can do is lead by example. Give them an NPC to help guide them, give them a sense of how to think in an RPG etc wisdom such as "Don't split the party" etc.
It sounds harsh but really, new players need a tard wrangler to keep their autism, and excitement in place while you show them how to make coherent and reasonable decisions based on their characters personality and statistics (because stats are simply part of the RP experience. If you're gonna RP high charisma, you better have high charisma to back it up)

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She's quite delightful.

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imagine

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Is that the ShindoL with the dog and the happy ending?

I believe so yes

Alongside helping them roll their characters, give them some tidbits about the history of the world their characters might know (if the character is a gnome, give some gnomish history, traditions, etc). Help them make a backstory that you can draw from, and link them to other members of the party.

Then, in session one, one of the first NPCs they meet should be the most bombastic, over the top character you can muster. Accent, mannerisms, etc. Doesn't have to be major, could just be the barkeep. The purpose is to let your players know "it's OK to be a little crazy here". Talk to them in character. They'll start to respond in kind.

>every single thing about that image

>posting patreon banner ads on Veeky Forums
Scum

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>Man who likes Independence Day 2
>Patrician

>sandbox
OH GOD IT GETS WORSE!

>slightly furry stone age girl
You have my attention
>slight furry stone age ELF girl
Now you have my interest.

>I want to encourage IC roleplay and player agency as much as possible over combat statistics and the story line.

Tell them this. Verbatim.

No, you faggot, I want my players to leave the rails as soon as possible. Depending on the GMs in their area this may be the only chance for them to really enjoy RP.

Title please

No, stupid. You always have a session zero. It sets up expectations of the game, lets players ask questions about the world they're playing in, and everyone can roll up characters together so you have a cohesive group (and more importantly so nobody cheats). How is that a bad thing?

>playing a game that takes more than ten minutes to make a character and start playing

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>totally new players

>session 0 and a campaign

Kek.

thealexandrian.net/gamemastery-101

What should I do then?

Well, there's all sorts of events and things happening in the world, and they WILL be requested by an NPC help them right off the bat, but all of those are more optional, I expect them to go wild and explore the world wherever they can.

Not the guy you replied to but be prepared to spend the whole session crafting characters. It's gonna suck but with an entire group of newbies it will take awhile. Second off they might not know where to go or do since its babbies first session so you might need to guide them, or have them in the middle of a quest. Make sure their bonuses are correct and everything is fair. I'd softball them for the first session so they enjoy themselves.

Not being a retard is a good start.

If you weren't, you'd have already choosen a no-prep, rules-light oneshot RPG catering to their tastes.

And of course, MAX 10 minutes for character-crafting. If not, you'd select either premade characters or more probably a simpler game in which chargen is very simple.

They've never played an RPG before
They haven't even been introduced to the concept of rolling a dice to exceed a certain value

If it takes you more than 10 minutes to generate characters in 3.5 then you're doing it wrong

If it takes you less than 10 minutes to generate a character in 3.5 then you likely have a build pre-made and tailored, making you a min-maxing faggot.

Lucky Yui

Exactly because of this.

He's just baiting.

I'm not baiting

CLASS, LEVEL

DEX
STR
INT
WIS
CHA
CON

HP
AC
ATK
CMD
CMB

FORT
REF
WILL

SKILLS

FEATS

SPELLS

POSSESSIONS

If that takes you more than 10 minutes to fill out, what the fuck are you doing?

Depends on the character and level.

A high level character sure, but a level 1-3 shouldn't take too long assuming you know what you're doing.

Give me a basic idea for a character
No, not their skills stats etc,
What they look like, how they fight, and what their main strength is.

>PF
JESUS CHRIST, IT GETS EVEN FUCKING WORSE!

Seriously OP, scrap the campaign and make it a board game night, your players will probably thank you.

It's 3.5 you dolt

>I have never interacted with new players before

You're legitimately delusional if you think Pathfinder is that terrible.

Like PF is bad, but not for the reasons a lot of people on Veeky Forums spout about and it's certainly not "Jesus Christ don't do it bad:" unless your ass pained your enlightened

Obviously I'm going to help them with their characters and explain most of it as I go along.

Alternatively, I could get rid of the extra shit like Combat Maneuvers and fort/will/reflex, and make them do modified DC checks where appropriate.

>Implying there's a significant difference between the two
>Implying 3.5 has CMB/CMD in the first place.
Between session 0, 3.PF, and the fact that OP is dumb enough to try running a sandbox game in the first place, his game is going to fucking suck and I bet someone from his group will come on here to complain about how shitty the campaign is going.

>Adding houserules
>to 3.PF
STOP! FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST STOP!

Show me on the doll where paizo touched you.

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Dude, if you're going to bother introducing people to tRPG's, don't fucking start with 3.PF just because it's the only RPG you've played. At least go with 5e if you must play a D&D system for their first time.

I mean, you say you want to encourage IC roleplay and player agency yet you're playing a system that focuses almost exclusively on combat statistics and character builds. Getting a lot of mixed messages there.

jesus fucking christ why

STR
DEX
INT
WIS
CON
CHA
3d6 straight down
choose class, look up saves, buy shit and get spells if you're a magic user or elf.

play a less shit game you retard

What version then?

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If you have a group of fresh players and insist on running D&D in any way, shape, or form, go her and grab a copy of B/X.

Have everyone roll stats, fuck around with gear and character concepts then start.
>You're all drinking yourselves stupid at the local tavern
>suddenly one of you starts choking
>after a moment or two of hacking your lungs out, you vomit forth a slurry of beer, pickled pigs feet, and a crumpled piece of paper
>scrawled on the paper is a crude map of what looks like the surrounding area
>a bright red 'X' is emphatically marked near what looks like a terrible sketch of tower... Or a rock of some kind
>roll the intro

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Well shit, I have an original edition of D&D in my closet. I'll just pull that out and take a look.

For new players, you don't need a session 0. You can mold them into what you want in play. Your "session 0" should really be making characters and running through a short little adventure to get them to understand how the game works.

The way ronindude usually draws facial expressions annoys me to no end. Which is a shame considering how hot and cute the grills generally are.

I honestly find old D&D more confusing than, say, 3.pf or even 4E. I'll probably just go with 5

AWOOOOOOOOGA
*eyes pop out on pogo springs*
A BOI-OI-OING
AROOOOOOOOOOOOO! AOW AOW AOW!
*Heart leaps out of chest*
PANT PANT PANT PANT PANT

So I've looked over 5E
I've looked at B/X

I dunno, they just don't seem as straightforward as 3.5

>I dunno, they just don't seem as straightforward as 3.5
Are you one of those fools who only ever bothered playing 3.PF?

No, I've played 2E, 1E, and 1A. 4 and 5 are just variations on 3, old school has simpler builds but far less intuitive dice rolls.

I started with 2E.

You know what OP?

Do it. It will be educational.

Dont' get upset, tough.

Why not play 1e or 2e then? If you're familiar enough with 3.PF to run it for newbies then explaining shit like THAC0 should be a breeze to pull off.

Because I've tried that before
I sick and fucking tired of being asked "uhhh do I add up or down?"

This is some industrial grade bait, and y’all are dumb as hell for assuming it isn’t.

Autism the post

Why not run something from OSR then?

You know what? Since 5E is just 3.5 lite anyway, I'm just gonna start out with a simplified ruleset of 3.5 and three classes: Fighter, Wizard, Rogue.
Rogue can use skills
Fighter is proficient in weapons and armor
Wizard can use magic

Wonderful

Why not take it a step further and just make it Cleric/Druid/Wizard so everyone's useful?
Clerics can manage support
Druids can manage the front-line
Wizards can handle everything else

God damn it Veeky Forums

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>implying level 1-3 wizards aren't less useful than fighters or rogues
We won't be playing for more than a few levels before we switch over to the real rules

Hows this?

Name: ________________
Fighter level 1
Strength 15 (+2)
Dexterity 11 (+0)
Consitution 12 (+1)
Wisdom 5 (-3)
Intelligence 9 (-1)
Charisma 10 (+0)

Attack +3
Armor Class 10
Hit Points 10

ABILITIES
Martial Weapon Proficiency
Armor Proficiency
Power Attack (trade attack bonus for damage)

POSSESSIONS
150GP
Name: ________________
Rogue level 1
Strength 9 (-1)
Dexterity 15 (+2)
Consitution 5 (-3)
Wisdom 12 (+1)
Intelligence 11 (+0)
Charisma 10 (+0)

Attack -1
Armor Class 10
Hit Points 6

ABILITIES
Bluff(Cha) +4
Perception(Wis) +4
Move Silently(Dex) +4
Open Lock(Dex) +4
Hide (Dex) +4
Disable Device(Int) +4
Sleight of Hand(dex) +4
Use Rope(Dex) +4
Sneak attack +1d6

POSSESSIONS
125GP
Name: ________________
Wizard level 1
Strength 5 (-3)
Dexterity 11 (+0)
Consitution 10 (+0)
Wisdom 12 (+1)
Intelligence 15 (+2)
Charisma 9 (-1)

Attack -3
Armor Class 10
Hit Points 6

ABILITIES
-insert spells

POSSESSIONS
75GP

That way they've got templates and a simple system, but can still choose their own equipment and design their character and whatnot

>Implying low level wizards don't have some great spells.
The only thing that kills them is shit HP, no weapon/armor proficiencies worth a damn, and having low spell slots, which can easily be dealt with by having high INT and a few feats.

Your templates are garbage and the reason being is because the stats that you've chosen makes them all practically unplayable, except for the Wizard.
>Fighter having shit WIS so he never sees anything coming and gets eaten alive by ambushes.
>Rogue having shit CON so he can barely stand up to a stiff breeze, let alone one good hit since his HP would be 5 at best.
>Wizard having decent WIS, which sucks but at least the negatives are being applied to stats that they'll never use during most campaigns.

The general rule of thumb is that you should scrap a character if either a) your highest stat rolled is a 13 or b) if the sum total of each modifier is +0 or less. Also, I'm pretty sure there's already a standard array available for 3.PF.

Session 0 is a good idea for a new group and a great idea for new players. Prove me wrong.

Anything that you can do during session 0 can easily be done during an actual session by anyone with the balls to explain that, no, your dickass thief doesn't stab the king in the neck because it's suicidally stupid and would fuck over the rest of the party. No, I don't care that you have an 8 INT,
if an animal can be smart enough to avoid a bear trap with only 3-5 INT then your ass is smart enough not to kill yourself for no good reason./ Prove me wrong.

Nothing like that should be covered in session 0
For a new group just go over how you GM, house rules, and what kind of campaign they are wanting to play and allowed materials, xanathar's, core rules, volo's and what not.Simple stuff that.

For people new to D&D or table tops go over how to make a character, what dice are for what, and discuss how general combat/rp works.

>This is some industrial grade bait, and y’all are dumb as hell for assuming it isn’t.
Huh?

>letting a cardboard standee DM

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>anyone with the balls to explain that, no, your dickass thief doesn't stab the king in the neck because it's suicidally stupid and would fuck over the rest of the party
Uh, that's not how it works buddy. And I certainly don't intend to be the kind of DM that tells players that they can't do something because it might be a bad idea.

>For a new group just go over how you GM, house rules, and what kind of campaign they are wanting to play and allowed materials, xanathar's, core rules, volo's and what not.Simple stuff that.
Which can all be covered in the primer that got people interested in the campaign in the first place.
>For people new to D&D or table tops go over how to make a character, what dice are for what, and discuss how general combat/rp works.
Which can easily be made self-evident during play as you introduce them to the rules and the way you conduct your campaign.

>Prove me wrong.
Players have agency and if they don something stupid, well, that's their problem. kick them out but don't tell them how to roleplay their character.

>Uh, that's not how it works buddy. And I certainly don't intend to be the kind of DM that tells players that they can't do something because it might be a bad idea.
There's a difference between having a bad idea and doing something so stupid that it irreparably derails the campaign for everyone involved, especially when the only reason you're doing it is because "it's what my character would do!"
>Players have agency and if they don something stupid, well, that's their problem. kick them out but don't tell them how to roleplay their character.
Here's the thing though, if you're going to abuse your agency as a player to do stupid shit that may or may not fuck over the game for everyone at the table, or do something dumb that anyone with higher than 3 INT would know is a bad idea, I am well within my right as a DM to say "no, you don't do that, because [insert reasoning here]."

"No" is an appropriate response to stupidity and I wish more people realized this.

>muh campaign
Shit DM detected.

It's not "muh campaign," it's our campaign. If you took a second to look beyond "muh agency," then you'd realize that there are other players at the table besides you who were probably looking forward to the campaign being suggested and don't want to waste their time playing janitor to your character's bullshit.

If you're the type of person who finds themselves hearing "no" anytime they suggest something to the group, maybe you should take a moment to consider why that is, rather than accusing everyone else of being shit.

I only join sandbox games anyway, so that probably tells you all you need to know about me. Yeah, we wouldn't get along.

we may initiate game differently, you do a session zero and call it a primer. I just ask a few people if they are interested. Also having to stop a fight so they can figure out what dice to pick or how a spell works kills all momentum.

>Also having to stop a fight so they can figure out what dice to pick or how a spell works kills all momentum.
Newsflash, people are still going to do that shit regardless of whether you do session 0 shit or not.
t. Someone in a 5e campaign with three newbies who still ask what they roll for their attack rolls 5 months into the campaign.

we have different groups but any time I do a session 0 that happens much less frequently.

B/X

I've been in different groups and we still have the same problem. Hell, we even DID a session 0 for our 5e campaign and we still have people who need to ask what they add to their attack rolls.

So is somebody going to post the full version or what

Considering how the artist gives the pics, you're out of luck, and so am i