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Live Session Notes - Session 0

Session Details

  • Session Number: 0 (Character Creation & Campaign Setup)
  • Date: Sunday, November 9, 2025
  • Start Time: 7:00 PM CST
  • End Time:
  • Duration:

Attendance

  • Cieth
  • Dial
  • Skykros (maybe)
  • Yrene
  • Baji (maybe)

Session 0 Guide

Opening (15-20 min)

  • Welcome everyone and thank them for coming
  • Introduce Foundry VTT platform (quick overview)
  • Share Party History Journal and explain how to use it
  • Ask: "What are you most excited about in this campaign?"
    • adventures, storeis, looting. kicking ass taking.
    • problem solding
    • dial likes roleplaying
    • exciting to play new characters
    • wants to play intelligent players
    • just here for the fun, here for the first time
    • 5 finger discount sidequests - sky
    • criminal activity must happen
    • need to rob some people - baji,
    • we can play a bunch of themes
    • mystery to solve - dial
    • standard high fantasy bullshit - dial, cieth
    • having quests or a goal - yrene
    • genres
      • trillers
      • the giver, dystoptians
      • fantasy
      • brandon sanderson
      • action - bajda
      • one piece, demon slayer, chainsaw man, soul eater - baji
      • beserk
  • Ask: "Any concerns or questions before we dive in?"
    • asked didnt hear any

Core Rules Review (20-30 min)

  • Rule Zero: Be nice and have fun!
  • No Metagaming Policy - Don't look up monsters, modules, or peek at Foundry assets
  • Session Benefits: 1 Advantage Roll (before rolling) + 1 Mulligan (after rolling)
  • Explain stacking is allowed, gifts are allowed, use-it-or-lose-it per session
  • add sticky note to dashboard about this
  • Proficiency = Damage Die (instead of flat bonus)
  • Milestone Leveling (no XP tracking)
  • Death is Permanent - Resurrection magic is lost/mythical
  • Ask: "How do you feel about permadeath? Any questions?"
  • Combat Etiquette: Know your action, keep it moving
  • Foundry Guidelines: When to create items/actors, respect others' characters
  • Ask: "Any rules need clarification or discussion?"

Scheduling System (5-10 min)

  • Explain 2-week polling system via https://dnd-r.bros.ninja
  • Poll options: Yes / If Need Be / No
  • 3-4 hour time blocks
  • Minimum 3 players + DM to run
  • Absences are OK - we play around them narratively
  • Ask: "Does the 2-week advance notice work for everyone?"
  • Ask: "Any scheduling concerns or blackout periods to know about?"
  • how often do you want to meet
    • at least once a week, if not twice a week

Character Creation (45-60 min)

  • Open Character Creation Dashboard in Foundry
  • Review Ability Score Rolling procedure:
  • Roll 4d6, reroll 1s and 2s, drop lowest, sum = one ability score
  • Repeat 6 times for one set (STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA in order)
  • Create 3 total sets
  • Pick favorite set
  • May swap any two scores twice
  • Ask each player: "What class/concept are you thinking about?"
  • Let players roll their three sets
  • Help players pick best set for their class concept
  • Help with swaps to optimize
  • Guide through race, class, background selection
  • Ask: "Tell us about your character - who are they?"
  • Help finalize character names
  • Review character sheets and ensure everything is correct

Break (10 min)

  • Quick break before tutorial dungeon

Tutorial Dungeon (60-90 min)

  • Set expectations: "This is practice for mechanics and roleplay"
  • Cover basics:
  • Moving tokens
  • Rolling checks/attacks/damage
  • Using character sheet features
  • Chat commands
  • Run through encounters:
  • Roleplay scenario - Let players introduce characters to each other
  • Combat encounter - Practice initiative, turns, actions
  • Looting - Practice inventory management
  • Puzzle/Skill challenge - Practice skill checks and problem-solving
  • During play, observe: Playstyle preferences, RP comfort, mechanical understanding
  • Ask after encounters: "How did that feel? Any mechanics unclear?"

Expectations & Campaign Discussion (15-20 min)

  • Ask: "What kind of stories do you want to tell?"
  • Ask: "Combat-heavy or roleplay-heavy preference?"
  • Ask: "Any topics/themes you want included or avoided?"
  • Ask: "How do you want to handle party conflict if it arises?"
  • Ask: "What would make this campaign memorable for you?"
  • Share high-level campaign setting/tone
  • Ask: "What questions do you have about the world/setting?"

Closing & Next Steps (10 min)

  • Schedule next session (use polling system)
  • Assign homework if any (backstory, connections, etc.)
  • Ask: "What was your favorite part of tonight?"
  • Ask: "Anything we should adjust for next time?"
  • Thank everyone for a great Session 0!

Cieth

Character Decisions

  • Race chosen:
  • Class chosen:
  • Background chosen:
  • Character name:
  • Key ability scores:

Roleplay & Engagement

  • Participation level (1-5):
  • Memorable moments:
  • Questions asked:
  • Confusion points:

Player Preferences Expressed

  • Playstyle indicators:
  • Combat vs Roleplay interest:
  • Story interests mentioned:

Notes

-

Dial

Character Decisions

  • Race chosen:
  • Class chosen:
  • Background chosen:
  • Character name:
  • Key ability scores:

Roleplay & Engagement

  • Participation level (1-5):
  • Memorable moments:
  • Questions asked:
  • Confusion points:

Player Preferences Expressed

  • Playstyle indicators:
  • Combat vs Roleplay interest:
  • Story interests mentioned:

Notes

-

Skykros

Character Decisions

  • Race chosen:
  • Class chosen:
  • Background chosen:
  • Character name:
  • Key ability scores:

Roleplay & Engagement

  • Participation level (1-5):
  • Memorable moments:
  • Questions asked:
  • Confusion points:

Player Preferences Expressed

  • Playstyle indicators:
  • Combat vs Roleplay interest:
  • Story interests mentioned:

Notes

-

Yrene

Character Decisions

  • Race chosen:
  • Class chosen:
  • Background chosen:
  • Character name:
  • Key ability scores:

Roleplay & Engagement

  • Participation level (1-5):
  • Memorable moments:
  • Questions asked:
  • Confusion points:

Player Preferences Expressed

  • Playstyle indicators:
  • Combat vs Roleplay interest:
  • Story interests mentioned:

Notes

-

Baji

Character Decisions

  • Race chosen:
  • Class chosen:
  • Background chosen:
  • Character name:
  • Key ability scores:

Roleplay & Engagement

  • Participation level (1-5):
  • Memorable moments:
  • Questions asked:
  • Confusion points:

Player Preferences Expressed

  • Playstyle indicators:
  • Combat vs Roleplay interest:
  • Story interests mentioned:

Notes

  • mixed martial artist in childhood in irl

Overall Session Notes

Group Dynamic

  • Energy level:
  • Cooperation:
  • Conflict points:
  • Synergy highlights:

Campaign Setup Discussions

  • Tutorial feedback (Foundry walkthrough):
  • Character creation experience:
  • Campaign rules understood:
  • Player expectations discussed:
  • World/setting feedback:
  • Scheduling strategy (2-week availability checks):
  • Next session planned:

Action Items

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DM Observations

  • it was very hard to keep up with notes haha

here's some quick recap session notes after the words just before I forget what's so fresh my mind agenda didn't go exactly according to plan everyone wanted to go right into character creation and I understand that so that makes sense so I let them do that and then I try to talk through some of the rules and the planning and a little bit of the scheduling and everyone was pretty much in agreement I heard and I wrote down a few notes from some things that they liked in terms of genre I hear a lot of like fantasy thriller they like things that are story elements they seem to be aligned with what I've been putting down in terms of material like they don't seem to post anything I've asked multiple times if they had any questions or anything that they wanted to call out as a problematic or whatever and no one is really spoken up on that while they just kind of change subjects actually. I still think it's worth doing so my car reduction tools later on maybe just to make sure that I'm not hitting any sensitive topics and that I reach out privately so that anyone not comfortable sharing in a group setting would be able to speak up for themselves. the character creation went pretty smoothly there's a lot of hardships getting everyone clicking all the right buttons and doing all the right things everyone actually beat me to the the discord room by a couple of minutes so they were already in the game and had started making actors before I had told them what was going on and that I admit a macro that would help roll and setup their actor stats how I wanted. but one thing I didn't know was like all the attack like all the little mechanics that came up like even unarmed attack is actually like an item that I have to click and drag into a person's character sheet they don't just innately get a thing an action like that they have to actually add it to their actor sheet. so yeah that's a really interesting mechanics like that came up torches need to make sure that they're all able to get that also they didn't have like any other starter equipment so like they didn't have a lot of their weapons and a lot of their equipment would just be gold anyway so I need to provide them with a shop in the dashboard for next time. truth be told I wasn't thinking about it because the whole tutorial dungeon concept was a late add. the module that I had planned to run was actually just level one with like no weapons and it would have been fine. because the whole thing was really more story based more of like a opening scene to a campaign than a actual like campaign session akin to how like video game start I guess. anyway thanks for pretty well. I think people had fun but the session did go a little bit long got stuck on a couple of moments with mechanics that threw me for a loop as well as you know some people in the party wanting to continue through the dungeon and some people wanting to continue talking to the cat and then of course the puzzles themselves some of them didn't work like the fill in the blank puzzle just did not work correctly at all and similarly the sliding puzzle would have worked probably but no one's really good at them in the party so it turned into a bit of torture at the end of the session instead of being a fun puzzle. so my takeaway there with all the puzzles is still a little bit more thought into the puzzles and make them part of the room like the team actually wanted to like move statues around to to see if they can get it to open the door or open secret passages or something they're also looked for like arcane anything so clearly the player's minds are more just like how do we open this door or the keys there's a lot other offense around the room their physical things around the room that we have to you know do that kind of thing. the other thing is that puzzles even if you can watch someone else do it it's still very much a single person activity unless it's like an actual Riddle that people need to put some thought into so my simplistic puzzles didn't really hit the mark very well. all that being said the combat went pretty well there is some hiccups and some problems and I personally need to make sure that I read everybody's character sheet very closely to know what they're capable of and all that but they said they had a good time at the end of it and they all thanked me for setting it all up so I hope we can do another session. they would even want to meet multiple times a week if possible I will have to I'll try to be pretty aggressive with my scheduling here of events give you able to show up hopefully.

Follow-Up Needed

  • schedule next sessions
  • send player more info on player background
  • understand 2024 game rules better
  • read over all character sheets to know abilities in detail, i need to know what player characters can do better than they do
  • i think librus nocturnum will be a good setting for what the players are into theme wise