Session Zero

Before we start...

There is a practice for RPGs (role playing games) called "Session Zero" that sets the stage for the campaign of adventures to follow. This helps make sure everyone is on the same page with expectations and things will run more smoothly and can avoid problems and misunderstandings.

This will be a guideline for the FRPGS Tales campaigns and cover: Story, Table, Rules, and Safety.

Story

The D&D game is not really "won" or "lost" - it is an ongoing story of various characters in a made-up world where the group creates the story together. This means a day of playing may cover one intense 10 minute time within that story, or may span years. It also means a series of episodes can happen over weeks or months. To help remember the in-game story, we are investing time into recording the events into the journals on this site, which have lots of links to remind of characters, organizations, places, calendar, etc. Players are strongly encouraged to reference these (even while playing).

The story arcs will vary and have their own mini-Session Zero according to their themes (like low fantasy hardship vs. high fantasy epic vs. spooky horror). But some aspects will be consistent - such as the events, tasks, and descriptions being limited to PG-13 (dipping into R only very carefully).

There will not be adult themes outside of what is customary for a fantasy movie (which may have elements like murder, blackmail, kidnapping, enslavement, racism (elf vs. orc for example), death, undead (skeletons, zombies, vampires), trickery, etc.)
This all takes place in a fantasy world that includes many made-up religions and deities (for example, Lathander the God of Dawn), planes of existence (including the Feywild, Astral Plane, and the Nine Hells - similar to Dante's Inferno).
In addition to gods, goddesses, and demigods, this made-up world also includes demons, devils, and elder evils against which the good and law-abiding strive to save the world.
In general combat will play out as "cartoon violence" rather than gory and graphic.
Similarly, "romance" will be PG in nature, including absence of sexual situations (at most only implied / off-camera).
In some stories there will be detailed struggles to merely survive against starvation, exhaustion, even sanity.
In other stories ("high fantasy") these details will be overlooked and focus on the epic challenges of heroes.

The stories seek to encourage team-building and cooperation among the players to overcome challenges (fights against foes, mysteries to investigate, puzzles to solve, character interactions role-played). Players can suggest to the GM where parts of these have been fun (more please!) or tedious/awkward (avoid please!).

Table

Once the game is underway, it is expected that each player respects the everyone else at the table, including the GM, and devotes their attention to what is happening in the story (unless doing something like a side-plot for a subset of players). This means being aware of what each player is doing on their turns while thinking about what you will do on your turn, reducing repetition and slow-down of activities. So no phone-chatting, video-watching, etc. -- phones, tablets, and laptops are fine for use to reference game materials (such as this Kanka site, character sheets, spell descriptions, etc.)

Rolls should not be made ahead of time, only done on your turn. The GM may make some rolls "in secret" but player rolls are for all to see.

We will follow the Faster Turns etiquette, which is:

Yazan Rule - on your initiative turn if you name your action within ~3 seconds, you get +1 on your d20 roll.
Two Minutes - if you take more than about two minutes to definitively call your action, it will be assumed your character is also distracted / indecisive and you will be skipped. This means being at the table on your turn.
Roll attack and damage together - be aware of the possible result of your d20 action and include those dice so it can all be tallied at once.
Report the final result (not what is shown on your d20 roll) - add your bonuses, select between the two d20's if advantage/disadvantage, etc.

This will all be relaxed as new players come up to speed on the game mechanics, of course.

Food & Drink

It is OK (and encouraged) to have food and drinks at the table, but encouraged to use side-tables to keep these away from sheets and such. When possible, help cleaning things up is appreciated.

Location

While most usually hosted at the GM's house, if someone would like to offer hosting at their house sometime, this is also possible (with parents' permission and otherwise understanding about how long, bringing snacks, etc.)

Missing a Game Day

It is understood everyone has lots to do outside the game and we will always try to schedule continuations of sessions. Since the story can happen over weeks or months, some players may be unable to join games which technically include their character in terms of the story. In some cases, the GM will keep the character as part of that story during play (but minimally involved), in others the character will simply be "absent" (unmentioned or given a descriptive side-quest), returning for the next part.

However, sometimes certain characters are so crucial to the next events in the story, everyone is put on hold until that player can join. We will try hard to avoid this situation - and if players still wish to play the game, alternate characters can be used on another storyline.

Respecting Story Preparation

Also please respect that there can be considerable time invested by the GM in preparing for a game session. While fun for the GM, this also has been dedicated for the players' benefit, so please try to make sessions for which you have engaged in the game, please focus on the game and story at those sessions, and please revisit the notes and references prepared to remind of the story, events, people, locations, etc.

Rules

The campaign mostly uses the standard Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (5e) rules for game mechanics. It is understood nobody (including the GM) knows all the rules and it's OK to consult references as needed. As you play a character, you are expected to take time and focus on learn the rules for your character's race, class, faction, spells, items, etc.

However, there are also some "House Rules" - modifications and additions. These include a fairly extensive reference to spell mods that appear in the character sheets or lists of spell books by class.

(See FRPGS Tales Notes on: D&D Rules & References, Spellcasting, Faction Views on the Other Factions)

Examples:

Critical damage (rolling a critical hit - usually a 20 on d20): double all rolled damage dice and rolled 1's count as the maximum for that die.
Escalating critical hit: if you roll a critical hit, roll a d20 again and if that also hits, can do "special damage", if that roll is a 20, roll d20 one more time and if that is a 20, it will be an instant-kill (possible extreme exceptions up to the GM).
Resting: at most 2 short rests between long rests. HD/HP recovery only if food/water, healing kit, song of rest, etc.
Healing potions: Using full Action to drink, heal maximum (e.g., 2d4+2 = 10), drinking as Bonus Action: you roll.
Healing surge: (1 / long rest) you can add Hit Dice to healing (from a spell or potion) up to the number of dice rolled for the spell/potion.
Leveling up: In general, we are not using XP (experience points) to level up, instead the characters level up as they reach certain milestones in whatever story they have chosen.
Feats: we do allow Feats to be selected in place of "Ability Score Increase", but they must be agreed to by the GM, and many have been modified (and some removed) - see Feats.
Other modifications: see Fighting Styles & Maneuvers and Combat System & Actions)

Safety

Nobody should feel threatened or uncomfortable playing the game. It is for recreation and entertainment only. While there will be acceptable moments of tension and even loss and failure, behavior should never include hostility, disrespect, or mocking of fellow players.

Similarly, please feel free to raise concerns with the GM regarding the theme, mechanics, or table etiquette. Nobody should feel the story, rules, or players are stacked against them. Everyone is an equal participant. And elements of the story can be skipped over if causing discomfort.