Staying Solo: Zero Session For Solos

Zero Session may more important for the Solo GM than it is for the Group GM.

“Zero Session” is a slang and a practice in the group TTRPG community for an out-of-character, meet and greet session between the GM and the players. At your typical Zero Session, if the players and the GM don’t already know each other, they’ll engage in introductions and small-talk, discuss their expectations for the game, the GM will discuss the setting and their expectations of the players (such as being on time to the game), and a good GM will identify areas of potential personality-friction between the new players at their table.

The GM’s actual prep for the campaign takes place long before Zero Session, but Zero Session is where the GM and the players get a good idea of how it’ll all come together. Zero Sessions are usually low-pressure, friendly gatherings where the initial bonds of a team are forged.

The Soloist, or Solo GM doesn’t need to do any of that. They don’t need to identify “drama points” between people, they don’t have to spot and navigate through egos, and they don’t have to make the awkward text or phone call to someone who was an hour late to Zero Session, and then popped an attitude when they called on it, that they will not be attending any further sessions.

The Solo GM still needs in a Zero Session, regardless if they’re playing a new game or they’re starting a new campaign in a game that they’re familiar with, in the same way that a novelist needs to set the opening scene for their latest novel.

For the Solo GM, Zero Session lays the foundation for the entire campaign, and is probably the single-most important session in the campaign.

Elements of a Solo Zero Session

There a few crucial things that must happen during a Zero Session for a solo play:

1. Game Compatibility

It’s one thing to read the rules of a game, and it’s another thing to actually play it. Just because you like Dungeons and Dragons, that doesn’t mean you’re going to enjoy playing it alone. Zero Session is where you can create an opening scene where you engage in the part of the game that you’re most curious about and experiment with it as much as you please without causing issues to your overall narrative. Using my own Zero Session of Final Fantasy Legend Edition: Dragoon of Figaro as an example:

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ZERO SESSION COMBAT

Goal: To learn and demonstrate the Final Fantasy LE combat mechanics.

Step 1: Set Rows

- PC and Enemy NPC both start at front row.

Step 2: Create Enemy NPC Statblock

Fiora is a Normal NPC in all respects, and Tristan is at Level 1.

5 HP | 5 MP | 10 Skill Def. | 10 Def. | 0 Init. | 0 ATK | Humanoid

Step 3: Roll for Initiative

Tristan’s armor gives him +1 to Initiative.

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I set up an in-character spar between the main character and one of his superiors, someone he’d been sparring with anyway. The narrative wasn’t broken—this moment was a perfect fit, actually. If Tristan was defeated, that would’ve been narratively as effective as his victory, maybe more. The primary purpose of this moment in Zero Session was simply to learn how FFLE’s combat mechanic works in its most basic form, which will lay the groundwork for what I am setting up to be a combat-heavy campaign.

If I hadn’t deemed that the FFLE combat system was suitable for my kind of epic battles, I would’ve shelved it and moved on to either 5 Parsecs from Home, or back to Cyberpunk Red. There’s a lot of excellent games out there, but your time is valuable.

2. Establish the lead character

Where did I come up with the name Tristan Runeborn? Who are the Brasswing Dragoons of Figaro? And how did I come up with Tristan’s mission to deliver a special package to Mobliz?

I didn’t. The dice did, and I ran with the ideas:

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D100 Player Character Masc First Name Roll: [45] Tristan

D100 Player Character Masc Surname Roll: [35] Runeborn

1d20 Dragoon Orders Roll: [4] The Brasswing Dragoons of Figaro

D100 Campaign Starter Roll: [87] You’re asked to deliver a sealed case to Mobliz; when you touch it, you hear a heartbeat that isn’t yours.

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Doing your initial character name, faction name, and initial mission rolls is crucial, and it lies at the core of laying the groundwork for the rest of the campaign. That first quest sets the tone, and just watch…it’ll be the difference between a Tolkien-esque fantasy epic, or grim, hellish Berserk-esque, dark-fantasy bloodbath.

3. Set the Stakes

As you play through Zero Session, experiment with your character concept and interact with the NPCs of this world that you’re building and exploring, try to get an idea of what is at stake in this journey. Is the hero trying to save the world? Save their own skin? Recover from a trauma? Reunite with lost family? Win someone’s love? Save the universe? Save time-space?

Do you want to be the hero? The villain? In-between?

But don’t dwell on those questions too much, or the answers…just play, and your desires will just come to you. And as a Solo DM, you’re in the position to see those desires actualized.

4. Identify your desired pace of advancement

Some players want to advance their character by one level every session, others prefer to only advance when they hit certain milestones, such as defeating a powerful foe, or completing a mission.

In Zero Session, try to get an understanding of whether you want your character to advance rapidly, moderately, or slowly. This is decided by two things: the desired length of your campaign, and the desired difficulty.

Keep in mind that even players who think they’ll want a long-term and slow-advancement campaign tend to get bored if their characters aren’t advancing, and are stuck fighting low-level threats and dodging high-level ones forever.

In Dragoon of Figaro, I already know the first campaign will only be five sessions, so I had no issues advancing Tristan to Level 2 at the end of Zero Session, with the hope that he’ll be at level 4 or 5 by the end of the first campaign. At the same time, I don’t want him to be on the level of Kain Highwind (a legendary Dragoon in the Final Fantasy universe), by the end of the campaign, either. That wouldn’t be realistic, as in, I’d break my own immersion.

But that’s me.

4. Establish key relationships

If your system supports companions, hirelings, or party members, Zero Session is where you figure out who they are and how they relate to your PC. Don’t skip it, and utilize Oracles and the game’s existing social mechanics for the PC and crucial NPCs to interact.

I decided design an entire Segment Clock-based mini-game around Tristan recruiting Smokey, his wyvern partner, for his initial quest:

Mini-Game Added: Negotiating With Smokey

Description: Negotiating with Smokey is never easy. Like many “Devourers”, he believes charity goes against the Laws of Nature that he and other sentient beasts of this world have lived by since the Era of Ruin.

This simple mini-game utilizes a Segment Clock of 6 segments, with six Skill Checks. To secure Smokey’s help as a Companion, per the Automation rules of the Engineer Job (which Tristan has), Tristan must have at least 4 successful Skill Rolls against shifting TNs. If Tristan fails to reach 4 Segments, Smokey will either refuse to help Tristan, or will only assist on his terms.

I chose a segment-based mini-game; you might choose a battle, a series of Yes/No Oracle rolls, or even stock dice rolls to determine the relationship between your PC and their closest NPCs.

The Goals of Zero Session

Zero Session is where you stress-test everything: the mechanics, the character, the tone, the stakes. Nothing is locked in yet.

By the time you finish Zero Session, you should know at least three things:

• Whether this game fits your solo play style

• Who your character is and what they want

• At least one relationship or tension that will carry the campaign forward

Lay your foundation, and lay it well.