Session 0
Part 3:
Plot & People
Plot
Once you have guidelines (don’ts & do’s), a theme, & a world, we can now define a plot for your campaign. This will encompass your overarching goal and can include whatever you want, however, there are a few guidelines you should follow for a successful overarching Adventum plot.
Plot Guidelines
Antagonist
A central villain, group, policy, or force of nature that opposes the wishes of your players in the campaign. This could be a dictator maintaining a dystopian state, a coming disaster that will wipe everyone away, or a classic villain, such as a lich or ad wizard. What’s important is that the antagonistic force is well defined for everyone at the table.
Boon
There needs to be a reward for the adventurers efforts in the world you’ve created. Maybe this is the result of toppling the Antagonist. Perhaps it’s a magical artifact. or a rumor whose true form is known by no one (aside from the Adventure Leader). The boon and or cannot be defined well for the players, but the AL should know the major boon or boons that can be gathered over the course of the campaign. Money, magic, reputation, or artifacts are all good candidates for boons.
Catalyst
So you have a reward and something to act against. This might be motivation enough to begin, but with the expansiveness of a new world being created, players can (and will) get distracted. This is where the catalyst comes in. It should further propel the AL’s adventurers further to explore the plot and overcome the antagonist.
Your boon or boons could be an amenable catalyst. But another adequate catalyst could be a consequence of staying stagnant. Maybe your villain’s plan gets rolled out in stages that make everything worse until they are defeated. Staying in a town for too long could result in bounty hunters discovering your location. Or maybe your campaign is survival focused, and the gathering a resources and existing in wilderness protects your characters against death from starvation or exposure. Any sticks used to prod your players forward should be balanced as not to be overbearing. Though a catalyst matters very little if your players don’t know where to go. For that, they need…
Direction
You have an antagonist, boons for triumphing against them, and catalysts in the world to spur your players on their journey. Even with all of this, it can be unclear how to get your plucky penguin paladin on the top of death mountain to topple the evil Polar Monger Bear. Luckily this might be the simplest thing to solve. All the AL needs to offer the players are options to achieve their aims or avenues to explore solutions to the big problems presented by the plot. Players should know, or be able to find out 1 or all of the following;
Who is involved
What to do
When it should get done
Where to go
How to do it
And with guidelines, a world, and plot now complete, the last thing we need to get the campaign up and running are our characters. Our heroes. The campaign’s principle…
People
With this, all the session 0 requirements are nearly at an end. We now need to fill in the characters that we’ll get to know at the table over the course of the campaign. Simply following the rules of Character Creation should be enough to make playable characters. But to better ensure group cohesion and characters that are well integrated with each other and the story at large, these questions should be posed to the players by the AL before or as they are making characters.
How do your characters know each other?
What were your characters doing before the campaign?
Why do your characters want to overcome the antagonizing threat.
If any players can’t answer any of these questions immediately, this is fine. What’s most important is that they consider these questions as they create their characters.