My job as DM during session zero is to allow the players to find the story that binds them all together. I rule on changes to the standard races, classes, and backgrounds. I want to allow the players to create characters that they are excited about while making sure that they don’t break the game.

I have two rules that I have when starting a new campaign. Every character must have at least one connection to another character and no evil characters.

The connection is to keep the beginning of the adventure from being awkward. Why is this group of loners with tragic backstories on an adventure together? I know it goes against my brand, but that is why so many adventures start at the inn instead of having a more organic start to the adventure. DMs only have so much time and energy that spending it coming up with an intricate story of why these characters are together usually suffers. Plus, there is usually some element from a character’s backstory that makes the connection tricky. I have found that as your group works through session zero they will come up with story threads that link them all together. They will work through their backstories to make them work together. There are exceptions to the connection rule. For instance, if you ran Out of the Abyss it would be better if the players had no idea of what each other were creating. That is an instance where the set-up is already built into the adventure where a little mystery and mistrust amongst the characters really works.

As for my no evil characters rule, I am not interested in DMing an evil party. To me, D&D is about the players being the heroes. I could make the evil party defeat a greater evil, but there is too much room for interparty conflict. Years ago, I played a game where you built cars and had them fight in an arena. The build would take hours and the fight would be over in minutes. This caused so much friction between players and I’m not interested in reproducing that in D&D. The characters have enough to deal with without having to worry about being stabbed in the back by each other. If you and your group love to play evil characters, more power to you, but it is not for me.

What I Prepared for Session Zero

I sent out a copy of the Wild Beyond the Witchlight Player’s Guide to each of the players so that they could start to think about the character that they wanted to create. To keep from handing The Wild Beyond the Witchlight book to the players, I made copies of the Witchlight Hand and Fey Lost backgrounds, and the fairy and harengon races. I wasn’t worried about them skimming through the adventure, but I did not want someone to accidentally see something that gave anything away. I also printed out the map for Lurray along with another copy of the player’s guide. I placed these packets on the table so that the players could browse them as we worked through the session. I knew that some players wanted to be Witchlight Hands, so I told my players that they needed to be connected to the town of Lurray which became important to the starting story. Also, they had all been to the carnival before, in case we ended up using the Lost Things adventure hook (which we did, kind of, well you’ll see what I did below).

The other nice thing about a session zero is being able to help new players build their characters. Also, if everyone does not have all the sourcebooks, then usually all the books are present at session zero and they can be shared by the group.

There will be a bit of metagaming, but that can’t be avoided. Every session zero I’ve run the players will discuss, at length, how they will handle healing. Nothing dominates the discussion of what spells and abilities characters should have like healing does. There is usually some time spent discussing basic combat tactics and figuring out who will be on the front lines. Besides choosing healing spells, I’ve noticed that players usually pick their starting spells to match their character design. For instance, the character with the archeologist’s background choosing Mold Earth is such a perfect choice.

How it Played

I am always fascinated by how players come up with their characters. I love watching the creative process as they go through their builds. If for no other reason to run a session zero is to watch the creation of these characters you are about to spend quite a bit of time with. As DM, you get an inside look at the players’ thought process along with a better understanding of the character design. You also get time to think about how to pull the character backstories into the initial adventure and throughout the whole campaign.

I created Lurray as a crossroads so that there would be no restrictions on what races, backgrounds, or classes the players wanted to use. Players are about to spend a lot of time and energy on these characters it is best if they are excited about them. You can limit the options to players, but you have to have their buy-in before you even get to session zero. The Wild Beyond the Witchlight is an adventure that does not fall into an easy box. Some of the normal things that players will worry about will not be big factors. There is the opportunity for combat, but most encounters can be solved without violence. I relayed this to my players so that their characters were not too combat orientated. A mindless barbarian type would not have much to do in this campaign unless they had some quirk or ability that worked outside combat.

I asked each player whether or not they had snuck into the carnival eight years ago or if they had paid. Two players had decided that their characters would have snuck in all those years ago. Each had their reasons for choosing the path they had taken. This set up the Lost Things adventure hook for two of the characters.

The Characters Made

All subclasses are subject to change, but this is where the players’ heads were when the characters were created.

Salamancer

• Race: <Homebrew> Salamander experimented on by a wizard

• Character Class: Sorcerer

  • Eventual subclass: Clorkwork

• Background: Witchlight Hand

Salamancer is both this character’s name and his title. The result of an ongoing magical experiment that has taken a simple salamander and created a sentient creature. I worked with the player and decided that the character would have a climbing speed and darkvision. Salamancer has a real need to help others because that was what he was built to do. He also has an almost obsessive love for his creator Momo the Magnificent.

Ebony Lenore Rose

• Race: Glimmerfolk <homebrew>

• Character Class: Rogue

• Background: Witchlight Hand

Alone after being kicked out of her tribe, Ebony snuck into the carnival after hours. She was found wandering amongst the quiet tents and brought to Mr. Light. Mr. Light took pity on the young girl that could no longer smile and offered her a job. She has been working at the fair ever since.

Tuth (pronounced like “tooth”)

• Race: Fairy

• Character Class: Warlock (Patron: Genie)

  • Eventual subclass: Undecided

• Background: Lighthouse Keeper

Eight years ago, Tuth snuck into the Witchlight Carnival and left disappointed and missing something. He carries his most beloved possession, a voodoo doll named Vex, everywhere he goes. He got a job as a lighthouse keeper in Lurray and now with the carnival’s return, he finds himself in line in mismatched clothes to see if he can find what he lost.

 Amaryllis Goodbarrel

• Race: Halfling

• Character Class: Cleric

  • Eventual subclass: Death domain

• Background: Anthropologist

Amaryllis “Amy” Goodbarrel comes from a family of brewers. She has a refined taste for mead but never had a real love of brewing. After her twin brother died when a stack of barrels collapsed on him, she left to follow her true passion for anthropology. For years she lived amongst the elves to learn their ways. When she was a child, a woman with white hair recovered her lost bunny Fluffy.

 Cora

• Race: Forest Gnome

• Character Class: Druid

  • Eventual subclass: Spore

• Background: Archeologist

Cora was caught in a lab explosion while helping a fellow gnome with their experiment. A streak of white now adorns her hair as a reminder of the experiment that went wrong. She lost any interest in tinkering. She left her gnome community and studied to be an archeologist as a result. A woman with white hair visited her once when she was sick as a child and made her feel better.

 We ended up with two groups that were well connected. The two Witchlight Hands, Salamancer and Ebony, had been friends for years while Cora and Amaryllis were connected because of their academic backgrounds. Tuth intrigued the two academics because of his uniqueness. Two of the characters had Lost Things, but I wanted to add to the connection to the campaign by pulling in elements of the Warlock Quest, more on this below.

What I Changed

 The Witchlight Hand background had to be adapted to match the characters that players were making. Each changed a skill and the tool was also changed to make more sense with the builds. A disguise kit made no sense for Salamancer, so the player wanted a toy-making tool kit, which I thought dovetailed nicely with the adventure. The two players also saw their characters more as background workers and not entertainers, so both swapped out Performance for skills that matched their backstories.

I had optional Lost Things because I did not want players to have the same thing lost. Since I only had two players to worry about, I replaced the first character’s roll with a different item. You could print out the lost things and place them in a cup and have the players draw them out, which would avoid the duplicating of Lost Things. I also give the players the option to not take their first roll. I did not want to saddle either with a Lost Thing that did not work for their characters.

The other Lost Things that I had were:

• Sense of time

• Sense of smell

• Color Blindness

• Animals empathy – All animals are skittish around the character

• Ability to hold liquor

I decided that Witchlight Hands get the night off when the carnival rolls into their hometown. Salamancer is not from Lurray, but its master, Momo the Magnificent, is from the town. Momo was not interested in spending time at the carnival and sent his creation in his stead.

I changed the Warlock Quest so that Cora, Amy, and Tuth ran into Madryck on the road to the carnival. Madryck realizes on his way to the carnival that he is too old to not only walk to the carnival but to travel to Prismeer to see what has happened to his patron. This was a minor change, but it felt more natural and less like the characters being mercenaries for hire. Cora, Amy, and Tuth have a scholarly vibe to them and are less like adventurers.

The way that hooks were used created an interesting dynamic since Tuth had two story hooks while Salamancer had no direct hooks. I did not see this as a problem since all Salamancer wants to do is help others and if his friend Ebony needed help finding something that she lost then Salamancer is there for her.

The stage was now set. All five players had characters that they were excited about and were ready to go to the Witchlight Carnival. Who knows what kind of excitement and adventure will take place tonight at the carnival? Actually, I do, I’ve already read the book.