keeping character generation session fun on Zoom

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serendipitous
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keeping character generation session fun on Zoom

Post by serendipitous »

Hello! This query feels badly formulated to me, but I can't figure out how to clean it up, so here it is. I'm posting here 'cause I'd love feedback from judges & from players and this seems the best sub-forum.

I'm hoping to run a DCC game (my first DCC, second RPG) in a couple of weeks. My gaming group consists of adults + children and under the current circumstances we meet via Zoom. I'm trying to set up a good character generation/session 0 experience.

1. If you ever like session 0s, then do you think they are valuable in DCC?
2. If so, what are y'all's goals for the session 0? Finalize campaign elements after player feedback, give folks opportunities to playtest characters/system, build up backgrounds?
3. Do you have any ideas for keeping online group character generation fairly zippy and engaging? Ideas for stuff to keep early finishers busy?

All suggestions appreciated + a high probability they'll actually be adopted. :D
" ... the things I am going to say are true and I am a force for truth and goodness, dammit, and I will beat anyone unconscious if they say otherwise."
-- The Angry GM
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Vort
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Re: keeping character generation session fun on Zoom

Post by Vort »

Personally I don't get much satisfaction out of a session zero. I'd rather spend my game time gaming, especially if the group can't get together very often.

Also, I think in DCC session zero is the funnel. DCC is about developing your character by doing, not by dreaming up and writing in-depth backstories. I'm not saying there's anything wrong in doing that, I'm just pointing out that DCC has a different approach: the funnel -- take 4 random characters, some with miserable stats, put them through a grinder, and you'll value those that survive. You'll develop backstories along the way, and ones you wouldn't have thought of otherwise. I've seen it happen in every funnel I've run and people can't wait to level up.

My first funnel I did PC generation at the start; it was fun, but it chewed a whole ton of time. Now I just start with random 0-levels from Purple Sorcerer: https://purplesorcerer.com/create_party.php It adds to the fun when people put personalities to their PCs and introduce them around the table. That's all I do for "prep" time, then it's off to the funnel.

You could still do a planning session to find out what kind of campaign people are interested in: dungeon crawling, urban crawling, swords & sorcery fantasy, etc. But, I'd say first take a chance, skip the planning session, embrace the DCC philosophy, and run a funnel. Don't overthink it. It's a great learning experience for both the players and the judge, and if you do it with people you're comfortable with, it's even easier. If you really like doing backstories, you can develop them after the funnel. If you don't like the idea of random character generation, let go and give it a try. It's kind of the point of the DCC (and old school) mindset; you don't *have* to follow it, but you should experience it.
Trevor / Road Crew (Calgary)
---
Shaky, Gambler, N, AC 10, hp 1, S12 A9 S5-2 P9 I9 L9, r+0, f-2, w+0, club +0 (1d4)
Shifty, Smuggler, C, AC 11, hp 1, S9 A15+1 S5-2 P13+1 I8-1 L8-1, r+1, f-2, w+1, init+1, attack rolls -1, sling +0 (1d4)
The Illuminating Anhk, Elven Artisan, L, AC 10, hp 3, S11 A9 S9 P13+1 I10 L15+1, r+0, f+0, w+1, fumbles +1, staff +0 (1d4)
KIA Bailey Bramford, Beadle, L, AC 11, hp 1, S13+1 A13+1 S12 P5-2 I13+1 L11, r+1, f+0, w-2, init +1, staff +1 (1d4+1)
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Litzen Tallister
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Re: keeping character generation session fun on Zoom

Post by Litzen Tallister »

Hello everyone (first post here; be gentle)

I like session zero content as a good opportunity to, as Vort said, poll for campaign style interest. It's also a good chance to integrate safety tools if they haven't been already. Even with groups that I've had for previous campaigns, taking the moment to remind everyone as well as go over the various tools (e.g., lines and veils, X card, etc.). I also use session 0 as a chance to go over what people are going to be able to expect from me, whether it's my own style, the themes I'm going to be using in the campaign, and usually something about character death (see next paragraph).

But, as already stated, DCC seems really good at getting characters into play with little preparation. If starting with a 0 level funnel, how much back story is a 0 level cobbler going to have? And, also from the 0 level approach, there's a good chance that people are going to lose some if not all of their initial characters in the funnel, which would mean the possible loss of that well-crafted backstory anyway.
serendipitous
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Re: keeping character generation session fun on Zoom

Post by serendipitous »

Thanks!

Agree that session 0 is prob. not going to be terrifically fun with 0-levels. So I'll table that idea and maybe air it out again after the funnel.

I know this sounds fiddly, but I'm just stuck on it somehow ... RE character generation: at least one player doesn't have access to a printer. Everybody has access to their 'phones and either a tablet or laptop. I'm planning to work from "Frozen in Time" (the barbarians coming across a high-tech cache will feed very nicely into my bigger world, but I'm open to basing the funnel off a different adventure).

I think that my players would get a kick out of being a little surprised by the barbarian element. Also, there are a couple of children and it will be hard for one of them not to number-crunch or get stressed if he builds characters ahead of time. So I can imagine a few approaches:

1. We all roll up characters right before I run the funnel, in the opening session. I can snail-mail blank character sheets to folks if useful.
2. Same thing, but enter data into online sheets. Are there some that are easy to use? I guess fillable PDFs?
3. We roll them up on the DCC character generator site at the game. Awkward on Zoom I'd think.
4. I make all the characters and snail-mail each player their own batch, to be opened on The Night. Maybe send an extra so they can dump their least favorite <--- this is my favorite option so far.
5. One of the above, forget about surprise factor.

And: thanks so much for helping me out.
" ... the things I am going to say are true and I am a force for truth and goodness, dammit, and I will beat anyone unconscious if they say otherwise."
-- The Angry GM
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Vort
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Re: keeping character generation session fun on Zoom

Post by Vort »

If you follow the rules as written there's no opportunity to number crunch: roll 3d6, in order, no substitutions, you get what you get. Realize that doing that is absolutely no different than using an online random generator. The tradeoff is fun in rolling dice and looking up the result in charts versus the time saving of getting a generator to do it. I ran one game with everyone rolling their own zeroes, and since then I've handed out randomly generated ones. I don't think it mattered to the players, they didn't "miss out"; in fact, they liked not having to spend game time rolling up PCs that were just going to die.

But there's no right or wrong way, do it however you like and however you think your players will enjoy most. There's some satisfaction in rolling up a character, even a random one.

Depending on your schedule, snail mail isn't likely to be reliable these days. If you're going to use pregens I'd suggest handing them out; trying to teach and coordinate a number of people on the tools can be a time sink.

Frozen in Time is a good one! We had a lot of fun in that one, as a zero level funnel.

And, absolutely do the session zero after your funnel; that would be when your players need guidance in levelling up their survivors, especially if they don't have access to the rules (remember that Goodman has the Quick Start rules available for free, and there's enough in there to level up to 2nd). When I started running Lankhmar (where there is no funnel), I had 2 players roll up their own level-1s (they rolled up 3 and chose 1); the rest chose pregens -- and we did that all by email so we could maximize in-person game time. Now if anyone joins a session they get a pregen. Hasn't seemed to dampen anyone's enthusiasm for the game, and when levelling up they get options to customize.

And if you have safety tools to establish or discuss, by all means spend time on that. It depends on your target audience, ages, public or private, and how well you know them. I'm used to running one shots with random people (strangers and not) so I do a quick discussion at the beginning of each session to lay out my expectations and intro the x-card and I haven't yet had any issues.

For character sheets (and also good reference sheets) see the resource thread:
https://goodman-games.com/forums/viewto ... 60&t=14791

Are you on the official Goodman Games Discord? Someone there had posted a zero-level Google Sheet that's sharable with players and can generate zeroes and also act as a combat tracker. I just can't find it at the moment.

EDIT: Look for or ping @digitalhobbit in the #virtual-tabletop channel.
Trevor / Road Crew (Calgary)
---
Shaky, Gambler, N, AC 10, hp 1, S12 A9 S5-2 P9 I9 L9, r+0, f-2, w+0, club +0 (1d4)
Shifty, Smuggler, C, AC 11, hp 1, S9 A15+1 S5-2 P13+1 I8-1 L8-1, r+1, f-2, w+1, init+1, attack rolls -1, sling +0 (1d4)
The Illuminating Anhk, Elven Artisan, L, AC 10, hp 3, S11 A9 S9 P13+1 I10 L15+1, r+0, f+0, w+1, fumbles +1, staff +0 (1d4)
KIA Bailey Bramford, Beadle, L, AC 11, hp 1, S13+1 A13+1 S12 P5-2 I13+1 L11, r+1, f+0, w-2, init +1, staff +1 (1d4+1)
serendipitous
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Re: keeping character generation session fun on Zoom

Post by serendipitous »

Vort, thanks so much!

Glad to have all the suggestions. We have now done the random-character distribution, and it turned out that all my current players have printers so e-mail worked fine (thanks for the heads-up on snail mail slowness). b/c at least one of my younger players really loves having some choice, I sent everybody two pre-gen funnel character sheets and let them either go old-school and take #1 as assigned, or look the sheets over and then pick the one they wanted.

Vort, you were right that even my younger players seem just as enthusiastic with pre-gens and it will give us more time to play. Thanks also for support RE post-funnel session 0: I really want to do one for my world, and that makes a lot of sense.

Am not on the discord, will try to do that this week. Off for final game prep ... again: thanks!
" ... the things I am going to say are true and I am a force for truth and goodness, dammit, and I will beat anyone unconscious if they say otherwise."
-- The Angry GM
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Re: keeping character generation session fun on Zoom

Post by Raven_Crowking »

The answer to all of your questions, in my experience, is found in the funnel.

That is the Session 0, with the goal of establishing who the PCs will be.

What the world is? They know only their village and the menace they just faced.

The funnel is a zippy and engaging form of generating the final party...in this case, the "early finishers" need nothing more than a chance to get some new 0-level peasants, because finishing early means all their previous characters are dead!
SoBH pbp:

Cathbad the Meek (herbalist Wizard 1): AC 9; 4 hp; S 7, A 7, St 10, P 17, I 13, L 8; Neutral; Club, herbs, 50' rope, 50 cp; -1 to melee attack rolls. Hideous scar.
serendipitous
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Re: keeping character generation session fun on Zoom

Post by serendipitous »

Thanks, everyone for your help. The initial funnel (we're not through yet -- prob finish it Monday) went well, my players had fun, I see tons of room for improvement.

@Raven_Crowking -- I will think about that. I'm still leaning toward some sort of Session 0, partly b/c the group is pretty big (7 players) and it would be my best chance to get backstories on their characters. But maybe it'll be best to just roll into Level 1 stuff.
" ... the things I am going to say are true and I am a force for truth and goodness, dammit, and I will beat anyone unconscious if they say otherwise."
-- The Angry GM
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