The dice tray · Starting a campaign

The five-minute session zero

A campaign that skips session zero tends to feel the gap around the fourth or fifth night, when the party can’t remember why these six strangers are still sharing a wagon. This is the smallest version that does the job, and it works at the table, in a group text, or on Discord.

1. Everyone writes down one thing they want to see this campaign, the GM included. Pick a moment you’d like to see, something like “I want to lose something I can’t buy back.” “I want a villain we end up respecting.” “I want one session that’s just a festival, no dice.”
2. Read them out loud, with no discussion and no promise to deliver any of them.
3. Everyone picks someone else’s wish and says one way their character is tied to it. That’s the party, and it’s why they travel together.

Keep the list. The GM now has a map of what the table wants, the players have something at stake besides hit points and loot, and the quiet one at the end of the table has said, on the first night, exactly what to aim for.

Stuck for a wish? Roll a d6.

1. Someone from my past shows up, and it’s bad.
2. We find a place worth defending.
3. My character is wrong about something important.
4. We make an enemy we could’ve avoided.
5. We have a quiet night that isn’t a trap or a setup.
6. I get to be the hero once, out loud and visible.

From Vol. 3 of the letter, “The one thing everybody at the table wants”, September 8, 2026