Session Zero Checklist: Essential Tools and Resources for Game Masters

A successful Session Zero relies on more than good intentions.

Game Masters do not need a giant binder of worksheets or an elaborate onboarding process, but having the right information and materials available can make the conversation easier. A practical Session Zero toolkit helps the group create characters, establish expectations, discuss boundaries, settle logistics, and preserve the decisions everyone makes before the campaign begins.

The goal is preparation, not paperwork.

This checklist organizes useful tools and resources into four stages:

• Before Session Zero
• During the meeting
• Character and campaign preparation
• Post-Session Zero follow-up

Use the pieces that solve problems for your particular table. You do not need every item for every campaign.

Before the Meeting: Preparation Tools

A little preparation before Session Zero prevents the GM from spending most of the meeting explaining information that could have been communicated beforehand.

Campaign Overview Document

Create a concise campaign overview that gives players enough information to understand what kind of game you are offering.

A one-page document is often sufficient.

Consider including:

• Game system and rules version
• Campaign premise
• Setting or starting location
• Expected tone
• Major themes
• Likely forms of play, such as combat, exploration, investigation, or political interaction
• Expected campaign structure, such as episodic, short-form, or long-running
• Starting character level
• Major character restrictions
• Important house rules
• Expected schedule
• Anything players need to know before creating characters

For example, a group beginning in a desert trading city needs different information from one starting in an isolated frozen monastery.

Share the overview early enough that players have a reasonable opportunity to read it and ask questions.

Do not turn it into required homework unless the group has agreed that it wants a lore-heavy campaign.

Character Creation Resources

Gather whatever players will need to create or finalize their characters.

For a current Dungeons & Dragons game, that might include:

• Printed or digital character sheets
• The appropriate rulebooks or digital rules access
• Pencils and scratch paper for an in-person game
• Dice or digital dice
• Character-creation guidelines
• Starting level
• Available classes
• Available species
• Available backgrounds
• Ability-score generation method
• Starting equipment rules
• Allowed feats or other options
• Any campaign-specific restrictions or additions

The 2024 D&D rules provide three standard approaches for generating ability scores: Standard Array, Random Generation, and Point Cost. If your campaign requires a particular method, tell players before they build their characters.

Current D&D terminology also uses species as a character-origin component alongside background.

Example: The Thornwatch Campaign

Imagine a campaign called Thornwatch.

The campaign begins along a dangerous frontier trade route connecting several competing kingdoms.

Before Session Zero, the GM prepares:

• A simple regional map
• A paragraph describing the trade conflict
• A list of available character options
• Several possible background hooks
• A description of the opening situation
• The campaign's expected tone
• Any important rules modifications

Instead of telling players which characters to make, the material gives them context.

A player might decide their character is:

• A former caravan guard
• A merchant representative
• A traveler searching for someone who disappeared along the route
• A soldier from one of the neighboring kingdoms
• A scholar studying old ruins near the trade road

Those concepts emerge from the campaign premise rather than from arbitrary restrictions.

Safety, Consent, and Calibration Resources

Session Zero is also an appropriate time to establish how the group communicates about content.

There is no single safety tool that every table must use.

Instead, the group should understand:

• What content is outside the boundaries of the game
• What content should be handled with less detail
• How someone can pause or redirect play
• Whether private communication with the GM is available
• Whether boundaries can be changed later

They should be able to.

Several established resources can help.

The X-Card

The X-Card was created by John Stavropoulos.

It provides a simple method for indicating that content currently appearing in the game should be changed, skipped, or removed without requiring the person using it to justify why.

If your group uses the X-Card, explain how it works rather than simply placing one on the table.

Lines and Veils

Lines and Veils was introduced by Ron Edwards.

A Line identifies content that should not appear in the game.

A Veil identifies material that may exist in the fiction but should not receive explicit treatment or should occur off-screen.

Treat the group's Lines and Veils as changeable rather than permanently fixed at Session Zero.

CATS

Patrick O'Leary created the CATS Method as a concise expectation-setting framework.

The original 2016 framework covers:

• Concept: What is this game about?
• Aim: What are the participants trying to accomplish?
• Tone: What kind of atmosphere or style is expected?
• Subject Matter: What subjects might arise, and what boundaries need to be established?

CATS can complement more specific content and safety tools rather than replacing them.

Consent in Gaming

Consent in Gaming, written by Sean K. Reynolds and Shanna Germain and published by Monte Cook Games, is available as a free PDF.

It includes guidance for discussing challenging subject matter and a form-fillable RPG Consent Checklist.

Script Change

The Script Change RPG Toolbox, created by Beau Jágr Sheldon, provides several tools for adjusting collaborative content during play.

Its core concepts include actions analogous to media controls, such as pausing, rewinding, and fast-forwarding.

If your group uses Script Change, consult the creator's current documentation so everyone understands how the selected tools work.

You do not need to deploy every safety tool you encounter.

Choose a system the group understands and will actually use.

During the Meeting: Facilitation Materials

Once Session Zero begins, your materials should support conversation rather than control it.

Agenda or Discussion Checklist

A simple agenda can prevent an important topic from being forgotten.

Possible sections include:

1. Campaign premise
2. Tone and themes
3. Player interests
4. Content boundaries
5. Table procedures
6. Scheduling
7. Character creation
8. Character relationships
9. House rules
10. Questions
11. Session One preparation

You do not need rigid time limits for each section.

If an important conversation needs more time, let it have more time.

Scheduling Tool

Bring a calendar or scheduling method that lets the group look beyond the first game.

Discuss:

• Preferred day
• Start time
• Session duration
• Frequency
• Known conflicts
• Minimum number of players needed to play
• Cancellation procedures
• What happens when someone is absent

The Thornwatch group might discover that two players travel for work regularly.

Instead of repeatedly canceling sessions, the group could decide that the campaign continues whenever at least four of five players can attend.

Another group might decide that everyone must be present.

Neither policy is universally correct.

The important part is establishing the expectation before the first cancellation occurs.

Table Expectations Worksheet

A short list of prompts can help the group establish how it wants sessions to operate.

Topics might include:

• Phone and device use
• Food and drink
• Breaks
• Start-time expectations
• Rules disagreements
• Player-versus-player actions
• Character secrets
• Absences
• Spotlight sharing
• Out-of-character conflict
• Content boundaries
• Recording or streaming
• Communication between sessions

Treat these as conversation prompts rather than rules the GM automatically imposes.

Some expectations may be non-negotiable because of the host, venue, campaign, or platform. State those clearly.

Discuss the rest collaboratively.

Character Connection Map

A visual relationship map can help players establish why their characters already care about one another.

Use:

• Paper
• Index cards
• A whiteboard
• Sticky notes
• A shared digital board
• A simple document

Write each character's name and connect relationships between them.

Examples:

• Siblings
• Former traveling companions
• Old rivals
• Members of the same organization
• One character once saved another
• Shared mentor
• Former military service
• Mutual enemy
• Shared debt
• Survivors of the same event

The characters do not all need to know each other.

A few meaningful relationships can make party formation easier and give players immediate material for roleplaying.

For Thornwatch, the players might establish that:

• The druid and fighter are siblings.
• The rogue once protected the cleric's mentor.
• The ranger previously worked as a scout along the trade route.
• All four have separate reasons to investigate attacks on the caravans.

The party now has reasons to participate before the first encounter begins.

Session Zero Notes

Record decisions that will matter later.

Useful notes include:

• Character names
• Classes
• Species
• Backgrounds
• Character relationships
• Party goals
• Player interests
• Campaign tone
• Major setting decisions
• House rules
• Scheduling agreements
• Group-level content boundaries
• Safety procedures
• Communication channels
• Unresolved questions

Avoid recording unnecessary personal information.

If someone privately says they do not want detailed drowning scenes because of a personal experience, the shared campaign record only needs:

Boundary: No detailed drowning scenes.

It does not need the player's name or explanation.

These notes should become a useful campaign reference, not a transcript of private conversations.

Character Creation Aids

Character creation can consume a large portion of Session Zero, especially when players are unfamiliar with the rules.

A few targeted resources can reduce unnecessary lookup time.

Quick Reference Guides

Useful character-creation references might include:

• Character-creation sequence
• Ability-score options
• Class summaries
• Species summaries
• Background summaries
• Starting equipment
• Spellcasting basics
• Skill descriptions
• Common actions
• Feat options
• Advancement rules

Do not recreate entire rulebooks.

A quick-reference document should help players locate or understand information, not duplicate every rule.

Name Lists

Keep setting-appropriate names available for players who want inspiration.

You might organize them by:

• Region
• Culture
• Community
• Faction
• Language
• Social group

You can also include:

• Titles
• Nicknames
• Family names
• Epithets

For example:

• Mira Venn
• Corren Vale
• Tala Rook
• Serin Ashfall
• "Ironhand"
• "The Wanderer"
• "Stormcaller"

Make these optional.

A name list should remove friction, not impose a naming convention players dislike.

Character Concept Prompts

Instead of preparing complete characters, offer short prompts tied to the campaign.

For Thornwatch:

• A former guard who knows the trade road
• A merchant whose family business is threatened by the attacks
• A traveler searching for a missing caravan
• A scholar investigating ruins near the route
• A local guide who believes something has changed in the wilderness

Players can adopt, modify, combine, or ignore them.

Simplified Character References for New Players

A new player may not need every possible rule immediately.

Consider providing:

• A summary of their common actions
• Their primary abilities
• Basic attack information
• Important class features
• Spell summaries they actually use
• Conditions that commonly affect them

If you use an abbreviated or custom character sheet, make sure the player still has access to all information necessary to run the character correctly.

The goal is progressive learning, not removing meaningful choices.

Worldbuilding and Setting Tools

Players need enough information to make informed characters without being required to study the setting.

Visual References

A small set of images can communicate the campaign's atmosphere efficiently.

Useful visuals may include:

• Landscapes
• Architecture
• Clothing
• Maps
• Important environments
• Creatures
• Technology level
• Artistic references for tone

For Thornwatch, the GM might show:

• Dusty trade roads
• Fortified caravan stops
• Distant sandstone settlements
• Windswept frontier terrain
• Merchant caravans
• Border fortresses

Explain what the images represent.

A visual reference should support your description, not create assumptions the GM never intended.

Setting Primer

Give players a short summary of what their characters would reasonably know.

Consider:

• Current conflicts
• Major factions
• Important locations
• Cultural expectations
• Common knowledge about magic
• Major religions
• Political structure
• Recent events
• Anything directly relevant to character creation

Avoid presenting dozens of pages of history unless your players specifically enjoy that material.

Players can discover additional information during play.

Restricted and Encouraged Character Options

If some character options do not fit the campaign, identify them before character creation.

Clarify:

• What is unavailable?
• Why is it unavailable?
• Are older-source options allowed?
• Is third-party material allowed?
• Is homebrew allowed?
• Are there campaign-specific alternatives?
• Are any options especially appropriate?

Restrictions should serve the campaign rather than exist arbitrarily.

For a desert-frontier campaign, the GM might encourage backgrounds connected to trade, travel, military service, scholarship, or wilderness experience.

That does not mean every character must select one.

The more important question is whether the character has a believable connection to the campaign.

Post-Session Zero Follow-Up Tools

Session Zero creates information that becomes more valuable when it is preserved.

Session Zero Summary

Soon after the meeting, create a concise summary of the decisions that matter.

Include:

• Campaign premise
• Tone
• Final or provisional characters
• Character relationships
• House rules
• Table procedures
• Scheduling agreements
• Communication channel
• Group-level content boundaries
• Safety procedures
• Session One date
• Anything players need to complete before play

Do not circulate private answers that were not intended for the group.

The summary should document agreements, not expose private feedback.

Campaign Organization

Choose where campaign information will live.

Possible tools include:

• Shared documents
• Notion
• World Anvil
• D&D Beyond
• Roll20
• Discord
• Shared cloud folders
• Dedicated campaign-management platforms

Avoid creating five different systems when one or two will work.

Players should know where to find:

• Scheduling information
• Campaign notes
• Character information
• House rules
• Maps
• Handouts
• Important announcements

The best organizational system is usually the one people actually remember to use.

Session One Preparation Checklist

Use what you learned during Session Zero to prepare the first real game.

You might need:

• A strong opening situation
• Important NPC names
• Immediate NPC motivations
• One or two useful locations
• Maps if they matter
• Relevant enemies
• Clues
• Handouts
• Rules references
• Any props or digital assets actually needed

Most importantly, prepare the campaign everyone just agreed to play.

If the group showed strong interest in investigation, make sure there is something meaningful to investigate.

If players are excited about tactical combat, make the first significant battle give them real decisions.

If character interaction matters strongly, give the characters a reason to talk to one another.

Session One should reinforce the expectations established during Session Zero rather than immediately contradict them.

Optional Advanced Resources

Some groups enjoy additional structure.

Others will never need it.

Collaborative Worldbuilding

If players enjoy contributing to the setting, use structured prompts.

Examples include:

• Faction relationship maps
• Shared settlement creation
• Historical timelines
• Rumor creation
• Location prompts
• Character-connected landmarks

Systems and tools inspired by collaborative games such as Microscope can provide ideas, but do not assume every group wants shared authorship over the setting.

Ask first.

Tone and Theme References

Media comparisons can help explain a campaign quickly.

Instead of saying:

"This campaign is like Game of Thrones."

identify the specific element you mean:

• Political instability
• Competing houses
• Dangerous alliances

Likewise, you might reference another work for:

• Exploration
• Camaraderie
• Mystery
• Horror
• Action pacing
• Visual atmosphere

Also explain what you do not intend to emulate when a reference includes material that does not fit your game.

Character Questionnaires

Some players enjoy extensive character-development questions.

Possible prompts include:

• What does your character want?
• What are they afraid of?
• Who matters most to them?
• What do they regret?
• Who do they trust?
• What do they believe about the world?
• Who do they owe?
• What would they never willingly sacrifice?

Keep these optional unless the campaign genuinely requires particular information.

Some players discover their characters by playing them.

That is equally valid.

Adapting the Checklist to Your Table

Not every Session Zero needs every tool in this article.

New Players

New groups may benefit from:

• More character guidance
• Clearer rules explanations
• Ready-to-use examples
• Simplified references
• More time for questions
• Explicit explanations of table procedures

Do not try to teach every rule before Session One.

Give players enough information to make meaningful decisions and learn the rest as it becomes relevant.

Experienced Players

An established group may already understand:

• Basic character creation
• Common table procedures
• Scheduling
• Communication
• Rules lookup

That does not mean Session Zero is unnecessary.

Focus instead on what is different about this particular campaign:

• Premise
• Tone
• New character options
• New boundaries
• House rules
• Campaign structure
• Character relationships

Short Campaigns and One-Shots

A shorter game may need only:

• Premise
• Tone
• Characters
• Relevant content boundaries
• Major house rules
• Expected duration
• Party relationships

There is little value in creating elaborate long-term organizational infrastructure for a one-night adventure.

Online Groups

Online Session Zero meetings may require:

• Voice or video platform
• Digital character sheets
• Shared documents
• Virtual tabletop access
• Private messaging method
• Digital safety tools
• Account setup

Check technical access before the first real game if the campaign depends on a particular platform.

Technical troubleshooting is easier during Session Zero than during the opening scene of Session One.

The Thornwatch Example

The Thornwatch group does not use every tool in this checklist.

Its GM prepares:

• A one-page campaign primer
• A regional map
• Character-creation guidelines
• A Session Zero agenda
• A method for communicating content boundaries
• A calendar
• A character relationship map
• Shared campaign notes

The players already understand the game's basic mechanics, so little time is spent teaching character creation.

Instead, the group spends most of Session Zero discussing:

• Why each character is traveling the trade route
• How several characters already know one another
• What kind of frontier campaign everyone expects
• How dangerous the campaign should feel
• How often the group can realistically meet
• What happens when someone cannot attend

A different group could use the same checklist and focus on completely different sections.

That is the point.

The checklist serves the group.

The group does not serve the checklist.

Making the Checklist Work

A Session Zero toolkit becomes counterproductive when preparing the toolkit takes more effort than preparing the campaign.

Start with the essentials.

For many groups, that means:

• Campaign overview
• Character-creation information
• Expectations discussion
• Content and safety procedures
• Scheduling
• Character relationships
• Notes

Add additional resources only when they solve a real problem.

Reuse useful materials between campaigns.

Your scheduling checklist, rules-discussion prompts, character relationship template, and campaign-summary format can improve over time.

Discard things nobody uses.

If a four-page questionnaire repeatedly produces no useful information, stop using it.

If a single index card with six Session Zero questions works extremely well, keep it.

Building Your Personal Session Zero Toolkit

Every Game Master eventually develops preferred preparation methods.

A practical toolkit might contain:

• Session Zero agenda
• Campaign primer template
• Character-creation checklist
• Safety-tool links
• Scheduling questions
• Character connection prompts
• House-rule template
• Session summary template
• Blank note pages
• Digital versions of everything needed for online play

Store these resources somewhere easy to reuse.

After each campaign begins, ask:

• Which tools helped?
• Which created unnecessary work?
• Which questions produced useful answers?
• What did I wish I had prepared?
• What did nobody use?

Then revise the toolkit.

The best Session Zero checklist is not the longest or most sophisticated.

It is the one that reliably helps your group have the conversations it needs.

Using The Dungeon Trainer

Campaign-management platforms can support the organizational work that follows Session Zero.

The Dungeon Trainer allows groups to run campaigns with a human Game Master while maintaining shared campaign information, character sheets, dice, initiative, conditions, and campaign continuity.

AI support is optional.

The platform can also preserve campaign information such as established names, places, factions, promises, secrets, and other details that become important over time.

A GM can therefore use the platform to support information established during Session Zero while continuing to run the table personally.

Sensitive information should still be treated carefully.

Do not store unnecessary private explanations for player boundaries simply because a campaign tool provides somewhere to write them.

Record what the campaign needs to respect.

Keep private information private.

Conclusion

A Session Zero toolkit should make communication easier.

It can help the GM arrive prepared to:

• Explain the campaign
• Answer character-creation questions
• Establish expectations
• Discuss boundaries
• Coordinate scheduling
• Connect the characters
• Record decisions
• Prepare Session One

But the tools themselves are not the goal.

A perfect worksheet cannot replace a useful conversation.

A beautiful campaign primer cannot fix expectations nobody discusses.

A safety tool cannot help if nobody understands how to use it.

Start with what your group actually needs.

Prepare enough material to make the conversation easier.

Record the agreements that matter.

Then use what you learned to prepare a first session that resembles the campaign everyone agreed to play.

That is what makes a Session Zero toolkit useful.

Sources and Further Reading

Monte Cook Games. (2019, September 11). Consent in gaming. https://www.montecookgames.com/consent-in-gaming/

O'Leary, P. (2016, April 12). CATS. 200 Word RPG. https://200wordrpg.github.io/2016/supplement/2016/04/12/CATS.html

Shea, M. E. (2018). Return of the lazy dungeon master. Sly Flourish.

Shea, M. E. (2021, April 5). Running session zeros. Sly Flourish. https://slyflourish.com/runningsessionzeros.html

Sheldon, B. J. (2023). Script Change RPG Toolbox. Thoughty. https://briebeau.com/thoughty/script-change/

Stavropoulos, J. (n.d.). X-Card.

Wizards of the Coast. (2024). D&D Beyond Basic Rules. D&D Beyond. https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/br-2024

Wizards of the Coast. (2024). Dungeon Master's Guide. Wizards of the Coast.