Session Zero – Laying the Groundwork
I was more nervous for this session than I usually am. Not because it was a big combat or a new system, just because this is the homebrew. The world of Wuh-Zhei means something to me. It’s stitched together out of obsessions and shame and aesthetics and the kind of pulp mythology I wish we saw more often. And even though this was just Session Zero, I felt it.
We started with an icebreaker: name, a memory from a past campaign that stuck with you, and what kind of story that memory points you toward. It wasn’t revolutionary, but it got people talking. This group is mostly returning players. Our new player told a story about his highschool DM using a physical scavenger hunt as a mechanic that led to their sorcerer dyeing (it was funnier the way they told it, I promise).
We covered expectations next. Attendance culture, safety tools (we’re using X, N and O cards as well as a rolling open door policy), and some content warnings. This campaign’s going to go some dark places, villains inspired by things I’ve lived through or wrestled with. That’s always a bit vulnerable to say out loud, but I think it helped everyone lock into the tone I’m aiming for: grounded, intense, and still fantastical. One of my goals with this world is to use DnD as a medium to tell the story’s of my own life that I’m still processing.
Then came the world dump: the Plates, the Districts, the arcane bureaucracy, the five wizard factions. I used a bunch of DALL·E images I’d prompted to help sell the setting, and it worked. The moment I saw a player go, “Oh, Monarch elves have butterfly wings? Oh yeah, I’m playing one of those,” I knew we were off to the races.
Character creation filled the rest of the session. Highlights:
- A bard from Plate One, leaning hard into elite Monarch Elf energy and aligning with the Gilded Gaze.
- A physical-role player challenging himself with a caster, he rolled up a catkin Paragon, locking into the world’s institutional magic and street-level heroics.
- A warlock who gravitated toward the Transneuroclast faction, self-modding and cyberpunk-adjacent. I’m probably writing a subclass for that. I don’t love homebrew subclasses, but this one feels like it’s asking to be born.
The whole group showed up (seven players total), which won’t always happen, but I’m building this campaign with that in mind. I know who tends to be late, who’ll dip early, and who shows up every time. The core is solid. They’re curious. They’re engaged. And if their early picks are any indication, they’re going to loop beautifully.
Roll20 gave us some grief (the new character tools + custom races = jank), but even with that, the energy was right.
I’ve got a lot to do before next week. Bellow; a session zero specific image. Stuff like this from Dall-E helps to both paint the world and ease the players in.
