Session Zero
A downloadable game
Session Zero is a game about characters.
It is the story of the life they have already lived before your story with them begins.
It is who they are, who has helped them, what has benefited them, and what has caused them harm.
Session Zero is a deck based, character creation game. Using a standard deck of cards or the deck of Session Zero cards, draw a hand and answer the prompts to create the story of your character from before your story with them began. Each unique prompt has a set of follow up questions to really get to the root of who this character is as well as the events and people who shaped their lives.
Designed as a solo game, it can easily be adapted to be played in groups within the same setting.
Downloadable content includes all files for both Session Zero and its expansion - rule and prompt pdfs (for play with a standard card deck), plain text versions of prompt lists, and individual files for all cards.
If you like this game, please tell me about it on Twitter!
If you want to watch someone playing Session Zero - check out this video of my friend Jess creating a character for a DnD oneshot!
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $10 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Exclusive content
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Community Copies
Each copy of Session Zero purchased allows someone else from the community to download a copy if they do not have the ability to do so otherwise. If you find yourself unable to afford a copy, please feel free to claim one, available for the community.
Comments
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I'm excited to use this for my own Session Zeros! Really will help get the players immersed.
What I'm most excited about is the fact that these cards perfectly map to a Tarot deck! Tarot decks have 4 extra cards in the minor arcana plus 22 Major arcana (26 more cards than a typical playing card deck). Thus, the 26 additional prompts can be matched to the major arcana, plus any 4 cards from the minor arcana! I might swap the ace out for the queen, in the suits, and use the ace with the major arcana!
Thank you for your well-thought-out prompts!
i noticed that in the sadness cards, the card back says spades, sadness instead of session zero sadness also one of the cards is duplicated the greatest failure card is in the zipfile twice
Love the graphical update to an already great game/tool!
Just wanted to point out a typo in the main PDF:
clubsdiamonds for pages 14 and 17.Thank you for pointing that out!! I've made the adjustments and reuploaded the pdf.
I'm glad you like the new update!
Thank you for this title. It's a simple system, indeed they are simple questions driven by card draws; however they can be inspiring, and surely useful to those mainly accustomed just to "traditional" systems that put very low effort on suggesting to the players how to build a round, tridimensional character.
The clean layout is nice too.
In the end, maybe it's slightly overpriced, however it's a nice title.
I tried this a couple of days ago, and was pleasantly surprised by what happened to each of my characters' personal histories. They literally took a life and experiences of their own in ways I wasn't expecting. I will most likely use this more from now on. Thank you very much for making Session Zero :D
Just wanted to share that I had a very touching session yesterday which involved my character's backstory. Of course, that backstory was made using Session Zero. Thanks Meghan <3
Don't think of this as just a solo game. I just went through this with my group, each of us with our own deck of cards, flipping one card at a time. We got to have fun both reading each person's questions, and even more fun as we revealed our answers.
That's wonderful!! I'm so glad to hear that your group enjoyed it.
Session Zero is a solo game that helps you flesh out a character. You divide a deck into 4 piles — representing happiness, sadness, bond and character — and answer questions presented by the cards to learn more about your character.
This is a simple and fun way to generate a backstory and personality for your next character. It's absolutely worth every penny if you can afford it. It includes 52 prompts (plus another 26 prompts in the included expansion). Just draw 5 or more cards and let your creativity interpret each prompt to build out a quirky one of a kind character.
Each Suit has to do with a different aspect of a character: What makes them happy, what makes them sad, the bonds they have to others, and quirky character traits that make them unique.
Add in the wordlbuilding or bonds editions (available together in the complete edition set), and you have a great structured way to run a Session Zero.
And if you have money left in that budget, check out Meghan's other games, which are equally incredible.
Thank you so much!!
I picked these up on the way to a character creation night for the restart of our FLGS DnD league. As the players made their way through the process of making their characters I pulled cards to ask questions of my players. The responses from those made some of the most curious, interesting and deep characters, and now all of the other groups are jealous of the group dynamic we already have before we even start playing. These questions are amazing!
Thank you so much! I'm glad you and your group had fun with it and Session Zero helped everyone create interesting characters!!
Fantastic prompts. I had my friends using them to build NPCs for Godbound. Gave our characters some excellent depth. Making their later choice to sacrifice themselves to stop a God more poignant.
Highly recommend.
very easy to use, the prompts are very helpful I am excited to see what character i will make for the games I will be in.
I've used Session Zero to help me develop the backstories of a few characters (and NPCs) and it's not only very useful, but a lot of fun! The prompt cards cover four very deep aspects of a character and the prompts on each card are excellent jumping off points, each one capable of being a whole story.
Just had a great time with my players using this game, it seemed like it really helped them flesh out their characters and added interesting details to the world.
Ever had trouble coming up with fun ideas for building your character's background? Well this game lets you play to do it! Fun and helpful.
I used this last night for making a character. Really evocative prompts! A great system to help flesh out a character.
Waow ! This prompts are great and I love how each question are organized by theme.
Thank you, you made a nice and usefull tool !