The Naked Breadcrumb

Session Zero:  The Naked BreadCrumb

This is a great way to start a new campaign.  It also makes a one-shot that will absolutely leave most players itching for more.  It may not make a player love THEIR character, but there may be another player running something they are completely gaga for.  This starts off like any other session zero:  With your normal discussion while asking everyone to roll up stats, except, don't let them place the ability scores anywhere, or add a class, name, race, description, skills, spells, etc.  Just the stats and nothing but the stats.

Next, "Dirty Santa" the ability scores. Give each player a number, starting with the player with the highest sum ability scores being 1. Then place all the stat rolls in a pile, and in order, each player picks one. 1 has the advantage and can go again at the end.  When it is a players turn, they can take one from the stack, or steal another's rolls. Each set of rolls can only be stolen twice before they are locked to that player.  Once everyone has a set, then allow them to place those stats where they choose on their character sheet.

Now that stats are set, start the game. Describe the scene to the players. The are locked in a jail wagon. They have no memories of who they are, what they 'do', what they look like, etc. They don't know whether they are good or evil. They don't know if who has them jailed is good or evil.  They remember nothing of the world, major players, figures, landmarks, nothing.  I'd recommend bags over their characters heads, so they can't get too much detail just yet, or the wagon is pitch black with no windows.

The guards and the jail wagon then get attacked. The jailers can be any race you see fit, any classes that fit your world. But, have 1 jailer be the 'leader', captain, Lieutenant, whatever you decide & directing traffic. Yelling to "Protect the 'assets'".  As the party is freeing themselves in the chaos of the fight; Each other player agrees by consensus what race each party member is, within reason. So, players 2 thru 5 agree on the race of player 1. And so on. Then, allow them to pretty much do anything they have the stats for, but track what skills, spell attempts, etc they use to free themselves. If they use a class defining skill, like pick locks, or spell casting, that narrows down their class possibilities significantly. Once they've escaped, take the time to tally up the points, determine each player’s class, race, & description.  Attempts at clerical magic could be ranger, paladin, druid, cleric.  But fighting with a weapon narrows that further, etc.  It isn't 'designed' to be an exact science.  Just a framework, but the players don't have to know that.

Heritage stuff is 'right out' at the start of this game. But this could be a scenario when it could be taken later as the players discover things about themselves at your discretion. Once, all this stuff is filled in on the sheets let them know that the battle has subsided, and everyone has fled/died. They can return to the battle site and acquire their equipment; have some pre-made equipment lists you want them to have for each possible class. 

Also, race/class combinations that aren't 'natural' to your game are completely fine.  This can and will lead to a deeper connection with the character for the player

Clerics and divine or infernal type classes hear a faint voice in their head.  This voice could be warning them that things are wrong, right, danger, etc.  For more adventure hooks you can use this voice to direct the party, or confuse the party.  Especially if there are multiples, they could all be saying different things depending on how you want to direct the party 'if' they listen.

This gives you enough adventure hooks for life:

• Who were the antagonists?
• Who were the protagonists?
• Why were they in jail?
• Why don't we remember anything?
• What about my family?
• Who or what am I really?

If they choose to chase their jailers, they are always 1 step behind, only catching up when you deem it necessary. If they search for their liberators, same thing. Even finding a town will be challenging at this stage. Food, water, shelter; this can be a rough start for some players, especially if no one picked ranger or druid!

Hope you enjoyed!  Share if you found it interesting.  Leave a comment with your adventure hook ideas & ways to improve on this installment of Session Zero!