A Session Zero is the first session of a campaign that is about building characters more than advancing the plot. You get together and create your characters as a group to better meld them into a party and to help each other out. I highly recommend this if you’re going to do an ongoing campaign, but if you want to try something a little more engaging you should try telling a story at the same time. One of the best games to use this with is my favorite sci-fi RPG, Eclipse Phase.
There’s a lot of information out there for GMs but I’m writing up suggestions for GMs wanting to try Star Trek games. This is a beloved and unique series, after all, so you want to make sure you hit the right tone. This advice applies to any game really, though, so feel free to use it for whatever you’re playing!
Like I said last time, the adventures produced for The One Ring RPG are a great source of material for your Adventures in Middle Earth game. I’m certainly using them and tonight I will be running my group’s first adventure in Middle Earth (see what I did there?). I’m going to be running The Marsh Bell from the Loremaster’s Guide of TOR, a great adventure with some Tolkien staples and many new surprises.
You can find the pdf below; if you end up running it, let me know how it went! This pdf was made using The Homebrewery with some material borrowed and adapted from the Zero Hit Points website.
My first and greatest love in D&D is the Planescape setting by Monte and Zeb Cook. This has no small part to do with my affinity for the Cypher System, but it also means that every new edition of D&D that comes out makes me think of running a version of Planescape. Like a lot of people, I think that 4e made it difficult to have the same feel for the game. Personally, I really liked 4e and enjoyed exploring it but whatever side of the Edition Wars you ended up on you probably have seen 5e as a blast from the past in terms of game design and feel.
I’m once again going to take up the Planescape mantle to create rules for running it in 5e. This is the first part, but there will be more coming!
This weekend is my fifth wedding anniversary so that’s occupying my time. Rather than leave you with nothing, check out this great article on introducing that “special someone” to RPGs.
Dr. James has been really great about trying RPGs a few times. While it’s not her cup of tea, it means a lot that she’s given it a shot and is willing to try again in the future. Like my fellow James says in the article, trying gets across how important this is to you and that can improve your relationship. I don’t have too many hopes that my wife will be joining my regular gaming group but trying it out with her has shown her my excitement for making up worlds and stories and it’s inspired sharing in other ways like trading book series and cooperative writing. When my son is old enough to play some No Thank You, Evil! she might be willing to try it again for an epic trip into Storia!
See you all next week!
I know that lots of people out there are as excited as I am about Adventures in Middle Earth from Cubicle 7. This RPG is based on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and makes use of the Open Game License for Dungeons & Dragons 5e. The Player’s Guide is out and the Loremaster’s Guide is going to have all the creatures and such, but some people want to get started now. One of those is me: I just convinced a group to start some Roll20 gaming and we settled on AME as our game.
We’re starting tonight, in fact, which means I need to come up with some material. Luckily, there’s plenty of material already out there for Adventures in Middle Earth! Sort of!
Mephit James Blog 