“A party of adventurers sits around a wobbling, wooden table in a dimly lit tavern. A gust of wind blows open the tavern’s door, letting in a creeping fog that seems to bring the darkness in with it… wait. No. Let me start again.
You wake up on a battlefield, head pounding and body aching in a seemingly impossible way. You slowly sit up and look around to see four others shaking their heads like you are and catching their bearings. You all stand up and meet at a central point. Around you lays a field of devastation. Bodies piled upon bodies form grotesque memorials to the battle that was fought hours ago. You, though, survived. You, like these others, must be chosen for some greater fate… no. I don’t like that either. Let me start again…”
The first words out of any DMs mouth can inspire the players to levels of heroism that put previous campaigns to shame or can dismay the players as they sit and start to think, “Am I going to be able to sit through 20 levels of this?” The first session, similarly, sets the precedence for all that follow it, so every DM should plan extensively for the first session. When planning, several variables exist which a DM should address in one form or another. For one, what play style do you want your players to expect? Also, what goals do you have for your players? These questions and many others can bog down a DM before the first session causing him to worry too much about management issues and too little about the game itself.
A primary function of the first session is to allow the players and their characters to meet one another. Discomfort from new introductions can slow down the first sessions, so DMs often take it upon themselves to set the players at peace. Many subtle strategies exist to put others at ease.
Assuming the players don’t know each other, it’s often best to meet at a neutral area to play. The most obvious of these is the gaming store, but those are frightfully infrequent in some areas of the country. In these cases, colleges, community centers, and even churches (in some of the more liberal religions) can provide a place for everyone to get together without worry of being tied up and robbed by their prospective acquaintances and without having to pay any money for the space. Some family-owned restaurants will open a table for players as long as the players are willing to snack during their meal, but that can be a costly option, though not for the wily (cheap?) DM. Lastly, it never hurts, when the weather’s good, to meet outside to play; it gives the stereotypically (normal) D&D player the chance to get some fresh air.
Frequently, though, none of these options is available in suburban or rural areas, so DMs and players are forced to meet at one another’s homes for the first meeting. In these cases, it doesn’t hurt to follow a few steps for everyone’s increased comfort. First, meet for lunch (or breakfast, or dinner, depending on when you play). Sit down, talk about your lives, D&D, or whatever the conversation turns to. Nothing disarms people quite as much as watching others stuff their faces with food, chew like wild animals, and slurp from drinks like a dehydrated man in a desert. Once the target destination is reached, the host should make an effort to have a well-lit and inviting environment. Sometimes it’s hard to find a balance, but cleaning up a little beforehand won’t hurt without going so far that new people are worried about dirtying the place up. Lastly, being a good host for the first few sessions (getting drinks, providing dishes and cups, basically being a slave) helps prevent people from feeling like an invader in an insurgent’s grasp.
Another important variable is the DM’s behavior. It’s important for the DM to appear confident and self-affirming without being a snobby, elitist jerk. The DM should try to bring stability to the group as early as the first session by answering questions and mediating disputes without showing bias or favoritism. Consistency, especially in the first session, is an extremely important precedent to set so that later, if a dispute arises, there will be a long line of fair DM decision to back up whatever new call has to be made. Lastly, the DM should be open and honest from the very first session about his (or her!) expectations so that false impressions don’t arise that have to be broken down later. Some DMs will make the mistake of being too friendly in-game in the first sessions, keeping characters alive and allowing “take-backs” or the such. Unless this will be the practice for the entire campaign, a DM should not allow players to engage in such behavior because it causes them to think that those actions will be acceptable throughout.
When considering how to further “break the ice,” too frequently typical icebreaking activities are dismissed as childish. Well, they are, but there are some activities that can further lessen the discomfort of meeting new people. First, creating characters in front of one-another is a good way to hash out rules, discuss expectations in regard to character optimization and party balance, and build trust and team-work between players as one rolls dice and another copies down the scores (or, if you use point buy, simply insert “experienced players suggest feats with which newer players may not be familiar). Similarly, having a discussion based on a list of questions provided, if possible, to the players before the game can help break the ice. I wouldn’t suggest any filling-out or writing of answers, but giving everyone a chance to think of answers before being put on the spot in a discussion helps people answer articulately and honestly in a group of strangers. For the same reason, a round-robin discussion can be used so that each person knows when they’re to speak and so that no one or two people monopolize the discussion time.
The last consideration, and perhaps most important for the campaign itself, centers around how the party is brought together. Two of the most cliché possibilities were used above. Neither is inherently “bad,” but many players roll their eyes when met with such an opening. Other DMs simply have the players assume that their characters know each other and have worked together before. This option, too, doesn’t innately stink, but many DMs feel that it’s somewhat of a cop-out. For those who prefer strangers who come together, a variety of options exist.
First, the adventurers can be brought together by an NPC or a group of organizations represented by the PCs with a common goal. Hiring, ordering, requesting, and bribing PCs to work together can set up further plot hooks, but DMs often abuse this start by making the PCs inadvertently have helped an evildoer. I suggest that, if a DM chooses this option, he not fall into this inviting trap simply for the sake of originality. Putting PCs into dangerous situations where they are forced in one way or another to work together is also a popular option. This introduction builds trust between the strangers as they find their lives in each others’ hands. Whatever start the DM decides upon, he should make the opening memorable and meaningful. Using unusual settings such as weddings, concerts, tours, and other culturally relevant events give PCs an opportunity to meet each other in-game and talk like strangers would before whatever action may take place besets them. Lastly, balancing the first meeting with a mixture of skill usage, combat, and social encounters allows players to show off their character’s various abilities without just passing around the character sheet.
In Part II, we’ll discuss how DMs can demonstrate and develop their play style, campaign goals, and campaign world with in-game interactions instead of a long opening soliloquy or a monstrous “background” article for the PCs to read in an article titled “Leading by Example without the Leadership Feat.”.
