The D&D Session Zero Checklist

Updated September 2026. Written by the Threadfall team.

Session zero builds a party, not just characters. The tables that hold together tend to settle the basics first, the boundaries, the pitch, the schedule, who's playing what, and then play something short together before anyone commits to a whole campaign. A table that has fought one fight together usually walks into session one as a party; a table that has only talked often walks in as four strangers with backstories.

Everything on this page is a set of practices that have worked at a lot of tables, not a rule book. Take the parts that fit yours.

GM callthe GM decides and moves on.   Sent to playersgoes out before the table meets.   Group decidessettled together, at the table. Checks are remembered in this browser. Clear all checks

On this page (9 sections)

1. 1Before you meet
2. 2At the table
3. 3Starter mission
4. 4After session zero
5. 5Bonus ideas
6. 6Who decides
7. 7Printable checklist
8. 8Private form
9. 9FAQ

1.Before the table meets

• GM callYour one-page prep. One page: the character-building rules, your hard no's, the premise. Walking into the table conversation with these already decided keeps them out of a live negotiation.
• GM callThe character-building rules. Level, stat generation, starting gear, allowed sources, multiclassing, homebrew policy. Settling them before session zero matters because changing them mid-campaign reworks every encounter you've already built.
• GM callYour own hard no's. What's off the table entirely, no exceptions, decided before anyone has to ask for it.
• Sent to playersThe one-page pitch. Premise, tone target, expected length, the kinds of stories you want to tell. Opening it as a scene, two or three sentences dropping "your character" into the campaign's central tension, tends to land better than a bullet list of themes.
• Sent to playersThe private pre-session form. Ten questions that surface things people won't always say out loud in a group. Send it to each player individually, with real lead time. The form is in section 8.
• Sent to playersBackstory prompts. Three narrow questions instead of a blank page: who owes your character something, who does your character owe, and one thing your character is wrong about. How to connect the answers afterward is in section 5.
• GM callThe day and time. Fixing it before character creation starts, and confirming it with players, saves the most common stall: a table that can't agree on a slot before session zero rarely agrees on one after it.
• GM callWhere backstories and world lore will live. Somewhere the whole table can find them, with a way to keep a backstory private until its player is ready to reveal it, so nothing lives only in one person's head or a group chat.

2.At the table

• Group decidesConcepts side by side. Lay every character concept out together and look for where two players are reaching for the same spotlight, and whether the party can actually pull its weight in and out of combat.
• Group decidesThe ties, played out loud. Before anyone opens a rulebook, run a short improvised scene, in character, for every pair of characters who share a backstory tie. Half an hour, total, and it tends to do more than a questionnaire.
• Group decidesTone, inside the GM's limits. Each player writes three adjectives for the game they want, without seeing anyone else's, then reads them aloud together. The GM's hard no's already set the outer limits; this decides the tone inside them.
• Group decidesThe merged Lines and Veils. Fold every private boundary into one shared list with no names attached, then write it down as agreed. The mechanics of running that conversation, plus a printable sheet, live on the safety-tools page.
• GM callThe table rules you won't run without. The one or two things: how many people need to show up for a session to happen, no phones during scenes, and how character death and player-versus-player conflict work at this table. Say them plainly, then hand everything else to the table.
• Group decidesHouse rules and etiquette. Crits, flanking, death saves, resting rules; side conversations, who calls a break, everything beyond the few rules you set yourself.
• Group decidesSchedule cadence and the missed-session rule. How often, how long, what happens when someone can't make it, and how many misses in a row, not one, triggers a real conversation about the slot.
• Group decidesWho tracks what between sessions. Notes, maps, inventory, the party's running gold: one player's job or split up, and what happens to that job the week that player is out.
• GM callThe recording-consent sentence, said aloud. If you record, before you press record: "Tonight's session is being recorded and transcribed, the same as any other session, and everyone in this campaign can follow the live transcript while we play. Nothing you say here gets treated differently for being session zero, so if you want part of your backstory kept just between us for now, tell me and I'll seal it, or write it straight into your character notes instead of saying it out loud."
• Group decidesThe starter mission. The group plays it, the GM builds it. A table that's new to each other often does better splitting this into two sittings: the talk first, the mission within a week once characters are finished. A table that already knows each other can run both in one longer sitting. How to build it is section 3.

3.Play a starter mission, not just a meeting

Keep it small and low-stakes. One encounter, maybe two, forty-five minutes to an hour. Nobody dies tonight, nobody inherits a tragedy they didn't choose. Giving every character exactly one moment where their build or their stated personality has to make a call nobody else at the table can make is what most tables remember: the rogue deciding whether to lie to a guard, the paladin deciding whether to let a thief go.

Then give them a reason to stay together. Build in a shared, concrete enemy the whole party beats together. End it with a job offer, a shared debt, or a threat that isn't finished, so "why are these people still traveling together" answers itself. Prep the enemy, the location, and each character's one choice; leave how they get there, how they solve it, and whether they like each other open.

4.After session zero

Write the summary within a day. The frame you agreed on, Lines and Veils, the pitch, house rules. This is the artifact everyone points back to when memory gets fuzzy, not anyone's recollection of the conversation. The session recap template works for it too, trimmed to the frame, the boundaries and the house rules.

Write down anything new where the table keeps its lore, not just what was drafted beforehand. Half of what actually gets decided at a session zero comes out in conversation, not on a form filled out days earlier.

Set a revisit date. Lines and Veils and house rules aren't permanent. Revisit them when the campaign's tone shifts, a new player joins, or enough time has passed that someone's lines might have moved.

• GM callWritten summary within a day.
• GM callNew material written down where the table keeps its lore.
• GM callRevisit date set.

5.Session zero ideas, not just a checklist

• The borrowed detail. After backstory drafts come back, hand each player one specific detail from someone else's, a name, a debt, a rumor, and ask for a single line connecting their character to it. Nobody negotiates a tie live under pressure; it shows up already earned.
• The map they draw. Bring a mostly blank regional map and have each player add one place from their backstory. By the end the setting is half theirs, so it is theirs to have opinions about.
• The five-minute flashback. Before a rulebook opens, play a short improvised scene for every pair of characters who share a tie. Half an hour total buys more investment than any conversation about the characters.
• Three adjectives, sight unseen. Each player writes three adjectives for the game they want without seeing the others', then all are read aloud. Concrete words surface a mismatch faster than "what tone do you want" ever does.
• The player who wants an exception. Rather than arguing the rule, ask what the character needs to do that the existing options cannot, then solve for that need inside the frame. Nine times in ten the exception was standing in for a need the frame already covers.

6.Who decides what

Two questions decide most of the argument before it starts: when does this get settled, and whose call is it. Keep this section for settling an argument; the checklists above are the order of work.

Table 1. When each item gets settled

Before the table meets	At the table
Your one-page prep	Character concepts, laid out side by side
The one-page pitch	Where backstories connect, played out loud
The private pre-session form	Tone, inside the GM's limits
Backstory drafts	The merged Lines and Veils, written down
The GM's world building and lore	House rules and table etiquette
The day and time	Schedule cadence and the missed-session rule
Where backstories and lore will live	Who tracks what between sessions
	The recording-consent sentence, said aloud
	The starter mission, played live

Table 2. Whose call it is

The GM decides alone	The group decides, inside the GM's limits
Character-building rules: level, stat generation, starting gear, allowed sources, multiclassing, homebrew	Tone: grim, heroic, comedic, or a mix
Your hard no's: what's off the table entirely, no exceptions	Specific boundaries and veils beyond the GM's hard no's
The campaign pitch's core premise and setting facts	Character concepts and how they interlock
Who is GMing	House rules and etiquette beyond the GM's few non-negotiables
The GM's non-negotiables: attendance, phones, how death and player-versus-player play work	Schedule cadence, and who tracks what between sessions
The revisit date for Lines and Veils

The character-building rules tend to be the GM's call because reworking them mid-campaign means reworking every encounter already built. Tone works the same way in miniature: the GM sets the outer limits with the hard no's, and the group decides the tone inside them. A table that skips the limits and jumps straight to "so what tone do we want" often ends up negotiating someone's hard limit in the middle of a group conversation, which is exactly what a private form is for.

Which safety tool the table uses is a judgment call. Some GMs run the specific tool as ordinary procedure, explained rather than voted on, so nobody has to be the one who asks for it. Others put it to the group like any other house rule. Pick a lane and be consistent with it.

Whether to record at all is the same kind of call. Some GMs keep it a GM decision, the same as the character-building rules; others treat it as a group decision, since everyone at the table is the one being recorded. This page doesn't take a side on who decides, only on saying so out loud once the choice is made: whoever is running the table speaks the consent sentence before pressing record.

7.The printable checklist

Print this page and only this block and the private form come out. Clear all checks to start fresh for a new campaign.

8.The private pre-session form

Send these individually, with real lead time, rather than filled out shoulder to shoulder at the table. If someone joins late, a private minute with the form works better than asking them to answer out loud in front of everyone who already has.

Two answers come back up at the table: what character everyone's playing (question 9) and whether backstories connect or stay separate (question 7), once everyone's seen the others' answers.

Two questions belong in the group conversation, not on this form: how much you want pulled into other players' plots, and what tone you're hoping for. Those live in section 2, because they're about the table's shared game, not any one person's limit.

9.Session zero FAQ

What is a D&D session zero?

The meeting before the campaign starts, where the table settles boundaries, tone, logistics, and characters before anyone rolls a die for real. It happens before session one, not as part of it.

Do I need a session zero checklist PDF?

No. This page prints. Use your browser's print or save-as-PDF and the checklist and the private form come out clean, no signup and no download required.

How long should a session zero take?

One sitting works for a table that already knows each other, two to three hours. A table meeting for the first time often runs better split into two sittings: the talk first, then the starter mission within a week once characters are finished. Either way, it helps not to let character creation eat the time meant for playing.

Can I run session zero over Discord?

Yes. Everything on this checklist works over voice chat, including the starter mission. Giving each character a moment that plays to voice, and slowing down on who's talking, helps, since cross-talk reads as silence in a voice call.

We already started the campaign without a session zero. Is it too late?

No. Run a short one now. Gather the table, work through the boundaries and house rules sections above, and treat it as a mid-campaign reset. It's worth doing the moment something at the table isn't working, not only at the start.

Should the GM or the group decide the tone?

Both, in that order, is the pattern that avoids most arguments. The GM sets the outer limits with the hard no's; the group decides the tone inside them, not around them. A table that skips straight to "what tone do we want" without the limits set first tends to end up negotiating someone's limit live, in front of everyone.

More: what makes a good session recap · the session recap template · record a session on Discord · What is Threadfall? · all Threadfall guides