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Session Zero: Choosing Your Flavour
Before dice start flying everywhere and your bards start seducing literally everyone, your table has to answer the most important question: What kind of story are we telling? This is where tone and genre elbow their way into the room. Ignore them at your peril. What is Tone? Tone is your vibe, your mood, your emotional flavour. Is it hopeful? Gritty? Grim? Goofy? On a scale from epic poetry to internet memes, where do you want to land? Examples: Tone is how everything feels. It shows up in how NPCs speak, how players act, and how the GM reacts to an unexpected seduction attempt involving a basilisk and a lute.…
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Introducing Session Zero: the What and the Why
Session Zero is one of those topics where you can ask me one question, and I will rant and monologue for hours. I am extremely passionate about session zero, I don’t understand why someone would not want to do one, and I vehemently argue that every GM should conduct a session zero, even if they think everyone already knows what they are getting into. Since I am incapable of making this a short post, it will be a series! That’s right, you’ll have the option to pick and choose what parts of a session zero you want to hear about, and I’ll get to pretend you’re absorbing every single thing…
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Safety Tools in TTRPGs and Why They Make the Game Better for Everyone
Picture this: you’re deep in a dungeon, torch flickering, tension mounting. The rogue uncovers a dark secret—perhaps a cult, perhaps a betrayal, perhaps a mirror of something from real life that lands a little too hard. And suddenly, what was thrilling becomes… something else. The mood shifts. The table goes quiet. Not because the game is bad, but because no one knew the line until it was crossed. This is where safety tools step in. Often misunderstood, occasionally maligned, they are not the sign of a fragile table. They are the quiet magic of a group that knows the difference between delicious dramatic tension and accidentally stepping on someone’s emotional…
