Session Zero & Tone questions
Hi, I’m starting up a new group with a mixed bunch of players and since having similar expectations about the game is essential to me I’m trying to come up with some short questions.
I wanna do (parts of) the “Same Page Tool” but I’d also like to gauge the kind of tone the players want. Something like
“You get stabbed during an emotional scene. Is this wound a major factor for the next few sessions or should this be shrugged off?”
“You blow up a warehouse but the dynamite goes off too soon. Do we see the action scene where you jump out of the door as it explodes or is it a dramatic scene where you have to leave behind your best (NPC) friend?”
“You are in a room of a crowded building and have to get rid of the corpse. Do we see the vile scene where you retch while you try to chop up the body or do you put sunglasses in him and drive him around in a wheelchair, attaching a string to his hand and waving at people?”
I’m not really happy with these questions though so I’m looking for better ones. I want to know if the players want a dark and gritty game or something light and actiony (maybe even comedic) by giving them in-game examples and not have even more meta discussions about the game before we get going.
As GM I find it helpful to discuss this in two ways:
1) What kind of a setting are you most interested in? Then I’ll have a few options like “Duskwall, city of thieves” and “Duskwall, city of mysteries” to figure out what aspects of the very complex setting are most gripping.
2) Then we talk about inspirational media a little. A game influenced by “Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” is going to be different than one influenced by “Breaking Bad” or “The Alienist.” You could use video games for this, too, if everybody plays them. The secret GM trick here is that if the players all say they really like Property X, that gives you tacit permission to plagiarize Property X as much a you can get away with.
Daniel’s suggestions are fantastic. Especially when comparing media you all might like. It’s easier to set the tone if you know you’re all fans of something like Peaky Blinders or The Fast & The Furious movies.
Microscope does something that I’ve seen echoed several times by other GMs when giving this kind of advice. When you start playing a game of Microscope you create a kind of taste menu, where each players takes a turn writing something down that they absolutely want to see in the game, or something they do not want to see.
For example, if you’re about to play a fantasy game, one player may be over the whole “elves being snobbish aristocrats” trope and write “No snobby elves” and you can take a moment talking over exactly what that means for the campaign.
You could adapt this kind of taste menu for your group, specifically raising questions about the tone of the game. Do we want realistic wounds that linger and inhibit you, do we want to allow for light moments of comedy?