A Big Surprise From Session 0 Yesterday

The fighter awoke on flat, wet, cold rock, his face in a puddle of something warm and sticky.

His eyes immediately fixated on a tipped, flickering lantern leaking oil right toward him.

Thus began my Lost Isle campaign, an homage to The Isle of Dread and the TV show Lost.

We started In Medias Res. Characters regained consciousness in a dark cavern 1000′ wide. We ended with the party sneaking past vile troglodytes while desperately resisting the urge to explore the trog ziggurat.

This morning I woke up to this fantastic message from a player:

The text is pretty small. it reads:

I have had a bit of inspiration for Rowan Redcap. I’d like to rework him a tiny bit (swap his Int and Wis scores and change one of his skills).

He has found religion with the lantern that saved them in the dark. He will multi class to cleric next level and start spouting about the light in the darkness that guides lost souls (living and dead). The lantern will be his holy symbol.

I love it! A whole new religion sparked by a bright moment in play.

And it made my day because it’s a sign that players are starting to drive the game.

To me, it’s validation that prep focused on gameplay instead of overplanning works best, at least for me. Better yet, prep stayed light and focused:

  1. Create a World Seed for a starter setting.
  2. Create a Campaign Seed (fleshing out my initial Razor of Isle of Dread meets Lost).
  3. Build the First Adventure.
  4. Create the First Hex.
  5. Set up Campaign Logger as Source of Truth and easy session note-taking.

A couple hours later, we were playing.

Session 0 ended in ultimate GMing victory: the players agreed to play again.

Excellent.

Confident prep won’t be wasted, I’ll now begin working through the rest of my checklist to build out this homebrew campaign and setting.

I’ll keep you updated on highs, lows, and how it unfolds. Dice gods willing, it’ll be a long-term banger!

Cheers,
Johnn
roleplayingtips.com
https://discord.gg/6MxTRAqQ76
Have more fun at every game!

P.S. When you are ready, here are +4 vorpal ways I can help you with your campaign:

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