The Dragon of Icespire Peak Campaign Diary - Episode 0 - Origin Stories

Check out my Introduction to find out more about the campaign journal.

Why Session Zero?

Dragon? What dragon?

One of the best pieces of advice I've picked up over the last couple of years is running a Session 0. This is essentially a session where all the players make characters together, tie their backstories in some interesting way, and work out reasons why they are all traveling together (if it isn't baked into the story). During this session the Dungeon Master (DM) provides a brief description of the campaign - focusing on determining what the players would like to do or see in the campaign. The main focus to make sure everyone's expectations a understood and clear.

Since I'm playing from a published adventure from Wizards of the Coast, a few of these expectations were easy to present. The adventure takes place in the official D&D setting of The Forgotten Realms. Both my players are familiar with the setting in one way or the other (one has watched a few live play D&D shows that take place in The Forgotten Realms the other has played some video games in the setting). So they know the this is an Tolkien-esque fantasy world with lots and lots of magic floating around (no one is going burn a wizard at the stake if they cast a simple Light spell).

They also know that the violence level is going to be typical PG-13 (unless they seem to want to go bloodier), and that the DM will cut away from any content that is too rated R. And that is something you really want to be clear about before you start. You'll run into some players that don't mind torture scenes or having their players bed just about any non-player character they run into (and some player characters too). If everyone in the group is OK with that, then fine, but the DM needs to make sure that is the case. For this game, I'm keeping it PG-13 unless they escalate the violence (because I know how players can be).

Campaign Focus

Elven druid seeking White Dragon.
Must be willing to talk about
past atrocities.

One thing that I made sure was clear (and you need to keep the players on track with as they go along) is the main focus of the campaign. Mike Shea recommends that focus be a simple sentence like - defeat the evil wizard. Mine is Get rid of the white dragon. Simple enough. I also made it clear that the goal was "get rid of" not necessarily "kill". Because in The Forgotten Realms dragons are intelligent creatures and can be bargained with. So that is always an option.

I explained that while they had a clear goal, this was a "sandbox" style adventure. Meaning that it doesn't move along a linear path, but that they can go where they want and do what they want in the setting, as long as the end goal is to get rid of the white dragon. Once we dive into the session 1 I plan on making that a lot more obvious. The way the encounters are set up in the game give the players a some freedom, while still pointing them toward the end goal.

Great Expectations

I also told them that this adventure should take them up to 5th or 6th level. I would not be awarding experience points, but they would level up as they reached key milestones in the game (less math tracking that way). If they enjoy the setting and characters we can move onto a different adventure (I have Lost Mines of Phandelver and Princes of the Apocalypse waiting in the wings).

As for their expectations, since they are new players, they didn't really have any. One player wanted to keep the sessions down to 2 hours, a challenge but possible. I said we may run over, but that should be the exception. The other player was very new to the game, and we spent a lot of time working with her on character creation, and some of the basics of the game.

Origin Story

The Tiefling Rogue doesn't think it is
stealing if you just hand her the money.

Quick aside: We used D&D Beyond for character creation and tracking. At the risk of sounding like a commercial  it made the whole process so much easier. My new player found character creation a lot less painful than she anticipated. I'm also using this tool to track the campaign with notes and information for the players. I highly recommend it to anyone running Dungeons and Dragons at the table (it has its uses in an on-line game too, but most on-line platforms have very similar character creations tools built in).

We got down to character creation. My not-so-new player made a variant version of the character she made back in 2017. She is playing a female elven druid, who has a lightning/storm theme going on with her spells. My new players is playing a female tiefling (half devil) rogue. Both are coming from the nearby city of Neverwinter and heading south to the frontier town of Phandalin.

They discussed what their characters were after. The druid is looking for more information about dragons as a species as well as researching more information about the ancient ruins in the area. The rogue is looking for loot. She knows that ancient ruins contain treasures and is tagging along with the druid to find these.

Both characters picked some interesting Bonds and Flaws during character creation that hint at backstory elements I can use (the Druid has a dangerous tome in her possession, the Rogue's antics landed someone in prison).

When Gerblins Attack!

Quick Aside: I'm using the map of the Sword Coast and Phandalin that is included with The Essentials Kit. I'm using a lego figure to show the characters progress and location on the map. For combat we are going to use theater of the mind style (I don't have miniatures). If things get too confusing I might use some quick drawings to show locations of characters and objects around them. D&D Beyond also has some maps to show your players for specific locations and has Player versions without any spoiler text.

After completing character creation, I had a mini encounter prepped for them, so they could test drive their characters. I think this is important for new players especially. Keep it simple and light, everyone just getting use to how the rules work and how to use the D&D Beyond interface.

Just look at these guys! They have to be up to something.

I borrowed the initial encounter from Lost Mines of Phandelver, with the characters happening upon a place on the road where an ambush occurred. While investigating they are attacked by goblins. In Lost Mines the goblins are part of the overall story. For my mini-encounter I made them a small group of scavengers that happened upon the site were the White Dragon attacked a farmer's cart.

I started by describing how the characters were awakened in the predawn morning by a horrible roaring sound coming from the south. Neither one had heard anything like it before. The druid and rogue packed up their camp and started traveling down the road toward the town, and eventually encountered the scene of the attack.

I took time describing the ambush point, where the dragon used its icy breath to attack the travelers. The characters didn't find any sign of bodies, but lots of blood where something was carried away. The druid identified hoof prints from an ox, which was probably carried off by the dragon. The frost from the breath attack was already melting by the time the characters arrived. They heard something rummaging around in the tipped cart.

I played the goblins (or gerblins if you prefer) as bumbling idiots who think they are tough enough to take on two fully armed adventurers. Keeping things silly, I had one wearing a boot as a hat and the other would just laugh and repeat what Boothead just said... and his name was Beviz. Once the battle started and the two goblins were getting beaten up, they called their friend Mongo for backup. A fat goblin burst from the bushes and joined the fray. It actually got a pretty close there. One of the goblins got a natural 20 on his attack and rolled double damage on the Druid, dropping her. I kept rolling for morale for the goblins (since they are naturally cowardly), and after Beviz got an arrow to the face, Boothead and Mongo ran for it. The party got some coin (and a tasty apple) from the cart, rested and continued on their way to the hub town of Phandalin.

The session did run long, almost three hours, but I warned both players that Session 0 tends to be that way. Character creation takes some time. I think both players had some fun, especially when the goofy gerblins showed up. Looking forward to the first official session.

Next up... Welcome to Phandalin.