GM Session 0 Guide: What to Learn Before Session 1

This is your working document, not the players’. They read session0.qmd. You run this.

Session 0 has one job: collect the information that makes Sessions 1-5 personal. Everything below maps to a specific mechanical moment in the campaign. If you skip a question, you will improvise that moment blind. The questions are short. The payoff is not.

What You Need to Walk Away With

Before the first session, you need six things per player:

What	Why you need it	When it pays off
Fatum (one-sentence fate)	S5 epilogue: did they fulfill it?	Session 5
Sacrifice seed (what they value most)	S3 grove ritual: sacrifice must be real	Session 3
Corruption profile (what corruption looks like for them)	Personalize each corruption stage	Sessions 1-5
The line (what they will not do)	Pressure cooker: where they break	Sessions 2-4
Divine relationship (which god, what terms)	Divine standing mechanic	Sessions 1-5
Germanic read (how they see non-Romans)	Vercingetorix alliance potential	Session 2-3

Write these down. Keep the sheet at your side for every session.

Before Session 0 Starts

Tell the players this, plainly, before any questions:

“I’m going to ask you some questions. Some are for you to answer aloud; those help the group understand each other’s characters. Some I’ll ask you to write down privately and hand to me. Everything you tell me will come up in play – not as a gotcha, but as a moment the campaign was built to give you. The more honest your answers, the better those moments will be.”

Then explain the corruption mechanic’s table-level consent questions (see the Consent section below) before anything else.

The Assembled Unit: What to Establish Before Questions Begin

The party is not a contubernium. They were summoned individually, for different stated reasons, and they do not know each other unless the players decide they do. This distinction matters for how you frame the opening of Session 0.

Before any character questions, explain the unit structure plainly:

“Your characters were each summoned to Vindolanda by Legate Corvinus personally. Each of you received a different letter with a different stated reason. You were told to report to the anteroom outside his office. When you arrive, you find the others waiting. Some of you may know each other from the fort or from previous service. Some of you are strangers. You will find out why you are there together when Corvinus comes out. That is the cold open of Session 1.”

Then explain the role system:

“Each of you holds a formal military position called a role. The full list is in the Unit Roles chapter. Look at it now, check the prerequisites against your character’s planned stats and skills, and choose one. No two of you can hold the same role. Some roles give you access to information and places that matter in this campaign. Some roles come with complications. Choose what fits your character.”

Role Assignment Notes

As players choose roles, note them on a tracking sheet. This is your master record for the campaign.

For each role, note: - Which player holds it (or “NPC: [name]” if no player took it) - Whether prerequisites are met (flag any edge cases to resolve after Session 0) - The starting mechanic (write it on a card for the player to keep)

Special cases to handle immediately:

The Aquilifer role: Tell the players that Gaius Metellus held this position and is dead. The role is vacant. A player can take it, which means their character inherits the ongoing investigation of Metellus’s death. A player who does not take it means the eagle sits in the principia under double guard with no assigned bearer, which is mechanically and ritually significant.

The Flamen Martialis role: Tell players it is not yet available. Do not explain why unless asked directly; if asked, say Corvinus has not announced a vacancy yet. The reason becomes available in Session 2.

The Frumentarius role: If a player takes this role, speak to them privately after the group session ends. Give them the private frumentarius information from the roles.qmd DM block. This is their actual mission. The rest of the table knows their character handles supply.

The Cover Stories

Each character was given a different stated reason for the summons. Before Session 1, assign one to each character based on their role. These are not the real reason; Corvinus explains the real reason in the cold open.

Suggested cover stories by role: - Optio: “Review of unit discipline reports; your evaluation was noted.” - Tesserarius: “Watch schedule audit; the legate wants it examined.” - Aquilifer: “The eagle has been temporarily unassigned; your record suggests you for temporary custody.” - Signifer: “A discrepancy in the financial return; your presence is required to clarify it.” (Note: ironic, given Publius Afer’s actual situation.) - Cornicen: “Signals drill evaluation; the legate wants the unit’s signals capacity assessed.” - Medicus: “A worker has been injured at the construction site; your assessment is required.” - Haruspex: “Unusual augury results from the site; Paterculus requested a second opinion.” - Faber: “A structural issue in the northeast barracks requires your assessment.” - Librarius: “The site documentation has not been filed correctly; you are to review and correct it.” - Explorator: “There is a tracking assignment beyond the north gate; you were requested specifically.” - Frumentarius: “Supply manifest review for the northeast barracks construction; your presence is procedural.” - Sacerdos: “The site may have religious significance; the legate wants a preliminary assessment.” - Flamen Martialis: N/A (role is vacant). - Capsarius: “Medical kit restock at the construction site; routine assignment.” - Custos Armorum: “Equipment requisition for the construction team; verification required.”

Write each character’s cover story on a small card and give it to the player during the session. They do not compare notes with each other at this stage.

Part 2: Questions to Ask Aloud (Table-Wide)

Ask these with everyone present. The answers help players build relationships and give you visible hooks.

Who Were You?

“What did you do before the oath? Not the city – the texture of it.”

Listen for: what they left behind. A farmer who enlisted voluntarily is different from a city man whose debts caught up with him. The backstory tells you what they are trying to get back to or get away from.

DM note: Province of origin affects how Germanic culture reads to them. Someone from Pannonia (Danube-born) treats the frontier as normal. Someone from Syria encounters it as alien.

“What do you regret? Not the worst thing you’ve done – the one you return to at 3am. Small and unresolved.”

Listen for: the thing that was never catastrophic but never resolved. The regret is usually a relationship or a decision point, not a crime. “I never went back” or “I said the wrong thing and didn’t fix it.” These small unresolved things are where the spear finds its purchase in stages 2-3: it offers the character a version of that moment going differently, usually at a cost they shouldn’t pay.

DM note: The smaller and more specific the regret, the more useful it is. A large dramatic regret (I killed someone) is already processed. A small persistent one (I didn’t say goodbye before I left home) is still open.

“What does your character love that they don’t talk about? Not a weapon or a skill – something that would surprise the century.”

Listen for: the private dimension. A soldier who secretly writes letters to a sister, or keeps a pressed flower from his hometown, or names his helmet – these details become the emotional core of corruption scenes. What does the spear whisper about? What the character loves.

DM note: This feeds the spear’s whisper mechanic. The spear offers what characters actually want, not what they claim to want.

“What would you refuse to do, even under orders? You don’t have to justify it.”

Listen for: the line. Every pressure cooker scene in this campaign exists to approach someone’s line. You need to know where each line is before Session 2.

DM note: Common lines to note: won’t harm civilians, won’t betray a named ally, won’t desecrate a sacred site, won’t follow an order that kills the innocent. These become the decision points in Sessions 3 and 4.

“What does your character think will happen to them? Not what they hope – what they expect.”

Listen for: the Fatum seed. Most players have an instinct for their character’s arc before they articulate it. “I expect to die for something” is a Fatum. “I expect to be betrayed by Rome” is a Fatum. “I expect to prove myself and go home” is a Fatum that the campaign will test specifically.

DM note: After the table discussion, you will formalize this into a written Fatum (see Part 4).

The Gods

“Which god does your character actually pray to? Not officially – personally, when no one is watching.”

Listen for: the private faith. A soldier who officially honors Jupiter Optimus Maximus but privately lights a candle to Fortuna before every patrol is a more interesting character than one whose stated religion and private religion match.

DM note: This determines divine standing at campaign start and which god’s attention is narratively appropriate for each character. A character devoted to Mithras reads Mars’ corruption differently than one devoted to Jupiter. A character who prays to no one reads it differently still.

“Has your character seen something they believe was divine? Not an omen – something they cannot explain any other way.”

Listen for: prior divine contact. This tells you how they will respond when Mars is undeniably present in Session 5. A character who has never experienced the divine will be more destabilized; a character with prior contact may recognize what is happening and respond differently.

“Is there a god your character actively avoids? Why?”

Listen for: divine wounds. A character who avoids Mars because a brother died in his service will have a completely different relationship with the spear than one who avoids Pluto because of grief. These become the emotional register of the corruption scenes.

The Frontier

“How do you see the people on the other side of the line? Not politically – personally.”

Listen for: the spectrum from contempt to curiosity to respect. This directly determines how the Vercingetorix encounter in Session 2 lands. A character who genuinely thinks Germanic people are human beings will be able to form the alliance. A character who cannot see them as equals will face a harder path to the Session 3 ritual.

DM note: You are not judging the answer. You are calibrating. Both positions are valid characters; the campaign has moments for both.

“What is your character trying to get out of this posting? What happens if they get it?”

Listen for: the driving want. “Promotion” is thin; “promotion so my family has access to citizen rights” is substantial. The want defines what corruption offers them. The spear will find it.

The Three Questions

These are the same questions printed at the end of session0.qmd. Ask them aloud at the table after the character-building discussion. Collect the answers on index cards (see Part 4: Fatum Card).

“What does your character want to prove on this campaign?”

Listen for: the specific gap between who they are and who they need to become. “Survive” is not an answer. “Prove I am not what my father said I was” is an answer. The more specific the want, the more clearly it maps to a Fatum.

DM note: This feeds the Fatum card directly. The want-to-prove is the test the campaign applies in Sessions 4-5.

“What are they afraid will happen? Not a monster or a battle: something about themselves, or the people they care about, or who this campaign might turn them into.”

Listen for: the specific fear. Fear of becoming someone unrecognizable is different from fear of dying before they have done the thing that matters. Both are valid. The fear tells you which corruption stage will hit hardest.

DM note: Stage 3 corruption manifests in the character doing exactly what they feared. Know this fear before Session 2.

“What will they protect, no matter what? The thing they will not sacrifice even when the campaign offers a reason to.”

Listen for: the non-negotiable. This is the line, but stated positively: not what they will refuse to do, but what they will refuse to lose. It is the thing that defines their ending in Session 5: did they keep it, or did the campaign take it from them?

DM note: This maps to the Session 3 grove sacrifice. If a player names the same thing as their sacrifice seed, that character’s Session 3 moment will be the campaign’s emotional peak. Note it.

“What does honor mean to your character? Has life already tested that definition?”

Listen for: the gap between stated values and lived experience. A character who says “honor means keeping your word” and then admits they once broke a promise under pressure has already been tested. That gap is the corruption mechanic’s entry point.

DM note: Characters with a tested, imperfect honor definition are more vulnerable to stages 2-3 corruption. They have already learned that lines can move.

Part 3: Questions to Ask Privately

These are one-on-one, written note, or quiet aside. Other players do not need to hear these.

“If the campaign offered your character a chance to have the thing they want most – the real answer from the table question, not the official one – and the price was doing something they would normally consider wrong, what would the price have to be before they said no?”

This is the sacrifice question in its truest form. The answer maps directly to Stage 2-4 corruption behavior and to the S3 grove sacrifice. You are looking for the threshold: what costs nothing, what costs something, what is impossible.

Record: what they want, where they would bend, and what they would not give up.

“Is there a member of the party your character trusts completely? And one they are not sure about?”

This is the influenced NPC selection question, asked in advance. The character they trust most is the worst choice for the influenced NPC role (the corruption will be most devastating and most disruptive). The character they are uncertain about is the best choice (their suspicion will feel natural rather than jarring when the corruption surfaces).

Record: trust map per player. Use this to select the influenced NPC for Session 3. Do not tell anyone.

“When you made your character, was there a version of them that ends badly? What does that look like?”

You want to know if the player has a dark arc in mind, and whether they want to go there. A player who says “I could see this character becoming fully corrupted and ending as a servant of Mars” is giving you permission and enthusiasm. A player who says “I haven’t thought about it” needs the possibility explained before it happens. A player who says “no, my character definitely survives” is telling you where not to push.

Record: arc appetite per player. Some players want tragedy. Some want earned survival. The campaign can serve both; you need to know which.

“What would make your character leave the party – walk away from the mission, maybe from Rome itself?”

This is the breaking point question. Every session pushes toward it. Knowing the answer means you can see it coming when a player is approaching it, and either give them a moment of genuine choice or pull the pressure back slightly.

For the shadow-cursed character only. Ask this one-on-one, at the end of the session after everyone else has finished.

“When did you first realize the shadow was not only yours? And what were you doing when you realized it?”

You are looking for two things: the specific memory (it will appear in play, in the vault in Session 1 and the grove moment in Session 4), and the emotional context (were they frightened? Curious? Relieved that something they suspected had a name?). Whatever image they give you: write it down and use it when the shadow reaches toward the tree line in Session 4. The image is the connection.

“What is the last thing that made you feel fully present? Not alive in the biological sense: present. Like you were actually here.”

This is the fading mechanic’s emotional root. The answer tells you what kind of sensation most effectively resets their presence. A character who last felt present during grief resets through grief; one who last felt present during violence resets through violence. Note the answer privately and calibrate reset triggers accordingly. When a reset moment arrives, make it fit their answer, not a generic “something intense happened.”

Record: the specific memory image, and the sensation category.

Part 4: The Mechanical Collection

At the end of Session 0, collect these in writing. Index cards work. Keep them.

Fatum Card

Each player writes one sentence on a card and gives it to you.

The sentence answers: “What is this character’s fate?”

Rules for the sentence: - First person, present tense: “I will –” - Specific enough to be testable: “I will die for something I believe in” passes; “I will be a hero” does not - Player-authored, not DM-assigned

Examples from this campaign’s themes: - “I will discover whether Rome deserves the loyalty I have given it.” - “I will protect someone who cannot protect themselves, whatever it costs me.” - “I will find out if there is a god that actually sees what happens to soldiers on the edge.” - “I will do something I cannot take back and learn whether I can live with it.” - “I will come home. Whatever I have to become to do it.”

How to use it: Between Sessions 3 and 4, review every Fatum. Each one should have a moment already designed into Sessions 4-5 where it is directly tested. If you cannot find the moment, build one. At the Session 5 epilogue, read each Fatum aloud and let the table decide: fulfilled, fulfilled in an unexpected way, betrayed, or untested.

Sacrifice Seed Card

Each player writes one item: the thing their character would give up last.

Not a magic item. Not a game stat. Something with personal weight: a memory, a relationship, a belief, a part of themselves.

Examples: - “The memory of my daughter’s face” - “My certainty that I am not the kind of person who does terrible things” - “My belief that the gods are just” - “The farm I intend to retire to – the specific plan, the specific image” - “My sense of humor – the part of me that makes this bearable”

How to use it: In Session 3, when the grove demands a sacrifice, you know what each character would find genuinely costly. Thusnelda says “the grove knows” because you know. If a player offers something that is not on their card, Thusnelda says “that is not a sacrifice.” If they offer what is on the card, the altar warms.

Do not show them the card again until the moment arrives.

Part 5: Red Flags and How to Handle Them

Things to watch for during Session 0 that require a quiet conversation before Session 1.

The player who answers every question with “I don’t know yet.” Some players develop characters through play rather than planning. This is legitimate. Ask them the three questions at the very end and accept one-sentence answers. The sacrifice seed is the one you cannot skip: get something, even if it is provisional.

The player who designs a character specifically to resist corruption. This is fine mechanically (high Wisdom, specific backgrounds) but signals a player who may not want the corruption experience. Check in privately: do they want to be the party’s corruption anchor (interesting), or do they want to avoid the mechanic entirely (also acceptable, but affects Session 3 influenced NPC selection)?

The player whose line and the campaign’s pressure point are the same thing. If a player says “I would never harm a civilian” and you have a scene in Session 4 where that is precisely what the Legate orders, you have designed a genuine crisis for them. Good. But confirm: “This campaign will put your character in that position. Are you ready to play through it, or do you want me to route that moment differently for your character?”

The player who wants to play a Germanic character. Fully supported (see Dwarf or Half-Orc in peoples.qmd). Adjust their Germanic relationship questions: instead of “how do you see the people on the other side of the line,” ask “how do you navigate belonging to both sides?” Their Vercingetorix relationship starts at a different place and the Session 3 grove is more personally charged.

The player who gives the same answer to “what would you die for” and “what would you refuse to do.” This person has found the core of their character. The campaign will test it directly. Note it. Build toward it. Do not waste it on a minor scene.

Part 6: After Session 0, Before Session 1

Do this before the first session:

Review the Fatum cards. Each one should map to at least one moment in Sessions 4-5. Write the moment down next to the Fatum. If there is no moment, build one now.

Review the sacrifice seeds. Identify which character’s sacrifice will hit hardest in the grove scene. This player should be the last to offer in Session 3, so the emotional weight lands at the ritual’s climax.

Select the influenced NPC. Using the trust map from Part 3, choose which player will receive the private note at the start of Session 3. Pick someone whose corruption will be recognizable in hindsight, not immediately obvious. Review the three roleplay cues in chapter3.qmd DM Notes: confirm the player can execute them naturalistically before the session.

Check the divine standing setup. Every character should start with a named divine standing: favored, neutral, or watched. Default is neutral for all gods. If a character made a vow during Session 0, they start favored by that god and watched by Mars (Mars watches everyone who comes near the spear). Update the tracking sheet in appendix.qmd.

Write one personalized opening moment per character for Session 1. Not a long scene: one image. The player who loves something private sees a reminder of it in the principia. The player who distrusts Germanic people is assigned to work alongside an auxiliary soldier. The player who prays privately to Fortuna finds a coin with her face down. Small. Noticed. Yours to give.

Reference: Questions at a Glance

Print this page and bring it to Session 0.

Aloud: 1. What did you do before the oath? What was the texture of it? 2. What do you regret? (Not the worst thing: the one they return to at 3am. Small and unresolved.) 3. What do you love that you don’t talk about? 4. What would you refuse to do, even under orders? 5. What do you think will happen to you? 6. Which god do you actually pray to? 7. Have you seen something you believe was divine? 8. Is there a god you avoid? Why? 9. How do you see the people on the other side of the line? 10. What are you trying to get out of this posting? 11. What does your character want to prove on this campaign? 12. What are they afraid will happen (not a monster: something about themselves)? 13. What will they protect, no matter what? 14. What does honor mean to them? Has life already tested that definition?

Privately: 1. If you could have what you want most, what price would you not pay? 2. Who in the party do you trust completely? Who are you unsure about? 3. Is there a version of this character that ends badly? Do you want to go there? 4. What would make you walk away from the mission?

Written, collected: 1. Fatum card: “I will –” (one sentence) 2. Sacrifice seed: the thing they would give up last 3. Corruption profile: three notes per player (what it looks like, how they’d justify it, who they’d hurt last)