My Session Zero is coming up this Sunday. I've put together a checklist of things I want to accomplish. Let me know if I'm missing anything.

1. What type of group? Legal/criminal? Smuggler, thieves, bounty hungers, explorers, treasure hunters, etc.
   
2. Ship as a base or planetary base? What type of ship? What do they want in a ship?
   
3. Adventure settings: urban, settlement, wilderness, etc. Not exclusive, but where do they want to adventure
   
4. Typical travel: on foot around a city sector, a settlement, or in the wilderness, vehicles between sectors, settlements, long distance through the wilderness, ship straight to location with little on-foot time
   
5. Planets or Stations to visit/adventure (4+) Small number to start, hopefully within 2-3 days hyperspace travel.
   
6. Roll/choose/adjust Obligations
   
7. Locations (name, planet, obligation tie-in) (5+) Tied into chosen planets.
   
8. Face NPCs (name, planet, obligation tie-in) (5+) These should be NPCs that the PCs interact with every session (not all of them, but at least one or two)
   
9. Other NPCs (name, planet, obligation tie-in) (5+) Flavor NPCs found in the locations defined above.

that is a long list my friend.

For a first Campaign i would suggest just using a ship, as it allows more flexibility for you as a GM. if you decide to do it all in one system or on one planet their docked ship can act as their living quarters....like a mobile home. I would also advise a one session test game where you hit a little of each skill. probe the weaknesses of the party and figure out what they can handle before you do a whole lot of work that may need to be redone or scratched after either a tpw or they prance through unscathed. this can be the last of the session zero day, and can let you introduce a face NPC or two that you will use in any case or decision from the rest.

other than that, sounds great and Have fun!

Have you set up your play schedule and contingencies for when someone(s) can't make it? Having an accepted threshold and procedure might save you all some headaches down the road.

Have you set up your play schedule and contingencies for when someone(s) can't make it? Having an accepted threshold and procedure might save you all some headaches down the road.

This campaign is a little odd in that respect. Our group is already running two alternating campaigns that switch off every 3-4 weeks (Deathwatch and D&D 5, different GMs). My Star Wars campaign is going to be very episodic and run in the weeks when we don't have people for the other games, or there's a break, or whatever. So, in a sense, the Star Wars campaign is the solution to when the other campaigns have attendance issues.

The episodic plan is to have sessions/adventures ready, planned out, that don't key off any one PC. Each adventure should be short, finished in a single session or, on occasion, a two-session "episode." I'll be using the principle of starting in the middle of the action heavily.

Unlike all my previous campaigns in various game systems, this one doesn't have an over-arching story behind it. I'm going to drive it entirely on character development. This is why I'm really wanting to get Session Zero right . If all the PCs are more or less working together, then catering to their character development should be easier. Trying to run character development when PCs are all over the map on the direction they want to go is... difficult.

Some of my most memorable campaigns started as a key player or other GM missing, so we roll up something new while they're gone. Eventually the other game ends and they tend to join the one in progress, or the person falls away completely and it becomes a main campaign.

My only thing with making such an endeavor character-driven is that if you have several weeks between each session, they might forget who their characters are . Just something to keep an eye on.

My only thing with making such an endeavor character-driven is that if you have several weeks between each session, they might forget who their characters are . Just something to keep an eye on.

That right there is my biggest fear. I know from being a player in the other two campaigns that it seems to take half the first session to switch mentalities. Part of that is just remembering where we left off in the story. With an episodic feel, I'm hoping that the transition to their Star Wars characters won't be too jarring and they'll be able to remember their motivations and goals.

You can try the Avatar trick - have someone like an announcer give an exciting-sounding summary at the start of the game. It doesn't even have to be you; if any of your players are a little on the silly side, give it to them as a personal challenge to see how fast they can say it and still be intelligible.

Alternately, you can lift from the Dresden (and, i think by extension, entirety of FATE) system, and have each character pick a high concept phrase that defines them; a drawback phrase that is their recurring trouble; and a few phrases that sum up their characters' backstories and personality. That way, glancing at the sheet they have a handful of touchstones to help them keep the characters at least mostly consistent.

I like that Dresden/FATE idea. That would be very helpful. I'm going to add that to the list, as at the end of this Session Zero we should have characters at least partially created, if not 100% fleshed out.

each player should come up with an ally and antagonist. Try to work it with their obligation if possible. It makes it so much more interesting when they know they got the spotlight

I did have everyone create a "face" character tied to one of the locations they came up with. They're pretty evenly split between allies (or friendly neutrals) and antagonists. I may have erred in letting everyone spend up their Obligations though. I think we're looking at a group total over 80...