A solo session zero is the short agreement you make with yourself before the game starts. It is not a contract, therapy protocol, or proof that the coming campaign will be serious. It is a practical setup pass: what tone are you choosing, what content is off the table, how hard can the fiction push tonight, what age rating fits the room, and what will help you stop or restart without guilt?
Name the Tone
Write one sentence for the session tone. Keep it plain: gentle travel, cozy shopkeeping, tense mystery with no gore, tactical dungeon with light peril, winter survival with hopeful recovery, or strange map exploration. The point is not literary quality. The point is to give future prompts a filter.
If a roll later produces something outside that tone, you have permission to reroll, soften, reinterpret, or ignore it. Randomness is a creative partner, not a judge.
Choose Content Lines
Make two small lists. The first is “not in this session.” The second is “okay if handled lightly.” Common solo boundaries include graphic injury, cruelty, sexual threat, addiction, self-harm, body horror, harm to children, intense confinement, and real-world hate. Your list can be shorter, longer, or completely different.
This is not fragility. It is design. The same player might enjoy peril in one week and want a calm village errand the next. Good solo play respects the actual night.
Set an Age Rating
Choose a rough rating before play: all-ages nearby, teen tone, mature but bounded, or private adult session. This is especially useful if children can walk into the room, a friend may read your notebook, or the game uses printed prompts that could surprise someone else at the table.
Age rating also helps with images, recaps, and public posts. If you share anything, share original impressions and spoiler-light notes rather than copied text, paid tables, or creator art.
Add Access and Restart Rules
Name one access support before play: larger reference sheet, better light, reduced writing, voice notes, component trays, fewer tokens, scheduled break, or a shorter scenario. Then write the restart rule: “If I stop, next session begins with…” followed by one physical move.
Solo session zero is successful when it makes the first scene easier to begin and safer to leave. The boundary list can change. The campaign can change. You are allowed to keep the table kind.
