One of many frameworks for discussing content and safety is the CATS Method. This framework presents four elements to discuss with your players to decide what the group wants from the game:

• C oncept
• A im
• T one
• S ubject

Concept

Discuss the concept for the campaign—what’s the big-picture pitch? If this campaign was a book series, how would you hype it up to a friend you know would love it? Getting yourself and the group excited about a campaign’s concept is a great way to set a guiding star for your creative discussions throughout session zero and beyond.

For example, you might pitch one of the following concepts:

• Childhood friends reunite at the funeral of their village elder and uncover a secret that could destroy the world…or save it.
• A science-fantasy romp across the realms with a party of misfits who try to find their origins but end up finding a family in one another.
• In a world wracked by powerful disasters, a group of treasure hunters is hired to retrieve five lost elemental shards to restore the balance of nature.

You can also choose a campaign frame from chapter 5 or use those options as inspiration to create your own to share with the group. Alternatively, you can use the campaign frames as a guide to create a new frame together.

You might not know the campaign’s concept at the beginning, and that’s okay. Feel free to return to this conversation at the end of session zero or throughout the first couple sessions of play as necessary.

Aim

Aim is what you want from and for your campaign—your creative and social goals. Do you have a specific creative agenda? Or do you mostly want to spend a few hours with friends every week making things up together and blowing off steam?

For example, an aim might center on one of the following:

• We’re going to play a weekly campaign from level 1 to 10 with strong individual and group character arcs.
• Our aim is mostly to hang out and chat while killing monsters and getting new powers and cool items.
• We want to tell a story that explores the relationship between grief and community through an action-fantasy game in a world recovering from a near-apocalypse.

Other ways to explore your game’s aim might be to reference touchstones or character archetypes you want to play, drawing from books, films, comics, music, and other media. You might create a mood board to help define the aesthetic of your campaign or a soundtrack to form an aural soundscape for the vibe you want.

Tone

While playing Daggerheart, you and your group will build a world entirely your own. Even if you’re using an established setting, your version of that setting will become distinct through your collective creativity. An important element of defining your world and campaign is agreeing on tone—the emotional landscape and tendency of the campaign. Establishing your game’s tone helps align the players’ expectations and ensures everyone has a good time.

A quick way to pick a tone is to list the following options on a piece of paper or note card, then circle a few everyone is excited to focus on and cross out tones the players want to avoid.

Adventurous, Cozy, Dramatic, Funny, Goofy, Gritty, Intimate, Lighthearted, Political, Romantic, Scary, Whimsical

This leaves the group with the following list:

ADVENTUROUS, Cozy, DRAMATIC, Funny, GOOFY, GRITTY, Intimate, Lighthearted, Political, Romantic, Scary, WHIMSICAL

In other words, they’re interested in a game that will be especially Adventurous and Dramatic; sometimes Cozy, Funny, Intimate, Lighthearted, Political, Romantic, and Scary; but not Goofy, Gritty, or Whimsical.

Subject

Discuss subjects you and the players actively want in the game and topics you want to avoid. Subjects to avoid can be broad themes, such as bigotry and torture, or specific elements, such as spiders or a particular name that carries emotional weight for a player.

When discussing challenging subjects, it’s important to center the needs and desires of players from marginalized groups who are personally affected by the issues and subject matter that could come up in a given storyline. In heroic fantasy games, some players find it empowering to face oppressive forces as part of the evils of the world—allowing those evils to be directly fought and overcome—but that should be a choice actively made by the players who are impacted by that oppression outside the game. Many marginalized people play TTRPGs to escape the everyday frustrations and pains of bigotry they experience in their daily lives, and they shouldn’t be forced to struggle with them in a game. These choices should be made prioritizing the needs of those most impacted by the subject matter. For instance, if your group includes LGBTQ players, prioritize their preferences on whether to include or exclude homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of oppression against queer people.