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4e Game Session Checklist

by Mike on 8 October 2012

Note: This article updates the original dated 13 April 2009.

In Sly Flourish's Dungeon Master Tips I describe a checklist for preparing your 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons games. Today we're going to take a new look at this checklist in the hopes of simplifying our preparation and giving us the tools and materials we need to run our game. A good checklist, even for an advanced practitioner in any particular discipline, doesn't just help out — it can save lives.

We're going to split this list into two sections: stuff you should always have on hand and available and stuff you'll want to prepare each day. You might stick these materials in your campaign folio or your Twyla Tharp campaign box.

Let's begin with the stuff you may want on hand all the time.

Reusable materials

Keep the following items on hand and available for each of your games. Once they're in your campaign folio, you don't ever have to worry about keeping them around.

The DM Cheat Sheet
A Gamemastery flip mat and some wet-erase pens.
A print-out of random names
Some mazes to simulate lock-picking.
Some Mastermind puzzles to simulate arcane traps and puzzles.
A random treasure sheet.
A small white board and dry-erase markers.
A bunch of blank 3x5 cards.
A set of 3x5 initiative cards.
Monster books including the Monster Vault, the Monster Vault 2: Threats to the Nentir Vale, the Monster Manual 3, or the Dark Sun Creature Catalog. Using these books directly and reskinning any custom monsters you need can save you a lot of fiddling and printing from the monster builder.
A copy of the Dungeon Master's Kit for traps, hazards, environmental effects, and random treasure generation.

Specific adventure materials

Here's a list of items you will want to have on hand for each game you run.

A 3x5 card summarizing the session and outlining the locations your group may visit.
A 3x5 card outlining three notable NPCs your party may interact with.
A 3x5 card for each PC outlining their goals, character hooks, and the desires of the player.
The encounter maps your game is likely to need.
The miniatures you might need for your encounters.
Any handouts you might need for the adventure.

And that's it! Going over this checklist each game will help you keep all the materials you need on hand and save you time each week while preparing your game.

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This work includes material taken from SlyFlourish.com by Michael E. Shea available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license.

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