My group played our third session of D&D last weekend and I think it was our best session yet. The party had finished up at the Dragon burial site and after refreshing themselves in town they headed to the old keep.

The reason this was the best session yet was because of a number small factors and one larger factor. The smaller ones are that the party had some fun encounters in the keep and that we have got a play flow going as everyone knows most of the basic rules now.

The large factor was due to using the “DM Tracker” iPhone app. The app allows a dungeon master to track initiative, hp, effects, party members and monsters in an encounter.

You start by adding in character stats such as hp, movement, initiative, perception, insight and defenses.  From there you can “clone” a character which is great for making multiple monsters quickly. After you have created your characters and monsters you can add them into groups for each encounter.

There’s a inbuilt dice so you can roll initiative (It also adds their ini modifier on automatically!) for each character and after you save they will move to their order in the initiative list. I roll all monster initiative before our session and add in the players rolls once we start the encounter. It takes a fraction of the time doing it this way rather than doing it all on paper. In combat you can set status on characters, set damage and healing surges.

So basically this app does all the messy combat stuff quickly and easily. I don’t have to spend time writing onto sheets of paper or looking around for someones basic stats. Which allows me to devote more brain power to other things such as monster tactics etc.

DM Tracker is like having your own little dm assistant for every game, allowing you to focus on more important things like story, monster tactics and seeing if your pc’s are having fun or not.

Though the app does a lot already, I do however have a wishlist for features I’d like to see in future updates.

• The ability to make groups on the character screen in order to sort monsters and characters etc.
• A feature to automatically track on-going damage and what kind of damage it is.
• To be able to add icons or pictures into character/monster profiles to find a certain character easier and because it would look cool!
• To be able to do heals on character as you can only use healing surges at the moment.
• Customizable backgrounds, such importing pictures from your camera roll  (The blue wood is cool but I’d like some variety at least).

You can read more about the DM Tracker here at the Kbar apps website.

After our second session I’m pretty sure that I’ll only want to play as a DM (Dungeon Master) from here on in. The job (an awesomely fun one) is very creative and really open in what you can do.

D&D is a game of imagination so anything can happen really. I’m currently enjoying mulling over ideas for the campaign ahead. Once my group finishes the published adventure (Keep on the Shadowfell) we will move onto stuff purely written by myself. I really can’t wait for this as thinking up battle encounters and story arcs is really fun.

Creating a campaign is a lot of work so it’s a good thing I’m enjoying it. Here’s some of the things you have to create when you plan a campaign:

• A story arch that allows for player interaction and decisions
• Non-Player Character. Basically anyone the party comes across in their journeys
• Quests that involve the characters back story as a group and individually
• The main villian and their motivations
• Battle encounters.

That’s just some of the things to think about. If you’re not using a campaign setting like me then you would also have to design a whole world, which can be as detailed as you want it to be. The detail would depend on your group though, not all groups like to sit around hearing about lore etc.

As for groups, I think my group is getting a hang of the rules now which is great. We breeze though combat and they seem to be doing things like thinking about when to use their skills without me dropping any hints.

I’ve really found the 4th Edition D&D books to be quiet clear and easily accessible to a newbie DM like myself. I’ve gone a bit nuts in buying the books and now I currently have:

• Dungeon Master’s Guide
• Monster Manual
• Player’s Handbook
• Dungeon Master’s Guide II
• Monster Manual II
• Player’s Handbook II
• Adventure’s Vault
• Adventure’s Vault II
• Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting
• Forgotten Realms Player’s Handbook

I probably don’t need all of those books but I like having options as I feel the more options you have the more real the world will seem.

I’ve also found some great online resources for D&D such as Obsidian Portal which is a online site to help you chronicle & organise your D&D campaign. My campaign can be found here.

There’s also a bunch of great blogs out there for players and DM’s alike.  Covering every aspect of playing D&D:

• http://www.d20source.com
• http://www.critical-hits.com
• http://newbiedm.com
• http://slyflourish.com

Are the ones I keep up to date with and are only a handful of  helpful D&D related blogs out there.

I’ve also created a bunch of stuff for my campaign such as Quest Cards and Monster tokens which I’ll put up on here later on.

I recently got back into D&D. I ran a demo game off the D&D starter set and it went really well. My group liked it so much that we all went quarters in buying the core books and Forgotten Realms campaign books.

We have decided to use a published adventure first (Keep on the Shadowfell) which will tie into our campaign.

I’ve been writing up some notes here and there about how the campaign will progress, the characters and the awesome story arc I have planned.

I really want to have some “holy crap!” moments when major plot points are revealed and memorable moments that the group will look back on and go “remember when…blah blah blah happened?

Another thing I want to add in is some comedy, not a huge amount but enough to get a chuckle which will help things become more memorable.

I’ve only ever played D&D as a DM (Dungeon Master) but that really don’t bother me as I enjoy the creative freedom of the role. As I get to design and run my own campaign, with input from my group as well of course.

I’m really enjoying reading the Forgotten Realms campaign setting book and thinking of what lore I can add into my campaign.

I also seem to be grasping the rules a lot better this time around. I don’t know weather it’s because I’m older or the fact the rules have been streamlined.

I like the fact that combat takes place on a squared grid now and the use of miniatures. It really helps in combat to have a visual aid. I think it’s a lot more accurate this way and takes out the guess work.

A groups who play and love older versions such as 3.5 seem to hate 4.0 as they feel it basically makes D&D like World of Warcraft. To which my response is “cry more”.

4.0 is a lot of fun and especially good in this day and age where people don’t have hours on end for a single combat encounter. I think a lot of people are just so devoted to the older versions that they fear the new version because its so different.

I think 3.5 players should really just stop whining about 4.0 as theres no real reason they can’t play 3.5 for years to come.

I could see myself playing 4.0 even after 5.0 comes out in 2012. If I don’t like how the game has evolved I simply won’t change over, it’s that simple. I’m not going to kick a storm up over it, I’ll just hold tight onto 4.0 as it’s such an enjoyable game.