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Archpaladin Zousha
2009-06-11, 09:33 PM
I first asked this question in Djinn and Tonic's recently closed thread, which I did not realize wasn't meant to be taken seriously.

I DMed my first game of 4th Edition D&D last night, and while I survived it, it really didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped. We spent most of the time making everyone's characters, we had to share my dice since I didn't have enough for everyone to have a set of their own, we had to keep passing around the books to make sure everyone knew what they were doing, I didn't keep track of the hitpoint totals of the enemies so I just arbitrarily decided when they died, I didn't have a good map mat so I just drew a crappy representation on graph paper and used coins instead of minis, and I didn't have enough to represent everything on the map, we only had time to get through one fight, I don't think everyone's sheets are completely filled out and someone spilled water on the lemon drops, making a mess over by the snacks.

But everyone's telling me they had a good time. I don't know whether to believe them or whether they're just saying that to cushion my rickety ego.

I don't have a lot of experience DMing, even with a pre-made adventure like I was using. Should I keep this up? Am I cut out for DMing?

Gralamin
2009-06-11, 09:38 PM
I first asked this question in Djinn and Tonic's recently closed thread, which I did not realize wasn't meant to be taken seriously.

I DMed my first game of 4th Edition D&D last night, and while I survived it, it really didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped. We spent most of the time making everyone's characters, we had to share my dice since I didn't have enough for everyone to have a set of their own, we had to keep passing around the books to make sure everyone knew what they were doing, I didn't keep track of the hitpoint totals of the enemies so I just arbitrarily decided when they died, I didn't have a good map mat so I just drew a crappy representation on graph paper and used coins instead of minis, and I didn't have enough to represent everything on the map, we only had time to get through one fight, I don't think everyone's sheets are completely filled out and someone spilled water on the lemon drops, making a mess over by the snacks.

But everyone's telling me they had a good time. I don't know whether to believe them or whether they're just saying that to cushion my rickety ego.

I don't have a lot of experience DMing, even with a pre-made adventure like I was using. Should I keep this up? Am I cut out for DMing?

Its a fine start. You just need to get the flow of the sessions right. Maybe spend some time thinking about mapping, how many tokens you'll need, how you'll represent the terrain, and things like that. Don't stress out, you haven't done anything wrong as a DM yet.

GoodbyeSoberDay
2009-06-11, 09:42 PM
The modules can be quite terrible. It might be difficult, but making your own adventures might work better.

Archpaladin Zousha
2009-06-11, 09:58 PM
The modules can be quite terrible. It might be difficult, but making your own adventures might work better.

You sound just like my brother. I've always been nervous about making balanced encounters. I keep worrying about whether its too easy or too hard, and I have no idea how to distribute treasure fairly in an adventure.

shadzar
2009-06-11, 10:03 PM
1- 4th edition while tooted as DM friendly, is not so for beginning DMs.
2- The published adventures for 4th are extremely poor quality design even for accomplished DMs to run.

Having those things said.... Understand the focus of the printed adventure is 90% on combat situations. As a new D&D DM you may want to start small or under anothers wing if available to get some help with what is going on. I would suggest taking your party and considering they are too weak for published adventures and go ahead and use the rules in the DMG/MM to tone them down to make them easier.

This may not seem that fun while players have a bit of easy time getting through the adventure, but it would help you learn what is going on and keeping up with it all.

The main thing about being a DM is that you are there to make sure everyone has fun. Yourself included. :smallwink:

So if the players are having fun even after a TPK, then you have done your job right.

Don't be afriad to ask the players questions either about parts you didn't think went right the way you ran them.

Say Room X you ran one way but didn't think it was going to good, ask the players how they felt the game was when they were in Room X, and learn from them to know what they liked and didn't. Maybe it was something you misunderstood from a poorly written adventure description, maybe it was something you felt was right but thought they didn't like, maybe it was something you didn't like but they did.

Take all this into account as you grow as a DM, and over time these things will become second nature and you will ahve to ask the players less often what they want, and you will be able to read even new players quicker and be able to offer everyone at the table a fun game.

Its a bit of work more than sticking a quarter in the slot for the pack of gum, but in the end everyone gets to share in the chewy goodness.

(Don't ask why D&D is chewy or anything like that, I just got a craving for some gum while typing this. :smallconfused:)

Thrawn183
2009-06-11, 10:03 PM
If you're worried about the difficulty of encounters, I recommend the use of minions. It's really easy to drop 2 out of the 6 minions that were supposed to be part of an encounter if you find that the party blew all their dailies early or something.

Basically minions make it easy to change the difficulty of an encounter on the fly.

Gralamin
2009-06-11, 10:04 PM
You sound just like my brother. I've always been nervous about making balanced encounters. I keep worrying about whether its too easy or too hard, and I have no idea how to distribute treasure fairly in an adventure.

Treasure in 4e at least is easy. Just follow the guidelines and keep a list of who has what.

Balanced Encounters are a bit easier as well. Just follow your total and keep monsters from being more then Party level +/- 3. A boss might be level +4 or level +5, and thats fine, but otherwise stay away from that end.

All of this is covered pretty well in the 4e DMG, which is a lot better then the 3.5 one.

Mr. Mud
2009-06-11, 10:05 PM
I first asked this question in Djinn and Tonic's recently closed thread, which I did not realize wasn't meant to be taken seriously.

I DMed my first game of 4th Edition D&D last night, and while I survived it, it really didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped. We spent most of the time making everyone's characters, we had to share my dice since I didn't have enough for everyone to have a set of their own, we had to keep passing around the books to make sure everyone knew what they were doing, I didn't keep track of the hitpoint totals of the enemies so I just arbitrarily decided when they died, I didn't have a good map mat so I just drew a crappy representation on graph paper and used coins instead of minis, and I didn't have enough to represent everything on the map, we only had time to get through one fight, I don't think everyone's sheets are completely filled out and someone spilled water on the lemon drops, making a mess over by the snacks.

But everyone's telling me they had a good time. I don't know whether to believe them or whether they're just saying that to cushion my rickety ego.

I don't have a lot of experience DMing, even with a pre-made adventure like I was using. Should I keep this up? Am I cut out for DMing?

I shared this experience, of a first DM (and actaully first game of real D&D) just as recently as you... and that same exact story, minus the lemon heads, here!

I did initiative totally wrong, and we used a graph paper map I plotted, poorly at that, without figurines. We balled up little pieces of tin foil, and I had to do quite a bit of home brewing some rules right on the spot... I was running Kobold Hall, and that is pre-made... But they loved it. I thought they'd hate me for taking about 6 hours of character creation and $25 respectively, but I was pleasantly surprised... And hey, if not following the rules the first few times inadvertently gets your players addicted, then I think it's perfectly fine :smalltongue:.

Nightson
2009-06-11, 10:07 PM
It's pretty common for new DMs to think that everyone couldn't possibly be having a good time when everyone really is.

Just tell your players that because of your inexperience that you need their honest feedback to help yourself improve. If they still say they're having a great time, then chances are pretty good they are.

Olo Demonsbane
2009-06-11, 10:10 PM
Heres a bit of advice:

On DMing in general: Read the DMing guide stickied at the top of the forum. Its amazing.

On pre-made modules: Most of the suck. Of course, it all depends on how you play them. I DM'd the free adventure in Ebberon, but roleplayed all the NPCs pretty well, and the players really enjoyed themselves. I roleplayed this merchant guy like he was an evil scam-little-human-children jerk, and the good aligned Artificer killed him with an ingenious, though not RAW plan.

TL;DR: It mostly depends on you. If you make it interesting, it will be interesting.

I definitely reccommend your own adventures though.

On encounters that are the correct challenge rating: Start with easy encounters. Then work it up until the players are adequately challenged. I never use the CRs except for a guide as to the power relativities of monsters.

On treasure: Just wing it. The 4.0 treasure generator in the DMG is hopeless, so just occasionally throw in a magic item that one of the players would like. I prefer to give gold and stuff instead, because the players get to choose what they want.


Hope that was moderately helpful and coherant.

The New Bruceski
2009-06-11, 10:50 PM
On encounters that are the correct challenge rating: Start with easy encounters. Then work it up until the players are adequately challenged. I never use the CRs except for a guide as to the power relativities of monsters.

On treasure: Just wing it. The 4.0 treasure generator in the DMG is hopeless, so just occasionally throw in a magic item that one of the players would like. I prefer to give gold and stuff instead, because the players get to choose what they want.


Hope that was moderately helpful and coherant.

That's a good point for encounters. There are guidelines of what *should* be difficult for a party of level X, but every party will vary because they approach battles differently. Through practice you'll learn what they have difficulty with, and can design encounters appropriately. (NOTE: the DMG mentions mixing up CRs, do the same with situations your players find more or less difficult. A dungeon full of the hard obstacles gets old, even if the CRs vary how many of them you fight at a time. It can also come across as DM vindictiveness.)

For treasure this can be fun because who doesn't like hauling around large sacks of loot, just try to deal with it appropriately on the other end. Treasure parcels have items up to level Party+3, while it's generally recommended against players having market access to items above their level. You'll find out what works for your party, just something to note.

holywhippet
2009-06-11, 10:55 PM
The closest I've come to DMing was running two of the encounters from dungeon delve when we were lacking enough players for our regular campaign. The hardest thing I find is keeping track of "identical" creatures. For example, if I have 6 kobold minions I need to keep track of which one matches which initiative order.

NecroRebel
2009-06-11, 11:05 PM
Meh, if I can do alright DMing so can you :smallwink:

Really, though, unless your players are used to a fantastic DM, they'll probably enjoy your efforts. Even then, they might, though for different reasons.

As others have said, new DMs always tend to believe they're doing worse than they are. I know I for one can never tell if people are enjoying my games, and I'm often worried that my rulings are bad, my stories are too cliche, that my encounters are unbalanced, that my monster reflavorings don't work well, and a dozen other problems. Then again, as you know I'm DMing a couple of games play-by-post that have been going on for a couple months at a stretch, which by my experience is roughly triple normal, so I must be doing something right :smalltongue:

Building encounters in 4E isn't difficult, just by nature of the guidelines being decent. Treasure... Well, I'm not the best at giving out treasure myself (again, as you know), but there's at least guidelines, so just try things out, see what works and what doesn't, and build a style of your own. You can't do anything but improve, after all.

Rockphed
2009-06-11, 11:10 PM
The closest I've come to DMing was running two of the encounters from dungeon delve when we were lacking enough players for our regular campaign. The hardest thing I find is keeping track of "identical" creatures. For example, if I have 6 kobold minions I need to keep track of which one matches which initiative order.

Have them all run at once. I think the DMG suggest just putting all monster turns in a row, or rolling one initiative for each set of monsters. So have all the Goblin minions and grunts move at once and have the goblin hexer move separately. Minions are supposed to reduce bookkeeping, so reduce it already.

herrhauptmann
2009-06-11, 11:36 PM
But everyone's telling me they had a good time.


This right here is the most important part of running a game. Was the group laughing? Having fun? Was anybody shouting because they were angry?

Then you did well. Probably better than I would have, I tend to lose my temper fast when I get flustered.

And especially don't sweat the spilled snacks. That's like the host of a pool party apologizing because a rabid squirrel attacked then drowned in the pool. It was beyond your expectations because it was beyond your control, no one will blame you for it.

Archpaladin Zousha
2009-06-11, 11:39 PM
I'm pondering how to incorporate the characters into the campaign I'm playing (I'm running Scales of War). We have the following characters in the party:

Balthazar Saverel, eladrin wizard and magic scholar
Nolofinwe, elf druid and explorer/guide
Sir Gareth Talbrook, human paladin of Pelor and cloistered priest
Pippin Baggins, gnome bard and assassin
Lucien Darius, half-elf rogue and political rebel

I've asked them to write backgrounds for me, but I have no idea how to incorporate their goals and dreams into the overarching story of the adventure path (though that may be because the only adventure I've read in depth is the first one, which means I have several more adventures to read.)

Also, is there a way to have Dungeon articles readily available at the gaming table without needing a laptop? I printed out Rescue at Rivenroar and it turned out to be 42 pages long. If I keep printing these things it's going to cost a fortune, even when using a laser printer!

RTGoodman
2009-06-12, 12:07 AM
Hey, don't fret - my first time DMing went as bad or worse, I can tell you. And that was in 3.5, so we probably spent even MORE time making characters and stuff. It was good enough that people were interested, at least, so it wasn't a total failure.

I don't know about other people, but I don't think DMing is something that always comes naturally. Some people, like one of my really close gaming friends, are great at making stories and having ideas, but not so much on knowing the rules or being good at wrangling players/PCs. On the other hand, I can't really come up with my own stories, but I think, personally, I'm pretty good at the rest of the DMing. With practice, though, I think most people have what it takes to be at least a PASSABLE DM.



Meh, if I can do alright DMing so can you :smallwink:

And hey, you're the best 4E DM I've had, with that short-running campaign (can't remember the name of it) where I played that Tiefling Paladin/Starlock. :smallwink: (Of course, the only other 4E game I've PLAYED in rather than DMing fell apart during the first encounter.) Hate your game ended how it did... :smallfrown:

SadisticFishing
2009-06-12, 12:14 AM
Yep, good advice all around.

Eventually start keeping track of monster hit point totals, fighting will start to feel meaningless if you don't... but not yet :)

Also, Treasure in 4e is awesome. Get one notebook. Write the numbers 1.1 to 1.10 down it. Put a magic item in 1.1-1.4 and gold in the rest. Use the DMG for proper gold and magic item levels - just pick items that look cool, and try to distribute them so no one is forced to take two. (IE - don't give a bastard sword and plate in the same level if the paladin is the only one that uses either).

warrl
2009-06-12, 01:52 AM
Wizards has some good stuff available on their website.

Most of it is behind a subscription wall, but there's a demo of the Character Builder available for free (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/insider/characterbuilder) - a version behind, and maxes out at level 3. Also you have *some* access to the Compendium, I don't know just what the boundaries are there. The complete Compendium includes all races, classes, spells, feats, abilities, skills, monsters... that Wizards has published for 4E, including magazine articles.

The subscription, by the way, is something like $8 for one month or $65 for one year. It gets you the complete Compendium, the full Character Builder, an Encounter Builder, and a Monster Builder for configuring "special" creatures. Among other things.

Kol Korran
2009-06-12, 02:22 AM
first of all, i've been DMing for quite a long time, and i'm still learning, and still making mistakes. quite a few good advices have been given, but here are a few of my thoughts, i hope i do not reapeat anything:
1) try to figure out your players, or at least what makes things fun for them, and what they realy don't like. then, when making a campaign, adventure, or an encounter, try to find things that would appease all tastes. this doesn't have to happen all the time, but enough to keep people happy.

2) you are not solely responsible for the fun, the players need to contribute too.

3) try to share responsebilities to shorten the work load. for example- one player could keep tab on initiative and call it for you. one could keep track of daily's, encounter and action points (though realy each player should do it him/herself), one does a summation of each meeting, with unsolved mysteries, XP, and treasure., and so on..

4) different DMs work differently, and you should find your own style, but i find preperation always helps. when using a special rule, read about it before the meeting, prepare treasure according to the players and their tastes. (the DMG realy has a good guide- 4 magic items of various levels, and a set amount of treasure. i suggest a third of the tresure be consumable potions and material components for rituals. the rest gold and so on). maps are usefull, but more importently are how enemies and PCs act and react. sure, you can wing it, but in my experience it realy adds to the game when you come prepared. the players feel the difference, they feel the world more coherent and more flowing, and they themselves put up an extra effort.

plus- you're far less anxious about it.

5) a suggestion to help preperation: for each encounter (combat or otherwise), i suggest you write about half a page of paper with the main things you need to know to make thigns go smoothly: names, combat stats. skill stats. importent information the people know (in short hand) and so on. it realy, realy helps me.

6) rules adjuciation: don't spend time with books, dragon magazines and so on, unless it's vitale. the flow of the game (to my experience) is far more importent. make something up based on an ability score, skill, and so on. most of 4E rules are intuitive anyway. don't allow adding any new material or rules while playing, just between sessions. (especially added powers, feats, and so on).

7) adjuciating encounters: true, some are hard to adjuciate, especially when involving many elements, such as terrain, other natural effects (mist, cold, being on water and so on), traps, in combat skill challanges, surprise, and more. so you'll get some wrong, this happens, and so you learn. but there are a few things you can do:
- if it's too easy, then you can always add enemies arriving. or you can add a simple power to an enemy to keep things interesting. nothing grand necesserily just keep things interesting
- more simply- make the next encounters harder, now that you've learned what is too easy.
- if things are too hard, you have a few options: some monsters run away, some might have fewer hitpoints than planned, or you don't use some powers for some reason.

i strongly suggest to use added elements to the game, instead of just mosnters and their powers. (that turns into a tabletop computer game fast). give the monster context, plans, and more. use the aformentioned elements to make things interesting. i suggest one new element while the players are new, and complicate when needed. if you need examples, i might give some

8) something i did when i first started DMing- i set myself 3 goals each session to improve myself in, and focused on those. one of those was always to try and make things fun, and i strongly suggest this as well. also, it gives a sense of accomplishment, and you'll be improving quickly. this doesn't work for all, but i am methodical like that.

9) i strongly suggest you don't design story lines, but rather situations. don't design a system of koblod caves by saying where each kobold is, how many interact in each room and so on. instead write up the general amount of kobolds, main figures, and their defensive plans. much more fluid to run, adjustable, and it can react to players unexpected plans. this goes double for advanture structure and campaigns.

10) start small: i suggest you start with a "training session" adventure, where the player learn the basic mechanisms of play, with a set of encounters/ training, to teach them. i've tried this a few tiems with new players, and it worked perfectly. this is especially true to for making them work as a team, which is realy importent in 4E

11) how to incorpotrate your characters? first of all i'd try and tell a few things about the campaign that might intrigue them- maybe they'll incorporate things in their backgrounds on their own. secondly, i'd think and adjustthe campaing to try and fit elements of their background into it (especially with pre written modules. check out Colmarr's campaign journal for an excellent example by his DM). what i do with my players is basically this- they give the general theme and importent points of their character, and i add campaign specific things such as locations, people, events and so on. it's a cooperative effort...

note: i don't know scales of war, but if you can detail a bit about it, and the characters, then maybe us forumists can give ideas? that is what this is here for, no?

hope this helped, there is porbably more advice, but it all boils down to this:
you learn as you go along, as long as you try to improve, don't give up, and keep yourself and your players having fun.
Kol

Kaiyanwang
2009-06-12, 02:33 AM
We spent most of the time making everyone's characters,

This is the usual thing, trust me :smallwink:



we had to share my dice since I didn't have enough for everyone to have a set of their own,


It can happens, slows down the things a little bit, but nothing wrong. And it's not your fault, anyway.



we had to keep passing around the books to make sure everyone knew what they were doing,


This is usual for a start, too. You'll se it will happen lesser and lesser times in the future.



I didn't keep track of the hitpoint totals of the enemies so I just arbitrarily decided when they died,


I did it sometimes, too, but getting older I learned to manage like 10 monsters. But since now I'm too old :smallwink:, my players sign the damage done and I say whan the monsters is down. This spoilers a little bit DR (I play 3.5) but whatever. Of course, you must trust of your players to do this :smalltongue:



I didn't have a good map mat so I just drew a crappy representation on graph paper and used coins instead of minis, and I didn't have enough to represent everything on the map, we only had time to get through one fight, I don't think everyone's sheets are completely filled out and someone spilled water on the lemon drops, making a mess over by the snacks.


Again, players should draw a map basing on things you say. Let players imagine very well the place with you descriptions, and the map will be a tool. The dungeon will be in their mind. And.. consider that my group, we never used minis, we always draw on the paper positions of monsters and PCs.



But everyone's telling me they had a good time. I don't know whether to believe them or whether they're just saying that to cushion my rickety ego.


So, you are a good DM :smallsmile:

Archpaladin Zousha
2009-06-12, 09:22 AM
Wizards has some good stuff available on their website.

Most of it is behind a subscription wall, but there's a demo of the Character Builder available for free (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/insider/characterbuilder) - a version behind, and maxes out at level 3. Also you have *some* access to the Compendium, I don't know just what the boundaries are there. The complete Compendium includes all races, classes, spells, feats, abilities, skills, monsters... that Wizards has published for 4E, including magazine articles.

The subscription, by the way, is something like $8 for one month or $65 for one year. It gets you the complete Compendium, the full Character Builder, an Encounter Builder, and a Monster Builder for configuring "special" creatures. Among other things.

I'm saving up for a year's subscription. It may take a while, since I don't have a job, but I'm not gonna buy any more D&D books until I get that subscription.

Djinn_in_Tonic
2009-06-12, 09:26 AM
I first asked this question in Djinn and Tonic's recently closed thread, which I did not realize wasn't meant to be taken seriously.

Actually, it was meant to be either serious or joking, depending on the question asked. I actually had an answer for you.

Which was that I suspect you've actually got a knack for it. After all, with next to no resources you whipped up a game that people considered to be fun. What more is there to do?

A good map and character-shaped tokens matter as much to a good game as...well...a fish and a bicycle. Players won't care what they're playing with if the game is enjoyable.

As for deciding randomly when enemies die? That's what I do myself. It makes the game often seem more challenging and more epic, while allowing you to tailor the difficulty to the players and their choices. I've also found that (especially with 4e) sometimes making up powers on the fly can help, as it keeps the party on their toes.

I'd say keep at it. I expect good things from your DMing in the future.

Archpaladin Zousha
2009-06-12, 10:27 AM
Now I want to include a fish and a bicycle into the campaign! :smalltongue:

Oslecamo
2009-06-12, 10:34 AM
As for deciding randomly when enemies die? That's what I do myself. It makes the game often seem more challenging and more epic, while allowing you to tailor the difficulty to the players and their choices. I've also found that (especially with 4e) sometimes making up powers on the fly can help, as it keeps the party on their toes.


This. It makes DMing so much easier, not only for 4e but any other edition.

Remember, the rules are guidelines. If you think it would be cool for something to happen, don't bother to search for it, just make some rules in the fly and roll for it. The players don't need to know you just improvised, and will thank you for the excitement.

Archpaladin Zousha
2009-06-12, 10:45 AM
We have our first running gag too. I was out of coins to represent minions, so I took a coin that represented a human bar-patron and shifted it over to the door to indicate another hobgoblin was coming. My brother, the eladrin wizard's player, suddenly exclaimed "Wait did that guy just turn into a goblin?!" Everyone laughed and we made several comments afterwards about people randomly turning into goblins.

Blackfang108
2009-06-12, 10:49 AM
We have our first running gag too. I was out of coins to represent minions, so I took a coin that represented a human bar-patron and shifted it over to the door to indicate another hobgoblin was coming. My brother, the eladrin wizard's player, suddenly exclaimed "Wait did that guy just turn into a goblin?!" Everyone laughed and we made several comments afterwards about people randomly turning into goblins.

If you have a running gag after one session, it's official: You did a good job.

Djinn_in_Tonic
2009-06-12, 11:05 AM
We have our first running gag too. I was out of coins to represent minions, so I took a coin that represented a human bar-patron and shifted it over to the door to indicate another hobgoblin was coming. My brother, the eladrin wizard's player, suddenly exclaimed "Wait did that guy just turn into a goblin?!" Everyone laughed and we made several comments afterwards about people randomly turning into goblins.

This sounds familiar...we have something similiar. After running out of tokens ourselves, we ended up with a...well, rather unusual representation of Mrs. Forge, our Dwarvish landlady.

Ever hear of Optimus Primal? Yeah...

http://image20.webshots.com/20/2/52/85/210025285AciJae_ph.jpg

Needless to say, it became a twofold gag: firstly, Mrs. Forge was always represented by that action figure. Secondly, we were terrified of her for the rest of the campaign. :smallbiggrin:

PhallicWarrior
2009-06-12, 11:49 AM
If you want my opinion, (And really, who doesn't?) you did a pretty good job. (Haruhi knows I made more mistakes than you in my first session as DM.) And I can speak from experience, it does get easier. I have a few little game running aids that make running sessions (or at least combat encounters) much easier:

A pad of sticky notes. Fantastic for keeping track of initiative, ongoing effects, number of rounds before delayed enemies arrive, and things like that. Just write down the names of your PCs and a line for each type of enemies, then once everyone's initiative is calculated, just write them down in the order they act. For instance my sticky note for the battle with Irontooth and the Kobolds in the cave looked like this (Spoilered for size)

Saladin: 12 Irontooth: 3
Moira: 15 Dragonshields: 14
Roboute: 21 Skirmishers: 11
Tag: 9 Minions: 7

Initiative Order: Monster HP:
Roboute---------------------------------Irontooth 90/106
Moira------------------------------------Skirm. 1 11/24
Dragonshields----------------------------Skirm. 2 24/24
Saladin----------------------------------Skirm. 3 20/24
Skirmishers-------------------------------D.Shield 1 12/36
Tag-------------------------------------D.Shield 2 19/36
Minions
Irontooth
(The lines aren't really there, I just don't know how to format it right.)
And if you don't want to try to fit all that onto a sticky note, just use sheets of notebook paper and use the same format.

Another useful (and cheap) way of running encounters is to use LEGOs as figures. You'd be suprised at how much personality players give to some clicked-together pieces of plastic. Use small pieces for minions and small creatures, larger pieces for non-minions and PCs, and connect several pieces together for giant creatures. (The holy-crap-what-is-that-thing reactions my players made when they saw the blob I made for the Blue Slime encounter were priceless.) This has the added bonus of helping you tell the different non-minions apart for the purpose of HP. Just click a little colored piece on top of each, and remember which color means which one. (I.E. Dragonshield 1 had a red piece on top, while Dragonshield 2 had a blue one.)

And lastly, graph paper is good, but the best choice is to find some dry-erase markers and a reusable game map. Paizo's Game Mastery line incorporates Steel Sqwire's fantastic flip-mats, some of which have a battle map already on them. I bought one back in 2004, and five years of reasonably careful use, it's still going strong.