TL;DR
A good session recap is short, skimmable, and written for the players, not for the DM’s archive. Use the Five-Beat Recap: a one-sentence opening, 3–5 scenes that changed something, the threads still open, one beat for each character, and a hook for next time. Aim for 150–300 words, post it within a day, and keep your secrets out of it. The blank template is below, ready to copy, along with a filled-in example from a real session.
You spent forty minutes writing up last session. Every NPC, every fight, every clever idea. You posted it in the group chat.
One thumbs-up. Then, at the start of the next game:
Sorry, did anyone write down what happened last time?
The recap wasn’t bad because you wrote it badly. It was bad because it was built for the wrong reader. Most recaps are written like a court record, and players don’t read court records. They read something short that reminds them why they care.
Here’s a template built around what players actually read.
What Players Actually Read (and What They Skip)
Players skim a recap the way they skim any message: quickly, looking for themselves.
| Players read | Players skip |
|---|---|
| The first sentence | Everything after paragraph three |
| Names they recognize | Long descriptions of places they already saw |
| What the party decided | Round-by-round combat and dice results |
| Their own character’s moment | Other people’s side quests in full detail |
| The cliffhanger | Lore dumps they didn’t ask for |
So a recap has three jobs: remind players what happened, point them at what’s still unresolved, and make them want to come back. Anything that doesn’t do one of those three can go.
The Five-Beat Recap
The template has five parts, in this order:
| Beat | What to write | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Opening line | The whole session in one sentence: who did what, and how it ended | 1 sentence |
| 2. Scenes | The 3–5 scenes that changed something. One or two lines each | 3–5 lines |
| 3. Open threads | Questions the party hasn’t answered, promises they haven’t kept | 2–4 bullets |
| 4. Character beats | One standout moment per player character | 1 line each |
| 5. Hook | Where things stand now, ideally as a question | 1–2 sentences |
1. The opening line
If someone reads only one sentence, this is it. Write it last, after you know what the session was really about. Good opening lines have a turn in them: “…and came home to find the village burned.”
2. The scenes
Not everything that happened, only the scenes that changed something: a reveal, a decision, a fight with consequences. Ask of every scene: “Would the story be different without it?” If not, cut it. Give each scene a short name so players can refer to it later (“the windmill heist”).
3. The open threads
This is the most useful part for the next session, and the one most recaps forget. List the questions the party is still asking and the promises they made. Phrase them as questions, not answers: you don’t want the recap to solve your mysteries for them.
4. The character beats
One line per player character, about something they did. This is the part players actually look for, and it quietly shows the quieter players that you noticed them too.
5. The hook
End where the session ended, and make it pull forward. A question works better than a statement: “The swamp is no longer hidden. What happens when the humans come back?”
DM tip: write the hook first
If you only have five minutes after the session, write the hook and the open threads. Those two help the next session the most, and you can fill in the scenes tomorrow.
The Blank Template (Copy and Paste)
Copy this into your notes app, Discord channel, or campaign wiki:
SESSION [number]: [short title]
THE SESSION IN ONE LINE
[Who did what, and how it ended.]
SCENES
• [Scene name]: [what happened and what changed]
• [Scene name]: [what happened and what changed]
• [Scene name]: [what happened and what changed]
OPEN THREADS
• [Unanswered question]
• [Promise the party made]
• [Mystery they noticed]
CHARACTER BEATS
• [Character]: [their standout moment]
• [Character]: [their standout moment]
WHERE WE LEFT OFF
[Where things stand now, ideally as a question.]A Real Example, Filled In
Here’s the template filled in for a real session: the first session of “Goblins’ Secret,” the campaign shown on our homepage, where two goblins, Scribs and Pex, play through a four-hour heist that goes very wrong.
Session 1: The Millstone Debt
The session in one line
Two hungry goblins were sent to steal a millstone to pay off the Witch, and came home to find their village raided and their tribe’s secret exposed.
Scenes
- The confession at the fire: Grandmother reveals the Red Fangs fled the plains and survive only thanks to a bargain with the Witch. The debt is due: steal the Millstone.
- The windmill heist: they slip past the Hunter’s Dog, find sacks marked with their own tribe’s sign, and free the Millstone without bringing the tower down.
- The cat trick: the Human Hunter nearly catches them. Scribs meows like a cat, and the superstitious hunter crosses himself and walks away.
- The Witch unmasked: her ritual turns her into a red-haired human woman. She attacks Pex, Scribs kills her, and the hut burns in multicolored flames.
- The cost: the village is empty and Grandmother has an arrow in her. They hunt down the Human Hunter and rescue Goblin Girl, but Grandmother dies.
Open threads
- The concealment that hid the swamp is gone. Who will come next?
- What’s written in the Witch’s unreadable journal?
- Where did the rest of the tribe scatter?
Character beats
- Scribs: steered by the stars, saved the heist with a cat impression, and ended the Witch with one perfect rapier thrust.
- Pex: guarded the soup like sacred law, went half-deaf from his own earwax, and dropped the stolen Millstone on the Witch.
Where we left off
The swamp is no longer hidden, the tribe is scattered, and the old life is over. What do two goblins do now?
That’s about 250 words for a four-hour session. Anyone in the group can read it in a minute, and everything the next session needs is there.
Three Formats for Different Tables
The Five-Beat Recap is the backbone. How you present it depends on your group:
- Read-aloud recap. Turn the beats into a short story, 150–250 words, and read it at the start of the next session in your best narrator voice. Works for tables that love the drama.
- Bullet recap. The template as-is. Best for busy groups who read it in Discord between sessions.
- Quote board. Add a short “best moments” list with the funniest lines of the night. It’s the part players screenshot and share.
If your recap gets read aloud, keep it player-safe: no secrets your characters haven’t discovered yet. More on that in player notes vs. DM notes.
Who Writes It, and When
Write it within 24 hours. After two days, you’re not writing a recap, you’re reconstructing one.
It doesn’t have to be the DM. Rotating the job between players works well: everyone writes once every few sessions, and you get to see how the table understood the story. Some DMs give Inspiration to whoever writes it. For more ways to share the load, see how to remember what happened last session.
Keep the recaps in one place. A pinned Discord channel or a campaign wiki turns individual recaps into a campaign journal you can scroll back through, which helps a lot when you come back after a break.
Common Mistakes
- Writing a transcript, not a recap. If it’s longer than a page, nobody reads it. Cut to the scenes that changed something.
- Answering your own mysteries. “The priest, who is secretly working for the cult…” Write what the party knows, not what you know.
- Forgetting the open threads. Without them, the recap tells players where they’ve been, but not where they’re going.
- Writing it a week later. By then, the details are gone and the recap takes three times as long.
- Skipping the quiet players. The character beats exist for them. One line each, every time.
The Parts You Don’t Have to Write by Hand
The template solves the structure. It doesn’t solve the time. Somebody still has to sit down after every session and write it, and that’s where most campaigns’ recaps quietly stop around session six.
How Kazkar does this
The example above was written from a chronicle that Kazkar generated automatically. Kazkar joins your Discord voice channel when you type /summon, and after /banish writes up the session for you:
- a narrative recap you can read aloud, with a title and an epilogue;
- a summary of key events, decisions made, combat highlights, and funny moments;
- highlights that call out each character’s big moments;
- campaign wiki entries for every NPC, place, and item the party met.
You can edit or trim it in your dashboard before sharing it with your players. More on how it works on the session recap generator page.
So the next time you post a recap in the group chat, it took you zero minutes to write, and someone might actually read it before the game.
Write less. Remember more.
Want your recaps written for you? Add Kazkar to your Discord: 10 free hours of recording, no card needed.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should a D&D session recap include?
A one-sentence summary, the 3–5 scenes that changed something, the open threads, one standout moment for each character, and a hook for next session. Leave out round-by-round combat and anything the characters haven’t discovered yet.
How long should a session recap be?
150–300 words for a typical 3–4 hour session. If it’s longer than a page, most players won’t read it.
Should the DM or the players write the recap?
Either works. Many tables rotate the job between players, which spreads the work and shows the DM how the table understood the session. What matters most is that it’s written within a day.
How do I write a recap if nobody took notes?
Start with the hook and the open threads, which people usually remember best, then ask the group chat to fill in the scenes. For the future, recording your sessions means you never have to reconstruct a recap from memory.
Should I read the recap aloud at the start of a session?
A short read-aloud version works well as a “Previously on…” moment. Keep it under two minutes, or let the players retell it themselves and fill in the gaps.
Let Kazkar keep the chronicle
Kazkar joins your Discord voice channel, records the session, and turns it into a narrative chronicle and lore wiki — automatically. Free to start, no card required.
Add Kazkar to DiscordDanylo
Co-founder, Kazkar
Danylo is a co-founder of Kazkar and a tabletop RPG player and GM. He writes about running games, tracking campaign lore, and turning messy session notes into stories worth keeping.
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