RPG session recap template
A recap your whole table will actually re-read: seven labelled boxes, one line each, five minutes after the game. Copy the block below, fill the blanks, paste it where your group hangs out. That's the whole job.
This is the artifact, not the lecture. If you want the why, the bit where ~70% of the session slips away within a week, there's a separate guide on session notes for that. This page just hands you the template and gets out of the way.
The template
Seven sections. Each has one line of guidance under it. Delete the guidance, keep the heading, write your line. It's short on purpose: a recap that takes ten minutes to read is a recap nobody reads.
📜 Session [#]: [title or date]
Previously, on...
One sentence that drops the table back into the story. Write the cold-open hook, not a summary.
Key events
Three to five bullets: what happened that mattered. Skip the dice, keep the turns the plot took.
NPCs met
Names plus one detail each so they're recognisable next time (the blind ferryman; the smug guildmaster who lied).
Locations
Where you went and how it connects to the map already in everyone's head.
Loot & changes
What you gained or lost: items, gold, a party member, a decision that can't be undone.
Open threads / what you owe
Promises made, debts taken, threats still breathing. This is the section that restarts the next session.
Next time
One line of intent: where the party is heading, or the cliffhanger you're walking into.
The "Open threads" box is the one that earns its keep. Loot you can re-roll, but a forgotten promise to a duke derails a whole arc.
How to fill it in, in 5 minutes
Do it while the session is still warm, ideally before the snacks are cleared. The trick is to capture during play and shape after. The payoff comes at the next table: reading last week's "Previously, on..." aloud is the kind of strong start Sly Flourish recommends, because it drops everyone back into the fiction before the first die is rolled.
- During the game, jot keywords only: a name, a place, a "you owe the duke." Don't write sentences. You're leaving breadcrumbs.
- Right after, paste the template and run top to bottom. One line per box, straight from your breadcrumbs. Don't polish.
- Then stop and share it. Drop it wherever the table already looks: a shared Google Doc, your Discord channel, a pinned message. A recap the whole table has read is worth more than a perfect one nobody finished.
That's it. Five sessions in, the recaps end up doing a lot of the campaign's bookkeeping: a running "previously, on..." that lets a player who missed a week catch up in thirty seconds. Twenty sessions in, they turn into something else entirely, the thing you scroll back through a year later when someone asks "remember that campaign?" and you actually do. You're in good company. Matt Colville opens nearly every episode of his Running the Game series with a recap, on camera, for a reason.
Or skip the typing
The catch with any template is that the person filling it in is the person not playing. So here's the lazier option, which is often the better one:
Let the Wizard write the recap
If you record the session, whether straight from a Discord voice channel, an uploaded audio file, or a YouTube link, Kompanion transcribes it and writes a recap in roughly this shape. Then it conjures editable cards for the characters, places and quests that came up. The AI takes the notes so you can run the game, and you keep the final word, because everything is yours to correct.
Let the Wizard write it, freeNo credit card. See a live campaign first, or read the full story.
FAQ
What should an RPG session recap include?
Seven things: a one-line "Previously, on..." hook, the key events, the NPCs you met, the locations, the loot and changes, the open threads or debts you still owe, and a line on what's next. Keep each one short. The recap is meant to be re-read at the start of the next session, so it shouldn't read like an archive.
How long should it take to fill in a session recap?
About five minutes if you do it right after the session while it's fresh. Paste the template, write one line under each heading from your keywords, and stop. A rough recap the whole table can read is worth more than polished notes nobody opens.
Can I get a recap generated automatically?
Yes. If you record the session (for example from a Discord voice channel), Kompanion can transcribe it and produce a recap in roughly this shape, plus editable cards for characters, places and quests. You stay the editor and keep the final word.
On why recaps matter at all: the forgetting curve. Ebbinghaus, H. (1885), Über das Gedächtnis; Murre JMJ, Dros J (2015), "Replication and Analysis of Ebbinghaus' Forgetting Curve", PLOS ONE.
From the GM's bookshelf
Three sources that have done more for my campaigns' coherence than any inventory spreadsheet ever will. I didn't write any of them, and every one is worth an evening.
- Sly Flourish: Starting Strong: the case for opening every session with a recap instead of fumbling for "so, where were we?"
- Gnome Stew: A Deeper Understanding of GM Notes: a thoughtful look at what notes are actually for, so you stop writing the ones nobody reads.
- Matt Colville: Running the Game: a long, generous YouTube series; watch how he recaps each episode and steal the rhythm shamelessly.