Mustrum_Ridcully
Legend
I don't use counters and stuff like that (yet).
What seems to work pretty well is just writing down the monsters hit points on a sheet and writing damage and conditional modifiers next to it - nothing unusual, really.
Conditions like marks I usually don't explicitly keep track off - players will usually remind the DM of this.
But thinking about it - I wonder if it wouldn't be useful to have "condition cards" that a player or DM can use to remind himself of such conditions - especially ongoing damage is easily forgotten (and saving against any ongoing effects, too) on either side of the screen. (I think this idea works better for players, since cards take space the DM has other uses for - or just doesn't have at all).
Other suggestions:
Figure out how you want to run skill challenges. Do you want to keep them in the background, noting success and failure for each check the players attempt until the challenge is over? Or do you say:"This is now a Skill Challenge, Urban Chase - Default Skills are Endurance, Athletics, Acrobatics, Stealth, Perception and Streetwise"? That might be something you have already decided on based on your experiences as player or with the group you play in.
If using published modules - read the tactic section. Use them. I often forget, and I think it makes some encounters too easy. (Of course, check also if the suggested tactics make sense. I remember a few pre 4E modules DMs mastered for me where the suggested tactics were bad or easily - or accidentally - foiled. But also scenarios were they worked brilliantly well.)
If you run your own, have some idea of the tactics you want to use.
When building encounters, don't forgot the terrain. Multiple rooms and entryways are great, as are obstacles- use the terrain types.
Find ways to remind your players to use stunts (unless you hate them, but I doubt that regarding your early remarks as playtester
), and find ways to encourage it. Once you have found out how that works, come back immediately to me and tell me how to do that, because I have trouble doing the same.
What seems to work pretty well is just writing down the monsters hit points on a sheet and writing damage and conditional modifiers next to it - nothing unusual, really.
Conditions like marks I usually don't explicitly keep track off - players will usually remind the DM of this.
But thinking about it - I wonder if it wouldn't be useful to have "condition cards" that a player or DM can use to remind himself of such conditions - especially ongoing damage is easily forgotten (and saving against any ongoing effects, too) on either side of the screen. (I think this idea works better for players, since cards take space the DM has other uses for - or just doesn't have at all).
Other suggestions:
Figure out how you want to run skill challenges. Do you want to keep them in the background, noting success and failure for each check the players attempt until the challenge is over? Or do you say:"This is now a Skill Challenge, Urban Chase - Default Skills are Endurance, Athletics, Acrobatics, Stealth, Perception and Streetwise"? That might be something you have already decided on based on your experiences as player or with the group you play in.
If using published modules - read the tactic section. Use them. I often forget, and I think it makes some encounters too easy. (Of course, check also if the suggested tactics make sense. I remember a few pre 4E modules DMs mastered for me where the suggested tactics were bad or easily - or accidentally - foiled. But also scenarios were they worked brilliantly well.)
If you run your own, have some idea of the tactics you want to use.
When building encounters, don't forgot the terrain. Multiple rooms and entryways are great, as are obstacles- use the terrain types.
Find ways to remind your players to use stunts (unless you hate them, but I doubt that regarding your early remarks as playtester
), and find ways to encourage it. Once you have found out how that works, come back immediately to me and tell me how to do that, because I have trouble doing the same. 
