My suggestion: a veggie tray. Not too messy, gives you good energy to work with, and doesn't do horrible things to your health like junk food does.
* A painted scale miniature you feels reasonably represents your character. DDM figures work great for this and you can buy them individually from sites like Auggie's
* A pen or pencil; and bring an eraser if you bring a pencil
* A small notebook for writing notes, tracking hit points, conditions, loot, XP, and whatever you feel is important
* Power cards with pre-calculated stats for your character; optional but highly recommended
* Definitely bring your Player's Handbook and be sure to write your name in it somewhere (in ink, preferably) since they all look alike when they're new
Also, definitely bring your PHB, you'll be referencing it often to remind yourself how things work. Especially if it's your first time playing.
edit: doh, ninja'ed!
Well I bought a 28 pack of pencils new ink for my pen, I also have my three ringed binder with paper in it. 3 folders one for holder character sheets and one with completed characters, and another for stored notes along with my PHB and my laptop. It's really starting to annoy me because I asked him about how he does battle and stuff I think i asked him if he used mini's but I just can't bring my mind to recall what he said.
I live about 3 hours away from him so I'm leaving Wednesday, Mind you I'm only 16 and thanksgiving break is coming up. But besides that the only place that sells D&D stuff besides Hastings is my local comic book shop and the only stuff he sell there is like 3.0 D&D books and chainmail. Hastings has a very very very small section in the book section dedicated to D&D and they don't sell mini's besides a white dragon, the comic book shop guy watches you like a hawk, If you make a move to the other side of the room he moves to watch you, it gets very disturbing.
As an alternative, some DMs use 2D paper tokens -- instead of a 3D miniatures -- which is a good and very cost-effective compromise. Try finding a cool picture that represents your character, resize and print it to a 1" square then mount (glue) it onto a piece of cardboard/wood/foamcore. There are some threads on these forums that have some great recommendations for 2D tokens.
Just a got a new printer yesterday and I've been itching to put it to good use.
I can never stress this enough: acquire more dice. Don't care how much you have; you will always need more. One d20 per person is usually sufficient, but you'll likely want several d6, d8, d10 and d12, dependent on class and weapon selection.
I find it's really helpful to have a calculator on hand so you don't have to add in your head and slow down the game. Even if you're one of us weirdos who can mathulate in our heads like nobody's bidness, it's still helpful.
A sheet of paper or two for note-taking or map-sketching can be useful, too, if your DM isn't the sort to hand these things out.
And most important of all--suspension of disbelief and a willingness to have fun.
EDIT:I must propose a new question, is it possible to play without mini's?
If you're asking if you as a player will need to go find and buy a mini for yourself, then no, you don't need one, especially starting off. The DM or another player will generally let you use a spare one they have. It's a good idea to bring some sort of token anyway that can be easily recognizable as yours. In a pinch, raid pieces from other board games. (Evildoers beware, a Monopoly Battleship is coming to get you!)
(If you use someone else's mini, though, don't impose too much. If they start to look grumpy while rooting around looking for a mini for you, that's a hint that you should get your own pretty soon.)
For what else to bring, all excellent suggestions above. Sounds like you got everything you need and well-organized so far. Sorry to hear your FLGS is lacking in the F and G departments. The only other suggestion I can make is to bring everything you need on paper, and be able to play without your laptop. It's too easy to be unintentionally distracted by it at the table, especially if you've got internet access.
bonus stuff:
for power cards, i recommend going to this link:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/4274554-post568.html, downloading & installing the software then unzipping the templates & power sets. pretty much all powers from the PHB including the FRPG's swordmage. the layout is really nice too. i usually print them black & white cause i'm cheap on ink and back them up with Swamps(daily), Mountains(encounter) & Forests(at-will) then flip them after use. they're not for everyone but have a look at least.
minis
most DMs i know have a few handfulls of minis to use if you don't own any, but long before DDM i had legos, so anything will do really.
But besides that the only place that sells D&D stuff besides Hastings is my local comic book shop and the only stuff he sell there is like 3.0 D&D books and chainmail. Hastings has a very very very small section in the book section dedicated to D&D and they don't sell mini's besides a white dragon.
Hastings luckily is actually a big enough company that they can order anything for you into the store also if you use their website you can order that way and have it shipped to their store so you don't have to pay for shipping. That includes mini boosters or there are other sites where you can buy individual minis. Hastings isn't bad normally it's just the people they hire, around here the hiring criteria went to crap unfortunately.
1. Snacks/drinks. Even a couple of 2 liters of soda or juice or something will be appreciated.
2. A clipboard or something similar to write on. Space at the table is often limited, so I like to keep my character sheet on a clipboard in my lap. Your 3-ring binder should work fine.
3. A clean you. Take a shower or a bath that morning. Seriously. Sitting on a couch next to someone for six hours isn't fun when they smell like old socks.
4. One more suggestion: photocopy the pages pertaining to your character class (only the pages with the powers that apply) and race and stick them in your 3-ring binder, so you can look them up quickly. You can use post-its to tag the page, but if you photocopy them, you can use your PHB to look up rules and keep your reference material open next to you.
One last bit of advice: it's a game. Have fun, even if you wind up being eaten by a dragon (I recommend your last words be, "I hope I give you the runs!" in the latter case.
)2- Paper
3- PHB if no one else has one
4- Beer
This doesn't include snacks and drinks of course, there is always room for those.
What I am refering is to those who bring far, far too much to a game, no you don't need 6 Magic decks, your laptop and a stack of supliments and dragon magazines, a binder of character ideas etc etc etc. leave the distractions at home and only bring what you will use and need.
1- Pencil
2- Paper
3- PHB if no one else has one
4- Beer
NO.
After a few nasty incidents involving inebriated players spilling Newcastle all over brand-new books/character sheets*, and drunk guys needing ten minutes to figure out their base attack bonus, I've put a moratorium on all alcohol at the gaming table. We can go out for a beer after the game, or before, or on some other night. NOT during.
*Damn waste of good Newcastle, too.
** I am a bit of a hypocrite, actually, since I apparently am unstoppable playing multiplayer Magic when blasted out of my mind. . . I once won, like, six games in a row after doing a series of vodka and jager shots at a party. All I remember was being so gone I couldn't hold my cards straight, and needed to lay my hand down under the coffee table.
Also, something about a mycoloth with 20 +1/+1 counters on it from a Doubling Season before drawing into two Overruns.
As far as the mini, I've never not had a game where there weren't tons of extra minis- players bring extra and the DM usually has extra, enough at least to be partially representative of your character. When I took to DMing I put a bunch of money in minis and sure enough, first game people were borrowing them. Up until then I'd borrowed when I played.... plus it's not the exact match to your character, you can throw a nickle down and use it as a mini for purposes of combat placement etc. What I'm saying is running out and buying a mini is hardly a requirment.
Good luck!
A gym bag (loaded with)
My PHB
dice (with some extra D6's and D8's whatever I think i'll use a lot)
a pencil with a good eraser
a spare pencil and a sharpener
a character sheet
A spare PC in case the first one gets whacked mid game
a few sheets of plain, lined, graph, and hex paper, for mapping, and notes
A small paper 2 pocket folder for the above
2 or 3 bottles of water
a snicker's bar
a bag of chips
a bottle of ibuprofin
allergy medicine
enough money for the bus to get back
enough money to help chip in for pizza if they order it
and an open mind
I've done it this way since 1978, these days only adding cell phone, in case my wife has some kind of emergency at home.
Good luck, enjoy yourself, welcome to the life.