The most important thing to start with is to be sure your play will be Safe, Sane, & Consentual (SSC for short). There are plenty of masters, but some won't allow SSC, they demand Total Power Exchange (TPE) and think whatever they want to do is all right.
As a suggestion, you will first want to establish "hard" limits. Then establish "soft" limits.
To establish that, you likely would want to use a checklist which was originally put together by some college (University of Washington, USA, I think). The list is NOT all inclusive, but has a general term for just about anything. You'll find it at
http://www.bdsmcircle.net/dslifestyle/checklist.htm.
Another great resource is the "S & M Dictionary", posted at
http://www.sandm.com/p/103.html