DM Screen Thread

Yes

I often thought about making a screen like for having a nice piece of fitting art there and also all needed charts and stuff.
But in the end, I just don't like having a wall seperating me from my players, tried it sometimes but it just changes the gameflow

This is sweet, I'll build one for my group.

I've been thinking of doing this with slim plywood. Thinking of gluing on felt/ fake leather and then create a nice print of rules/ art for either side.

I made most of my screens.

Top one was made for Kult. Middle one was made for Vampire Dark Age and for my homebrewn medieval fantasy game, bottom was made for Cyberpunk 2020 but also got used for random modern settings.

This is one in preparation made for games like Conan, Bloodlust or Runequest.

Wyrmwood fag reporting in.

Nice! Do the players have to use the dice tower?

Nah, I use it with a tray you can't see in that pic. I don't sit at the same table as my players (we play in a basement and I have my own little card table I set up on while they use a coffee table). I sometimes bring the little red tower (you can see it in that pic on the far right) for them to use, but that's rare.

nifty work mango. What other games have you done this for?

I agree with you. I want a happy medium, Where I have my DMing station with all my tools and what not, But also enough room to be open and present with the other players of this cooprative experience

here, has essentially what I want. A seperat station that is still open visually, ad a small place on the main table to be close.

that's what I get for not reading the whole thread.

As , I can tell you more about how I do things, if you'd like. Anything specific you'd like to know about the set-up?

Just give us a run down man, maybe an MS paint floor plan? If nothign else I can save it as a room in a d20modern game I plan on running sooner or later. I have the dumb idea of the players starting their adventure playing a table top roleplaying game right when a cosmic event hits their home town, empowering them and fuckig shit up

Broke cunt reporting in.

That's very respectable dude, looks comprehensive and thoughtful. toss some arts and crafts along the edges or something and it's good shit.

Care to share pictures ot the tables/resources you've created?

A cheat-sheet. Note the PC's passive perception, their AC, their init, etc.

Sure. It's mostly ripped from the 5e-screen you can buy from WotC.
Little bit of my own stuff, little bit of tips I saw online, and reminders of homebrewed rules.
I will dump once I get some pics off my phone.

>Just give us a run down man, maybe an MS paint floor plan?
If I had paint skillz, I would. I can just describe it for you though.

I play at a friend's house, in their furnished basement. He has a big L shaped couch with a coffee table the players sit at and roll on (the table). Meanwhile, I set up a card table (one of those square ones you can get from Walmart or wherever) about 5 feet away that I set my screen up on. Generally, I stand and move around a lot during session, so I'm not shut away behind the screen entirely. I only remain entirely behind it during combats, since I need to write out stats and hp and initiative and all that shit.

This is a quicksheet for Conditions and one for Combat Actions that anyone can take.

I've homebrewed a bit for the condition "Restrained" - technically a player can only "Restrain" if he has the Grappler-feat, and also Restrain is kinda useless, because it imposes a lot of the bad stuff on the restrainer, too.

I've made it so anyone can (try to) restrain, and also so there's conc.-check to cast spells /w somatic components, if you're restrained.

Other changes: I've misunderstood the rules for readying actions, when I made this sheet. I have been using them differently than this sheet says.
Also; I have made it more difficult to "Disarm" than it is in RAW-rules. Because it seemed too easy. In theory, anyone of "medium" size, trying to disarm anyone of "small" size, will be rolling advantage athletics against disadv. athletics.
That seemed retarded to me.

These have cover-rules, light-source rules, and some "random loot & event"-like tables, all ripped from the WotC-Dm Screen.
I also included some table of examples of Item AC and item HP, because it is one of those things I'm always wondering about, when people interact / destroy their environment.

This is also all of it ripped from WotC, except the little table for Suffocation, dim light and fall damage.

It's the only digital one I have. All others were photocopies. Made one for Cyberpunk 2020, Kult and Sengoku.

I've got one for...Dark Heresy, Feng Shui 2, and Mutants and Masterminds 3e.

just a bog standard 5e dm screen and the Savage World customizeable dm screen for other games (that will maybe happen someday probably)

I'm personally tempted to make a small series of them for myself. But I want them to be not too tall and big. I'm even thinking of having it slightly modular where I just pop a pin to remove one of the 3 screens.

Matthew Mercer from Critical Role made a pretty good video recently on how to setup your DM screen. Just Youtube Matthew Mercers DM advice

I just came. I need to do this!

This is a very simple DIY job. If anything you should look up basic advice on handling tools and materials, it'll result in higher quality screen.

Just an idea but you don't have to use hinges, you could use a nylon fabric.

Damn, I play exclusively online these days, but this thread makes me want to dust off my woodworking tools and make a super fancy GM screen.

I am happy to see that Veeky Forums hasn't forgotten how to play a game the best way.

Very happy

one of my players made me a DM screen out of 3 binders, it's really handy I can store a lot more info on it than a typical dm screen

here's the front, I put maps on it

Think I might steal that idea, it seems like a solid set up

Don't use a DM screen, creating a barrier between yourself and the players will only be a detriment to the game.

Can anyone help me locate an elemental evil DM screen for dnd 5e, I know it's supposedly crap but Id like to own one.

>dicetowers
...But why though? I've never gotten this. Novelty? Isn't it noisier?

What an overkill setup!

I think it was made because some people didn't roll dice correctly. The tower makes the dice trip a few times before falling in a tray.

They look cool but to me they seem to slow down game pace. I often ask all players to roll spot checks. I don't want to wait until each one dropped the dice in the tower. It's also fairly autistic to have fights about how to roll dice.

For when you have limited space to roll dice

Wow, it's like he is running an analogue video game :/

A screen with some charts. The rulebook of whatever game I'm DMing. Some dice. A4 gridded paper for maps. A pencil and an eraser. A campaign booklet/binder. If I don't play at my place, a USB stick with some music. The PCs character sheets. That all I use.

I like it. I like it a lot.

To be fair, based on watching Critical Role, he is a fucking solid GM. Considerate, interested in his players, RPs his NPCs and practically never misses a beat.
The few times he does seem to rule something unreasonably, he's the first person to admit it, and retcon.
Mostly, watching him just makes me incredibly jealous of the amount of loot he has access to. I assume Geek & Sundry supply him, but if it's all his own stuff, he must be spending a fortune.

I wholeheartedly disagree. Not using a DM-screen means you cannot fudge dice-rolls, or at least people will likely notice, and you should be fudging dice-rolls.
Moreover, you should have secrets from your players in general, and a DM-screen is excellent for that. Good storytelling requires planned and gradual reveals.

Anyone know of any decent GM screens you can purchase with pockets you can slot things into? I've seen a few but they've all seemed really overpriced.

Actually, if you dress it up a little you'll have the best one in this thread.

You wouldn't happen to have a pdf of those tables handy, would you? Because I'm going to make a similar screen.

Yeah, a game without mystery isn't much of a game. Players don't need to see GM only maps, encounter details, or even notes about unusual items that their characters have and don't realize.

About the only one's I've seen are from Hammer Dog. They're OK. Obviously if you can find them at a discount somewhere, so much the better.

hammerdog.com/twgs/

It only resembles a barrier if you're a faggot about it.

>Broke cunt
Please, get on my level
Yours is a fine piece of craftsmanship

>Get on my level

Yeah right, you can afford duct tape.

you'd be suprised how bad people can be at rolling dice.
There are defiantly people who'd speed up the game by using dice Towers.

Folding dice trays

thediceshoponline.com/dice-sets/1300/Folding-Dice-Trays

Rate. I've been using for 2 years and it's made out of office supplies.

comfy/10

I am totally stealing "The Shitting Forest" as a location.

If you run a miniatures-and-terrain heavy game, some people just cannot rein themselves in, sending d20s tumbling through the map, knocking PCs and monsters and trees and doors to and fro.

Dice trays and towers are a good way to slow down these living stochastic hurricanes.

>mfw I saw those at Gen-Con and realized that you can slide over a cover on the player's side of the screen AND you can use the magnets to spin the screen inside of the frame

Actually there's also electrical tape that sticks paper to the back of the screen.

>Can afford duct tape
>can afford electrical tape

>Richest motherfucker in town

Is it a forest where the trees are perpetually shitting, or one where the fruit and game is all corrupted so that you walk through it while shitting after eating anything there?

>Item Charts are useless
if you're using them for the PCs, yes.

If you're using them to hotswap gear onto your NPCs, they can be well worth the space they take.

No pictures, but I'm personally fond of the "Two Binders attached together, plastic page sleeves, clips to hold the pages in place" approach. I like having the option of more than 4 pages, and with a bit of creativity, you can have a couple different GM screen layouts you can quickly switch between.

I've played with more or less the same setup, but only using 2 binders.

Works well. I like the extra layouts.

That looks bulky.

I personally prefer something that folds up smaller like , and I like ones where I can quickly change the screen from being configured for one game, to a different game, so page sleeves is good for that, as well.

a blank screen is all I need, since I'm quite the minimalist fashion style fan.

Love the H.R. Giger artwork.