Saw one recently for another game that had a built in dice tower. That was a neet trick.

Quote from: Omega;825079Saw one recently for another game that had a built in dice tower. That was a neet trick.

Do you remember what game that was?

Quote from: Omega;825079Saw one recently for another game that had a built in dice tower. That was a neet trick.

but dice towers are a waste of space anyway there only use is as a dick joke its just making your dm screen heavier for no reason

edit:although i must admit it is technically impressive

I have a couple of players that adore dice towers.  Simple entertainment, I guess.

i suppose thats fair enough

Quote from: Matt;824759I'd rather not play a game with rules complicated enough to require constant reference to a screen or a book. No GM screens.  It means your rules are too mucked up and unnecessarily complicated.

Quote from: RPGPundit;824777I hardly ever use a GM screen, so I guess the answer would be 'nothing'.

These cover it for me. I don't use one, and no one in our group does when they're GMing either.

The only barrier between GM and players in our sessions is a laptop screen - but that's in place of the GM using hand-written notes.

I've GM'd for decades, and I don't remember actually using a screen. The ones for sale almost always have a random selection of info, most of which isn't what I'd want. Now that we have cheap laser printers, I'd probably rather use my own. I can imagine having and using a good one, though. I'd want it to be large and very sturdy and stable, and to have thematic and tasteful art facing the players, and the tables I want (common ones that I haven't already memorized) facing me. Ideally I suppose it would have some good way to attach my own papers to both sides.

Landscape. Sturdy. Evocative artwork (the 5E screen is weak in this regard).

For content, I want the most likely rules I'm going to look up in a game session, including the most basic ones. The notion that everyone who plays or runs an RPG is an expert who should memorize the core rules right off the hop needs to be killed with fire. People go on and on about making the hobby more accessible. But making a game accessible isn't simply a matter of designing a straightforward system. How you present the game system (or any complex content) goes a long way to determining how accessible it is.

Boardgames have figured this out. Pretty much every game, regardless of complexity, comes with a summary sheet of actions, sequence of play, etc. It's user design 101 to make the introduction of a product as easy and accessible as possible.

So in a D&D screen, I want the process for melee attacks, for ranged attacks, and for skill checks. I want all combat actions and conditions. I want environmental modifiers. I want a summary of the rules for death and dying.

I don't want a table of things you might find in the pocket of an NPC. I don't want aquatic rules, or other peripheral content. I don't want a list of random names. Summarize the core.  

Quote from: Gabriel2;824380So many GM screens are absolutely useless.  I don't think many of them have any thought put into them.  They're just another product which can be added to the line, so they are, as a complete afterthought.  Someone with page design software throws some tables together randomly, then some stock art from the line is tossed on the other side.  Some of the worst adventures for any games are included with GM Screens.

I'm convinced they're useless on purpose. The creators can't possibly be that oblivious to standards of document design. I think RPG publishers consider the core rules to be the product, so they will never present the rules in a compact, summary format for fear or losing sales. Combine that with the nerd-pride of memorizing rules systems without the aid of summaries, and you have a largely useless product category.

The issue about a GM "screen" meaning blocking off the GM from the players.

I don't actually have it set up in between myself and the players.
I have it to the side on a small table next to me (with campaign notes etc) instead of on the gaming table taking up space.

I don't find the landscape screens block me from my players at all. It's not as though we're all 5'4". I can see everybody's heads. If I lean a bit, I can see the map/playmat. I don't need to see anything else.

I use portrait screens.  They block off my notes from people on the other side.  They don't block me.  I've never felt blocked off from a GM using a screen.  I don't doubt that maybe some people could, but it's certainly not something that affects me.

I'm not fond of landscape screens.  I don't hate them, but I don't consider them ideal.  The reason is that I have notebooks and books in front of me behind the screen, so the lower tables on a screen are sometimes blocked by my materials.  This requires me to shuffle around to see those bottom charts.  This doesn't happen too often if the chart is designed properly, but a landscape screen by definition squeezes information vertically, so it's more often that a needed bit of info will be down at the bottom of the screen and require me to move my notes around.

Quote from: Gabriel2;826308I use portrait screens.  They block off my notes from people on the other side.  They don't block me.  I've never felt blocked off from a GM using a screen.  I don't doubt that maybe some people could, but it's certainly not something that affects me.

I take it you didn't hear the absolutely ridiculous anecdote about how "back in the day" Dave Arneson used to hide behind a screen so the players couldn't even see him, never mind make eye contact. And according to Old Geezer, that's what everyone (including The Hallowed Gygax) did.

Yeah, I've got nothing.

The pinnacle of GM screens is the one for Hackmaster 4E. It is well made, sturdy, has art with the right tone, is crammed full of useful reference material, dry erase markers could be used on it, and it has the random pizza table.

That is the screen I measure all others against. No other one even comes close.