as i play by post i dont need a dm screen but for the purposes of this thread i will pretend i have use for one.
to me the perfect dm screen is not something that has rules on it i have books for that its something that helps me work out the results of actions basic physics concepts to jog my memory.
the laws of thermodynamics and stuff like that things that you need to know in any setting that uses physics similar to ours
also i would have a reminder that vecna is male because i always mess that up.
other things will be basic info on npcs age, race etc
For the first thing, I don't want them printed on toilet paper. I hate flimsy screens. The Last Unicorn Star Trek screens from back in the day are some of the worst offenders. I LOVE the newer heavy cardboard screens like the M&M3, True 20, and WH40K screens. If the producer isn't going to print them on something like that, I'd prefer they just put the common charts in a common place in the book, or make them a PDF download. That way I can just copy them for myself and put them in a custom screen like "The World's Greatest Screen" or somesuch.
Don't put important info for the GM on the players's side of the screen. It's really stupid when there are some charts which are really important for the GM, but they're shoehorned in on the back side of panel three (over on the player side). The AD&D1e screens did this shit, putting the encounter reactions table on the player side of the GM screen. That was one chart which should have been front and center for the GM, but it was instead shoved over in a corner.
Put important charts in good real estate. The most commonly used charts in Mekton are the hit location charts. They're rolled on constantly. They're placed fairly well in the Mekton Z screen, bottom of center panel. It would have been better had they be top center panel. Instead the Hand to Hand chart occupies that space , so if I have any notes in front of my screen, I'm constantly shuffling them around so I can read the hit charts. Also, the hit modifiers chart is similarly stuck on left panel bottom. While infrequently used charts like Let's Active!, Fighter Turn Radius, and Ship Turn Table occupy the prime real estate on that panel. To go back to the point above about important information on the player's side: the Mekton screen isn't too bad about this. A few injury tables are stuck on the player's side. Basically the Mekton Z screen really needed to be a 4 panel screen. It's not a horrible screen, but it could have used another panel and better arrangement.
Don't put wasteful charts. My favorite example of this is the Cyberpunk 2020 screen. It has a chart that takes up a third of the page on the left panel. All this chart does is show the difference between the stat+skill total and a difficulty number. Yes, this chart shows you that 20 minus 14 equals 6. It's even better than that, though. It isn't shaded, so it's hard to cross reference. So, not only is it a worthless chart if you do basic math like 25 minus 12. It's also poorly designed, and completely WASTES a whole third of a panel. I'm not sure what information I'd like in that space for Cyberpunk, but there must certainly be something better to go there.
Another thing I've seen in some screens is a big bold blurb showing the basic mechanic of the game. A d20 screen might show "D20 + ability modifier + skill + modifiers versus TN." It could be argued that this is something that might go well on a player side of a screen, but it's certainly not something that needs to take up space on the GM side of the screen. If the GM is having problem remembering a basic mechanic, then a GM screen isn't going to help.
I've mentioned player sides of screens a lot. This is an area which could use improvement too. Most player screens I've seen tend to just be random information which got pushed off the GM screen. They don't really have much use to the players. I'll use Mekton Z's screen as an example again. The "player panel" has medical table information for the GM. Instead this panel could have given the players something useful, like a hit location chart. The AD&D1e Player's Reference Screen could have benefitted from a saving throw table instead of 60% of the left panel being dedicated to reprinting rules about Grenade-Like Missiles. If the player's need to reference stuff, that is good stuff for a player's panel or screen. The player's panel or screen is not just a spillover zone.
Sturdy and landscape, to start.
I think that rules tend to divide into several piles:
(1) Rules so basic that everyone remembers them at all times.
(2) Rules which need to be accessed during play, but are not so familar that everyone remembers them.
(3) Rules which need to be accessed in between game sessions.
Rules of type (2) are probably the ones you want on the screen.
For example, if a combat rule is "roll d20 and add modifiers" it's probably a type (1) rule and doesn't need to be on a GM screen. If a combat rule is an attack matrix, I'd put it on the GM screen.
Rules of how to level up characters are classic type (3) rules. You don't need then during play and have lots of time to look them up later on.
Good examples of stuff I'd put on a GM screen:
* Combat matrix
* List of skill types and/or saving throw types.
* Basic cost charts for stuff (on player's side)
* Basic random encounter charts
* Critical hit charts, if used
that kind of thing.
Quote from: Gabriel2;824097For the first thing, I don't want them printed on toilet paper. I hate flimsy screens. The Last Unicorn Star Trek screens from back in the day are some of the worst offenders. I LOVE the newer heavy cardboard screens like the M&M3, True 20, and WH40K screens. If the producer isn't going to print them on something like that, I'd prefer they just put the common charts in a common place in the book, or make them a PDF download. That way I can just copy them for myself and put them in a custom screen like "The World's Greatest Screen" or somesuch.
Don't put important info for the GM on the players's side of the screen. It's really stupid when there are some charts which are really important for the GM, but they're shoehorned in on the back side of panel three (over on the player side). The AD&D1e screens did this shit, putting the encounter reactions table on the player side of the GM screen. That was one chart which should have been front and center for the GM, but it was instead shoved over in a corner.
Put important charts in good real estate. The most commonly used charts in Mekton are the hit location charts. They're rolled on constantly. They're placed fairly well in the Mekton Z screen, bottom of center panel. It would have been better had they be top center panel. Instead the Hand to Hand chart occupies that space , so if I have any notes in front of my screen, I'm constantly shuffling them around so I can read the hit charts. Also, the hit modifiers chart is similarly stuck on left panel bottom. While infrequently used charts like Let's Active!, Fighter Turn Radius, and Ship Turn Table occupy the prime real estate on that panel. To go back to the point above about important information on the player's side: the Mekton screen isn't too bad about this. A few injury tables are stuck on the player's side. Basically the Mekton Z screen really needed to be a 4 panel screen. It's not a horrible screen, but it could have used another panel and better arrangement.
Don't put wasteful charts. My favorite example of this is the Cyberpunk 2020 screen. It has a chart that takes up a third of the page on the left panel. All this chart does is show the difference between the stat+skill total and a difficulty number. Yes, this chart shows you that 20 minus 14 equals 6. It's even better than that, though. It isn't shaded, so it's hard to cross reference. So, not only is it a worthless chart if you do basic math like 25 minus 12. It's also poorly designed, and completely WASTES a whole third of a panel. I'm not sure what information I'd like in that space for Cyberpunk, but there must certainly be something better to go there.
Another thing I've seen in some screens is a big bold blurb showing the basic mechanic of the game. A d20 screen might show "D20 + ability modifier + skill + modifiers versus TN." It could be argued that this is something that might go well on a player side of a screen, but it's certainly not something that needs to take up space on the GM side of the screen. If the GM is having problem remembering a basic mechanic, then a GM screen isn't going to help.
I've mentioned player sides of screens a lot. This is an area which could use improvement too. Most player screens I've seen tend to just be random information which got pushed off the GM screen. They don't really have much use to the players. I'll use Mekton Z's screen as an example again. The "player panel" has medical table information for the GM. Instead this panel could have given the players something useful, like a hit location chart. The AD&D1e Player's Reference Screen could have benefitted from a saving throw table instead of 60% of the left panel being dedicated to reprinting rules about Grenade-Like Missiles. If the player's need to reference stuff, that is good stuff for a player's panel or screen. The player's panel or screen is not just a spillover zone.
i can agree with most of this
I want power, mystery, and the hammer of the gods. (that's my reply to everything, though).:-)
The plastic customizable Savage Worlds screen is fucking awesome for any game, particularly if you have a good printer.
Some people are down on screens, seeing them as a barrier between the players and referee, but I love them both as a prop to help establish a sense of theater, and as a way (Via the art on them) to quickly establish the mood of the game.
I have a custom DM screen I use for 5E and it has Equipment lists, conditions, actions and lots of useful stuff that have tables in game.
I prefer to have all that in one place, rather than flip through the PHB or DMG for regularly used game mechanics.
Actually I took a look at the official DM screen for 5E and it's useless. So I won't be bothering with it.
As long as it prevents the DM rays from burning my skin I am ok with whatever screen they come out with. :cool:
Quote from: danskmacabre;824377Actually I took a look at the official DM screen for 5E and it's useless. So I won't be bothering with it.
So 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'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: 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.
Speaking for myself only. I make GM screens for all RPGs I run. even for pretty simple RPGs (such as sine nomine' Stars without number). It's just the quicker you can move things along the better.
5E is probably one of the simplest versions of DnD so far. You can do without a GM screen, it's just a little faster and more convenient book-wise to have one.
I hardly ever use a GM screen, so I guess the answer would be 'nothing'.
Quote from: K Peterson;824099Sturdy and landscape, to start.
Bingo. That would be first for me, as well.
I suppose that while i might not use the screen as a screen, it could be useful if it had good reference charts.
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 (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?720861-Dave-Arneson-used-sight-blocking-screen-while-DMing-!), 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.