Quote from: Bren;876132Go ahead and hijack the thread.

Haha, thank you! I promise not to do it often!

Quote from: Bren;876132...throwing dice on the table and talking about killing people and stealing their stuff would tend to attract attention in public...

Well, you may have a point, but there are Chinese drinking games that involve dice, so it's probably not that strange. In my limited experience, the addition of a GM screen seems to make people think we're playing a boardgame, which is also relatively accepted. It does draw attention though and dialogue from interested (or drunk) parties, which changes the flow of a game.

Thanks to everyone for your responses, by the way. Some good advice and a nice mix of technological/traditional perspectives.

Quote(1) The obstruction of sight lines to my notes and maps. I think this is just polite to my players: If I'm inviting people over to watch a movie, I don't hang a poster with spoilers for the movie next to the TV screen and ask them not to look at it. Same principle applies here.

This is a very valid point, I think (and tallies with Ravenswing's use of a box to make secret rolls). I confess that I am a minimalist GM and so, when I run, try to leave the vast majority of the rolling to the players. But I can see how this would be useful and not disruptive.

Anyway, some good ideas. I'm going to consider whether or not I can make some improvements to my approach. Thank you!

Quote from: everloss;875775I've finally given up on ever seeing the one from the kickstarter. It's been three years and not so much as a peep.

What the heck is taking so long there?  

For most of our gaming career, the GM's of our group have used screens.

Of late I've seen a lot more GMs using the screen to hang folded index cards of relevant information along the top: initiative order in combat, NPCs who are present, places of interest (and when names are hard to spell the latter two are quite helpful). You can stand the folded cards on the table instead but they stand out a little more for me on the screen (more visible above the clutter on the table, at least).

Use of a screen at all is split among the GMs I've seen lately; neither way is rare, but I wouldn't commit to an exact ratio in general. The four I usually play with include two of each.

I love, love, love GM screens...but oddly I rarely use them.

For me, its not about the tables. It's about having a hiding place for my shiznack and dice rolls.

I like to make my own screens. Often from Halloween decor.

I don't really need a screen because I have my own coffee table, a little bit apart from the players.

Quote from: Majus;875840Not to hijack the thread, but are screens commonly used?

Valid question in a thread about GM screens and their use or lack thereof and what you find useful to have on or not.

I know some DMs use them. Some dont. Really depends on the play style. For example I knew one DM who rolled everything. The players just stated their actions and then got the result. The players preferred it that way. Other DMs seem to never use them. I know some players utterly despise DM screens and not knowing every little action the DM takes.

As usual it varies wildly from one group to the next.

Personally I use a dice tower. So the players cant actually see what I am rolling not through any doing of my own. But have a policy of hands off once rolled so I can show the results if someone wants to see. Or if I want to show off some oddity of probability.

One of the funniest ones I ever saw way back was a DM using a wall as the screen. He was in another room and talked to the players via intercom. To this day I have no clue why.

The more unruly a game group is at a table, the more a GM screen is needed.