Making my own DM/GM/Referee screen

psiconauta_retro · Feb 15, 2019

Hello,

I am thinking about making my own DM/GM/Referee screen and I want to know your suggestions about which tables are the most useful to include.

So far I want to include these tables:

NPC reactions
Emotion matrix
Weapons with damage/range
Armor with AC
Movement speed conversions (exploration, overland, etc.)
Light sources with length/range
Terrains modifiers
XP per HD for monsters
Hazards (fire, falling, drowning, etc.)
Length of turn, round, and segment
Critical hits & fumbles
Morale & Morale check modifiers

These are ideas for tables related to the specific adventures:

Random encounters
I search the body

Which tables do you use in your screens?

The system I used is LotFP but with some add-ons from other systems.

Thank you in advance!

MNblockhead · Feb 15, 2019

Here are my initial thoughts based on my 5 years DMing 5e and having tried and created many different DM screens.

NPC reactions

This is something I can more easily make up on the fly. I leave this to my role-playing. Even if I wanted to leave this to the dice, I can't see having a table that is both rich in detail and readable for something like NPC reactions, even if it took up the entire screen. Which is also why I don't like having name generation tables on my DM screen. These are quick references best put in the three-ring binder with tab.

Emotion matrix

Not sure what this is or why I would need a table for it.

Weapons with damage/range
Armor with AC

This was helpful when I was a new DM. No I don't want this taking up space on my DM screen. Not because I have it memorized, but I expect that PCs will know their weapons and damage and range are included in the monster and npc stat blocks. In the rare instances when I actually have to look this up, I have DnD Beyond on my phone, which makes looking it up only a bit less convenient than having it on the DM screen.

Movement speed conversions (exploration, overland, etc.)

YES! While I try to have the distances and times of likely travel scenarios planned out, I'm frequently put in situations where the players make decisions that require me to quickly figure out travel times. This is especially important in my current campaign due to the size of the world and strict resource tracking and downtime minigames that are a part of it.

Light sources with length/range

Yes. Helpful. Though I'm not great about enforcing these strictly.

Terrains modifiers

Yes. Especially if running a hex crawl or a game with lots of overland travel.

XP per HD for monsters

No. I will either already have the XP in the monster stat, or I will calculate XP outside the game. I have no interest in calculating XP on the fly.

Hazards (fire, falling, drowning, etc.)

Yes. This is stuff that is not encountered so frequently that I can recall all the rules from memory. But it comes up every couple of sessions. When it does come up, I don't want to slow down play. I want to just glance at a DM screen, rather than search DnD Beyond or flip through a book.

Length of turn, round, and segment

I have this memorized and use a laminated chart that tracks time in my game. I see no reason to have this on a DM screen.

Critical hits & fumbles

I don't like using critical fumbles and we use a card deck for critical hits. I would have no use for this on a DM screen. To have this as a readable chart on a DM screen you would have to severely limit the options. I'm used to hundreds of critical hit descriptions and resolutions. Card decks work best for this.

Morale & Morale check modifiers

Sure. For 5e morale is optional, but if I used it, I would find it helpful to have this info on my DM screen.

These are ideas for tables related to the specific adventures:

Random encounters

Generally I prefer this to be in my quick-reference binder or RealmWorks (campaign-management software I use). I did, however, find that having the Curse of Strahd encounter tables on the CoS DM screen to be one of the few things I actually used on that DM screen.

I search the body

Any such table that would fit on a DM screen would be boring. If you are playing a very sandboxy, make-it-up as you go game, then I think using software (e.g. Inspiration Pad) or card decks would work much better for this.

Which tables do you use in your screens?

I have tables for resolving mob attacks using the variant rules in the DMG. I'll make a table based the character's current ACs and tape that to my screen.

Materials/Doors/Walls AC and HP tables.

Condition descriptions. You'd think I would have all these memorized by now, but I still reference them nearly every session.

Travel distances and times between major cities / landmarks in your campaign.

Weather generation tables.

Exhaustion levels.

Nytmare · Feb 17, 2019

An old post of mine with regards to the excel sheet I used as my DM screen.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?335703-DM-Tools&p=6111250&viewfull=1#post6111250

I'm not running D&D anymore, but the only real addition I remember making to that sheet was an "Inspiration Button" that would randomly pick three narrative tropes, tarot card style, and present them in a little story arc.

[SOMETHING IMPORTANT IS TAKEN FROM A HERO]

[THE HEROES MUST TRAVEL ON WATER]

[A FRIEND'S LIVELIHOOD IS PUT IN DANGER]

psiconauta_retro · Feb 23, 2019

Thank you very much for your suggestions, they have been very useful!!!

Making my own DM/GM/Referee screen

psiconauta_retro

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