DM screen or no DM screen? That is the question...

[Endur]

NOT

I tend not to use a DM Screen, except sometimes I use one out of habit.

I have several and have used them in the past, but lately I've noticed that all they do is block my vision and block my voice. So I tend not to use a screen.

With regards to hiding stuff, well, I usually lose the paper with notes on it anyways (in a stack of sixty odd non-stapled pages, I always seem to have the wrong page on top), and have to ad lib based on what I remember.

Tom

 

[Fenes 2]

I always have a screen when I DM - not for the notes on it, I rarely if ever look at the stuff there, even when it is the deluxe DM shield from Kenzer, and my laptop offers more infos with my electronic sourcebooks and the SRD anyway, but to shield my notes and rolls.
My players are good enough not to metagame when rolling spot, listen, sense motive etc. checks, but there are times I don't want the players to know a result of such a check.
I also fudge rolls in order to save a PC from dieing, but this is rarely needed, since I usually can tailor an encounter good enough to avoid such issues - a neccessity in a world where dead means dead, without raise dead etc. available, and for me, who build my adventures heavily on pc plot hooks when I dm. I usually go with the rolls, unless it means the end of a PC - NPCs are fair game. That way my players can enjoy the game without worrying for their PCs - and they are good enogh roleplayers to play a PC fearing death without needing an actual threat of PC loss.

As a player, I want the DM to have a screen as well - I hate it when I accidentally spot something from his notes. And to fudge his rolls when needed - I don't play in games where I could lose a PC for good just due to a bad dice roll or a lucky monster crit. No fun for me, worrying whether or not my PC will survive a battle (Tried it, in case anyone wonders - not my cup of tea at all.)

 

[shilsen]

No screen. Besides everything else, the look on the players' face when I roll a 20 is priceless

 

[Wormwood]

Like many others, I use a screen solely to shield my precious game notes from my players.

I make all die rolls outside the screen in plain view (except for the 'DM only' rolls like Appraise, etc).

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

No screen. Besides everything else, the look on the players' face when I roll a 20 is priceless

It's even better when you roll two in a row!