DMs Screen

[IronWolf]

The 3rd edition Dungeon Master's Screen consists of a four-panel screen and an 8-page booklet that can be legally photocopied. A veteran DM is going to immediately notice that the 3rd edition screen is a much thinner cardstock than the 2nd edition screen. However, this one is still nice and stiff, and stands up very easily, thanks to a slight curvature of the card stock.
The art on the back is a standard-grade Easley painting, but that's not the most important part of this product. The most important factor of this product is that the charts are very useful. All of the important combat charts are on the two center panels, with the various types of actions and attack of opportunity information right in the center. The left panel has difficulty classes for various skill checks, and the right panel has some useful dungeon-crawling information.

The eight page, black and white booklet consists of a "combat planner", two pages on town generation, summaries of grenadelike weapons and area effects, disease and poison tables, the weapon table from the PHB, and a single page one-inch grid.

Unfortunately, the booklet is of minimal use. There's nothing on the combat planner that can't easily be done with less scratch paper, the center pages don't contain anything that needs to be looked up faster than is possible with the books, and a single letter size page of grid is too small to be used effectively as a battle mat. Still, the booklet doesn't diminish the value of the screen itself, which is a good buy even without the booklet.

All in all, the new DM screen is very useful tool. Unless you know all the combat charts backward and forward, and have no sensitive notes or maps to hide, you really should have one of these inexpensive screens.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

If you've seen my reviews of character sheets, you're probably expecting another rough review from me on this product.
One can make their own screen, and thereby get exactly the tables you want on it, but not without a good deal of effort, and it won't look as cool. So this type of product can be worthwhile. I'm going to ignore thr eight page booklet. It has a few things that might be useful to some GM's, but it is likely to get separated from the screen itself, and lost among the GM's other stuff. The picture for the players is fairly nice, even it the reqired inclusin of all the iconic characters makes for scene that doesn't make sense dramaticallly. It does the essential of standing on its own and hiding your stuff. Most of the tables are useful, although I would have replaced the Access to Spells by Level table with the Grenadelike Weapons table. I would have liked a lower price on it, (at $7.95 MSRP, this would rate a 4 and at $4.95 it would earn a 5,) but unless you willing to go through the hassle of making a screen with exactly the tables you want on it, I recommend buying this product if you GM fairly frequently. Occasional GM's should probably just borrow a screen from your usual GM.

 

[Akhenaten]

This is the first DM's screen I have actually bought, and this was because, mainly, a friend of mine who owned it moved away. This is a good screen, with only a few faults:
-It is not laminated on both sides. I can't remember precisely, but another of my friends has White Wolf's Werewolf screen, and I'm pretty sure it is. Very handy with gamers and our token drink, the soda.
-No table of CR or Treasure. Treasure might be a bit of an embellishment, but I can't think of any good reason why the Challenge Rating wasn't published on the screen.
-Font too large. I don't know about anyone else out there, but the font size in FRCS seemed awfully fine to me, and the PHB font size was even bigger. So why put a comparatively huge font on the screen, when for most DMs, it will be at most three feet away from the eyes at all times.

I do appreciate the Quad-fold binding, though. I have put up with too many prepackaged DM's screens that are trifold, and they don't cover up anything except for tiny, tiny dice. The quae-fold also stands up nicely. The folds aren't even, either, letting the screen fold easily one way, like one of those $5 laminated maps. And maybe it's just me, but $10 isn't all that much. I'm a college student, earning minimum wage working a maximum of 7 hours a week in a campus job, but $10 really isn't all that much. If you're that needy for money, don't buy it, but don't get too into this hobby, either. It's expensive as the years (months!) go by.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

The Third Edition Dungeon Master's Screen is a shield that allows the Dungeon Master to hide notes, charts, and maps from players. A perennial bestseller of the D&D line, this new screen comes packed with eight panels of the most useful tables and charts for the Dungeons & Dragons game. Designed for easy access and comprehensive utility, DMs will have the most important information right in front of their eyes at all times.

 

[billd91]

I suppose the DM's Screen has decent content overall. But it sure is hard to read. The different sections of the screen don't stand out well, certainly not compared to earlier screens put out by TSR. I find it very difficult to find anything quickly on the screen.
Now, a GM screen I found really useful was the one for MegaTraveller. But that was another game in another decade...

 

[Daniel Knight]

I’m a big fan of DM screens. The biggest attraction for D&D to me is the story telling, and nothing destroys a good story like a bad dice roll. Yes that’s right, when I DM I cheat - and I certainly don’t want my players to know when I do it. And what better thing for Wizards of the Coast to do than release a product to aid me in my fudging ways.

The Screen
Nice and glossy to survive those unwanted Coke spills. And nice and big to contain enough room for maps or treasure lists or adventure hooks or whatever behind, (including those secret love letters you’ve secretly been handing back and forth with your best friends sister (okay, or brother) throughout the night). It’s utterly easy to stand and only made of one piece (unlike the last one), and offers ample protection in the form of a shield to deflect dice projectiles. The tables on the inside are all relevant and if I had to be the one to choose them, I like to think these are the ones that I would have.

Okay, we’re doing well so far, but this is where it takes a nasty turn. The art on the front is terrible. To me, the DM screen is a kind of throne or alter that the Dungeon Master attends - the players all know that it is sacred, and all words uttered from behind it are gospel. They also know that the fate of their characters lives rest behind it, as well as the bowl of chips that went missing half an hour ago. The screen is a thing to be respected (much like a players dice), and feared. So why one earth plaster that ridiculous artwork on the front?

I can see it now: the DM glares over the top of the screen chuckling hollowly to himself as he describes the mind flayers tentacles burrowing under the character’s scalp, slowly working their way into the deepest inner parts of the mind. The characters nose starts to bleed, red droplets falling at the characters boots. The scorching underground wind slowly dies down, and the only thing the other party members can hear is the sound of the character’s skull, slowly cracking open as they watch the his fingers violently twitch. Meanwhile Mialee is doing something strange with her arms, Jozan is grinning cheesily before he cracks the hobgoblin across the skull, and Kronk is - oh so hard - trying to point at a huge spider swinging some torch barer about - all under the hard striving DM’s chin. It kind of ruins the mood for me.

The screen is by far too cartoony and offers no atmosphere whatsoever - in fact I think it works against any atmosphere any self respecting DM could create. The setup of the characters is unrealistic, the balance of what’s happening where, is un-proportioned, the characters are in awkward poses, and the lighting source is undefined and all over the place. All this makes the actual artwork itself astoundingly terrible. Now, I’m not a Jeff Easley fan at the best of times, and I do admit that this is somewhat biased, but I’m sure that it would be very difficult to find someone who couldn’t think of at least one way in improving the picture. To be honest, I would have preferred a screen with the Dungeons and Dragons logo on the front of a dark blue leather background (just like the DM books). Now, I understand that they need to make it look interesting for the more excitement orientated audience, so maybe they could have a couple of the iconics about to open an evil looking door or portal or something. At least that creates a little bit of suspense in questioning what could possibly be on the other side, and puts it in a realistic environment. Sorry to harp on about this so much, but I feel the presentation is the second most important thing the Dungeon Master Screen should be about, (the first being it’s ability to hide stuff).

The Booklet
I guess they need some sort of pack in with the screen to justify the price. And this booklet is it. Most of the tables that couldn’t be fit on the screen are found in the book, which is very handy. I’m not sure how necessary the Combat Planer is, as I all ready have my own simpler system for working that stuff all out, but I’m sure it would be very useful for a new time DM. The square grid on the back is very useful if you’ve lost your ruler, and can’t find a pen anywhere. But chances are these items would be easier to find then a photocopier to reproduce this page.

In Conclusion
The screen does fantastically well in doing its number one job of hiding things. It however does a terrible job in presenting the DM, or creating the right (or any) atmosphere for the game. The right tables are on the screen, and the right tables are in the booklet. I didn’t buy it for the booklet, so they could have really printed pictures of Lidda’s bum to photocopy and it still wouldn’t have risen or decreased the rating. I’m sure I’ll still use it though, if only for the other tables when I can’t find the Players Handbook. The reason I’ve given a below average score is that I honestly believe they could have done exceedingly better. The artwork and presentation for me is enough to drive it below three stars. Fix this problem, and give it two extra panels, and I’d give it a five.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Daniel,
Outstanding review!!! Enertaining and accurate. The Forgetten Realms screen has a much better mood to it. Personaly, I use both of them (hum, does that mean I have much to hide from my players, hum - opps they may be reading this post). As I was saying, I love being able to use every one of those tables on the two screens to give completly accurate die roll results to my players.

I look forward to the artwork, err, I mean Detailed Tables, of the Kalamar DM screen. Now let's get back to my screen, a Hooded Lantern, according to PH Table 9-7 (bottom right hand table) has a duration to 6 hours per pint and the PCs have 2 pints of oil and the characters have been in this dungeon for 13 hours and they're are finaly about to enter the room that I spent the 4th of July weekend preparing - do they see anything when they enter the room?

 

[fimp]

-It is not laminated on both sides. I can't remember precisely, but another of my friends has White Wolf's Werewolf screen, and I'm pretty sure it is. Very handy with gamers and our token drink, the soda.

If it was, it would be pretty bad cause then you wouldnt be able to write on it!

 

[Akhenaten]

That's assuming, of course, that you don't have access to a fine-tipped permanent marker.