4E DM's screen: anyone got it?

darkbard · Aug 9, 2008

The DM Screen does not include post-release updates to the skill system and challenges, hence the errata for the DM screen including such on the WotC website.

pukunui · Aug 11, 2008

A guy posting as Bomberg over at the WotC forums got a copy of the DM screen last month (he's somewhere in Europe, I think). According to him, this is what's on it:

Bomberg said:
Okay, here we go. It's a four-panel screen, with the panels being in landscape orientation. The actual length of the thing is more than 1 m.

From left to right we have:

Panel 1: Experience point reward (DMG 120)
Food, Drink, and Lodging (PHB 222)
Light Sources (DMG 66)
Character Advancement (PH 29) - now, this is not needed...
Damage by Level (DMG 42)

Panel 2: Actions in Combat (PH 286)
Attack Modifiers (PH 279)

Panel 3: DCs to Break or Burst Common Items (PH 262)
Target DCs (DMG 42)
Fall Severity by Character Level (DMG 44)
DCs for Commonly Used Skills (no reference; this info has been compiled for the screen)
Cover (PH 280)
Concealment (PH 281)

Panel 4: Conditions (PH 277)
Healing a Dying Character (PH 295)
Death and Dying (PH 295)

The art is essentially on piece spanning all panels. It is a rather dark dungeon vista with monsters approaching: beholder, bat swarm, mind flayer, a black dragon, drow, and so on. There's nothing in the art which really catches the eye, the whole atmosphere is somewhat mencaing.

And, yes, WotC put up errata for the Skill DCs-by-Level chart -- it's a nice little table that you can print off and paste over the old one, although I'm unsure if the color scheme matches. Bomberg made it sound like it doesn't.

His description of the art on the players' side sounds very similar to the initial full-page art spread in the MM (a bunch of CGI PCs facing off against a bunch of CGI monsters in a very poorly lit setting).

Overall, I'm very happy with the things they've put on the DM's side. I can't think of anything else I would want to put on it, although I agree with Bomberg that the level advancement stuff wasn't really needed. I don't know what could have gone there instead, though. Perhaps some of the images in the combat section of the PHB showing how close/area attacks work and that sort of thing?

Kunimatyu · Aug 11, 2008

Oops, looks like they forgot the useful monster tables on pages 184-185.

Guess I'll pass on this and get one of those custom screens you just slide paper into.