Well, I’m getting ready to GM again. While the Ennies were going on, and I had just moved, I figured I’d take a break from my Forgotten Realms campaign. It was good. I got a chance to play SLA and Mutants & Masterminds as well as prepare whole new chapters for my own campaign with material that I either didn’t know about, like Poisoncraft or weren’t out yet, like Grim Tales.
Well, as I prepared my notes, I noted something. Where was my screen? I had an Arcana Unearthed screen, and a Dragonlance once, but I couldn’t find my 3.5 edition screen. Well, couldn’t be helped. Off to the local Barnes & Nobles for a new screen with my 10% discount card. With the screen costing $14.95, I was glad I had that card.
When I got home, I opened it up. It’s in the landscape format that Monte made. This works better as it allows you to see over the screen without too much movement, even as it keeps your campaign notes, and more importantly, die rolls, secret. I was surprised that there was no booklet but rather, two screens.
The first one I investigated was the d20 Modern Screen. Now both screens are four panel jobs with full color art on one side and game related mechanics on the interior. Note that the two outer panels aren’t full-length page wise so it’s more like three and a half pages. I wonder if that’s best. I know that players frequently seek out the PHB in my game to check experience point totals for levels and to verify their saving throws as they go up in levels. Well, that’s a topic for another day.
The modern screen is mostly made up of various difficulty check levels for all of the skills. It also boasts a lot of material to cover actions, including free, move, and full round actions. One of the most useful things was the page that covered thrown explosives. It has a nice deviation listing, as well as different burst radius patterns. Nothing too shocking and nothing too notable.
I flip over to the Dungeon and Dragons screen. It’s a damn fine painting of the iconic characters moving into a dragon’s lair as his kobold minions prepare to defend him. The interior though, is much the same. Information on actions, including what type and if it incurs and attack of opportunity, as well as different difficult check levels for numerous skills. The one table that once again I rely at as I often GM on the fly so to speak, the experience point table, is missing. The other thing I find odd is that the d20 Modern screen has the burst radius diagrams on it, but the game where characters are lobbing spells that inflict, oh, say a 20’ radius, doesn’t have it.
Is it nice to have object hardness and hit points for weapons and common objects? Sure. It is nice to see what the break or burst DC is for doors and iron bars? Sure. However, at the end of the day and I’m getting ready to total up experience points, I still have to break out my DMG.
Or I could stick with my Kingdoms of Kalamar screen. Although I haven’t picked up the 3.5 edition yet, this product just provides me another reason to. Now not everyone breaks out experience points at the end of the day, some do it after the entire adventure is over. Some award experience points ad hoc. Some just level their players up every couple of adventures. Now I didn’t steal the Rolemaster experience point method. That was the author of the DMG. If I’m forced to work with it, I think that officially, such a needed tool to level up the players would be available in every official screen, and not just those like the Dragonlance or Kalamar screens.
For those who don’t need the experience point table, this is a useful screen and it’s new format is superior to the old. It has some great art and is nice and sturdy. It includes several commonly referenced tables and bits of information that help the game flow along. It’s not perfect by any means but it is official.
If you haven’t picked up a 3.5 screen yet and you need one for d20 Modern and Dungeons and Dragons, this one has a lower price than the Kalamar screen and doesn’t include a mediocre d20 Modern adventure like the one from Green Ronin/The Game Mechanics does.
