Images for a Dungeon Master's Screen

[Aaron]

Hy there.

Christmas is coming and my group and I are going to create a custom-made DM's screen for our beloved (?) dungeon master.

The problem is: there are too many wonderful D&D images out there!

What would you suggest for a nice 3.5 DM custom-made screen?

 

[Siuis]

Aah! Preview button ate my comment!

Well, let's try again. Not as nice as the first time though...
Consider that, though a DM screen, the players will be the ones really looking at it all the time, and what you see and hear constantly affects your mood.

DM a god-like narrator? Get a hooded man on a throne, or something like the 1ed. DMG cover.
Stark game of good on evil? demonic clash should work.
Get into heated debates all the time? Soothing Irish vistas, overlooking the water at the woods edge while the swans play.
Too calming? How about a warm brown tavern scene (or captains cabin) where a party overlooks a map on a crowded table and divvies the loot.

It's a very personal choice, that should match your DM, his game Nd gaming style, and what the players are ok with. It's better to have criteria instead of people linking awesome images. I'll gladly help with pictures once you've got an idea what to look for though

Myself, I'd dig having a stone or castle wall.

 

[frankthedm]

Lord Soth's Charge is perfect for a GM's screen..

http://mocagh.org/ssi/dkk-coverart.jpg

Here are a few more along the wider pieces viable for GM screens.
Keith Parkinson Online

 

[nedjer]

How about something other than airbrushed fantasy, and legit, from Wikimedia Commons. For example:

Category:Arthur Rackham - Wikimedia Commons
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive: Online Exhibit: Illustration

Here's a Rackham:

 

[Heathen72]

I used a GM's screen for my horror games where the centre panel was the image of a wiry werewolf with a full moon rising behind it. It might have been the old Ravenloft Screen. I can't remember.

Anyway, the best thing about it was that when you sat a candle behind the screen, both the moon and the werewolf's eyes were animated with a sickly orange glow that would waver gently in the dark. As the candle was one of the only light sources in the room, the players would stare hypnotically at the screen, while I tried my best to freak them out.

Good times.

If you like the idea, google moon and werewolf - there are plenty of potentially suitable pictures on the web.

 

[avin]

Depending on the GM the best screen he can get is a candid picture of trolls, orcs, drows, beholders, goblins, pflumphs and hordes of tarrasques butchering the poor players

 

[Aaron]

First of all, thanks for the replies!

DM a god-like narrator? Get a hooded man on a throne, or something like the 1ed. DMG cover.
Stark game of good on evil? demonic clash should work.
Get into heated debates all the time? Soothing Irish vistas, overlooking the water at the woods edge while the swans play.
Too calming? How about a warm brown tavern scene (or captains cabin) where a party overlooks a map on a crowded table and divvies the loot.

It's a very personal choice, that should match your DM, his game Nd gaming style, and what the players are ok with. It's better to have criteria instead of people linking awesome images. I'll gladly help with pictures once you've got an idea what to look for though

That's a good point.

In fact, thinking of my DM, I imagine something like this.

The demonic clash you linked is nice, and we were thinking about it.
But we opted to do something cutomized for him.

Everything that shows the unnatural mess we always end up within his twisted schemes is ok too.

Lord Soth's Charge is perfect for a GM's screen..

http://mocagh.org/ssi/dkk-coverart.jpg

That's a nice image indeed.

How about something other than airbrushed fantasy, and legit, from Wikimedia Commons.

Mmmhh, they look too "classical". He needs something more "Wayne Reynoldish".

I used a GM's screen for my horror games where the centre panel was the image of a wiry werewolf with a full moon rising behind it. It might have been the old Ravenloft Screen. I can't remember.

Anyway, the best thing about it was that when you sat a candle behind the screen, both the moon and the werewolf's eyes were animated with a sickly orange glow that would waver gently in the dark. As the candle was one of the only light sources in the room, the players would stare hypnotically at the screen, while I tried my best to freak them out.

Good times.

If you like the idea, google moon and werewolf - there are plenty of potentially suitable pictures on the web.

I would like it, but I'll admit we aren't suited for horror-dark-gothic-whatevershouldfrightenyou-style play, no matter how hard our DM tries to create the right atmosphere.

Depending on the GM the best screen he can get is a candid picture of trolls, orcs, drows, beholders, goblins, pflumphs and hordes of tarrasques butchering the poor players

Link such image here and we're done!

 

[NN]

A graveyard with lots of big blank tombstones.

On which you record the fates of dead PCs (and perhaps favoured henchmen and allies as well)