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<blockquote data-quote="haiiro" data-source="post: 986535" data-attributes="member: 1891"><p>I've always loved having a DM's screen available. Most of the time I'll use it normally -- putting it between myself and the players -- but it also works quite well set off to the side. That gives you room to lean in over the table (assuming that's where you play), which is particularly nice if you're using a map -- and you still have a hidden spot to lay out notes, monsters, etc.</p><p></p><p>For 3e (and presumably 3.5e), I think a battlemat of some sort is pretty much required. I don't like pre-drawing everything to minis scale, but I also don't like talking my way through most 3e combats -- there are too many movement-related options. For my next game, I'll be drawing up likely combat areas in advance, and just loosely mapping the rest in small scale (not suitable for minis).</p><p></p><p>I also like to have a binder of some sort available, in which go pregen encounters, notes, statted monsters, errata, etc. The biggest thing I'll be doing differently with this in my next campaign is photocopying monster entries, then statting out the specific creatures and putting both items in the binder. This should eliminate the classic "Hey, he's got the Monster Manual open to the Os, and this thing is pretty big -- I bet it's an ogre!" situation. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>There are lots of great suggestions in this thread so far -- just don't try to do it all at once. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p>(Edit: typo.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="haiiro, post: 986535, member: 1891"] I've always loved having a DM's screen available. Most of the time I'll use it normally -- putting it between myself and the players -- but it also works quite well set off to the side. That gives you room to lean in over the table (assuming that's where you play), which is particularly nice if you're using a map -- and you still have a hidden spot to lay out notes, monsters, etc. For 3e (and presumably 3.5e), I think a battlemat of some sort is pretty much required. I don't like pre-drawing everything to minis scale, but I also don't like talking my way through most 3e combats -- there are too many movement-related options. For my next game, I'll be drawing up likely combat areas in advance, and just loosely mapping the rest in small scale (not suitable for minis). I also like to have a binder of some sort available, in which go pregen encounters, notes, statted monsters, errata, etc. The biggest thing I'll be doing differently with this in my next campaign is photocopying monster entries, then statting out the specific creatures and putting both items in the binder. This should eliminate the classic "Hey, he's got the Monster Manual open to the Os, and this thing is pretty big -- I bet it's an ogre!" situation. :) There are lots of great suggestions in this thread so far -- just don't try to do it all at once. ;) (Edit: typo.) [/QUOTE]
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