D&D 5E What is the most important info on your custom DM screen?

[Jester David]

Imperial to metric conversions

 

[Croesus]

I guess my screen would need plastic sheet protectors and baseball card pockets to change these things out.

I don't use a screen, as it takes up too much space on the game table, getting in the way. Your idea of card pockets has me thinking maybe I just put all the various lookup info on a dozen or so index cards, stacked nearby. I can easily flip through the cards when needed, which is easier than a screen or going through pages of info stuck at the back of my game binder. Hmm...

 

[Wiseblood]

Simple rule of thumb: if you as DM have to look it up more than once a session it's probably something you want on the back of the screen.

Lan-"and make sure the screen is heavy enough card stock to be self-standing and to allow things to be paper-clipped to it"-efan

I was thinking along the same lines.
Oddly enough monster stats are what I look up the most.

I find it interesting that some don't use a screen. I realize it may sound silly but, without the screen I feel like Bruce Wayne, just another high roller. Behind the DM screen I am Batman.

More than one post has brought up or alluded to cards. I think that has great potential and I have seen more than one DM (Matt Mercer IIRC) use them. I wonder if wizards has thought to capitalise on that?

 

[Lanefan]

I was thinking along the same lines.
Oddly enough monster stats are what I look up the most.

But not, I hope, the same monster every single session.

 

[Imaculata]

I simply have way too much information to track to put any of it on a DM screen. I still use a DM screen though, if simply for the novelty of it. But much of the stuff I track is on rather large lists, and require me to make notes. It would simply be a hassle to have to unclip some from the DM screen every time I needed to make a note. So I keep it all in a notebook and on my laptop.

 

[jimmytheccomic]

I have a slip of paper that correlates player names to character names, and lists their AC and Passive Perception. It's by far the best thing on my screen.

 

[Coroc]

I do not use any, for de fun of it. I did use one and bent dice sometimes but that was back in 2e, i now do roll everything in the open.

What i do use is a Little spreadsheet for each session detailing Mobs attack damage stats hp range silver range (if any) so i just open up the mm eventually to Show a Picture of the mob.

I also got another spreadsheet like this with all numeric info on the Party.