D&D (2024) What should WotC change with their new screen?

[Quickleaf]

Remember when Xanathar's Guide came out and Chapter 2 had little rules clarifications – how to adjudicate simultaneous effects, falling rate, how to wake someone up/sleeping in armor/no long rest consequences, perceiving a caster, identifying spell (ok their answer sucked then but at least they tried), guidelines on treasure distribution by level...

Rules like this – the kind of rules that stall out play and lead to thumbing through books or looking online, arguments, or bored players – are prime examples of what I think should be on the DM Screen. For example, 2 that spring to mind are the distinction between invisibility & being hidden and how surprised actually works like a condition (not how some folks misremember it).

 

[Stormonu]

I also liked that my 1E/2E screens had information the players could consult - weapon charts (with those often forgotten ranges for bows and x-bows), the level progression chart, container capacities, (jump rules....) and the like where the players can easily see that info.

Another thing that struck me might be flip-up panels - say, having exploration-related info on the overflap (random weather, random encounters, NPC initial reactions, example skill DCs) and flip that panel up (and over?) to reveal combat-oriented rules underneath. And as before, the flipped-over leaf might have information useful to the players during combat - various conditions, concentration rules, (jump rules...), etc.

 

[Reynard]

Regularly consulted charts should also be printed on the end pages of the core books, an innovation that most RPG publishers seem to be coming around to.

Instead of having to flip through the whole book for stuff I will look up more or less every session, just put it on the inside front cover.

Having blank end pages is a huge waste of valuable -- and easily consulted -- real estate.

I feel like this used to be standard practice. Am I dreaming it?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I feel like this used to be standard practice. Am I dreaming it?

I don't think any official D&D book has ever done it, but it's really common in many third party books and in other industries. If you have a hardcover book that's used for day to day work in many fields, it often has printed endpapers, for instance.

 

[Reynard]

I don't think any official D&D book has ever done it, but it's really common in many third party books and in other industries. If you have a hardcover book that's used for day to day work in many fields, it often has printed endpapers, for instance.

I just checked: the 1E and 2E PHBs both had collections of reference tables at the end.

 

[Peter BOSCO'S]

Stop wasting the player side with pretty art. The players are the ones who never bother to read the books so they need screen information more than the DM does. Make it huge print so they can read it from far away. The first thing that I would start with is "Without light Darkvision give you DIM LIGHT. With DIM LIGHT you have disadvantage on all your perception checks and a -5 to your Passive Perception. You WILL miss many details!"

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

New screen up for preorder, available Nov. 12.

I suspect folks will have some thoughts about the art.

 

[Cadence]

New screen up for preorder, available Nov. 12.

I suspect folks will have some thoughts about the art.

The full art from amazon...

and a bit of the inside:

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It feels, to me, like the opening of the Vox Machina cartoon, which may not be a coincidence.

We've had decades of action sequences, so trying something different is fine.

 

[MockingBird]

I'm not sure about the DM screen art. It's good but it feels off compared to the new core books. Wonder if we will get an alt screen.