Dungeon Master's Screen Reincarnated (Dungeons & Dragons)

I've already retired my old DM screen, this one is far more useful. [Kept] - Conditions + Exhaustion - Setting a DC - Tracking DCs - Damage by level and severity - Skills and associated abilities - Cover - Obscured Areas - Travel pace - Encounter distance - Light [Added] - Actions in combat - "Things you can do on your turn" - Jumping rules - Suffocating - Concentration Rules! (maybe I'll remember to make checks now) - Object hitpoints - Object armor class - Services (price for hirelings, messengers, ship passage etc) - Food, drink and lodging prices [Removed] - All the NPC Stuff (i.e the entire left panel) - Something happens! - Quick finds

Happened to be wanting my first DM screen the day this was released. The construction is quality and stands up well. The glossy finish on the Gorgeous artwork is quite slick. I’m half tempted to place this on my wall whenever I’m not using it. Inside is information on Combat Actions, Conditions, Difficulty Checks, Skills and their associated abilities, travel times, services/common goods, cover, light, and size references for creatures. Plus a couple other misc tables. For a beginning DM this is all I could have hoped for, and well worth the price!

I'm a new DM and new to 5th Edition. Gorgeous outside cover on this remastered version. Lots of useful information on the inside. . .especially for a newbie player/DM, like me. I tried taking more closer up pictures of each panel to help others see what's what. I provided the players (all new to tabletop RPGs) a cheat sheet the covers the flow and calculation of combat and player actions, which I printed from the Internet. This is the only thing that could have helped me out is instead of taking 2 panels for conditions, give us more detail on calculation combat and damage. But no big deal. Great addition to the game.

This is a great DM screen. The information it provides is perfect for new DMs and veterans alike! It is alittle on the short side and as such that is the only thing I would change about it, and not by much...just slightly taller (which is personal preference). The good thing about the size is it will not block your face or mouth so your players will be able to hear you clearly. If your like me however and wish to hide your face when you make silly voices for some of the NPCs, well...this won't help much. The artwork on the player side (as well as the DM side!) is phenomenal and everyone comments on it. Definitely makes for entertaining eye candy for the players instead of making them look at a homemade piece of rubbish 😂 My favorite thing is all the good info the screen provides, and I like the material. Its high quality, and it has a glossy type laminate over it. If you wish to you could easily use scotch tape, to tape your own paper (cut to size) to this screen and would not need to worry about the tape ripping anything off. I highly recommend!

This revised DM screen gets rid of the random NPC tables from the first 5th edition screen and replaces them with more useful information: descriptions of the actions that can be taken in combat, object AC & HPs, tracking DCs, and prices for food / drink / lodging / services. Unfortunately the art takes a big hit. Instead of an exciting battle scene between a party of adventurers and a one-eyed red dragon with a kobold retinue, the player side of this screen just has a red dragon flying away from a burning village with a villager in its claws. Not nearly as interesting to look at as a player. WotC did add a big "&" in one corner and "Dungeons & Dragons" in another -- in case your players forget what game you are playing. :P The screen is just as well made as the previous version: thick, stiff and glossy coated. It is also still in landscape orientation - which I prefer. High quality, more utility, just less interesting to look at for players.

This is a very good DM screen. It is an official D&D WoTC screen, and a redo of their first 5e version my wife got me (hence the "reincarnated" version.) I felt like the first screen had things I never used, like an entire page for making NPC's. I make all my NPC's in advance, and if we need someone on the fly, I am not interested in making their "bond" at that moment, or a table to roll for it. It also lacked certain other things I really actually needed in game. This screen gives me more of what I find myself needing at my fingertips. First, my critiques, because they are few. Possible negatives: - It isn't very tall for a DM screen. I'm 6'3" and I play with other tall players and I have to roll the dice results I want to hide right up against the inside facing me to obscure the result. - It's construction is cardboard and so is not likely to be terribly durable with repeat use. Especially because it folds up. - I would have liked more combat helps like resistance rules. - There have been some printing and quality issues with some of these (though I have not personally encountered those with the one I got). - They kept some of the art and tables from the first iteration, so this feels more like a fix than a new product. Not so much "reincarnated" as cured, by my definition. (DM reasoning). Things that are great: - Skill names and what they do! I started with AD&D second edition and have been playing since. So going from non-weapon proficiencies, to skills in 3.5, and then Pathfinder, and then now a simplification of the skill system, I still find myself asking for sense motive and spellcraft checks and am frequently caught unnecessarily saying the word "knowledge" before my arcana checks. Having the skills listed and examples of what they should be used for is incredibly helpful. Skill checks should be something you ask your players to make frequently and deciding what skill would work can take some thought. - The difficulty level is on the same page as the skills. This is very helpful because players will try to use skills in ways you hadn't thought of before. You'll need to decide on the fly how hard whatever it is they are trying might be, and the table is right there for you giving you a range to decide. - Suggested damage tables for appropriate traps and hazards to make sure you're making them to what you had in mind as a DM. - Conditions tables including exactly how it affects players and what they can and cannot do. Very helpful for some confusing ones, like restrained vs. grappled. (The D&D podcast Dragon Talk had Jeremy Crawford do a segment just on grappling in their Sage Advice segment that is very helpful in clarifying this.) - Rules for cover in combat. Seldom used in my games, which makes this is helpful, as it's one less thing I have to lookup in combat when cover comes into play. - Prices for services, food and drink. They'll go shopping or spend their money in ways that surprise you sometimes. - Travel times. I rarely have these memorized. This screen is much better. It plays like it was tested to be used in game, where the last one seems like it was for prep. As a DM, I'm looking for reference material in the moment. I need information to be ready to react to the unpredictable choices and circumstances the players will create. The information here helps me appear prepared and help maintain verisimilitude. I had a dragonborn rip a small fountain out of a wall and hit a vampire with it. This has tables for difficulty and object hit points! I would have liked it to be taller, better quality and have more combat information. So that knocks off one star. However it has the rules I like to keep handy, and it is still better than the thin cardboard versions TSR was selling me in the 90's. It's very inexpensive, too. If you use screens, try this one.

My first DM screen. It has useful information that I generally need to look up such as combat actions and some various price tags. It also has a few other useful tables and conditions readily available. Sticky notes stick and peel off nicely in case I need additional information at the ready or to make room for something else. Bending the notes up to reveal other information is nice too. Overall, the lack of clutter makes referencing the information easy, especially with the aid of some of the visuals. It also allows for sticky note space to add the passive perception of my players or basic notes that I may need to remember later on. I know some people want more information added but it just makes things more difficult to pick out and read when you actually need it. The balance on this screen seems well thought out and executed. One problem I did have is the cover for the screen itself. It's just a sheet of paper that fold over the folded screen. Would be nice if it was a hard cover (mine tore a little from just reaching over to grab it) or maybe have a poster side to hang up on a wall. This is by far not a deal breaker but it would be nice to have put more effort into the cover.

While the last DM screen had a lot of role play information, this is exactly what a DM needs if they want to have the relevant rules on hand. There's even some information on here that I didn't know I wanted to have on a screen, such as how far away a creature can be heard by other creatures given how loud the noise is. If you're looking for a fifth edition screen that is that pure, crunchy reference and table spread you want, get this one for sure!

This screen is the best looking screen in the history of D&D. I love it. Its glossy, well crafted, sturdy. All the elements of a great screen, except the MOST IMPORTANT thing, the actual tables. I will go PANEL to PANEL. PANEL 1. Actions in Combat, yes relevant but point of origin is not. That is a concept which once you understand you don't need a picture. That space could have been used for more relevant combat actions like say Speed Factor Initiative modifiers. PANEL 2. Conditions. Very relevant for 5E and for combat, so it makes sense to be Panel 2. No complaints. PANEL 3. There are TRACKING, TRAP damage, Object Hit Points, object armor class tables...not a priority and it took away from actual DMing priorities. A DM screen should prioritize what a DM needs to resolve the messiest parts of D&D. Which is usually combat. This is where the game can slow down to a crawl because players don't know something or need to look something up. This is where the DM can really shine by smoothing the game up with quick answers. If someone is TRACKING someone, that's usually during a slow part of the game where looking up the table in a book wont compromise the whole flow of the game. Combat is where you want all the answers and minimal book delving and page turning. That cripples the flow of the game! How many times are players going to hit objects in your campaign? How many times in a game session do you need to know the Armor Class of a Wooden Table? Or how many hit points that table has? Waste of space. PANEL 4. SERVICES is not required here. How many times during a entire game session do you reference how much it costs for a coach cab, a messenger or toll? If it's not more than twice, then it should NOT be taking up space on a screen. LIGHT takes up space, but past the first few levels of play, has light ever been that critical in any game? Who does not have a party without a light spell at that point? And is light something you have to keep looking up? Or can't you just write down or remember the capability you are using? Once a player knows how far his lantern goes, do you really need to keep reminding him or looking it up in a book? Can he write it on his character sheet? Jeez, more wasted space. FOOD, DRINK, AND LODGING. Who CARES. Past a few levels of play, none of this is relevant. The characters will either have the money or ability to attain whatever is on that list. The most expensive item on that list is 10gp. Who cares? get rid of it! Then they take a quarter page to show you a picture of what the size comparisons between a human and a dragon and a giant. AHHHHHH! OK, so what was missing? DEATH AND DYING. Hello! 5E added a whole new rule, not complicated, but guess what? What happens in fights? Characters and creatures die. So this is something you would reference many times during the coarse of a game. Nope not on the screen. GRAPPLING & SHOVING. How many times do creatures and characters scuffle and fight? Ummmm, how about EVERYTIME! And if there is fighting , there is a big chance for grappling and shoving. How about proficiency bonuses for character advancement? Would it not be nice to know what a newly introduced character's proficiency bonus is off the cuff? Damn right! But also missing. Ultimately, they produced the most aesthetically beautiful, well crafted and artistic screen, but blundered on its content. This is what happens when NON-PLAYERS hired by corporate suits who only care about their cash cow, MAGIC the GATHERING, direct the design for loyal players and followers of D&D. So what should you do? SOLUTION: Make copies of the relevant tables to YOU and cut them and paste them on a screen you make. Does it look pretty? NO.. Does it make your game run smooth ? YES. Will this product? NOPE!!!!!! I bought an old screen and paper clip relevant tables so it is customized to my style of play. The goal is to speed of the messy parts of D&D, not to have a pretty picture for your players that doesn't even represent what your characters are doing, so don't get hung up on the picture, use what works!

DM screen's information is great. It has everything I need readily accessible at my fingertips. The only thing though, is that the lamination on top of the dragon artwork on the front has air bubbles in it and is separated in some places. It look's pretty bad.