What is in your perfect homemade DM screen ?

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Lurker
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What is in your perfect homemade DM screen ?

Post by Lurker »

So, time is clicking down to the face to face C&C Middle-Earth game 0 with my girls and their friend and her dad.

I have the house rule finished for character creation, Middle Earth Race/Culture, and modifications to C&C classes (and some home brew classes from Me Rig & Tree). I have the setting location dialed in (n slopes of the Twilight Hills), and have modified the setting history a touch (there is more left in the N than The Shire and Bree. It is decimated and sparsely populated, but there are a few villages left or rebuilt after the war with Angmar). Have started modifying an ole beloved adventure (Keep on the Boarderlands) to fit the setting.

A bit ago, I watched a youtub video that got me thinking

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dihHP2dSfFQ&t=3s

So I ordered one of the customizable screens he mentions, and it came in the mail a few days ago.

However, now I have to figure out what to put in the 4 open inside pockets ...

I was thinking the combat modifiers for attacking from higher grounds, unstable (like on horse back) etc. The rules (btb or my house rules) for combat maneuvers like defensive fighting, charging, trip attacks etc). benefit for cover and concealment .

Then maybe things that I don't use that much - poison types ....

Oh yeah, a note for quick conversion of O D&D, AD&D 1e/2e to C&C (incase I don't convert the module completely and have to do it on the fly - yes I know it is easy, but incase I have to do it under pressure if I have it on the screen I don't have to worry about mentality vapor locking and messing it up)

Even with all of that, even if I bump up the fount size so my ole eyes can read it) it still isn't a full page.

So, what else would you all add ?

Oh yeah, I have a folder with common names (along with the NPC names) home brew Middle-Earth AC and weapons and equipment prices. So, I don't need any of that in the screen.

That said, if you were designing your custom C&C screen, what would you put in it ?

Crud ... random encounters ... I need to finish it for that area in Middle Earth ... See that is why I like talking to you all it reminds me of what I've forgotten to do !
"And so I am become a knight of the Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows!" - Mark Twain

Forgive all spelling errors.

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Rigon
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Re: What is in your perfect homemade DM screen ?

Post by Rigon »

I'd have to look what was on my CK's Screen and D&D 5e Screen to see what isn't there that I would like, but that stuff is at home and I an not. So, I'll look tonight.

I know there was information on the DM's Screen that I thought was useless and information that I thought was missing (at least for me) and the same for my CK Screen, but I don't remember what that was off hand.

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anvil242
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Re: What is in your perfect homemade DM screen ?

Post by anvil242 »

I would put rules that you use but don't come up all that often, or summaries, thereof. I have a monk in my party who occasionally likes to grapple, so a summary of those would be useful to me. Overland movement, the odd combat modifier. You probably know what you don't know, put that on there. Also put stuff on there that you want to use but forget to in the moment. Equipment saving throws fall into this category for me.

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Re: What is in your perfect homemade DM screen ?

Post by Captain_K »

I have hung pictures/images/sketches of what is to come on the outside, I do not point at them, I just hang them there, some folks always look and notice, others never look... but that was in days of live face to face gaming... use the outside of the screens more than the inside.
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Re: What is in your perfect homemade DM screen ?

Post by Persimmon »

I think someone said poison types & effects, but that should be in there. The turning undead rules, since they differ a bit from AD&D. Definitely item saving throws. I'd say weapon damage, but that's on the character record sheets & I always put that on a sheet with the marching order, which also has the vital stats & short combat notes for each PC.
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Re: What is in your perfect homemade DM screen ?

Post by Captain_K »

I have summarized in one page all the combat maneuvers, plus the cover and conceal bonuses, all the things that are besides the BtH. Its published in the Domesday 7 or 8, I recall with a cute graphic for many too. Print that page out, tape it on. Oh, print in color as those that must be declared before initiative are in one color, those you declare whenever, in another.
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Re: What is in your perfect homemade DM screen ?

Post by Lurker »

Thanks for the ideas

I did add the cleric turn rules. I do play a cleric here and there so I am familiar with them, but even then there are times I vapor lock on it and have to look it up on the book in the middle of the game, so yeah as a DM I need it easy access.

I had already added the combat modifiers / cover concealment & the plosion rules.

Now, and I hate to admit it, I realized this weekend Sat night, while I was going through converting different monster stat blocks for my QRF etc, and the girls were putting together the player folders with character sheets quick ref notes etc, I was looking at this question from the wrong angle …

I have been playing for YEARS and DMing a lot back in the day, and again now with the Monday Night Ne'er-do-Wells for something like 2 years. I know the rules, and what I don't know I can fake it enough to sound good.

However, one day one of my girls just may want to run a game. My younger girl is just excited to be getting to play and her enthusiasm may leader her to want to run. My older girl is the thoughtful one, and she kept asking question on 'why is this important' on the QRF, why I was converting different animals and monsters (to have easy access and not have to flip through books to find and then convert at the table while everyone waited for me) and how do I know what monster will be where, how many they will be, how strong they will be etc. All questions a good DM should be asking for each adventure. So she my want to DM since she is the thoughtful intellectual one.

With that, I am going to add things I do not need (what save goes to what attribute, Perception checks, etc) for if one of them down the road does want to try their hand at DMing.
"And so I am become a knight of the Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows!" - Mark Twain

Forgive all spelling errors.

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Hakdov
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Re: What is in your perfect homemade DM screen ?

Post by Hakdov »

Has there ever been an official C&C screen?

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maximus
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Re: What is in your perfect homemade DM screen ?

Post by maximus »

Hakdov wrote:
Mon May 10, 2021 4:55 pm
Has there ever been an official C&C screen?
Yes, there have been a few. I think I have the most recent version, bought a few years ago. I did a quick search on the Troll's website, but couldn't find one. I assume they're out of print.

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Persimmon
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Re: What is in your perfect homemade DM screen ?

Post by Persimmon »

Yeah; I had the latest one, traded it to someone, and now I can't find it anymore! Argh!!!!!!!!
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Re: What is in your perfect homemade DM screen ?

Post by Lurker »

Captain_K wrote:
Sat May 08, 2021 12:48 pm
I have hung pictures/images/sketches of what is to come on the outside, I do not point at them, I just hang them there, some folks always look and notice, others never look... but that was in days of live face to face gaming... use the outside of the screens more than the inside.
Rgr that. I have a printed out good quality map of the area of Middle Earth they are in, a couple of pictures out of the ole MERP books that I could find.

They should set the feeling of the game nicely.

I'll probably add some pictures that fit the PCs after they make them, and maybe a picture of the key locations of the next few games (more than likely a Celt hill fort kind of thing that is going to be the modified 'Keep on the Borderlands' that I'm going to run them through.

As for C&C DM screen, after thinking about it, I though I had an old digital copy, but I can't find it and it isn't in my drivethrou rpg library, so I guess I didn't get it back in the day.
"And so I am become a knight of the Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows!" - Mark Twain

Forgive all spelling errors.

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