What are the most commonly looked up things from the rulebooks? (GM screen help)

[kahlzun]

Hi all,

I am planning to have a go at being a GM for my gaming group.
I have never done this before, and want to have a screen with all the most important information i will need for my reference.

I will include the basic stuff, but I'm wanting to know, in everyones experience, what things are looked up the most often.
I imagine spell descriptions would rank pretty high, but again: what sort of spells?
I doubt anyone needs to look up how Magic Missile works, whereas Dispel Magic might need more. Should i have a copy of any spells whose descriptions go for more than a paragraph? Should i just organically add the information if it comes up a lot in-game?

Thanks for any help,

Sam

[Thurbane]

The On-Screen DM Screen (http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/resources/systems/pennpaper/dnd35/soveliorsage/toolsScreen.html) probably offers some good guidelines.

[Inevitability]

I suggest taking a look at what spells your PC's are planning to use and having the spell descriptor of the more complicated ones printed out. The same goes for any tricky spells or abilities used by your NPC's.

After all, while knowing that Alter Self grants racial skill bonuses is nice, it's not something you have to know if your party is a barbarian, a favored soul, a warmage and a psychic rogue.

[Hurnn]

Turn Undead, and spell descriptions.

[rrwoods]

Spell descriptions++. Especially information gained from detect magic and/or Spellcraft rolls -- I find that even experienced DMs end up forgetting about that and have to look it up, which eats time as they try to remember which book the effect is in or what have you. This goes for spell effects in place as part of the campaign too (magical traps or whatever).

[Jarmen4u]

These maybe aren't the most common, but these rules are almost always argued about when they come up: Tripping, Grappling, Sundering (though this is rare), and Attacks of Opportunity.

[Temotei]

Grapple rules, probably. You'll get used to them fast, though, since you'll be using them so much if you use non-humanoid monsters at all.

[GilesTheCleric]

I put the onus on the players to produce spell descriptions or complex rules related to their characters. I have those spells/ rules bookmarked if I expect an NPC to use them. That said, having the rules for Dispel and Detect Magic handy wouldn't be bad.

Things that I would consider putting on a screen: travel speeds by various transport (horses, carriages, flatboats, rowboats, forced march, etc); weather effects; wealth caps by town size; each vision/ sense mode; each BAB and save progression; planar charts (mishaps, portals, random encounters, etc); population race %s; quick-reference for combat manoeuvers; common object hardness/ HP; flight manoeuverability; and each of the players' perception and sense motive bonuses.

Maybe those kinds of things aren't important to you, but they are in my games (50%+ social/ political, 25%- combat, 25%- exploration).

[Telok]

Skill DCs, conditions. Underwater, climbing, and airborn combat rules. Grapple, trip, sunder, turn undead. A list of common breakables with str DCs, hardness, hit points. The confusion table, from the spell. Any special environment rules that are in play.

[Allanimal]

The On-Screen DM Screen (http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/resources/systems/pennpaper/dnd35/soveliorsage/toolsScreen.html) probably offers some good guidelines.

Commenting just to remember this link. It's an awesome link BTW. Thanks for cluing me in to it.

[lylsyly]

I always made my players give me a 3.5 card for each spell in their spell books (spells known wasn't a thing last time I DM'd). That way I had a ready reference when they said they were going to cast ***. Of course, after a while you do not need them for the common spells.

These days ... I would say the Action Economy (because I still have a hard time with it), Trip, Grapple, Sunder, AoO, Turn/Rebuke is a definite yes, and any thing else you may think of. Consider your own and your parties weak point rules wise and plan accordingly.

just my 2 coppers
YMMV

[Thurbane]

Commenting just to remember this link. It's an awesome link BTW. Thanks for cluing me in to it.

Yes, a lot of people are more familiar with the Hypertext d20 SRD page, but the Sovelior Sage SRD has some nice stuff in it too.

[johnbragg]

To me, more important than the old school DM Screen is a little spreadsheet with the PC's AC, full HP, attack routines, maybe Perception, maybe resource-accounting for the spellcasters.

And the same for the monsters I plan to run.

(I run a family game, so some of that might not be necessary when your players are old enough to reliably track their own HP and spells, and reliably calculate their attacks.)

[J-H]

The Condition Summary listing (3.5 SRD) is something I end up referring to on a regular basis. If your party starts favoring certain spells like Grease or Web that have multiple saves/skill checks over a multi-round duration, I would include those as well.

[GreatDane]

Stuff that's always nice to have on hand in my games:

Grapple rules
Spellcraft DCs
Rules for detect magic and dispel magic
Conditions
Turn Undead rules

[Thurbane]

Stuff that's always nice to have on hand in my games:

Grapple rules
Spellcraft DCs
Rules for detect magic and dispel magic
Conditions
Turn Undead rules


This are all excellent suggestions.

I'm looking at making my own physical screen at some point in the future (currently use the "official" one), and those are all things I would include on mine.