3.5 Screens

[Waspinator]

I've been thinking of picking up a new 3.5 D&D DM screen. Does anyone have a personal favorite? If so, why is it that?

Possibilities I'm considering are the Forgotten Realms, Dungeon Crawl Classics #39, and Dragonlance screens.

[arguskos]

The Realms screen is quite nice. I like mine very much.

[Waspinator]

Any chance that I could get a picture or at least a description of the player-side art?

[Chrono22]

i have this one.

[arguskos]

Sadly Waspinator, it's back in Texas, and I'm here in Ohio for the holidays. If you are willing to wait until early January, I'll be happy to provide images then.

[UserClone]

I have the one that came with Dragon...310, I believe it was. The first issue after the 3.5 revision, IIRC. Not as sturdy as the new 4.0 DM screen, but it didn't cost me ten bucks and then not come with a magazine attached either.

[RTGoodman]

i have this one.

That's the same one I have, and it's alright. The art is cool (several of the Iconic PCs fighting off some kobold warriors and mages alongside a red dragon and its hoard), but I've DMed so little IRL since I got it that I haven't use it much. It's just the standard D&D 3.5 DM Screen, though, so it's not one of the ones you mentioned.

I've never seen any of those, though, so I can't offer much advice, but from what I've heard the setting-specific ones are usually pretty good ones if you play in that setting most of the time. I mean, the Dragonlance one (from the description) not only has the moon-tracking chart with it (which is handy since I can NEVER find that page in the DLCS book), AND it comes with a book of NPCs for any DL game. The one I have, on the other hand, just came with a second screen for d20 Modern, which I've NEVER used.

[Hazkali]

I've not used one, but my DM has the dragon-y screen. I think he finds it slightly useful but lacking in many ways, such as no summary of the Grappling or Turning rules (i.e. the ones that you need the screen for), and no page references which are on the 4E screen.

[Waspinator]

That Dragon screen looks cool. Does anyone have a picture of the Modern one that comes with it?

I'm mainly looking for ones with cool art. If they're missing a rule or two, I can always print them out from the SRD and clip it onto the inside.

[NPCMook]

http://www.goodman-games.com/5038preview.html

That is the DCC #39 DM screen. My pal Anakha owns it, and it served him quite well, allthough it does take up more space than your average screen.

[arguskos]

The FR one has Artemis Entri on the far right (player viewing), Drizz't and panther on the far left, and an epic battle involving a beholder and some adventurers in the middle two panels (that's why I bought it; I hate Drizz't >_<).

I will provide pics in about a week.

[RTGoodman]

That Dragon screen looks cool. Does anyone have a picture of the Modern one that comes with it?

I'm mainly looking for ones with cool art. If they're missing a rule or two, I can always print them out from the SRD and clip it onto the inside.

Well, I can't find it online at all, and I'm not sure where mine is off-hand (it's not on my gaming shelves for some reason), but I'll take a look around my other bookshelves later to see if it got stuck in there somewhere. I'll get a picture up if I can find it.

The only problem I have with the one I have (i.e., the standard one plus the d20 Modern one) is that they're laid out differently than the others mentioned - that is, each panel is shorter than it is wide, meaning it's only like 8" tall.

I will say that the one NPCMook looks good, though, so even I might look into that if I decide to get another one (though I'm mostly doing 4E nowadays, so I probably don't need one).

[UserClone]

Holy cheaptastic screen, Batman! Turns out the one I have is now selling for a grand total of ONE BUCK! Game on!

[Waspinator]

Ok, this wins:

http://gamerbling.wordpress.com/gm-t...en-of-dooooom/

This is pretty neat too, though:
http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.p...ducts_id=57722

[Waspinator]

Huh. I would've thought this would have gotten more of a reaction:



The paper one is neat, too:




Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to buy some cardstock....

[RebelRogue]

i have this one.

I've got this one as well, and while it's ok as such, it feels very thin and wimpy compared to the new 4e one. Plus, as noted it comes paired with a d20 Modern screen which is cool and all (it has zombies on it), but it you don't play the game it's pretty redundant.

[Waspinator]

Well, I still have some work to do, but so far I have a pretty neat dice tower:

More tomorrow once I finish more of it....

[Cheesegear]

Well, I still have some work to do, but so far I have a pretty neat dice tower:

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More tomorrow once I finish more of it....

I see Leonardo and some GW Paints. Sadly, my intial reaction of "HOLY CRAP, IT'S GRIMLOCK!!!1!eleven!!!" turned out to be wrong. But, there's some kind of robot tyrannosaurus. I also see Starfarer's. Neat.

Oh, right. The tower's good too.

[Waspinator]

Actually, that IS Grimlock, just probably not the one you're thinking of:
http://www.hasbrotoyshop.com/Product...&ID=23274&PG=1

For further Transformers geekery, that's part of a G1 Omega Supreme's track-backpack poking in on the left and an Animated Leader Ultra Magnus' shoulder on the right.

Grimlock's the "guard dog". He eats people who make silly responses to my pictures.

[AslanCross]

I just use my laptop (since I use it when DMing). Rolling dice is usually done in plain sight in the box my Player's Kit came in.

[bosssmiley]

Holy cheaptastic screen, Batman! Turns out the one I have is now selling for a grand total of ONE BUCK! Game on!

Yep. I got one for each of our players. Can't go wrong for that kind of price.

[Waspinator]

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I am such a nerd.

Edit: Put the image in a spoiler

[Prometheus]

Waspinator, that is more amusing than I would like to admit.

As an Office Depot employee whose job it is to think of solving problem in terms of Office Depot purchases, I think it would be a fantastic idea to make a DM screen yourself. While fancy castle ones are fairly more involved, all your typical DM screen really has is posterboard/cardboard/plastic + oversize picture. Printing and obtaining an oversize picture is the hardest part, but if the biggest your local office supply or copy store can print isn't big enough, they will certainly order it for you to pick up. You'll be able to customize your own, but you'll want to obtain a picture that is large enough that it won't look pixelated if you expand it to a size greater than an ordinary sheet of paper (or alternatively, border it with nicely). Having obtained your oversize print, either have it laminated or glue it to your board.

EDIT:This for example, would make an awesome custom DM screen (by daleicious AKA Dale Darling). You'd have to add a border though.

[Waspinator]

I would have to agree that the biggest obstacle to custom ones is getting suitable artwork (or whatever kind of design you're going with) for the player side. The DM side is usually just some tables you can yank from the SRD; the player side needs a bit more creativity.

And I am having so much fun with the castle one I built. The only problem is that even though it has no system-specific elements, it only feels right for certain genres. I would feel silly using it in a Star Wars game. Heck, even Eberron doesn't feel quite right. It only really fits more classical, fantasy-medieval-Europe style settings. That doesn't mean it's not hilarious to have Ultra Magnus DMing for a group of Autobots, though.

[TheCountAlucard]

I would have to agree that the biggest obstacle to custom ones is getting suitable artwork for the player side.

Indeed. I once used this drawing for the "player side"...

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...but I ended up giving it to one of my players, and have been too lazy to print a copy of it.

[Waspinator]

From here:
http://www.chronocompendium.com/

This could be a neat bit of screen art:

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[Deth Muncher]

From here:
http://www.chronocompendium.com/

This could be a neat bit of screen art:

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Whoa! Is that art by Akira Toriyama? I was entirely unaware he had anything to do with CT.

I am also reminded how much i need to play that game.

[Waspinator]

Yeah, I think he was the main character designer or something. You can tell from the in-game start screen portraits of the characters and also the cutscenes added to the Playstation and DS versions of the game, like this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOmgIZZuI68
It is him. It's just hard to tell with the 16-bit graphics in most of the game. Though, I think the game's actually aged fairly well. The graphics may not the most high tech, but they were very well executed with what resources did exist. The plot is pretty good (in my opinion at least) and the gameplay itself has many lessons that I wish more RPGs would learn (like dual techs).

[Waspinator]

On a more D&D-related topic, these art galleries could be a nice source:
http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/ag
A lot of the art from a lot of D&D books can be found there. You could probably cobble together at least several decent screen-art layouts.
Some of these wallpapers could work well, too:
http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20040423a

[Myatar_Panwar]

Geez. That dice dropping function is epic. If only I was allowed a screen when I DM.