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95 of 98 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
3rd Edition DMG Screen a Must, September 19, 2000
As a long time D&D player and DM (22 years), I awaited the release of the third edition rules with some trepidation. My fears were allayed after receiving the Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide and the DMG screen. This edition of the DMG screen is 4 panels wide (a big improvement over previous 2 or 3 panel screens) with all of it's information on the DM side. The player facing side is nicely done art and does a good job "setting the mood". The information included on the DM side is: Balance, Bluff, Breaking/Bursting, Climb, Concentration, Device, Escape, Listen, Open, and Search DCs. There are examples for Opposed Checks and Door DCs. There are tables for Substance/Object Hardness and Hit Points. Tables for Combat Actions, Attack Modifiers, Partial Actions, Cover, Concealment, Miscellaneous Actions, Creature Size, and Turning round out this highly useful item. There is a small booklet included with the screen that includes a sample miniature grid, a combat planner, and some quick town generation rules. The booklet also includes examples of converting circular/cone effects to a square grid, Disease and Poison info and complete weapon information. The cost of the DMG screen is so low compared with it's usefulness that this item is a must have.
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52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nice, durable, and slightly overpriced., September 19, 2000
Well, a DM Screen is always a handy thing: especially for your players not to see what you just rolled, either for atmosphere or to cheat a little with the results. The problem is, most Screens always seem to have the same flaws:they're too small, and they're cheaply built. Not this time! This DM Screen is plastified, and four panels long, wich makes it more durable and allows to all of us DMs some SPACE to put our books and maps. [sigh] The DM Screen also comes in with a sheet of 1 inch graph paper, and a 7 page book containing some useful and some "not-so-useful" rule information: weapons table, grenadelike weapons, generating town and a Combat Planner. The front artwork is okay, but not fantastic. It catches the feeling of Dungeons and Dragons, but nothing more. The inside is nice: all important rules are there, especially the numerous actions possible in combat, their "action type" (free, move-equivalent, etc.), plus some handy notes (DC to break items, bash doors, hardness/hit points of numerous materials, light sources...) and an entire pannel is solely there for examples of DC for various skills: Balance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, and many more. Overall, it's a good product, but in my humble opinion, it is slightly overpriced: I got mine for 12,95$CAN, wich is seems a bit too costy, considering it doesn't come with any handy sidebook (such as Critters, in Shadowrun, wich justified its 15-20$ cost).
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49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very well designed - not essential, but nice, October 22, 2000
Ah, the DM's screen... many people see them as a waste of time, because all of the information is printed in the rulebooks. Why bother with more of same-old, when you can just look it up?Most of the more experienced DMs out there, however, know that a good DM screen is invaluable. Not only can you hide your maps and adventure notes from the player, you can also run the game more smoothly. Instead of spending time flipping frantically through pages, you can instead tell a story! It's that kind of detail that separates a good, efficient DM from a great one. So, the question is, is this screen up to the task? Actually, yes. It's quite large, being 4 full panels wide, and allowing you plenty of space. With a little manipulation, you can probably even set up a computer to one side without distracting the players. And the tables themselves? Extensive, but not over-worked. The most-used portions of this screen will likely be Combat, Attack Mods, etc. A few of the more esoteric entries include resolution of skills (Breaking, Climbing, Escaping, Listening, Searching, etc.). Although these are highly situational, it's easy to see how these events could come up unexpectedly, as players make their own decisions and try devious routes of play. I think the table choices here are intuitive, and excellent. The booklet that comes with a DM screen is usually a mini-adventure. This time around, it's a nice layout featuring combat sheets, encounter generation, and graph paper for map grids. Very dry, but probably much more valuable in the long run than a one-shot scenario. The artwork on the screen is actually important as well... it's something your players will be staring at for hours on end, so I would say the art is very good, but not detailed enough to inspire endless player inspection. (One piece of advice I can give, however - if you have pictures of monsters, locations, etc., just prop them against the outside of your screen while the encounter continues. This does wonders. ;) If all you're after is something to hide your notes, lore, die rolls, and devious machinations from your players, you don't need this. (Personally, I prefer the artwork on the 1980 DM's screen, whose tables are of course woefully inadequate.) But if you wand a tool that will put all of the most-needed information at your fingertips, helping you run the game with ease, while you focus on things that are more engaging (like roleplaying and storytelling), you need this!
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