4.0 DM Screen Not So Bad

September 15, 2008 By shent_lodge

I picked up the 4th edition Dungeon Masters Screen from the local bookstore. It is not so bad. The coolest thing about the screen is that they reference pages in the book, so for instance, Bull Rush under the Actions in Combat Table on the screen, references the Player’s Handbook page 287. In fact, the game is reduced to 16 simple tables for DM’s to reference quickly across four sturdy panels. The information displayed comes from the Players Handbook and the Dungeon Masters Guide.

Of note, 5 of the tables are from the DMG: Experience Point Rewards, Damage by Level, Light Sources (radius and duration), Target DCs and Fall Severity by Character Level, the rest are from the PH. I’ll need to test it in action, but for now it appears to cover the basics needed to keep play going quite well. If I decide to plaster over an area with my own quick notes, the “Conditions” area will be the first to go, since players can look up the “Weakened” condition in their own Player’s Handbooks for you (p277), while you are checking the screen tables for the DC to force open an adamantine portcullis (DC33) so the game can move forward into the ettin den of doom.

The art that the players get to stare at while you hide your dice rolls is not so bad either. Francis Tsai did the illustrations.