Well an important thing to note is that you are the wizard of OZ now. The DM/GM is the person behind the curtain pulling all the little switches to make sure the players just see a big scary head. Should the curtain fall all sense of awe is lost. In a way that is what the DM screen is, a curtain. This can be a cardboard barrier obscuring your GM work area, the anonymity of the internet if you are playing over skype or some other digital medium, but my curtain is less physical.
Figure 1: This is my Curtain
I don't have my curtain standing in front of me, though that could be possible should I decide too do it that way. My personality does not pertain to deception, even for the sake of fun, very well. I never hide what I as the GM, therefore environment of the players' game world, roll. This has a few pros and cons.
Figure 2: Abridged Pros and Cons
This list is neither objective nor comprehensive. It is meant to quickly explain some things I've found in my own sessions with people. For me my curtain is created by player's distance from where I am at the table, along with how most information beyond monster stats is in my head. I'm not masterful, or even at a journeyman level, for improvisation. Yet, improve allows me to store and change the campaign whenever it is needed.Players can argue if certain actions deserve different results more easily. You might be wondering, why is this a pro? I view the campaign as me helping the players experience a world and enjoy themselves. I am also incapable for accounting every possibility. For instance, today (12/10/2016) was my Saturday groups first D&D session in in three weeks.
A few of us had grown rusty, yet that allowed people to look into being more creative as they didn't remember what all their abilities did. The group had been strolling through the streets of Abrana, in the district of Eastbale. Suddenly the Human cleric Father Marks thought he saw a familiar face. Sharp instantly remembered an incident from two months ago.
Oakville park soon to be stained by the merlot of flesh and life. Father Marks having gone on a fervent attempt to break up a massive gang battle by converting both sides to Mishakal. Yet he tripped on the cobblestone of the poorly maintain path and fell in front of them. Sharp being a coweled Halfling female rushed forward and managed to convince both sides he was her deranged father. Amongst the leaders of the notorious Red Masks, the main villains of this portion of the campaign, was a red headed woman with a rapier and lute. Now she sits cross legged against the rough hewn brick of this narrow Eastbale street.
From around a nearby corner steps a tall black scaled male Dragonborn Barbarian, a stalwart male Dwarven Fighter, and behind them emerges a female Wood Elf Druid. They are the Red Masks' heroic adventurer party, here to remove the threat to their dominance of Abrana. Everyone rolls initiative and the battle begins with the Dragonborn unleashing a bolt of acid dragon breath damaging everyone.
The party fights hard. Father Marks works tirelessly to fend heal his comrades, while fending off the druid with a Warhammer. Olga the Dainty duels the great Dragonborn and Dwarf receiving numerous wounds, only saved by Marks' interventions. Sharp and Bruce Nightvale use bow and javelin to whittle the Dragonborn down as the enemy bard heals him. After 6 rounds of combat, 1 minute 12 seconds in game, the Dragonborn lays dead covered in his own black viscous blood, brutally decapitated and a great axe embedded in his leftward chest. The Wood Elf is on the defensive and the Bard is suffering massive blood loss, dropping her rapier whilst clutching a javelin embedded into her abdomen.
The player in charge of Sharp says she will attack, but the player in charge of Olga makes a joke. "Why don't you just ram the javelin into her and boing off?" They look to me the Game Master. I agree and Sharp rolls high enough on acrobatics to allow the action killing the Bard. Two rounds later the Dwarf Fighter sits with a javelin piece embedded in his skull, in incredible pain yet still able to fight. The player in charge of Sharp uses Shocking Grasp and asks if she gets extra damage from the attack as the javelin would have metal on it, and a lightning spell is used.
That above paragraph shows the player Sharp arguing for a cool stunt and extra damage based on the circumstances. This is good, there may be some players doing it only to take advantage of the GM's leniency but the player in charge of Bruce Nightvale had actually interjected stating that only the tip of the javelin was metal, so giving double damage wouldn't make much sense. Sharp also agreed to a 50% damage increase should she roll particularly high for her hit chance, as the character was aiming for the metal tip specifically, not the dwarf fighter.
She managed to get the right rolls and felt elated that it all worked. It is important to let players experiment, and to work with them. That same fight I had one of the more experienced players look at the Dragonborn Barbarian's stats to make sure I was using his Dragon Breath ability correctly. D&D is played with friends, so trust them to an extent.
This does cause moments where they break from emersion though. For instance before that fight they decided randomly to go to a tavern. I had to pull up a random names document I downloaded on my phone to just make up an innkeeper. I also couldn't hide information as easily as I was rolling low for things with the innkeeper. It isn't a rigid game though as they were gathering information on a new potential patron Ambrose Villacro, a powerful man in Abranan society, yet the innkeeper they were bruising up didn't know about Ambrose's political nature only that he was extremely wealthy. If I had a screen hiding my rolls I could easily have said "no you didn't roll high enough." Controlling the events more, to have them stop wasting time strong arming a random innkeeper for free booze.
That works to my advantage though, not hiding roll results, for instance at the steps of what is essentially the Parliament of Abrana Father Marks started proselytizing, as he always does. I had them suggest actions their cahracters would do while we were spending a month away from D&D, Marks had gathered 800 disciples for Mishakal, extremely high rolls I got for him. I decided to add in for flavor that the dominant religion of the city very much disliked this new cult.
So, I had his sermon interrupted by a dwarf in white linen robes with lavender colored trimming, a weighted scale emblem, and a half shaven face. Priest of the Olo, Uben Hafbeard, strolled up and managed to do a persuasion battle preventing Marks from converting 20 government officials. They of course tormented the dwarf and convinced the guards to take him away through Marks' silver tongue, but the player's couldn't really deny Father Marks lost the theological debate.
All of this helps make the players more trusting of what I as a GM tell them. Unfortunately that is double edged sword as they rely on what I have to say whenever in character too much. This really forces me to change how I go about their dealings with Non Player Characters (NPCs). The only thing I have so far is that their new patron Ambrose Villacro, will want them to take a valuable jewel in a few sessions. This jewel though gives people of certain bloodlines +20 to persuasion, people like Ambrose who wishes to become the Tyrant of Abrana.
Due to them being unlikely to question Ambrose, as they trust my honesty to bleed through into my characters, it will take them time to understand they only do things for him because they had no choice. Unless one of them decides to put their foot down and we need to roll persuasion, which just means they will learn not to trust a character just because I voice them even sooner.
Alright so my curtain is one of the mind, and in a way the players' mind if I can keep them guessing what I plan to do. I touched on how campaigns changed over time, both in the experiences gained and planned to varying extents in my posts on Inspiration and Chimeraization of ideas.
Due to this belief of mine, for my games there is planned flexibility. While everyone has their own preferences and methods, this reduces the work load for me. I am comfortable making things up, and telling the players to hold on while I skim through a random name generator. The players don't mind either as they all have children, and the players that usually host, Bruce and Sharp, have two large dogs that like to get everyone's attention. For more quiet groups making everyone pause the action could be less acceptable, yet my Saturday group is jaded to it at this point.
I have printed out and hand drawn maps for my group. I also have campaign and dungeon parts printed out and placed in an old blue binder with numerous book marks. The current map being used is a massive map I once used for a game I ran in a forum, called Factions of Abrana. The map itself needed to be freeform snipped and printed in multiple segments. It was created in auto-realm and took several hours of me procrastinating on more important academic assignments. I will simply provide the link here: http://i.imgur.com/PbJEwBX.jpg.
I also have some random names, from both the Player's Handbook and a lore document I made for a fiction story I've been working on, downloaded onto my phone for quick non-data-draining access. Also there are a handful of flash cards I keep with general story highlights to work toward and keep in mind should foreshadowing be needed.
Finally I don't throw campaign print outs away, or not yet anyway. You never know when you might need an old map or monster to pull out of your hat. For instance I used an old tavern floor plan in my latest session because the characters wanted to go to a tavern. I had not planned that, but I played it cool and took the map out maintain the curtain.
The most important part of my curtain is my mind, but the greatest tool is a sharp pencil. Pencil because things change often. My campaign packages have tables for monsters with their max health printed, and their current health in a fight being written down and erased each round. This lets me keep track of large fights much more easily, as I can write initiative numbers down too.
Here's a picture of a few of these packages I'm speaking of.
Figure 3: Campaign Packages
On the far left , taking up top and bottom, is a four page front and back document of tables from the Player's Handbook, on weapons, armors, kits, accessories, and other things a player can purchase. Along with some general shop owner ideas to use. The central left top is the current campaign package being used by my Saturday group. They only got through the first page, where they talked to Ambrose Villacro, and fought their Red Mask counterparts in a savage duel.The central right top, is the previous campaign package that group did. It is thicker because it had the option for the players to either join the city guard, eventually Ambrose, or the Red Masks. In a way it is actually two campaigns in a single package. The far right top is a printed out jpeg of a Typical Tavern map I got by searching D&D maps.
The far right bottom, is a hand drawn tavern with an isometric image, a floor plan, and minimap location I used for a quest. In that quest my Saturday group fought the second in command of the Red Masks, dealt with new combat mechanics (Varying Elevations, Area of Effects, Bonus Actions, Custom Attacks, and Boss Phases).
The central left bottom is a starter campaign I made for my girlfriend. It is a short campaign, 7-12 hours, where one plays in the land of Faerun, specifically Velen. There they find that the outpost of Gloomgarde is caught in a three way struggle against the rowdy Wood Elves who refuse to adhere to the Human Laws, and the Black Spear Goblin Tribe seeking to carve out new land.
The central right bottom campaign package is more of monster compendium for a new group consisting of my girlfriend, her best friend, and the that person's husband who used to play Third Edition D&D. This campaign being more free flowing and wanderlusty than my usual Saturday group's campaign.
These are the fabrics of my curtain. Should I not have these I can potentially make up enough things to maintain the illusion of the scary Wizard of Oz, but they do wonders for adding the needed structure to prevent the seams from tearing. Whatever you decide to do for your curtain make sure it is flexible otherwise it's not a curtain, it's a wall.
There are a few videos I looked at before determining what curtain I wanted. I'll leave them linked below.
(Colville, YouTube) Disscusses use and history of DM Screens
(Tully, YouTube) How to build your own DM Screen
(Mercer YouTube) Discusses what to have behind a DM Screen
(Shea, YouTube) Discusses various other items one can use to help run their games.
Colville, Mathew. The DM Screen, Running the Game #10. Mathew Colville. March 21, 2016. Web. 12/10/2016. Accessed From <The DM Screen, Running the Game #10>
Mercer, Mathew. Setting up your Gamemaster's Screen! (GM Tips w/ Matt Mercer). Geek & Sundry. October 20, 2016. Web. 12/10/2016. Accessed From <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRMVTmbe-Is>
Shea, Mike. Tools of the Lazy Dungeon Master. Mike Shea. January 13, 2013. Web. 12/10/2016. Accessed From <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-leTrRFqiw>
Tully, Jeremy. Assemble your own GM Screen. Jeremy Tully. March 1, 2012. Web. 12/10/2016. Accessed From <Assemble your own GM Screen>
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