@@mkklassicmk3895Less definitive tho, could always back out of the deal last moment and get beat up by the guy you were going to sell it to as a Christmas present for his son. But you can't unburn your DMG if you've tossed it into a fire.
My dm screen isnt for hiding rolls. Its for relevant info, condition effects, hiding minis ill need for the next encounters and keeping notes i dont want out in the open. The screen is important. I play in person but we have a large tv table for maps/art/etc. I have a massive collection of miniatures and use condition rings, risers, aoe rings etc. Sometimes however, we go entire sessions without using them. Theatre of the mind has a place for certain things but all my shiny dm toys have a place too. They arent neccessary but man are they fun to use. Which is better? A paper 2d mini or d20 to represent the massive ancient red dragon or the 18inch "mini" that i put on the vtt with the 3d cave terrain i built? Its not neccessary but damn it sure is cool.
Same here I love my minis , and what I do is if I use random encounters I will roll up a few before the game and get the minis out, write down HP and all their goodness before hand so it never takes anytime during games for my random encounters :D. My screen is a 3d printed castle and so it has quick easy slots to hold info for initiative and and stuff plus little shelves to hide all the minis I may use that session
@laughingpanda4395 Sure, if you have it prepared, you can prepare it in the lunch or whatever break or have it on hand and are so proficient you can do it in a reasonable time (2 mins max) go and use it to your hearths content, but be reasonable and respect players time when choosing the right method for the next encounter, sometimes it really is best to make it simple or plainly in the theatre of the mind. Enjoy and bye 😃😇❤️
@@NeuralNotes5 no worries there. I've been DM'ing off and on since 2e. Around 28 years now. Building encounters is easy. Building something new that I've never done before is hard.
There’s a lot of stuff that goes behind the DM screen, not just secret rolls. Session notes you don’t want the players to see, cool minis you have lying in wait, hit points left on the boss, etc. And even ignoring all that, it’s an extremely valuable tool simply because it allows you to allocate a portion of the table to keep all of your DMing stuff. DMs need a lot more notes and books and stuff than players, and therefore need more space. However, players often have a tendency to make the table their own, spreading out their snacks, dice, doodles, and trinkets across the play area. Having a DM screen set up ensures that you’ll always have sufficient space to keep your stuff, and you don’t risk your players taking over space that you need.
Sorry I'm not Ginny, but for what it's worth, I noticed you! The "peeples" bit reminded me of many years ago, playing an action scene in a Call of Cthulhu game, where we used popcorn for a load of blobby monsters. It worked just great, but we didn't get to eat many of them before we had to run away. Keep up the great work!
Funny, I actually tried to roll openly with my own in-person games when I first started out as a DM, but my players actually requested that I use a DM screen so there could be an air of mystery of what the result is until I narrate it. But yeah, I'm very much behind the spirit of trying to play as simply as you can. Being a DM is complicated enough in your own head without trying to add in just as many props to the mix.
To me, my players asked me to hide my rolls because when I started rolling openly, I just got nat 20s on combat. Now, the universe has reached balance, and I can roll openly like a normal person again. But it was a funny 2 months.
Your singing voice is lovely sir. I prefer still having a dm screen, not because of secrets but because my neurodivergent little brain likes having a space thats my own with clear borders and edges. No touchy, its mine! Also a fellow non minitaure user here, we use bottlecaps and candy!
Back in the 4e days, Wizards shipped a sheet of circular punch out tokens in different colors that said "monster" and a number and could be flipped over to a bloody side to show they were below half health. I still use those generic tokens, even if I did buy a set of laser burned wood ones to look nicer.
Back before i gave it away, i would pass around my DM screen as a reference material for players. It had some good stuff that the players needed to know.
I ran Dnd for a long time with a $10 treant looking guy as my "all purpose npc." If the players were talking to an NPC, boom... that guy hit the table. Granted, the players were my kids, but we all found it amusing. I lean a lot closer to storyteller than sand-boxer, but my stories have a lot of room for weird and unexpected stuff to happen at the table.
The part about using the ultra plain and generic minis is gold. think about this for one second.. when using minis, almost all of the time, The mini isn't exactly perfect. you might have six gnolls, but you need nine. So you throw in two bug bear and a town guard. and say that they're all gnolls. most of the time there's not enough connection between the mini and what you're trying to represent. those bandit minis all have swords. but these three guys we have to pretend have bows. this cool looking paladin mini is substituted in for an evil paladin. The mini has a shield with a dragon and is painted white. but we're going to imagine that he's painted blood red with a demon on his shell. almost all the time we are imagining something else then is represented on the table. So using the generic minis simply takes one level of imagination out of play.
I roll in the open in front of my DM screen. The screen holds useful references on my side and initiative cards on the player side, and it hides my notes and relevant miniatures.
The very first session I did that to avoid the temptation of fudging and making players see that but I realized that going over the screen to roll was more annoying than rolling in my secret space. I would still use the screen just to hide notes, hp and the like. Also I may try to fake secret rolls or have contested rolls that the result isn't obvious.
I have started rolling in the open to as of late, especially saving throws. I have noticed my players are much more engaged when they get the chance to see the enemy’s save against their high level spell, and makes failing more exiting and succeeding feel less like a short coming, which they embrace way faster. It’s the same reason I like to announce the DC of a critical Check or Saving Throw. Also congrats on getting to 3.6k subscribers! Well deserved.
I feel you on the figurines. Our dm when we started Dnd used a box of old game pieces, I.e. plastic checkers and mini cheap chessmen. As we went we got miniatures and more "official" stuff. Fast forward 4 years, we are back to the chess men, and to be honest, that's our tables style. We have our personal figurines, but a couple of us have gone to custom coins we use as our place holders.
I make all the rolls open, however, I still have a screen cus the players love it and it makes everyone feel better. Plus it reminds me which skills have which ability score for the like 4 or 5 I can never remember, and little things like conditions we rarely use rules.
I started DMing without a screen, but now I worry my players will see my notes and my secrets will spill out! That being said, having no screen feels more inclusive and inviting. I love the videos!!! Great content as always
DM screens are an absolute vibe. It's not even about hiding things from my players. Its like a form of recognition whenever anyone in the group runs a game, of all the effortthat goes into setting up and DMing a campaign; you did the hard work, you get the cool screen.
Kids today. Back in the day I'd play D&D with my brother and friends while doing chores. Hands busy, so we had no dice, no paper. The mechanic was that you'd describe what you're trying to do. If it was cool enough, and your description over-the-top enough, it worked. Not exactly standard D&D, but it was fun, and we got the chores done.
I mean, that’s just role playing. DnD is a set of rules to facilitate role playing in some ways, so you do need to follow some of the rules if you want to say you are playing dnd. Nothing wrong if you aren’t and are just role playing your homebrew game based on dnd ideas and having fun! But it’s not the same thing.
100% on chucking the fancy dice. Readability is king. I like the yellow chessex dice with black letters. They are cheap and legible from long distance even in dim light.
I use the GM screen for two things. It has commonly used spreadsheets on it and it ensures that I have enough room at the table. As for all the stuff... as a theater of the mind player who started playing roughly 20 years ago, it amazes me how much money people think they have to spend. When I started as a player, I spent about 3 Euro for some dice and was set for abkut a year.
we had pc miniatures for our first ever campaign but as we got through it, we ended up just using dice. nobody pulled out their mini when i called for initiative, i just put out a grid, drew some boxes and then we placed various d4 there, worked all the same. i‘m not ready to ditch the screen and i‘m not sure that i want to, i like laying out my materials without my players seeing them, it adds mystery and uncertainty.
About the DM screen it's not just about trust and hide your throws, it's about not knowing what you are doing behind the wall, it's about hiding notes and things you don't want your players to see before the time (just because it can happen to drop an eye and see things unintentionally)
I am one of those meticulous DMs that feels completely unprepared if I don’t have the mini’s I need for an adventure to include random encounters. With that said I absolutely love your Meeples idea for common townspeople or unarmed innocents that need rescuing in the middle of an adventure/fight. Thank you for that idea! One idea I recently saw someone else using that I plan on implementing is buying a bag of 1 inch blocks. The blocks quality can vary but you can easily stack and store them (unless you glue them), they can be painted and they match the 1 inch grids for grid maps and can help visualize 3d terrain for those maps that don’t do a good job describing things because they are a 2d map of a 3d castle with murder holes etc
Aside of being helpful information, the delivery was hilarious. Smashing post its with the book and then blowing up the book is hilarious. The choice to use the chatGPT text was hilarious, but deleting "how do I get Ginny Di to notice me" was absolute genius!
just stopping by to say your channel is absolutely fantastic. having watched 3 of your videos so far, you have information that actually benefits DM's on a fundamental level (reminds me a lot of Sly Flourish's Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master), your comedy, editing and presentation is pretty good, and you're putting out videos at a regular pace. looking forward to more of your videos, I see a bright future for your channel!
Hey Deficient! Thank you again for another informative and highly entertaining video (loved the Little Mermaid bit) I hope you go into more into your Schrödinger’s Scenarios. I know you talked about it in your improve video, but I would love to run a sandbox game myself. Keep up the amazing work! My games have already improved under your tutelage!
Hey, Just wanted to say I really like your videos. I found you like, an hour ago and I've already watched everything on the channel. XD And like, I think the advice you're giving is super helpful; I quite frankly haven't found anyone else giving this advice, but it resonates with me. I actually am an author and your approach to taking the storytelling out of D&D feels more right than what I can put into words. (At least, not without parroting you lol) Thank you, and happy holidays
Dude has got a serenading voice lol. I am out hear barely able to hold a note and this dude is singing as side quest to keep us engaged. Show me your ways Deficient Master XD
This is more or less where I'm at (minus ditching the DM screen). Like my players brought me in a little set of dry erase tokens I can stand to use as bad guys (before I was using random dice so I could put the enemy number on them for hp tracking) and it's nice. And I appreciate them doing that cause it's cool that they do. But it slowed down set up cause then I had to make them all in advance so I wasn't doing it at the table. I'm going to give it a shot again this week but I might wind up just saying I'm more comfortable my way.
I think if you are rolling off a random encounter table, you should have the minis or tokens already set aside for any possible random encounter the part could face.
I had a piece of hex graph paper (8 1/2" x 11") laminated at a copier place. It had one large hex on one side divided by 1/4" hexes and just quarter inch hexes on the other side. I bought a set of "alcohol pens" (permanent but NOT sharpies) and a set of felt tips. You needed Windex or the like to erase the permanent markers, but just a dry Kleenex to remove the felt tip markers. I would draw a copy of an encounter map on the laminate with permanent markers, and draw the characters (player and non) with the felt tips. The PC's could keep track of the encounter with the laminate map and the felt tips; using Kleenex to move their characters around and drawing in area effects of spells. I never got into miniatures. Dabbing in details through a jeweler's loop with a 3 camel hair brush on an Arch Lich...just...no!
As a burn it all down because I've done it all before style of GM, I really appreciate these videos. I personally love game accessories, but I absolutely only use them to facilitate the game. Sometimes I bring them into give new players a taste of table top they haven't experienced. Sometimes, I bring them in to create an atmosphere, but mostly, if I use them its to either streamline a process or create an experience outside of static numbers on written pages. I also have no problem going unscripted, theater of the mind. As I did a 6 hour once a week improvised (no prep, no pre-written) campaign that lasted a nearly solid 2 years before concuding the game.
I would honestly argue that using a screen shows more trust than having things in the open. I know my screen is one of the key things to me running games, not for "hiding" things, but being able to surprise my players with cool things. I also have gone lush with my screen, so I'm also biased here. lol But I adore having a space to keep things sorted and laid out as I need so I can easier grab what I need. I've also switch to tokens though instead of minis, mostly because I don't run games at my own house, and transporting minis is a total pain, so I found a seller on Esty that makes custom 3D printed tokens with different symbols/numbers on them to be different things, and the numbers are so helpful with tracking monster health.
Incidentally, the Pathfinder Pawns are way easier to find when needed if you keep them in their original punch-out sheets. You can store those in big 3-ring binders using sheet protectors, so you can page through in an organized fashion rather than rummaging around in a box. I even rearranged mine to sort them by monster type, though pulling that off in a way that everything fit was a fairly time-consuming endeavour, so may not be a good option for everyone. That said, I'm definitely a fan of generic tokens for most cases. Personally, I use those little flat-bottomed colored glass beads for 80-90% of enemies in my games.
something even easier you could do is instead of minis you could just get change. Pennies are minions dimes and nickels are higher level enemies or spell charters and quarters are good for any medium sized boss. And they already have two sides so you can make enemies on tails have sword and shields and heads have pikes or whatever you need. I started doing it when I ran a 400 enemy encounter out of desperation and really haven’t looked back.
I have way too many d6s and I just use those as miniatures 😄 Though last week I did get a pack of themed minis for the PCs since it's a longer running game and they can connect with them more, but NPCs and monsters are still, "The skeletons are these generic colored dice, the cultists are these wooden dice, and the lich is represented by this die with a dragon on the face. Let's go."
Fancy Dice: Rule #1 is "Can you read the die from across the table?" If you can't, then it stays in the jewellery box with the Superbowl ring from eBay and the mint-in-box E.T. 'action figure'. Once you've met that requirement, go nuts. I think solid colours are usually easier to read than swirly mixes and if the die is too small you won't be able to read it, but weird shapes, unusual materials, and funky lettering are all fine if they're legible.
I always roll in the open but keep a small screen to cover notes. Also, the Shadowdark screen has everything you need: 1 of the 4 panels is devoted to making up names one syllable at a time
when I started playing D&D all we had was the internet and char sheets, not even a BATTLEMAP. lol and that game was so far the MOST memorable to me. lol
One of the things about playing online during the pandemic (and half of us being unable to use roll 20) we've switched to full theatre of the mind for all of our games. Honestly, I think it works better for the most part. And you can convene games a bit more easily and use your players minds to fill in all that detail you couldn't be bothered to prep! It's a win win!
The DM screen is for when the players look over a see the brand new fully painted beholder mini in front of me and then wonder what might hide around the corner of the dungeon. Trust is not established by the screen or lack there of. I'll frequently opt to make things like saving throws public rolls especially if its an intense situation. At the end of the day players can tell when you fudge dice rolls, and its less fun that way regardless. Also it looks cool and makes me feel like I have control of this hot mess of an session I prepped 2 hours before game time
I've been a forever DM since 1989. We didn't have as many accessories back then. I've never used fancy dice. I have used miniatures on and off, depending on the game. And I typically use a GM screen. I make the vast majority of die rolls in the open, though. I use a lot of generic miniatures or coins for bad guys, and setting up an impromptu battle means giving the players a snack break while I get the miniatures out. These days I prefer to roll with theater of the mind.
Just stumbled on your Channel. The jokes and Quick editing looks very nice. One thing that I learned recently on my Channel is the difference a small background music can make. Since you, compared to other dnd Channel I watch, puts alot more effort on editing jokes and other edits on the videos, adding different background musics to your commentary can make the video more pleasent. After comparing my older videos to my new videos (even If It Just made them a little bit better) I can see improvement! Once again, nice video. Hope you have a good day
Every session I tip my DM screen when I lean over it. I own thousands of minis but lack the organizational ability to use them, when when im not runnign sandbox. True stuff man :)
I'm a baby DM and I'm using the top and bottom pieces of the Starter Pack and my laptop as a "DM screen". I have almost all the information I need opened in different tabs on my laptop but there are times where having a secluded little spot is pretty useful. For example, I may come up with some idea the current flow of the game might lead to instead of what I had planned out, so I write it down. The players have no idea what I'm scribbling away at and I've found that they also have no idea that like the majority of the sessions are made up on the spot, or rather they don't know which parts are. I feel like they might catch on to the amount of things I improvise if they could see what I'm drawing or writing. I do roll in the open, though. I don't like rolling secretly because 1. I'm a bad liar and 2. it's way more fun to see the players' reactions.
In response to advice number 2. The 'mini' that I have found to be the most useful for me is a cheap chess set. I got them from a thrift store for like $2. They are already color coded for allies vs enemies. They are each unique (I marked the duplicates with a permanent marker to distinguish them). They makes communicating super easy. The fighter will just say, I go attack the rook and everyone immediately knows what they meant. There is some decrease in immersion but the time and money I have saved not using 'real' minis is 100% worth it.
Ngl I like my screen. I like to build suspense and I think a fun aspect to the game is trying to keep a straight face when I roll and know the outcome to something everyone's waiting for. Then I can describe it in story. If a roll is crazy I move my hands away from my screen, tell what happens and as I get to the pinnacle of the description, move the screen to reveal the roll. Idk I think it adds something but to each their own :)
A dum screen is still useful for easy access to certain rules without flipping through the pages of a book, desperately trying to find the correct one.
Another great video! At my table, we use Lego minifigs [Not Sponsored] for PCs, and i have a bag of glass beads from the craft store in a few colors. You can number them with a dry erase marker to track hp easily. Thanks for the entertaining vid!
I use the DM screen but it's on a side table. It's good for reference. But the physical barrier between you and the players can hamper their willingness to really get into the game because you appear more like an adversary than someone who is there to play the game with you.
I always roll my dice in the open on the player side of my DM screen. I actually use 2 DM screens. One is in front of me for reference, and the other floats around the table so my resident rules lawyers can check a rule quickly in order to keep the game flowing.
I like painting miniatures and fancy dice and roleplaying. I have a DM that builds elaborate set pieces for the combats. His combats are almost always more fun than other DMs who just draw lines on a grid, partly because he has thought about them ahead of time. You sound like a DM that doesn’t have time to prepare and doesn’t want to invest money in your favorite hobby. That’s fine, but it’s not better. Just saying.
Oh yeah, I agree about the DM screen, though I still use it less as a 'separator' but more of a carpet in which I hide all my notes under so that the table doesn't look like a mess. Though yeah I get yah, I do rolls in the open when they actually apply to the game, as opposed to me just rolling random tables or if its 'supposed' to be secret like a player rolling some sort of insight check. Also I've done a fun thing with 'minis' where I have these little bottle cap tokens and clear epoxy domes for them. I actually have a little portable recipt printer that I've got hooked to my phone to where, when an encounter is about to hit and I've got like... 40 seconds, I literally print out little images of the creatures using the ol search bar in my folder of images on my phone, print em out with the receipt printer, and do a quick holepunch, stick, and BOOM, tokens with images on them. I've done something similar with items once in a while. Literally gave a friend a 'weapon' that was a ventriloquist puppet with a knife called Mr. Stabby and had them go all Batman's "Scarface" on monsters.
My DM screen is to hide the fact that I'm not taking notes about the 40 minute planning discussion about how to fight the one goblin in the room and I'm actually just doodling a little goblin getting hit by an axe. They must never know.
In person: Ok, friends we using mind theater, generic figures, markers and our imagination! In VTT: *spends 3 hours figuring out how to do a macro so the token gets on the horse by the push of a button...
Deficient: isn't it neat? Wouldn't you think my collection's complete? Me: that's weird... reminds me of the line Ariel says in The Little Mermaid. Surely just a coincidence. 5 seconds later: ah, I guess not. 😄
I like my dm screen, not for privacy, but because I'm still new to the game and have to keep track of a lot of things, having stickynotes and all that jazz clutters up the table less when it's on the screen and not, well, on the table.
I have a DM screen so that folk can't look at monster stats. I always announce my rolls though (ever since a player had a Lore Bard with Cutting Words, which is to be used after the dice are rolled, but before the outcome is known).
My dice are see-through light pink with white numbers. Plain as shit aside from my funky shaped d4s. A humble gift from the other player in my group who runs games, and I love them.
I have encounter bins when I run my sandboxes. '2d6 gnolls holding 3 halfling merchents in a cage'? Cool let me just pop open my premade bin for this. It is stored in one of those screw/nail bin organizer boxes and is in the bin labeled 'Encounter 5'. The bin has enough gnolls, merchants, and bits of terrain to just dump it out onto a play matt. This makes it also easy to mix and match stuff for my random tables and allows me to have my favorite thing... a 'roll 2 encounters' on my encounter randomizers, without digging for even more stuff. So say I get the 'roll 2 options' and get the 'Gnolls/merchants [bin 5]' and then I also roll 'goblin warband raiding a camp [bin3]', I just made a dynamic encounter where the gnolls want to eat the merchants and goblins want to steal the loot, but the gnolls also see the goblins as an extra meal that just walked into the camp. Just dump the 2 boxes onto my scatter terrain map and BAM the players have this hectic fight of keep the merchants alive, but also the gnolls and goblins are fighting each other. Once I am done with the encounter or think of a new one I will put my encounter bin minis and terrain into their own organized boxes labeled [GNOLLS], [ROCKS], [CAMPS], etc. and then fill up the Encounter Bin that is now vacant. "But doesn't this take a ton of time and energy?" Yes... yes it does... but I am insane and love physical terrain and minis too much to let it go.
I don't need to hide my notes from players behind a screen because no one can read my handwriting as it is horrendous. I think the worst about the screen is that it is bad for conversation to cover yourself so much in my experience.
I like the way you think. I’ll probably keep my screen just so I can have a place to put up maps that show all the secret doors and stuff. I have downsized to grid paper, pencil, dice, and screen
Your videos just keep getting better and better. By the end of this one your dialogue had improved 1000% Love you work mate, wont be long before you are on some awkward GM panel with the other UA-cam celebrities.
I use chess pieces instead of minis. I bought like 3 sets of smaller pieces, and use whichever ones feel appropriate, and then swap to dark pieces when they're bloodied. Players can tell from a glance which pieces are more threatenig, and more hurt
I keep the GM screen because it's handy to have that information handy, I can hang stuff from it for the players to get info, and yes, I cheat. If my players are having a hard time against a monster and they look miserable, then guess who has failed to hit as the monsters so they feel like they have a chance and feel more engaged, I.E. having more fun. If they can see the dragon just critted them all to a char for the umpteenth time, then they're not having fun unless we're playing 1st edition.
I like to roll some dice occasionally behind the screen, just to add some low cost mystery. The players need to learn not every dice roll will be followed by an overt outcome. sometimes the unknown lurks in the shadows...
I use my DM screen for dramatic effect. What I do is use it in casual combat/ or social encounters, but when they get to a bossfight i pack it up and roll in the open. When I do that the players know shit is getting real
"Ginny Di hasn't noticed you yet" had me ROLLING
Off the table? get it?
02:55
"2d6 gnolls spitroasting a merchant in bondage"
Kinky
Another reason to fire my writer.
Yeah, bit of a spit-take moment at that part 😂
@@DeficientMaster No no, they need a raise.
Dude i was done watching the top 10 spells to break my D&D game, but this got me glued back to D&D , burned my DMG book already, love this.
Wouldn't it have been more prudent to sell the DMG rather than destroy it?
@@mkklassicmk3895Less definitive tho, could always back out of the deal last moment and get beat up by the guy you were going to sell it to as a Christmas present for his son. But you can't unburn your DMG if you've tossed it into a fire.
My dm screen isnt for hiding rolls. Its for relevant info, condition effects, hiding minis ill need for the next encounters and keeping notes i dont want out in the open. The screen is important. I play in person but we have a large tv table for maps/art/etc. I have a massive collection of miniatures and use condition rings, risers, aoe rings etc. Sometimes however, we go entire sessions without using them. Theatre of the mind has a place for certain things but all my shiny dm toys have a place too. They arent neccessary but man are they fun to use. Which is better? A paper 2d mini or d20 to represent the massive ancient red dragon or the 18inch "mini" that i put on the vtt with the 3d cave terrain i built?
Its not neccessary but damn it sure is cool.
Same - if nothing just for conditions alone it's invaluable
front page of my dm binder has that@@trollishmc2920
Same here I love my minis , and what I do is if I use random encounters I will roll up a few before the game and get the minis out, write down HP and all their goodness before hand so it never takes anytime during games for my random encounters :D. My screen is a 3d printed castle and so it has quick easy slots to hold info for initiative and and stuff plus little shelves to hide all the minis I may use that session
@laughingpanda4395 Sure, if you have it prepared, you can prepare it in the lunch or whatever break or have it on hand and are so proficient you can do it in a reasonable time (2 mins max) go and use it to your hearths content, but be reasonable and respect players time when choosing the right method for the next encounter, sometimes it really is best to make it simple or plainly in the theatre of the mind. Enjoy and bye 😃😇❤️
@@NeuralNotes5 no worries there. I've been DM'ing off and on since 2e. Around 28 years now. Building encounters is easy. Building something new that I've never done before is hard.
NOBODY CAN TAKE AWAY MY SHINY MATH ROCKS.
I think a DM screen has benefit outside of hiding rolls. They have super helpful information at a glance.
There’s a lot of stuff that goes behind the DM screen, not just secret rolls. Session notes you don’t want the players to see, cool minis you have lying in wait, hit points left on the boss, etc.
And even ignoring all that, it’s an extremely valuable tool simply because it allows you to allocate a portion of the table to keep all of your DMing stuff. DMs need a lot more notes and books and stuff than players, and therefore need more space. However, players often have a tendency to make the table their own, spreading out their snacks, dice, doodles, and trinkets across the play area. Having a DM screen set up ensures that you’ll always have sufficient space to keep your stuff, and you don’t risk your players taking over space that you need.
Sorry I'm not Ginny, but for what it's worth, I noticed you! The "peeples" bit reminded me of many years ago, playing an action scene in a Call of Cthulhu game, where we used popcorn for a load of blobby monsters. It worked just great, but we didn't get to eat many of them before we had to run away.
Keep up the great work!
Funny, I actually tried to roll openly with my own in-person games when I first started out as a DM, but my players actually requested that I use a DM screen so there could be an air of mystery of what the result is until I narrate it. But yeah, I'm very much behind the spirit of trying to play as simply as you can. Being a DM is complicated enough in your own head without trying to add in just as many props to the mix.
To me, my players asked me to hide my rolls because when I started rolling openly, I just got nat 20s on combat.
Now, the universe has reached balance, and I can roll openly like a normal person again. But it was a funny 2 months.
Bro that "I want mooooooore" actually sounded good and had me wanting for more of the song 😅
I like DM screens that have useful charts for quick reference inside them, but I also prefer rolling in the open.
Your singing voice is lovely sir.
I prefer still having a dm screen, not because of secrets but because my neurodivergent little brain likes having a space thats my own with clear borders and edges. No touchy, its mine!
Also a fellow non minitaure user here, we use bottlecaps and candy!
Thank you! Only took me 50 takes.
@@DeficientMasterso real :)
Don't ya know, he played the Phantom of the Opera
I was blown away when a dm used chess pieces for monsters. Brilliant.
OMG! That IS brilliant.
Yep. Back in the day, minis were rare, expensive, and made of toxic lead. But everyone had cheap plastic chess pieces.
Back in the 4e days, Wizards shipped a sheet of circular punch out tokens in different colors that said "monster" and a number and could be flipped over to a bloody side to show they were below half health.
I still use those generic tokens, even if I did buy a set of laser burned wood ones to look nicer.
Back before i gave it away, i would pass around my DM screen as a reference material for players. It had some good stuff that the players needed to know.
I ran Dnd for a long time with a $10 treant looking guy as my "all purpose npc." If the players were talking to an NPC, boom... that guy hit the table. Granted, the players were my kids, but we all found it amusing. I lean a lot closer to storyteller than sand-boxer, but my stories have a lot of room for weird and unexpected stuff to happen at the table.
The part about using the ultra plain and generic minis is gold.
think about this for one second..
when using minis, almost all of the time, The mini isn't exactly perfect. you might have six gnolls, but you need nine. So you throw in two bug bear and a town guard. and say that they're all gnolls.
most of the time there's not enough connection between the mini and what you're trying to represent. those bandit minis all have swords. but these three guys we have to pretend have bows.
this cool looking paladin mini is substituted in for an evil paladin. The mini has a shield with a dragon and is painted white. but we're going to imagine that he's painted blood red with a demon on his shell.
almost all the time we are imagining something else then is represented on the table.
So using the generic minis simply takes one level of imagination out of play.
I roll in the open in front of my DM screen. The screen holds useful references on my side and initiative cards on the player side, and it hides my notes and relevant miniatures.
The very first session I did that to avoid the temptation of fudging and making players see that but I realized that going over the screen to roll was more annoying than rolling in my secret space. I would still use the screen just to hide notes, hp and the like. Also I may try to fake secret rolls or have contested rolls that the result isn't obvious.
I have started rolling in the open to as of late, especially saving throws. I have noticed my players are much more engaged when they get the chance to see the enemy’s save against their high level spell, and makes failing more exiting and succeeding feel less like a short coming, which they embrace way faster. It’s the same reason I like to announce the DC of a critical Check or Saving Throw.
Also congrats on getting to 3.6k subscribers! Well deserved.
I feel you on the figurines. Our dm when we started Dnd used a box of old game pieces, I.e. plastic checkers and mini cheap chessmen. As we went we got miniatures and more "official" stuff. Fast forward 4 years, we are back to the chess men, and to be honest, that's our tables style. We have our personal figurines, but a couple of us have gone to custom coins we use as our place holders.
I make all the rolls open, however, I still have a screen cus the players love it and it makes everyone feel better. Plus it reminds me which skills have which ability score for the like 4 or 5 I can never remember, and little things like conditions we rarely use rules.
I started DMing without a screen, but now I worry my players will see my notes and my secrets will spill out! That being said, having no screen feels more inclusive and inviting.
I love the videos!!! Great content as always
banger after banger
man, I love deficient master
And I love you, @jonahgreene4526
The brief musical segment was incredible, please release an entire satirical D&D-themed Disney cover album
DM screens are an absolute vibe. It's not even about hiding things from my players. Its like a form of recognition whenever anyone in the group runs a game, of all the effortthat goes into setting up and DMing a campaign; you did the hard work, you get the cool screen.
Kids today. Back in the day I'd play D&D with my brother and friends while doing chores. Hands busy, so we had no dice, no paper. The mechanic was that you'd describe what you're trying to do. If it was cool enough, and your description over-the-top enough, it worked. Not exactly standard D&D, but it was fun, and we got the chores done.
I mean, that’s just role playing. DnD is a set of rules to facilitate role playing in some ways, so you do need to follow some of the rules if you want to say you are playing dnd.
Nothing wrong if you aren’t and are just role playing your homebrew game based on dnd ideas and having fun! But it’s not the same thing.
Quickly becoming one of my favorite dnd channels! Love your style !
100% on chucking the fancy dice. Readability is king. I like the yellow chessex dice with black letters. They are cheap and legible from long distance even in dim light.
I use the GM screen for two things. It has commonly used spreadsheets on it and it ensures that I have enough room at the table.
As for all the stuff... as a theater of the mind player who started playing roughly 20 years ago, it amazes me how much money people think they have to spend. When I started as a player, I spent about 3 Euro for some dice and was set for abkut a year.
we had pc miniatures for our first ever campaign but as we got through it, we ended up just using dice. nobody pulled out their mini when i called for initiative, i just put out a grid, drew some boxes and then we placed various d4 there, worked all the same.
i‘m not ready to ditch the screen and i‘m not sure that i want to, i like laying out my materials without my players seeing them, it adds mystery and uncertainty.
You could go with the box under the table method. I just ran my first screenless session the other day. It's definitely "different," and not superior.
About the DM screen it's not just about trust and hide your throws, it's about not knowing what you are doing behind the wall, it's about hiding notes and things you don't want your players to see before the time (just because it can happen to drop an eye and see things unintentionally)
You make a really fun character, gotta apreciate that
I am one of those meticulous DMs that feels completely unprepared if I don’t have the mini’s I need for an adventure to include random encounters.
With that said I absolutely love your Meeples idea for common townspeople or unarmed innocents that need rescuing in the middle of an adventure/fight. Thank you for that idea!
One idea I recently saw someone else using that I plan on implementing is buying a bag of 1 inch blocks. The blocks quality can vary but you can easily stack and store them (unless you glue them), they can be painted and they match the 1 inch grids for grid maps and can help visualize 3d terrain for those maps that don’t do a good job describing things because they are a 2d map of a 3d castle with murder holes etc
Aside of being helpful information, the delivery was hilarious. Smashing post its with the book and then blowing up the book is hilarious. The choice to use the chatGPT text was hilarious, but deleting "how do I get Ginny Di to notice me" was absolute genius!
just stopping by to say your channel is absolutely fantastic. having watched 3 of your videos so far, you have information that actually benefits DM's on a fundamental level (reminds me a lot of Sly Flourish's Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master), your comedy, editing and presentation is pretty good, and you're putting out videos at a regular pace. looking forward to more of your videos, I see a bright future for your channel!
Hey Deficient! Thank you again for another informative and highly entertaining video (loved the Little Mermaid bit) I hope you go into more into your Schrödinger’s Scenarios. I know you talked about it in your improve video, but I would love to run a sandbox game myself. Keep up the amazing work! My games have already improved under your tutelage!
Thanks Robin! That vid is on my radar. I want to give it the polish it deserves, but I'll make it happen!
Hey, Just wanted to say I really like your videos. I found you like, an hour ago and I've already watched everything on the channel. XD
And like, I think the advice you're giving is super helpful; I quite frankly haven't found anyone else giving this advice, but it resonates with me. I actually am an author and your approach to taking the storytelling out of D&D feels more right than what I can put into words. (At least, not without parroting you lol)
Thank you, and happy holidays
Dude has got a serenading voice lol. I am out hear barely able to hold a note and this dude is singing as side quest to keep us engaged. Show me your ways Deficient Master XD
This channel is going places. I am just about done binging the channel, and I am dying for more. One of the few actual "bell icon" channels for me.
My only regret is that i have but one like to give to this video
This is more or less where I'm at (minus ditching the DM screen). Like my players brought me in a little set of dry erase tokens I can stand to use as bad guys (before I was using random dice so I could put the enemy number on them for hp tracking) and it's nice. And I appreciate them doing that cause it's cool that they do. But it slowed down set up cause then I had to make them all in advance so I wasn't doing it at the table. I'm going to give it a shot again this week but I might wind up just saying I'm more comfortable my way.
I think you're officially my favorite youtuber
This is the first video of yours I've seen. I love your style!
I think if you are rolling off a random encounter table, you should have the minis or tokens already set aside for any possible random encounter the part could face.
I had a piece of hex graph paper (8 1/2" x 11") laminated at a copier place. It had one large hex on one side divided by 1/4" hexes and just quarter inch hexes on the other side.
I bought a set of "alcohol pens" (permanent but NOT sharpies) and a set of felt tips. You needed Windex or the like to erase the permanent markers, but just a dry Kleenex to remove the felt tip markers.
I would draw a copy of an encounter map on the laminate with permanent markers, and draw the characters (player and non) with the felt tips. The PC's could keep track of the encounter with the laminate map and the felt tips; using Kleenex to move their characters around and drawing in area effects of spells.
I never got into miniatures. Dabbing in details through a jeweler's loop with a 3 camel hair brush on an Arch Lich...just...no!
As a burn it all down because I've done it all before style of GM, I really appreciate these videos.
I personally love game accessories, but I absolutely only use them to facilitate the game. Sometimes I bring them into give new players a taste of table top they haven't experienced.
Sometimes, I bring them in to create an atmosphere, but mostly, if I use them its to either streamline a process or create an experience outside of static numbers on written pages.
I also have no problem going unscripted, theater of the mind. As I did a 6 hour once a week improvised (no prep, no pre-written) campaign that lasted a nearly solid 2 years before concuding the game.
I would honestly argue that using a screen shows more trust than having things in the open. I know my screen is one of the key things to me running games, not for "hiding" things, but being able to surprise my players with cool things. I also have gone lush with my screen, so I'm also biased here. lol But I adore having a space to keep things sorted and laid out as I need so I can easier grab what I need. I've also switch to tokens though instead of minis, mostly because I don't run games at my own house, and transporting minis is a total pain, so I found a seller on Esty that makes custom 3D printed tokens with different symbols/numbers on them to be different things, and the numbers are so helpful with tracking monster health.
Incidentally, the Pathfinder Pawns are way easier to find when needed if you keep them in their original punch-out sheets. You can store those in big 3-ring binders using sheet protectors, so you can page through in an organized fashion rather than rummaging around in a box. I even rearranged mine to sort them by monster type, though pulling that off in a way that everything fit was a fairly time-consuming endeavour, so may not be a good option for everyone.
That said, I'm definitely a fan of generic tokens for most cases. Personally, I use those little flat-bottomed colored glass beads for 80-90% of enemies in my games.
something even easier you could do is instead of minis you could just get change. Pennies are minions dimes and nickels are higher level enemies or spell charters and quarters are good for any medium sized boss. And they already have two sides so you can make enemies on tails have sword and shields and heads have pikes or whatever you need. I started doing it when I ran a 400 enemy encounter out of desperation and really haven’t looked back.
I have way too many d6s and I just use those as miniatures 😄 Though last week I did get a pack of themed minis for the PCs since it's a longer running game and they can connect with them more, but NPCs and monsters are still, "The skeletons are these generic colored dice, the cultists are these wooden dice, and the lich is represented by this die with a dragon on the face. Let's go."
Fancy Dice:
Rule #1 is "Can you read the die from across the table?" If you can't, then it stays in the jewellery box with the Superbowl ring from eBay and the mint-in-box E.T. 'action figure'.
Once you've met that requirement, go nuts. I think solid colours are usually easier to read than swirly mixes and if the die is too small you won't be able to read it, but weird shapes, unusual materials, and funky lettering are all fine if they're legible.
I always roll in the open but keep a small screen to cover notes. Also, the Shadowdark screen has everything you need: 1 of the 4 panels is devoted to making up names one syllable at a time
Just discovered your channel and I love it! Wasn't expecting the pipes though! Genuinely enjoyed your singing.
when I started playing D&D all we had was the internet and char sheets, not even a BATTLEMAP. lol
and that game was so far the MOST memorable to me. lol
One of the things about playing online during the pandemic (and half of us being unable to use roll 20) we've switched to full theatre of the mind for all of our games. Honestly, I think it works better for the most part. And you can convene games a bit more easily and use your players minds to fill in all that detail you couldn't be bothered to prep! It's a win win!
The DM screen is for when the players look over a see the brand new fully painted beholder mini in front of me and then wonder what might hide around the corner of the dungeon. Trust is not established by the screen or lack there of. I'll frequently opt to make things like saving throws public rolls especially if its an intense situation. At the end of the day players can tell when you fudge dice rolls, and its less fun that way regardless. Also it looks cool and makes me feel like I have control of this hot mess of an session I prepped 2 hours before game time
I've been a forever DM since 1989. We didn't have as many accessories back then. I've never used fancy dice. I have used miniatures on and off, depending on the game. And I typically use a GM screen. I make the vast majority of die rolls in the open, though. I use a lot of generic miniatures or coins for bad guys, and setting up an impromptu battle means giving the players a snack break while I get the miniatures out. These days I prefer to roll with theater of the mind.
Thank you for the best musical callback ever!
Just stumbled on your Channel. The jokes and Quick editing looks very nice. One thing that I learned recently on my Channel is the difference a small background music can make. Since you, compared to other dnd Channel I watch, puts alot more effort on editing jokes and other edits on the videos, adding different background musics to your commentary can make the video more pleasent.
After comparing my older videos to my new videos (even If It Just made them a little bit better) I can see improvement!
Once again, nice video.
Hope you have a good day
Every session I tip my DM screen when I lean over it.
I own thousands of minis but lack the organizational ability to use them, when when im not runnign sandbox.
True stuff man :)
I'm a baby DM and I'm using the top and bottom pieces of the Starter Pack and my laptop as a "DM screen". I have almost all the information I need opened in different tabs on my laptop but there are times where having a secluded little spot is pretty useful. For example, I may come up with some idea the current flow of the game might lead to instead of what I had planned out, so I write it down. The players have no idea what I'm scribbling away at and I've found that they also have no idea that like the majority of the sessions are made up on the spot, or rather they don't know which parts are. I feel like they might catch on to the amount of things I improvise if they could see what I'm drawing or writing. I do roll in the open, though. I don't like rolling secretly because 1. I'm a bad liar and 2. it's way more fun to see the players' reactions.
In response to advice number 2. The 'mini' that I have found to be the most useful for me is a cheap chess set. I got them from a thrift store for like $2. They are already color coded for allies vs enemies. They are each unique (I marked the duplicates with a permanent marker to distinguish them). They makes communicating super easy. The fighter will just say, I go attack the rook and everyone immediately knows what they meant. There is some decrease in immersion but the time and money I have saved not using 'real' minis is 100% worth it.
Ngl I like my screen. I like to build suspense and I think a fun aspect to the game is trying to keep a straight face when I roll and know the outcome to something everyone's waiting for. Then I can describe it in story. If a roll is crazy I move my hands away from my screen, tell what happens and as I get to the pinnacle of the description, move the screen to reveal the roll. Idk I think it adds something but to each their own :)
A dum screen is still useful for easy access to certain rules without flipping through the pages of a book, desperately trying to find the correct one.
Another great video! At my table, we use Lego minifigs [Not Sponsored] for PCs, and i have a bag of glass beads from the craft store in a few colors. You can number them with a dry erase marker to track hp easily. Thanks for the entertaining vid!
I use the DM screen but it's on a side table. It's good for reference. But the physical barrier between you and the players can hamper their willingness to really get into the game because you appear more like an adversary than someone who is there to play the game with you.
Getting rid of your dm screen actually makes a lot of sense. BUT UNFORTUNATELY FOR MY PLAYERS, ME BECOMING A DM IS ALL PART OF MY VILLAIN ARC BABY.
I always roll my dice in the open on the player side of my DM screen.
I actually use 2 DM screens. One is in front of me for reference, and the other floats around the table so my resident rules lawyers can check a rule quickly in order to keep the game flowing.
I like painting miniatures and fancy dice and roleplaying. I have a DM that builds elaborate set pieces for the combats. His combats are almost always more fun than other DMs who just draw lines on a grid, partly because he has thought about them ahead of time. You sound like a DM that doesn’t have time to prepare and doesn’t want to invest money in your favorite hobby. That’s fine, but it’s not better. Just saying.
This channel is fing amazing, love the energy and tips in your videos. I’m a newbie DM and have been gobbling up all the dnd content 😂
Oh yeah, I agree about the DM screen, though I still use it less as a 'separator' but more of a carpet in which I hide all my notes under so that the table doesn't look like a mess.
Though yeah I get yah, I do rolls in the open when they actually apply to the game, as opposed to me just rolling random tables or if its 'supposed' to be secret like a player rolling some sort of insight check.
Also I've done a fun thing with 'minis' where I have these little bottle cap tokens and clear epoxy domes for them. I actually have a little portable recipt printer that I've got hooked to my phone to where, when an encounter is about to hit and I've got like... 40 seconds, I literally print out little images of the creatures using the ol search bar in my folder of images on my phone, print em out with the receipt printer, and do a quick holepunch, stick, and BOOM, tokens with images on them.
I've done something similar with items once in a while. Literally gave a friend a 'weapon' that was a ventriloquist puppet with a knife called Mr. Stabby and had them go all Batman's "Scarface" on monsters.
My DM screen is to hide the fact that I'm not taking notes about the 40 minute planning discussion about how to fight the one goblin in the room and I'm actually just doodling a little goblin getting hit by an axe.
They must never know.
loving your channel keep em comin
Not gonna: that musical number got me.
I use a dozen dice from my addiction as minis for minions, and a biggish one for bosses
In person: Ok, friends we using mind theater, generic figures, markers and our imagination!
In VTT: *spends 3 hours figuring out how to do a macro so the token gets on the horse by the push of a button...
I wasn't ready for the awesome singing
hold on, that more kind hit,
A Musical theater kid I smell
Deficient: isn't it neat? Wouldn't you think my collection's complete?
Me: that's weird... reminds me of the line Ariel says in The Little Mermaid. Surely just a coincidence.
5 seconds later: ah, I guess not. 😄
A gift certificate to your LFGS is always a good choice.
I like. Dopamine satisfied
I’ve been looking for something like peoples for awhile now, thanks for that!
I like my dm screen, not for privacy, but because I'm still new to the game and have to keep track of a lot of things, having stickynotes and all that jazz clutters up the table less when it's on the screen and not, well, on the table.
I have a DM screen so that folk can't look at monster stats.
I always announce my rolls though (ever since a player had a Lore Bard with Cutting Words, which is to be used after the dice are rolled, but before the outcome is known).
My dice are see-through light pink with white numbers. Plain as shit aside from my funky shaped d4s. A humble gift from the other player in my group who runs games, and I love them.
Now to start a campaign to get Deficient noticed by GinnyD
Ngl the dragon in the room joke killed me
This was unexpectedly hilarious
I have encounter bins when I run my sandboxes. '2d6 gnolls holding 3 halfling merchents in a cage'? Cool let me just pop open my premade bin for this. It is stored in one of those screw/nail bin organizer boxes and is in the bin labeled 'Encounter 5'. The bin has enough gnolls, merchants, and bits of terrain to just dump it out onto a play matt.
This makes it also easy to mix and match stuff for my random tables and allows me to have my favorite thing... a 'roll 2 encounters' on my encounter randomizers, without digging for even more stuff. So say I get the 'roll 2 options' and get the 'Gnolls/merchants [bin 5]' and then I also roll 'goblin warband raiding a camp [bin3]', I just made a dynamic encounter where the gnolls want to eat the merchants and goblins want to steal the loot, but the gnolls also see the goblins as an extra meal that just walked into the camp. Just dump the 2 boxes onto my scatter terrain map and BAM the players have this hectic fight of keep the merchants alive, but also the gnolls and goblins are fighting each other.
Once I am done with the encounter or think of a new one I will put my encounter bin minis and terrain into their own organized boxes labeled [GNOLLS], [ROCKS], [CAMPS], etc. and then fill up the Encounter Bin that is now vacant.
"But doesn't this take a ton of time and energy?" Yes... yes it does... but I am insane and love physical terrain and minis too much to let it go.
That's dope. If I had the space I'd totally steal that.
I don't need to hide my notes from players behind a screen because no one can read my handwriting as it is horrendous. I think the worst about the screen is that it is bad for conversation to cover yourself so much in my experience.
1:12 I know exactly what you rolled there. Nice!
I like the way you think. I’ll probably keep my screen just so I can have a place to put up maps that show all the secret doors and stuff. I have downsized to grid paper, pencil, dice, and screen
Your videos just keep getting better and better. By the end of this one your dialogue had improved 1000% Love you work mate, wont be long before you are on some awkward GM panel with the other UA-cam celebrities.
I like your video style man its a lot of fun and pretty funny.
My favourite games I've played as a player were (almost) entirely theater of the mind.
Those jump cuts earned a sub😂
I use chess pieces instead of minis. I bought like 3 sets of smaller pieces, and use whichever ones feel appropriate, and then swap to dark pieces when they're bloodied. Players can tell from a glance which pieces are more threatenig, and more hurt
I keep the GM screen because it's handy to have that information handy, I can hang stuff from it for the players to get info, and yes, I cheat. If my players are having a hard time against a monster and they look miserable, then guess who has failed to hit as the monsters so they feel like they have a chance and feel more engaged, I.E. having more fun. If they can see the dragon just critted them all to a char for the umpteenth time, then they're not having fun unless we're playing 1st edition.
fullscreen as soon as you started singing lol
I like to roll some dice occasionally behind the screen, just to add some low cost mystery. The players need to learn not every dice roll will be followed by an overt outcome. sometimes the unknown lurks in the shadows...
I use my DM screen for dramatic effect. What I do is use it in casual combat/ or social encounters, but when they get to a bossfight i pack it up and roll in the open. When I do that the players know shit is getting real