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100% GMing
Treasure Tables is dedicated to game masters, offering GMing advice and ideas and a community of GMs helping each other run great games since 2005. I'm Martin Ralya, and I've been GMing since 1989 and writing for the RPG industry since 2004.
Treasure Tables is on hiatus as of December 13th, 2007 -- after two years of daily posts, I needed a break. If you're looking for GMing material, I have two recommendations: the hundreds of posts in TT's archives, and my new project, the multi-author GMing blog Gnome Stew. Happy GMing! -- Martin
What Goes Behind Your GMing Screen?
Sat. June 23, 2007
Assuming you use a GMing screen at all (or perhaps more than one), what do you keep behind it?
My typical GM’s-side loadout looks something like this:
- Adventure
- Blank pad of paper for taking notes
- Carefully-selected pile of dice (not so many as to be messy, not so few that I need to dig out more mid-game)
- Pen
- Counters I expect to need
- Little notes stuck to the inside of the screen
- Copies of stats I reference often (recurring NPCs, etc.)
What do you have behind your screen, either for your own convenience or to hide it from your players?
More posts about: Nature of GMing
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12 Responses to “What Goes Behind Your GMing Screen?”
Currently running the Shackled City (D&D), my GM/DM rig looks like this:
* Screen
* Laptop (arranged in-line with the DM screen) with D20srd.org and RPtools.net’s excellent Java-based InitTool
* Adventure
* Any necessary rule books
* Dice
* Session-specific minis
* Quick-access character info sheet with saves, key skills, etc. on the PCs
* Box of index cards with NPC/creature stat blocks
* d20 Condition cards to hand out when necessary
Sure, some of this stuff could be accessed on the laptop, but I find that I run a more interactive session the less I look at the laptop.
No screen, just the laptop. Behind it is a small cigar box for hiding minis, props, & the rare hidden roll, and the GM. I generally roll in the open with 25mm dice.
OK, on the laptop are the following windows:
Firefox with a local copy of d20srd.org, my Gmail, and any monsters saved out as .HTML files (YoYoDyne’s freeware Monster 3.5 saves out into custome HTML templates).
Adventure in hyperlinked .DOC format.
Pertinent sourcebooks in .PDF.
Pidgin IM client for chatting.
Excel - custom Encounter Tracker spreadsheet, and pertinent NPC/critter character sheets (HeroForge, SpellForge, or MonsterForge as needed - Linky.)
On the front are index cards with environmental modifiers and such.
Telas
I generally have my laptop behind the screen, along with any notes. If the adventure is hardcopy, I also keep that behind the screen as well.
Rulebooks either rest out in the open on the table or on a chair next to me.
Dice are kept in the open (I also generally roll in front of the players).
I usually don’t use a screen, I have a small side-table that’s shorter than the main table that I put my binder of notes on (yeah, I game low-tech).
Rule books are…around, dice are usually on the table, sometimes I roll on my binder, sometimes I roll in the open.
I combine the screen and laptop in such a way that the whole end of the double-wide table is mostly obscured. Behind the high-tech/low-tech wall are scattered notes, dice, adventure maps, and miniatures.
On the laptop I use the d20 SRD, a log for tracking adventure events, and various PDF versions of rulebooks that I didn’t want to lug around.
1. Post pictures!
2. I don’t use a GM screen. I have several things where I sit: On the table in front of me, a stack of empty papers, some dice (open rolls), pencils, erasers, the module (either a print-out of my own stuff, or bought modules), handwritten notes (usually NPC and monster stats in very broad terms such as hp, AC, Attack bonus, damage), a journal of party activities to track days and XP gained for my write-ups. Somewhere behind me on a shelf or coffee table, I’ll have the three core books.
No laptop. No splat books. I encourage players to bring their own player’s handbook. I usually give my players print-outs of maps and know really well where they are going, so I just add info to their map if they discover important stuff instead of keeping my own separate map.
One of the big advantages of making index cards of every scene, location, monster, NPC, etc. planned for the adventure is that I don’t have to have big pieces of paper behind the GM screen. So, behind the screen I have the prepared index cards for the adventure, some more index cards with “prepared improvisation” (mostly names and personality/appearance quirks), a few blank cards, a pencil and eraser, and some dice.
Beside my chair are the adventure itself in a binder, a couple of rulebooks, and a box of index cards that are less likely to be needed. They don’t need to be directly behind the screen since they’re used far less often.
Behind my screen there are my dice, a notebook I use to write temporary information(often initiative and battle order, but also choices my players make), a small folder with the adventure(the front page is something completely unrelated so when closed it cannot be ‘accidentally’ read), and some books.
To be honest I don’t use much of that during play it just feels good to have some mess there. But from now on I’m trying to be more efficient so I’m making a list of things I need at the table. Things which I plan to add: summarized stats for the PCs.
I gave up the screen a long time ago. Usually I have a binder with my information in it. I took all the information that I would have had on a screen and I put it into a cheat sheet. So I can just flip to that section of the rules and read it from there. I do my dice rolls in the open or on a side table. Other stuff I have on a computer like images, maps, and sound files. Now however we use my buddy’s xbox media center to view those on his big screen TV.
(Alex Schroder) 1. Post pictures!
I’ll second this. In fact, this could make a nifty subject for a Flickr group — my only hesitation in creating one would be that the Gaming Spaces group hasn’t taken off.
I’d definitely enjoy seeing behind-the-screen photos from other GMs.
Telas: I downloaded the Init Tool you mention but it locks up when I try to add a looked-up monster.
John Arcadian: how do you use the Xbox media center? Do you have a laptop hooked up to it? How do you control what and when the players see the images you want to share?
I actually just plug my thumb drive into the xbox and use the media center option from there. It doesn’t bring up thumbnails, so I have to do some prep works with whatever images I use. I just use the controller to navigate. Unfortunately there is no zoom feature, so a laser pointer is helpful if we are using a map.
Usually I use it for monster images to help invoke the feel of the monster, or for maps of an area. You can play music that way as well. The only thing is that it is pretty intensive on my buddys already overheating xbox 360.
One point though, I make sure not to rely on things like this. I always make sure that that pictures, or nifty toys are not the focus of anything. Tools are just that, tools. The game is between the GM and the players.