This article amused me.
‘Why can’t anyone make a decision?’ My first time as a D&D Dungeon Master
It's pretty funny - players diverted by throwaway nonsense, no one able to decide things, players agreeing with and then ignoring a GM suggestion - all the fun stuff.
Also, the author looks kinda like John Doe from X.
I do like to read articles aimed at a more general audience than the hard-core gamers that I write for. Not always, but this is one I got a chuckle out of. And there is a link to a nice site with a trap generator.
Plus the title reminds me of the time my players made the then-11 or 12 year old son of one of our gamers the leader. He'd groaned all day about things being slow, let's do something, let's attack something . . . they made him the leader and all of a sudden he couldn't decide what to do, needed to check the map, wasn't too sure about any given suggestion . . . good times.
Once again I am reminded (by the pics) that I'm the only GM I know that doesn't hide behind a GM's screen.
ReplyDeleteI mean I use a laptop, but even before lappies I just used a notebook or binder, but I didn't stand them up. Always wonder if other GMs avoid the GM screens as well, but I still haven't found one.
I do pretty much like you. Never used a screen.
DeleteI don't use a screen either. I used one in the early 90s but since the 2000s I've gone mostly without a screen (and I don't do digital at the table, I need paper). Sometimes I have a folder up just to block view of my map so players don't get a peek (intentional or accidental) at the layout. I roll dice in full view and if I have a second table I can have the map out of sight on I don't have a screen at all.
DeleteTWO OF US!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it's the pervasiveness of the meme (the "GM Screen") or if most GMs are really hiding rolls and maps and critter notes... and the near proximity of charts and tables, and it just makes for a "handy thing".
Like would the practice have arisen on its own, or did the image in old (and new) adverts build it up as "what GMs do". Because I've seen GMs in all sorts of games build their own screens when the game system didn't have readily handy ones (like Vampire, FATE, etc), so it's not just a "D&D" or dungeon delve thing.
I use one, but I learned from a DM that used a screen, and played with my uncle who used the module cover as a screen, and TSR sold screens. So I used a screen. I never really thought not to and once you're used to it . . . even as I play now, I keep my DFRPG screen handy for the charts on my desk as we play on Foundry VTT.
DeleteWhen I started DMing I created my own screen by hand because I wanted specific information right at hand (AD&D), not because I wanted to hide anything. But I have moved back to simpler games that I don't need any rule references because I have the entire product memorized and I abandoned the use of screens except when I have a large map and nowhere to conceal it from the players. I do everything else out in plain sight of the players.
DeleteI'm maybe 95% online for years but on those very rare occasions when I get to game in person i generally don't use one either. I don't like to sit at the head of the table either, feel like both things keep me more separated than I prefer.
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