If you run out of random encounters, here's a generator that you can adjust to your player's level, the kind of terrain they're in, and other things
If they are making their characters at the table tomorrow and you're using the point buy system for stats, here is a point buy calculator with the different races as options
Otherwise make sure you have lots of dice on hand because you're gonna be making a lot of rolls
Good luck, have fun :)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
My mother told me once that the stars were heroes whose days have long since passed. And that they burned for as long as someone remembered them. But when people forgot about them, they burned out. So even after they die, they continue to shine for millions of years until they are forgotten. And it is only when you are forgotten that you truly die.
There's a plethora of homebrew dm screen sheets if you google for it. However, I've found that you tend to have to figure out for yourself what you need behind that screen. The way I DM, I usually need a random table or 5, but not anything on encumbrances, food gold costs, or combat actions. My advice would be to try a few things and work out what you're always searching for or taking too long to find, and then add those to your screen, and conversely, working out things you can easily remember or hardly look at, and cutting those.
I'd like my first campaign to remain on core rules only, yet those old unwritten rules seem to slowly reappear as the events progress to fill in gaps. If the rules explained examples of sequences, there would not only be DM material, players would know what they may accomplish in a turn. I'm not complaining, iv'e not had this much fun in 30 years!
Keep in mind that the player's handbook offers additional class options, and doesn't include some of the races in the Compendium. Besides those additional races found in the Elemental Evil's Player Companion product, I believe everything else is the same as the SRD. From Memory I believe the basic rules only has four races (Human, dwarf, elf, & Halfling). I'd recommend having all the material form the players handbook, as it just makes life easier than everyone having to print out a copy of the basic rules.
What to have on your DM screen vs what not to have.
Have
1) The rules you forget, no matter how trivial they are. If you find yourself forgetting a rule, put it on the DM screen. 2) List of skills, and examples/ relevant information that you need. 3) Conditions and the effects that apply when someone has them. 4) Any rule you discover yourself needing time and time again. 5) Have DCs for common effects in the game. Poisons and such that the party is actually using. 6) Specific player features that you need to remember/know. I'm thinking here of reminders like to sneak attack you must have advantage or an ally within 5ft of the enemy and not have disadvantage. Or maybe a spell that is always used. 7)The Players Passive Perception/AC/Languages known/other useful bits of information. (Depending on the work you are putting into the screen, this may not be possible if it is going to be permanent.) 8) Weather Conditions and their effects. 9) Reminders. Anything you find you need to be reminded of during a game. For example a player having -2 to everything due to an unfortunate card draw from the deck of many things. Or a player who has been poisoned or cursed. 10) Actions the player can take in combat, specifically things like trip/disarm/etc. that players may want to do but aren't straight forward. 11) Any maneuvers that a fighter may have or other class features that you need to be reminded of exactly how they work. 12)Anything else you find yourself needing to reference all the time that isn't specific to the current adventure. 13) Anything that would be too time consuming to reference in your notes, but is important to the campaign. 14) Potentially magic item costs as well as crafting costs. I say potentially because this is also something that could be in your notes as the PCs shouldn't be able to easily find a buyer, so you can look up the info while they are making their investigation check.
Not to have
1)Don't have random tables for encounters or loot, etc.. Just don't. The DM screen should be used for quick reference, a reminder of rules and such that are important. Random encounters can be made prior to the game (if you find you run out of random encounters, make more). Besides one on the Dm screen can only be used so much before it suddenly becomes the same encounter over and over again. You don't really need random encounters, as you can pretty much make four or five prior to the game and use/reuse ones for previous levels. I'd say make five or so for the first game session and then two or so after that. Always tweaking an encounter if you use it twice. You can use ones from previous game sessions until the party levels up a couple of times, so they will be useful for quite a while and free up space on your dm screen. Random encounters need to be balanced with the future encounters the PCs are going to come across, otherwise you risk using their resources and forcing them to rest prior to the big bad, which may make that encounter way easier than you had planned. If you need a random encounter table, just toss one in your notes, not on the DM screen.
2) Don't include the xp needed to gain a new level. You can easily include this information in your notes, as you really only need the next level for each PC (which often is going to be the same for everyone.) At most you are probably going to need like 1-3 levels at a time, so having all 20 levels on your dm screen is a waste for what could be one line in your notes.
3)DCs. Unless you are super forgetful (or the rules have a specific one, i.e. poisons). Its rather easy to go easy is 10, moderate 15, hard 20, nearly impossible 25, and actually impossible 30. For most things you probably should have already figured out the DC you need and have those in your notes, and honestly you probably just need to know 15 and 20. If you are winging it and the task is easy, just say the player succeeds. If its impossible, just assume the player needs to roll a 20 to succeed. You can even mentally go with the PC rolling a low score as a failure, and a high score as a success just kinda mentally judging whether its good or bad with no real DC set in your mind.
4)Anything that you can include in your notes that you are just going to need for specific circumstances and are unlikely going to need at any point you aren't looking at those notes. Basically if you only need to know it for a couple of game sessions, it probably should be in your notes.
5) Anything you are going to be able to take the time to look up in your notes or anything that is just going to be too long to include on the screen.
6) Food costs, etc. These are things that should be in your notes if you are going to use them as they should reasonable differ depending on where the PCs are.
To show there is no one-size-fits-all answer, because what a DM benefits from having on their screen is as different as who each DM might be as a person, the list of things found on the interior of my D&D 5th edition screen:
Lingering injury table (modified from the DMG)
Mob attacks table from DMG
Improvising damage table from DMG
Damage Severity and level, plus Trap Save DCs and attacks from DMG
Potion Mixing table from DMG
Scroll mishap table from DMG
Condtions, and exhaustion
Individual Treasure and Treasure Hoard tables from DMG (because while some DMs may have these things called "notes" that they pre-write and can include all kinds of little details in, I actually do only what is actually necessary of the DM to run a good game, so I have at most a rough outline of whats going on in the world around the characters and let the players lead the action, so all of my encounters are planned and built at the table - and having the loot tables on my screen reminds me not to just skip over finding valuables)
Table showing the house-ruled traits we've assigned to a long rest under each quality of lifestyle
Edit to add: The outside of the screen has the in-game calendar, and a map of the campaign area.
Thanks so much for all this input! I have a lot to consider here. I'm running Lost Mine from the starter set, so a lot of stuff is taken care of for me in the published material. However, there are some great ideas here that already have my gears turning. I love random effects, so I'm definitely going to include the scroll mishap and potion miscibility tables on the chance I get to have some fun with them.
How'd the session go? Looks like I'm a day late to the party, but I have a contribution if you haven't decided your final setup already.
Basic summary of status effects (poison, stunned, etc...)
cover AC bonuses. Everyone, it seems, will try to hide behind trees or rocks or large piles of dirt at some point.
Basic weapon templates with usage options and damage dice (versatile, large, etc...) every standard game weapon is a basic re-skin of a few base stats.
Random NPC Names and basic profiles. My players at least, love to talk to random people and maybe they just like to mess with me but they always ask "hey, what's your name" and random stuff that requires a basic backstory. Pre-naming a few randoms is always helpful for making the world seem full and alive as well.
Basic notes on several new locations. Ex: in my game, we have Onyxreach. My notes say "ONYXREACH: Mining, booming trade, in a mountain pass, pop. 5,200, smells like a mine, big rock juts over city like lion king." Then I can read off to my players 'as you enter Onyxreach you can tell this is a mining city with a booming trade economy. build into the mountain pass, It mus hold about 5000 people. As you walk through the streets you can smell the dust of crushed rocks and lamp oils. A large natural spire extends from the side of the mountain, casting an enormous shadow over the cobblestone streets before you."
Don't do random encounters, that's my opinion. I keep a spark notes version of monster stat blocks for any basic creatures I decide are local (darkmantle in the caves, goblins, bassalisk, etc...). I can fit six or more of these creatures on one side of standard 8x11 paper. Print double sided and I've got a dozen denizens to dispense as desired. Or, put a couple specials with more detail on the back for your story-compelling encounters.
I found it useful to also decide what I definitely DON'T want to waste screen space.
Dialogue scripts (the players will deviate, and you'll be hosed)
Loot tables (I decide beforehand since encounters aren't random, plus a little extra pool for randomly searching barrels, crates, houses, etc.)
NPC generator table (nothing says "this town is alive" like a loading screen followed by a factory-fresh NPC)
I bought the D&D 5e DM screen so I have something to reference. After looking at it and opening it up, the text is fairly large and there's alot of art, so there's tons of room to improve.
Essentially what I did was I left the left page as is (NPC generator basically -- tables for characteristics, ideals, bonds, flaws, and names).
The 2nd page is the one I have completely covered at the moment. It originally had the conditions listed with what they do (and not even all of them listed, this continues onto page 3). I thought this took up way too much space, so I actually taped 6 index cards together (3x2) after writing out the conditions, added in Exhaustion, DC settings, Cover rules, Obscurity rules, and all Skills.
I haven't touched the 3rd or 4th pages (yet) which contains everything I have on the 2nd page (end of conditions, exhaustion, dc settings, cover and obscurity rules, and the skills list) and a small table with "light" rules (candles, torches, and the distances/durations). The 4th page is tables that seem almost useless to me -- travel tables, map size generation table, a "something happens" table and a "quick find" table.
Essentially what I'm going to do (which came to me after I did the index card thing) is print up 8.5x11 pages to cover these pages (as this is the size of each page of the DM screen, why did I hand write that first page I changed.) I'm going to make a more in depth NPC generator (basically add to the tables already there for more options for page 1. keep page 2 as I modified above. Page 3 will likely be a page where I post quick notes on the campaign/characters/story as it progresses (NPC relations with characters, who they like and not, etc.). Page 4 will be decided after I run a few games and see what else I need that i seem to be lacking. (I'm a first time DM, starting tonight!).
Good luck on your game tonight. What I'd recommend is that you come up with the NPC's before the game if at all possible. Having extra names on hand is a good idea though. I don't personally think you need the ideals/flaws etc. Most of them seem a little generic/forcred for your average npc to have.
I've run the lost mines with a couple different groups. The one thing I learned that helped was to put a miniaturized copy of the town map on my screen. That way I glance down when I needed to for reference on layout instead of looking down and taking my attention of the players entirely. It helped to keep them engaged and the game flowing.
Good luck on your game tonight. What I'd recommend is that you come up with the NPC's before the game if at all possible. Having extra names on hand is a good idea though. I don't personally think you need the ideals/flaws etc. Most of them seem a little generic/forcred for your average npc to have.
I'm running the Lost Mines of Phandelver from the starter set. Would you create NPC's aside from what's already in the book? Should I be adding flavor/backstory to the existing NPCs?
Good luck on your game tonight. What I'd recommend is that you come up with the NPC's before the game if at all possible. Having extra names on hand is a good idea though. I don't personally think you need the ideals/flaws etc. Most of them seem a little generic/forcred for your average npc to have.
I'm running the Lost Mines of Phandelver from the starter set. Would you create NPC's aside from what's already in the book? Should I be adding flavor/backstory to the existing NPCs?
Yes! You never know what crazy things the PCs will come up with. To start with, think about NPCs you might need that aren't in the book and make a couple. Some generic town folk might be useful. I'll have to look and see what the adventure already has and I'll try to offer suggestions then.
You can bring NPCs and flavor/backstory elements from the next adventure you plan on running.
Extra names and some brief traits are good to have on hand.
Flesh out the NPCs as much as you can with free time.
Good luck on your game tonight. What I'd recommend is that you come up with the NPC's before the game if at all possible. Having extra names on hand is a good idea though. I don't personally think you need the ideals/flaws etc. Most of them seem a little generic/forcred for your average npc to have.
I'm running the Lost Mines of Phandelver from the starter set. Would you create NPC's aside from what's already in the book? Should I be adding flavor/backstory to the existing NPCs?
Yes! You never know what crazy things the PCs will come up with. To start with, think about NPCs you might need that aren't in the book and make a couple. Some generic town folk might be useful. I'll have to look and see what the adventure already has and I'll try to offer suggestions then.
You can bring NPCs and flavor/backstory elements from the next adventure you plan on running.
Extra names and some brief traits are good to have on hand.
Flesh out the NPCs as much as you can with free time.
Okay, I do have a decent list of about 35 or 40 names handy, but that's it, just the names. I'll need to work on coming up with a few fleshed-out characters. Is 5 under-doing it? Just seems like a round number, but I don't want to be under-prepared if I can help it. One thing I consistently hear on these boards is that it's better to have this stuff ready, and if they don't get used, you have some content ready for the next campaign.
I like the idea of bringing in NPCs from future campaigns, but our group's plan is to alternate the DM role between me and one other guy. It's still early, but I think he's planning a home brew, whereas I like the idea of running the published campaigns.
Are you alternating writhing the same world? If so then you can still have an NPC who foreshadows a future event next time you switch.
The "random" names should stay just names, with at most a bit of description for a small number of them.
The Main NPCs can be fleshed out as much as you have free time, but bullet points and general ideas are better than complete back stories.
Complete back stories are good for those NPCs central to the campaign and those the Party tends to run into a lot. But I wouldn't painstakingly plan out all the details before hand for an NPC you may never use.
One thing I would say, if the PCs never learn the NPC lives in the town, then the NPC can be used in another city. The PCs will never know he wasn't originally intended to live there and you don't end up wasting your time coming up with a new npc while having one you will never use. I'll post a more concrete example when I get home.
Five seems good to me. But they don't have to be fully fleshed out. I wouldn't do it fully until the NPC becomes a recurring player in the game world.
What you need to know is Traylon the Dwarf blacksmith used to be in the royal military until he was seriously hurt. He goes to the town pub every night after he finishes his work. Because of his military experience he still gets orders for making the military weapons used by the soldiers and has made the weapons used by the town guard. He tends to not watch his tongue, he is old and seen plenty and doesn't care about being "politically" correct. He has lost more friends than the typical dwarf.
And that's about it. You might eventually come up with somethings that happen during his time as a soldier but that's not important unless you can tie it into the adventure. Maybe he served with one of the main villians of the story. Flesh that out and then try to let the PCs find out the villian was in the military. Then give the dwarf npc a large scar or a military armor set or something to tip the PCs off. Another NPC can tell them to speak to the dwarf (high rolls doesn't mean the PCs find someone with the information all the time, but maybe someone that can point them to the right people to ask)
The rest of the information gives you a general idea of the kind of things the npc will know if asked about. If you ask him about vampires Traylon won't have a clue, but if you ask about anything soldier related he is the guy who would know.
I'm running my first campaign starting tomorrow night. Any recommendations on info/material to have on hand? Besides the core rule books that is.
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
If you run out of random encounters, here's a generator that you can adjust to your player's level, the kind of terrain they're in, and other things
If they are making their characters at the table tomorrow and you're using the point buy system for stats, here is a point buy calculator with the different races as options
Otherwise make sure you have lots of dice on hand because you're gonna be making a lot of rolls
Good luck, have fun :)
Hey Nayt, would you know where I can find core rules here?
The compendium contains the basic rules: https://www.dndbeyond.com/compendium/rules/basic-rules
The core books won't be in until the tools officially launch in the Summer.
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Excellent, thanks!
There's a plethora of homebrew dm screen sheets if you google for it. However, I've found that you tend to have to figure out for yourself what you need behind that screen. The way I DM, I usually need a random table or 5, but not anything on encumbrances, food gold costs, or combat actions. My advice would be to try a few things and work out what you're always searching for or taking too long to find, and then add those to your screen, and conversely, working out things you can easily remember or hardly look at, and cutting those.
I'd like my first campaign to remain on core rules only, yet those old unwritten rules seem to slowly reappear as the events progress to fill in gaps. If the rules explained examples of sequences, there would not only be DM material, players would know what they may accomplish in a turn. I'm not complaining, iv'e not had this much fun in 30 years!
Keep in mind that the player's handbook offers additional class options, and doesn't include some of the races in the Compendium. Besides those additional races found in the Elemental Evil's Player Companion product, I believe everything else is the same as the SRD. From Memory I believe the basic rules only has four races (Human, dwarf, elf, & Halfling). I'd recommend having all the material form the players handbook, as it just makes life easier than everyone having to print out a copy of the basic rules.
What to have on your DM screen vs what not to have.
Have
1) The rules you forget, no matter how trivial they are. If you find yourself forgetting a rule, put it on the DM screen.
2) List of skills, and examples/ relevant information that you need.
3) Conditions and the effects that apply when someone has them.
4) Any rule you discover yourself needing time and time again.
5) Have DCs for common effects in the game. Poisons and such that the party is actually using.
6) Specific player features that you need to remember/know. I'm thinking here of reminders like to sneak attack you must have advantage or an ally within 5ft of the enemy and not have disadvantage. Or maybe a spell that is always used.
7)The Players Passive Perception/AC/Languages known/other useful bits of information. (Depending on the work you are putting into the screen, this may not be possible if it is going to be permanent.)
8) Weather Conditions and their effects.
9) Reminders. Anything you find you need to be reminded of during a game. For example a player having -2 to everything due to an unfortunate card draw from the deck of many things. Or a player who has been poisoned or cursed.
10) Actions the player can take in combat, specifically things like trip/disarm/etc. that players may want to do but aren't straight forward.
11) Any maneuvers that a fighter may have or other class features that you need to be reminded of exactly how they work.
12)Anything else you find yourself needing to reference all the time that isn't specific to the current adventure.
13) Anything that would be too time consuming to reference in your notes, but is important to the campaign.
14) Potentially magic item costs as well as crafting costs. I say potentially because this is also something that could be in your notes as the PCs shouldn't be able to easily find a buyer, so you can look up the info while they are making their investigation check.
Not to have
1)Don't have random tables for encounters or loot, etc.. Just don't. The DM screen should be used for quick reference, a reminder of rules and such that are important. Random encounters can be made prior to the game (if you find you run out of random encounters, make more). Besides one on the Dm screen can only be used so much before it suddenly becomes the same encounter over and over again. You don't really need random encounters, as you can pretty much make four or five prior to the game and use/reuse ones for previous levels. I'd say make five or so for the first game session and then two or so after that. Always tweaking an encounter if you use it twice. You can use ones from previous game sessions until the party levels up a couple of times, so they will be useful for quite a while and free up space on your dm screen. Random encounters need to be balanced with the future encounters the PCs are going to come across, otherwise you risk using their resources and forcing them to rest prior to the big bad, which may make that encounter way easier than you had planned. If you need a random encounter table, just toss one in your notes, not on the DM screen.
2) Don't include the xp needed to gain a new level. You can easily include this information in your notes, as you really only need the next level for each PC (which often is going to be the same for everyone.) At most you are probably going to need like 1-3 levels at a time, so having all 20 levels on your dm screen is a waste for what could be one line in your notes.
3)DCs. Unless you are super forgetful (or the rules have a specific one, i.e. poisons). Its rather easy to go easy is 10, moderate 15, hard 20, nearly impossible 25, and actually impossible 30. For most things you probably should have already figured out the DC you need and have those in your notes, and honestly you probably just need to know 15 and 20. If you are winging it and the task is easy, just say the player succeeds. If its impossible, just assume the player needs to roll a 20 to succeed. You can even mentally go with the PC rolling a low score as a failure, and a high score as a success just kinda mentally judging whether its good or bad with no real DC set in your mind.
4)Anything that you can include in your notes that you are just going to need for specific circumstances and are unlikely going to need at any point you aren't looking at those notes. Basically if you only need to know it for a couple of game sessions, it probably should be in your notes.
5) Anything you are going to be able to take the time to look up in your notes or anything that is just going to be too long to include on the screen.
6) Food costs, etc. These are things that should be in your notes if you are going to use them as they should reasonable differ depending on where the PCs are.
To show there is no one-size-fits-all answer, because what a DM benefits from having on their screen is as different as who each DM might be as a person, the list of things found on the interior of my D&D 5th edition screen:
Edit to add: The outside of the screen has the in-game calendar, and a map of the campaign area.
Thanks so much for all this input! I have a lot to consider here. I'm running Lost Mine from the starter set, so a lot of stuff is taken care of for me in the published material. However, there are some great ideas here that already have my gears turning. I love random effects, so I'm definitely going to include the scroll mishap and potion miscibility tables on the chance I get to have some fun with them.
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
How'd the session go? Looks like I'm a day late to the party, but I have a contribution if you haven't decided your final setup already.
Don't do random encounters, that's my opinion. I keep a spark notes version of monster stat blocks for any basic creatures I decide are local (darkmantle in the caves, goblins, bassalisk, etc...). I can fit six or more of these creatures on one side of standard 8x11 paper. Print double sided and I've got a dozen denizens to dispense as desired. Or, put a couple specials with more detail on the back for your story-compelling encounters.
I found it useful to also decide what I definitely DON'T want to waste screen space.
Experience: 5e Only - Playing, DM, world building.DM for Home-brew campaign based on Forgotten Realms lore. 5 player. Also play in party of 8.I bought the D&D 5e DM screen so I have something to reference. After looking at it and opening it up, the text is fairly large and there's alot of art, so there's tons of room to improve.
Essentially what I did was I left the left page as is (NPC generator basically -- tables for characteristics, ideals, bonds, flaws, and names).
The 2nd page is the one I have completely covered at the moment. It originally had the conditions listed with what they do (and not even all of them listed, this continues onto page 3). I thought this took up way too much space, so I actually taped 6 index cards together (3x2) after writing out the conditions, added in Exhaustion, DC settings, Cover rules, Obscurity rules, and all Skills.
I haven't touched the 3rd or 4th pages (yet) which contains everything I have on the 2nd page (end of conditions, exhaustion, dc settings, cover and obscurity rules, and the skills list) and a small table with "light" rules (candles, torches, and the distances/durations). The 4th page is tables that seem almost useless to me -- travel tables, map size generation table, a "something happens" table and a "quick find" table.
Essentially what I'm going to do (which came to me after I did the index card thing) is print up 8.5x11 pages to cover these pages (as this is the size of each page of the DM screen, why did I hand write that first page I changed.) I'm going to make a more in depth NPC generator (basically add to the tables already there for more options for page 1. keep page 2 as I modified above. Page 3 will likely be a page where I post quick notes on the campaign/characters/story as it progresses (NPC relations with characters, who they like and not, etc.). Page 4 will be decided after I run a few games and see what else I need that i seem to be lacking. (I'm a first time DM, starting tonight!).
How do you get a one-armed goblin out of a tree?
Wave!
Good luck on your game tonight. What I'd recommend is that you come up with the NPC's before the game if at all possible. Having extra names on hand is a good idea though. I don't personally think you need the ideals/flaws etc. Most of them seem a little generic/forcred for your average npc to have.
I've run the lost mines with a couple different groups. The one thing I learned that helped was to put a miniaturized copy of the town map on my screen. That way I glance down when I needed to for reference on layout instead of looking down and taking my attention of the players entirely. It helped to keep them engaged and the game flowing.
Good luck with the session.
I'll definitely add a town map to my screen, that's a good idea.
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
Are you alternating writhing the same world? If so then you can still have an NPC who foreshadows a future event next time you switch.
The "random" names should stay just names, with at most a bit of description for a small number of them.
The Main NPCs can be fleshed out as much as you have free time, but bullet points and general ideas are better than complete back stories.
Complete back stories are good for those NPCs central to the campaign and those the Party tends to run into a lot. But I wouldn't painstakingly plan out all the details before hand for an NPC you may never use.
One thing I would say, if the PCs never learn the NPC lives in the town, then the NPC can be used in another city. The PCs will never know he wasn't originally intended to live there and you don't end up wasting your time coming up with a new npc while having one you will never use. I'll post a more concrete example when I get home.
Five seems good to me. But they don't have to be fully fleshed out. I wouldn't do it fully until the NPC becomes a recurring player in the game world.
What you need to know is Traylon the Dwarf blacksmith used to be in the royal military until he was seriously hurt. He goes to the town pub every night after he finishes his work. Because of his military experience he still gets orders for making the military weapons used by the soldiers and has made the weapons used by the town guard. He tends to not watch his tongue, he is old and seen plenty and doesn't care about being "politically" correct. He has lost more friends than the typical dwarf.
And that's about it. You might eventually come up with somethings that happen during his time as a soldier but that's not important unless you can tie it into the adventure. Maybe he served with one of the main villians of the story. Flesh that out and then try to let the PCs find out the villian was in the military. Then give the dwarf npc a large scar or a military armor set or something to tip the PCs off. Another NPC can tell them to speak to the dwarf (high rolls doesn't mean the PCs find someone with the information all the time, but maybe someone that can point them to the right people to ask)
The rest of the information gives you a general idea of the kind of things the npc will know if asked about. If you ask him about vampires Traylon won't have a clue, but if you ask about anything soldier related he is the guy who would know.