|
Post by Alexis on Mar 25, 2015 19:32:58 GMT
Ever since I found out about the existence of DM Screens I wanted to have one. Which honestly isn't that long ago, since I've only been playing D&D for about 6 months now (I immediately started as a DM, never actually got to play so far ) I have been looking around a lot. I didn't really like the pre-made one from WotC (well I didn't want to pay that much money for a piece of cardboard) so the logical conclusion was that I had to make my own. The problem was that most of the DIY designs I found were extremely nice to look at but I needed something kind of simple that can be easily transported. We play at a friend's place and I usually have to take all the materials from my home with public transport to my friend, so easy to transport and functionality is key. After some thinking I eventually came up with a simple design. Materials used:- 4 pieces of thick cardboard in the same size - duct tape - wood textured self-sticking foil First I put some duct tape around the edges to cover the corrugation and make it a bit more durable. Then I used the duct tape to tape the 4 pieces together in a zig-zag pattern, so that the entire construct would fold up as small as possible. To make it look prettier I covered the side that the players would see with a self-stick foil with a wood pattern. Well that is how it looks so far. On my DM side of the screen I will obviously put all sorts of information I frequently need, I don't think that is the interesting part. I'm not yet sure what I am going to do with the player side though. I have thought about putting up some information that they frequently use, or some kind of artwork. I also could just leave it like that because I think it looks kind of nice with the wood pattern. I will have to think about that and I will of course update you if I have done some more work on it. And I will post a picture of the whole thing in action soon!
|
|
|
Post by DnDPaladin on Mar 25, 2015 22:21:30 GMT
well DM screens are surely great for info keeping and th elikes. but unfortunately i hate the fact that there is something blocking my view of the field. so i think DM screen ar ejust bad for that.
good job on the screen so far. yeah they are heavy priced for something so small. figure of speech of course. but thats how wizard does things. overprice everything they sell.
|
|
leolad72
Paint Manipulator
I am a DM; it isn't in my job description to "kid around"
Posts: 147
|
Post by leolad72 on Mar 25, 2015 23:56:13 GMT
Yup......nicer than mine...lol. I just grabbed the nearest tri-fold cardboard display stand I could find and painted flat black. I found a pdf of the tables that go on the DM side of it and with some creative cutting and rubber cement, I'm in business.
|
|
|
Post by Alexis on Mar 27, 2015 9:51:07 GMT
I have some new pictures of my DM Screen. So far I have just added the table for my side of the screen. I googled a bit and found a pdf version of the tables that are used in the one you can buy from WotC (well I don't know if the one for 4e is still available). I'm probably going to modify the tables a bit since there is a lot of information on there that I won't be needing during the game. As for the player side I still haven't decided what do to. But I think just leaving it the wood texture isn't such a bad option.
|
|
|
Post by voodoo on Mar 31, 2015 0:46:59 GMT
Hey That sure is smart lookin'. Love the wood texture. Can I ask where you got that wood textured self sticking foil? I'm going to make one for my cousins. (Might make one for myself because I use some different tables that the WotC does not include). Thanks for this post. Oh yeah and what did you use to stick the tables to the cardboard? Sorry for all the questions.
|
|
|
Post by Alexis on Mar 31, 2015 4:03:47 GMT
Hey That sure is smart lookin'. Love the wood texture. Can I ask where you got that wood textured self sticking foil? I'm going to make one for my cousins. (Might make one for myself because I use some different tables that the WotC does not include). Thanks for this post. Oh yeah and what did you use to stick the tables to the cardboard? Sorry for all the questions. I am happy to help and answer your questions! The wood texture foil I got in a hardware store called "Hornbach". I think it's actually called adhesive foil or film and it's originally designed for the use on furniture. As for the tables: I glued them on with gluestick and then I covered them with some clear adhesive foil.
|
|
|
Post by voodoo on Mar 31, 2015 4:09:56 GMT
Hey That sure is smart lookin'. Love the wood texture. Can I ask where you got that wood textured self sticking foil? I'm going to make one for my cousins. (Might make one for myself because I use some different tables that the WotC does not include). Thanks for this post. Oh yeah and what did you use to stick the tables to the cardboard? Sorry for all the questions. I am happy to help and answer your questions! The wood texture foil I got in a hardware store called "Hornbach". I think it's actually called adhesive foil or film and it's originally designed for the use on furniture. As for the tables: I glued them on with gluestick and then I covered them with some clear adhesive foil. clear foil what a wonderful idea! Thanks for all your help. This will be a fun project I can give to my cousin. Thanks again!
|
|
|
Post by sgtslag on Mar 31, 2015 14:34:46 GMT
voodoo, in the USA, this material would likely be Contact Paper: vinyl, peel-n-stick, used for lining cupboard shelves, found in the kitchen tools/furnishings aisle at Wal-Mart, around $4 per roll. It comes in different textures (including the wood grain pattern she used), as well as clear (both matte, and glossy). Cheers!
|
|
|
Post by voodoo on Mar 31, 2015 17:04:26 GMT
voodoo, in the USA, this material would likely be Contact Paper: vinyl, peel-n-stick, used for lining cupboard shelves, found in the kitchen tools/furnishings aisle at Wal-Mart, around $4 per roll. It comes in different textures (including the wood grain pattern she used), as well as clear (both matte, and glossy). Cheers! sgtslag; Thanks for the heads up! It should be the same in Canada. I was going to pick some up this afternoon and I WAS going to start at Michael's craft store. yikes! I built the board last night and have all the tables printed out. Cheers!
|
|
|
Post by voodoo on Mar 31, 2015 17:31:35 GMT
Hey That sure is smart lookin'. Love the wood texture. Can I ask where you got that wood textured self sticking foil? I'm going to make one for my cousins. (Might make one for myself because I use some different tables that the WotC does not include). Thanks for this post. Oh yeah and what did you use to stick the tables to the cardboard? Sorry for all the questions. I am happy to help and answer your questions! The wood texture foil I got in a hardware store called "Hornbach". I think it's actually called adhesive foil or film and it's originally designed for the use on furniture. As for the tables: I glued them on with gluestick and then I covered them with some clear adhesive foil. Thanks again! Also sgtslag let me know in USA it's called 'Contact Paper: vinyl, peel-n-stick', (I'm in Canada and we have similar stores/products). Not sure where you're living, maybe different terminology? Anyhoo I've build the screen using your method. I used double thick cardboard (that's what I have on hand) I thought it would be too thick, but holy crap it's indestructable and not as thick as one would think. Just less than One and a quarter inches (3.175 cm) folded up. I'll post a pic when it's all done up. The only difference in pics would be I used 'Gorilla Tape'. and it's black.
|
|
|
Post by Alexis on Mar 31, 2015 18:15:44 GMT
Thanks again! Also sgtslag let me know in USA it's called 'Contact Paper: vinyl, peel-n-stick', (I'm in Canada and we have similar stores/products). Not sure where you're living, maybe different terminology? Anyhoo I've build the screen using your method. I used double thick cardboard (that's what I have on hand) I thought it would be too thick, but holy crap it's indestructable and not as thick as one would think. Just less than One and a quarter inches (3.175 cm) folded up. I'll post a pic when it's all done up. The only difference in pics would be I used 'Gorilla Tape'. and it's black. I live in Switzerland so we most definitely have another terminology ;-) I'm looking forward to seeing the screen you made! I would have used black tape too if I had some lying around.
|
|
|
Post by voodoo on Mar 31, 2015 18:40:54 GMT
Thanks again! Also sgtslag let me know in USA it's called 'Contact Paper: vinyl, peel-n-stick', (I'm in Canada and we have similar stores/products). Not sure where you're living, maybe different terminology? Anyhoo I've build the screen using your method. I used double thick cardboard (that's what I have on hand) I thought it would be too thick, but holy crap it's indestructable and not as thick as one would think. Just less than One and a quarter inches (3.175 cm) folded up. I'll post a pic when it's all done up. The only difference in pics would be I used 'Gorilla Tape'. and it's black. I live in Switzerland so we most definitely have another terminology ;-) I'm looking forward to seeing the screen you made! I would have used black tape too if I had some lying around. We have all kinds of duct tape. everything from camaflauge, red, blue, green, yellow, black, pink, orange and stuff with little pictures on it. I'll post more pics when it's complete. here are some so far...... imgur.com/a/v5NWz
|
|
|
Post by Alexis on Mar 31, 2015 18:44:24 GMT
voodoo Your screen already looks really good :-)
|
|
|
Post by sgtslag on Mar 31, 2015 20:09:12 GMT
"Contact Paper", is the brand name; "peel-n-stick" is how it's used, it has a backing paper. I used the matte, clear stuff to cover my 1st Ed. AD&D books, shortly after I purchased them in 1980, and today, they look like they were purchased last week -- the covers are nearly pristine. I live in the USA, by the way.
|
|
|
Post by voodoo on Apr 1, 2015 6:03:08 GMT
|
|
|
Post by sgtslag on Apr 1, 2015 13:47:33 GMT
I would suggest covering the artwork with matte clear vinyl, if you have not already. It will protect them over the coming years, especially from accidents involving liquids... It looks fantastic: simple, elegant, and useful. Cheers!
|
|
|
Post by voodoo on Apr 3, 2015 4:10:35 GMT
I would suggest covering the artwork with matte clear vinyl, if you have not already. It will protect them over the coming years, especially from accidents involving liquids... It looks fantastic: simple, elegant, and useful. Cheers! Thanks folks! Yes I used the clear vinyl for the charts and pics. Worked great!
|
|
|
Post by Alexis on Apr 5, 2015 9:31:21 GMT
So last friday we played a 12 hour marathon D&D session and I got to try out my DM-Screen for the first time. I really liked it so far. I had a lot of space for my stuff and I didn't have to worry about my players seeing things that I didn't want to reveal just yet. Also it was very easy to look up certain things. That is still neccessary quite often, since we all are still pretty inexperienced. My players also liked it. The thought that it gives a nice touch of secrecy to the game. They seem to like it if they don't know what I am doing behind my screen. The only problem I have with our table is that I can't reach the minis on the gaming area. That isnt't the screen's fault though because I wasn't able to do that before either. I end up walking around the table alot but I don't reallly mind because I'm not the kind of sitting-still-for-a-long-time type of person anyway ;-) So here are some pictures of my screen in action:
|
|
|
Post by dragon722 on Apr 5, 2015 15:18:02 GMT
Alexis where did you get that green awesome mini and what is it called? Your screen is pretty Awesome and love how it came out. Great job!!! I see you have four people playing with you and you have a hard time reaching the pieces....put one player on each end of the table and two on one of the sides like they are and you sit across from those two and you should be able to eleviate that problem. Just an opinion
|
|
|
Post by voduchyld on Apr 5, 2015 16:17:15 GMT
Keep on the Shadowfell module! I'm running that to my players too!
|
|