When you’re a Dungeon Master in Dungeons & Dragons, you’re going to have a lot of notes and a lot of things that you don’t want your players to see. Whether you’re fudging rolls to give them their awesome moments or you need to quickly reference something that you should probably know, your Dungeon Master Screen is important.
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Is The 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide Worth It?
The 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide arrives to give you a hand if you’re taking your first steps in the world of Dungeons & Dragons as a DM.
With the 2024 edition of Dungeons & Dragons coming out with new and adjusted rules, it’s important to make sure that your DM Screen reflects that. Thankfully, Wizards of the Coast has come out with a brand new DM Screen, but it’s up to you whether it’s worth buying.
Review
Previous screens for the 2014 edition of Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition were often cluttered with images that, while helpful for things like sizes, weren’t really helpful in any other regard. Instead, it just took up space where precious information should have been.
The 2024 Dungeon Master’s Screen, rectifies this issue. The inside is absolutely plastered with information – and a lot of it is important information. Of course, they have descriptors and the like to give people a better idea of what the numbers mean.
Having all the information you need on your screen is vital, and the 2024 DM Screen provides all that and more.
This is really obvious in some of the newer sections, like Improvising Damage. The Improvising Damage section lists dice, from 1d10 to 24d10, and then provides relatively detailed examples of what situation that damage would be acceptable in.
1d10 is listed as “burned by coals, hit by a falling bookcase, pricked by a poison needle,” while 24d10 jumps straight into “tumbling into a vortex of fire on the Elemental Plane of Fire, crushed in the jaws of a godlike creature or a moon-sized monster.”
What I find that I really like the most is that the Conditions are all confined to one panel. The text is a little bit small, but given that you should be sitting directly in front of it while DM-ing, that should be easy enough to deal with.
Other sections are expanded upon, like the Travel Terrain (which now includes different types of Difficulty Checks), and there’s a section on Death Saving Throws, too. All in all, it’s a really comprehensive Dungeon Master’s Screen that would be helpful for both newbies and veteran players. It’s updated with the 2024 Rules, and it’s, all around, a good tool to have in your pack.
However, there is one issue: the art. People have really mixed opinions on the outside artwork.
It’s a big change from other Dungeon Master screens, given that they usually feature the ‘epic; artwork that’s traditionally associated with the adventure modules, the guides, and the handbooks. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and if you like the artwork, then that makes this new edition of the Dungeon Master’s Screen all the better.
Given that the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Screen only has a single version out so far, if you don’t like the art, it might be better to wait… even if all that information is really nice.
Cost
The 2024 Dungeon Master’s Screen can be purchased at your local game store or through online stores like D&D Beyond or Amazon for around $19.99 USD. This is about on par, if not ever so slightly cheaper than the 2014 DM Screens, which Wizards of the Coast is no longer offering for sale on its own anymore.
What Dungeon Master’s Are Saying
Well Worth The Purchase – Jerel Levy
The 2024 DM’s screen culminates the most important aspects a Dungeon Master needs right at your fingertips. It has been updated with players in mind to make everything easier to see and more intuitive to access.
Conditions, actions, improvising damage, and more are all readily available, preventing you from wasting time opening a book in the heat of the moment. It’s well worth the purchase just for its ease of use; the artwork and new look are an added bonus.
A Useful Upgrade – Tallis Spalding
The 2024 DM’s screen is a massive upgrade from the 2014 editions, given that information is more condensed, there’s new information, and they’re genuinely useful. Everything is well organized and regardless of your skill level as a Dungeon Master, you’re going to find some use in it.
Although I don’t love the artwork on the outside, I also don’t mind it, and it also gives players a great view of what their character may be like, given that it features the different species that are in the 2024 edition of Dungeons & Dragons 5e.
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