I haven’t gotten to play much in person this year, obviously, and so my physical DM screen has gone largely unused.
Which is too bad, because it’s actually super helpful. I have one of the normal WotC ones, and for the most part I find the info they’ve picked useful. I use the price tables most often, since those are things that come up just rarely enough (and 5e prices are a little unintuitive) that I forget them more than things I do often like setting DCs.
There are only four things I’ve added:
- In big letters, “Concentration Checks!”—which may be the hardest thing to actually remember in the moment of combat.
- Also in big letters, “Spotlight!”—a gentle nudge to keep it rotating when we’re out of combat.
- PC’s passive perceptions scores.
- The social DC table.
I still have a lot to learn about running social encounters, especially building habits around knowing what NPCs want, how they feel about the party, and how to actually enact those things as responses. I haven’t been particularly happy with the few truly social encounters I have “designed.” So to help, I took some of the tables in the DMG and turned them into this:
| Social DCs | Friendly | Neutral | Hostile |
| Significant risk | 20 | ||
| Minor risk | 10 | 20 | |
| Help, no risk | 0 | 10 | 20 |
| No help or harm | 0 | 10 | |
| Active opposition | 0 |
This fits on a post-it note and fits nicely over some of the “size” examples that I never use. And it helps me to think about how I might structure a conversation or what might be worth rolling for. DC 0 is the NPC’s default reaction. Trying to convince a hostile NPC to help you is hard—getting them to risk something for you is impossible.
Of course these are just guidelines. For a given NPC, the approach the PCs take matters. Intimidating a Friendly NPC might have a higher DC or not have the long-term result the PC wants. What arguments they make—even if the player is describing it—will affect the DC one way or another. And it’s not just risk to life and limb, but “risk” to things they care about, or sacrifices they might make.
Some NPCs can’t be reasoned with, or won’t agree to certain requests no matter what. The neutral shop or inn keeper isn’t going to give things away for free. The zealous cult leader isn’t going to deviate from their plans. The patsy that is more scared of their boss than the party isn’t listening.
What else do you keep behind the screen?
James DM 