Pathfinder Roleplaying Game GM Screen (OGL) (based on
38
reviews)
Paizo Publishing, LLC
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$14.99
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Protect your important notes and die rolls from prying player eyes with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game GM Screen! This beautiful 4-panel screen features stunning artwork from Wayne Reynolds on the player’s side, and a huge number of charts and tables on the GM side to speed up play and reduce time spent leafing through rulebooks in search of an obscure modifier or result. From skill check Difficulty Classes to two-weapon fighting modifiers, the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game GM Screen gives you the tools you need to keep the game fast and fun. Constructed of ultra-high-grade hardcover book stock, this durable screen is perfect for travel, convention play, or repeated regular use.
Tables and Charts:
Acrobatics DCs and Modifiers
Bluff Modifiers
Climb DCs and Modifiers
Diplomacy DCs and Modifiers
Disable Device DCs
Fly DCs and Wind Effects on Flight
Heal DCs
Knowledge DCs
Perception DCs and Modifiers
Ride DCs
Spellcraft DCs
Survival DCs and Tracking Modifiers
Swim DCs
Attack Roll Modifiers
Armor Class Modifiers
Combat Maneuvers
Two-Weapon Fighting Penalties
Concentration Check DCs
Common Conditions
Armor and Weapon Hardness and Hit Points
Substance Hardness and Hit Points
Common Object Hardness and Hit Points
Experience Point Awards
Treasure Values per Encounter
After years of using landscape screens, I didn't care for going back to a tall screen like this. You can't see the players, never mind the table. I also don't care for the iconic character art we have seen again and again. I prefer screen art that will really fire the player's imaginations. See the original AD&D 1st edition screen for what I mean.
The screen is very sturdy, and most importantly, has good information on it.
I hope Paizo will someday consider redoing the screen in a landscape format.
I so love this screen. It is solid, with four panels and visually appealing to the players with good information on the GM side. I cannot tell you how many times I have spent in game looking up how a skill works etc. (because other screens seem to include the least useful information to a GM on them) and then looked at the screen straight after finding the info to see it was staring at me in the face all that time.
Great work on this. Best screen ever :)
One of the few things that weren't badly translated in Italian
Nice, very solid and pretty GM screen, the strudiest I've seen so far. It's also one of the few Pathfinder products whose italian translation wasn't grossly mishandled by Wyrd Ed. Not 5 five stars only because of some tables that aren't necessary but are there in place of other ones, and because I would have loved original artwork and not just a reprint of the iconics.
If you are going to use a screen, make it this one
This GM screen is outstanding in physical quality. It is made of thick, study, material, that is heavy enough to stay in place on a table getting knocked about by clumsy gamers and not move about on you even if you are playing outside with a bit of breeze (which is more than I can say for any of my older D&D screens). The artwork of the iconic characters is beautiful and is setting neutral (for those who care what image is displayed to the player). Overall this is a great product.
However it is not perfect. While there are handy tables and even a glossary of common conditions (along with noting corresponding page numbers for everything), a few of the tables seem to only exist to take up space. I’ve never needed to quick reference experience points nor average treasure values per encounters, so the entire far right panel can be ignored and I wished it was replaced with something more useful. That is about the extent of of my criticism though.
I rarely use a GM screen but the appearance and layout of the Pathfinder screen just feel right at the table and any who regularly reference a screen should be pleased with this one. With a few minor changes this review could have easily been five stars. Keep up the good work Paizo.
It's a pretty screen, and solidly built. Having said that, there were a number of tables that I would have preferred to see over the ones that are included. I mean, how often do you need to calculate XP DURING play? Not often enough to justify including the XP chart on the screen, says I.
The hard card stock is a huge bonus over other pretty much every other GM screen I've used and it contains regularly used charts for referencing skills, common combat modifiers, common conditions, item & weapon breakage, and XP rewards. I have used other GM screens that included flaps for everything from random weather charts to ordering pizza toppings and while I find them thorough in their presentation, sometimes it took as much time to flip through the flaps for that one chart as it did to look it up in the book. Personally, I think most GM screens all have a certain amount of similarity in them, but the heavy cardstock used for this one definitely gave it an edge.
While the artwork and hard card stock are nice, the inside is full of tables of uncommonly used elements in the game. Every game I ran a game I had to fumble through rule books or PDF files trying to find the relevant DC to break a chest or door open or to figure out what actions provoked attacks of opportunity or not and what actions were move actions or standard actions in the game. Overall I feel this screen is not worth the 15 dollars it costs. Save your money you can find better screens online than this one. I've been running campaigns for over 20 years, while I find the Pathfinder System to be solid, this screen really dropped the ball and I would not recommend it to other GMs.
One star for the excellent craftsmanship. This should prove to be far more durable than my previous GM screens.
One star for the pleasing artwork. It isn't distracting or hard on the eyes.
One star for the neat layout and easy readability.
Minus 1/2 star because the 4th page tables, Experience Point Awards & Treasure Values per Encounter, are not really all that useful in a typical game.
Minus 1/2 star because the table listing actions during combat would have been useful.
Edit: After using this screen for a year-and-a-half, I wanted to add some notes.
I really enjoyed using the Skills section. Some of the skills listed were very useful such as the movement and interaction skills. However, I did notice the lack of appraise, intimidate, sense motive, sleight of hand, & use magic device. While space constraints are understandable, I still wish there were more skills and that the tables had been redesigned with a GM Screen in mind.
The "Common Conditions" section is annoyingly incomplete and redundant in relation to some of the other tables, but including every condition would take too much room. I would suggest using the "Gamemastery Condition Cards," but those too are incomplete and overlap with the GM Screen. Remove "Common Conditions" for the "Actions in Combat" table, but modify the table to consolidate space such as by removing some of the footnoes.
Also, the combat maneuvers chart was useful for some such as bull rush, but useless for grapple. Instead of listing CMB/CMD, have a list of sub-actions for grapple and include feint or put feint in the bluff section.
The attack roll modifiers & armor class modifiers tables should have been adjusted for the screen instead of being copy and pasted from the rulebook. Remove the conditions and list concealment/invisible percentages.
Also, remove the Two-Weapon Fighting Penalties chart. It wasn't that useful since my players and I always prepare TWF before hand and usually don't spontaneously decide to TWF otherwise. However, the Hardness and Hit Point tables have proven incredibly useful!
Finally, this screen has proven to be incredibly durable! Bravo on not only lasting a whole year, but still being in AMAZING condition. However, the artwork got a little old. Having a unique piece to show off would have made this much more interesting.
+1 Star-Craftsmanship
+1/2 Star-Artwork
+1 Star-Layout & Readability
-2 Stars-Redundant & Useless Charts
-1/2 Star-Skills Section
2.5 Stars (Rounded down because while I do enjoy this product, I feel there is a lot of room for improvement).
This is the best DM Screen I have ever purchased in 15 years of gaming. I love this item for one specific reason: it's thick & durable. Seriously, I could club an annoying player over the head with it, & I think the screen would be fine. (Still probably only 1d2 damage, but... Paizo could only do so much.)
There are essentially only two changes I would make to this product:
1) I would prefer Table 13-10 "Wind Effects," but they used Table 4-5 "Wind Effects on Flight." I think 13-10 could have been made to fit, easily enough, and that 4-5 is useful in a very limited number of gaming situations.
2) My old Star Wars DM Screen had a random deviation chart for "Grenade Like Weapons," which helps determine where missed throws land. That chart has proven to be the most useful item ever. I would gladly trade it out for one of the skills, such as Ride.
Still, this is an incredibly awesome Screen & I highly recommend it. Even w/ my small complaints, this product easily earns a 5-star rating.
This screen is truly a wonderful addition to my Pathfinder RPG collection. As has been mentioned, it's very sturdy, it contains lots of useful tables, and the artwork on the front is gorgeous.
While I agree with others that it would have been nice to have the actions table in the screen, I've used every table in the screen during play (with the only exception being the Treasure Values table) for various reasons so for me the tables currently on the screen have been useful to me.