 September 5, 2012 - 11:54am | I was just musing on this First strand of thought: I saw one post somewhere where a game master used the plastic cases from CD to create a screen that he printed art work to face toward the players and tables to face toward himself. the idea being that he liked the lower screen as it created less of a barrier between him and the players. it sounded like a good idea and in particular for science fiction games as well. Second Strand of Thought: but this is about a dream "Dungeon Masters" screen which means fantasy game which ties into a vague memory of from my days on terragenesis.co.uk where the terrain builder was constructing a terrain piece to look like a castle on one side toward the players and have a shelf on the back side for him to hide figures as well as panels for charts. i thought that sounded like a good idea too. Third Strand of Thought: I've come across dice towers in wargame magazines and terragenesis and particularly admired the ones that looked like a terrain piece for the wargaming table ie a European building for a WW2 wargame or wizards tower for a fantasy game. Putting it together: a low paneled DMs screen that looks like a castle fascade with two flanking dice towers at either end that lets a player drop dice in the top of the tower and they come out in a catch tray behind the screen for those secret rolls that only the DM should see. panels for charts yes and a little shelf/shelves for prepped miniatures to come out when bad guys turn up. Since this is a Dream screen a nice carrying case would be nice as well. Same thing could of course be done in a sci fi motife as well. EDIT: for insane level of bells and whistles: 1.) a cup holder on the DMs side that would secure a cup of coffee (or a beer if gaming with my friends who like having adult beverages at the gaming table) against spills. 2.) LED lighting on the DM's side and perhaps a few arrow slits that might allow a little light to spill through to the player's side. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 5, 2012 - 1:47pm | I was thinking to dig up my notes or google up some more on wiring LEDs but i think I'll just cannibalize a small book light or something for this. Though the motivation to build the screen may be low- as i keep looking at this 40mm made in china crappy looking knight figure the kids dug out of a box of legos given to us and I keep telling myself that I should cut away the base and turn him into a sarcofagus lid ornament, which would be a simple terrain project but nothing much has happened on that front for the past two days. Perhaps the title of "Dream" is prophetic? Though I have a 1/72 scale plastic castle model that i never built because it looked like there were not actually enough parts in the box to build it. it occured to me that I could cannibalize that for this project and finish if on the quick- though the dice tower portion would take some engineering but that wont be too hard. Though I suspect that with the kids they will pretty much non stop drop dice down the towers and try to peek behind the screen to see results which sort of negates any benefit from the screen. So I think a stand alone dice tower lined with felt to reduce noise might be called for as well. Note to self all dice towers should be lined with felt to deaden noise. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 5, 2012 - 2:01pm | Design change: the plastic castle walls are a little short for my purposes so they will be put on top of a terrain embankment/ half moat. for height but the back side will of course be flat to accomodate charts. I had considered having it hinged in the middle so it could fold shut like an accordian door but the presence of dice trays sticking out the back of the tower would interfer with that but if the dice tray that catches the falling dice is entirely within the embankment/half moat then there is no problem. having thought of that i did not want to have a sort of Castle Grayscule combination playset/carrying case as I thought it would look a little dorky to leave the house with the quote unquote castle play set in one hand so current design calls for folding shut and fitting into a carry case. perhpas the bottom of the carry case would be lined with a foam tray for NPC miniatures and likely monsters. extra dice tower fits on top of the folded castle/ DM screen. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 5, 2012 - 8:29pm | Why not take the kids LEGO Castle pieces and build your screen and dice tower to check it out first? My brother and I use to build huge towers with trap doors, windows etc out of LEGOs back in the day and then drop marbles down them one at a time and try to get them to come out a hole or a door at the bottom. The dice towers would be easy to construct out of LEGOs and the castle wall ref screen could be made the same as well. This way any changes that need to be done are a matter of simply adding or removing LEGOs. Once the final version is done, either glue the LEGOs or simply use them as a reference to construct an actual ref screen as you described above. I have always been a LEGO sorta guy, so just my 2 cents... Cogito ergo sum; I think therefore I am. Batty [Blade Runner] I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die. |
September 5, 2012 - 10:08pm | test models are always good.- actually thought I should build two and sell one at a convention like Historicon- people show up with money and plan to make impulse buys. As long as I make back my investment in money and enough for some impulse buys at Historicon that'd be good. Though I just thought up an idea for an invention for artist and need to talk to my Dad who is both a commercial artist and engineer to one see if I'm the first with my idea and get some help on a prototype design so this might just get shelved for awhile. The thing is I can only really see serious artist and art students buying this item. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 8, 2012 - 1:30am |
I saw one post somewhere where a game master used the plastic cases from CD to create a screen that he printed art work to face toward the players and tables to face toward himself. the idea being that he liked the lower screen as it created less of a barrier between him and the players. You really need some streamlined rules to fit the useful stuff into a CD jewel case...or a really strong magnifying glass. I used three comic book backing boards for my tri-fold B/X DM screen, I filled up five of the six sides with tables and one with artwork. The artwork and player tables face out, the DM tables face in. |
