Dungeon Master Tables (and Tall Tales)

Two years ago I decided I wanted to play Dungeons & Dragons so I went a'questing (ie. looked on Meetup) and found a Merrie Bande of Adventurers™ (fellow nerds) in need of a Merrie Adventure® and ended up being the one forced (at my choosing) into the role of dungeon master.

Now, every dungeon master must decide whether they want to hide behind a physical barrier (a DM screen), commonly in order to cheat fate (fudge their dice rolls), or to not give a monkeys and roll in the open.

I chose the latter but still wanted a quick reference guide to rules so made a small, upright, 12*6" screen that could hold index cards and add a bit ambience to the table.

There were a few examples already out there (see exhibits A, B, C, D, and E) so I took those as a starting point (seriously, there's so much to learn to play D&D) and made my own.

Five versions and two years later I thought I'd share the most useful one I've been using before I go off and redraw it again.

Available as a free download on dmsguild.com

Page one deals with PCs; page two, their environment; page three covers encounters; and four is dedicated to weapons and armour.

The table breakdown is as follows:

Page 1 - PCs

• Abilities
• XP
• Vision and light
• Tracking
• Jumping
• Rest
• Exhaustion
• Travel times
• Suffocation
• Conditionsn

Page 2 - Environment and money

• Light sources
• Weather
• Magic items
• Lifestyle & expenses
• Services
• Selling magic items
• Creature treasure
• Object stats

Page 3 - Encounters

• NPC attitudes
• Attack modifiers
• Cover
• Underwater
• Magical attacks
• Mob attacks
• Encounter building guidelines (based on Slyflourish's Building Encounters in 5th Edition article)
• Random encounter, generic
• Healing

Page 4 - Weaponry

• Weapons
• Armour

The unusual size (6*12") is down to my unusual screen (pictured).

Hope you, assumed new DM, find it useful.

Enjoy.

(Enjoy).