Best DnD DM screens

A DM screen is the best friend of any aspiring Dungeon Master. It’s basically a scrying scroll from which each player’s fate can be dictated by their DM. It hides your maps, notes, and especially those nail-biting dice rolls that could decide the fate of the party.

Of course, it’s not all cloak-and-dagger stuff. Practically, these screens are adorned with quick rules references, DnD monster tables, and charts. Need to remember how a particular DnD spell works or what happens when a character has the 5e poisoned condition? It’ll be right there on your DM screen. A good DM screen cuts out loads of frantic flipping through a rulebook while your eager adventurers wait.

DM screens often feature stunning artwork and at times expert craftsmanship. Some DMs even customize their screens with additional notes, photos, or thematic decorations to enhance the atmosphere. Let’s delve into the best DnD 5e DM screens money can buy.

• Dungeon Master’s Screen Reincarnated – The best all rounder DnD DM screen
• Dungeon Kit – The best dungeon crawling DM screen
• Of Ships and the Sea – The best seafaring DM screen
• Wilderness Kit – The best wilderness campaign DM screen
• Curse of Strahd DM screen – The best DM screen for Curse of Strahd
• Stratagem Master’s Tome – The best neutral GM screen on a budget
• Hexers Game Master Screen – The other best neutral GM screen on a budget
• Casematix – The best faux leather DM screen
• Savage Worlds Customizable GM Screen – The best landscape DM screen
• UGEARS 3D Game Master Screen – The best unique GM screen for any tabletop game

Dungeon Master’s Screen Reincarnated

The best all-around DnD DM Screen

If you’re a beginner, the Dungeon Master’s Screen Reincarnated is definitely the DM screen you should be gunning for. This four-panel Dungeon Master’s screen is the benchmark for what a good, baseline DM screen should be. Packed with the quick-glance information any new DM needs, this screen is the perfect start to your game master journey.

Dungeon Kit

The best dungeon crawling DM screen

While Reincarnated covers the ‘Dragons’ part of D&D, both in its artwork, and its handy combat reminders, the Dungeon Kit fulfills the ‘Dungeon’ side of things.

To be specific, it features some of the most commonly needed information while delving through the depths of caves, ruins, and other underground settings. There’s key gameplay rules, including a reminder for brown mold, but also random tables for rapidly generating encounters and ‘dungeon details’.

The Dungeon Kit DM screen also comes with 36 dungeon geomorph cards for modular map planning, 18 condition cards, and nine initiative cards.

As with all official Wizards of the Coast DM screens, the Dungeon Kit’s screen comes with four panels you can snugly hide behind.

Of Ships and The Sea

The best seafaring DM screen

Leaving the dungeons, it’s now time to sail the high seas. Gale Force Nine’s ‘Of Ships and The Sea’ DM screen offers a fantastic sea-faring kit. While it works well for any nautical DnD campaign, it’s particularly suited to (and designed for) DMs running the popular Ghosts of Saltmarsh adventure.

The interior contains information that is perfectly suited to the setting. From random ship encounters to watery hazards, Of Ships and Seas definitely makes the most out of its theming.

Wilderness Kit

The best wilderness campaign DM screen

It’s important adventurers get to breathe some fresh air. Whatever the DnD setting, whether it’s the wilds of Wildemount or the icy plains of Icewind Dale, the Wilderness Kit is sure to satisfy trekking DMs and players alike.

The DM screen features easy referencing for those rules that tend to only crop up in the great outdoors: rules like vehicle speeds, foraging, weather tables, and food and water. It comes with a dry-erase hexcrawl map, journey tracker, a laminated ‘actions in combat’ sheet, 14 condition cards, nine initiative cards, and four cards for exhaustion and extreme weather.

Curse of Strahd DM screen

The best DM screen for Curse of Strahd

Curse of Strahd is one of the most beloved and iconic campaigns ever made for D&D 5e, and it wouldn’t do to have just any old game screen for this adventure. This bespoke offering from Gale Force Nine ensures that when players look at their DM, they’ll see a screen that’s perfectly in line with their spooky campaign.

On the interior, there are encounter charts, NPCs, locations, and a full DnD map specifically for Castle Ravenloft and its surroundings. It’s important to note that it’s not just Curse of Strahd that comes with this kind of campaign-specific flavor. If your campaign is published in a DnD book, chances are good it has a custom DM screen from Gale Force Nine.

Stratagem Master’s Tome

The best neutral GM screen on a budget

Moving away from official Wizards of the Coast products, Stratagem offers a more neutral-looking package in its Master’s Tome.

Unlike WotC’s offerings, Stratagem’s screens can easily be used for tabletop RPGs beyond D&D 5e, and the Master’s Tome looks very classy with its sleek, dark-brown texture and printed gems. It also features eight customizable pockets (four on the front, four on the back), so you can pop whatever information you need on your screen.

Unlike the cardboard screens of old, Stratagem is built on vinyl that is dry-erase friendly. That means you can add notes on the fly to the screen and then simply erase them once the session is over. There are also free art inserts and reference pages for both D&D 5e and Pathfinder.

Hexers Game Master Screen

The other best neutral GM screen on a budget

Hexers Game Master Screen is another neutral fantasy GM screen meant for any fantasy RPG. However, it does specifically tailor towards D&D 5, since it comes with cheat sheets for that system. Included with the screen, which has four customisable screens, are two dry-erase sheets, so you can write your own notes and print out your own rules.

Players who want something that looks a bit flashier than the simple gem designs of Stratagem will likely find the glowing dice, skulls, and swords of Hexer’s offerings to be much more their style.

Casematix

The best faux leather DM screen

Casematix prides itself on the neutral yet elegant appearance of its DM screen, which looks like it could fit any fantasy tabletop game. The embossed leather with dragon symbols certainly makes these DM screens feel a lot less flimsy than their cardboard counterparts.

That said, this product doesn’t come with any free inserts, so players will have to print out the information they want on their own. Given that printouts are quite easy to generate, this isn’t a very big problem. Just make sure the paper you use fits perfectly into the transparent Casematix pockets.

Savage Worlds Customizable GM Screen

The best landscape DM screen

Savage Worlds has a reputation for refining the tabletop experience with its accessible and modular game system. This philosophy apparently extends to the brands GM screens. Whereas most third-party tabletop GM screens tend towards height, this one is made to fit the standard 8.5 x 11 letter size in landscape format.

Thus, GMs don’t have to have a higher seat than their players or crane their necks to see what’s going on from their ivory towers. It’s also unique for having three wide panels instead of four panels, which may be preferable for some GMs.

UGEARS 3D Game Master Screen

The best unique GM screen for any tabletop game

This screen looks more like a display piece than a DM screen, but don’t be fooled. Despite its intricate mechanisms and unique look, the UGEARS 3D game master screen is 100% functional. Think of it like a Gundam model kit but for your GM stuff. Building the screen is part of the experience, not just the game itself.

It’s incredibly fun to see this thing unfold, and it even has a nifty dice tower in the middle for hiding your rolls. If you happen to have a campaign set in some tinker’s workshop, nothing is more immersive than your players seeing you unfold this mechanical wonder.

For more useful tools check out the best DnD character sheets, or if you’re sticking in that DM seat, the best DnD maps and map-makers.