New D&D DM Screens Revealed At Gen Con Will Fix Biggest Issue With D&D Beyond Campaigns

Summary New D&D DM screens will cater to laptop users, placing core info where it remains visible

Previous screens didn't make allowances for laptop usage, causing awkward trade-offs during play.

Changes to DM screens are part of broader D&D overhaul, refreshing the game in 2024 and 2025.

Dungeons & Dragons has changed a lot in the digital age, and a new adjustment to DM screens finally takes one of the biggest core shifts into consideration. DM screens provide a convenient way for a dungeon master to hide their rolls and notes from the party, but they also function as handy quick reference guides to things like conditions and combat options. Finding the perfect way to lay out that information can be tricky, especially when considering that other tools that the DM is using could be blocking some of it.

As announced at Gen Con 2024, new DnD DM screens will organize the information with laptop use in mind. It's common for DMs to keep a laptop behind the DM screen to use digital D&D Beyond tools or note-taking applications, but even a trim laptop ends up blocking a lot of useful references. The new screens place core information where it will still be visible with a laptop set up behind the screen, addressing a common DM frustration.

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Laptop-Friendly DM Screens Are A Big D&D Improvement

Previous Layouts Didn't Make Many Allowances

Although previous DM screens for DnD 5e made some helpful choices regarding what information to include, they definitely didn't always do so with laptops in mind. References like Conditions and setting DCs were centered in a way that the average laptop setup would likely block, meaning a DM might need to do a lot of awkward shifting around to keep things rolling smoothly. There are always plenty of third-party alternatives as well (and the option of building custom DM screens), but official DnD screens are often the easiest to acquire and the most likely to be in any DM's toolkit.

There's still no way to make a true one-size-fits-all DM screen, as every dungeon master ultimately has different preferences for what information needs to be most conveniently at hand. Campaigns that run entirely online rather than at in-person game tables will still probably turn elsewhere for handy reference solutions if desktop setups are in play. Even so, this feels like a smart step forward to make screens more useful for the average DM.

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Changes to DM screens are just one part of a sweeping set of changes to DnD in 2024 and 2025, also including reworked core rulebooks, character sheets, and more. It's the biggest refresh the game has received since the 2014 introduction of fifth edition, and although 5e has held up well in a lot of core regards, many changes do feel a bit overdue. Overhauled DM screens might not be as essential or revolutionary as tweaks to classes and abilities, but they're a nice part of the new Dungeons & Dragons revamp.