How to Make the PERFECT Wooden GM Screen for Dungeons and Dragons

[Music] so [Music] so i recently started dming a new campaign and i hadn't played an in-person campaign in a long time for reasons anyway i think i forgot exactly how much stuff goes into dming there's no books dice source books all kinds of stuff and it occurred to me i need a way to get organized i scoured the internet trying to find the perfect dm screen but lo and behold it didn't exist or at least it didn't exist for me and i didn't want to settle for anything less than perfect so i decided to build the perfect dm screen caveat attached to that perfect dm screen for me there are lots of amazing other products out there incredible works of apart i'm not trying to dunk on any of those with this build except i actually kind of am this is my take on the perfect dm screen i want this thing to be super premium so i have to use black walnut because that's the law this screen is going to have four panels all cut from the same piece of wood so by the time we're done the grain will flow seamlessly across all four pieces let's get started first things first we run them over the jointer and through the planer to make them nice and pretty [Music] in woodworking there's no good endpoint without a good starting point so as i was looking at other screens on the internet it occurred to me that there are three major problems that i wanted to try and address the first of which is size it is very important to me that whatever i make here is not bigger than like a couple of source books that being the case these panels have to be thin i'm running my pieces vertically through the table saw right down the middle then i flip them over take one more pass and just like that one piece becomes two after a quick cleanup these pieces are going to get joined together in a layout that is appropriately named the book match how are we going to join these together you ask i'm applying a nice thin bead of wood glue to both interior edges this is called a butt joint and it never ceases to amaze people how strong such a simple joint can be i'm clamping two panels at once here just to save time [Music] once the glue is dry we'll give it a quick little sand and trim up the edges then it's on to phase two problem number two resources i need a place to put all my stuff as a dm maps mostly maps you know player sheets just general resources that kind of thing it's all the stuff is going to go on the inside of the screen now i want a little a little 2b here as well i want a place where my players can put stuff as well you know resources that they're allowed to see maps that they've been given in game letters characters artwork things that i want them to see we'll cover that more later i made up a bunch of smaller pieces so that i can make a sort of frame on the front of each panel into which i can slide resources in and out as needed i'm taking each of my little cuties for a pass on the router table the frames are going to be permanently attached so i need to make a groove that the papers can slide into once that's done i set my chops out of 45 degrees and cut a miter on both ends of each piece before you know it i've got my frame ready to be assembled but before i attach these for good gotta deal with 2b i've got to cut some grooves on the sides of these panels that are going to be facing the players i don't want these grooves to run the entire length of the panel so i'm setting a couple stop blocks on the router fence just carefully lower the piece onto a spinning router bit and then move it slowly back and forth until you've made your cut [Music] after making a few passes you're left with something like this this will all make sense soon i promise time to clean this up with some hand tools i'm laying things out so they're nice and square and then hitting them with a good old-fashioned chisel until everything is just where i want it the plan here is to inlay a magnetic surface into these panels i picked up a few thin steel mending plates for this and it's just a matter of chopping them down a length with a hacksaw just cut off the ends with a hacksaw it'll be easy one torturous hour later [Music] kids don't be dumb like me [Music] once i sand off the paint these things are finally done [Music] okay back to 2a i'm clamping the frame in place before i glue it up so i can work with one piece at a time without fear of things sliding around on that way it should all be smooth sailing when it's time for the real deal [Music] i didn't attach that top piece because who needs glue when you've got the almighty power of magnets i'm doing another inlay here setting the magnets into the wood surface so that i can remove the top piece of the frame and sub out resources anytime i want i'm going to use super glue to attach these it's honestly kind of wild how challenging it is to make sure all the magnets go in right side up this is a stressful ordeal there's something about super glue and how permanent it is it feels like my brain is shutting off but if my calculations are correct that feels good okay thing number three three three three combat there is so much going on as a dm in combat there's acs and hit points and enemy locations and spell slots and choreography and sometimes in the heat of the moment turn order it gets lost like we've all we've all missed terms never again so i wanted to design a little system to help seamlessly keep track of turnover in combat and hopefully take a little bit of the onus off the dm and put it back on the players besides we all have that one player who shall not be named who takes their sweet time in combat and it comes around to them to their turn it's been their turn the same place in the round every time for four rounds and somehow it's a surprise oh it's me let me look at my spell slots for the first time in seemingly ever and see what i can do hopefully this can alleviate that a little bit this one's a simple fix while i was cutting the grooves in the frame i did an extra pass on the top side of the removable pieces then i took a piece of maple and cut it into a bunch of these little square tokens which will serve as a visual reminder of who's up when we're in the end game now i'm going to attach the panels together with regular old hinges bit of chisel work and voila yet another inlay speaking of which i waited till this point to put in the metal inserts because there's always the chance of messing up and having to do something over and there was no way in hell i was cutting any more metal than i had to time to attach those hinges and choose finally in one piece [Music] now all that's left is to hit it with some wood finish and take it over to the laser engraver for that final touch [Music] you

Channel: Kyle Merriman

Views: 49,497

Keywords: Dungeons and Dragons, DnD, 5e, woodworking, DM Screen, Dungeonmaster, Gamemaster, Game Master, Dungeon Master, Woodshop, dungeons & dragons, tabletop gaming, dungeon master screen, dungeon master screen diy, woodworking projects, woodworking for beginners, dm screen diy, gm screen, how to make a dm screen, custom dm screen, how to make a dm screen out of wood, how to make a wooden dm screen, how to make a d&d dm screen, custom dm screen diy, making a custom dm screen

Id: 8fqZGqQkdIE

Length: 8min 2sec (482 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 19 2021