DM Screen Page
Planned
I thought it would be very nice for DMs to have a single screen with the most common information DMs tend to search for (conditions, healing potion values, possible combat actions, etc.). I believe this will help greatly in reducing the amount of searching through DDB that DMs have to do in order to verify rules. I imagine a single page with quicklinks that have the popup feature that spells have to quick-reference things. I'm sure the folks at DDB have plenty of statistics on the kinds of things DMs need to reference most often and would be able to put this together fairly quickly.
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I was going to suggest just this, Id love to see it link to our DM account and allow the display of information we have purchased, such as the flanking rules in the DMG, using a customization grid that can be added to.
This tool already exists out in the internet though, so what I really want to see from DDB in the DM screen is for it to link with our campaign files and allow the live tracking of player HP, AC and saves as they cast spells and use items that impact these numbers. Also when a player casts haste and clicks the spell on their spell list it should pop up on my screen with a little status marker, could just be colored, than when I mouse over it shows "Hasted, 9 turns remaining" and build it into an initiative tracker that allows the DM to pass the turns and have the status auto track.
All of these tools are already available elsewhere, the reason I want it from DDB is for the integration of my players character information. That is the added value that I am more than willing to pay for.
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In my mind, what DMs *REALLY* need is to have a customizable campaign-based DASHBOARD... anyone who's ever used such a tool will immediately recognize the usefulness of it... think ala Salesforce Dashboards, but for your campaign instead of your business... there should be a plethora of pre-built widgets that I can add, such as quick-views of each player, or mini cheat-sheet tiles I can add such as flanking rules or character effects... but also, I should be able to custom-build a widget to contain anything I like, using a combination of stylized-text, images, colors, and hyperlinks -- and I should be able to share that widget with the larger community as a homebrew item.
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Hi,
Simple request. As DM I'd like an aggregate view on the party that can tell me:
Total Gold in their possession
A list of all magic items assigned to everyone (and their equip status).
A gauge that roughly tells me how much of their total resources they have burned through (one for HP, one for Spell Slots, one of other Resources like ki points)? Just enough info so I get a feel how much more I can throw at them :)
Thanks,
Envaris
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I agree with Brandon. The DM screen should be a dynamic dashboard. It should integrate to all paid compendium content plus the campaign, encounters, initiative trackers, and dice rollers that are already in the works. I should be able to view all PCs from my campaign, use those to create an initiative tracker with monster encounters, (prebuilt from the adventure book or from ones I built from the encounter tracker).
I should have the ability to filter and search, create random tables. (Loot tables, or random consequences table). Shop generators. (Magic shops, weapon shops, potion/apothocary shops, etc, with lists of items linked from the compendium that could be sold there. Also a handout section to be able to share to my players things I want them to see like various artwork etc. It should also include inventory management so I can search and create items, equipment, spells and hombrew and then be able to add that to or "Give" to my PCs so that add it to their character sheets.
Basically it makes sense to complete the other things first (intiative tracker, campaign page notes, compendium linking, shop generators, dice rollers, NPC creation, Character sheet lookup, etc) that we could access individually and then use a "DM screen" to be able to tie it all together and link it easily so I can access it from one place and sort how I want to see it and I want to share it with my players. The widget idea is great. Since most of these things are already being worked on or are also planned. The DM screen could just be a "widget holder" to easily bring up the other things. -
Was just thinking about how useful this would be, glad it's already been noted!
Just to reiterate on things important to me:
HP [Editable], AC, Passive Skills (Perception, Investigation)
Things that would also be handy to have:- Dice rolls (see when the party rolls a skill, save, attack, etc) - would be handy to "pin" some rolls - e.g. Rogue rolls a stealth, pin it to them for how long they can use that roll
- Active spells (Detect Magic, etc)
- Death Saves
- Active Equipment (Especially Magic Items)
- Rules/Monster browser (also able to pin rules)
- Initiative is low prio for me
Also, Brandon's comment is kinda what I was feeling as far as the pinning rules/monster stats goes
https://dndbeyond.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360016796833/comments/360009939094 -
Customized DM screen have frames that can be sized and snap what fields you want to organize. Make it easy to move things around and customize the way things are laid out on the screen. custom images or whatever lets really set up a base wire frame with API enabled for widgets and URLs to show up quick resources to not delay the game. Also have buttons for the specific guides you wish to snap open such as PHB or DMG, or MM tables. API is the key to success here and will allow others to create some great options.
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Would it be possible to have placement for each character in the campaign (plus a slot for the DM) in order to do a visual initiative order that can be dragged and dropped onto a grid? One thing that would be a helpful thing for me is a counter somewhere on the screen out of the way but visual that I can click to indicate what round the party is in, and if possible an indicator that shows which player's turn is active (and perhaps that marker is clickable to indicate the turn is completed, which then changes the round when each player's turn has completed). Of course, the information at a glance on that row or column for the character should show the portrait, HP, AC, Status, Passives, and maybe class features, death saves, and/or spell slots as they're being used on the player's character sheets on the app.
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Until they get around to a better one, have you guys seen this. It integrates directly into ddb
https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/cd86c1/very_basic_dm_screen_with_character_data_from_dd/
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There are a lot of great suggestions here, but I am going to make a different one, because everyone here wants different ideas.
Do you remember a long time ago (like 10+ years) you could make a custom home page on Yahoo, and Google that you could bring in "widgets" of RSS data from different sources? You could drag and drop them and even resize some?
Imagine that with some parts of DnD Beyond. I could put my characters in one spot, with always visible passive stats. Hover over (or click) for a more detailed quick view. Things like that. -
I couldn't find a digital DM screen that pleased me, so I made one myself, integrated with some D&D Beyond searches. I'll share it in the near future when I'm more confident with its contents. Also, it's very opinionated and has some house ruled improvements — eg. grapple, shove, pass through —, so I'm not sure if it'll be great for everybody.
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I'd like to see a quick glance of the party's
average AND min/maximum stats
(abilities/modifiers, skills, AC, etcetera).
Bonus would be the ability to
hotswap party members in and out of the calculation
for split party scenarios.
This could really give the DM a basic idea of
the current group's strengths and weaknesses. -
As a part of the display with character info (Passive Perception, current HP, conditions, etc.), it would also be super helpful to know what languages they know. Perhaps this could be part of a pop-up while hovering that also gives you more in-depth info, like in the Twitch extension, but if it also showed languages. Thanks!
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Agreed. I'd like the DM screen to have all the information on it that any of the official D&D DM screens have on them (and then some). However, I'd like it if you could customize the layout (a necessity given the variety of monitor screen size, shape, and resolution and number of monitors), pick and choose which information you want to go on it, and have a frame that is a condensed view of the player characters' pertinent information. Additionally, all the information should be hyperlinked back to the compendium so you can look the full rules up quickly.
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