Monday 30 January 2012

Screening process


Its been years and years since I've had a screen at the table, but now that I'm running LL, it only seems proper to erect a barrier between me and "them." Also, there are some practical considerations to take into account *cough/tables/cough*. Since my old, and highly customised, AD&D 2E screen is in Norway still, I had to start a new one from scratch.



As you are all well aware, there are two sides to every screen. I got my own side - three sheets with all the nice tables on it - from Swords Against the Outer Dark, but it would appear that Shane Mangus has removed those particular files from his blog since then [EDIT: Shane's screen can be found here]. I then glued these to corrugated cardboard and cut them out.

Being as players are notoriously shifty by nature, the side facing them also needs some attention. First I glued one of Shane Mangus' Labyrinth Lord sheets to the central section, I then peeled off about 4-5 cm of the outer layer of the top of the two flanking sections. Next I cut between the ridges to make the players think they're faced with a scaling-proof log palisade. To further unsettle them, I decided I'd decorate the panels with pictures of terrible monsters and other gruesome scenes. To maximise this effect, I'll add one image after each session. That way, I figure, instead of allowing them to become accustomed to it, and thus jaded, it'll only grow more and more terrifying as the game progresses.

The last step was to pierce the conjoining sides of the panels, and connect them with knotted string.

I  can now sleep soundly, confident that all my secrets are safe from the sneaky little buggers and their wee, beady, prying eyes.

4 comments:

  1. I dig home-made screens. My LL screen is covered with photos I cut out from Surfing magazine. :)

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    1. Sounds about right :)

      Btw, one of my players, Dave "I need feats!", surfs up here. Apparently, they can find some pretty good waves on the lake.

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  2. Glad to see my screen getting some use. I still have the screen up for download at Swords Against the Outer Dark. Just look under the "Downloads" tab. I originally had several documents on Scribd, but decided to move everything over to Google Docs, because Scribd started charging to download archived documents. Here is a direct link to download the screen from Google Docs:

    https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BxE3Gy9gHrzeNmRlY2IwOGEtMDg4Ny00ODI5LTllNGYtZWI3NzdlNDU1MzBk&hl=en_US

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    1. Thanks, Shane. I've updated the OP with your link.

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