Four-Seven-Inch-Square-Panel DM Screen Attempt

Ingredients:
Black foam-core; girlfriend's black electrical tape (all used up, must immediately get more!); rusty old razor knife (good blades are at work); measuring tape (was too hurried/stupid to use a proper steel ruler).

The spirit behind this attempt was "just knock out a prototype"; so I didn't fuss overmuch over my complete inability to make a straight cut, etc.

I Want A Seven-Inch DMs Screen

Over at the LOTFP blog Raggi was presenting some ideas regarding producing a high-quality DMs Screen; of course my initial reaction was "Oh Damn! Raggi's making a digipack-size screen? Awesome!"

I have mixed feeling regarding screens. One one hand I want to be the D&D version of a Dogma 95 zealot: no miniatures; no music; no screens; no pauses; Imagination Only! Also, with the way I hop from homebrew to AD&D to LOTFP to OD&D to Humanspace Empires a bunch of charts and tables on a screen are going to be of limited utility. On the other hand I have been repeatedly pestered by players about DM maps being where they can see them, etc. If I must use miniatures a screen make a decent staging point.

But most screen are just too damn tall. 11-odd inches? Give me a break, what a stupid, galling barrier to throw between the players and the DM. Some rare ones are landscape format, which I think is awesome/more practical, and B.Portly made a great digest/mini sized Carcosa screen...but even that is a bit tall for my preferences.

What I want is a three or four fold DMs screen that has seven-inch square panels, like the below photos featuring gorgeous model & vicious pit bull-hybrid Orchid:






I like how the height prevents there being any barrier between MY DM GAZE OF DEATH BORING INTO THOSE WEAK PLAYERS, while providing a hiding spot for miniatures and map, and I also dig how it takes up a small footprint.

My group has a dedicated gaming room with a dining table, and even with that ridiculous luxury THERE STILL IS NEVER ENOUGH ROOM for a full-sized screen; The B Portly Carcosa screen is better in that regard, but still, check out how easy it would be to park the sporty model above (indications I'm getting old: I prefer small, sporty models that are easy to park).

What I would like would be a sturdy, high quality, "small sporty" DMs screen, available with a variety of quality graphics options for the player side (such as Swords & Sorcery, Space Opera, Post-Apoc, etc.), and transparent pockets on the DMs screen to put inserts into. Even though I have good eyesite, ANY charts/tables on a screen have always been too small/distant for me to bother using.