Review copy courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.
Pros
The art on the outside of the screen is really gorgeous.
Having rules within a screen like this is extremely useful during play. Many people build their own screens for this reason.
Some of the cards are exceptionally useful. They cover things such as conditions, and even some healing potions.
Could Go Either Way
The interior of the screen is basically the same as the ones previously released, including the art on it for conditions, which are also found in the Player’s Handbook.
The cards provided come in perforated pages you need to break. This isn’t the same kind of cards some of the previous card packs provided. The addition is nice, but you may want a better material.
The normal price could be a bit steep, especially since many people made their own custom screens by now.
It’s a Wilderness set. I’d have liked a large map for forest battles, and maybe another environment on the other side (maybe snow). This sort of thing is more useful to me than pages from the rule book, and infinitely re-usable. This is especially true if the map is big enough so you can start in a different area.
Cons
The box to keep the extras inside seems really flimsy. I wish they’d be some better way to keep them together provided.
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| Contents of package. Not a bad package at all. |
Introduction
And so we have another screen product for this edition of D&D. There is value in a good D&D screen when playing in person (remember what that was like?), and I personally like to see more experimentation. Here, we see this in the form of additional goodies thrown in like status cards, item cards, and a hex page for overland travel. As the name suggests, wilderness and travel are aims of this product. It’s hoped all of this combined helps out in these areas of play. Does it? Yeah, it’s better in this regard than the previous one I looked at. However, it’s not without it’s problems. So let’s jump into the specifics.
The Screen Itself
I’ll go into this more, but the art here is a real standout. The outside of the screen looks very impressive. The inside of the screen has tables and rules ready to be referenced. It contains conditions like the screen from the core rules gift set, but the actions in combat have been removed. In their place are rules for travel, foraging, tracking, prices for services including travelling and lodging, weather, tables for damage by level range and DCs, object DCs and hitpoints, skills and associated abilities, extreme weather (cold, heat, wind), exhaustion, spell concentration, suffocating, jumping, light by light source, visibility depending on time of day, obscuring rules, cover, and encounter distances based on terrain. In general, I think this is a far better collection of rules for more experienced Dungeon Masters. These rules often come up once or twice a campaign, or once or twice in an arc of 5 sessions plus. Combat on the other hand usually happens at least once per session and much more often if dungeon crawling, and as a result is ingrained into the minds of the Dungeon Master. If something is forgotten, it’s something that wasn’t included in the table anyway like improvised weapons, or how bonus action spells force the action to only use a cantrip spell at most. That said, the original screen on its own would be more useful to a new Dungeon Master that hasn’t had those combat rules memorized. However, what they did this time is provide separate handout pages. And this takes us to our next section.
Additional Resources
They almost feel laminated, and contain some other helpful things such as condition cards, some additional wilderness rules and a table for random encounters (meant to be on the Dungeon Master’s side of the screen I think), and a sheet with the actions in combat. I like this since players would often need to see the actions in combat as well. And we Dungeon Masters often don’t want players to see the inside of our screen, filled with our rules, which we might change at a moment’s notice, and notes. As a result of these considerations, I think this a big improvement over the earlier screen. There are some other sheets for rules such as chases would players would also want to see. If anything, I’d have liked to see even more pages for different important aspects of the game. The way the packaging doubles as a folder for these pages is also a nice touch. In general, it’s well designed, though it’s flimsy paper and wouldn’t be able to take pressure very well unless everything is loaded inside.
There’s a sheet to track resources like food and water. Included is also sheets with cards that are used for conditions. They’re in perforated sheets, and need to be broken apart. These generally feel much cheaper than decks they sold before that were a similar idea. However, I think it’s good that they included it. They also included a hex map for travel which has numbers for easy navigation. I don’t think I’d trust to write on it with dry erase markers, but using tokens and putting them on the map would work well, and if you note the location of things on the map you can rebuild it before the game starts rather easily. It’s a nice addition. There is also a fold up container thing for the cards which is probably the cheapest part of the set. It feels flimsy, and I wish they came up with a better way. Though in honestly I’m not sure what that better way would be.
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| The outside cover of the screen is beautiful. I wish the books had more art like this. |
The Art and Book Build Quality
To start off, the art on the outside of the screen is truly amazing. I wish all of the books used this style. It’s simply jaw droppingly beautiful. The inside of the screen has a bit of art for conditions and temperature, but they’re black and white simpler drawings. For reasons of being usable and not distracting I don’t mind this. However, it’s a definite step down from the outside. And finally the additional resources/pages included have no art on them at all. They’re quite packed so more art probably wouldn’t fit, and it’s a nice bonus.
As mentioned before, the fold up card holder thing is a bit disappointing and feels flimsy. I don’t think it’d last for very long in use. The pages themselves feel treated with something glossy on the outside, almost giving them a laminated feel. I’m glad they put the effort in there. The outside and inside of the screen feels like other Dungeon Master screens we’ve previously had. They aren’t glossy in the same way, and feel more like the hard cover of a book. That said, the card is sturdy and it stands well. One of the bends was strange in my screen though compared to the other two, which were very neat. The paper popped out a bit, but it seems to work well in use. Unfortunately, these packs are sealed in plastic so you’ll be at the mercy of luck. You can’t look for a better copy like you can with the books.
Price
For the suggested retail price of this product, you can check here. It’s $24.99 at normal price, which can seem a bit steep, especially if you didn’t need a screen.
What I felt was Missing
It would’ve been nice to have a few more sheets of additional resources. Perhaps with the maps from the early core books? Tactical maps have largely been ignored in this addition unfortunately, though many players and Dungeon Masters I’ve talked to like using them.
Free Stuff
Nothing to see here.
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| The set from another angle. |
Summary
In general, this is a good screen and additional resources. The art that’s here, and particularly on the screen, is amazing. The additional resources are a good addition, and the organization within the screen is an improvement the earlier screen. However, if you didn’t need a screen this won’t be the thing that converts you to using one. I’ve played with a Dungeon Master before who liked to walk around the room, especially with new players so he could help them out. I played with another you didn’t like to take up the space. If you wanted a screen though, this is a good choice. I think it’d really come down to if you think the price is worth it.
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