Five Courses of Strahd is my ongoing two-person Ravenloft campaign with Arella, where her character Prianna explores the relationships in the gothic romance setting of Barovia.
When I first started Five Courses of Strahd in 2017, even before the campaign had a proper title, I knew I needed a custom GM screen.
The campaign not only took place in a well-storied setting full of characters and details, but the game itself needed tables and references for custom cooking rules, random ingredients, new price lists, and a way to track tarokka cards.
The photo below was my first crack at it. Custom tables made and laid out in photoshop, taped to sturdy cardboard, each panel secured with flexible fabric tape.
The end result was passable but lacked panache. Also the map of Barovia came out fuzzy. I decided I’d have to colour code it to make it easier on the eyes, and have it more professionally printed. A trip to Staples yielded the following…
Once I moved to Calgary to live with Arella full time, I decorated the front panels with art of the most prominent characters to the campaign at the time: Prianna, Francisco, and Victor Vallakovich.
Almost four years later this GM screen is still intact and still useful to our campaign. I think in the new year I’m going to redo the screen to reflect the changes in the campaign, but until then I’m still real happy with how it came out.
Making your own custom GM screen is a rite of passage for Game Masters that I wholeheartedly recommend.
