One day, when it's safe to gather in groups again, I'll bust out my Dungeon Master screens. They might be my favorite product made for Dungeons & Dragons - in a world full of dice goblins, I'm a screen kobold. It also just so happens that I've been planning a hex crawl campaign, so Wizards of the Coast's Dungeon Master's Screen Wilderness Kit is right up my alley. But will it be up yours? That depends on how much you incorporate handouts into your game.
Let's first break down exactly what you get in this kit. The main event is, of course, the screen. It's one of the sturdier kind like the DM Screen Reincarnated, not the thin cardboard seen in the Essentials Kit. The featured art is a gorgeous painted vista of four different landscapes. An abandoned cliffside castle is under kraken attack, which blends into a lush forest patrolled by a green dragon, which raises to a snowy mountain presided over by a blue dragon, which finally gives way to a vast desert crater populated by a lone ghost ship.
The screen comes in a somewhat flimsy folder with the other products. Once you take it out, you should see some cards. One sheet has nine numbered cards for initiative, featuring the art from the screen, Two others feature all the combat conditions of D&D (poisoned, prone, etc. and some for extreme cold and such). The last sheet is a punch-out box for the cards.
These cards seem intended for newer players. Which makes me wonder why there aren't more for each condition. Typically, when a monster that has the ability to inflict conditions comes out, the DM will try to inflict them on multiple players. It would have been nice to have at least two of each condition so that each affected player could just place them in front of themselves. As for the initiative cards, there are many better ways to track initiative.
Then again, maybe the cards are more for the players than the DM. Maybe a physical reminder of when one's turn is will help newer/distracted players to form a plan while the person before them is making their moves.
After the cards are a five dry erase screens.
These screens are an interesting inclusion, in that they could be very useful. Two of them have detailed rules for Wilderness Journeys and Wilderness Chases. Many DMs can get tripped up on how to make exploration in D&D fun. How can it go beyond "okay roll a Survival check" without getting tedious. These sheets give some great ideas for what a party might encounter out there (besides more combat).
The other three have hex maps. For those who don't know, these maps can be used to chart stretches of land as the party travels across whole provinces or countries. But they're a little to small to act as a map that the whole table can see, let alone use as a guide. One of the maps has a Supply Tracker on the backside, and that's a great idea. The party can use it to keep track of rations in easy dry erase fashion.
Overall, this product feels aimed at newer DMs as a way to ease them into the sometimes perplexing exploration pillar of D&D. Which is great! More resources to get people into the hobby are always welcome. Longtime players probably won't get much out of it other than a beautiful screen for their collection. Which I'm also totally here for. Waiting for a sale wouldn't be such a bad idea, though.
A Wilderness Kit was provided by Wizards of the Coast for this coverage.