Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Dungeon Masters Screen For AD&D


I've been looking for one of these AD&D Dungeon Masters Screens for several months, and was fortunate to recently come across one in the used gaming section of The Sentry Box. Score!

This artwork was produced by one of my favorite old-school artists, David Trampier, and features the golden idol from the cover of the original Players Handbook. It also gives a nod to the old TSR Lizardman logo (look where the dragon is breathing fire, and you will see a Lizardman with a halberd).

I find it interesting that the warrior in the bottom right corner of the screen has blue-tinged eyeballs. Did I notice that 30 years ago?

7 comments:

Roger G-S said...

Good memories.

Of course, being all punk rock and arty, I had to put together my own irreverent collage DM screen when I ran the game. What I wouldn't give for a scan of that today...

Tony said...

That warrior in the bottom right corner is also a self portrait of Dave Trampier himself. You can find Tramp's face in a lot of his drawings, such as this one from the 1st ed. PHB:

http://rpg.geekdo.com/image/547353/david-a-trampier

The faces of all these bearded warriors have more than a passing resemblance to Tramp's drawings of himself. Compare them to this Christmas image of TSR employees with Tramp reaching for his lost hat:

http://rpg.geekdo.com/image/547347/dragon-issue-11-dec-1977

Sean Robson said...

I love the art on the DM screen, especially the demon idol from the PHB.

Aaron E. Steele said...

@Roger: some of those early homebrew materials were quite inspired. I can't begin to chronicle the lost creativity from destroyed or discarded gaming materials.

@Bagelpriest: thanks for the links. I especially loved the happy holidays message from Dragon 11, complete with Gygax's commentary!

@Sean: the more recent DM screens may be better art, but this screen holds a special place in my heart. Again, lots of stories being told in this montage, why the more modern D&D artists seem unable to capture that effect perplexes me.

spielmeister said...

I never realized that. Proves to show how me miss some fine details when looking through the eyes of youth. I also missed your observation on the lizardman. Very perceptive of you :)

Aaron E. Steele said...

@spielmeister: I can't take credit for the lizardman observation, i'm sure someone else pointed it out to me first!

Cimmerian said...

Yep! A true classic. I am lucky enough to own the Otherworld Demon Idol mini and I can throw that out front of the DM's screen! I did not know that the fighter was Tramp, interesting!