Screen Shot XVII

How do you like your GM Screen?

The GM Screen is a essentially a reference sheet, comprised of several card sheets that fold out and can be stood up to serve another purpose, that is, to hide the GM's notes and dice rolls. On the inside, the side facing the GM are listed all of the tables that the GM might want or need at a glance without the need to have to leaf quickly through the core rulebook. On the outside, facing the players, can be found either more tables for their benefit or representative artwork for the game itself. This is both the basic function and the basic format of the screen, neither of which has changed all that much over the years. Beyond the basic format, much has changed though.

To begin with the general format has split, between portrait and landscape formats. The result of the landscape format is a lower screen, and if not a sturdier screen, than at least one that is less prone to being knocked over. Another change has been in the weight of card used to construct the screen. Exile Studios pioneered a new sturdier and durable screen when its printers took two covers from the Hollow Earth Expedition core rule book and literally turned them into the game’s screen. This marked a change from the earlier and flimsier screens that had been done in too light a cardstock, and several publishers have followed suit.

Once you have decided upon your screen format, the next question is what you have put with it. Do you include a poster or poster map, such as Chaosium, Inc.’s last screen for Call of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition or Margaret Weis Productions’ Serenity and BattleStar Galactica Roleplaying Games? Or a reference work like that included with Chessex Games’ Sholari Reference Pack for SkyRealms of Jorune or the GM Resource Book for Pelgrane Press’ Trail of Cthulhu? Perhaps scenarios such as ‘Blackwater Creek’ and ‘Missed Dues’ from the Call of Cthulhu Keeper Screen for use with Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition? Or even better, a book of background and scenarios as well as the screen, maps, and forms, like that of the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack also published by Chaosium, Inc. In the past, the heavier and sturdier the screen, the more likely it is that the screen will be sold unaccompanied, such as those published by Cubicle Seven Entertainment for the Starblazer Adventures: The Rock & Roll Space Opera Adventure Game and Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space RPG. That though is no longer the case and stronger and sturdier GM Screens are the norm today.

So how do I like my GM Screen?

I like my Screen to come with something. Not a poster or poster map, but a scenario, which is one reason why I like ‘Descent into Darkness’ from the Game Master’s Screen and Adventure for Legends of the Five Rings Fourth Edition and ‘A Bann Too Many’, the scenario that comes in the Dragon Age Game Master's Kit for Green Ronin Publishing’s Dragon Age – Dark Fantasy Roleplaying Set 1: For Characters Level 1 to 5. I also like my screen to come with some reference material, something that adds to the game. Which is why I am fond of both the Sholari Reference Pack for SkyRealms of Jorune as well as the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack.

The Invincible Superhero Roleplaying GM Screen for Invincible Superhero Roleplaying, the roleplaying game based on Invincible, the American comic book series written by Robert Kirkman and illustrated by Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley, and published by Image Comics, and subsequently developed as a television series on Amazon Prime, and published by Free League Publishing. It is a sturdy twenty-five-and-a-half by eleven-inch, three panel screen in portrait format. On the outside, its three player-facing panels showcase some of the art from the comic book, including Omni-man and the members of the original Guardians of Order and scenes from the brutal battle between Omni-man and his son, Invincible. Inside, the panels contain the tables for running the roleplaying game, mostly its action. Going from left to right, they breakdown the Full Actions and Quick Actions that the Player Characters and the NPCs can do in a round and then flowcharts for both Slugfest Shooting Attacks. In the middle there are armour values for doors and walls, damage for explosive, attribute score descriptions, and then a list of General, Slugfest, and Shooting Stunts. There is also a quick guide to making a purchase and a price list, whilst the third panel is dedicated to the end of a session or scenario. So, this includes the questions that the Game Master will ask the players to see if their characters earn or lose Karma, recovery times from damage, and potential Critical Injuries.

For the most part, there is no denying that the tables are useful, but arguably, the guide to making a purchase and the price could have been kept in the rulebook, since purchases are not something that occur in the game all that often whereas the Stunts come into play all the time. So perhaps the section on Stunts could have been expanded with their descriptions so that neither the player nor the Game Master need to refer to the rulebook. 

The ‘Gamemaster Resources’ is thirty-six pages and designed to do three things. The first of these is to provide a means of generating a more detailed family history, specifically for Player-knights in the default starting location for Pendragon, Sixth Edition. This, of course, is Salisbury, and the ‘Salisbury Family History’ helps a player create a history for his knight’s family, specifically his great-grandfather, grandfather, and father, going all the way up from 437 CE to 508 CE, covering in turn the Tyrant and Uprising Period, Aurelius Ambrosius Period, Uther Period, and the Anarchy. Rolling for the great-grandfather is short and simple; the grandfather’s death is rolled for first and then the player works year-by-year up to the year when it happens; and then the father is rolled for as normal. There is a lot of detail and information to note down, though there is an alternative quick method provided too. The other thing that the narrative does with the ‘Salisbury Family History’ is entwine the Player-knight’s family history with the Counts of Salisbury—Robyn, Roderick, and Robert. The process is detailed and lengthy and probably best done as part of the preparation for play.

Physically, the Invincible Superhero Roleplaying GM Screen is sturdy and well produced. The artwork is good just as you would expect.

The Invincible Superhero Roleplaying GM Screen is a standalone affair in that it does not come with anything else. So, no reference material, no forms or character sheet to copy, and no scenarios. This is the same as the Dragonbane Gamemaster Screen. Now licencing issues are likely the reason why nothing else is included with the Invincible Superhero Roleplaying GM Screen, so the absence of anything is understandable. (Whereas the lack of anything with the Dragonbane Gamemaster Screen is more of an issue.) Either way, what it means is that the Invincible Superhero Roleplaying GM Screen is utilitarian, but no more.