Well designed and laid out, this screen is an indispensable aid for any GM. What makes it a GREAT value, however, is the useful supplemental material that it comes with.
Post originally by Ian Noble at 2004-10-18 12:27:12
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I found the artwork, with it's horrific lavendar coloring and ugly product label text, quite ugly. I would suggest that artwork counts on a ref screen because it can be distracting or take people out of the mood since it faces the players.
Also, considering you can get most of the included documents for free on the web, the $20 price is too much.
Post originally by Rev. Pee Kitty at 2004-10-18 18:22:06
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You're certainly entitled to your opinion regarding the artwork -- it's a purely subjective thing, after all. But I'd have to disagree about the documents.
As I mention in my review, there's a big difference between a printed, bound booklet and a sheaf of loose paper. I have a copy of GURPS Lite, for example, that I printed out evens/odds to get a two-sided effect. To keep it together, I had to buy a report holder to put it into. It's a heck of a lot bigger and bulkier than the one I got with my screen -- I can't just slide this into a folder with my character sheets.. The only way for the average person to keep it that slim would be to staple the pages together, and then they won't lie flat.
In addition, a full half of the Character Creation booklet is 100% new stuff that you cannot get on the web -- and it's good, fun stuff. The custom character sheets alone should be a huge draw to this thing -- if I'd realized that they came with it when I bought it, I would have put in a pre-order. The "Character Creation Cheat Sheet" is <I>immensely</I> useful, as is the Master List of Traits -- I won't build a character without flipping open the booklet to these pages above my Characters book. And so on...
Anyways, compared to the price of every other GM's screen on the shelves of my FLGS ($15-$20, every last one of 'em), this one is very fairly priced. You're free to disagree, but I have to wonder what you're looking for in a screen. My requirements are, "Something reasonably priced (compared to other gaming screens) that has all the the charts and tables that I need to play the game, in a format I can easily use, and hopefully includes some cool, useful bonus material." This product hits all of those points easily, and I hope I illustrated why in my review.
Post originally by Rev. Pee Kitty at 2004-10-18 18:28:37
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You get it for free in 4E as well -- in the back of the book. 3E didn't have room for a Master Traits list in the book, so they stuck in a handout instead. Either way, you've gotten one list with each edition of the Basic Set.
If you buy 4E/Characters, and also buy the GM's Screen, then you get the list <I>twice</I>, which is useful because you can keep the List out next to your Characters book as a reference. I never said that you were getting something you didn't already have in the Master Traits List. I said that you were getting it in a different format (i.e., in a thin booklet), which is more convenient when making characters by minimizing page flipping.
Post originally by Heptat at 2004-10-18 18:54:50
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I agree with the poster - the cover is ugly. Oh well...lavender looks bad, but it smells good!
But I also agree with the reviewer - if you're going to sit down and actually play a lot of GURPS 4e, and therefore make lots of characters for it, the screen and the booklets are going to be VERY helpful.
And I LOVE the different versions of the character sheets!
Linear Mode
