GM Scrren

[Holz]

I am wondering what people use the most.
Hopefully it will help me to elaborate a sheet with a few extra information.
That way I can make a GM Screen!

[Madmage]

I've always found the best screens are those which contain the combat rules. It's the moment in a game which can truly bog down the thrill of the fight when you have to look up a weapon or what maneuvers are available, etc.

[Bertjammin]

I'm in the "anti-screen" camp I'm afraid - I thing that they create physical and metaphorical barrier in play, perpetuating a "me vs you" concept when I want my games to be inclusive story telling activities, they take up room on the table and commercial ones are often over priced and poorly laid out.

I use colours sticky tabs in the rule book(s) to easily find tables and rule pages and normally run a game standing up and wandering around (I like to physically impersonate NPCs too...) so I don't really see the need.

But that's just me I guess.

[Holz]

For me it depends a lot.
When I am "acting" as NPC's or doing things I know I will not need the screen. Tough in combat or skill intensive situations, up goes the screen!

[Angelman]

I often use screens, but not necessarily to hide behind. For me they work best when the front has some atmospheric Pictures to put the players in the mood - something nice for players to look at while the GM is busy with another player. On the reverse side, I only want useful things, which mostly means rules summaries and reference tables. Common weapons can be useful, but mustn't be over done. One of the Call of Cthulhu GM screens listed the names of monsters on one pannel; that was VERY useless!

[Holz]

A little preview.
It's work in progress...

Any thoughts? Too much information? Less tables? More Tables (always makes me remember MERP)?

I have more stuff to make... There are more weapons and armor now... so gotta slice a few, or adapt.

I am doing this on excel and with paint, since I have no Photoshop skills.

[Angelman]

Let me see... For coins, you could also put in Talons (which are house coins worth around 1/8th of a Firebird, I think). The clock/pizza slice illustration is very good, by the way.

You might also want to consider having some hazzards on there, like radiation poisoning rules and suffocation etc.

Very good stuff, Holz! This is the kind of things I find very useful as a GM.

[Madmage]

I'd combine the extended victory chart with the regular one. You're also missing the value for a goal of 26.

For coin value you are missing a talon (0.125).

For the Strength bonus chart, you misspelled it as "Strenght".

Personally, I'd combine the goal penalties and goal bonuses on the same table and move it with the skill section.

I'd move the stances table to be with the combat stuff.

[Holz]

I did the changes/fixes suggested by Madmage and Angelman. Just needs some work to make it easy on the eye. Any suggestions??

Added Armor. And I can say, there is more Armor than I thought in this game.
I have the weapons table already. The note section had to be removed from both. Tough I might try to fit them with the Notes.

I was thinking on placing some of the tables to squiz in weapons and add another sheet for more weapons.
What you guys think?

Feedback is always valuable here.

More Sheets/Screens?
Note section on armor and weapons?

[Madmage]

If you are going to include equipment, might as well put the Firebird equivalencies with those.

Goal Bonuses and Penalties should go on page 1 with the skills. If there is lack of room on the page, I'd suggest altering the Sustained Action table to have the examples on the same line as the difficulty. So it might read as "Simple (e.g climbing a tree)

I'd move the Order of Combat to go on page 3 with the rest of the combat stuff.

Not sure if the revised edition had fencing rules, but those should go on page 3.