Where can I find the 'Critters' book for retail purchase?

It comes with the SR3 Gamemaster's Screen.

Which may or may not be unavailable right now; I'm not sure. The Fast Forward site lists it as unavailable, but I wasn't told this...

Asking at your local game store is the best bet; they may still be able to order it.

Stiggybaby's also has it in stock, under the FASA -> Shadowrun section, not the FanPro -> Shadowrun section. http://www.stiggybaby.com/cgi-bin/mivavm?M...gory_Code=FASSR

Woo! Adam, you're my hero (as always)

With the German GM screen there has recently been a reprint which had some slight changes in it, which were done - like I was told - in accordance with Rob Boyle. That means those are revisions also planned for a possible American reprint of the screen/critters. And as I get it there hasn't been a FanPro reprint of it so far, has it?

You might want to consider seeing if you can pick up a copy of Paranormal Animals of North America off ebay or amazon, as well.

Admittedly, the stats aren't 3rd ed, but the critters supplement (If you can find it) has most if not all of the creatures from PAoNA.

However, what it -is- lacking is pictures, one per animal, that really help when describing something (especially as in Critters they've often copied the text straight from PAoNA, and that often relies on the fact that it has a picture to make the description of the animal make any sense.) and the ranges, so you can see where you naturally might encounter them.

Critters has nice stuff about mutant critters, though.

On a side topic, the GM's screen for shadowrun could do with a vast improvement.

For one thing, that combat flow thingy on the left is nearly useless. Its okay if you don't know it, but once you -do- know combat, you wish you had more of the tables that were left out from the main book, that are hard to find. It could generally be layed out a little better and more squashed in, but thats only my opinion, of course.

The Critters supplement with the GM Screen (3rd Ed) does contain a vast number of the previously printed creatures and also backs up with the Power & Weakness descriptions and Mutation rules.

However, it doesn't contain all of the critters previously released in Paranormal Animals of North America or Paranormanl Animals of Europe. They kept in the most commonly used ones and also added in several others that were published in other sourcebooks like Target: Smuggler Havens and California Free State. Unfortunately they did exclude a few of the unique ones that were most original and fun to read about.

Seeing as only the GM really needs to read about these critters it was good sense for FASA to stick it in with the GM Screen, but if you really want to have the full glory of these interesting beesties, then get your hands on the aforementioned Paranormal Animals of... books. The illustrations, practical data (latin classifications, habitat, behaviour etc.), size comparison diagram and distribution maps are worth it alone - the shadowtalk following each entry is just the icing on the cake. You can't read these books without smiling every once in a while, if not outright laughing. Trust me.

I'd like to see a four panneled GM screen, it's hard to hide everything behind my little screen. Maybe the fourth pannel could just be a blank piece with lines to write house rules, or anything a Gm thought he needed most.

Personally my old GM, and me following in his footsteps would use multiple GM screens, oh yes the old editions were cool to look at even if the rules didn't really apply.