I just got back from Dragoncon, where I bought my very own 4th edition SR GM screen (from Rob Boyle himself). So...it exists.

*sets you on fire*

So what's the street date?

That I don't know.

Should be in stores starting next week; it ships to them on the 11th.

Good, I was just beginning to think I had too much money.

So...how would you rate the GM Screen?

I'd give it an F-. It's covered in D&D random encounter charts for some reason, along with Scientology slogans, and all the illustrations are of David Hasselhof running through the surf in red swimtrunks.

No, Zen, that's the booklet you got from that one chick that smelled like Zovirax. We're talking about the Shadowrun GM screen.

Nope, that's for Arsenal.

Pictures or it didn't happen!!

It's fine. Four panels on medium cardstock. The outside is recycled art, the inside is charts.

The enclosed booklet has a number of new underpowered contacts, but boosting their stats isn't tough. It also has a number of adventure seeds, a random plot generator (which I choose to ignore), and a guide for converting SR3 characters to SR4, and two pages of charts that didn't go on the screen.

At Dragoncon, it cost me $20.

@Gort:

The Things you're describing he said are in an acompanying booklet. The screen itself is, "The outside is recycled art, the inside is charts."

Seems like SR always comes with a little booklet to go along with the screen, there was a critters supplement in the SR3 screen. So it may not be as bad as you think.

The screen is entirely covered in charts.

The character conversion material and the NPCs are included in, as I said, the booklet that is packaged with the screen.

Brain fart, my bad Somehow I managed to replace "the enclosed booklet" with "it".

Here is my usual obligiatory about my promised 4 page elctronic one so i can fix the one that I have.

Well, I don't have a print copy, but I have the PDF, so I can list the charts.

Page 1
Combat Sequence
Combat Turn Sequence
Perception Tests
Visibility Modifiers

Page 2
Skills and Linked Attributes
Difficulty Table/Buying Hits/Extended Test Difficulties
Random Alert Response/MAtrix Search Table
Concealability Table/Availablity Interval

Page 3
Weapon Range
Ranged Combat Modifiers
Melee Modifiers
Defense Modifiers

Page 4
Scatter Diagram/Table
Projectile Weapon/Grenade Damage Table
Melee Damage Table
Charisma Opposed Tests
Signal Rating

Page 5
Barrier Rating/Damaging Barriers
Build Repair
Knowledge Skills
Signature Table
Object Resistance Table
Sample Devices (Device Rating)

Page 6
Vehicle Test Threshold/Terrain Table/Handling Rating
Assensing
Astral Tracking

All in all I hated it. Not worth $20 for print, and certainly not worth $15 for PDF. There is no rhyme or reason behind the layout, an the two pages in the book (5 and 6) have tables that certainly would have been better placed on the actual screen (Assensing) than some of those that were included.

It might have been better if each pannel had a theme, magic, rigging, matrix, combat, but there doesn't seem to be any pattern at all. Is it better than searching the book? Yes, but if you have access to a spreadsheet and a few extra minutes do yourself a favor and make your own.

I disagree. I think it's a perfectly serviceable screen. There are more charts in Shadowrun than can fit on one screen, so decisions had to be made. If I had been making those decisions, it would have turned out a little differently; and if Ancient History had made the decisions, it would have been some other way, and if Critias had done it, it would have been yet another way.

But the version we got designed by whoever it actually was works just fine in my opinion.

There are a truly insane number of charts in SR4. I photo copied, cut-out, and repasted about 95% of the charts in the book, and they covered 13 8.5 x 11 pages. I can't wait to get my copy of the GM's Screen. My bulky packet of disorganized charts is a pain, even if it is faster than looking them up in the book.

Metasigil:

Have you considered just keeping a list of the charts by name and page number?

I generally do not buy GM's screens for various reasons, but I might be interested in getting the additional contacts booklet. How good is it ? How useful are the additional contact ideas and examples in giving flavour and reliable sources to a character besides the mandatory and obvious fixer, talismonger and street doc contact triad pretty much any character gets ?

As far as I heard, the booklet is pretty useful for less experienced GMs (meaning, of course, less useful for experienced GMs).

I'd much rather have a booklet of different grunts/prime runners that the players would be likely to encounter (a few sample street sams, some sample riggers, etc.) than a book of contacts. I mean, does anyone really need to know what the pistols skill of your bartender friend is?

A Surprise?!

I totally need a new alarm clock!

Adam:

Uh, what are you talking about?

Months ago, WorkOver asked for a slightly modified version of the PDF version of the screen, and I said "Sure!" and then it got pushed to the backburner as I suddenly had to work on several other projects and haven't had much "free" time to work on lower priority stuff. Since the screen is finally coming out in print, I figured it was the right time to make the time to fulfill my promise to WorkOver and several other people.

And then I thought I'd add a surprise !!!

[Just a small one. But it's a good surprise. And a useful one.]

Adam, I think you need surprised with a heavy dose of medication