Does anyone know where I can find a GM screen for a reasonable price? The only place I've found one is on Amazon and the cheapest is $35 plus shipping. That is way out of my price range for a screen. I've already ordered the Anniversary edition book and the Arsenal book. We are a lower income family on a tight budget and another 40 bucks spending on my "magical elf game" would not go over well with the wife.

I've seen a PDF version for sale for $15. Problem is, I don't have any idea how I would print something like that out. Also, I want it to be an actual screen that I can put up. Pretty sure I will not be able to do that with a printout version. Any ideas? Suggestions?

Print it out on Cardstock, and tape it together using scotch tape.

But the only GM screen around right now is part of the Runner's Toolkit box set. Cheap, for a box set, but not exactly the thing for a tight budget.

What is included in this box set? Maybe I could cancel the Arsenal hardcover and order the toolkit in it's place....

Actually, I think it would be a really good idea. I bought one myself and totally think it was worth the money. Check it out here. That's a link to the pdf version, but the contents are the same. Honestly, it's worth it for the cheat sheets alone. Those double-sided guides are step-by-step on how to correctly do things like combat and hacking and I wish I had them when I was starting the game!

I think I'm going to cancel the Arsenal and replace it with the Toolkit. The cheat sheets will prove very handy. Do I really "need" the Arsenal and other supplement books? I'd really like to get them, but the cost is getting pretty high for me right now. The toolkit says it comes with tables of weapons and gear from the supplement books. Will I be able to use them without having the actual books, or will I need the books for the tables to make any sense? Thanks very much for your help!

some things will lack their qualites, eg. you do not know if a weapon has smartlink or anything installed, and the cyberware table will make no sense at all.

The supplements are nice sometimes, but not essential. We played with just the core for a year. Also, you can probably outsource some of the purchasing to players if you really feel like you need one of the supplements, the GM shouldn't have to provide everything for the game. If a player brings X supplement to the game to use for their player, ask if you can borrow it for a week or two before they can use it to make their character better.

I really recommend the core supplements: Runner's Companion for expanded Qualities/Metatypes/Lifestyles/Contacts, Augmentation for Street Sams and advanced Medtech rules, Unwired for Hackers, Street Magic for Mages/Adepts, Arsenal for Riggers/Street Sams - i dont want to play a game that uses only the core rulebook (especially because of the new qualities in runners companion).

If i had to rank the books, it would be: Runner's Companion > Street Magic > Augmentation > Arsenal > Unwired

But like thorya said, everyone should contribute to the game - let the Mage buy Street Magic, the Sam Augmentation etc.

Also, I don't know if you have a laptop but I'll assume you're like me and don't have suck a convenience. But if you do, PDFs are a great cheaper way to get the supplement books. I use them all the time and just write things down for my session ahead of time.

What everyone else said about contributing to the game.

I also highly recommend the Runner's TOOL Kit. The GM Screen in that box set is based of the SR4A rules and there are a lot of other products that are very helpful in the RUNNERS tool kit.

It is probably one of the best products if not the best for the Shadowrun 4th Edition.

It made the list for Father's Day Gifts, IIRC... Or something like that.

The idea of CanRay carbon copies running freely in a school yard terrifies me a little.

I just ordered the Anniversary edition, the runners tool kit, and Arsenal hardback. Thanks for all the help everyone. I don't want to ask the players to buy any books since most of them have not played before. If everyone enjoys it, I'll mention the additional books to the players who have the characters to match them and see if they want to buy them later. Thanks again everyone!

Just for an alternate perspective...

As a GM, I would rate the books as:

Street Magic > Arsenal > Unwired > Runner's Companion > Augmentation

I have a PDF of Runner's Companion, and I rarely read it. I don't think the new qualities in it are really necessary, and it's really only good for making "odd" characters with strange races, and positive and negative qualities.

If you're playing a Magician, I think Street Magic is more important than the Companion. If you're playing a Samurai, Arsenal / Augmentation are more important than the Companion. If you're playing a Hacker / Rigger, Arsenal / Unwired are more important than the Companion.

Augmentation I rate so low because really I think the rules presented in it mostly benefit really rich characters with access to high level tech. Starting characters won't need to open it up at all, the Augments in the core book are more than sufficient. I have a print copy of Augmentation, and I loved reading it, but I haven't really used it in my game much.

I find that Arsenal and Street Magic are the most useful of the supplement books. I don't even have a print copy of Companion, and none of my players have ever wanted to use something out of it.

Runners companion gives a very good overview for new players in the first chapters, like team roles and basic tactics.
I am both a GM and a player (we rotate GMs), and i rarely use cyber/bioware from the corebook (favourites: MBW, Muscle Toner/Augmentation, Math SPU, Attention coprocessor, Radar Sensor, Encephalon, PuSHeD). As for Arsenal, the most "efficent" guns are in the corebook (Ares Pred. IV, Ares Alpha, HK 227-X), and Rigger chars are hard to play for novice GM/players.

You don't have to worry about that any time soon...