Mutants & Masterminds GM's Screen

[JoeGKushner]

Here’s the deal. If you play Mutans & Masterminds and what a Gamemaster Screen, this is it. It’s a no frills deal. You get a cover page with information on the back, and a four-panel screen with information on the back.

The cover sheet handles the different conditions that a character can suffer. How about dead? Fatigued? Grappled? Helpless? Prone? All covered. It has the penalties and bonuses associated with each state.

The four-page screen is a thing of beauty. Professionally illustrated should cover my opinion of this screen. The flip size covers lots of checks. Take Bluff Check, Climb, Ride, Taunt, and Track for example. All covered. How about some variable powers like Postcognition and Telepathy? How about the range of ESP? What about different melee and ranged weapons? All covered.

Most GMs will probably find the attack roll modifiers and common actions in combat the most useful tables. Same page covers the Damage Saving Throws, Cover and Concealment so this page will get used a lot.

The price is right on the money for this puppy. I’m just feeling that for a screen, it should have more. I don’t know if White Wolf spoiled me with all the goodies they include in their packages or what but I expect something extra with my screens but expect to pay more for that too.

The Gamemaster Screen is perfect for those who want an inexpensive Screen and don’t want to run the Master Screen route of setting up and printing their own material.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Mutants & Masterminds GM's Screen

The Game Master's job just got easier with the Mutants & Masterminds GM's Screen. Its four sturdy panels have beautiful full color art on one side and all the charts and tables you need to play the game on the other. There's no pointless filler here, just a thick, user-friendly screen that'll look great on your gaming table.

 

[gambler1650]

$9.95 definitely seems overpriced considering the price for the Scarred Lands screen is even lower and includes a quite meaty booklet with two adventures and racial info. I also compare it to some laminated full color 'study guides' in things like Biology, Math, etc that I've seen.. Two pages for a buck or two. I haven't seen the M&M GM screen but almost $2 a page is unlikely to let me buy it no matter how good it is. It actually feels like price gouging along the lines of Monsters of Faerun. Maybe I'm spoiled by S&S but their products tend to be excellent values for the money. I have a few Green Ronin items (including Mutants and Masterminds) and while excellent and polished, they certainly don't match up pricewise ($24.95 for 256 pages for Ghelspad by S&S, $32.95 for 192 pages for M&M). Anyhow, the screen sounds quite nice and helpful, but $9.95 just seems over the top.

 

[Psion]

Mutants & Masterminds Gamemaster Screen

How does one review a GM screen? Well, this is the third that I have had the occasion to review (along with the Kalamar and Spycraft screens), which doesn't give a whole lot for me to compare it to, but is better than nothing.

The package comes with a four-panel screen and a cover page. Four panels is the right number (much better than the Spycraft screen's three, and five would be too many.) The package is priced at $9.95, which is reasonable for the content.

The outside of the screen has artwork featuring characters from the Mutants & Masterminds book on the back. The art is of outstanding quality, as with the other products in the line.

The four interior panels have loosely associated topics. The first panel has DCs and results for a variety of skills. The second and third panel are primarily combat oriented, with tables on combat modifiers, combat actions, damage checks, weapon and armor statistics, and results for a few powers. The final panel has stock, supporting cast statistics, track check results, interaction, power rank modifiers, and associated ability scores for each skill.

Finally, the cover sheet (which depicts Protonik, a stock hero from the M&M book) has all of the condition summaries used in the game, and the OGL in microscopic type at the bottom.

Conclusion

What to say? The screen is simple, functional, attractive, and reasonably priced. Unlike the Spycraft screen, it won't leave you wondering why you paid so much or wishing there was a better screen for the game.

Overall Grade: B

-Alan D. Kohler

 

[Simon Collins]

Mutants & Masterminds Gamemaster Screen is a four-boarded GM screen for Green Ronin's super-hero Mutants & Masterminds d20 game.

Mutants & Masterminds Gamemaster Screen is a colour product costing $9.95. The layout is clear and attractive with no wasted space. The art is an impressive comic-book style pastiche of heroes and villains across the entire back of the screen. There are a couple of minor editing errors.

There are 32 charts used on the four-board screen:
Screen Board 1 - a variety of skill check DCs (balance checks for precarious surfaces, bluff circumstance modifiers, climb checks by surface, concentration distractions, demolitions set and build explosive device, diguise modifiers, escape artist, open lock, ride, jump distances, and taunt results)
Screen Board 2 - Attack and defence calculations, size, attack roll, and ability modifiers, damage saves, common combat actions (with type and if 5-foot step allowed), cover, and concealment. There is also the first half of a 'villain point tracker' - a simple numbering system along the top of the screen which can be marked with a paper clip to keep track of expended villain points
Screen Board 3 - tables for melee and ranged weapons, armour, substance hardness, hampered movement, ESP ranges, post- and pre-cognition check results, and telepathy check DCs. The remainder of the villain point tracking system sits at the top of the board.
Screen Board 4 - Track Check Surface DCs and modifiers, attitudes and interaction DCs, doubling values for power ranks, and skills with their key abilities. There are also stat blocks for 8 NPC archetypes - bystander, fire-fighter, police detective, police officer, professional, reporter, scientist, and soldier.

There is also a frontsheet for the screen pack, on the back of which is a condition summary and the OGL in very small type.

Conclusion:
This seems a well-designed screen for the Mutants & Masterminds game, with inspiring art for the players, and well-organised tables for the GM. I thought the inclusion of archetypal NPC stat blocks was a great idea.

 

[GameWyrd]

My main concern with GM screens is that the side the players see doesn’t always help the GM. I remember playing in a light hearted, political satire of a D&D game where the GM sat behind the default D&D screen. The political satire wasn’t assisted by the pictures of heroes battling against giant spiders and monsters from the Underdark. The GM’s side of the screen might have been useful but the players’ side wasn’t.

There’s no such problem for a Mutants & Masterminds GM screen. The genre is pretty much the theme (although, yes, there are exceptions). The bold colour illustration on the players’ side is safe and sound; images of super-powered good guys in heroic poses and of sinister villains lurking at the edges.

It’s a four panelled screen and colour on the inside. The colour is simply used as the shaded background to tables but this spares the GM from sitting and looking at rows of grey.

The GM’s side is tightly packed but not clumsily clustered. The data comes in two columns.

Panel #1
- Balance Checks for Precarious Surfaces
- Bluff Check Circumstance Modifiers
- Climb Check DCs by Surface
- Concentration Distraction DCs
- Demolitions Set Explosive Device DCs
- Demolitions Build Explosive Device DCs
- Disguise Check Modifiers
- Disguise Spot Check Modifiers
- Escape Artist Check DCs
- Jump Check Distances
- Open Lock DCs
- Ride Check Task DCs
- Taunt Results

Panel #2
- Attack and Defnese (their typo, not mine) Bonus equations
- Size Modifiers
- Attack Roll Modifiers
- Damage Saving Throws
- Ability Modifiers
- Common Actions in Combat (with type (half, full, etc) and 5-foot step?)
- Cover
- Concealment

Panel #3
- Melee Weapons
- Ranged Weapons
- Armor
- Substance Hardness
- Hampered Movement
- ESP Range
- Postcognition Check Results
- Precognition Check Results
- Telepathy Check DCs

Panel #4
- Track Check Surface DCs
- Track Check Conditional Modifiers
- Interaction
- Doubling Values
- Skills
- Supporting Cast Archetypes (stat blocks)

There’s a chart for tracking remaining villain points across the top of panels #2 and #3. The suggestion is the GM slides a paperclip along to mark the place – but I’m a mean git and prefer keeping the villain’s status a secret from the players and a paperclip would surely give that away.

This GM screen will be a valuable tool for anyone trying to run a game of Mutants & Masterminds.

* This Mutant and Masterminds GM Screen review was first published at GameWyrd.