When playing a Role Playing Game, one of the hardest things to handle for the Game Master is keeping his notes and dice rolls hidden from the players. There are many reasons for doing this. The main one being that if the game notes are visible to the players, it could destroy game because then the players might see what is coming up. The whole idea behind RPGs is to think on your feet and react quickly to some events. Keeping the dice rolls hidden is equally important because sometimes the GM rolls just to make the players nervous, other times he rolls to determine something that the players don't know about yet, and other times the die result doesn't matter because what is about to happen will happen regardless. Then again, the GM has the option to "flub" a roll. That means that he succeeds at doing whatever he was rolling for, but chooses to have it fail due to circumstances in the game at that particular time, such as a success meaning the death of a PC.

Of course, anything can be used for this purpose. The GM can sit a separate table (I tend to sit at my desk), or regular file folders can be used, etc. So why go through the expense of buying a screen? The primary reason is for the information that is on the screen itself. Unlike most other gaming companies, Palladium gives you two screens rather than just one. Also, most other companies only have quick reference charts on a single side of the screen. This makes the side exposed to the players useless, even if there is some pretty artwork to look at on it.

Even though this screen is for the Rifts game, it has so much more on it that can be used for the other games in the company. Both screens have six panels (three per side), but only five of these have information while the sixth has some nice art. I have decided to review this product in several sections. I will start with the

Game Master Reference Screen

Now there are tons of charts on this for the GM to use. Having these all in one place saves a lot of searching time that would be required to find the same thing in the rulebooks. There is a random encounter chart, an Experience Point Table, and a Quick NPC Generation table on one panel. A second panel has a complete list of store prices for most of the equipment that players use in the game. On the inside of the screen, the GM will find repair costs and missile charts that have the cost, range and damage for each type. There is also a chart that has the chances of salvaging equipment after a battle. But the most important panel is the center one. This is the one that can be used for ANY game in the company. It has the attribute bonus chart, hand-to-hand skill charts, and the special chart needed to determine bonuses from supernatural strength.

Magic & Psionics Screen

Once again, this is a screen packed with info that can be used for most of the games. There is a breakdown of every Psionic power (name, range, duration, cost, etc) on one panel. It takes another three panels to list the same info for all the magic spells in the game. The fifth panel has more random encounter charts for monsters, bandits, etc. But there is something a little extra here as well. A chart of the motivation and attitude of the various encounters is also given here. That allows the GM to quickly create an encounter at the drop of a hat, again saving time that can instead be used for playing.

Adventure Book

Don't let the name of this thing fool you! It is much more than just that. This 65-page book contains two adventures that are really entire campaigns in disguise. They are followed by 13 of what we all call Hook, Line and Sinkers. Now, a HLS is the bare bones of an adventure idea, and this is the first place that one was ever printed. Each one has the tempting bait for the PCs to go after (the hook), followed by a chance for the PCs to get involved in the adventure (the line). The sinker is the trouble that the PCs have to deal with once they are committed in order to get the "bait". These offer the good GM months of adventures for his player group to have fun with.

This is followed by some character sheets that can be photocopied for the players to use. The best thing about these is the "one size fits all" idea. A single sheet can be used for any character, regardless of race or class. Then there are a couple of little items that I think are wonderful! In fact, I had created the exact same thing years before. I wish I had thought to submit the idea to the company way back then. These items are: An GM Experience Log (allows the GM to keep a tally of who has earned what as the game is being played rather than having to rely on memory at the end of the game session), and a quick reference sheet that allows the GM to keep a record of the basic stats of each PC. Very handy items, make lots of copies of these for your games.

Then there are a couple more sheets for the GM. Each one allows the GM to record an entire group of NPCs (like a mercenary unit or merchant caravan) so that all the important info is in a single spot. Last is a couple pages of maps of the Rifts Earth. Overall, it's a ton of highly useful info for the game all in a single spot.

If you can find one of these, you should buy yourself a copy. I'm not sure if the company still has them in print, but the easiest way to find that out is by stopping by the web site and taking a look at the online catalog. Trust me on this one, if you play Palladium games at all, you can't go wrong with this product.


Recommended: Yes