The Inside Scoop on Gaming

In the last days of GenCon '98 the first piping hot copies of "The Narrator's Toolkit" for the STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION ROLEPLAYING GAME found their place next to the stacks of new core rulebooks. They were a clean, eye-catching black and deep-gray pattern and sported an image of a Klingon Bird of Prey before a Vulcan sunset commonly displayed on mousepads throughout America. A 55+ page book and three-panel Narrator's screen made up the package.

At first I asked myself one of those question's we've all asked ourselves: "Is a GM screen really worth fifteen dollars?" I wandered about the convention for a while, bouncing the question around in my head while parusing other game screens. I came back to the Last Unicorn Booth and looked over the copy open for display. It was a mighty handsome screen. "Well," I said, "it's worth fifteen dollars if I get fifteen dollars worth of use out of it." I passed some birthday money to a friendly Last Unicorner, took "The Narrator's Toolkit" home with me, and got my $15 worth.

Normally, I don't buy GM screens, but lately I've been getting them because they're fun toys. A good game screen, in my opinion, contains genuinely useful charts and tables, especially ones that I don't realize are useful until I'm running my game. Likewise, a game screen should come with a book populated with neat extras and game-specific advice and suggestions that I can't think of on my own (and are better learned before play). How does this product measure up? What tools does "The Narrator's Toolkit" actually provide? Read on.

APPEARANCE

Of the game screen and book, the appearance of the screen is most important. In this department the product succeeds, but it stumbles a bit on the way.

The game screen's interior is ideal. All information is clearly legible, logically organized, and maintains the feel of the game (in this case, with a wonderful LCARS-style interface). The color scheme here is straight from THE NEXT GENERATION, and almost everything on the chart will be of use to gamemasters. I, personally, would have dropped the Experience Point Awards from the screen and replaced them with some more of the modifiers presented in the book, but the chart can help to give a Narrator an idea of how well a scenario is going.

The screen's flip side is where the product falters, but only slightly. Center of the three panels is the product cover, described above. Although mostly negative space, it's still a crisp look. The other two panels contain two pictures each, and although all four are attractive effects shots, none are very large. The images are (in no particular order):

USS Excelsior at the edge of the Praxis shockwave
An establishing shot of Cardassia
Spacedock
Nebula-, Oberth-, and Miranda-Class starships leaving the Veridian system

The remainder of the player's side of the screen is the same black-grey striped pattern, this time depicting the stylized Starfleet arrowhead. This matte, sleek look is unobtrusive but also not particularly endearing. Worst of all, the cardstock (or its finish) grabs hold of any oils and grease on a gamer's fingers (we know how much this can be) and never lets go. Eventually, you may need a new screen.

The accompanying book is laid out in the style of the core rulebook, though in black and white. It sports photographs and screen captures exclusively (including a much-appreciated image of Paul Winfield as Dathon from my favorite episode, "Darmok"), and a black LCARS border. The book has the same cover as the game screen, but the presence of a cover at all is a bonus over other game screen booklets.

CONTENT

"The Narrator's Toolkit" book is 55 pages plus 5 pages of forms of use to STAR TREK Narrators. Included are the original character sheet, plot cards (similar to the type television writers use), a creature/star system template form, an alien template form, and a planetary template form. The Last Unicorn Games order form is included again, as well. The remaining 55 pages are what counts. Here, the book will either waste space or educate new Narrators on the finer points of gamemastering and adventure construction.

The result is not unlike the Narrator advice from the core rulebook. Although some information contained within "The Narrator's Toolkit" is reworded from the rulebook, most is detailed, informative advice. The first chapter offers "Advice to the Narrator," and is fairly common in substance. Of particular value, were more GMs to actually heed it, is the advice to "Show, Not Tell." This central rule of storytelling (be it fiction, drama, film, or poetry) is the most ignored by GMs, in my experience. This section also contains advice on how to break a scenario down into managable portions (acts, in dramatic terminology). Although all the examples it gives seem flat and routine, the advice is sound.

Most interesting in this chapter are the explorations of common STAR TREK thematic elements. Written from an educated, comparitive perspective for an intelligent, active reader, this information will either pull a Narrator to new heights of roleplaying or leave him or her in the dust. Similarly, much of this advice will be directly applicable for all Narrators. Information on how to convey information that a character should know, but a player might not (like the typical habitat of a Klingon glob fly) is a problem most Narrators have come up against more than once. Also, comments on running STAR TREK as a troupe-style game are included, and I approve. As an ensemble show, troupe play blends excellently with the STAR TREK tradition.

The chapter on "Advanced Storytelling" might better serve someone wanting to communicate with broadcasting students than a Narrator, but it has its applications. While I believe in cinematic gaming (and, indeed, practice it with great frequency) I also don't think that a jump cut in a roleplaying game is really a jump cut. The writers are building on TREK's television/film base, of course, so I digress.

The final textual element of "The Narrator's Toolkit" is a game scenario based on the first season ST:TNG episode "Hide and Q." My initial thoughts on including Q in a game scenario are not positive ones, and encouraging new Narrators to try him out doesn't catch my fancy. Still, the adventure works out well enough (since Q can always undo whatever goes horribly wrong), although players who've seen the episode will not play it the same way as others.

Overall, "The Narrator's Toolkit," does what it sets out to do, and well. Although this product may not contain the amount of substance as most game books which achieve similar ratings, it exceeds much of the competition in its class. Just remember that my rating is not arbitrary, but relative. A severe weakness to fingerprints has lowered the product's style rating, on the other hand. Likewise, this rating is relative to other products of similar type.

New and old gamemasters alike should get some use not just from the screen, but the book. Still, you'll no doubt ask yourself if it's worth $15. All I can say is: "will you get $15 worth of use out of it?"

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

"The Narrator's Toolkit" (ST:TNG-RPG)
Author: Kenneth Hite Category: game Company/Publisher: Last Unicorn Games Cost: $15 Page count: 62 screen ISBN: 0-671-04001-4 Capsule Review by Will Hindmarch on 08/26/98. Genre tags: none	In the last days of GenCon '98 the first piping hot copies of "The Narrator's Toolkit" for the STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION ROLEPLAYING GAME found their place next to the stacks of new core rulebooks. They were a clean, eye-catching black and deep-gray pattern and sported an image of a Klingon Bird of Prey before a Vulcan sunset commonly displayed on mousepads throughout America. A 55+ page book and three-panel Narrator's screen made up the package. At first I asked myself one of those question's we've all asked ourselves: "Is a GM screen really worth fifteen dollars?" I wandered about the convention for a while, bouncing the question around in my head while parusing other game screens. I came back to the Last Unicorn Booth and looked over the copy open for display. It was a mighty handsome screen. "Well," I said, "it's worth fifteen dollars if I get fifteen dollars worth of use out of it." I passed some birthday money to a friendly Last Unicorner, took "The Narrator's Toolkit" home with me, and got my $15 worth. Normally, I don't buy GM screens, but lately I've been getting them because they're fun toys. A good game screen, in my opinion, contains genuinely useful charts and tables, especially ones that I don't realize are useful until I'm running my game. Likewise, a game screen should come with a book populated with neat extras and game-specific advice and suggestions that I can't think of on my own (and are better learned before play). How does this product measure up? What tools does "The Narrator's Toolkit" actually provide? Read on. APPEARANCE Of the game screen and book, the appearance of the screen is most important. In this department the product succeeds, but it stumbles a bit on the way. The game screen's interior is ideal. All information is clearly legible, logically organized, and maintains the feel of the game (in this case, with a wonderful LCARS-style interface). The color scheme here is straight from THE NEXT GENERATION, and almost everything on the chart will be of use to gamemasters. I, personally, would have dropped the Experience Point Awards from the screen and replaced them with some more of the modifiers presented in the book, but the chart can help to give a Narrator an idea of how well a scenario is going. The screen's flip side is where the product falters, but only slightly. Center of the three panels is the product cover, described above. Although mostly negative space, it's still a crisp look. The other two panels contain two pictures each, and although all four are attractive effects shots, none are very large. The images are (in no particular order): USS Excelsior at the edge of the Praxis shockwave An establishing shot of Cardassia Spacedock Nebula-, Oberth-, and Miranda-Class starships leaving the Veridian system The remainder of the player's side of the screen is the same black-grey striped pattern, this time depicting the stylized Starfleet arrowhead. This matte, sleek look is unobtrusive but also not particularly endearing. Worst of all, the cardstock (or its finish) grabs hold of any oils and grease on a gamer's fingers (we know how much this can be) and never lets go. Eventually, you may need a new screen. The accompanying book is laid out in the style of the core rulebook, though in black and white. It sports photographs and screen captures exclusively (including a much-appreciated image of Paul Winfield as Dathon from my favorite episode, "Darmok"), and a black LCARS border. The book has the same cover as the game screen, but the presence of a cover at all is a bonus over other game screen booklets. CONTENT "The Narrator's Toolkit" book is 55 pages plus 5 pages of forms of use to STAR TREK Narrators. Included are the original character sheet, plot cards (similar to the type television writers use), a creature/star system template form, an alien template form, and a planetary template form. The Last Unicorn Games order form is included again, as well. The remaining 55 pages are what counts. Here, the book will either waste space or educate new Narrators on the finer points of gamemastering and adventure construction. The result is not unlike the Narrator advice from the core rulebook. Although some information contained within "The Narrator's Toolkit" is reworded from the rulebook, most is detailed, informative advice. The first chapter offers "Advice to the Narrator," and is fairly common in substance. Of particular value, were more GMs to actually heed it, is the advice to "Show, Not Tell." This central rule of storytelling (be it fiction, drama, film, or poetry) is the most ignored by GMs, in my experience. This section also contains advice on how to break a scenario down into managable portions (acts, in dramatic terminology). Although all the examples it gives seem flat and routine, the advice is sound. Most interesting in this chapter are the explorations of common STAR TREK thematic elements. Written from an educated, comparitive perspective for an intelligent, active reader, this information will either pull a Narrator to new heights of roleplaying or leave him or her in the dust. Similarly, much of this advice will be directly applicable for all Narrators. Information on how to convey information that a character should know, but a player might not (like the typical habitat of a Klingon glob fly) is a problem most Narrators have come up against more than once. Also, comments on running STAR TREK as a troupe-style game are included, and I approve. As an ensemble show, troupe play blends excellently with the STAR TREK tradition. The chapter on "Advanced Storytelling" might better serve someone wanting to communicate with broadcasting students than a Narrator, but it has its applications. While I believe in cinematic gaming (and, indeed, practice it with great frequency) I also don't think that a jump cut in a roleplaying game is really a jump cut. The writers are building on TREK's television/film base, of course, so I digress. The final textual element of "The Narrator's Toolkit" is a game scenario based on the first season ST:TNG episode "Hide and Q." My initial thoughts on including Q in a game scenario are not positive ones, and encouraging new Narrators to try him out doesn't catch my fancy. Still, the adventure works out well enough (since Q can always undo whatever goes horribly wrong), although players who've seen the episode will not play it the same way as others. Overall, "The Narrator's Toolkit," does what it sets out to do, and well. Although this product may not contain the amount of substance as most game books which achieve similar ratings, it exceeds much of the competition in its class. Just remember that my rating is not arbitrary, but relative. A severe weakness to fingerprints has lowered the product's style rating, on the other hand. Likewise, this rating is relative to other products of similar type. New and old gamemasters alike should get some use not just from the screen, but the book. Still, you'll no doubt ask yourself if it's worth $15. All I can say is: "will you get $15 worth of use out of it?" Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

"The Narrator's Toolkit" (ST:TNG-RPG)