The Inside Scoop on Gaming

All good RPGs come with their own GM screens, so White Wolf published a screen for Vampire. Now, they could've charged $10 for a three-panel piece of colored cardboard. They didn't; they added a small booklet of NPCs for the GM to exploit to the fullest. Together, this makes the cover price barely worth paying.

Oh sure, the screen has all of the needed charts and tables inside. The exterior has a table that runs down the character generation process; this helps when a character gets smoked and the player has to create a replacement on the fly. These are neat, but they're nothing to write home about; any decent screen has a similiar set of features. What makes this worth having is the NPC booklet.

There are 23 characters in the booklet. All are mortal NPCs built around Vampire's default setting-- the Chicago/Gary sprawl-- but they also serve as typical examples of their archtypes. As promised, it's trivial to make them into faceless goons or into different folk altogether. (While Triads aren't Mafiosi, gangsters are gangsters; all that changes is how to play them.) Also as promised, each NPC has a number of plot hooks hanging from their descriptions. These can get a GM occupied for quite some time, if he has the time to develop those hooks into full adventures.

Is this worth buying? Yes, but only if you find it used. $10 is too much for something like this; when the inevitable new version comes around it will probably double in price, but by that time they'll pack enough meat to make it worth the effort.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 3 (Average)

The Vampire Storyteller's Screen, Second Edition
Author: Graeme Davis Category: game Company/Publisher: White Wolf Game Studio Cost: $10 (US) Page count: 16 pages ISBN: 1-56504-055-4 Capsule Review by Bradford C. Walker on 09/21/98. Genre tags: Modern_day Horror Conspiracy Vampire Gothic	All good RPGs come with their own GM screens, so White Wolf published a screen for Vampire. Now, they could've charged $10 for a three-panel piece of colored cardboard. They didn't; they added a small booklet of NPCs for the GM to exploit to the fullest. Together, this makes the cover price barely worth paying. Oh sure, the screen has all of the needed charts and tables inside. The exterior has a table that runs down the character generation process; this helps when a character gets smoked and the player has to create a replacement on the fly. These are neat, but they're nothing to write home about; any decent screen has a similiar set of features. What makes this worth having is the NPC booklet. There are 23 characters in the booklet. All are mortal NPCs built around Vampire's default setting-- the Chicago/Gary sprawl-- but they also serve as typical examples of their archtypes. As promised, it's trivial to make them into faceless goons or into different folk altogether. (While Triads aren't Mafiosi, gangsters are gangsters; all that changes is how to play them.) Also as promised, each NPC has a number of plot hooks hanging from their descriptions. These can get a GM occupied for quite some time, if he has the time to develop those hooks into full adventures. Is this worth buying? Yes, but only if you find it used. $10 is too much for something like this; when the inevitable new version comes around it will probably double in price, but by that time they'll pack enough meat to make it worth the effort. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 3 (Average)

The Vampire Storyteller's Screen, Second Edition