I've never been a big fan of GM's Screens. I guess my hatred goes back to the olden
days of AD&D and those orange cardboard monstrosities with large numbers of
turgid tables on them. Although I realize that gaming has advanced quite a lot since those
dark days, I still have a nagging doubts about GM's Screens. Aren't they, after all, just
pieces of cardboard with pretty (or not so pretty) pictures covering one side and tables
covering the other? And let's be honest: how many GMs still hide their notes and maps
behind a screen like the bad old days of dungeon crawling? I mean, hasn't the art of GMing
evolved beyond the confrontational paradigm that spawned GM's Screens in the first place?
With these fairly substantial philosophical doubts out of the way, I can nevertheless say
that I very much like Narrator's Toolkit and Screen for the Star Trek: The
Next Generation Roleplaying Game (ST:TNG RPG). Of course, the screen itself is
nothing special. It's attractive enough, with stills of starships on one side and readable
charts on the other. To be honest, though, ST:TNG RPG's Icon System is so easy to play
that most charts and tables are easily remembered without need for them on a screen. I
doubt there'll be many Narrators who'll have much need for it.
However, the glossy 62 page book that comes with the screen is what really won me over to
this product. Written by Kenneth Hite, the Narrator's Toolkit is a wonderful
compendium of advice for running a successful ST:TNG RPG campaign. What I find especially
pleasing about the Toolkit is that its advice, while geared toward newcomers to
roleplaying, is insightful enough to teach a few tricks to old hands like myself.
Likewise, the advice is specifically focused on the joys and pains unique to running games
set in the Final Frontier. That is, Ken Hite provides his readers with advice that is
directly transferable to ongoing ST:TNG RPG campaigns.
I am sure that there are those who will doubt me and that's a reasonable enough reaction.
There are very few good treatments of GM's advice in roleplaying games. Most boil down to
platitudinous pabulum that has little value to anyone with half a brain. The Narrator's
Toolkit is genuinely different. The advice it includes covers everything from the
proper plotting and structure of Star Trek adventures to advanced storytelling techniques
like flashbacks and the use of symbolism. I cannot think of another game supplement that
includes advice this good. Indeed, I was amazed to find that some of the advice included
in the Toolkit was of use even to me, who has been gaming for fifteen years now.
Doubly satisfying is the fact that Ken Hite's advice would be good advice for those
seeking to write enjoyable television or movie scripts. One of the things I've noticed is
that ST:TNG RPG has taken its cinematic heritage seriously and to good effect. While it is
certainly possible to run a Star Trek game that doesn't have "commercial
breaks" and which is more like a standard RPG campaign, I think that one will end up
with something that's rather un-Trek. Star Trek has never been about
fiddly details, like encumbrance rules or equipment lists or even the laws of physics. Star
Trek is an "idea setting." It's about (or is supposed to be) the Great
Ideas: what it means to be human, the nature of freedom, is there such a thing as a just
war, and so forth. I believe that Ken Hite's advice gives both new and experienced
Narrators the tools they need to make their scenarios resonate with these and other
well-established Trek themes. For that matter, I think his advice points
Narrators in the right direction simply to produce good stories of any sort, Star Trek
or not.
What Ken does not do, I think, is provide much in the way of encouragement to those gamers
whose sole interest in ST:TNG RPG is technology or space battles or military matters.
While such things have a place in Trek (just look at the current season of DS9),
they should always serve as a backdrop to a story. They provide context and texture to a
story, but they are not (or rarely) the story. While this is just an opinion, I don't
think Star Trek is particularly good sci-fi simply as sci-fi. Without
the Great Ideas and its morality play element, Trek is nothing more than a
sometimes hokey SF universe. It is the Great Ideas and moral conflicts that set Star
Trek apart as a truly intriguing setting. Ken Hite realizes this very well and has
produced advice tailored to Narrators seeking to include the same in their own games.
Despite my thorough enjoyment of the Narrator's Toolkit, I would be remiss if I
didn't include two criticisms. Firstly, the quality of several of the series stills
included in the Toolkit is not as good as it could have been. There are
noticeable imperfections, such as lines running down the middle of the shot. Perhaps this
is a printing error in my own copy. I cannot say. In any case, if it is not, Last Unicorn
should take care to prevent a recurrence of such flaws in the future. I appreciate their
use of photographs from the series and think it adds to the quality of ST:TNG RPG.
Nevertheless, I would like clear images rather than blurry or flawed ones.
Secondly, and more tragically, there is the third chapter of the Toolkit. After
having produced such wonderful and indeed insightful advice in the first two chapters, Ken
Hite finishes the volume with an uninspired adventure, "Hide and Q." This is a
direct and unabashed retelling of a first season ST:TNG episode of the same name. I didn't
like the episode and don't like the adventure. I can only hope that Ken was forced into
this by some deranged executive at Paramount and that he didn't choose to do this of his
free will. I'd have much rather seen a fleshing out of any one of the many nice ideas he
has scattered throughout the first two chapters.
In fact, I see a pattern developing here. In their two released products, Last Unicorn
has failed to provide us with a decent ready-made adventure scenario, despite having given
us lots of excellent advice about how to run a ST:TNG RPG campaign. If ever there were an
example of "those who can, do; those who can't, teach," it is Last Unicorn. Of
course, many of FASA's old Star Trek adventures had the same problem. Could it be
that each campaign is so idiosyncratic that it's well-nigh impossible to mass-produce
adventures for them? I think this is a serious possibility. For my money, I think Last
Unicorn would be better served by producing good solid source material that includes
adventure seeds, but not adventures per se. This, along with more excellent
advice from the likes of Ken Hite, would do much more to encourage genuine Star Trek
campaigns than such drivel as "Hide and Q" or the abysmal "Shakedown
Cruise" from the core rule book.
Nevertheless, the Narrator's Toolkit is an excellent, but far from perfect
supplement. I encourage both new and experienced GMs to give it a look. If you are
interested in producing Star Trek adventures that have much of the feel and
flavor of the televised episodes, you should look no further.
Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)
