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It was a long wait for any sort of supplement to be released for Decipher's Star Trek RPG, and the first item to come out was the Narrator's Screen. I had to wait a few months longer than most, courtesy of a shipping error that resulted in my copy of it sitting in a warehouse for an extended time. Now that I have it in my possession, I do not think it was entirely worth the wait.
Like almost all gamemaster screen packages this one came shrinkwrapped, and as I took off the protective wrapper I was excited as I realized the exterior of the package was in fact just a one-sided slick wrap. I thought perhaps that with this piece of paper devoted to art on the front and ad copy on the back the actual Narrator's Screen would be a two-sided affair, with relevant charts on both sides of the screen, for ease of reference for both player and Narrator. Sadly, this was not the case, as the side that will be facing the players in the course of a game depicts an expanded view of the Enterprise picture that graces the slick wrap.
Still, despite being one-sided, the charts on the Narrator Screen are very useful during the course of play. Decipher has perhaps all of the charts that will be called upon most frequently during the course of play. Phaser ratings, weapons values, test modifiers and result charts, action listings, and more are all covered in the four panels. The layout is well done, and even includes a few of the more nitpicky things that most Star Trek RPG fans I know tend to ignore during the course of play, such as fatigue level and obstacle movement modifier charts.
Also included with the screen are eight full-color character sheets. They are printed on a higher-grade, slicky paper, which pencil doesn't seem to show up on as easily as normal paper. They sheets are very nice looking, and given the amount of detail that can make up a character in Star Trek, it's very helpful to have an official character sheet. I know that I was appreciative of the presence of the sheets, since I don't have easy access to a photocopier, and printing off a copy of a character sheet from the online downloadables that Decipher has can really put a dent in the ink of a printer.
Finally, a 16-page booklet is also included with the screen. I have to admit I was very intrigued by this when I first opened the package, as none of the information I had read previously about the Narrator's Screen indicated a booklet was to be included. Given the wait for new Star Trek books I wondered what could be in this 16-page manual. New alien race write-ups? Stats for more of the characters from the various television programs? Perhaps a hint of when more stuff will be released for the Star Trek game?
No, none of those things were in the booklet, most likely because that would be cool.
The first two pages are some notes on skill tests and some charts that may have been included here because they ran out of room on the Narrator's screen. The third page is a reprint of the listing of all the skills from the Player's Guide, and the fourth page has some charts on recognition rolls for Renown (which aren't that helpful, since they don't have the text description from the Narrator's Guide), and a listing of alien species movement by size rating; I've got no idea why it was thought it would be helpful for Narrators to have this last chart here.
The next four pages are various charts relating to starship combat. I have to admit that as I play more Star Trek I find the starship rules to be more cumbersome than I first thought. Whenever a space battle occurs in my game I find myself having to reference the Narrator's Guide back and forth to make sure I'm running things correctly. These charts by themselves do nothing for me, since they have none of the related text from the Narrator's Guide. If you've memorized the majority of the starship combat rules, and just have trouble with the various charts, this will probably help you. Otherwise these four pages really are not going to help speed up your game.
The last eight pages of the book are a complete waste. In the Narrator's Guide Decipher introduced special sheets where a Narrator could write down an outline for the campaign he wanted to run, stats for NPCs, rough outlines for planets, etc. In other words, they provided sheets for information that could easily be put on scrap paper or notebook paper. Well, now you have eight pages of those forms to use in your game, as they fill out the last half of the booklet. I suppose if I was a die-hard Star Trek fan I'd be overjoyed by this, but as it was I was disappointed.
So, do I recommend the Star Trek Narrator's Screen? If you haven't already made copies of the charts you most reference, or if you have need of some character sheets, I'd say pick it up. Otherwise I'd save your money for the next Star Trek supplement Decipher comes out with.
