#RPGaDay2024 - Day 26 - Superb Screen

Day 26 of #RPGaDay2024 brings us a relic of the pre-online era, "Superb Screen".   Game Master Screens used to be chock full of charts and data, nowadays they're more fancy barriers to hide notes, maybe minis, but certainly not dice before "everything is out in the open."

Let's talk three screens that light my fire, and one that may be totally useless.  

Gamma World 1st (2nd?) Edition Referee's Screen:  I've lost the adventure that was inside it, it's holding together for dear life, but for roughly 35 years, this has been my go-to screen for everything NOT D&D.

Part of the great TSR inventory dump that arrived at Kay-Bee Toys in the 90s, I picked up this bad boy for no more than 99-cents.  The best thing about a sturdy shield?  A few print-outs, some paper clips (or binder clips later on), and this screen can be used for ANYTHING.  In the current Gamma World game, I have pulled this out for random mutations, weapons, and other miscellany, just to keeps things on thier toes.

Call of Cthulhu 6th Edition Keeper's Screen: The last screen I purchased and used pre-pandemic.  It has the classic charts that 1st-6th Edition Cthulhu players would enjoy:  The resistance table, random insanity table, plus a few, often forgotten combat barriers.  Plus it's half the height double the heft and has a great full-screen picture of investigators just waiting to get into trouble. 

Hackmaster 4th Editon GameMaster's Shield:  One of the finest products in human civilization, the Hackmaster GM Screen isn't just a QUAD-fold screen,  not only the inside pages flip up and over to reveal combat charts, the critical hit table, and alternate art for the front, but four bi-fold pages along the inside "spine" covering everything from xp, saving throws, random NPC generation, alignment graphs, honor calculations, and dungeon dressing.  This could find a use in any game that's fine with a GM screen.  

Finally the most recent screen I purchased is also my biggest regret.  Anyone who visits a well-stocked FLGS know that Wizards has licensed a ton of products, and today they have a series of Dungeon Master Screens for most, if not all of the D&D Campaign books.  As I happen to have an interest in the 5e Saltmarsh campaign, and money burning a hole in my pocket, I regretfully purchased a copy.  

I don't know anyone who’s used Gale Force Nine's  Dungeons & Dragons of Ships and The Sea DM Screen.  But I don't know who actually got value out of the product.  For a physical barrier it works as a but there's zero additional useful data included.