Comments | macmoyer: RIP, Quad MasterScreen

macmoyer

RIP, Quad MasterScreen

Apr 06, 2007 00:31

In June 2003, I ordered a Quad MasterScreen from Warehouse 23. It was a product of Citizen Games... which is, near as I can tell, defunct now. The Quad Masterscreen seemed to be available for a very short time, and I'm very glad I bought one when it was.
It was a four-panel screen, with two pockets, one inner and one outer, on each panel. I used ( Read more... )

Comments 4

pjack April 6 2007, 09:21:10 UTC

There's one for sale at Bridgetown Hobbies and Games in Portland. If I had only known you needed one...

macmoyer April 6 2007, 23:34:39 UTC

They had a Quad MasterScreen? Or they had PEG's customizable screen?

pjack April 7 2007, 03:51:48 UTC

It didn't look like the PEG screen you have pictured. It was a four-panel silver-colored fold-out screen with a total of eight pockets (4 inner, 4 outer). It was tall, not landscape.

I considered buying it, then I realized that I'm no longer interested in playing games that require hiding dice rolls. And if I want to prop up artwork or helpful tables for people to look at, I could just buy some plastic stands. (In fact, I have an old plastic music stand in storage somewhere. I'm going to have to dig that out.)

The purpose of screens macmoyer April 15 2007, 21:18:40 UTC

Interesting comment. I've rarely considered hiding dice rolls to be the primary use of a screen. I've always thought of the tables-and-charts to be the primary function.
Here's a list of functions that I think a screen provides:

Display tables and charts on one or both sides.
Hide information (dice rolls, story information, character stats, etc.) from players.
Display artwork appropriate to the game.

The last one is almost always unique to commercial screens, but I've often tried to display something appropriate on my custom screens to the players.
I think my platonic ideal of an RPG is one that doesn't depend on tables and charts, but in practice I usually run games (Werewolf, Serenity, Star Wars) that do have some dependence on tables and charts. So this is still a very desirable function to me.
Curiously, I think something as dull and overlooked as a GM screen has, as you hinted, a huge amount to say about the roles of secrecy and suprise in RPGs. In one of Paul Tevis' recent podcast, he commented about coming to appreciate the role ( ... )