Pyramid Review: Buffy The Vampire Slayer Director's Screen

Pyramid Review

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game Director's Screen

Published by Eden Studios

Written by Paul Chapman

Edited by M. Alexander Jurkat

Additional Writing by M. Alexander Jurkat

Art Direction and Layout by George Vasilakos

Interior Illustration by Ginger Kubic

4-panel screen with full color photos, 56-page black and white booklet; $20.00

Gamemaster screens are something of a ritual for game companies. Usually it's the first release following the main rulebook, and for Eden Studios Inc.'s Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game, readers would ask for no less than a ritual. In some ways Eden's Director's Screen benefits from this custom, and in some ways it doesn't.

The screen itself is fine, but there's not much gushing to be done about it. It's a four-panel affair and it stands up solidly, but the material used to make it could have been slightly heavier stock. Instead of folding it end over end so it forms a semi-circle when opened, they've gone for an accordion arrangement -- better for keeping it from falling over toward the players, but harder to keep the sides from pulling together toward the center and revealing all your secrets. The semi-circle is more of a jagged line, so hopefully the gaming table is fairly tapered at the GM's end.

It's always a conundrum what to put on the players' side of the screen -- occasionally someone puts a few player-oriented tables there -- but the producers have gone the graphic route. Photo . . .

This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.



Article publication date: December 13, 2002

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