This article originally appeared in d20 Weekly
A Tale of Two GM's Screens
d20 Call of Cthulhu Gamemaster's Pack
Published by Chaosium Inc.
Created by Aaron Rosenberg and Dustin Wright
Additional Text and Information by Wolf Baur, Dale Donovan, John Gonzalez, and James Lowder
Illustrations by Brian England, Paul Carrick, Earl Geier, and Pegasus Spiele
three-panel screen, 56-page booklet, 16-page document booklet, four bookmarks; $19.95
Spycraft Game Control Screen and Agent Record Sheet Pack
Published by Alderac Entertainment Group
Created by Patrick Kapera and Kevin Wilson
three-panel screen & 32-page b&w booklet; $19.95
Spycraft and d20 Call of Cthulhu are both high-quality, eagerly anticipated d20 System projects that came out at roughly the same time. Yet they are also quite dissimilar, with the high-action pulp espionage world of Spycraft starkly contrasting with the dark investigative world of Lovecraftian lurking horrors in d20 Call of Cthulhu.
So why, then, would both products be listed within the same review? Because both products came out with their GM screens at roughly the same time . . . and, like the games themselves, they are a study in contrasts.
From the moment it's opened, the d20 Call of Cthulhu Gamemaster's Pack reveals itself to be chock-full of goodies. First and most obvious is the three-panel screen. Unlike many traditional GM screens which consists of three (or four) 8-1/2" × 11" panels, this one consists of one central 8-1/2" × 11" panel surrounded by two panels that are shorter (approximately 6-3/4" by 11"). . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: September 18, 2002
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