Tuesday, 19 December 2006
GM Toolkit Review
I picked up the Game Master's Toolkit (GMTk) last week for WFRP.
The GMTk is a very good retooling of the earlier Game Master's Pack (GMP). The GMTk has a much more useful screen that its ancestor and includes a robust "random encounter" booklet for the many environs of the Empire.
Game Masters Pack
The GMP had a rather flimsy screen, which disappointed me right off the bat. "Back in the day" GM screens were made of a sturdy board typically forming a triptych of tables and charts. Black Industries really can't mess up this formula, if only for the materials used. But BI expands the triptych form by one, making a polyptych, or four paneled, screen.
The GMP provided a broad mix of needed charts for the GM, so I welcomed it. But it also provided a few charts that a GM was not likely to use often, and tables I would have preferred to have were absent. The immediate chart I wished for in my first session was the critical hits/sudden death chart. Instead a full panel was dedicated to the chaos manifestations. I like the manifestations, but I don't inflict my players with them, well, not very often at least. The player's face was nicely appointed with color art and a rather cryptic passage from an uncited tome about the withering of man and world to Chaos (ominous blather to be sure).
Game Master's Toolkit
The GMTk exceeds the benchmark set by the GMP, in quality, if nothing else. The included random encounters and gaming aid booklet is excellent for a GM familiarizing himself with the grim and perilous world of the Empire. The screen follows the polyptych form of the GMP, but in a portrait orientation. The charts are better thought out. Gone are the chaos manifestations, and a greater selection of combat oriented tables make their debut (even the sudden death chart I missed in the GMP). The talents and skills charts are marked with the page number from the core rulebook. If two charts are missing on the GMTk, that were on the GMP, they are the Hit Location and Combat Summary charts. The former I guess not necessary, and the latter had better be somewhat rote, so I'm not complaining that much. Yet, the random race name tables, occupying nearly a third of one panel, seem out of place.
The player's side is nicely appointed with a two panel color map of the Empire "to help your players keep their bearings." I really like this feature over the expanded core rulebook cover art from the GMP screen.
Unfortunately, it appears that BI will be discontinuing the GMP in favor of the GMTk. This means the short adventure Pretty Things may be lost, as well as the good material on common buildings of the Empire, or the material on villages (layout, buildings, inhabitants, etc.). If you have the 1st. edition rulebook (as I do) then you have all of this (save the adventure). But such possessions are a real rarity. I've included links to the GMP below, the supplemental material might be worth having if it is lost when BI discontinues the product.
And with that, the bottomline is, if you are running WFRP, the GMTk is a fine aid for new and experienced GMs.
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