Judge Dredd GM's Screen & Counters Set

Last Friday was a very happy day for me. It was the day when I received my Kickstarter bundle from EN Publishing for the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000AD RPG rulebook, the Judge Dredd: Robot Wars supplement, Judge Dredd GM's Screen and Judge Dredd Counters Set. I have been eagerly awaiting this rulebook ever since I first heard it being announced over a year ago. I shall review the rulebook in my next post and the Robot Wars supplement after that. In this post I'm going to take a closer look at the other two products, starting with the Judge Dredd GM's Screen. I'd seen photos of it before, but when I actually held it in my hands I was blown away by the high quality of it. It is by far, the best Games Master's Screen I have ever seen. It is such a beautiful product. What I was not expecting was just how thick and sturdy it is. It is made of very thick card, which gives it real heft. Facing the players in the centre of the screen is a two page picture of Judge Dredd being flanked by two other Judges, all on Lawmaster bikes. Beautifully painted by Brian Bolland it is also the image used as the front cover of the rulebook. To the left of the screen is a table listing various crimes and their sentences - a very useful aid for players with little or no knowledge of the Law. On the right side of the screen are all the stats you need for the Judge's Lawmaster Bike and Lawgiver Pistol. On the reverse side are an assortment of useful tables for the GM. From left to right are the Character Creation rules; next up are stats for a selection of melee weapons, ranged weapons, equipment quality and what some of the character's Attributes mean; these are followed by a page with tables for Skill ranks and their meaning, Difficulty scores for tasks, Derived Statistics and their associated Skills, Dice Pools and a list of NPCs and where to find them in the rulebook; finally is a long list of encounters for Judges on patrol, listing the Perps, the Crime and the Location. Obviously, the screen can't list every table in the rulebook, but it does cover the ones that will most commonly be used  by both players and GMs. I can't recommend it too highly if you want to run a game of Judge Dredd.

Less useful is the Card Counters Set. I got them simply because I'm a completist but I can't see me using them much, if at all. The majority of the thick card counters (only printed on one side) are 25mm in diameter. Some of the larger NPCs like the Heavy Metal Kids and Octopus Guard are 50mm in diameter and the counters for the Lawmaster Bikes are rectangular in shape, measuring 25mm by 50mm. There are 54 different counters, some of which are singular and others with multiple identical counters. They are designed to be used with the main scenario from the rulebook and the Robot Wars supplement. I have such a vast collection of 28-32mm scale Judge Dredd figures that I simply have no use for them but if you're just starting out on running a Judge Dredd scenario or campaign then these will come in very useful, especially as there are currently no companies producing figures for Judge Dredd. Warlord Games own the licence to produce them and will be making them in the future but I have no idea when that will happen. It is unlikely to be this year. Sadly, there is no counter for Judge Dredd himself - definitely an oversight in my opinion.