[MonkeyShine77]

    These are the 2 splat books I have yet to squire. Is there a gernerL consensus as to which is more useful?  I have also been eying the gm screen as well. Would that be a good investment or would I be better off getting a digital copy of the core book and copying and pasting charts and tables on my own?

[Dinendae]

    These are the 2 splat books I have yet to squire. Is there a gernerL consensus as to which is more useful?  I have also been eying the gm screen as well. Would that be a good investment or would I be better off getting a digital copy of the core book and copying and pasting charts and tables on my own?

That's actually a highly subjective question. If your character is a decker, then Data Trails of course. If your character doesn't deck, but does use augmentations, then Chrome Flesh. If your party is composed of all non-augmented magical types, then Data Trails would probably be more useful, if only for the information on the Matrix. So, the question is, what do you need more: More augmentations, or more matrix?

As to the GM screen, I cannot comment on that since I do not own it. Someone else who does will have to help you there. Sorry!

[DeathStrobe]

I personally feel Data Trails is not a good book. It has a very short page count, not a lot of crunch, and doesn't add anything, other than playable AI rules. Which is pretty cool if you want to play an AI. But I feel really let down by the modding rules, expanded host rules, and lack of cost for NPC things (specifically hosts and wireless negating paint) as I feel its important that the PCs and NPCs are playing by the same rules to a degree.

Chrome Flesh is pretty good though. A lot of new toys in the -ware space and some interesting advance medical rules. I also enjoyed how it advanced the metaplot, but many people aren't so appreciative.

[tytalan]

I agree with DeathStrobe about Chrome Flesh can’t say I agree one way or another about Data Trail I have not gotten to dig into it yet.  If you’re a player you really have no need to get the screen.  The other two books depends on what you play I will say that Chrome Flesh adds more than a couple new character types if you dig into it.  Infiltrator being one off the top of my head but it truly depends on what you play.