After seeing the ratings of my first Prism, I began to wonder if what I wee doing was even worth the trouble. Don obvioualy feels that my column is performing a need within the hobby, though to a selective audience. Don has strong feelings concerning the extremely low ratings, which he has expressed in his "Line of Communications," but he has not taken the raters to task as much as either of us would have liked. For this reason, I wish to take a few paragraphs to document the philosophy of and the purpose behind the Prism as I envision it.

First, the column seeks to review, in brief, current releases in role playing games and their playing aides, with a possible overflow into SF games. Two problems immediately occur:

1) the space allotted me does not dictate a comprehensive review or view of all games, creating a time-delay between actual release and exposure in Campaign and

2) problem one is compounded by the fact that Prism reaches an audience seemingly dominated by World War Two fanatics. Both of theae combine to give generally negative pre-judgements.

The solution seems to be that Prism should be dumped, yet...

Second, Prism relieves the review load from "Thumbnail Analysis," (which already suffers dreatically from problem one above) thereby giving Don the opportunity to expose the reading public to more of the games it seems to be after.

Third, my feature examines the games solely as games. Although I am an avid boardgamer, role player, and miniaturist, I concentrate on none of theae. I play games because I enjoy them, and in reviewing, look primarily for playability and utility. I would just as sit down to play NFL Strategy as I would my favorite, Panzer Leader. Fourth, I will rarely review a game unless I've played it, or a playing aid unless I've used it (something few thumbnail analyzers can honestly claim); and I will invariably let the reader know if my judgements are unfounded due to a lack of experience (aa I did with last issue's review of Wizard).

Therefore, fifth, I seek to review with the consumer in mind regardless of how the sales will be affected, in spite of whether or not the publisher of Campaign is seeing the merchandise. I try to give a ratianale for an intelligent purchase, and if I think a game is a rip-off, I will say so. I've been criticised for not coming out strongly enough in this light, so I hereby resolve to let no doubt be entertained in the future, as with Starships and Spacemen. Granted, I am sticking my neck out--it makes for a much better target ....

Prism Reviews

Introduction
Space Patrol
Dragons
The Book of Shamans
The Book of Treasure
Spacefarers Guide to Planets: Sector One