RE-EVALUATION In the last issue, I "waned ineloquently" on the virtues or lack thereof of the new trend to full color illustrated rules books packaged in boxes, etc. I was responding to a chord struck in me by Phil Barker's lament on "rules padded out with color photos and pretty boxes As happens, more often than I care to admit, my mouth (pen, typewriter, computer?) ran away with with me and my message was lost in my rhetoric. This was brought home to me by the largest number of letters The Courier has ever received about a subject - including its stand on Fantasy/Science fiction gaming subjects being printed in these pages - a selection of them will be found in the Dispatches From The Field column on page 63 of this issue. These letters brought home to me that my "throw away" comments in answer to a letter to the editor was being construed as an attack on individuals (Arty Conliffe, Frank Chadwick, Rich Hasenauer, Todd Fisher of Emporer's Headquarters, Scott Bowden, and Dave Waxtel of Quantum Printing, Johnson Hood of Wargames, Bob Boyle of Greenfield Distributors) all of whom I consider as among my best friends both in and out of the hobby. I was frankly appalled at how my response could have been misconstrued - but on a second reading I saw how it didn't take much misconstruing. I apologise to all who I hurt by these ill-considered remarks. None of the above named, while trying to make an honest profit, are out to rip off the hobbyist. they are all miniature Historical gamers themselves. For instance Dave Waxtel or Quantum Printing is offering a free consultation service to anyone who wants to publish a set of rules or a reference book. The culprits may be those who print cheaply produced rule books with zeroxed photos and sell them for $18. 1 have seen a few of these around lately. I wanted to express my fear that the trend to expensive color and boxing was raising the cost to historical gamers to meet the needs ofother parts of the gaming market and perhaps limiting the new rules sets that were made available because of the inflation necessary in publication cost to meet the color competition. Without exception everyone I spoke to or who wrote in expressed an appreciation for the new color and professional presentation of these publications. They all felt inspired by the photos of beautifully painted figures that many now used as painting guides. The major surprise to me was that all were convinced that these new publications were furthering the hobby out of all proportion to their cost. Many used them to get non-gamers interested. The professional production values stood up against any other hobby and were no longer an embarrassment. OK! The bandwagon door is still open, and The Courier is jumping on. We will review these new publications as honestly as we can (as we have always done) remembering that the most important thing is the rules themselves - that the production values are important but secondary to the value of the publication. While all these respondents rightfully took me to task on the color issue, many agreed that they would like to see every effort made to keep the cost down by not including non-essentials i.e. are dice necessary in a rules set geared to miniatures gamers? Can not a gamer who builds his own terrain and buildings be trusted to come up with movement and order chips following directions in the rules and thus save the cost of die-cut color movement chits? If we do away with these, are color boxes necessary? Let's at least try to give the buyer the biggest bang for his buck! FANTASY/SCIENCE FICTION GAMING AT HISTORICAL CONVENTIONS Many convention organizers felt that my comments in last issue's editorial discriminated against their small regional conventions. They are held in areas where the Historical Gaming population is not large enough to support a reasonably sized convention so they open their doors to all areas of gaming. I have no argument with them. Holding a convention where Historical gaming gets at least equal billing and space is what's important. I am talking about the large Historical Conventions and was trying to point out the futility of the argument that putting Fantasy/Science Fiction games on at Major Historical Conventions will draw Fantasy/Science Fiction gamers to the convention to be converted. That will not work. Rather the energy should be put into putting on Historical games at Fantasy/Science Fiction cons. Back to Table of Contents -- Courier #58 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1992 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com