Please join our Diplomacy game!

[Reveilled]

First off, I am aware that this is in the wrong forum, but it would seem that a lot fewer people read Pen-and-Paper Gaming than read Way Off-Topic, so we're looking for players. As such, I'd like to request that if a moderator feels some sort of action is needed with this thread, that they either give me the benefit of the doubt, or close it so that people here can still read it, even if they have to go into our thread on PnP to discuss it.

 

Okay. Basically, there is an old boardgame called Diplomacy, which is set in Europe at the start of the 20th century, with each player playing as one of the Great Powers of the time. The object of the game is to control more than half of Europe through the maniplulation of the other players into doing what you want them to do. For instance, playing as England, you might negotiate an alliance with France against Germany, while simultaneously organising an alliance with Germany versus France, so that one attacks the other and you can pick them off as you like.

 

Sound fun? I hope so! The way the game would probably work (though we can make other arrangements if most of the players prefer) is that once a week, you would send the gamemaster (which will probably be me) your orders for your units, which are all resolved and revealed to the other players simultaneously. For the rest of the week, the players would email each other to negotiate treaties, alliances, and plan operations, and at the end of the week on the basis of those negotiations, you'd send in your next set of orders.

 

If you're interested, here are the rules, here is a map, and here is our thread in pen and paper, where we would love you to join our game.

 

We now have all our players, so we're more or less ready to go!

 

Players:

Metadigital

EnderWiggin

Baley

Kaftan

Archmonarch

Jaguars4ever

Aishur

[Reveilled]

Well, we have another player, but we really need four more. Don't worry if you've never even heard of the game before now, that won't be a problem. The game itself, despite the seemingly large number of rules is really quite simple, and it'd be lots and lots of fun.

 

I'm sure plenty of you would be perfect for our game, if only you'd join. Please? Pleeeeeeeeeease?

[Baley]

I'd love to play

 

I never get a chance to play this kind of games in real life so why not?

 

I'll see what I can learn about it....

[Kaftan Barlast]

I might want to play as log as I dont have to play some pansy power like the Ottomanian empire.

[Reveilled]

I might want to play as log as I dont have to play some pansy power like the Ottomanian empire.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Actually, the Ottomans are pretty good, having the advantage of being a corner power. But the way selection would work is that everyone would send in a list of the powers in order of preference, so if you put the Ottomans at the bottom, you'd probably not get them.

 

Here is a page with strategies that may help you decide on what powers you wish to play

 

So, can I count both you and Baley in as players? That would leave only two.

[Baley]

Yeah I'm pretty much in...

 

Unless something horrible happens in the next few days...

 

 

BTW:When do we start?

 

And how do we choose our countries?

[Reveilled]

Yeah I'm pretty much in...

 

Unless something horrible happens in the next few days...

 

 

BTW:When do we start?

 

And how do we choose our countries?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

We'll start when we get two more players.

 

The way you choose your countries is to email me (preferably after we get the other two players, at which point I'll post my email address) a list of your preferred countries, so it might read:

 

1. England

2. France

3. Germany

4. Austria

5. Russia

6. Italy

7. Turkey

 

So, if only you picked England as a first choice, you'd be England. If two players picked England, I'd flip a coin, the winner would get england and the loser their second choice, and so on until all positions are filled.

[Baley]

I would like to add that Romania could have kicked Italian ass "

 

Austria?

 

Wasn't it the Austro-Hungarian Empire?

[Reveilled]

I would like to add that Romania could have kicked Italian ass "

 

Austria?

 

Wasn't it the Austro-Hungarian Empire?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yes, but it was also The Ottoman Empire and Great Britain. But in the game, they're referred to as I listed them. Alas, such is life.

[Baley]

Yeah I saw those too...

 

How long does a game take anyway?

[Reveilled]

Yeah I saw those too...

 

How long does a game take anyway?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well, it depends how long it takes for someone to win. At the rate of a turn a week, that means one game year every month if we also take a week for builds and adjustments, or less if we don't. A few months, then, I think. In a face to face game, it would last a few hours, but we don't have that luxury, what with living in different countries and all.

[Baley]

Sounds good to me...

[Kaftan Barlast]

Can I charge Baley with my light brigade? )

[Reveilled]

Can I charge Baley with my light brigade? )

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

If you wish, though getting an English Army to Sevastopol might be quite a challenge.

[Baley]

Could this game be played via messenger?

[metadigital]

Could this game be played via messenger?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Barring incompatible timezones, I don't see why not; we would need a central conversation with everyone in (a meeting or whatever the parlance is) and an individual converastion window with each player, each; for eight players that would be eight windows.

 

W'd all have to use an agreed technology.

 

We'd have to agree on a scheduled time to start and finish according to a schedule, otherwise it'll be difficult for all of us to manage (and if the timezones cause problems, it might be too difficult).

[jaguars4ever]

*steps forth the Lord of the Jaguars*

 

:cool:

[Reveilled]

In theory, we could do it with an instant messenger, but in practice, a hybrid of both an IM and email might work better if that is what you wanted to do. It would be far easier at least on my part if move orders were emailed to me rather than IMed, as in any case it takes time for me to adjudicate moves. Plus, if we were all online simultaneously, players might find it stessful attempting to talk to six people individually at once as well as talking in a general conversation. That could lead to someone accidentally writing their suggestion to stab another player in the wrong person's conversation, which wouldn't be very nice.

 

What could work is this: People will Email me their moves, and I post the results of the moves, along with a map of the current positions in a thread here on the forum, as well as emailing them to all players. Further, any anonymous press* can be emailed to me, which I will post and email out. Named press can be posted on the forums. Since all players will have each other's email adresses, they can, in addition to emailing each other organise chats of their own in order to negotiate plans, or to make public announcements in the presence of everyone.

The use of an IM could greatly speed up the pace of the game, allowing us to play a turn every few days instead of weeks. However, much like playing speed chess, that would mean you'd have less time to negotiate with everyone about each move. Compared to Postal Diplomacy, which has a rate of up to a turn a month, a turn a week is already breakneck speed. But you are the players, I'm just the GM. How you wish to play this game is your choice.

 

*Press is what generally substitutes for the tabletop conversation after a move in face-to-face diplomacy. At least in the game we will be playing (unless players are uncomfortable with this idea), press can be named or anonymous. Basically, you can use your nation's press (through an email to all parties or a post on the forums) to make statements, announce knowledge of an enemy's plan against you, announce a formal alliance between you and another player, etc. etc. You can use the press in Geneva or Washington (through an email to me the contents of which I will post on the forum and in an email to all parties minus any identification) to announce something like captured enemy plans. For instance, if you as England discovered a plan by Russia to stab her alliance partner, Turkey, you could leak the information to the Washington Post, in the hopes of preventing Russia from acting on the now public plans. On the other hand, maybe Russia had no such plans, and you made them up in order to trick Turkey into a pre-emptive strike against her faithful ally.

[Reveilled]

*steps forth the Lord of the Jaguars*

 

:cool:

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Should I interpret that as a "Count me in"?

[jaguars4ever]

I'm having *serious* problems trying to access your rules link, reveilled. You don't happen to have an alternate link?

[Reveilled]

I'm having *serious* problems trying to access your rules link, reveilled. You don't happen to have an alternate link?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's a .pdf file, maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe you could try using "save target as"?

[jaguars4ever]

Thanks. It worked. Ready. Let's go. :D

[Reveilled]

Just one more person required, and then we'll be ready to kick things off.

[metadigital]

In theory, we could do it with an instant messenger, but in practice, a hybrid of both an IM and email might work better if that is what you wanted to do.  It would be far easier at least on my part if move orders were emailed to me rather than IMed, as in any case it takes time for me to adjudicate moves.  Plus, if we were all online simultaneously, players might find it stessful attempting to talk to six people individually at once as well as talking in a general conversation.  That could lead to someone accidentally writing their suggestion to stab another player in the wrong person's conversation, which wouldn't be very nice.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

:D That's one of the risks of the game "

What could work is this: People will Email me their moves, and I post the results of the moves, along with a map of the current positions in a thread here on the forum, as well as emailing them to all players.  Further, any anonymous press* can be emailed to me, which I will post and email out.  Named press can be posted on the forums.  Since all players will have each other's email adresses, they can, in addition to emailing each other organise chats of their own in order to negotiate plans, or to make public announcements in the presence of everyone.

The use of an IM could greatly speed up the pace of the game, allowing us to play a turn every few days instead of weeks.  However, much like playing speed chess, that would mean you'd have less time to negotiate with everyone about each move.  Compared to Postal Diplomacy, which has a rate of up to a turn a month, a turn a week is already breakneck speed.  But you are the players, I'm just the GM.  How you wish to play this game is your choice.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

We could also run a thread here, where every Friday night (say) we conduct a turn or two on the boards ...

[Reveilled]

One of the problems with doing it on a forum is that everyone can see your negotiations with each other, unless you use PMs. What might be a very good idea is that we set the deadline for weekly moves for midday on a Friday, so I can resolve the moves and create the new map (there might actually be some software to do this) and then on friday evening, we can do adjustments and/or builds (depending on the game season), allowing us to get the short seasons done in a night, allowing more time for movement turns.

 

Right now, though, what i need is sleep. Gute Nacht.