Diplomacy (looking for players)

Recreation Sports
41

[quote=“Sinister Tiddlywinks”]I downloaded the Realpolitik. It’s awesome!

Can’t we post the map on one of those free websites? Then put a link to it in a Diplomacy thread here in Forumosa? Spymac offers free blogs…

I’d prefer to keep as much as possible here on Forumosa, so I can do my diplomatizing, then check out the Learning Chinese section and check out some other threads with some sinister tea and cake…[/quote]
Yeah, even better. We could use one of the free blogging places and do it there. There’s a number of ways we could do it. www.blogger.com is where I setup my blog so I’m familiar with that.

Just let me know what you guys think is the best way to go about it.

42

Okay. I have randomly assigned countries. Moves are due every Thursday morning by 9 am (I picked Thursday as it is the only morning I don’t have Aikido class, sorry). We will be using North American adjustments. Press is Black. Underlined moves are failed. Votes for wins and draws must be unaminous. The GM’s name is, of course, Gandalf, and the name of this game is THE SHIRE2004NA

SPRING MOVES ARE DUE THURSDAY, SEPT. 16.

A few hints for the FNGs.

1.) Talk to everybody. Even though you may be across the board from someone, soon you may be their neighbor. It is a good way to trade info and spread lies.

2.) Do your homework on basic moves and alliances. That will give you some sort of foundation to play upon.

3.) Make sure that every piece is doing something.

4.) Keep your knife sharp and your eyes open.

5.) I cannot discuss strategy with you but if you have a question about the rules then please feel free to contact me.

6.) Spring for position, Fall for dots.

7.) Do not NMR (No Moves Received)

8.) Know where the stalemate lines are.

The players and their countries are:

Miltown Kid: France
Bu Lai En: Italy
Tetsuo: Germany
Sinister T: Russia
Chairman Roberto: Austria
Tempo Gain: Turkey
Stragbasher: England

Funny thing, we already have some Press :wink:

Press

Fra-Eng: I’m gonna swim over there, slap your face, and make you my bitch.
Ger-Fra, Eng: Mein wiener?
Ita-Tur: Beware of the White Queen.
Aus-All: “Get out of the car and put your hands on your head. This little joy ride is over.”
Eng-All: No jokes about cabin boys. We in the Queen’s Royal Navy happen to take them very seriously.
Tur-All: We can’t we all just be friends.
Gandalf-All: Have fun gentlemen.

43

I have a ton of unused webspace and bandwidth. If you need to you can host the pics there and just link to them from … here?

44

Sure thing. I guess a new thread could get started and the pictures put in there. Whatever’s clever (as an old friend always said).

Sinister T: Russia
I knew it. He wanted to be USSR last time and we made it random and he got Russia. I told him he’d get it again.

45

What’s this, DB?

46

I would also like to keep all the diploming here on Forumosa. Much easier for me.

So first moves are due day after tomorrow. That’s fast.

I don’t think Stragbasher even knows how to play yet.

Brian

47

What’s this, DB?[/quote]

North American adjustments are when you see your gains and losses and then adjust (builds, disbands, retreats). There is another way where you have to list all possible options in advance. I thought NA might be the way to go as we have some beginning players. I personally prefer Predictative Adjustments.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

48

I would also like to keep all the diploming here on Forumosa. Much easier for me.

So first moves are due day after tomorrow. That’s fast.

I don’t think Stragbasher even knows how to play yet.

Brian[/quote]

It is already Sept. 14? Christ, where has the time gone?

My apologies I thought it was the 8th. :blush: The new deadline is:

Thursday, Sept. 23

49

Two things:

One. I’m not interested in using PM’s for communication. The PM system wasn’t built for something like this and it would just get my old PM’s deleted. Plus, you could end up having 20+ emails back and forth in one week of diplomacizing (I just made my own estimate). I’d much rather use an email account (my gmail account to be specific). That way I’ll be able to keep a record of all the communications throughout the whole game. The PM box only holds 50 or 100 messages I think (that’ll get filled fast).

B) What is Black press? Do we each get to make up one headline per week? Can we make as many as we like? Can we make fake headlines? How does that work?

and 4) I’d rather use a blog or something similar for posting the results and map. And I have my reasons:
It would prevent other people from posting in the thread and keep it public.
It would look a lot nicer.
If we used a www.hello.com combination it would be really easy to update.
and a blog (or similar) would keep a nice clean archive (with dates and an optional search engine).

I don’t mind if we just make a thread, I’m just voicing me opinion. I WOULD rather use email then PM’s though. PM’s sound nice, but they’d piss me off after a while. Getting a pop-up every day. My MSN messenger alerting me every time I get a PM. I usually only get one PM every week or 2.

Well there you have it.

50

Well, I’d prefer people to contact me through PMs. I check Forumosa much mroe regularly than e-mail. Similarly for results. It’s a Forumosa game, let’s keep it on Forumosa. But if other players want to use e-mail, why not? Just my preference.

I’m about ready to start diploming.

Brian

51

Everyone should look at this:
realpolitik.sourceforge.net/Orders_Format.html

If we all (or just DB) learn how to correctly use these orders the moves could just be copied and pasted into the realpolitik program. I think it would make things easier. Also, even though it’s not until next thursday everyone should be expecting contact from me in the next few days. I’ll PM you my email address (which I’ll preffer using, but will also use PM’s if you choose) and my diplomatic strategies.

Here’s a PDF of the 2000 edition rule book. It’s only 24 pages, I suggest printing them out. I skimmed through them and they look a lot nicer then the 1843 edition we looked at at game club last week (OK, not really 1843, but they’re older). Plus this one has pictures to show different situations.
wizards.com/avalonhill/rules/diplomacy.pdf

So it looks like we’ll use a combination of email and PM’s (which is cool by me). About the blog thing. If you guys decide to do it in the forums I’ll just make a blog for myself :raspberry: (I’m all pro blog now because I just started one, that’s all)
More blog pro’s:
The most recent post will be at the top of the page instead of the bottom.
Each week’s moves will have space for comments that won’t interfere with the flow of the posts.

52

I got the PDF already.

I’m up to using either PM’s or gmail. Gmail is actually really good for this since it has ‘email threads’. I could just star 6 different threads for the six different players. Or 5 players and PM Bu Lai En.

Would it be possible to put something similar to the old ‘zhongwen.com’ forum on our blog. That way, we could put up ‘black press’ under any pseudonym we choose, without disclosing who we are…

Aw… the 28th? I was all ready to go… The first Spring move is actually the easiest since there’s no conflict really… but I guess we should ‘diplomatize’ beforehand

(I found ‘diplomatize’ in one dictionary…and in ONE dictionary only…)

53

I had to look up the press thing, but it was pretty much what I thought it was. Here’s what I found:

[quote=“Diplomacy A-Z”][url=http://badpets.net/Diplomacy/AtoZ/P.html#Press]A phenomenon of the postal game (though not entirely unknown in face-to-face play, courtesy of blackboards and the like), press consists of “open letter” statements, usually no more than a line or two from one player to another, which are included in the game report. Press may be used to influence or discuss the game, tell jokes or stories, start arguments (“Press Wars”) and generally entertain if the game itself gets boring. Contributions may also come from the GM and outsiders.

The limits and style of press permitted may depend on the Games Master, who has to type it up, but there are traditionally four types of press. The first, “White Press”, is the sort to be seen on almost any game report. The second, “Grey Press” involves one player issuing fake press supposedly originating from someone else (for example, Turkey issues this item: “Germany-England: Attack Russia next turn as planned”). However in games using Grey press there will be a reserved dateline for each country which no-on else may use. Often the suffix “(Govt)”, short for “Government”, is reserved so that press labeled “France(Govt)-England” must have been written by France. “Black Press” involves impersonation of the GM, including fake deadlines, and (usually) fake changes of address for other players. There are no reserved datelines in Black Press games! Finally, there is the “Press Saga”, which may have little or nothing to do with the game or its players, which may consist of very, very long submissions, and usually tells a story (of sorts) in episodes with each game report. Whether or not the GM publishes the entire saga unedited will invariably depend on his house rules…and how much time he/she has.

A press game is one where the players are selected for their press writing skills. Restrictions on the amount of room available for press in a zine and on the time that the GM has to retype it do not apply to email games! See Black Press, Grey Press and Joke Orders.[/url][/quote]

I don’t know what the old forums were like on zhongwen.com, but with blogger anonymous comments can be made. So if I read the above correctly, we could have submitted press that gets posted with the results and we could use the comments section of the blog to make anonymous or fake press (just sign it with someone else’s name).

I hope this answers your question.

54

either pm’s or mail are fine by me. anyone wants my mail, just pm me. God is great.

don’t worry, he’ll learn quick, hehehe.

55

I think gmail looks a lot like the forums on zhongwen.com used to look. Except the forums on zhongwen.com would expend to the right. Like this:

Topic
__response
_____response to the response
_____________a response to the response of the response
_____________2nd response to the response of the response
________________________response to the 2nd response of the …
New Topic

Except without the lines. Posters use/change names at their discretion…

56

Just saved the pdf and will print to read tomorrow. Easy day, Wednesday, and I have another week in any case. Right? Sounds like we’ll need that long to agree the logistics.

I’d rather use email than PMs. I like MKs blog idea in case we find our thread getting full up with advice from the likes of that yeti. No reason we can’t have the thread running as well, for comments from the great unwashed masses.

OK, just read the rules. Straightforward enough, it’s just all the thinking and scheming I’ll have to struggle with. You’re all gonna die, when I get the hang of it - and Berlin will be mine! Mwahahaha!

57

Just PM’d eveyone my email address, without any explanation at all. I talk too much usually, so this time I’m letting people figure out what I’m doing.

58

This will known be as mistake #1. :wink:

59

Stragbasher is going to do just fine. :laughing:

Black Press means that you may post Press using any of the other players Titles. Press is submitted the same time as moves and it is included with the results.

How you folks want to contact each other and where to post the results is up to you but I do want to post the results and Press here on Forumosa in the hope that it will attract new players.

If this game goes well, perhaps we can also run a Gunboat game.

60

I set up a subdomain diplomacy.AngloChineseCentre.com in case you tech whizzes need somewhere to hang pictures. I believe I can authorise someone to access it directly, but I don’t know how. Or you can email them to me, but be warned that I couldn’t post them until late on Thursday or early Friday morning.

I know it’s a bit cheeky, but if there was a sub-forum for this game there could be a new thread every week with the graphic as the first posting. Restricted posting rights? It basically would fulfil the same function as a blog, but be at forumosa.

Or, alternatively, a thread that only DB can post to for the results, with a link to a blog/thread somewhere.

Actually, why do we need a blog anyway? The diploming is all done behind closed doors, innit?