Skip to main content

A Week Away

Image
By
I've taken a week's break from The Embassy now, for a couple of reasons.


What a week, though.  In that time, the UK has almost shut down due to Coronavirus and my job role has changed to cope with it.  Still, I'm proud to announce I am now classed as a "key worker" so my kids can still go to school.  I'm open to adopt your kids if that helps.  I have cupboard space for sleeping.  They're especially welcome if they can make bread and don't need toilet paper.

That isn't why I was away, though.  I've been working on my new Dip zine PERFIDIOUS and PERF#1 is out now.  It was actually out last weekend but then I buggered it up by being an idiot.  Oh well.

And, if you're vigilant, you'll have noticed the name change.  It was originally and unimaginatively called "The Embassy Journal".  Is PERFIDIOUS better?  Oh yes.  If you want to subscribe to, send me an email.

I have three subscribers already... which is infinitely more subscribers than The Embassy as I'm writing.

So, with my work on PERF#1 complete, I can get on with the blog for a couple of weeks.  The problem is I'm struggling to think of what topics to write on.

It isn't that I can't think of anything, but that I'm trying to get hold of something interesting to me right now.

I've been listening to the Diplomacy Games podcast and a couple of ideas came into my head (this is an additional reason I haven't been blogging much - I started listening to the podcast a couple of Fridays ago and just kept listening to other episodes throughout the week while travelling to work.

I could go back to some of the earlier posts where I said something like "more on this later" and pick up one of those subjects, but I'm really wanting to look at something new for now.

So I've some ideas:

  • Dip Variants is something I'd like to write eventually but I really only know the variants I've played, which isn't many.  I'm a vanilla Dip man.
  • Key Spaces is another, looking at non-SC spaces that have a key part to play in the game, such as the English Channel, the Black Sea and Burgundy.
  • Diplomacy Ethics, looking at the etiquette around playing Dip.
  • Issues facing online Diplomacy and how to deal with them.
I am, therefore, going to do a little digging and come up with something to start working on tomorrow.

I know, your breath is baited.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

What do you think?

Popular posts from this blog

WHAT IS DIPLOMACY? - Part 5: Variants

By
A variant is a game of Diplomacy where the rules or context are different from the standard game as designed by Allan B Calhamer.  There are three types of variants: context variants, map variants and rules variants. Context Variants Context variants are those games that are played with a wider context.  They may be tournament games, other scored games, or remote format  games.  These aren't often recognised as variants as such, as variants tend to be within the other two types discussed below.  But the context the game is being played in will have an impact on how some players will play the game, and so they are certainly a variation of Dip. Maybe they should be called "variations" rather than variants but does it really matter? Map Variants Diplomacy has been adapted to different maps, or boards.  Not surprising as the general idea of the game, pitting competing powers against each other in a localised region and time in history, can be adapte...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tournament Scoring - Part 3: Draw Size Scoring (DSS)

By
If we're looking to score Diplomacy games based on the rules of the game, there are just three outcomes: a win, a draw, and a loss.  A scoring system based on these outcomes would therefore be based on whether the game was won, or whether it ended in a draw.  These systems are called Draw Size Scoring systems (DSS). The basic model for DSS systems is: The result is based on how the game ends only. If you win the game outright (solo), you take all the points in the game. If you are part of the draw at the end of the game, you receive the points avaialble in the game divided by the number of players in the draw. If you lose the game, you receive 0 (zero) points. The most basic version of this is the Calhamer Point system, designed by the great and good ABC himself.  If you soloed, you earned a point.  If you drew the game, you scored a number of points based on how many people you drew with.  So a 4-way draw would provide 0.25 points, a 5-way draw 0....
Post a Comment
Read more

Tournament Scoring - Part 2: What should a good scoring system do?

By
As I mentioned in the first post in this series , if you're playing in a tournament, you're playing a variant of Diplomacy.  This must be kept in mind when we're evaluating scoring systems.  The games are already variants so having them scored just means the variant aspect is increased. However, the scoring system should change the nature of the game as minimally as possible.  Ideally, even in the context of the variant you are playing - whether that variant is that the game is part of a tournament only, or whether it's being played online - the scoring system should try to meet the objectives of Diplomacy, not alter them. Objectives of Diplomacy The objective of the game is to win.  This means owning 18 SCs. If the game is unlikely to end in a solo victory, then the surviving players can end the game in a draw.  This means that players should be looking to survive in most cases, and certainly to be in a position to be part of the draw. Draws Inc...
Post a Comment
Read more