APPENDIX ONE: WHAT ARE THE BEST DIPLOMACY VARIANTS?
We reprint answers given by some prominent variant fans.
(a) GLENN OVERBY'S 10.5 BEST VARIANTS
((Originally appeared in ZINE of LISTS 1981. Comments inside (())
are by Fred C. Davis Jnr who added them when he reprinted part
of this list in BUSHWACKER VOL XI #1 (January 1982). ))
1. MERCATOR (Doug Wakefield) ``It's interesting
to note that Wakefield acknowledges this game's ancestry --- sort
of a cross between Abstraction's fluidity and Youngstown's size.
This British design has surpassed both of its `parents' --- no
doubt due to seven years of continuous development by its designer
and a cast of thousands.''
2. SONG OF THE NIGHT (Lewis Pulsipher) ``This incredibly
complex variant is the best design of one of the hobby's top designers.
No other fantasy variant covers the substance of the field's literature
as well--and no other fantasy variant maintains Song's balance.''
((It may be too difficult for some people.))
3. ABSTRACTION II (Fred C. Davis Jnr) ``Richard
Sharp, in his book _The Game of Diplomacy_, called Abstraction
the one variant which might be better than the original. Italy's
chances have been brought up to equal with the others', without
unbalancing the game elsewhere. Also, the Army/Fleet 'piggyback
convoy' rules were the first of their kind, setting the standard
that many have followed.''
4. YOUNGSTOWN ((I suspect that it is the game's great popularity
that earns it this rating. There is no great spark of originality
here... In North America we normally play mark IV; in the UK they
play VI. Another version adds the Transvaal in Africa as a Great
power, and there is also a global variant known as XII which has
12 powers including the USA.)) ``This has been the most popular
variant ever designed, adding India, China and Japan to the original
7 powers. This was one of the first `large' variants. Its only
major difficulty is lack of fluidity in the midgame--large-scale
slugfests are the order of the day, and large draws are not uncommon.''
5. ATLANTICA (Fred C. Davis Jnr) ``The Davis Army/Fleet
module gets its greatest test in this alternate history game set
in pseudo-1870. The map is centered on the Atlantic Ocean, making
combined land/sea operations the normal way of doing things. Extremely
fluid--later versions addressed an initial play-balance problem.''
6. SEISMIC DIPLOMACY (Pierre Lavaurs) ``Many variants
have been designed around shifting the geography of the game map--and
most are unmitigated garbage. This French design is the happy
exception--a delightful strategic and tactical exercise, and based
on the regular board. The rules are short and clear, and free
from fatal ambiguity, even in translation. It's prone to GM error,
though.''
7. GRAND TOURNAMENT DIPLOMACY (Drew McGee) ``The
internal politics are what differentiates this variant frorm almost
all the others, as more than one player has a say in each country's
government and a player may be involved with more than one country.
Defections, insurrections, formation of new Great Powers and election
of heads of government all play their part. The only real problem
is finding 22 to play.
8. HOLOCAUST (Steve McLendon) ``Another global design,
noted primarily for its excellent play-balance.'' ((The amazing
thing is that Steve designed this while I was designing SMALL
WORLD. Neither of us knew of the other's existence, and both were
printed within weeks of each other without the other's knowledge
(SW may have come out something like four weeks earlier), and
they are virtually twins! (SW has 8 powers; Holocaust 9, with
a few more SCs)... They avoid the stalemate lines found in Youngstown.
My only suggestion to Steve was that his name is a misnomer. This
HOLOCAUST has nothing to do with either the Third Reich or atomic
annihilation. These designs show how great minds (ahem) solve
similar problems in the same way.))
9. DOWNFALL OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS (Hartley Patterson)
``At one time, variants based on J.R.R. Tolkien's classic
trilogy were very popular in the hobby. This is the best of the
lot.''
10. JIMMU (Michael Mills) ``Mike Mill's reputation
as a designer is for exotic designs, and this game set in feudal
Japan is no exception. One of the few successful variants that
is _smaller_ than regular Dip (just 28 centers on the amp). The
blue water spaces, which can be occupied by any number of anyone's
fleets, make the game very fluid and unpredictable, and place
a premium on constant negotiation.
10.5 WOOLWORTH DIPLOMACY (Glenn Overby) ``I consider
this game to be my best design to date. Five players control 10
powers (the regular 7 plus Spain, Scandinavia, and Balkans)--each
controls one power publically and _another in secret_. (This ``5
and 10'' feature is where the name comes from.) The play takes
on heavy psychological overtones in the early going, as players
try to figure the lay of the land. Surprises, as one might figure
with secret powers in play, are commonplace.''
(b) FRED DAVIS' PERSONAL LIST OF MOST ENJOYABLE AND MOST PLAYABLE
VARIANTS
((Reprinted from Bushwacker Vol XI:I, January 1982.))
((All comments by Fred C. Davis Jnr.))
None of these games contain any extremely difficult concepts.
If you know the basic rules for Diplomacy, you can play any of
these games with no trouble, provided you read the rules (and
keep them handy). I also think these variants are enjoyable. The
maps are good, and the stalemate lines are few and far between.
Except for Mercator, none has over 55 SCs, and most have less
then 50. (As a rule of thumb, the larger a game, the less likelihood
that it will be played to completion.)
All except Woolworth can be played FTF, although I think that
Mercator is too big to do so.
1. ABSTRACTION II (Fred Davis) -- 7 players, Europe extended. 46 centers.
2. MERCATOR (Doug Wakefield) -- 13 players (varies from 5 to 24 in other scenarios, but most cater for either 13 or 14). Global, very large number of SCs.
3. ATLANTICA IIR/III (Fred Davis) -- 7 players, 3 in North America and 4 in Europe with play centering on the Atlantic Ocean. 47 or 48 centers.
4. HOLOCAUST (Steve McLendon) -- 9 players, 55 SCs, Global. SMALL WORLD IIR (Fred Davis) -- 7 or 8 players, 48 SCs, Global. (These two are nearly twins.)
5. DUAL SPACE (Fred Davis) -- 7 players, Europe extended, several sea spaces overlap, giving fleets greater mobility. (Another version, called `Overlapping Spaces', has been designed by Martin Janta-Polcyznski.)
6. WOOLWORTH II-A (Glen Overby) -- 5 players, but 10 Powers, five of which operate secretly on a map of Europe. 39 centers.
7. MIDDLE EARTH VIII (Lewis Pulsipher) -- 7 players, Tolkien variant. One of the better balanced ones. Double and triple armies.
8. DIADOCHI, IMPERATOR I, TRIUMVERATE (Dick Vedder) --- 3 games played on essentially the same map, which is basically a map of the Roman Empire. 5 or 7 players, some Double centers. Imperator rules don't work, but others are excellent.
9. CLINE 9-MAN (Robert Cline et al) --- 9 players, Europe extended to include Barbary States and Persia.
10. ABERRATION III (Rod Walker) -- 9 players in
Europe, using completely different Powers. 54 centers. You can
build in any center you own.
Apologies for including so many of my own designs, but I do know
them better than many of the others. To quote an old Russian proverb,
``When you die, the man who blows your horn is buried with you.''
(c) VARIATION'S ON A THEME: By Pete Sullivan.
((Reprinted from C'Est Magnifique 55, July 1988.))
In the January 1982 issue of Bushwacker, Fred C. Davis
Jnr. published a list of his `top ten' Diplomacy variants. This
list was later picked up by Andrew Poole, who published the rules
for all ten of Fred's choices (with the exception of Mercator)
as the UKVB Variant Package II.
Inevitably, however, Fred's choices don't all gel with me; I suspect
every variant fan's choices would be different. Not that that's
going to stop me inflicting my top ten on you all. My own tastes
tend towards variants with one simply key concept, or to `silly'
variants. So, in no particular order (apart from alphabetical):
ABSTRACTION II (Fred C. Davis Jnr). Quite possible
the best-designed variant of all time. The basic scenario is
the same --- World War One Europe, seven Great Powers ---- but
the redesigned map and the Davis Army/Fleet rules (which allow
fleets to carry armies `piggy-back', for several turns if required)
mean that you have a much more `open' game, and a better balanced
one than with Regular Diplomacy. The winter Frozen Regions rule
is a right bind when you forget about it(as I did), and as for
the exchange of provinces rule, has anyone ever used this in an
actual game?
ATLANTICA III (Fred C. Davis Jnr). Map centred on
the Atlantic Ocean, which means that Army/Fleet rules are a must.
Noticeable for its assumptions that the South won the Civil War.
with both the United States and the Confederate States as Great
Powers. But what makes the game for me are the rules for `discovering'
Atlantic (an additional neutral supply centre) in one of the six
possible locations in the middle of the Atlantic. A game I'd like
to see tried again in the British postal hobby.
CHAOS II (Michael Feron). All of us have our dark
secrets. Yes, I was the man who introduced Martin Lewis to Chaos
II. I was in temporary charge of the Variant Bank between rescuing
it from Geoff Kemp and handing it on to Steve Doubleday. Martin
asked if I knew any interesting variants, and I told him about
this one reasoning that if any zine could get 34 players for a
game _Vienna_ could. The rest, as they say, is history. For the
uniniated, this game starts each player off with one supply centre
(and hence one unit) on the regular board. There is also provision
for nominating home supply centres and joint wins.
DELUGE (Tim Sharrock). Once again, a simple enough
concept --- Europe gradually floods every year until only Switzerland
remains above ground by 1908. The winner is the only player with
a unit left at the end. It features the inevitable Army/Fleet
rules, as well as allowing units to convert from Armies to Fleets
under certain conditions. As the board gets increasingly flooded,
this can be very useful! A very paranoid game at the end, as often
a player will have to decide who to throw the game to. Andrew
Poole has produced a series of maps showing the state of the board
at the end of each year, which is a very useful player (and GM!)
aid.
DOWNFALL X (Richard Egan and Martin Lewis).
In the beginning, there was Hartley Patterson who designed a Tolkien
variant called `Downfall of the Lord of the Rings and the Return
of the King'. There were a couple of other versions, but it was
not until the Viennamob hit the hobby that Downfall re-designing
became the `in' thing for all hip and dudey variant fans. This
tenth version is probably one of the best, if only because it
has the potential for solving the inbuilt imbalance of ay Tolkien
scenario. It uses different `victory points' for each power, which
can be fine-tuned in the light of further games. It also features
somewhat less of the atmospheric but fiddly `chrome' which afflicted
`Definitive' Downfall and Downfall IX.
RATHER SILLY DIPLOMACY II1/2 (Jeremy Maiden, Dave Thorby
and Peter Sullivan). Ghod, do I really want my name associated
with the likes of Maiden and Thorby? It is the considered opinion
of such hobby luminaries as Richard Walkerdine and Conrad von
Metzke that this variant is unplayable (or, to me more accurate,
un-gmable). This despite the fact that Brian Creese has a run
a game to conclusion, and mine and several others' games are well
on their way. The trick is, when you find a rule which makes things
awkward to gm, you use gm fiat to remove it and replace it with
an even sillier (but easier to run) rule. It also helps if you
have players who don't really understand what's going on (or
in extreme cases have never seen the rules) as this means they're
very unlikely to protest about gming errors.
SACRED RHINOCEROS II (Michael Liesnard). Spotted
by yours truely in the darker recesses of the UK Variant Bank,
but not ever played in Britain. The idea is that each player
has an allied African tribe. These each have one `tribal symbol'
unit (a `Sacred Rhinocerous') in Africa which supplies an additional
native Army for use in Europe. (Africa is totally separate from
the ordinary board.) If a tribal symbol is dislodged and disbanded
by the other tribes' symbols, then `the Sacred Rhinocerous has
lost his Horn' and the associated army in Europe is destroyed.
A nice `minimal change' variant with scope for unusual play.
SLIGHTLY DEMIURGIC DIPLOMACY I (Nick Kinzett). A.K.A
Revenge of the Master Rulechanger. Quite simply, a game in which
the players can vote to change the rules. Each turn, each player
proposes a rule change. These are then voted upon, and any that
are passed by a majority vote become Rules of the Game until further
altered or rescinded. A great deal of scope for mixing up rules
from other variants, or just getting plain silly. Nick has yet
to respond to my suggestion that we should do the voting by proper
multi-member Single Transferable Vote...
VAIN RATS (Richard Sharp and Steve Doubleday). So
called because it's a mixture of variants. Each player has one
(or, in most versions, two) special powers chosen from a list
at the start. These vary from version to version, but normally
include things like Petrol Rationing (allows multiple moves),
Evil Eye (may re-order another player's unit), Leper (can give
`leprosy' to units it meets, killing them), Double Armies and
so on. Usually won by the player who chooses the best special
powers at the start and makes the best use of them.
WOOLWORTH II-D (Glen Overby and Fred C. Davis Jnr).
Ten Great Powers (Regular plus Spain, Scandinavia and the Balkans)
but only five players. Each player controls one `public' power
and one `private' power, which gives lots of scope for double-dealing
as well as the problem of how closely to co-ordinate your two
powers (too much and you'll give the game away!). An increasingly
popular variant over the past few years, and rightly so. The name
arises becauses when the Woolworth stores were originally founded
in the USA. all their goods were sold at either 5c or 10c.
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