Diplomacy in General
What is Diplomacy?
An excellent description is at
Wikipedia, but a short description is that Diplomacy is a seven player board game featuring the dynamics of the real politik diplomacy amongst the Great Powers of Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The game can be played in person in real time (FTF - face to face) or via chat links, or by mail (PBM/PBEM - play by mail/play by email).
(Note: Diplomacy is probably most famous as the board game made famous by Avalon Hill. When people reference “original Diplomacy” you may see it refered to as “Avalon Hill’s Diplomacy”, “AH Diplomacy” or “Calhamer's Diplomacy”.)
The game has an abstract combat system with units of Armies and Fleets. The game is turn based where in each turn players negotiate with each other, then movement orders are submitted and simultaneously resolved. Whereas the tactics of manipulation of the armed forces and control of territory, including key territory (SC - Supply Centers) are very important, the essence of the game is the negotiation. Players may do or say anything - lie, misrepresent themselves, insinuate things that may not really be occurring, etc. Then, the movement resolution will reveal what the players really did. A victory requires cooperation amongst the players, so alliances are created and dissolved as the game proceeds.
Alliances often dissolve unexpectedly and catastrophically, universally known as a "stab". The game is played until either one player controls over 1/2 of the Supply Centers, or by mutual agreement by the players to award the victory to a player or alliance of players, or to call the game a draw. Diplomacy is easy to modify, and there are countless mods (variants is the word in the Diplomacy community).
On-line rules available from
Hasbro.
What is Paradox’s Diplomacy?
Paradox has acquired the license for Diplomacy and announced their production of their own version of the classic game.
Official Announcement .
Paradox has not described their version of the game in total, but have released some details to
Game Spot. We will update the FAQ whenever Paradox releases more details. Be sure to check back here often for updates and exciting announcements.
What is PBEM Diplomacy?
Since Diplomacy is turn based, it is readily adaptable to email play. Generally, a game will be organized with a games master (GM), seven players (for the straight game), and a set of house rules. Turns may be daily, weekly, or whatever. The players negotiate by email, unless the GM prohibits that, as there are a number of variations on communications rules. Before the move deadline, the players send their orders to the GM or a Judge program (an automatic move adjudicator). The GM or Judge emails the results to the players for the next turn.
What are these “variants” that are mentioned?
(From the Diplomacy Archive)
Diplomacy basically consists of a simple set of rules for adjudicating moves and a map on which to play. However, by changing either or both of these basic elements, fans have also created Diplomacy variants. The most common variants use the original rules of Diplomacy, but play on a map from a different time or place. A variant can be as simple as the Fleet_Rome variant, which merely changes the army in Rome at the game's start to a fleet, or extremely complex like those set in Tolkein's Middle Earth with special units, unusual maps, and new rules and added game elements. A
short introduction to Diplomacy variants can be found at the Variant Bank.
Since Diplomacy was first published, a number of commercially made variants have appeared, e.g. Machiavelli (originally published by Battleline Publications and later Avalon Hill) and Colonial Diplomacy (Avalon Hill).
The
Variant Bank catalogues over 1350 known Diplomacy variants and has the rules for over 400 available online (and growing). The Diplomatic Pouch's variants
page has rules for and articles for a smaller number of variants, but it does include brief descriptions of the variants it lists.
The Variant Bank has
descriptions for many variants. This collection of variant descriptions can be found at
Variants A to Z file. It is also available by
ftp.
One of the beauties of Diplomacy is how easily its framework can be extended and manipulated without losing the core essence. Thus many players enjoy playing standard games along with a variety of new variants to combine the classic game with new twists and changes of pace.
(Note: Thank you for the many selections of variants you have sent. As the Variant Bank has most every one suggested, we have not attempted to create our own list. However, if you know of a widely used variant not listed in the Variant Bank, please bring it to our attention.)