The second playtest appears to be full.

It looks like we have 1 playtest set up and need just one more player for the 2nd playtest. If interested, please email me at zendip18AToptonlineDOTnet or message me. I will be advertising on multiple platforms.

I have created a new variant, Unconstitutional, which is a 5 player variant set in eastern North America in the early 19th Century. The scenario is that the United States of America never ratified the Constitution, and the country is falling apart. Powers are New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, South ...

The map has been further revised and I believe is close to being ready for a playtest. In addition to various cosmetic changes, Pennsylvania and Virginia have each been given a 4th Supply Center and unit, and the unit in New York City has been switched from an army to a fleet. The new draft can be v...

Poker players tend to be more skilled because there is money involved. Sometimes VERY LARGE amounts of money. There are no professional Dippers.

As long as it is short of a stalemate line, teccles! I made the Western Confederacy more defensively oriented and removed the Chickasaw Supply Center. In the previous draft they were a looming threat. If they want to skulk around in a defensive crouch at 5 dots, the game will likely be decided witho...

Dejan0707, I also prefer maps with a good amount of fleet action, but I am working under geographic/period constraints here. I stretched things a bit to add Haiti and included several navigable rivers (most notably the Mississippi and its tributaries) in order to increase the usefulness of fleets, b...

A revised draft, based upon comments received, is at the link above. Comments are still welcome.

This makes me so sad.

Thank you. As I have mentioned in another platform, Britain and Spain are way too big for these fragments of the United States to be tangling with. The New Orleans access problem is definiitely something I will be working on.

Thank you. I will be working on the relative stremgths of the Pennsylvania and New York positions and their geographical relationship.

I am looking for comments and criticism for Unconstitutional, a variant in development. This is a much smaller variant than my last few, at 5 Powers and 29 Supply Centers in total. It is also more dense, being almost exactly as dense as Standard Diplomacy, so, unlike Dawn of the Enlightenment, there...

There were occasional gunboat and anonymous games, but they were fairly rare. The fact that Cat23 was all human-adjudicated (unless the GM wanted to use adjudication software) meant that we tried out tons of funky variants. Since it was PBEM, you are right, the games tended to be slower paced.

All the young dudes: on the early nineties, category 23 on Genie was for Diplomacy. History as told in 97 can be found here - http://uk.diplom.org/pouch/Zine/F1997R/Glasson/Cat23.html One of the larger Dip communities for well over a decade; it operated throughout its existence without any scoring ...

Oh, Cat23, I miss you so!

SimplSimon, you have a good mindset for this game.

Not something I am much interested in! From Standard to 1900 on down, the period and subject matter has practically been done to death. I generally go for periods and subject matter which is not so well covered.

@David, yes i realize you were talking about variants. I'm just saying that if Calhamer had asked for your advice then Classic dip would have had 31 sc's, while i'm glad it has 34 :-) Or maybe 37 SCs. Also Switzerland would have been passable, Venice wouldn't have bordered Trieste and there would h...

Gimix, that comment was made specifically in reference to variant design. In Standard Dip a "natural" 2 way draw, as opposed to an 2 way draw agreed upon by allies, is a pretty rare occurrence. The various recent comments illustrate the unfortunate distortions to the game encouraged by scoring syste...

Prince William, that is absolutely not true in my case. Though I do prefer to play against the most skilled opponents available, it is a pleasure to play against anyone who tries their damnedest to win. And as I have previously mentioned, the best Diplomacy players lose regularly to average or even ...