Cool. I might try this out.

PBEM is Diplomacy "play by e-mail". there are 7 players AND a GM. The players turn their orders into the GM via email each turn by the deadline and the GM 'adjudicates' and sends back the map. The maps are posted on the dp website.

you can use independent apps such as RealPolitik or diplo to try different moves etc, I'll let others explain where to find those apps and how useful they are for those of you who dont have the real board game at home or have not memorized all the rules/map.

meanwhile, the dp community is one of the best pre-web online communities so this could serve as a great way for you to be introduced to some of the older players, try something new and, it is my hope, talk to others and be ambassadors for webdiplomacy so you can tell others about where YOU play.

particularly for some of you with higher Ghost Ratings who want some good competition - this tournament might provide you with a chance to measure your skills against some other players than those you are used to.

I have not decided if I want to play or not.

the deadlines seem to be 48 hrs for the movement phases and 24 hours for retreats/build phases - so one game year each 7 days...

Some advice: 1- Make sure you check your email every day and send in "preliminary" orders even if you think you'll log in later to send in your 'final' orders. 2- There is no such thing as PPSC, these people only play WTA, thats the only 'real' diplomacy they know. 3- Make sure you tell the GM before the game starts that you are used to the order submission from this site. the "real" diplomacy (FTF) order writing is a bit different and if you've only played diplomacy here, you might both confuse the GM and send in mistaken orders... 4- remember, if you write a mistaken order, it will not be 'fixed' for you. so if you forget things or give illegal orders, your units will hold.

If any of you sign up, please tell the rest of us - I'd be very curious to know how our players do in their tournament.

grrrr... sorry.

dp = dc = diplomaticcorp

also - google Diplo and Realpolitik for the apps I was talking about.

Also, there are cash prizes!

And yeah, when I played FTF the first time, entering orders was one of the hardest things. I didn't know any of the official acronyms and I always entered my support moves "backwards" cause that's how it's done here. It was a mess. And, it only took one try to realize that I had no hope of ever properly adjudicating everyone's orders in a timely fashion.

wow - I'm genuinely surprised that there is so little interest here...

Abge, I am sure you will enjoy it, specially with the GM. I am often surprised by how few people on this site have actually played FTF or even online before logging in here. even some of the best players... I think its an experience everyone should strive to have, just so they can compare with an open mind.

and yes... there are actual CASH prizes for participation.

I'm interested but I'm having trouble signing up for the site. I'm just about to email the admin.

I tried getting on but it nevers send the validation email. Yes, I've looked in my spam folders.

I am in. It looks like a small community. It seems so archaic compared to this site tho.

Draug; same issue I had. I guess it was an issue with *their* spam filters; try again now.

Since it is human run, it does allow for more map and time variants.

I got an email that they were having trouble and to try again. I'll try from home tonight.

I signed up.

Glad to see there is more interest. Their site may seem archaeic to some of you young gunz, but 10 short years ago, PBEM was the cutting edge of Diplomacy gaming. In fact, diplomatic corp with its fancy shmancy automated numbering and online maps was the rolls royce of Dipping even 5 years ago.

All that said, I've been thinking about something... beyond the cash prize they are offering, I was considering offering my own personal cash prize to the websiplomacy.net player who can achieve the highest ranking in their winter blitz tournament (pending permisson from their folks... and assuming its legal).

I have to flesh this idea out a bit I think still. Maybe open only to those who opened an acct here before nov2010 oooorrrr, eligability requires you to have completed 5 or 10 games on this site before the end of the wb tourney...try to entice their players to try us out while our players try them out.


Dunno, still mulling this idea.

@groza - glad you got that fixed up.

@Trustme - It is smaller than here... maybe one tenth the size of active players - BUT like you said, there are some advantages... many many many variants, some very cool. Having a GM is a unique experience, specially a good GM who keeps the game vibrant. and there is a lot of experience there too so a lot to learn. The biggest difference I would say is the diplomacy. the email format almost forces you to have more substantive and lengthy exchanges but less frequently.

@Draugnar - glad to see you are interested in it too... I dont remember - did you play Diplomacy before webdip? I think you and I had this conversation at some point but I dont exactly recall


so I emailed their guys to ask about offering a prize for the 'best performing webdip player'. will let you guys know what he says.

I'm thinking I'll do this... $50 if there are at least 10 webdippers signed up. $100 if 20+ of us sign up. I can either use paypal to pay or give it to a 3rd party to actually pay out when the tourney is done but thats a minor detail.

I wonder if any of the top25 GR-rated players on this site would take on this challenge...

In too many games right now, but it could be a possibility. I have two problems with PBEM though: those guys send reams of press, and I just can't think of that much to say! and I miss having a map and press interface all integrated into one.

@Babak - Yes, I come from the PBeM Judges, so the more traditional "F Bla-Con" and "A Ank SM F Bla-Con" are the orders I'm used to.

@Pete - JDip can handle both quite well.

I'm in

Looked at their rules . . . apparently, they don't use a standard set of abbreviations. I would have thought that nth-nor is unambiguously north sea - norway, but they say that nor could mean norway or norwegian sea?

What is this JDip thing?

@Draug - very cool. I played a few games on the Judges but never got into it. I started back in the Cat23 days and before FBdip and webdip, I played for a year on diplocorp... I still am in ACD too, so once in a blue moon I'll do a pbem game.

@peter - no way buddy. Nor can mean any of the following: NORth Sea, NORwegian Sea, NORway, or NORth Africa. the appropriate abbreviations in order are: Nth; Nwg: Nwy; NAf.

another problematic one is Tyr... TYRolia, and TYRhenian sea... so Tyl and TyS are the correct abbreviations.

but in my experience - the abbreviations that result in the most errors after NOR are Rum/Bul. for some reason a lot of people mix those two up.

Glad to see there is more interest. Their site may seem archaeic to some of you young gunz, but 10 short years ago, PBEM was the cutting edge of Diplomacy gaming. In fact, diplomatic corp with its fancy shmancy automated numbering and online maps was the rolls royce of Dipping even 5 years ago.

All that said, I've been thinking about something... beyond the cash prize they are offering, I was considering offering my own personal cash prize to the websiplomacy.net player who can achieve the highest ranking in their winter blitz tournament (pending permisson from their folks... and assuming its legal).

I have to flesh this idea out a bit I think still. Maybe open only to those who opened an acct here before nov2010 oooorrrr, eligability requires you to have completed 5 or 10 games on this site before the end of the wb tourney...try to entice their players to try us out while our players try them out.


Dunno, still mulling this idea.

@Babak,

I must be used to the abbreviations Bounced allows. There, nor always means nor, and tyr always means tyrolia. North sea is nth, north africa is naf, north atlantic is nao, norwegian sea is nwg, and tyrhenian sea is tys.

Woah, Babak, was something just changed in the Matrix?

I too thought those abbrevs on the Judges were the standard. Then I got nailed at a FTF tourney for writing "nor"

@Babak

How is communication during retreats/builds handled?

As far as abbreviations: when it doubt spell it out.

Joined

@abge - didnt get your matrix comment =( as for comm during retreats/builds, I think its not disallowed, but generally not conducted. but ask the tournament officials or your GM once one is assigned.

@ peter... hmm.... did not know about bounced, and I never used Judges regularly. I mosly played PBEM at Cat23, then at wc, and then the FTF group we had in DC. I thought the nwy=norway abbreviation was from the actual rulebook.

ivo - nice! hmmmm.... if I sign up I guess we might meet on the game board again huh?

bump

@Babak

In The Matrix, when the computer changes something in the world, people experience deja vu. You made the same post 1 day apart, so it wasn't an accidental double post. I was wondering if that was a sign we were in the Matrix.

Actually, it was only 10 hours apart, not even half a day.

My point still stands.

Yeah, it was far enough apart, but could still have been an accident if reposted by refreshing a cell phone page while the other posts came from another computer.

Everyone go to the roster and make certain you confirm your participation in at least round one.

And bonus points to anyone who figures out who I am. And no, I'm not "Draugnar."

Draugnar is right... my smart phone is not so smart sometimes... so it reloads the page and reposts the last comment.

Bump

Draug, have you not signed up for this yet?

Already signed up. But I used a different nickname.

Bump