Can skirts be used to seduce others into alliances?

The important thing is to play like you do online. If it is negotiating then just talk how you would online and if it is gunboat then signal alliances then stab them to death!

Only if you shave your legs.

And if you're playing the runner up at Dixiecon 2010, and want to avoid getting taken out for being an ftf noob...

Ava, the trick is to think you are the best and play like it.

don´t expect too much, make a standard opening, at the beginnig promise everything (belgium, sweden...), and the most important calm down if feelings of anger show up or the thrill at the beginning is overwhelming. play as if you have nothing to lose and be friendly to everybody even the "bad" ones. surviving in an ftf game is much harder, because alliances chance very quickly. have fun ava :-)

I think I would do badly in the opening round of negotiations and very well after. See in gunboat, the opening round doesn't matter and everything after does!

Watch the other players as much as possible. Who is talking to whom? Who do they talk to first? Who goes off together without obviously arranging to talk? Find out in advance if the GM will allow players to order the units of others. Be clear about correct format of orders in case "errors" are possible ;-).

Also, Don't let the expression on your face EVER show anything that is true. If you just formed an alliance, look unhappy and mad.

There are lots of potential tricks around "errors" in orders, "failing" to get them in on time, and so on. Be on the lookout for these.

Make sure that you are very clear on whole area of order writing:
- what happens with bad handwriting
- what abbreviations are accepted
- must seasons & years be indicated
- can you replace orders; if so, do put in prelim orders
- must replacement orders be for all units
- how must replacement orders be marked

You don't want to make a mistake and you might want to make a "mistake".

If you are at risk of being double crossed, try to hand your orders in together. Watch for sleight of hand.

I think FtF is the best way to play Diplomacy. If you have kids who are interested in playing, offer to GM a game for them & their friends. It is hilarious watching newbies realise that their best mate has just stabbed them.

Above all, have fun.

I've played a few FtF games before, with friends. Perhaps the biggest difference is your time to respond and think about actions. On this site you've got the time to think about your messages, and you can fool people that way. Now you're facing real people with little time to think. Imagine a Western Triple who not only move on the board together, but drink and chat together...

For a first game, just bear in mind that everyone knows who you are talking to, so make sure you chat with everyone all the time. Look for other players talking to each other.

And regarding facial expressions etc, just be natural and calm all the way through. Displays of emotion mean your more likely to get "found out" etc.

Ava - all great suggestions above... I'm going to list a few I think are the most important differences between online and ftf:

1) time: you only have 12-15 minutes to talk to six other players. and you have to move around, its not like clicking a tab. so make sure your conversations are useful AND that you leave yourself time to think... you need to be quick.

2) writing orders. make sure you know the correct 3 letter abbreviations for all the provinces. never write 'Nor' for example - that will NOT fly. and explain to all this is your first ftf game and ask them to give you a little extra leniency if possible because you WILL make mistakes. also remember, orders for support are VERY different than on here...
here we write: <unit> supports <unit> TO x FROM y.
but in ftf you have to write: <unit> supports <unit> FROM x TO y.

3) in my experience, alliances change FAR more often in FTF games than here. in fact, in many tournaments, if you stay allied with one player to the end, this will be a point of ridicule NOT accomplishment. people might have different takes, but usually, good stabs are expected and awarded and "game-long" alliances are frowned upon. BUT being a known 'liar' will get you stabbed quickly ;)

enjoy ftf - it really is THE most fun way to play the game ;)

@killer - remind me to play you at poker some time...

@ava - ignore killer. Always have the basic same expression whether you are happy with a new alliance/devious plot, or pissed at some stab or refused alliance. Ghots is right about just keeping a clam demeanor. It's no different than poker. Only a fish tries to convince others with his expression of what he is feeling and everyone can tell when it is faked. I've taken down more guys pretending to be strong because the intentionally stared me down when I was looking for clues so I knew they were actually weak.

And be prepared to bold face lie if necessary, but use a lie of omission as often as possible instead of outright lying.

good point Draugnar...

outright blatant lies are far more common in FtF games than on here. for sure.

Just like in a poker game you have the advantage of being ables to see your opponents non-verbal "tells". You may also use emotion much more readily to get someone on your side. If the game allows it talking over someone who is trying to put forth a plan so that they get flustered and confused is a good tactic. Spying is completely okay, (or at least always was for us). Don't let it interfere with the flow of the game, but once or twice in good fun even if you are so obvious that everyone calls you on it is probably pretty good. I like to chew on an unlit cigar as well, but that's just me. I don't smoke but like to have the cigar in that situation only. It reinforces my "used car salesman" approach.

Ah the cigar. I better take one along so as to smoke the rats out.

Also, if it is somewhere you can drink, appear to (order water with a twist in a martini glass, it looks like straight vodka) and pretend to get drunk. Oh wait, that's for bluffing in poker.

Hehe. There will be beers I think but it's BYOB for anything else.

Make sure you write your orders correctly. Last week I was playing ftf with my friends and ordered A Liv-Bel instead of A Yor-Bel. I had support from both France and Germany, but my order failed! They proceeded to ally against me after that, and I was unable to gain supply centers for about eight or nine turns.

Drink sparingly and lose them when they are 1/4 gone (somewhere between one negotiation and the next, get a new full one).

Read body language and try your best to avoid emotion. Appear cool and collected. Oh and if for example someone is abfrupt and gruff with you they likely have no interest in an alliance.

There's a good article on line for diplomacy about integrative complexity as a prediction tool.

Oh and in ftf do not use chainsaw diplomacy.

Why shouldn't you use chainsaw diplomacy?

I would think a chainsaw could be a very persuasive tool in FTF games? Used a bat until now - but no sound effects :(

You don't want to come across as the guy who is most excited about the game. Because if you are that guy, people will suspect you the most. This is because you are the one with the greatest "stake" in the outcome of the game (since the others presumably do not care if they lose or not) and as such you will go to the greatest lengths (lying) to get what you want (winning).

This is almost impossible to achieve though. If you care more than the people you're playing with, everyone will know, and you will get clusterfucked. Just try to think of a good way to diplome yourself out of it in advance that doesn't look like you're just desperate to salvage your position.

Also don't be afraid to invoke out of game concerns.... I mean this seriously. This isn't webdiplomacy.net, so anything goes, including metagaming. The one thing my friends and I usually keep off the table is monetary gain and physical threats.

Other than that... it is totally acceptable to say: "But Johnny has to leave in an hour, so we should attack him now so that Russia doesn't get all the benefits of him going CD."

F2f is a game of myriad complexity compared to online, which is much more straightforward. Be ready for anything.

Oh also, DO NOT let eliminated players continue to diplome. They have to go home if they choose to talk about the game. This is the fair way to do it for a number of reasons, but one such reason is that if you lied to say, England, who is now out, and you want to use the same kind of lie on France, France should not know about it unless England told him about it while he was alive.

That's more of a house rule though, I guess.

But imagine this. Say you are the unpopular winner and the two powers opposing you have finally gotten their acts together. That means they have four other "advisors" standing around them giving them tactical advice, intentionally isolating you, using peer pressure to prevent others from diploming with you... it can be a very toxic and unfair atmosphere, so if you have any say in it, prevent this sort of thing from happening.

But it's best that you mention it BEFORE the game begins so that you cannot be painted as having a conflict of interest.

@Thucy - thanks, that was definitely one of the things I had NOT thought about. I'll be sure to bring it up before the game.

Also, very ftf noob question - what are 'replacement orders'?

like you give the GM your orders that you wrote 3 minutes ago which are moves against say, germany.

but then germany comes to you with an olive branch and you accept, so you write up some replacement orders that have your units stabbing england instead. you hand those in as "replacement orders"

never done that myself. normally we just all hand in whatever orders we have when the timer sounds

Gee...so it's basically like 'save' vs. 'ready' on this site.

oh ps, ava you should vote agaisnt england on country elim thread since ive been so kind

Thucy, thanks, but no thanks. I have a pretty decent record as England with a few solos under my belt.

Don't trust your sister's boyfriend after he and your sister have gone 10 minutes overtime on the Diplomacy phase.

Don't let singing and dancing and movie-quoting get into the way of a game. You can do that while reading orders.

That's what I've learned from my two FtF games, but no tournament experience. I'd like to join one sometime after I graduate from high school and go to college somewhere.