5 ms·

A lot of people in this thread seem to have experience playing Diplomacy in person, which surprises me. If you play in person it takes a very long time, but if

by polm23 6y ago

A lot of people in this thread seem to have experience playing Diplomacy in person, which surprises me. If you play in person it takes a very long time, but if you're inexperienced it's not unlikely someone will get knocked out after just a few turns. So you'd need to be prepared to set aside a day but also prepared to have nothing to do for most of it. While I'm sure the in-person experience offers something special, this seems like a game that's much more accessible play-by-post. The internet makes this easier than ever, but even in my limited understanding the history of play-by-mail Diplomacy is basically as old as the game itself.

flomo 6y ago
I've only played in person a handful of times (hard to organize even if you really want to). But every game ended in a story which we friends have retold and mythologized over the years. I'll probably never play a real game of Diplomacy again, but those games were way better than whatever else we were doing. I tried playing PBM, and IMO it misses the entire personal charismatic essence of diplomacy.
- tnecniv 6y ago
  > I tried playing PBM, and IMO it misses the entire personal charismatic essence of diplomacy. It depends on the people you get. I've had great random games where everyone ended up role playing as the period appropriate leader of their country. I've also had games where nobody talked to each other leaving me wondering why we were playing.
  - specialist 6y ago
    Two of my friends sometimes enjoyed role playing as me. Imagine Robin Williams playing board games who always tried to "shoot the moon" (Hearts card game reference). Another fun variant is "backseat driver". 14 participants. Each country has a "mover" and a "talker". Movers cannot communicate, only observe. Talkers cannot move.
- dkersten 6y ago
  What is PBM? I didn’t find it on google.
  - polm23 6y ago
    play by mail
femto113 6y ago
In high school my friends played a lot of "gunboat", where you stay at the board and all negotiations happen in the open. Seasons can be as short as you want, we usually aimed for around 10 minutes. Obviously lacks some of the planning/scheming of the full game I think its a much faster way to learn the mechanics of openings and builds and such.
tnecniv 6y ago
Indeed. I've played both online and in person, and I don't think I'll ever play it in person again even if it would be with my friends. I could envision playing in tournaments or other set ups that could be fun (maybe you do a game where each nation is led by a team so when you get out you at least have a few friends to hang out with), but those are different from casual games with friends.
SiempreViernes 6y ago
The one time I played it we all conceded the game pretty quickly, because nobody was that interested in doing any scheming... and without schemes it becomes a pretty boring zero-sum stalemated game. I feel like the gameplay everyone talks about comes from the large metagame that has grown up around it, the game itself is very small and boring.
Scarblac 6y ago
I played this with colleagues, with a move every lunch break. Not a good fit for every personality type on the team....
specialist 6y ago
Us nerds would play Diplomacy, Star Fleet Battles, GURPS, those railroad games in person. There was usually games, VHS movies, pizza, video games and whatnot off to the side. Kibitzing and arguing about the rules was half the fun. Turns spanned hours, games spanned weeks. Finding new players (aka freshmeat) was always a challenge. Then we transitioned to online hosted games (someone wrote a Diplomacy adjudicator for our BBS watering hole). Our only face to face games happened at the conventions, like DragonCon. Then one die hard Diplomacy fanatic adjudicated our games via email. There was one older fellow in our orbit, nym ToadFather, who reportedly still did postal games, spanning years. I think he also had a zine, for updates, commentary, and analysis. Relationships, pets, offspring, mortgages, other interests decimated our collective time for board games.

by polm23 6y ago

flomo 6y ago

I've only played in person a handful of times (hard to organize even if you really want to). But every game ended in a story which we friends have retold and mythologized over the years. I'll probably never play a real game of Diplomacy again, but those games were way better than whatever else we were doing. I tried playing PBM, and IMO it misses the entire personal charismatic essence of diplomacy.

tnecniv 6y ago
> I tried playing PBM, and IMO it misses the entire personal charismatic essence of diplomacy. It depends on the people you get. I've had great random games where everyone ended up role playing as the period appropriate leader of their country. I've also had games where nobody talked to each other leaving me wondering why we were playing.
- specialist 6y ago
  Two of my friends sometimes enjoyed role playing as me. Imagine Robin Williams playing board games who always tried to "shoot the moon" (Hearts card game reference). Another fun variant is "backseat driver". 14 participants. Each country has a "mover" and a "talker". Movers cannot communicate, only observe. Talkers cannot move.
dkersten 6y ago
What is PBM? I didn’t find it on google.
- polm23 6y ago
  play by mail

femto113 6y ago

In high school my friends played a lot of "gunboat", where you stay at the board and all negotiations happen in the open. Seasons can be as short as you want, we usually aimed for around 10 minutes. Obviously lacks some of the planning/scheming of the full game I think its a much faster way to learn the mechanics of openings and builds and such.

tnecniv 6y ago

Indeed. I've played both online and in person, and I don't think I'll ever play it in person again even if it would be with my friends. I could envision playing in tournaments or other set ups that could be fun (maybe you do a game where each nation is led by a team so when you get out you at least have a few friends to hang out with), but those are different from casual games with friends.

SiempreViernes 6y ago

The one time I played it we all conceded the game pretty quickly, because nobody was that interested in doing any scheming... and without schemes it becomes a pretty boring zero-sum stalemated game. I feel like the gameplay everyone talks about comes from the large metagame that has grown up around it, the game itself is very small and boring.

Scarblac 6y ago

I played this with colleagues, with a move every lunch break. Not a good fit for every personality type on the team....

specialist 6y ago

Us nerds would play Diplomacy, Star Fleet Battles, GURPS, those railroad games in person. There was usually games, VHS movies, pizza, video games and whatnot off to the side. Kibitzing and arguing about the rules was half the fun. Turns spanned hours, games spanned weeks. Finding new players (aka freshmeat) was always a challenge. Then we transitioned to online hosted games (someone wrote a Diplomacy adjudicator for our BBS watering hole). Our only face to face games happened at the conventions, like DragonCon. Then one die hard Diplomacy fanatic adjudicated our games via email. There was one older fellow in our orbit, nym ToadFather, who reportedly still did postal games, spanning years. I think he also had a zine, for updates, commentary, and analysis. Relationships, pets, offspring, mortgages, other interests decimated our collective time for board games.