In postal play, all players submit orders, one set is chosen at random so
that no one knows whose orders were used. Invented by Blair Casak, named by
John Leeder. See Variant (KW).
The opening F(Par)-Pic, A(Mar) SA(Par)-Bur is the Maginot Opening,
Picardy Variation. See
English Maginot and
French Openings (KW).
In theory runs the Universities Dipomacy Tournament, although there
aren't many University teams these days. The team tournament has become
a valued prize and several editors try to organise as strong a team as
possible in order to claim victory. See Team Tournament.
The source code for mapit is currently being maintained by
David Kovar.
Internet players do not need to have a copy of this program in order to
generate the PostScript map file. The adjudication
produced by the Judge can be redirected to judge@shrike.und.ac.za or
judge@morrolan.eff.org (ensuring that there are no comment ("]") characters
inserted by your mailer) with the line map * [n] added at the top of the file
(n is optional for receiving the map in .ps format, rather than uuencoded
format).
This offers no incentive to prolong the game to gain more points.
Lots of incentive to eliminate people from the draw (which increases
your share of the win). And no incentive to CD because every new player
gets at least 1 share, even if no one is eliminated during their
time in power. Consider this carefully. Here are some examples:
A power played by 3 players shares in a 3 way draw:
Perhaps generous to the 1st player, but less generous than time-based systems.
(Examples taken from a RGD post by David Marrotta.)
There are a succession of ranking grades (just as in Bridge and Chess):
Novice Class, Intermediate Class, Senior Class, Veteran Class and, finally,
Champion of Diplomacy. Movement from a lower class to the next is based upon
the accumulation of points. In all classes a rule-book victory gains the
winner 34 points and the winner of a tournament scores a bounty of 20 points.
Players in the Novice or Intermediate Class score half their final supply
centre count in games in which they lose.
NOVICE CLASS: 10 points for survival + Final Supply Centre Count.
Eliminatees score 1 per game year survived, to a maximum of 10.
50 points are required to reach INTERMEDIATE CLASS.
INTERMEDIATE CLASS: Players score their supply centre count, but only
if they have 5, or more, centres. 100 points required
to enter SENIOR CLASS
SENIOR CLASS: Players score their supply centre count, but only if they
have 10, or more, centres. 150 points required to
enter VETERAN CLASS.
VETERAN CLASS: Players score their supply centre count, but only if they
have 13, or more, centres. 200 points required to become
a 'Champion of Diplomacy'.
CHAMPION OF DIPLOMACY: Nobody has entered this class yet.
NOTE: A player who moves into a new CLASS keeps all his old scores where
appropriate. For instance a player moving from INTERMEDIATE CLASS to SENIOR
CLASS will lose all games in which they lost and all games in which they had
fewer than 10 centres. See Rating Systems (KW).
John McCallum has done far too much for the hobby for me to pretend that I
can mention all of his accomplishments in this brief article. Therefore I am
going to concentrate on his enormous contribution to the subject of ratings
systems.
John entered postal Diplomacy in the Spring of 1964 and a year and a half
later took over the publication of _Brobdingnag_ from Dick Schultz, the
original editor. When I entered the hobby in the late summer of 1966 I
immediately began correspondence with John and subscribed to his zine. In
September John published BROB #43 and the BROB rating system was born. The
first rating list had the results of only eight games, but John Smythe was
firmly in first place with 12 points with John Koning in second
with nine. This was the beginning of an association with rating systems that
has led to many great things.
The second BROB listing appeared in #45 and included games in progress which
made it a more accurate rating system (time-wise at least) than any other
rating system since invented. Once again, Smyth headed the listings. From
1966 to 1969 (when McCallum transferred ownership of _Brobdingnag_ to Ed Halle)
his zine was THE PLACE to discuss rating systems. I find, in fact, that these
old editions are still good reading today.
In BROB #88 (September 1968) in reply to a letter from
Allan Calhamer John invented the Calhamer Point
Count Listing (CPCL). Walt Buchanan now runs that
listing in _Hoosier Archives_. ((It is now run by Canadian fan Randolph Smyth -
MN Dec/92))
John's greatest contribution to the subject of ratings systems was the
Organizatin de Diplomatie (ODD) rating system. It was first
published in PFENNIG-HALBPFENNIG #4 in January of 1972. This is *the* advanced
system to date, and it is my belief that it will some day be the official
listing for all of organized Postal Diplomacy.
Thus, I hope that one thing will never be forgotten: above all, John A.
McCallum has always been a friend to all who knew him --- this is his greatest
contribution of all. See Personalities (KW).
The full name of the award is The Don Miller Hobby Service Award, but it's
a bit of a mouthful, hence the abbreviation. This is equivalent to the British
Pimley Award. A list of winners which also
gives the reason for winning the award (where known).
Year, Winner
1983 Rod Walker: For multiple services as MNC,
BNC, the IDA, and various aspects of editing and publishing over the period
1968-1982. (For this first year, a person's entire contribution to the Postal
Hobby was considered. Thereafter, consideration was limited to what a nominee
had done in the preceding year.)
1984 Lee Kendter, Snr: For taking over the Miller Number Custodianship in
late 1982, at a time when there had been no official publication of the MNC
Journal for nearly a year. He published the first issue of the new MNC Journal,
Alpha and Omega, in May 1983. By the time the next issue came out, he had
caught up on the backlog of games to report, and all known games in North
America had been issued Miller Numbers.
See Hobby Awards (KW).
Occassionnally associates for Europe like Steve Doubleday and Michel Feron
have been used.
A different type of multiple unit is allowed in Multiplicity.
This variant allows multiple units to be easily formed and disbanded by single
units merging together or dividing. Multiple Units tend to prevent stalemate
lines from forming and usually occur in Historical and
Fantasy Variants. See also
Special Unit Types and
Variant Jargon (KW).
Year Team Winner (Nu uni teams/Nu teams) Individual Winner
1982 Liverpool Gary Piper
1983 Birmingham University Guy Thomas
1984 Birmingham Univeristy (7/13) Edward Richards
1991 ??? (?/14) Toby Harris
1995 The Also-Rans Jim Mills
(1) BEST ZINE
Year Voters Winner Runner-Up 3rd
1. 1981 32 Brutus Bulletin Voice of Doom
2. 1982 61 Europa Express Just Among Friends
3. 1983 73 Europa Express Voice of Doom
4. 1989 41 Fiat Bellum = (tied)
House of Lords =
5. 1990 31 Northern Flame Been There Done That Kathy's Korner
6. 1991 48 Upstart Moire Kathy's Korner
7. 1992 38 Maniac's Paradise Upstart Kathy's Korner
8. 1993 25 Maniac's Paradise Upstart Well, Martha....
Note. In the period 1989-1993 you could not vote for the Pollsters
zine _Perelandra_.
(2) BEST GM
1. 1982 Gary Coughlan
2. 1983 Gary Coughlan
3. 1990 Andy Lischett Cal White Melinda Holley
(3) BEST FRESHMAN ZINE (award for best zine begun in the previous year.
This was originally a seperate Poll)
Winner 2nd 3rd
1. 1981 Europa Express Sleepless Knights The Schemer
1. 1983 Magus
2. 1984 House of Lords
3. 1985 Flick of the Wrist
4. 1993 Zero Sum Aren't you the Guy... Foolhardy
(4) BEST PLAYER Winner 2nd 3rd 4th
1. 1991 Gary Behnen Kathy Caruso Steve Cooley
2. 1992 Gary Behnen Mike Gonsalves Kathy Caruso
3. 1993 Fred Hyatt Stven Carlberg Eric Vood John Schulz
In 1993 voters were not allowed to vote for Behnen.
(5) BEST SUBZINE
1. 1983 Mos Eisely Spaceport
2. 1990 High Inertia Extremism in the Defense of Liberty
See Hobby Awards (KW).
a - z + 1
p(i) = ---------
7 + f + n
Where,
a = the number of players in the game when ith player took over,
z = the number of players in the game when ith player abandoned,
f = the number of players who finally shared in the draw, and
n = the number of players who played ith's power throughout the game
Player Powers at start end Share of 3-way
1 7 6 2/7
2 6 4 3/7
3 4 3 2/7
In the next example the original player grows to 17 and is
threatened with a 6 way which the next player whittles down to a 3 way:
Player start end share
1 7 6 2/6
2 6 3 4/6
Here is a player who goes CD after Spring moves, whose replacement wins
solo very quickly in brillent play
Player Start End Share
1 7 7 1/8
2 7 1 7/8
See also Rating System (KW) and
Rating System For Standby Players.
GOLD: Stab first
SILVER: Cover your ass
BRONZE: Smile at your neighbours
Chairman Period In Office
Fred C. Davis Jnr November 1974- October 1981
Glenn Overby October 1981-May 1982
Ed Bapple May 1982-October 1983
Bruce Poope November 1983-November 1985
Fred C. Davis Jnr November 1985-July 1995
Andrew York July 1995-Present
Editor of Diplomag (*)
Fred C. Davis Jnr November 1974-October 1981
Ronald Brown October 1981-October 1982
Bruce Poppe October 1982-January 1986
Fred C. Davis Jnr January 1986-June 1995
Andrew York June 1995-Present.
(*) called _Diplomensa_ for the first 11 issues.
1985 Bob Olsen: His "win" was related to the Great Feud.
1986 Bill Quinn: For his services as Boardman Number Custodian in 1985.
1987 Bruce Linsey: For services in running the Runestone Poll, and for
publication of the report of the same in the book, The Cream Shall Rise.
1988 Simon Billenness and John Caruso (PDO work): Awarded jointly for their
services in running the Peoples Diplomacy Organization Relief
Auction PDORA, which raises funds for the support
of several hobby services.
1989 Doug Acheson: For his work in running the Canadian Diplomacy Organization
1990 Fred C. Davis Jnr: For his work as North American Variant Bank custodian,
heading up the Mensa Diplomacy SIG, and for eighteen years
of publishing the leading variant zine _Bushwacker_.
1991 David Hood: For editing and publishing
_Diplomacy World_ since 1990, and for
hosting the 1990 DipCon and World DipCon II in
Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
1992 John Boardman
1993 Cal White: For leading the task of writing a new box flyer and Gamer's Guide.
1994 Doug Kent. For running the PDORA Auction, the 1993 Census, the
hobby discussion zine _Foolhardy_ and his own zine _Maniac's Paradise_.
1995 - Andrew York
1996 - Manus Hand
1997 - Doug Kent
1998 - Michael Lowrey
1999 - Michael Lowrey
2000 - Edi Birsan
2001 - Stephen Agar
2002 - Chad Schroeder
2003 – Chad Schroeder
2004 – Christian Shelton
Don Miller Jan 1965--Dec 1971
Lewis Pulsipher Dec 1971--Jul 1973
({Conrad von Metzke} Jul 1973--Aug 1973 interim)
Burt Labelle Aug 1973--Oct 1974
Robert Sacks Oct 1974--Dec 1977 LoH 1-12
Michael Smolin Dec 1977--Jun 1979 LoH 13
Greg Costikyan Jun 1979--Jun 1981 LoH 14-16
({Rod Walker} Jun 1981--Aug 1981, interim)
John Leeder Aug 1981--Dec 1982 (first Canadian to be MNC) LoH 17
Lee Kendter, Sr Dec 1982--Aug 1986 A&O 1-10
Fred Hyatt Aug 1986--Mar 1989 A&O 11-17
Randy Grigsby Mar 1989--Dec 1990 (second Canadian to be MNC) A&O 18-20
Lee Kendter, Sr Dec 1990--present. A&O 21-25+
There have been two different MNC zines. _Lord of Hosts_ and
_Alpha Omega_. See VariantJargon (KW).
Conrad Minshall 8 AEEFFGGT
Alan Bick 6 AAFGIR
Amotz Bar-Noy 5 AFGRR
Dan Shoham 4 ARRR
Josh Smith 4 AFFI
James Dreier 4 AFRT
Dave Cebula 4 AAGT
Michael Frigge 3 ART
Ken Samuel 3 FFR
Robert Rehbold 3 ETT
Kendrick Lo 3 EGG
Jonathan Tan 3 AAE
Eric Luczaj 3 EGR
Jorge Llambias 3 ITT
Ken Lofgren 3 AIR
The whole A-Z, in pdf format, is HERE
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