Diplomacy A-Z, Version 6.0

PACIFIC NORTHWEST WARGAMERS ASSOCIATION [EB:Jul08]

A wargame group in Seattle starting in 1966-8. Hosted a Diplomacy tournament in June of 1968 won by Doug Baker with Doug Beyerlein and Richard Shagrin in 2nd and 3rd. It is believed that there were two rounds of one board each.

PANDIN'S PARADOX (1) [MB/MN:Jun80+Mar82/Sep92]

The only paradox of the Rulebook. For example: France F(MID) SF(Spa/sc)-WES, F(NAP)SF(ION)-TYS; ITALY F(Tus) SF(TYS), F(TYS) CA(Rom)-Tun; ENGLAND F(WES) F(LYO) CA(NAf)-Tus, F(Tun) SF(WES). Since the Italian convoy to Tun cuts the English support for F(WES), the French dislodge F(WES). But that dislodgement disrupts the convoy to Tus. Thus the Italian support given by F(Tus) is not cut, and so that English attack on TYS is foiled. Everything looks fine, right?

But take things starting with the convoy to Tus. That cuts the support for F(TYS), so it is dislodged. That being the case, A(Rom) doesn't get to Tun, and so the support for F(WES) is not cut. That being the case, A(NAf) does get to Tus and so F(TYS) falls, which is just where we started. Both adjudications are correct -- but diametrically opposed. This has never actually occurred in a postal game; GMs who mention this in their HRs say that all units remain in place -- which, ironically is consistent with neither of the above scenarios!

This is actually one of a wider class of convoy paradoxes. See _Appalling Greed_ #10, Berch's Ghastly Mess and Finessed Cut. A new American set of rules states that a "convoyed attack on a fleet that is supporting an action in a body of water does not cut that support". In the above example the net result is that no units move.

PAPER UNITS (1) [MB:Jun80]

A unit in a variant which has no strength. Such a unit can take centres, but not against any opposition, and functions as a decoy for real units. See Decoy unit and Variant Jargon (KW).

PARADOX (1) [MB:Mar82]

A rulebook problem where there are 2 adjudications possible, each internally self-consistent, but different. See Pandin's Paradox and Contradiction.

PARADOX (2) [HR:Apr03]

Another kind of paradox stems from what has been described as non-simultaneity introduced into what is an otherwise simultaneous game. See Andy Schwartz's excellent article about paradoxes, especially those in three variants, Diplomacy Paradoxes for a more in-depth discussion. See also Eldred Piombino Quasi-Paradox.

PASSING A LETTER (1) [MB:Jun80]

See Remailing A Letter.

PAST, THE (1) [MB:Jun80]

The good old days, when the Hobby was smaller and more personal, when newcomers were greeted with a blizzard of helpful letters from old hands, zines were regular, NMRs rare, press plentiful and witty, when the really major zines were gotten by nearly everybody, etc, etc.

PASTICHE OPENING (1) [MB:Jun80]

A(Con)-Bul, A(Smy)H, F(Ank)-BLA. This gives Turkey more flexibility than most openings, as he can claim that A(Smy)H means that he is neither anti-Russian nor anti-Austrian. However, if he does have F(BLA), he still has significant options against either country in F01. If a standoff occurs in BLA, telling Russia that you will order A(Bul)-Rum may divert his Fleet to Rum permitting you to enter BLA. Even if not, Con will be open for a build in W01, giving you F(Ank) F(Con). See Syrian opening and Turkish Openings (KW).

THE PATENT OLLOY-O-MATIC RATING SYSTEM (1) [MN:Feb95]

Posted to RGD 4th February 1995 by O.J. Burnett-Hall.

1) Games are scored on the following lines:
Solo victory: 6 points
2-way draw: 3 points each
3-way draw: 2 points each

Any larger draws are unrated, as are eliminations and survivals. The thinking behind this reflects my view that diplomacy games should never end in a draw larger than a three way as there will always be scope for further reduction, and so people should not be rewarded for finishing when there is further potential.

2) Variant games: Draws larger than a three way are still not rated but scoring positions have the points awarded increased in line with the number of powers at the start according to this formula:

points * square root of ([powers in variant]/[powers in standard game])

So for a three way draw in a chaos variant each person would get 2*sqrt(34/7) points. The formula is square-rooted to avoid making chaos games dominate the ratings too much.

PBM [PB:1980]

Play by Mail, any postal game, as opposed to FTF.

PDO CENSUS (1) [MN:May93]

A census of the North American diplomacy hobby funded by the PDO. It's based upon the mailing lists of those zines which co-operate with the organizer and so it's accuracy varies from year to year. PDO Census was produced by Julie Martin in 1990 and Doug Kent in 1992 and 1993. See also Black Blue Book, Hobby Census, and Hobby Census - North America.

PDORA (1) [MN:Dec92]

See PEOPLE'S DIPLOMACY ORGANIZATION RELIEF AUCTION

PDRC

See Postal Diplomacy Rating Commission.

PEOPLE'S DIPLOMACY ORGANIZATION RELIEF AUCTION (1) [MN:Dec92]

An informal organization which raises money for North American Hobby services by conducting a postal auction of items donated to it. This auction consists of one-round and bids on an item may not be made conditional on what other people have bid on it, the highest bid wins. Hobby services have to apply for funding, stating how much they require and why they require funding. Their requests are considered by a committee of five who may decide to fund all, part or none of a request. Over 1987-1988 over $1000 was raised.

Items which have been donated to the Auction in the past include free gamestarts, subs, records, photos, stamps, coins, games and some weird and/or funny items. The custodian in 1989 was John Caruso. In 1992 it was Doug Kent.

PERCENTAGE RANKING (1) [MB:Jun80]

Jack Masters' scoring system. For each country, a player's performance is expressed as a percentile, compared to how others are doing with the same country in the same year. Done on a year-by-year basis, permitting games to be rated as they continue. Presently he is rating only a limited number of games. See Rating Systems (KW).

PERMANENT SUBSTITUTE (1) [MB:Jun80]

A few GMs permit a player to resign and name his own substitute, called a permanent substitute. This is quite controversial, as there is the suspicion that someone is being deliberately handed an undeserved victory.

PERPETUAL ORDERS (1) [MB:Jun80]

Orders that are repeated until countermanded. Generally used for small positions that have pieces that cannot expect to move or be dislodged. May be used by stalemate line members trying to convince the leader that they will not NMR. Some GMs do not permit; most do not mention them in their HRs.

PERSONALITIES (KW) (1) [MN:Dec93]

The following 'personalities' get their own entry in this document: Mark Berch, Marie Beyerlein, Edi Birsan, John Boardman, Walt Buchanan, Alan Calhamer, Kathy Byrne Caruso, Dian Crayne, Richard Egan, Nicholas Fitzpatrick(*), Margaret Gemignani, Jeff Key, Eric Klien(*), David Kovar(*), Bruce Linsey, Danny Loeb(*), Ken Lowe(*), John McCallum, Conrad von Metzke, Mark Nelson(*), Charles Robert Reinsel, Berry Renken(*), Harold Reynolds(*), Richard Sharp, Don Turnbull and Rod Walker.
(*) indicates email personality.

PERSONALITES (2) [MN:Dec95]

Cal White has suggested that the following should be added: John Leeder (publisher of _Runestone_, founder of the Runestone Poll and designer of MANY variants), Derek Nelson (won the first ever postal Dip game --- a Canadian, Cal adds) David Truman (published _G*A*S*S*E*D_, first ever computer printed zine) "the ubiquitous" Ronald Kelly ("Mr Standby" played in HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of games back in the 70s, John Beshara (founder of TDA) and "the infamous" Gordon Anderson (hosted several DipCons in Chicago (Citex) remembered mostly for disappearing with the prize money in, um, 1974).

PERSONALITIES (3) [BL:Feb07]

Bruce Linsey has suggested that others be added, if only we can find the time to write them up: Jim Burgess, Simon Billenness, Doug Beyerlein, Gary Coughlan, Melinda Holley, Fred Davis, John Leeder, Randolph Smyth, Larry Peery, John Michalski, John Caruso and Steve Hutton.

PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR (1) [MN:Jan94]

One of Larry Peery's less successful ideas. An attempt at forming a set of awards that recognised positive achievement within the International Hobby. Nominees, nomators and voters were to have been anyone, anywhere except in the first year when Larry picked the winner. See also Event of the Year, Game of the Year, Hobby Awards (KW) and Publication of the Year.

Year Winner
1991 Xavier Blanchot

"In the last year or so he has revived the premier Diplomacy publication, _TRAHISON!_, and helped make it one of the premier Diplomacy publications of the world..."

"Xavier's also been one of the primary movers and doers behind the establishment of a new French gaming organization which has sponsored a wide variety of Diplomacy and other gaming events, including one of the largest national Diplomacy championships yet held, and a host of local and regional events throughout France. From no organizations at all to one of the most successful gaming groups in the hobby in a year. Not bad."

"...In addition Xavier led a French Diplomacy contingent to last year's MANORCON. Even the Brits in attendance gave him high marks for his skills as a Diplomact, both on and off the gameboard... But a triumph was not enough. Xavier took another invading army to Vienna for this year's Austrian Diplomacy Championship, and again covered himself with blood, mud, and whipped cream... And noe, even in the New Year, the French are preparing an invasion of Australia for WDC. If any foreigner wins the title there, it will be Xavier."

"...This man is an eminence noir. He dresses in black, always sits in the darkest corner of the room, and surrounds himself with a cloud of black cigarette smoke. The only thing you see through the dimness are his smiling white teeth and his bloodshot eyes... In a hobby filled with characters he stands out. He should. He's our Diplomat of the Year." Larry Peery, _World Diplomacy_ 4 (Winter 1992).

PFEFFER RATING SYSTEM (1) [MN:Jan96]

Avi Pfeffer's rating system, posted to RGD in February 1995, in which There are two kinds of points: victory points and grace points.

Let M be the number of supply centers on the board, N the number needed for victory.

A solo winner in a game receives N victory points. If a winning power is played by more than one player, all victory points go to the last player. After all, he is the only one to become emperor of the world. There are no victory points in drawn games, as there is no victory.

In addition, a solo winner gets to hand out M-N grace points, while each participant in a P-way draw gets to hand out M/P grace points. Grace points may be given to any surviving power except oneself, although one does not have to give out any grace points at all if one so wishes.

Again, only the last player of a power gets to give out grace points, as these points represent the amount of favor a power has in a ruling court. However, they may given to any player of a surviving power, not just the last one.

In the case of a draw, grace points are given out secretly by each drawing power, so that there is no fear of retribution if one power in a draw chooses to stab another by not giving them grace points.

This system makes a solo win qualitatively better than a draw, which is better than survival, which is better than elimination. However it also allows the contributions contributions of kingmaker, spoiler, loyal ally, repected enemy and so on to be recognized.

Any player who fails to hand out their grace points or announce that they are giving none will be considered to have disappeared without trace and receive no points of any kind for the game.

PHANTOM ORDERS (1) [MB:Jun80]

A generalized term for substitute orders coming from someone outside the game (not the GM), usually an unnamed person. They may or may not be neutral, and are only very rarely used after 1901. Term is sometimes used derogatorily.

PHILMAR (1) [PB/TNP:1980/87]

Games Company which took over production of Diplomacy in the UK from Intellect Games. Never really marketed Diplomacy, but let it rise and fall on its own merits. Sold out to Gibson Games in about 1980.

PHONY LETTER (1) [MB:Jun80]

You can "impersonate" *yourself* by writing an ally a letter which has no function other than to be remailed to a third party, for the purpose of deceiving him as to your true intentions.

PHONY READJUDICATION (1) [MB:Jun80]

An extreme ploy designed to produce confusion, in which a player puts out a phoney issue of a zine. One or more party's moves are misrepresented. This was done in 1977ED by Tadek Jarski, but it succeeded principally in confusing his ally. It was also done in 1974N, with the player (Sharp) using the GM's own stationary and typewriter --- but it was foiled when the intended victim mentioned it to the GM. See Impersonation of the GM.

PHREAK (1) [MN:Apr92]

(1) A term used in the early 1970's to denote those individuals who hacked the U.S. phone companies and set up free phone calls etc. (2) More generally, any individual who is just interested in one hobby to an excessive degree: if they're not actually doing it they are thinking about it. A dip phreak would be someone who played in over 100 postal dip games, or played dip 7 days a week and was constantly looking out for more players! Phreaks have an unhealthy obsession. The compiler of this AZ is not a phreak, [he lies--see Nelson, Mark! HR] he just doesn't have anything better to do with his spare time... (Neither, alas, did the proofreader...HR)

PICARDY OPENING (1) [MB/MN:Jun80/Aug095]

Richard Sharp's name for the French Opening F(Bre)-MID, A(Mar)-Spa, A(Par)-Pic which preserves France's options in Bel without antagonizing any of his neighbours by entering ENG or Bur, and provides some flexibility in defending Bre, either by tempting the English fleet with support into Bel, defending Bre with A(Pic), or doing a self-standoff in Bre. It makes sense to define the moves F(Bre)-MAO and A(Par)-Pic as the Picardy Opening. Then we have appropriately named variations depending upon the order of A(Mar):
A(Mar)-Bur (The Burgundy Variation, also called the Belgian Gambit),
A(Mar)-Gas (The Gascony Variation, also called the Gaspic Opening),
A(Mar) H (the Marseilles Variation),
A(Mar)-Pie (The Piedmonet Opening) and A(Mar)-Spa (the Picardy Opening).
See French Openings (KW).

PIECES (1) [AP/MN:1986/Jul94]

These are items, found in several variants, which may be moved around the board by players, but are not proper units. Pieces may represent either objects, individuals or small groups and there is no restriction on the number that may occupy a space together, subject to any alignment rules. Their movements are usually not reported unless they exercise their powers. If they end the turn in the same space as a unit, the owning player of the unit is informed. Objects need to be carried whilst beings move like ordinary units and may be convoyed. Pieces alone have no combat strength and may not be supported, may not prevent retreats and may not capture spaces or supply centres. However, pieces may give support to the movement of units with which they end the turn and may cut the support of other pieces they oppose.

Downfall is the most ready source of examples of different types of pieces. Depending upon which version you play there is an object (the ring), individuals (Faramir, Gandalf, Saurman and Sauron) and groups (the Fellowship, the Nazgul and the Rangers).

PIEDMONT SYSTEM (1) [MB:Jun80]

Richard Sharp's name for the French Opening A(Mar)-Pie, F(Bre)-MID, A(Par)-Gas. A standoff in Pie may be arranged. This can be of great value to France, as it permits him to take Spa without having to guess the intentions of any Italian A(Pie). The standoff also provides Italy with good camouflage if he intends to make a grab for Tri in F01. Otherwise, entry into Pie by France is more likely to be a back door attack on Germany than an attack on Italy. See French Openings (KW).

PIGGOTT'S LAWS OF FANZINES (1) [MB:Jun80]

(1) Good Fanzines are produced for the benefit of their editors. (2) A good fanzine contains material which cannot be obtained elsewhere in the same form.

PIGGYBACK CONVOY (1) [MB:Mar82]

A combined A/F unit, first appearing in Abstraction, but later in variants such as DALARNA II (Leeder) and Holocaust. Rules vary on how they retreat, are formed and disbanded, and in whether mixed nationality is permitted. See Variant Jargon (KW).

PIMLEY AWARD, The (1) [MN:Apr93]

Name used by most hobby member for the Pimley Memorial Award. See Hobby Awards (KW).

PIMLEY MEMORIAL AWARD (1) [MB/MN:Mar82/Dec92]

Named after Les Pimley, who published _Black Spot_, _Shelob's Lair_ and an orphanzine, _The Ultimate Chaotic Act_, in Britain in the early and mid 70's and died in May 1976 of a brain hemorrhage. It recognizes major contributions to the British hobby. At one stage ran in conjunction with the Gladys Awards.

Usually called The Pimley Award. Voting currently conducted with the Zine Poll. The North American version of this award is called the Don Miller Award. A list of winners...

1978 Richard Sharp (for NGC work)
1979 Bob Brown (for IDA work)
1980 Mick Bullock (retiring Statesman)
1981 John Marsden (for OGRE work)
1982 Paul Simpkins (Diplomacy Box Flyers and MidCon)
1983 Simon Billenness (for Twenty Years On)
1984 Nick Kinzett (for OGRE work)
1985 Alan Parr (designer of United and other sports games)
1986 Richard Walkerdine (for Stats works and the Archives)
1987 Brian Williams (MidCon treasurer)
1988 The ManorCon Committee (for World Dip Con I)
1989 Danny Collman (for _Springboard_)
1990 Richard Egan (for _Vienna_, novice work and Gridiron).
1991 Richard Sharp and Steve Doubleday (for rescuing the Diplomacy stats and getting them as up to date as they've been in ten years).
1992 The ManorCon Committee (for no real reason)
1993 Steve Agar for Novice Recruitment.
See Hobby Awards (KW).

PINNED TO THE WALL (1) [MB:Jun80]

A procedure whereby a unit is trapped in a position where it is less than fully useful. Thus, Turkey may find RF(Arm) quite acceptable, as it not only threatens neither Smy nor Syr, but blocks the entrance of a Russian army there, so long as the fleet is immobilized.

PLAY BALANCE/REALISM (1) [MB:Jun80]

See Realism/Play Balance.

PLAYING TOO MUCH DIPLOMACY (1) [BJ:Sep95]

You Know You've Been Playing Too Much Diplomacy When...
You're lying in bed (half asleep) with your significant other. Your hand is resting on her (or his) stomach. You consider moving said hand to a 'more sensitive' area, but decide that you can't because:
A. You can't remember the 3-letter abbreviation for that province, and
B. That move will never succeed without support anyway.
See Humour.

PLAYER CODE (1) [MB:Jun80]

To avoid forgeries, a player may give the GM, or be assigned, a code which only he and the GM know. Unfortunately, while forgeries are very rare, NMRs produced by the inadvertent failure to use the code likely are not.

PLUG (1) [MB:Jun80]

A recommendation of sorts for a zine, or game opening, etc, in another's zine. Sometimes done on an informal I'll-plug-you-if-you- plug-me basis.

POKER [PB:1980]

A few fanatical players in the 'hardcore' of the NGC, most of whom 'settled down', lost too much money, or realized that the stakes were too high for them. The writer remains alone, which is why this is included.

POLISH CORRIDOR (1) [MB:Jun80]

Prussia and Silesia.

POLYCON [PB:1980]

Con held in 1978 in Preston Polytechnic, run by Bob Brown. A great success, and claimant to the title 'Polycon'.

POLYHEDRAL DICE [PB:1980]

Dice with other than six sides. Used in many fantasy games and available from specialist shops (although rumors circulate that they may be replaced with 'chits'--shame).

POSTAL (1) [MB/MN:Jun80/Aug94]

The format introduced by John Boardman in 1963, it is the only practical (or desirable) format for many players. Unlike some other modes, communications cannot be overheard (except by consent of one of the parties), players have a great deal of time to study the board and plan what to say, there is time for friendships to form, press occurs, games can be completed easily, a written record of the game is generated, and generally, a strict following of the rulebook is used.

The story of postal diplomacy starts with the third issue of _Knowable_ in March 1963. Postal diplomacy was also invented by Eric Just in 1967, _The Diplomat_ 1 appeared November 29th 1967, Jeff Key, _The Voice_ 1 appeared April 1st 1968, and alledgedly by Conrad von Metzke in 1962 although this is probable just another von Metzke hoax.

POSTAL DIPLOMACY RATING COMMISSION (1) [MB:Jun80]

Founded by Rod Walker, this was a group of (mostly) ratings masters, trying to agree on a uniform set of rating criteria, and determining the rateability status of disrupted games. Recently revived by Konrad Baumeister in his service zine _Vanilla Fudge_.

PREFERENCE LIST (1) [MB:Jun80]

A list submitted by the entrant into a new game of Diplomacy, ranking his preference for countries, with most preferred at the top. The GM tries to give people their top choice. Opposite of random draw.

PRESS (1) [MB/RE/MN:Jun80/89-90/JAN92]

A phenomenon of the postal game (though not entirely unknown in face-to-face play, courtesy of blackboards and the like), press consists of "open letter" statements, usually no more than a line or two from one player to another, which are included in the game report. Press may be used to influence or discuss the game, tell jokes or stories, start arguments ("Press Wars") and generally entertain if the game itself gets boring. Contributions may also come from the GM and outsiders.

The limits and style of press permitted may depend on the Games Master, who has to type it up, but there are traditionally four types of press. The first, "White Press", is the sort to be seen on almost any game report. The second, "Grey Press" involves one player issuing fake press supposedly originating from someone else (for example, Turkey issues this item: "Germany-England: Attack Russia next turn as planned"). However in games using Grey press there will be a reserved dateline for each country which no-on else may use. Often the suffix "(Govt)", short for "Government", is reserved so that press labeled "France(Govt)-England" *must* have been written by France. "Black Press" involves impersonation of the GM, including fake deadlines, and (usually) fake changes of address for other players. There are no reserved datelines in Black Press games! Finally, there is the "Press Saga", which may have little or nothing to do with the game or its players, which may consist of very, very long submissions, and usually tells a story (of sorts) in episodes with each game report. Whether or not the GM publishes the entire saga unedited will invariably depend on his house rules...and how much time he/she has.

A press game is one where the players are selected for their press writing skills. Restrictions on the amount of room available for press in a zine and on the time that the GM has to retype it do not apply to email games! See Black Press, Grey Press and Joke Orders.

PRESS CHARACTERS (1) [MB:Mar82]

Fictional characters which appear repeatedly in press releases, often in more than one game. They're generally humourous. Famous ones have included Pope Joan II (Walker), The Great Plattypus (ver Ploeg), and Kaiser Max (John Boardman).

PRINTTHRU (1) [MB:Jun80]

In mimeo publishing, when material on one side appears (backwards) on the other side. Arises primarily from printing side two before giving side one at least twelve hours to dry, from letting the fluid level get too high, or from using too light a grade of paper. A fairly common problem.

PROFESSIONALISM (1) [MB:Jun80]

A vague term, generally denoting a non-amateur or non-hobbylike philosophy, product or financial state. Generally, but not always, used perjoratively by New Yorkers, often complimentarily by others. Uses include: GMing for profit (Rick Loomis, e.g.) use of offset printing, and sale of materials outside the usual postal channels (e.g. DW in game stores).

PROMOTIONAL MAILING (1) [MB:Jun80]

A mass mailing of unsolicited samples of a zine, with the goal of boosting circulation. Often done with one's first or second issue.

PROPHETIC BUILDS (OR RETREATS, ETC) (1) [MB:Jun80]

A system whereby a player submits his builds, removals and retreats along with his Fall moves (similarly, Summer retreats with Spring moves). Almost unheard of in North America, it is the norm in England. Also known as the International System.

PROPZINE (1) [MB:Jun80]

A zine designed for propaganda, generally with regard to hobby politics or personal feuding. It may take the form of an "open letter". Example: _Vincit Veritas_.

PROSNITZ MANEUVER (1) [MB:Jun80]

Or, "pulling a Prosnitz", this is a type of revenge in which an attacker throws all his forces against some of his enemies, leaving his SCs open to his least treacherous enemy. Supposedly, this arose from Eugene Prosnitz's capitulation to Edi Birsan, and stonewalling against Jeff Key and John Smythe. The irony was, the betrayal of Prosnitz was actually Birsan's idea. Prosnitz's stonewalling gave Birsan an important boost towards his victory in 1971BC, the first AH demo game. See Suicide against.

PROSPECTS (1) [MB:Jun80]

The ratio of a player's SCs to the number of additional centres he needs to win. Thus, a 15 centre player's prospects would be 15/3=5.0 In a tournament scoring system suggested by Allan Calhamer, the points for each player would be allocated according to what proportion of the total prospects were his (see _DW_ 2).

PROVINCE ABBREVIATIONS (1) [MN:Feb92]

In FTF games it is not practical to use full province names when writing orders and so players abbreviate the province names. In theory there is little excuse for doing so when playing postally but the practice is widespread. This leads to GM defining standard abbreviations and woe betide anyone not using a GM's particular favourite abbreviation. There are differences between nations: Americans tend to use Tyo for Tyrolia whilst the rest of the world more commonly use Tyr, ENG is sometimes seen instead of ENC [including here in the AZ!]. Other American abbreviations are WES (for WMS), TYN (for TYS) and LYO (for GoL).

PROVISIONAL ORDERS [PB:1980]

See conditional orders. The main semantic difference (although the two words are occasionally used synonymously) is that conditional orders depend on something which will take place (although you don't know in what way) while provisional orders are for something which might happen, but probably won't. Thus you may be asked to submit 'provisional' orders for F01 with your S01 orders, in case you NMR.

PROXY ORDERS (1) [PB/MB:1980/Jun80]

Orders submitted for Player A by Player B, done with A's consent, normally revokable. Like the related Joint Orders, their propriety and legality varies greatly. Players may seek to avoid responsibility for a given unit's orders by claiming (even falsely) that the orders were proxied. This latter case can be a more informal proxy, technically submitted by Player A, but by treaty done as A requests. There are two main types: (a) you wish to go on holiday and hand control temporarily over to another player (who is not in the game) or you have to 'go away' for eighteen months or whatever. (b) you wish to hand over control to another player in the game. For another approach, see Temporary Substitute Orders. See Escher.

PROXY PLOMACY (1) [MB:Jun80]

Mick Bullock's variant which has a player ordering his own units in Fall and Winter, but another player orders them in Spring. Thus in S01, England orders Germany, Germany orders Russia, Russia orders Turkey etc. In Spring 1902, England orders Russia, Germany orders Turkey, going around the board somewhat clockwise. Rules in _DD_ 17. See Variant (KW).

PRUSSIAN OPENING (1) [MN:May93]

Richard Sharp's name for any unnamed German opening which used the move A(Ber)-Pru. See German Openings (KW).

PSEUDO-CLASSICAL DIPLOMACY (1) [MB:Jun80]

Janta-Polczynski's variant was voted best designed variant in 1977. Austria and Germany are bolstered to 4 home centers, Switz is passable, the Abstraction convoy is used and some sea spaces can hold multiple fleets. See Variant (KW).

PSEUDO STALEMATE LINE (1) [MB:Mar82]

A line that while not impregnable will take so much time and effort to crack that 1) chances of error or NMR increase, 2) players may not want to bother or take the risk that alliances may fall apart in the process, 3) players may not realize that the line is only pseudo--particularly if defenders label it as a real line. See functional stalemate line.

PSEUDOFOLD (1) [MB:Jun80]

An announced fold that is to take place in the future, or a drastic change in form, which doesn't quite come about. Examples are: _Brutus Bulletin_, _Fol Si Fie_ and _St George and the Dragon_.

PUBLICATION OF THE YEAR (1) [MN:Jan94]

One of Larry Peery's less successful ideas. An attempt at forming a set of awards that recognised positive achievement within the International Hobby. Nominees, nomators and voters were to have been anyone, anywhere except in the first year when Larry picked the winner. See also Event of the Year, Game of the Year, Hobby Awards (KW) and Personality of the Year.
1991 Winner
1991 _Zine Register 19_ 19

PUBLISHER (1) [MB:Jun80]

The person who prints, collates, staples, addresses, stamps and mails the zine (though some of these functions he may arrange for others to do). This is usually the editor, but not always. _DW_ was for a while published by Walt Buchanan, but edited by Conrad von Metzke, and John Weswig published _Everything_ for a while, whilst Doug Beyerlein edited.

PUPPET (1) [MB/TNP:Jun80/87]

A player who agrees to order his units as instructed by the puppeteer, in return for some favour (usually survival), often forming the cutting edge of the puppeteer's attack. Were the puppet's units to be eliminated, the master would have to waste time bringing fresh units to the front. Further, he can dislodge the puppet's units, allowing them to take a strategic retreat. Sometimes the puppet's units form part of a stalemate line. The relationship may be short lived or insincere. The puppet may just be buying time until the opposition is more organized. The master may be seeking a way to finish off the puppet quicker than straight war. Puppets should be handled with care, because they can cut their own strings... See Mutual Puppet.

PURN (1) [MB:Jun80]

A verb of unknown meaning. Long ago, Charles Reinsel threatened to come to NYC and "purn" John Boardman --- but never said what it meant. The word appears sometimes.

PUREST DIPLOMACY (1) [MB:Jun80]

Roland Prevot's variant which removes all tactical considerations. Each of the 7 players has 1 unit in their home supply center. All 7 centers are mutually connected, and there are no retreats or draws. See Variant (KW).

The whole A-Z, in pdf format, is HERE