Q RATING = LENGTH NUMBER / DROPOUT NUMBER.
Concept introduced by Mark Nelson in _Everything_ 90 (October 1994). See also Dropout Number, Length Number and Win Number.
GAME Q RATING NAPG Non-orphaned games* 3.79 NAPG Orphaned games* 2.58 COMPU Non-orphaned games* 4.59
COMPU = Games played over Compuserve network.
"The sign of a good negotiation is when both sides walk away
aggravated." - Kevin Gershan
"If you had had the decency to lie to me, we could have worked together".
Steve Hutton, as Turkey, to Robert Lowes, as Austria, during the finalists'
tourny at Can-Con 1988. (From Passchendaele 70, October 1988.)
"Any time two allies stab a third, at least one of those allies is making
a mistake." (Michael Sany, RGD post 2nd March 1996.)
Railway Rivals is a game of two parts. In the first half players build track
across a map (there are over 100 different maps, covering many parts of the
world) and the second stage they conduct races between the different towns. The
game mechanics are *very* simple and can be learned in 5 minutes.
FTF it is a very easy-going and sociable game which
can be finished in a few hours (2-3 typically). Postally there are only 12 turns
so a game can be finished in about a year at typical zine speeds.
A game which every gamer should own. Marvellous game to get your children
into games playing, except that they will probably beat you. Most UK dipcons
feature a RR tournament. Common abbreviation is RR.
The main problem with realism is not that it dictates one side must always
win, but rather that greater realism usually requires greater complexity.
Greater complexity means less playability at some point. See
Variant Jargon (KW).
In addition it can be retrieved by:
Rehbolds's idea is to enhance this by weighting the last player(s) more than
the first ones; players would have to have played for more than a whole year to
receive any credit.
points-for-player-i := (y[i]- 1 + 2*i)/(y - 2*n + n~2) * points-for-nation.
This reduces to points-for-nation if n=1, i.e. one player only. For a
game that ended winter 1912 where nation X was played by two players, one
until summer 1906, the other for the rest, this would give
(5.5 - 1 + 0)/(12 - 2*2 + 2~2) = 4.5/12 = 3/8 for the first player and
(6.5 - 1 + 2)/12 = 7.5/12 = 5/8 for the second player.
_Big Brother_ #1 was first published on 22 February 1966. The first
Diplomacy Rating system was invented in 1964 by Mr. Reinsel. _Big Brother_ has
run 39 Postal Diplomacy games to date. Some of the biggest names in Postal
Diplomacy have played in _Big Brother_, and as Charlie states "Big Brother: has
the distinction of never defaulting on a game nor of ever missing an issue. It
is the best gamesmastered zine in the hobby." When he is not residing in
Florida to escape the cold, and traveling around the country visiting people,
he is usually found in Leeper Pa. Charlie is a retired school teacher, who once
ran for the state assembly in Penna. Every once in a while Charlie gets the
urge and comes out to Calif; to visit and stay with me, we usually drag out new
variant games and test them until they are perfect. And so _ADAG_ in its first
of a series of its players and Traders tips its hat to Charles Norbert Reinsel
the *ombudsman* of Postal Diplomacy.
((An example of one of Reinsel's strange rules: "If all the moves come in
ahead of the deadline, they will be typed up ahead of the deadline and no
further changes will be allowed", this was in 1968 when Reinsel was running
postal games to 13-day deadlines... MN:Jun92)) See
Personalities (KW).
Spends most of what little free time he has collecting and/or creating even
more bad jokes, maintaining his Bad Pets
lists and general humour website, child-wrangling, and wondering how he
keeps getting sucked into the Hobby world periodically [or editing the AZ!].
Mark Nelson (in 1982/83), Jim Burgess (2002) and Edi Bursan (2005) are usually
blamed. A certifiable (but mostly harmless) nutcase.
A significant revision was released in 1959 and it is these rules which are
the basis for the game played today. These rules were revised in 1966 and 1971.
Prior to the 1971 revision the Rulebook had many areas that required
interpretation, which was left to the individual gamesmaster/publisher to
handle. The 1971 rulebook made rulings such as the
Brannon Rule, the Chalker
Rule, the Koning Rule, the von Metzke rule, Miller Rule and others obsolete;
these were fixes to the old rules devised by prominant postal players and
publishers of the day. As an example of a rule which was cleared up consider the
following: FA(Bur) SA(Ruh)-Mun, GA(Mun)-Bur/Ruhr. This situation was not covered
and some players (including Richard Sharp) assumed
that if you guessed right you could cut the support against you. The old
rulebook also allowed deliberate disbandment and decline of builds.
The victory criterion was changed from a majority of units on the board to
holding 18 centres as there had been cases of powers gaining 18 or more centres
but *not* winning the game (See Majority of Units on the Board).
The 1971 rulebook was rewriten over the period 1970-71 by an ad hoc
committee of well known postal players, such as Rod
Walker, in conjunction with Games Research Inc (GRI) and was reprinted
without changes in 1976.
There were two significant changes between the 1976 rulebook and the 1983
rulebook, these changes have not been included in rule books produced in other
countries except for in Canada since 1991.
The first change is in Rule XII(4), where the rewritten form allows
ambiguous convoys to succeed unless all fleets are dislodged. Therefore "F(ENC)
F(NTH) CA(Lon)-Bel" succeeds unless both fleets are sunk. This almost never
arises.
The second change is similar: a new rule Rule XII(6) resolves the unwanted
convoy dilemma, but does so in the opposite way to that followed by most UK
GMs, saying that "one route must be considered and the other disregarded
depending upon... intent..."
There are no significant changes between the 1993
Avalon Hill rulebook and the 1983 rules, except
for a footling change in the numbering of rules.
The big change in British postal play has been the switch from Smy-Arm to
Smy-Con. In the mid 1970s both openings were equally popular; between 1972 and
1977 the Russian Attack was more popular in two years (1973 and 1975), the
Russian Defence was more popular in two years (1972 and 1976) and there were
two years when the openings. From 1978 to 1992 the Russian Defence was the most
popular every year. From 1978 the Russian Attack and Russian defence has
accounted for at least 65% of Turkish openings played each year. The Russian
Attack was named, by Mark Berch, the
Crimean Crusher. See also
Russian Defense,
Turkish Openings (KW) and
Winning With Turkey.
There is also the Ankara Variation of the Russian Defence with A(Smy)-Ank.
This is probable misnamed since Turkey would only use this opening with the
expectation of gaining BLA (?). See also
Russian Attack,
Turkish Openings (KW).
(1) F(StPsc)-Fin is considered to be a move to GoB.
Example categories: The Chris Tringham Nearly Famous Award for Upstart of
the Year, The MidCon Tony Wheatley Award for Being Who They Are, The Forden's
Epitaph Award for the Least Regretted Fold or for the Most Eagerly Awaited
Fold, R.J. Walkerdine
Award for the Most Boring Topic of Correspondence, The Gary Piper Award for Tact
and Diplomacy, Fairy Sopwith Award for the most absurd game of 1985, The Andy
Blakeman "Protest in Earnest" Award for Redundant Prose, Wright-Donley Award for
the Most Spectacular Con Attendee, The Mike Benyon Brass Award for Delay or the
Least Plausible Reasons for it and The Nick Kinzett award for Anything Not Yet
Mentioned.
In 1988 and 1989 the winners received real Rusty Bolts! [Mark Nelson, your
humble AZ creator, has won a couple of them.]
See Hobby Awards (KW)
and Humour.
NAPG = North American Postal Games
* Data from Everything 85 (May 1992) through Everything 1991 (March 1995).
See also DIPLOMACY QUOTATIONS
and Humour.
See also the collection of DipCon Rating Systems in
Appendix 1.
1) Email: by sending a message to starkey@rmii.com with "FAQ request" in
the SUBJECT.
2) FTP: at rmii.com in pub2/starkey/rec.games.diplomacy.FAQ.*
3) WWW: at ftp://rmii.com/pub2/starkey/rec.games.diplomacy.FAQ.html
See Zine Names (KW).
(n = number of players for the nation that played at least one year,
y[i]= number of years player i played the nation (y[i])= 1; i ranging
from 0 to n-1), y = sum over y[i]):
See Rating Systems (KW).
(1) BEST ZINE
Date Voters Winner Runner-Up Third
1. 1977 19 Runestone Brouhaha Diman
2. 1978 56 Brutus Bulletin Lies, Deceit, etc Diplomacy Digest
3. 1979 72 Graustark The Dragon & The Lamb Why Me?
4. 1980 93 Fol Si Fie Volkerwanderung The National
5. 1981 126 Black Frog Dot Happy Brutus Bulletin
6. 1982 99 Europa Express Paranoiacs Monthly Just Among Friends
7. 1983 76 Europa Express Diplomacy By Moonlight Snafu!
8. 1984 119 Europa Express Envoy Politesse
9. 1985 265 Voice of Doom No Fixed Address Europa Express
10. 1986 211 Costaguana Europa Express It's A Trap
11. 1987 441 Costaguana Blunt Instruments Praxis
12. 1988 508 Praxis Zine Register Penguin Dip
13. 1989 174 Fiat Bellum Perelandra Carolina Cmd & Comm
14. 1990 233 Northern Flame Upstart Zine Register
15. 1991 185 Northern Flame Perelandra Fast Trax
16. 1992 139 Perelandra Maniac's Paradise Northern Flame
17. 1993 Perelandra Maniac's Paradise Boris the spider
(2) BEST GM
1. 1978 Steve McLendon
2. 1979 John Michalski
3. 1980 Don Ditter/Eric Verheiden (tie)
4. 1981 John Daly
5. 1982 Doug Beyerlein
6. 1983 Doug Beyerlein
7. 1984 John Daly
8. 1985 Mark Larzelere
9. 1986 Gary Coughlan
10. 1987 Andy Lischett
11. 1988 Andy Lischett
12. 1989 Russ Rusnak
13. 1990 Russ Blau
14. 1991 Eric Brosius
15. 1992 Bruce Linsey
(3) BEST SUBZINE
1. 1982 Diplomatic Immunity
2. 1983 Mos Eisely Spaceport
3. 1984 Sex Apeel
4. 1985 MeANNderings
5. 1986 D-Day!
6. 1987 High Inertia
7. 1988 Shadowplay
8. 1989 High Inertia
9. 1990 High Inertia
10. 1991 DIDOES
11. 1992 The Hounds of Hell
See Hobby Awards (KW).
(2) F(StPsc) H openings are known as the
Northern Houseboat Opening.
(3) F(StPsc)-Lvn is known as the
Kronstadt Opening.
(4) Misordered units are considered to have been ordered to hold.
(5) Openings are named after the order of A(Mos). There are six systems: The
Inertia System, the
Livonian System, the
Northern System,
Southern System, the
Ukraine System,
and the Warsaw System.
(6) Where the alternatives F(Sev)-BLA/Rum/Arm/H are possible these are known
as the BLA/Rum/Noah's Ark/Southern Houseboat variation.
(7) The combination of orders A(War)-Ukr and F(Sev)-BLA is known as
the Turkish Attack Variation rather than the Ukraine and Black Sea Variation.
See Russian Openings (KW).
The whole A-Z, in pdf format, is HERE
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