Diplomacy Variant for Traveller?

[clementk]

There’s been some mention of the game Diplomacy and diplomatic situations on CotI lately. So I’m asking if there have been any variants of Diplomacy using the OTU as the basis? Diplomacy works well over PBEM and is simple to understand, hard to master. It's also easy to tweak and has the most recorded variants for any game that I can think of. Some links for more info on Diplomacy:
http://www.diplom.org/
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/483
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah/prod/diplomacy

Just thinking of the Diplomacy map and the OTU you have roughly:

Zhodani & company = Britain
Aslan = France
Solomani = Austria or Italy
Hivers = Italy or Austria
K'Kree = Russia or Germany
Third Imperium = Germany or Russia

first selection based on geography, second on actual power if there is more than one. Though of course you'd not have to follow the classic Diplomacy map but I would recommend sticking to some sort of similar balance. Anywho, food for thought.

If nothing else if there're enough CotI people who are interested we could get a regular game of Diplomacy PBEM going. Note I've not really played and definately not run a Diplomacy game but have two sets and would like to give it a go sometime.

Casey

 

[Falkayn]

Originally posted by Casey:
Zhodani & company = Britain
Aslan = France
Solomani = Austria or Italy
Hivers = Italy or Austria
K'Kree = Russia or Germany
Third Imperium = Germany or Russia

I'm not going to touch that .... except to say that there are some interesting jokes you can come up with from that.

My experience is that Diplomacy leads to WAR. We banned Diplomacy when I was at uni because we every game ended up with someone annoyed/hurt. When we tried picking it back up years later the same thing happened.

It's more cutthroat than most CCGs (or at least than L5R). It's evil!

Of course, it may work very well via PBEM ... after all you can't reach across the board to strangle your recent ally turned backstabber, so that's gotta be an advantage.

 

[clementk]

Originally posted by Falkayn:
I'm not going to touch that .... except to say that there are some interesting jokes you can come up with from that.

Yes. ^_^

Of course, it may work very well via PBEM ... after all you can't reach across the board to strangle your recent ally turned backstabber, so that's gotta be an advantage.

I’ve heard that about FtF but have read some accounts of PBEM that sounded quite different. Likely not having to get deals hammered out in 15 minutes or so and having the time to detach yourself from the game helps. There are also some variants on how much communication is allowable (Gunboat? comes to mind). Regardless I think for PBEM a good ref is a must.

Casey

 

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

My friends and I played it in high school ... someone nearly got killed every time (1). It seems that it would be relatively simple to do an online version, that would be a cool project. I think a Traveller version might be tough, though, since the Imperium is kinda huge compared to other polities.

(1) I'm exaggerating, of course.

 

[Ran Targas]

^ Ever play a game called Supremacy? You think Diplomacy is cut throat!

 

[jchurchill]

Casey,

I posted a while ago that I have been building a pocket empires TU that I basically call "Diplomacy in Space." I have 7 "great powers" that have TL-12 or greater and I have been using my large library of history books related to the period to try and build the powers so that they have the advantages and disadvantges of the real countries. [e.g "Britain" has a smallish 3 corps expeditionary force of TL-15 troops but they are elite. The fleet of 35 TL-15 dreadnoughts on the other hand is a useful thing to have. "Germany" is an empire composed of 4 planets (Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and Wurttemburg) that has a TL-14 to 15 army composed of approximately 8 field armies but it has a smaller fleet of 26 TL15 dreadnoughts....etc etc etc...

Regarding a Diplomacy PBEM -- sounds like fun and I would give it a whorl. The hardest part is not taking things personally. [hence the ugly moments]
12 years of practicing law is like playing Diplomacy but without the fun so I doubt I would reach across the table to strngle anyone today.

 

[jchurchill]

PS,

I think the comments about an OTU Diplomacy variant are well taken that the Imperium is just too large and powerful for balanced play. Diplomacy the game is historically unrealistic in terms of armies and fleets precisely to give the game balance. In 1905 a fight between a Russian or Turkish fleet or a Turkish and British fleet would have been pretty one sided.

 

[fredofmars]

There is a Diplomacy site (mentioned in the first entry in this thread) http://www.diplom.org
This has online versions of Diplomacy available to play. I've used the site, and it works pretty well.
- Joseph

 

[clementk]

Well if you wanted a Traveller setting that wouldn't require much if any tweaking to make balanced I'd think the Shattered Imperium of MT would work as is.

Casey