My Diplomacy House Rules

These house rules apply to all games that I (Russell Blau) moderate on an e-mail Judge system. Signing on implies your acceptance of them. I have adopted ideas from a number of other GMs, but I relied most heavily on the rules of Millis Miller and Derek McLachlin.

By signing on to a game, you implicitly agree to both these house rules and the game's particular settings.
All games are subject to the default house rules published by the Judge (get file 'house.rules'), except as modified by these rules. My personal house rules prevail in the event of any conflict. Any changes to these standard rules (e.g., for a variant game) will be announced in the game listing, and will prevail over these rules in the case of a conflict.
All players must have complete and accurate registration information on file with the Judge. I set all my games to "manualstart" and I will not start a game until I have verified that all players have filled out all required registration fields, including Name (first and last), Address (city and state/province/postal code), Country, Phone (a work phone is OK if you don't want to disclose your home number), Email, and Level.
Players joining a game (either at the start or as replacements) are expected to not have an outside connection (such as family relationship, personal contact, etc.) with another player in the game. Players having any such connection must disclose it to me before they join, and I reserve the right to reject players who appear to be too closely connected. If they do join, all other players will be informed and they will be expected to play as if there was no connection between them. Failure to disclose a pre-existing connection is grounds for expulsion from the game.
Players who have been in a game at any point may not re-enter the same game as a different power.
It is forbidden to sign on as another player, even if that player asks you to.
Once a game begins, the game settings can be changed only by a vote of the players, except as noted in these rules. Votes involving changes to 'significant' game parameters must be unanimous. For votes involving less significant changes (such as long extensions), a majority vote is sufficient. In all votes, abstentions will count as 'no'. A 'significant' change is one which, in my judgment, materially affects the nature of the game or the ability of the players to participate in it.
1. I may change the List flag and the dedication/on-time-ratio/CD-ratio settings without a vote.
2. I may change the Level setting without a vote if it appears that doing so is necessary to obtain a replacement player without extended delay.
3. I may extend deadlines and grace periods for individual phases without a vote, although I usually will not grant extensions in excess of two weeks.
4. I reserve the right to refuse certain changes to game parameters after the game has commenced if, in my opinion, they will skew the game too much. Under NO circumstances will the DIAS flag or press settings be changed once the game has started.
5. The previous paragraph does not prevent changing the press settings after the game ends, in no-press games, to allow end-game statements.
Ignorance is no excuse. It is the player's responsibility to know the judge syntax and commands, or else to ask me for guidance in advance of the deadline. I will help with judge syntax as much as possible.
Once a turn is processed, it will not be rolled back, except to correct an error in Judge ajudication. In that case, it will be re-processed using only the orders that were originally received by the Judge before adjudication, with such changes as are minimally necessary (in the GM's judgment) to correct the adjudication error. Claims of judge failure, lost email, etc. will not be accepted.
Never go abandoned. Never resign your position if it is humanly possible to keep playing. If you must resign, you should inform me first. Failure to do this may prevent you from returning to the game or playing in other games of mine. The only exception is when you are eliminated (though I encourage staying to contribute to the end-game statements).
I ordinarily will not allow any deadline extensions or absences during the first game-year. I ordinarily will allow only "short" extensions or absences after the first game-year, during the first calendar month of the game (two weeks for every-day games). A "short" absence is one that does not exceed the normal interval between Move phases (the "move next" value in the game settings). If you have plans to travel in the near future, wait until you get back before signing up for a game!
I reserve the right to remove persistently late players from the game with no appeal. Players will be warned at least twice before their removal.
Press:
1. All press to other players and to me should be via the judge mechanism, unless the judge is down.
2. A message sent to me using the 'PRESS TO M' command should receive at least an acknowledgement. If it doesn't, assume I didn't get it.
3. Press from observers to players relating to the game in progress is not permitted.
4. Abusive or highly offensive press (e.g., intense personal attacks, racist statements) may result in your ejection from the game. Players should be treated with respect and dignity. Criticism within the context of the game is expected; but personal attacks on a player are not.
I will not give tactical or strategic advice on a game in progress. I may be consulted about a rule interpretation, etc., and will give my opinion, to the best of my knowledge. There is no guarantee that this is correct however, and I take no responsibility if found to be in error.
I will not enter commands into the judge for a player (although I may not apply this rule strictly in novice games).
Where dedication points are lost because of abandonment due to a judge failure, I will ask the Judge Keeper to restore them. Small dedication losses due to missed deadlines are not worth troubling the JK.
I will not broadcast draw or concession proposals, or any other form of indirect communication on behalf of players, in a no-press game.
If I believe that a game has stalemated, I may start the "three-year clock" as described in the Judge house rules. If I receive a request to start the draw clock, I will acknowledge the request but not otherwise respond, to avoid inadvertently commenting on the game while it is in progress. I will start the draw clock only when it is necessary in my judgment, not based on player demands (although I will rarely, if ever, start it without receiving a request). It is very unlikely that I will start the draw clock if any supply centers have changed ownership within any of the last two to three game-years. Players should be aware that the draw clock is a last resort and will not be used merely to shorten the game.
Anyone found to be deliberately cheating will be removed from the game and, if the game is irrevocably ruined, the game will be terminated. If in doubt, ask me. If you try to break these rules intentionally instead, you may well be ejected from the game.
The GM reserves the right to resolve any situation not provided for by these rules, in the exercise of his discretion.

Player Guidelines

The following guidelines are not "rules," but are further suggestions and explanations to help you understand how I moderate games.

If you are not familiar with Judge Diplomacy, I strongly suggest that you read the FAQs referenced on the DP Game Queues page before the game starts. I especially recommend the "short guide" to the Judge as a quick and easy-to-read introduction for new players. Other helpful files are available in the Online Resources section of The Diplomatic Pouch.

My number one piece of advice to novice players is "read the FAQ". If you have read the FAQ and still have questions about using the Judge software, please feel free to ask. You might, however, also want to refer to the Judge User's Manual, considering that I am very tight with its author. ;-)

If possible, set your e-mail software to send messages to the Judge in "plain text," ASCII, or "unformatted" mode. The Judge tends to choke on HTML tags and other special mail formatting characters. If you don't know how to do this, see http://www.expita.com/nomime.html

Always, always, always be sure to use the "SIGNOFF" command at the end of every message you send to the Judge. I cannot emphasize this enough. Lack of a "SIGNOFF" probably causes more Judge errors than all other issues combined.

Every time you send a message to the Judge, it sends a reply to you (if it is up). You need to read this! Messages from the Judge will tell you if your orders have been entered correctly, when the next deadline is, and much else.

If the Judge reply contains the word "error", then you need to clear the error flag, even if there is nothing wrong with your orders. (The error flag could be caused by something else, like forgetting to use the "SIGNOFF" command.) You can clear the error flag simply by sending another message to the Judge that does not contain any errors.

Deadlines and Absences

Mind the deadlines. The game report will always tell you when the next deadline is. Read it! (Don't be one of those players who says, "Gee, I didn't know there would be a deadline the day after Christmas" when the last message from the Judge clearly said the deadline was 26 December.)

I strongly encourage players to use the "SET ABSENCE" command instead of asking me for deadline extensions, and have been known to get testy with those who don't. I won't GM a game on a Judge that doesn't support SET ABSENCE. Of course, if you have trouble using this, or any other Judge command, don't hesitate to contact me. If you have an emergency that prevents you from requesting an absence in advance, I am usually pretty flexible about granting extensions as long as you don't abuse the privilege. However, I will not grant an extension after the deadline has already expired, unless the player can give a convincing explanation of why it was impossible for him to make the request earlier. "My computer crashed" is usually not a good enough reason; most people can get access to another computer at a public library, an office, or a friend's house, and at least send an email to the Judge alerting me to the problem before the deadline.

There are a couple of things to note about the SET ABSENCE command. Most importantly, remember that this command does not extend the current deadline, only future deadlines. If you cannot submit orders for the currently pending deadline before you leave, you must contact me (preferably well in advance) to request an extension.

I recommend that (except in seven-day-a-week games) you don't set any absences to begin or end on the weekend. Set it to start on the Friday before you leave, or end on the Monday after you return, as the case may be. Remember that the deadline will be set on the day you designate as the end of your absence, so be sure to leave time to negotiate and write orders.

Also, the Judge doesn't know about holidays, because players may be located in any country, so (especially in games with 24-hour deadlines) you need to SET ABSENCE if you don't want the deadline to fall on your local day off.

But How Do I Write a "SET ABSENCE" Command?

The correct format for this command is "SET ABSENCE dd MMM to dd MMM" or "SET ABSENCE MMM dd to MMM dd" where MMM is a three-letter English abbreviation such as "Jan", "Feb", etc., and "dd" is the day of the month. The Judge won't accept your command if you spell out the month in full (except for "May", of course), and won't accept a numeric month (so neither "June 30" nor "06/30" will work). Due to bugs in some older versions of the Judge, you should be sure the word "to" is in lower case.

In other words, any of the following formats will work:

Set Absence Jan 1 to Jan 15
set absence 3 Mar to Mar 10
SET ABSENCE Sep 12 to 20 Sep
Set Absence 30 OCT to NOV 3

However, date formats like "Sept. 30" or "3/12" or "7 April" will not work!

On Sportsmanship

You will notice that my house rules say nothing about how the players should play the game, apart from observing the deadlines and not cheating. As far as I am concerned, a player can submit any orders they want for their units. Unlike some GMs who prohibit "goofy" play, I will not interfere if a player appears to be committing suicide or playing irrationally. Since deciding who to trust and deciphering intentions is a part of the game, it is in my view improper for any outsider to restrict how the players pursue their goals within the rules of the game.

Still, there are some kinds of play that do not violate the rules, but do constitute poor sportsmanship. I ask that all players bear in mind that Diplomacy is a group activity. Players should refrain from acts that spoil the fun for the rest of the group. If you are no longer interested in pursuing the object of the game, which is to control the most supply centers, then you should resign (after giving suitable notice) and bring in a replacement player who will play out the position.

Last updated September 8, 2004.