It seems wise to abandon the New Diplomacy game - who wants to play? thread to present and future attempts to start new games, now that we’ve got one up and running.
Specifically, I’m GMing a game with players as follows:
Austria: Abe Babe
England: Weirddave
France: Omniscient
Germany: White Lightning
Italy: Jonathan Chance
Russia: Maeglin
Turkey: ShibbOleth
Spring 1901 moves due Thursday, September 5, 3am Eastern time.
Everybody can trade gossip, infield chatter, and insults here. Kibitzers are not only welcome, they’re encouraged. URL for the game board will be available shortly. 
Good call on the new thread. I couldn’t decide where to put this post, it’s not exactly game-related, but whatever.
FTR, Nate ran 983 (as well as 934, I believe) on a T/Th/F schedule, which suited me perfectly, and I agree with Abe Babe that that was pretty ideal.
I can tell right now that midnight PST deadlines are going to be trouble for me to remember to turn everything in on time. I’ll just try to make sure I send in orders ahead of time every season, but midnight is like right in the middle of my most active period of the day, when I’m usually taking care of stuff like that (geez, what will I prioritize – finishing all my fantasy baseball lineups before the clock strikes, or getting my Dip turn in? I know… I lead a tough life.).
But, for you guys… I’ll do my best.
Initial emails are soon to be winging their merry ways to all the points of the compass to develop some diplomacy based on the country assignments that I JUST got in my inbox. I’m so juiced that this game got started so quickly.
So, Maeglin specifically requested that we use the email address in his profile, anyone else have any email oddities? I’ll just go on using the addresses I’ve been using for Abe Babe and Jonathan Chance, unless you guys tell me otherwise. Weirddave, which one is best for you? Omniscient and ShibbOleth (by the way, since I’m talking to you two, I want to note here that I’ll be out for vengeance in this game in return for my expected humiliation this year at Fantasy Football…)? I’ll just use what’s in y’alls’ profiles, I suppose. And, RTFirefly… the yahoo one again? Or just go on with the one you’ve been sending from? I’m all googly-moogly.
Ohhhhh I am excited. Plus, I’m Germany… So I get to talk to everyone!
All players may capitulate to :
Weirddave0@hotmail.com
That is all.
King Dave
Useful stuff from the other thread, so we don’t have to bounce back and forth:
www.diplom.org - source of much useful Dip info and software.
Move deadlines:
-
Time of day: Moves will be due at 3am, Eastern time, on the day of the deadline. (Why, you ask? Because I’ve been known to get up early. If everyone’s moves are in on time, I can usually get things adjudicated before the East Coast players are awake.) This means that, effectively, the moves are due the night before. At midnight, for you West Coast types.
-
1901: With the Labor Day weekend coming up, some people (including your GM) might be out of town, so I’m thinking that the Spring 1901 move shouldn’t be until late next week. How does Thursday, September 5 sound?
My experience as a player is that the Fall 1901 Dip period is pretty complex, too: only after the Spring move do you finally have the first inkling of who your allies and enemies really are. So I’m going to give less than a week for that move, but still longish. If Th 9/5 is OK for S01, then I’m thinking W 9/11 for F01, and Th 9/12 for W01 builds/disbands. (Does anyone have any problems with having a move deadline on 9/11? I don’t, but I’m willing to respect others’ feelings on this.)
-
1902 and after: I’ll go with roughly a 3-moves-every-2-weeks pace until y’all tell me to speed it up.
-
Deadline extensions: we all have lives, jobs, and stuff like that; sometimes Dip has to take a backseat. Extensions will be granted liberally. But let me know early, when you can.
-
NMRs: don’t do this to your fellow players. People who fail to send in moves by the deadline, without requesting an extension, will be replaced if at all possible. And their chances of playing in future SD Dip games will be minuscule.
Retreats: no discussion. You’re supposed to make your retreats more or less immediately on finding out that you have retreats to make. So your first email about retreats should be to me, telling me where you’re retreating to.
Builds/Disbands: The period between fall adjudication and the winter move is not technically a diplomacy period, so the occurrence of any diplomacy should be invisible to the GM. Which means there should be no reason for lateness with those builds and disbands, if you get my drift.
Grace period: If the moves aren’t all there when I wake up on the morning of the deadline, I’ll remind you of your faux pas by email, and hopefully you’ll get 'em in early enough to not slow down the game noticeably.
Tellya what, WL, I’ll move it back to 5am Eastern. That ought to get it more toward the end of your West Coast evening.
If I had a 7am deadline like JC does, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to adjudicate until evening, which would defeat the purpose. And I don’t like evening deadlines, since evening happens at very different times across the country. So it’s got to be something in the middle of the night; hopefully 5am Eastern/4am Central/2am Pacific will do OK.
Would that work for you all? I don’t want to be the squeaky wheel, but I know I’d probably constantly be asking for 1-hour, 2-hour extensions and being the last one to send in my orders if we go with the 3am Eastern deadline. But I can adapt. Or whatever. Now stop bothering me, I’m trying to Diplomatize.
3 and 5 are both relatively the same for me. I should damned well be asleep by then, although I am occassionally up by 5 am.
5 works as well for me as 3. Voot da hey.
I will be dreaming about capitulating to Weirddave on either one of those times, so, it makes me no never mind which is the deadline.
[Math Geek starts sharpening his kibbitzing skills…]
Don’t mind me, I’ll just be over here playing vicariously through you folks.
I am still satisfied.
And damn, guys, I submitted no country preferences and ended up with Russia? This is too much good luck for me to bear.
Sometimes you get lucky.
Five people submitted preferences; two chose not to. Of the five, nobody made Russia their first choice, and it wasn’t the second choice of anyone whose second choice mattered.
Funny group we got here.
Great, I share borders with an attorney and a guy who plays with swords and eats fire for fun. I’m not sure which one worries me more…
Shib.
Don’t forget. I’m a Virginian. We shoot guns out of season. We execute people for fun (Texans can only dream).
There’s a reason all the big federal trials happen in Virginia…
And I play with swords, too.
So how the hell are you this fine day?
I am an attorney, but not in the perjorative sense of the word.
There’s another definition?
Not that I know of, Nate.
Think of it this way, Shibb: which one can inflict the most damage to your life, without ever being within miles of you? 
This I would like to see some day.
Let’s not get carried away. I was a Markland type. You’re a fencer. You’re probably in shape…my real skills were left behind about 80 pounds ago.
But I still have one sword. Not a great one but it’s a sentimental thing that mom bought me.
Nonetheless you’ll always be welcome down here.